WEBVTT - #504 Maggie Freleng with Brandon Spencer 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.760 Thank you for you thing Green kill Link hey man 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:10.360 young was say this before you ask your question? Yeah? Yeah, 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.960 So I writ this book It's called to Kill a Mockingbird, right, 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:15.680 So I was kind of feeling like the modern day 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.600 Colin Robinson, and I could say that I can relate 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:21.319 to to him because better than anybody, because I know 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:25.560 what it feels like to be Falster accused. And then 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.080 that book like shows what happens to someone that looks 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:37.080 like in our conditional system. 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.400 This is Brandon Spencer. I've known Brandon since twenty twenty 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:42.560 when I first reported on his case. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:46.440 Brandon, you were so young when you went to prison? 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:47.280 How old were you? 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.360 I was written it at nineteen, but when I actually 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:55.400 went to see saw on CFR, I was twenty one. 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:59.720 Brandon grew up in prison. He's been in over twelve years, 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.040 but has never lost the quirks and charm that make 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:06.440 him him the kind of guy who talks about himself 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:07.600 in the third person. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:13.360 Grady's pressure, It's probably, I would say the modern Mandela 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.440 the Perst advance, as he's young man has shown the brilliance, 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.120 the forty tude and face of this adversity. 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:23.920 Brendan used to want to be an actor. 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.360 Like it will Smith. That was that was my hide 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:28.720 on it, especially when I was younger, the first stress 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.520 of delire, that was that was my story. A lot 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:34.040 of people told me I should do comedy. I'm not 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:38.880 really good. Was just free, uh, just standing up there joking. 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.520 I'm just a natural joker, so I could just say 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:42.559 stuff off to the grid. 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:45.319 Would you describe yourself as a goofball. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:47.680 Yes, I believe I still am. A lot of people 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.280 in here say that I'm always laughing and joking. So 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:54.160 they're like, oh, that's how you cope with this. I said, well, 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:56.040 you know, last at the best minute. 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.280 I don't know how to put it. He is like 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.800 a bundle of just positivity. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.600 This is Claudia Salinas, Brendan's attorney. 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.040 I'm a pretty positive person and I'm always looking at 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.280 like best case scenario. But I think he even tops me, 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:12.079 and that's kind of tough to do. 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:18.280 But Brendon is also very serious, particularly about personal development. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.600 There's this philosoph of psychology called post traumatic growth. So 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:26.200 we're saying that post traumatic growth enables us, at times 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.000 of difficulties or struggle or traumatic experience to create a 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.760 life for ourselves as more meaningful and more purposeful and 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.320 more fertility than ever. So when is until you only 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.560 makes you stronger. So I have that mindset that I'd 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.359 either be a victim and willow and self hatingful we 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.640 have reagent me, or I can use this time widely 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.679 and cultivate ourselves and develop ourselves to the very best 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:49.120 version of. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.720 Myself from love of for good. This is wrongful conviction. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:55.960 With Maggie Freeling bringis prisoner. 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:58.440 I've been wrongfully convicted for the. 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:07.800 Past twelve years today. Brendan Spencer. Brendan Spencer was born 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:11.440 November third, nineteen ninety two. He grew up with three 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:16.200 siblings in a well off, upper middle class household in Inglewood, California. 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.400 I was born in Inglewood, California, the city of Champions. 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.959 Both of my parents they both ran up for public 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.120 office and how to be respected, so I came from 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:28.440 a positive home. 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.760 I can say his family went to church together and 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:36.720 Brandon played soccer, baseball, and did martial arts. For vacations, 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:40.520 Brandon and his family would travel to Mississippi and Saint Louis, 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:42.080 where his parents were from. 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.480 So we kind of were like But he knew our 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.720 cousins and where we came from, and I had a 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.240 really good childhood. I can't really complain. 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:55.120 About it, but Brendan says, when he was twelve, his 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.760 parents divorced, So that. 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:00.480 Was pretty hard on me to see that separate. So 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.120 that kind of fed a key role in my life 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.280 a young I was confused. I kind of blamed myself, mate, 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.880 because my dad wasn't as round as much. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:16.480 Feeling the weight of the divorce, Brendan started associating with 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.880 the wrong crowds. Inglewood, California, has a long history of 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:25.640 gangs and violence. In fact, Brendan was born just months 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.000 after one of the most infamous events in US history, 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:40.880 the La Riots. After a group of police officers were 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.159 acquitted of beating Rodney King, a black man, the city 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:48.600 erupted in anger. Protesters took to the streets and rioted 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:49.440 for days. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.520 The heart of every American aches at the side of 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.680 the violence, deaths, and hundreds of millions of dollars of 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:04.080 destruction in Los Angeles. Yesterday, the violence spread to Atlanta, Seattle, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.440 San Francisco, but the pain and fear is now being 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:10.159 felt all across this nation. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:18.440 Over fifty people were killed and thousand injured. Brandon's neighborhood 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:23.080 was hit hard. When Brandon was growing up in the 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.080 nineties and early two thousands, the violent crime rate in 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.880 Englewood was significantly higher than the US average. Systemic and 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.840 structural racism forced people to seek other means of survival, 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.599 and gangs were rampant. So Brandon says, his parents worried 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.520 about him as a young teen upset over the divorce. 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.160 They thought he would be susceptible to the outside influence 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.160 of gangs, so they tried sending him to Mississippi to 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:50.080 live with family. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:52.560 So what was living in Mississippi like? 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:58.160 Lower than California's kind of boring I was, says Caliboy, 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:00.480 Way faster out there. 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.880 It's kind of like just the country too slow for Brandon, 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:06.480 So he went back to Englewood. It's what he knew. 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.200 It was home. He went to a few different schools 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.760 before graduating from high school in twenty ten with dreams 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:18.080 of pursuing acting, but gang life always wound in the background. 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.040 In that environment. You have to know the school so 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.920 you don't get robbed, so you don't get on every 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:25.920 day about where are you from? You have to know 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:31.040 these individuals to survive that area. In that environment, it 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.440 was more gangs and actively right on the corner from 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.680 my house, you know, So I have to know these 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.400 individuals just to go to the store or go to rallies. 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.720 I remember one time my mom was so scared to 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.120 get out the car at rallies one time. That's at 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.719 the corner where we lived. And I was like, Mom, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:50.080 I'm don't worried about it. I go to school with 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:53.000 these duds and I'm going to do that. But I 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.120 get them perspective because it's scary. But you have to 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:58.039 know the schools, just like now my mom was scared. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.440 I was able to get out the car and I 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:02.400 always have. But you're going along just getting a murder 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:04.840 from my mom and said, what's you how doing? Just 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.320 sit there and being goofy. That was goofy to me, 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:09.600 Like that life style, right. 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:12.960 Brandon says he was never part of a gang, but 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.720 they were almost impossible to avoid, and the repercussions of 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.760 growing up around that life would be impossible to escape. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:31.560 In the summer of twenty eleven, Brandon went to a 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:34.400 party at the Proud Bird Restaurant and Event Center near 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.640 lax airport, and shortly after he arrived, shots rang out. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.440 Did I start walking? I felt like somebody kicking in 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:44.880 my stomach and then taking my shirt off was like, 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:47.280 oh no, man like something in my stomach. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:49.360 Brandon realized he'd been shot. 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:51.880 So I see the glus spreading out, and I'm just 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:54.880 laying there on that ground and sloby the same like 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:55.600 I was dying. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.440 Emergency responders raced him to the hospital. 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:03.280 Ronald Reagan Medical When they saved my life. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.880 However, they were unable to remove the bullet lodged in 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:09.120 his spine, so the. 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.360 Doctor said, we don't know how we saved you thought 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:12.440 you're not supposed to be here now. 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.320 That bullet got Brandon thinking long and hard about the 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:17.560 company he was keeping. 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:19.720 I want to know better people. I want to know 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:21.960 people that he had in my life. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.080 So he decided to become a nurse. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.560 I said, well, I want to get back. Hopefully I 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:28.040 can help save others. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:34.199 Brandon applied and was accepted to UCLA's EMT program. He 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.599 planned to go to college the following year and was 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.720 also working a licensed security job. Brandon says, at eighteen, 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:42.600 he was living his best life. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.800 I have all the security job I was working for 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.839 a stressing company part time out of four concrete, so 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.000 I was making like forty seven dollars an hours or 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:57.079 I was pretty fun and I had a girlfriend. I 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.360 thought I was in love at that time, and you know, 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:01.760 I was awesome. They knew for me, you know, and 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.400 I going to look back at those memories because of 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:08.880 the only memories I have. But that was very cool 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:09.480 at that time. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:16.599 But his world was about to turn upside down. On 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.840 Halloween twenty twelve, Brandon was three days away from turning nineteen. 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.480 He and his then girlfriend were looking for a Halloween party. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.400 I never wanted to go out this night. That was 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:30.160 one of the things too, Like myke's girlfriend wanted to 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:32.880 go to this party. I wasn't really certain about it 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:35.760 because my birthday was a few days after, so I 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:41.040 was more focused on my birthday celebration over Halloween. 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:43.719 But they went out anyway to a party in Hollywood. 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.360 In Hollywood and it was a shooting. So we left. 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.959 And there is a party in USC. 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:52.559 The University of Southern California. 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.640 This there was around the time of when USC was, 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:57.920 you know, a top twenty five school. 0:09:58.320 --> 0:10:01.360 This is Claudia Selina's again. She's a staff attorney at 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.480 the Innocent Center based in San Diego. 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:06.439 I always have known it to be really good. It's 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.760 a prestigious school, both the law school and the regular school. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.359 We spoke two months ago about that night in twenty twelve. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.679 So October thirty first, so close to this day of 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.280 the interview. Actually, so it's kind of wild that we're 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.160 sitting here talking about it. But there was a Freaks 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.360 and Geeks party at the USC. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.440 Campus when Brandon arrived. There were a few hundred people 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.439 outside waiting to get into the party. 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.920 It seems like the party was popping because there was 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.240 a lion outside the door of people waiting to get in. 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:43.640 We were staying a line, and then so which just 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:45.640 heard gunshots? I just started learning. 0:10:46.040 --> 0:10:48.880 Brandon says they were only there for about five minutes 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:50.439 before gunshots rang out. 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.240 There's about five gunshots, and then it turns out that 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:56.119 four people ended up getting. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:11:01.080 Shot, DeVante Smith, Thomas Ritchie, My Sundowns, and Gino Hall. 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.040 Fortunately all survived, but in the chaos, nothing was clear. 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:12.120 Everyone was in a panic. Screaming, scattering, running for their lives. 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.719 Is real. So I like had that flashback of tenn 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.280 and I got shot and I just started running and 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:20.920 all that timely pay back. 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:23.599 As he was running, Brandan pulled off his shirt to 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.840 check if he'd been shot, but he wasn't. 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.559 And I get to the parking lot and the police 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.760 I put your hands up. I'm like, dang, what do 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:34.000 I do? 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.280 Police confronted Brandon in the parking lot. They were suspicious 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.559 about why he was running without a shirt. They took 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:43.920 his phone and went through it and found some photos 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.319 of him with guns and other photos of what police 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:51.360 thought were him flashing gang signs. So they took Brandon 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:56.199 to the station. Meanwhile, on campus police were asking questions. 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.920 They talked to two security guards and then they also 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:02.360 have like some other witness who provides She said that 0:12:02.440 --> 0:12:05.480 she actually saw the shooting take place. She provides like 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.079 a general description as well. Once they had like those 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.600 three witnesses, they were pretty much drawn towards Brandon. 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:16.360 At the station, police question Brandon. They appeared to suspect 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.719 that Brandon had taken his shirt off because it had 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.319 red on it, a color associated with the Black Pea 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:23.080 Stones gang. 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.440 They tried to say that was because you were trying 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.199 to hide your gang colors. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.440 YEA, nothing to do with gang colors. I was checking 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:33.360 to make sure they shot again and I had that 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.360 traumatic experience. So I'm sitting there like, I know I 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:37.280 didn't do nothing to home. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.560 I could go home, but he didn't go home. 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:42.120 Well, then they come in there and like, can't be 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.160 pressing up against me, like hey you did it? Just 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.360 say you did it? I said, say I did what, bro? 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.400 And they're like, you know, say you did it. And 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.559 then there's a detective coming in. He comes in and 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.520 sits next to me and like rubbing my shoulder, like look, man, 0:12:57.559 --> 0:12:59.760 we know you did it. So just goes and say 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.000 didn't pretentious and they come back and say, hey you did. 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.480 Brendan insisted he was innocent. 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.600 So then they paid my arms up and put him 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:10.520 in these avanilla envelope and I said, I what's this 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.240 and I was TSR R testing. I said, all he's. 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:18.480 Going, bro, because yea gunshot residue testing. When a gun 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:22.280 is shot, it releases microscopic particles onto hands and clothing. 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:24.679 But nothing came up on Brandon. 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:26.760 And they said, we'll tell us where the gun is. 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:28.280 And I said, what gun? 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:28.480 Bro? 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:30.959 You first the Parker like y'all tested me for the 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.920 TSRs me right, I had no gun, I didn't do nothing. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.120 And then three hours later they ended up finding a 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.439 gun and it kind of all unwrappled from there and 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:42.640 they started building the case around him. 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:44.079 So that was it. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.360 So you never saw the free world. Aga asked for that. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:49.160 No. 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:55.520 Brandon was charged with four counts of attempted first degree 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.960 murder and went to trial in January of twenty fourteen. 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.760 Deputy District Attorney Anchonella Nista Rescue told jurors that when 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:07.680 Brandon got to the USC party, he saw a member 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.160 of a rival gang, Gino Hall. She alleged that Gino 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.880 had been the one who shot Brandon in twenty eleven. 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:18.720 She told jurors, quote, this is a rivalry steeped in violence. 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:23.960 Claudia says, the prosecution's case really played up these gang allegations. 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:27.320 We were trying to count how many times the word 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:29.960 gang was used in this case, and it's it's a 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:30.680 ton of. 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:32.680 Time, gangang, gang. 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.000 The more times you hear gangs, and the more time 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.720 you hear violence and tensions between the bloods and the 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:42.720 crypts and whatever it is, it's that is very inflammatory 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:43.520 for a jury. 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.520 The prosecution also presented the photos they found on his 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.960 phone of Brandon with guns and of Brandon flashing gang signs. 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.680 They also introduced a photo of Brandon's chest tattoo a BS. 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.080 The prosecution said it stood for the Black Pea Stone Gang. 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:06.920 Brandon says it's just his name. But Gino Hall testified 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.200 at trial and did not identify Brandon as his shooter. 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.600 In fact, none of the survivors implicated Brandon at trial. 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.320 Only two security guards I d'd him, plus a star witness, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:23.360 a young man named La Paul Lane. Lapaul was at 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.560 the party and testified that he had seen Brandon confronting Gino. 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.560 They see that last came back with gun and approved. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:38.720 Premeditation, premeditated attempted murder. The prosecution presented evidence to back 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:41.720 up this beef between Gino and Brandon in the form 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:43.800 of exchanges on Twitter. 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:48.000 Tweets of children essentially going back and forth between one 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.800 of the victims that the prosecutor liked to use. But 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:54.200 a lot of these words in these tweets is a 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:56.120 lot of what they kind of call like fronting. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.680 According to the prosecution, one of the tweets ended with, 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.320 you know, challenging Brandon to come and find him. 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.000 And they might be general, but they still have inflammatory parts. 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.000 Where then you get a police officer who gets deemed 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:14.360 a gang expert, gets on the stand and starts making 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.160 connections about what these things mean, what they see in 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.720 the field, and then they do generalizations of the peace 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.000 stone bloods fueling with the rolling forties, and so now 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.400 you have this like little bow that the gang experts 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.120 get to kind of put and you just see that 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.240 throughout most of my gang cases here in the office, 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.320 and it is quite inflammatory. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:37.360 Well, I was here at at mar trial, sitting here 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:39.040 scratching my head when. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:42.440 I did what Brendan insists. He was never in a gang. 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.640 He was a good kid with no record. 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:47.520 They show the pictures in me at the congressional black 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.440 coffees when I was fifteen. I've got Obama other pictures 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:56.240 with me where lacting waters and they're different congressional people. 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.840 But the court allows this lady who doesn't note me, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.760 to tell twelve people lies that I'm just I'm this criminal. 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.920 I'm well documented stereo Typeas for someone that looks like 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.680 me is a game member a criminal in my jury 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:13.000 just goes off to that. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.280 The judge even criticized the prosecution for this displaying things 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:20.960 to the jury without offering evidence. He said, quote, this 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.960 is an improper and unprofessional move on your part. I 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.680 don't know if you're lazy, or you're nervous, or you 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:33.880 don't know how to do that. There was no physical 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.600 evidence linking Brandon to the crime. There were no fingerprints 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.760 on the gun. However, law enforcement did recover a partial 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:42.880 DNA profile. 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.800 They said that there was a one in forty chance 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.280 that that was a hit to Brandon, whereas the shirt 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:51.480 was a one in seven sextillion chance. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.000 A one in forty comparison can include way too many 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:59.200 people compared to a conclusive ID like Brandon's shirt, which 0:17:59.320 --> 0:17:59.920 was also. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.480 So shirt there's no there's no doubt that it is 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.280 his shirt, Like there was no contest there that it's his, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:09.120 but the gun. To go on the stand and tell 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.080 jurors that one in forty chance, like nobody really understands 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.239 what that means, and it's too many people that can 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.000 be included into that lumpsum, but they don't take that 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.200 extra step to kind of explain that at that level. 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:25.399 So I'm sitting here the whole time, like, well, the 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.200 evidence poofs, there's no TSR, my fingerprice on is done, 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:30.440 my DNA's on the gun. 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.000 But Brandon's defense was weak. His girlfriend, who was with 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.960 him at the party and could say Brandon wasn't the shooter, 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.240 wasn't called to testify even though she was his alibi, 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.240 and it's unclear why. Still Brandon was hopeful. 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.160 There's no video evidence, like, I'm sure he's come. It's 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.960 like the evidence pools that I had nothing. 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:57.000 To do with this, but stacked against police officers, key witness, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.560 gang experts, and a climate of fear crime in Los Angeles. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.920 Brandon was convicted of four counts of attempted murder. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.080 Are we playing right now? Pretty serious? 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.640 Do you think the jury was thinking like, well, even 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:16.440 if he didn't do this, he's in a gang, so 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:17.680 he did something. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.760 Bad exactly, I could kill Looking at my jury that 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:25.000 holiday thought, I didn't see Brandon. I didn't see the 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.600 security guard, the young man who'd never had a record, 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.320 the young man who a mayor of a city was 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:32.119 highly of. 0:19:32.880 --> 0:19:35.640 Before sentencing, one of the survivors said that he knew 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:38.720 Brandon and he didn't think Brandon would do this. He 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:41.680 asked the judge to be lenient with his sentencing. A 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:46.320 sergeant in the LAPD's seventy seventh division, familiar with gang activity, 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:51.040 called Brandon a quote nice, respectable young man. Even the 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:55.159 mayor of Inglewood vouched for Brandon, but after three hours 0:19:55.200 --> 0:20:02.960 of deliberating, the jury found him guilty and Brandan lost it. 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.200 I kind of like blackout. I turned the chair, and 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.680 what's pussling with the sheriff department. I told him he thought, 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.240 just killed me? You know that that was my mindset 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:15.680 at that time. I said, you want to just go 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.560 to shoot me right now because even took it too 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.920 far now And like that was like a powerless moment 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:22.480 in my life. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.400 As to count three, a conviction of penal co Section 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:28.520 sixty six four. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:33.080 On April eighteenth, twenty fourteen, judge sentence Brandon to fifteen 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:38.280 years to life on four attempted murder convictions running concurrently. 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.000 The minimum period of parole eligibility is fifteen years plus 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.399 twenty five years the life in accordance with penal COO 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:45.160 sections one. 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:48.880 Two zero two two plus twenty five years to life 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:54.280 for gun enhancements, all made worse by the alleged gang retaliation. 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:58.960 As the judge read the sentence, Brendan. 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:02.879 Solved fived this is to be kind of current. 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.639 Sitting there with his hands cuffed behind his back, he 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:12.600 banged his head against the table and he pleaded with 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:13.520 the judge. 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:20.119 IM sorry, but like the president, and I'm not a 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.520 bad person, but I made a stage. But I'm not 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:27.280 just some game begger that you try to betray me yet. 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.280 But it didn't matter. Brandon was sentenced to forty years 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.800 to life at twenty one years old for four shots 0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:45.760 that killed no one. After his sentencing, a column came 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.000 out in the La Times. The author was Sandy Banks. 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.560 I'm a journalist who worked with Lost Handless Times for 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.800 more than thirty years, most of that as a columnist 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:01.040 covering issues that might be missed by others but that 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:02.680 were roiling the community. 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:07.240 The column held no punches in it. Sandy called out 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:10.600 Brandon for throwing a tantrum at his sentencing. She called 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:12.800 him a two year old and wrote that the last 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:16.240 thing Ela needed was more hoodlums carrying guns. 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.240 What got me there was that here was this young 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:23.240