Podchaser Logo
Home
Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Released Wednesday, 27th March 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Lisa Pate and Mickey Schunick | The White Truck

Wednesday, 27th March 2024
Good episode? Give it some love!
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.

Use Ctrl + F to search

0:00

Transport yourself back in time and explore

0:03

the fascinating and harrowing story of the

0:05

Titanic's maiden voyage. Now open at COSI.

0:07

Don't miss Titanic the Artifact Exhibition. This

0:10

epic exhibit features over 200 authentic

0:12

artifacts recovered from the ocean floor.

0:14

Discover poignant passenger and crew accounts

0:17

and majestic recreated interiors including the

0:19

iconic Titanic Grand Staircase. Tickets for

0:22

Titanic the Artifact Exhibition are on

0:24

sale now. Book your voyage at

0:26

cosi.org. It

0:29

is podcast recommendation time and this time

0:31

I am going to recommend a podcast

0:33

from one of my friends. And this

0:35

is a podcast that I would love

0:37

even if Kristen wasn't my friend but

0:39

she is. And that podcast is Murder

0:41

She Told. One of the

0:44

things I love best about Kristen's show

0:46

is that you are not going to

0:48

hear the same cases you've heard on

0:50

other podcasts. In Murder She Told, Kristen

0:53

focuses on lesser-known true crime stories generally

0:55

in New England, sometimes beyond, and they're

0:57

told from the perspective of a

1:00

victim's advocate. You will see

1:02

this most in her work on the Reeves-Johnson

1:04

case. This is a missing persons case from

1:06

Kittery, Maine. It happened in 1983 and not

1:08

only was

1:10

she given access to the case file

1:12

to make a podcast, she currently actively

1:14

works on the case as new leads

1:17

come in. But no case really hits

1:19

quite like the Danielle Bertolini case does

1:21

and that's because Danielle was Kristen's childhood

1:23

friend and she was murdered in California

1:25

in 2014. There has been no justice

1:29

in that case and Danielle's

1:32

episode features an interview with

1:34

her mother and with the lead detective on

1:36

that case. Murder She Told is an investigative

1:39

podcast that is rooted in deep

1:42

research, straightforward narratives, and the victims

1:44

and their families are at the

1:46

center of every story. You can

1:48

learn more at murdershetold.com and search

1:51

for Murder She Told now wherever

1:53

you get your podcasts. In

2:06

2012, Mickey Schunich left on her bicycle

2:08

to ride home. When she vanished,

2:10

over a thousand tips came in, but it took

2:13

two to lead to her killer. What

2:15

they later learned was Mickey wasn't his

2:17

first victim. I'm Charlie and welcome

2:19

to Crimelines. I

2:29

hope everyone's having a good week. I

2:32

wanted to give a

2:34

reminder slash announcement that I do

2:36

have a Patreon and Apple subscription

2:38

account and that allows you

2:40

to get all of the Crimelines content

2:42

ad-free and there is also bonus

2:45

content every month. Historically, those bonus

2:47

episodes have just been like regular Crimelines episodes.

2:49

What I put up there isn't really anything

2:51

different than what I would do in the

2:53

main feed. But then I had an

2:55

idea. I have talked before

2:57

about how if I made another podcast, it

3:00

would be just taking the Forensic Files episode

3:02

and getting into all the details that they

3:05

left out along the way with updates on

3:07

the cases because a lot of the convictions

3:09

ended up being appealed and more information came

3:11

out. I definitely

3:13

do not have the time to

3:16

do something that research-intensive on top

3:18

of Crimelines, but then it

3:20

occurred to me that I could just take that

3:22

show idea and make it my bonus content. So

3:25

starting in April, the Patreon and

3:27

Apple subscriber bonus content will become

3:30

its own series called Beyond the

3:32

Files. So be like Crimelines

3:34

episodes in that we'll follow the timeline

3:36

and there are going to be deep

3:38

dives, but we're going to take a

3:40

look at Forensic Files and their portrayals

3:42

specifically. If you're

3:44

already on Patreon or Apple subscriptions, you'll

3:46

see these episodes pop up just

3:48

like the bonus content always has. You

3:51

don't have to change anything or move to

3:53

a new tier because this will just take

3:56

the place of the monthly bonus content you've

3:58

always gotten. And if you're not- supporter

4:00

already and want access to Beyond the Files,

4:02

the links will be in the show notes.

4:06

I'll be up front. It is $5

4:08

USD a month to get to Beyond

4:10

the Files episodes per month, plus all

4:12

the Crimelines episodes ad-free. I

4:15

try to keep my pricing in the

4:17

affordable range because I'm not

4:19

someone who will spend $15 or

4:21

$20 a month on someone's Patreon, so

4:24

I certainly don't expect my listeners to pay

4:26

that much for mine, if that makes sense.

4:29

So with that announcement slash self-promotion

4:31

out of the way, let's get

4:33

into this week's case. This

4:35

one is a topic suggestion sent in

4:37

by Tiffany, so thank you Tiffany for

4:39

that. We are talking

4:41

about Michaela Schunich, who pretty much always

4:44

went by Mickey. She was

4:46

born in May 1990 and grew up

4:48

in Lafayette, Louisiana with an older sister

4:50

named Charlie and a younger brother named

4:52

Derek. Mickey was an

4:55

introspective person, a little quieter than her

4:57

older sister, but still funny and outgoing

4:59

in her own way. She

5:01

loved horseback riding and just animals in

5:04

general. After high school, she

5:06

decided to stay at home and go

5:08

to college locally at the University of

5:10

Louisiana at Lafayette, and

5:12

there she was studying anthropology.

5:15

Mickey was someone who generally rode her

5:17

bike everywhere she needed to go. Pretty

5:20

much anywhere in Lafayette she wanted to

5:22

be was within about 20 minutes or

5:24

so. On Friday, May 18, 2012,

5:26

Mickey was just days away from

5:30

her 22nd birthday and she went out with

5:32

friends to listen to some

5:34

live music at a place called

5:36

the Artemosphere Bistro. This is

5:38

a small venue. It's basically a house

5:41

that's been converted into an

5:43

artsy bistro, and as usual,

5:45

Mickey rode her bike. She

5:48

was there from about 10-15 at night until

5:51

1245 when she

5:53

and another friend named Brettlee left

5:55

and rode about a mile to Brettlee's

5:57

house. They hung out there and

6:00

until about 1.20 in the morning when

6:02

they decided to go get something to

6:04

eat. There are only

6:06

a few food options available at that hour

6:08

and most of them are drive-throughs, which is

6:10

one thing Mickey could not do on her

6:13

bike. So she and Brettlee used his

6:15

car to go pick up some Taco Bell and

6:17

they were seen on the security camera there at

6:19

1.24. They

6:23

then went back to Brettlee's house to

6:25

eat where they were when a friend

6:27

called Mickey on her cell phone around

6:29

1.30. They talked

6:31

for a little bit and according to Brettlee,

6:33

it was about 15 minutes

6:35

after this call that Mickey said she

6:37

needed to go. She

6:40

said she had to get some sleep because her

6:42

little brother had his high school graduation the

6:44

next morning. Mickey left at about

6:46

1.45 and because it

6:48

was about a four mile ride to her

6:51

house, she would have been

6:53

expected to get there by about 2am,

6:55

but she never made it. Initially

6:58

Mickey's parents were mostly just annoyed that

7:00

morning that she was running late getting

7:03

home in time for the graduation, so

7:05

they left without her assuming she would just meet

7:07

them there. But the ceremony

7:09

started at 11.30 and Mickey hadn't

7:11

shown. It wasn't outrageous

7:14

to think that Mickey was running late,

7:16

but not coming at all was not

7:18

like her. Hospitals

7:20

to her cell phone went straight to voicemail,

7:23

so her mom started calling around to

7:25

area hospitals to see if she

7:27

had been admitted somewhere. And

7:29

while she did that, Mickey's older sister

7:31

Charlie called Brettlee knowing that Mickey had

7:33

plans with him the night before. Brettlee

7:36

told Charlie that Mickey had left around

7:39

1.45 and mentioned how Mickey specifically said

7:41

she had to go home and get

7:43

some sleep before the graduation.

7:46

So as of 1.45am, Mickey fully intended

7:48

to be there for her brother and

7:50

she was heading home. Knowing

7:53

this and not being able to find anyone who

7:55

talked to Mickey after she left Brettlee's house, the

7:58

family called the police to report her

8:01

missing. Searches

8:03

began immediately with family, friends,

8:05

and volunteers walking every possible

8:08

path from Brettley's house to

8:10

Mickey's house in the

8:12

hopes of finding any clue as to

8:14

where she went. The

8:16

family was sure she left Brettley's because

8:18

Brettley said so and they trusted him.

8:21

The investigators however trusted no one so

8:23

they were looking into the possibility

8:26

that Brettley was lying. Brettley

8:28

was taken to the station for questioning

8:30

which started out normal enough with them

8:32

just asking what happened that night leading

8:35

up to Mickey leaving his house. But

8:38

then the questions got a little pushier.

8:40

They said things that were attempts

8:43

to get Brettley to make

8:45

some concessions. Things like, we

8:48

know accidents can happen and

8:50

maybe you panicked. Brettley

8:53

stuck to his version of

8:55

events so then the investigators

8:57

got more directly confrontational and

9:00

downright accusatory saying things like

9:02

how Brettley was probably in love with Mickey.

9:04

She was a pretty young woman, maybe

9:06

he tried something and she turned him

9:08

down and they could see how something

9:10

could have escalated. But

9:13

Brettley was adamant. He and Mickey were just

9:15

friends, had always just been friends and Mickey

9:17

was alive and well when she left his

9:19

house that night. It's

9:21

not clear if the investigators believed him after

9:24

his interview or not but they definitely believed

9:26

him when they pulled footage from cameras along

9:29

the path from his house to Mickey's. At

9:32

1.47 and 1.48 AM,

9:35

the cameras caught Mickey riding in the

9:37

direction of her house. As

9:40

they checked cameras closer to her

9:42

house, she didn't appear. So

9:45

they knew for sure Mickey had left Brettley's

9:47

house but she wouldn't have made it even

9:49

halfway home based on what they could see

9:52

on the cameras. On

9:54

May 21st, instead of

9:56

celebrating Mickey's birthday, a prayer vigil was

9:58

held in downtown downtown Lafayette that

10:01

was covered by the national media

10:03

and that helped get a lot of eyes on this case.

10:06

Elizabeth Smart, who is the face

10:08

of hope in situations like this,

10:11

spoke with the local paper, the daily

10:14

advertiser, encouraging the community

10:16

to stay optimistic. She

10:18

said that until the missing person is

10:20

found, no one should give up and

10:22

think they'll never come home. She

10:25

encouraged the family to lean on each

10:27

other's strengths so that they weren't

10:30

driven apart and lean on

10:32

strengths is exactly what they did. Mickey's

10:35

sister, Charlie, canceled her summer internship

10:37

and became the spokesperson for this

10:39

case. She was doing

10:41

everything from organizing volunteers to

10:44

doing radio interviews to making

10:46

sure the social media awareness on

10:49

the case was up to date

10:51

and accurate with the latest information.

10:54

And if you talk to any family

10:56

advocate, they will tell you that keeping social

10:58

media one up to date and too accurate

11:00

is a feat on its own. A

11:04

few days after Mickey went missing, a big

11:06

piece of information was released to the public

11:08

on this case and that was the CCTV

11:10

footage of Mickey riding her bike home that

11:12

night. This gave the public an

11:15

idea of what she was wearing and what her bike

11:17

looked like, but it also stopped

11:19

the tips and the conversation on

11:21

social media that was regarding Brettlee.

11:24

Just because someone was cleared by the police, it

11:26

didn't mean the public wasn't still saying, have they

11:29

looked into her friend, he's the last one to

11:31

see her, that seems suspicious. So

11:33

releasing this definitely quieted

11:35

those voices. They

11:37

then also released additional footage of a

11:40

pickup truck and two cars that passed

11:42

in the same area as Mickey around

11:44

the same time. They were

11:46

called possible witnesses and that was certainly

11:48

true of at least one car that

11:50

was actually going in the opposite direction.

11:52

But the truck, The truck did

11:54

seem a little suspicious. It was behind

11:57

Mickey and came through the intersection shortly

11:59

after she was. The Dead. According

12:01

to some reports, it looked like it's

12:03

brake lights came on. After it

12:06

passed by the camera. The

12:08

investigators could not get a plate number

12:10

off the truck, but from what they

12:13

could see it with a white Chevy

12:15

Silverado know this is hardly an unusual

12:17

are rarer vehicle in Southern Louisiana. However,

12:19

they were able to narrow it down

12:21

to disease seventy one model thanks to

12:24

the help from a local dealership. A

12:27

big tip came in on Saturday, May

12:29

twenty sixth. Twenty twelve a week after

12:32

Mickey. What Method? Fishermen.

12:34

And the Whiskey Bay Area sound

12:36

bite off the I Ten bridge.

12:38

He having see me extensive reports

12:40

admit his disappearance they call the

12:42

police. Showing. Turley. A photo

12:45

of the black and gold bite see

12:47

identified it as Mickey's. The.

12:49

Bike Looks like it had been l

12:51

in the swamp for a week, but

12:53

more than that, the back tire was

12:55

absolutely mangled. It. Wasn't the damage

12:57

you would get from throwing it

12:59

off the bridge? It looked more

13:01

like it had been hit, possibly

13:04

by a white Chevy Silverado. The

13:06

discovery of. The bike gave the searchers a

13:08

new area to look and Texas Aqua Search

13:11

team in to help. But.

13:13

It also made the

13:15

communities collective heart sink.

13:18

This was a good twenty five to

13:20

thirty miles from where Mickey was last

13:22

seen and in the opposite direction of

13:24

her house. She. Hadn't

13:26

gotten her by dealt their herself. In.

13:30

The early days of the search, over

13:32

a thousand tips came in about white

13:34

trucks or suspicious men. Rarely

13:36

where the tips about both, but they did

13:38

get a lead on a eighteen year old

13:40

named Rocky. He. Drove a white

13:43

truck and more than that, he was

13:45

about to go on trial for a

13:47

Dui manslaughter case. Was. A

13:49

possible he was driving around intoxicated

13:51

and hit Mickey. Now. Worried

13:53

about what that would mean for his upcoming

13:56

trial, he may have decided to get rid

13:58

of the evidence. Now this

14:00

was but one tip out of many

14:02

that were being investigated at the same

14:05

time, but this tip did

14:07

leak onto social media and it blew

14:09

up. Suddenly more

14:11

tips came in about Rocky and some

14:13

even implicated his girlfriend saying that she

14:15

was with him that night. This

14:18

was a really hot lead but so

14:21

many of the tips were

14:23

just based on what was already being put

14:25

out on social media. The

14:27

one independent tip they got, the

14:30

one that started all of this, that

14:32

was determined to be a hoax. Either

14:35

the tipster wanted attention or wanted to

14:37

cause a headache for Rocky, but what

14:39

they really did was waste investigators' time.

14:43

By early June, the major searches

14:45

had been called off. They

14:48

had covered all of the key areas they

14:50

knew to look, like around Brettley's house, the

14:52

route to Mickey's house, and

14:54

the Whiskey Bay area. They had

14:57

come up empty handed so unless there was

14:59

a major tip, there was little for them

15:01

to do. Things seemed

15:03

publicly like they were starting to slow down

15:06

but they were actually heating up thanks to

15:08

a tip that came in on June 14,

15:10

2012. Mickey

15:14

had been missing for nearly four

15:16

weeks when a Lafayette car dealership

15:18

told the police about a man

15:20

who really wanted to buy a

15:22

white Chevy Silverado Z71. He

15:26

said he owned one but it was stolen recently

15:28

and he wanted to get another. He

15:31

was insistent that it had to be that

15:33

model and it had to be white. While

15:36

he was there, the TV news came on

15:38

with a segment about Mickey's case and

15:41

the man looked visibly nervous. The

15:44

tip said that this man was

15:46

named Brandon Laverne. This

15:49

name caught investigators' attention because one,

15:51

it was a specific tip with

15:53

information connected to a known element

15:55

of the crime and

15:57

two, they had Brandon's name from

15:59

another another tip that came in

16:01

a week earlier. The information

16:03

from that tip was less directly tied to

16:06

a known element of the case, which is

16:08

why it wasn't a priority. But

16:11

that caller, someone who knew Brandon,

16:13

said that he had been acting

16:15

suspiciously since Mickey went missing. That

16:18

same weekend she went missing, Brandon

16:20

showed up with stab wounds, having

16:23

claimed he was mugged in New

16:25

Orleans, even though he had

16:27

no plans to go there. New

16:29

Orleans is two hours away from

16:32

Lafayette, so it's not

16:34

somewhere you necessarily go without

16:36

notice. So

16:38

the investigators decided to run the

16:40

history of Brandon's vehicle insurance. If

16:43

his truck was stolen and he was ready

16:45

to buy another one, he very likely got

16:47

money from the insurance company. The question

16:50

was, was his truck stolen before

16:52

or after Mickey went

16:54

missing? The investigators learned

16:57

that Brandon did in fact file a

16:59

claim on the stolen vehicle, and

17:02

on it he stated his truck was

17:04

stolen in Texas between 11pm

17:06

on May 30th and

17:08

6am on the 31st. So

17:12

not just after Mickey went missing,

17:14

but after the police publicized that

17:16

they were looking for that truck.

17:19

The truck had been found in Texas,

17:22

but it was completely burnt out. Absolutely

17:25

a shell of a truck left, and

17:27

no evidence could be

17:29

recovered. On

17:31

June 20th, the police were able to

17:34

pull Brandon's phone records from the day

17:36

before Mickey went missing until the day

17:38

after he reported his truck stolen. And

17:41

they found out that on May 18th, the

17:43

night Mickey went out with her friends, Brandon

17:46

called several numbers between 4.20pm

17:48

and 12.18am. In

17:52

looking up these numbers, they

17:54

found that they were from

17:56

advertisements for escort services. Brandon's

18:00

phone then had no activity until 8

18:03

20 in the morning when he called his fiancee. And

18:06

then there were also some calls that

18:08

weekend to medical facilities. So the police

18:10

then got a warrant for his medical

18:12

records. Brandon had

18:14

shown up on the morning of

18:16

May 19 with stab wounds to

18:19

kind of his upper back neck area, a

18:22

stab wound to his chest as well

18:24

as an injury to his hand. At

18:28

the time, the police were of course

18:30

called to the hospital to take the

18:32

report. And Brandon told multiple stories between

18:34

what he told the nurses, what

18:37

he told the police and what he told others. The

18:52

basic story was that he stopped at a gas

18:54

station to ask for directions around 3 or 3

18:57

30 in the morning. One time he

18:59

said it was a big white guy with gold

19:01

teeth that attacked him with a knife stealing his

19:03

wallet with about $40 in it.

19:06

In another version, it was actually a big

19:08

black guy and then it was three black

19:11

men. And then the hand injury was actually

19:13

not from the stabbing, but from a separate

19:15

fishing incident. And you know,

19:17

the story just never aligned. As

19:20

for which gas station Brandon was when

19:23

this happened, he was a bit fuzzy

19:25

on this. They eventually questioned

19:27

him enough to narrow it down to

19:29

an area. And they found that the

19:31

only gas station that fit all the

19:33

elements he had told them about was

19:35

one that was on South Carrollton in

19:37

New Orleans. The police went

19:39

out there to investigate and the manager

19:41

said he was unaware of anything happening

19:44

overnight. Brandon hadn't come in,

19:46

he didn't ask to use the phone to call

19:48

the police, he didn't ask for an ambulance, and

19:50

no one witnessed the attack. The

19:52

manager let the police check the security

19:55

footage, which showed nothing. The

19:57

stab wounds were non-life threatening, but the

19:59

injury... to Brandon's hand was

20:01

bad enough that he needed surgery to

20:04

repair a damaged tendon. The

20:06

surgery was supposed to happen on May

20:09

25th, but he showed up and

20:11

he had poison ivy so they postponed it

20:13

for a few days until it cleared up.

20:16

So this man was stabbed, exposed to

20:18

poison ivy like he had been in

20:20

a field or the woods. Then

20:22

he had his truck stolen and torched and all

20:24

of that happened in less

20:27

than two weeks following the disappearance of

20:29

a woman who they think he was

20:31

in proximity to. Now

20:34

they couldn't tell the license plate number on

20:36

the truck on the cameras from the early

20:38

morning of May 19th. Those

20:41

dark images are too grainy,

20:44

but they could make out the shape of

20:46

the items in the truck bed. So

20:48

they used the license plate number of

20:50

Brandon's stolen truck and tried to find

20:52

an earlier image of the truck on

20:55

traffic cameras from when the sun was

20:57

up. And they found one.

20:59

They found his truck going through an intersection

21:01

earlier on the 18th and they could clearly

21:03

see what was in the bed. And

21:05

it all matched the shapes that you

21:08

can make out in that grainy after

21:10

dark footage. So they were

21:12

sure this was Brandon's truck behind Mickey.

21:15

And now he could have just been a

21:17

witness if not for the other suspicious circumstances

21:20

around him like the stab wounds and the

21:22

stolen truck. And I

21:24

guess I haven't mentioned the other thing.

21:26

They pulled Brandon's record and learned he

21:28

was a registered sex offender. Back

21:31

in April of 1999, Brandon, who was 20

21:34

at the time, broke into the home of

21:36

someone he knew and raped her. She

21:39

said she was in bed and he

21:41

blindfolded her and bound her wrists. Brandon

21:44

initially told the police that the incident was

21:46

consensual and she had invited him over. However,

21:50

in February of 2000, Brandon

21:52

pleaded guilty to aggravated oral

21:54

sexual battery in a plea

21:56

deal and he was sentenced to

21:58

10 years in prison. of which

22:00

he would serve just over eight. His

22:04

wife, who was a couple months pregnant when

22:06

he went to prison, divorced him and moved

22:08

out of the area with their child. When

22:11

Brandon was released, he was required

22:13

to register as a sex offender.

22:16

In Louisiana at the time, due to a 2006 law,

22:20

Brandon's driver's license had to have a stamp

22:22

on it indicating that he was a

22:25

sex offender. And this stamp was

22:27

not subtle. It's not like

22:29

the little checkbox for being an organ

22:31

donor or the indicator that you need

22:33

glasses while driving. It

22:35

was orange, all capital

22:38

letters saying sex offender right

22:40

under the photograph. This

22:42

law has since been struck down, but in 2012,

22:46

Brandon would have that stamp

22:48

on his license where he should have

22:50

had it. He certainly didn't want

22:52

it on there. And he was accused of

22:55

once offering a DMV worker $500

22:58

to not print the license with the stamp on it.

23:01

And the police learned that he had

23:03

altered his license in some way to

23:06

remove it. They learned this

23:08

because they had a record of a mobile

23:10

home purchase from earlier in the year. And

23:13

the seller had photocopied his ID, which did

23:15

not have the stamp on it. Removing

23:18

the stamp was enough cause to

23:21

pull over 33 year old Brandon

23:23

Laverne and detain him, which

23:25

they did on Thursday, July 5th, 2012. He

23:30

refused to speak to the police saying he

23:32

wanted a lawyer and they

23:34

then booked him on the charges of

23:36

first degree murder and kidnapping in Mickey's

23:39

case. Shortly

23:41

after the arrest, the investigators contacted

23:43

Brandon's half sister in Texas who

23:46

lived in the same area his

23:48

truck had allegedly been stolen from.

23:51

And she decided she would go ahead and tell

23:53

the police what she knew. She

23:56

said Brandon had come to our house to visit

23:58

and told her he needed to burn. his truck

24:01

and then reported missing and that's because

24:03

he got wrapped up in something criminal

24:06

in Louisiana. It's

24:08

not clear if he said it was

24:10

weapons related but that's definitely the impression

24:12

she got from whatever it was he

24:15

did say and she agreed

24:17

to help him. She

24:19

followed him to the spot where he torched his

24:21

truck and then drove him back to her house.

24:24

Brandon then reported the truck stolen in the

24:27

morning and got a rental car before driving

24:29

back home. So

24:31

this confirmed what the investigators already suspected

24:34

and that was that Brandon was the

24:36

one who destroyed his truck and

24:38

they believed he did so to

24:41

get rid of evidence in Mickey's

24:43

case. Also after Brandon's arrest they searched

24:45

his home and his new truck and

24:48

in that new truck they found an

24:50

envelope with a Mickey's mother's

24:52

phone number written on it which was

24:54

odd. It doesn't sound

24:56

like they could find evidence that he tried to

24:58

contact the family but it showed he was to

25:00

some degree paying attention to the

25:03

case. And

25:05

then in Brandon's home they found

25:07

two wallets with identification of other

25:09

people and a suitcase with

25:11

the ID tag that was for a woman.

25:15

At this point they were wondering if

25:17

they had a serial killer on their

25:19

hands and they investigated these

25:21

people as possible victims. They

25:24

learned that the owner of one of

25:27

the wallets was already deceased and the

25:29

suitcase had been donated to Brandon after

25:31

he lost everything in a house fire

25:33

earlier in the year. That's

25:35

why he had to purchase a new mobile home

25:37

and use an altered ID to do so that

25:39

then got him picked up by the police. But

25:43

they were able to confirm that the woman who

25:45

owned the suitcase was alive and well. So

25:48

that left them with one wallet and

25:50

they were unable to locate that person.

25:52

We'll go ahead and call her Susan. They

25:55

were able to get in touch with Susan's

25:57

brother though and he said that he hadn't

26:00

seen her in a few months. She

26:02

had been living with him but they had issues

26:04

and she moved out. He still

26:06

put money in her bank account to help

26:08

her but she was not returning his calls

26:11

so he decided to stop putting money in

26:13

the account with the idea that this would

26:15

push Susan into reaching out to make contact.

26:19

But it didn't and then he found out

26:21

that she hadn't been touching the bank account.

26:24

Though I changed her name, her real

26:26

name did leak out and it's probably

26:29

a good thing it did. It's interesting

26:31

this case has a name that leaks that turned out to

26:33

be a bad thing and one that turns out to

26:35

be a good thing. Some

26:37

online sleuths took the name

26:40

of the woman, did some online searches

26:43

and they found a very brief

26:45

and somewhat obscure mention of her

26:47

working on a production in the

26:49

area that she lived in. They

26:52

passed the info on to the police who were

26:54

able to make contact and confirm that Susan was

26:56

alive and well. It turned

26:59

out her purse had been stolen so

27:01

she was a victim but not of murder. However,

27:04

it turned out there was another

27:06

murder victim in Brandon's past. When

27:10

Mickey's case went to the grand jury and Brandon

27:12

was indicted on July 18th 2012, he was also

27:17

indicted in the murder of Lisa

27:20

Pate, someone the Schunich

27:22

family had never heard of. Lisa

27:25

Pate was 34 years old in

27:28

1999 when her family last heard from her. She

27:30

was someone who lived a bit on

27:32

the fringes dealing with drug addiction so

27:35

the family wasn't entirely sure when she

27:37

was last seen. They

27:39

could place it at late June

27:41

or early July 1999. That

27:44

was about the time she stopped showing up

27:47

for visits with her minor children. Like

27:50

a lot of people dealing with

27:52

substance abuse, Lisa had a pattern

27:54

of getting sober and relapsing. Getting

27:57

sober and relapsing. She Attended

27:59

at least two. Rehabs but she couldn't

28:01

kick her habit for good. It

28:03

appears she was living in hotels at the

28:05

time of her disappearance. Leases.

28:08

Family reported her missing and had

28:10

their family attorney doing some media

28:12

pushes to ask for tips. Then

28:15

on Tuesday September, twenty first linked to

28:17

Ninety Nine. So a few months after

28:20

she went missing. A man named

28:22

Gus and a few friends were hanging out

28:24

in his backyard. He and his

28:26

girlfriend had recently moved into the

28:28

rental house and so does decided

28:30

to explore part of the overgrown

28:33

patch. Of the property. After

28:35

following a trail through that area, He

28:37

saw three boards and line on the

28:40

ground. He lifted one and saw a

28:42

school. He. Called the police

28:44

and based on Denzel comparison the

28:46

body was identified as Lisa Page.

28:49

Brandon. Ended up being a

28:51

suspect in leases case before making

28:54

even went missing. He.

28:56

Had grown up in the area and he

28:58

knew the people who had been living in

29:00

the house at the time we some went

29:02

missing. So. Before Gus and his

29:04

girlfriend had moved in, Multiple.

29:06

People said branding confessed that

29:09

he had killed her, including

29:11

inmates who serve time with

29:13

him and including someone branded

29:15

had been allegedly stocking. Since

29:17

high school. This. Woman who

29:19

we will call Jill told the police she

29:22

was. Terrified of Brand and. He

29:24

had been a bully from middle school

29:26

until he dropped out of high school.

29:29

It. Was a relief to her that he

29:31

left school and would hopefully leave her

29:33

alone. But. At some point

29:35

in jails leader teen years she won

29:37

a local beauty pageants and somehow that

29:40

just put her back on Brandon's. Radar.

29:43

She. Has made some pretty heavy

29:45

accusations against him, though I don't

29:47

see that any of this was

29:49

prosecuted or dealt with legally. She.

29:52

Said he would follow her around town. He showed

29:54

up at our house with a gun. And.

29:57

he made threatening phone calls which were

29:59

recorded and Based on the investigative report,

30:01

linked in my show notes, these

30:03

were turned over to the police at the time.

30:07

Jill obviously didn't see or hear from

30:09

him from February 2000 when

30:11

he went to prison until April 2008 when he was

30:13

released. According

30:16

to her, he showed up at her house two

30:18

days after he got out, and her

30:20

husband chased him off the property. Jill

30:23

told the police that the last time she saw Brandon

30:25

was in June of 2012, about a month after

30:28

Mickey disappeared. She was

30:30

outside with her daughter and Brandon just

30:32

showed up. She grabbed her daughter and

30:35

got in the car but the window was still

30:37

rolled down so Brandon tried

30:39

to reach in like he was going

30:41

to hug her. She

30:43

was able to drive off without incident.

30:46

Jill said over the years she heard that

30:49

Brandon had confessed to killing Lisa and

30:51

that he confessed to cutting the brake lines

30:53

on a car that she was in. There

30:56

was a crash and the other person was

30:58

killed and Jill was seriously injured. But

31:01

everything Jill knew about this was hearsay. She

31:05

didn't hear Brandon say any of these

31:07

things herself. But Brandon

31:09

was enough of a suspect in Lisa's

31:11

murder that prior to him being released

31:13

from prison in 2008, they

31:16

convened a grand jury and presented the

31:18

evidence against him for Lisa

31:20

Pate's murder. The grand jury

31:22

at that time declined to indict. So

31:25

this was the second time Lisa's

31:28

case was presented to the grand

31:30

jury and this time they did

31:32

indict 33-year-old Brandon Laverne for both

31:34

Lisa's murder and Mickey's. On

31:37

July 27th, he pleaded not

31:39

guilty in both cases and

31:41

the next hearing would not

31:43

even be scheduled until October

31:45

when the filings were due.

31:48

So both families settled in for what

31:50

they thought was going to be a

31:53

long trial process. That

31:55

all changed a week and a

31:57

half later on August 7th. police

32:00

said they had a credible tip as

32:02

to the location of Mickey Schunich's body.

32:05

And some very observant journalists noted

32:07

that Brandon had been signed out

32:09

of lockup for nine hours that

32:11

day. So before it

32:13

was officially confirmed, it was widely

32:15

assumed that Brandon had talked. About

32:19

an hour north of Lafayette, Brandon

32:21

led investigators to the woods behind

32:23

an old private cemetery. There

32:26

they found the buried remains of

32:28

Mickey Schunich. Formal

32:31

identification took a few days, but the

32:33

source of the information was her killer,

32:35

so the family knew it was her. In

32:38

a plea deal that took the death penalty

32:40

off the table, Brandon had agreed

32:42

to confess to both the murders of

32:45

Mickey Schunich and Lisa Pate, as

32:47

well as lead investigators to

32:49

the recovery of Mickey's remains.

32:53

In the case of Lisa Pate, Brandon said he

32:55

met her around June of 1999 while she was

32:59

living at a hotel. He

33:01

invited her to come stay with him, which

33:03

was a house outside of Lafayette. After

33:06

a few days together, Lisa told him that she

33:08

wanted to go visit her kids and asked if

33:11

she could take his vehicle. He

33:13

said no. So then she asked

33:15

if he would drive her back to

33:17

Lafayette, and he said no to that

33:19

as well. So

33:22

Lisa was at this house with a guy

33:24

who was refusing to bring her back to

33:26

her family, and they weren't

33:28

in a place where she could reasonably walk home.

33:31

So she waited until Brandon fell asleep

33:33

and tried to sneak out the door

33:36

with his keys, but he caught her.

33:39

In a rage, Brandon beat, strangled,

33:41

and then suffocated Lisa with

33:43

a plastic bag before hiding

33:46

her remains behind his acquaintances

33:48

house. Now Brandon's confession

33:50

did align with the evidence. Though

33:53

it was held back at the

33:55

time, Lisa's face had multiple fractures

33:58

and plastic was Found

34:00

around her skull. But.

34:02

We have to remember that this story in

34:05

the one he would tell about Nicky. A

34:07

really just as versions and in my

34:10

opinion he has motivation to downplay what

34:12

happened. In this case, he

34:14

was provoked by Lisa trying to steal

34:16

his vehicle. And. Then he

34:19

would claim a provocation of sorts

34:21

with Mickey as well. Brandon.

34:24

Said he was driving around that night

34:26

he and had been drinking. He.

34:28

Got hungry so he had it's. a fast

34:30

food restaurants. While he was

34:32

driving am playing on his phone, he

34:34

said he saw something out of the

34:37

corner of his eye and it was

34:39

Mickey on her bike. He tried

34:41

to break but he ended up hitting her

34:43

back tire. Brendan. Said he

34:45

immediately got out of his troth, apologizing

34:47

to Mickey while she was pretty upset.

34:50

Somehow, the to pretty quickly came to

34:52

an agreement not to call the police

34:54

over the incident. In his

34:57

confession, he said that he didn't want the police

34:59

called because he had a gun in the truck.

35:01

And he wasn't allowed to have a

35:03

firearm As a convicted felon, Said.

35:06

It didn't want the police because

35:08

she indicated to him that she

35:10

had. Drugs. On her. And

35:13

by drugs at most he means

35:15

part At the time though all

35:17

marijuana either medical was illegal in

35:20

Louisiana. Anyway, according to

35:22

Brand in they agreed to several it

35:24

between themselves and he offered to give

35:26

Mickey a ride home as her bike

35:28

was unavoidable. Mickey. Hesitated

35:30

to accept this ride but then decided

35:32

to go with them. So. They put

35:35

her bike in the back and she got into the

35:37

club with him. As Brand

35:39

into rove her home he said

35:41

he offered her one hundred dollars

35:43

for the damage. Mickey. Countered

35:45

that it was a five hundred dollar

35:47

bike. But. Brandon said it was just

35:49

the tire that was messed up. am one hundred.

35:51

Dollars was perfectly reasonable. The.

35:54

To started going back and forth and Mickey

35:56

finally said she was going to call the

35:58

police. Brenda. said he stopped

36:00

the truck and told her to get out, but

36:02

she refused, saying that he would just take off

36:05

with her bike in the bed of his truck.

36:08

Mickey reached for her cell phone and Brandon

36:10

said he panicked and grabbed a knife. He

36:13

told her he wasn't playing around and not to

36:15

call the cops. Brandon

36:17

said he realized at that moment that he had screwed

36:19

up by overreacting and told Mickey he was sorry and

36:21

that he'd just give her the $500 and drop her

36:23

off at home. So

36:26

he put the knife down on the console so

36:28

it was in plain view to let

36:31

Mickey know she didn't have anything to worry about.

36:34

He was about to start driving again when

36:36

Mickey sprayed him with the mace she always

36:38

carried with her. He tried to

36:40

get the can of mace away from her and she

36:43

grabbed the knife and stabbed him. He

36:45

said he got the knife away from her and stabbed

36:47

her a few times and she then

36:49

slid to the floor of the truck.

36:52

Brandon said he thought about taking her to

36:54

the hospital, but he didn't know how he was

36:57

going to explain what happened. He

36:59

checked her pulse and couldn't detect it. So

37:02

he pulled out his gun and he considered

37:04

shooting himself because he just could not face

37:06

going back to prison. The

37:09

next bit in his memory was

37:11

fuzzy. It seems he

37:13

was driving around and at one

37:15

point he tried to take Mickey's

37:17

body out to a field and

37:19

he planned to leave her along

37:21

a tree line. He

37:23

pulled over and sat there for a

37:25

second when, according to him, Mickey

37:28

popped up, stabbed

37:30

him in the chest and then

37:33

he shot her in the head. Brandon

37:36

said he was so freaked out that he just drove

37:38

to his house with Mickey's body in the truck. He

37:41

started cleaning the blood off himself and

37:43

getting changed into clean clothes. He

37:46

said that while he was doing this, he

37:48

just kept going back in the truck to

37:50

see if Mickey's body was there because he

37:52

really couldn't believe what had happened. He

37:56

said he was still contemplating suicide, but

37:58

he had one child already. and another

38:00

on the way and he couldn't go through with it.

38:04

He thought about an old cemetery he knew

38:06

about from when he was in the army

38:08

and stationed at Fort Polk, so

38:11

he grabbed a shovel and drove out

38:13

there. But because

38:15

of the wounds he had, the ones

38:17

Mickey inflicted, he couldn't dig,

38:19

so he just covered her body with

38:22

branches before going home. He

38:24

cleaned his truck and then drove back through the

38:26

area where he had hit Mickey to see if

38:28

the police had shown up. When

38:30

he didn't see anything, he went back home. Realizing

38:46

he was pretty badly injured, Brandon called a

38:49

friend and said he had been stabbed in

38:51

a fight and he put the

38:53

stabbing incident as happening in New Orleans and

38:55

he went to a hospital out there because

38:57

it gave him a bit of an alibi.

39:00

As he drove towards New Orleans, he realized he still

39:02

had Mickey's bike in the bed of his truck, so

39:04

he threw it off the bridge. A

39:08

few days after Mickey's death, Brandon went back

39:10

to where her body was in order to

39:12

bury it. When he

39:14

learned that his truck was spotted on

39:17

the CCTV, he destroyed it in Texas,

39:19

hoping the investigators in Louisiana wouldn't find

39:21

out about it. He then

39:23

wanted to buy the same exact truck and

39:25

it seems like he thought this would throw

39:27

everyone off the trail. No

39:29

one in his life would notice that he got rid

39:31

of a white truck because he

39:34

just replaced it with a nearly

39:36

identical one. And

39:38

if the police came around because of his

39:40

white truck, he could say, oh no, I

39:42

just bought it. That's

39:45

Brandon's story and while some of what

39:47

he said aligns with the evidence, there

39:49

are parts that we can't know. Like,

39:52

did he really hit Mickey

39:55

unintentionally? Did she really get

39:57

in the car with him willingly? Did

39:59

she make some? stab him while he was

40:01

about to drive her home or was

40:03

there another reason she felt the need

40:05

to defend herself? We

40:07

don't know and we can't know because the

40:09

only person who lived to tell the tale

40:11

has incentive to downplay what he did. But

40:14

when someone has killed two people and

40:17

claims some type of provocation both

40:19

times, I have to wonder

40:22

about the reliability of his statements because

40:24

most people are never provoked

40:27

to kill anyone, let alone

40:29

two times. Prior

40:31

to making his official guilty plea in

40:33

court, Brandon did have a psychological exam

40:36

to make sure he was competent to take the

40:38

steal. Most of

40:40

the report relied on Brandon's self-report where

40:43

he said he had a troubled childhood

40:45

with an abusive father and

40:47

a teenage babysitter who molested

40:49

him repeatedly when he was preschool

40:51

age. As a teenager,

40:54

he was treated for anger and depression

40:56

with a 30-day inpatient hospital

40:58

stay. The

41:00

psychologist found that Brandon was competent

41:02

to make this plea and though

41:05

he was impulsive and indulgent, he

41:07

didn't have significant mental illness.

41:11

On Friday, August 17, 2012,

41:13

Brandon Laverne pleaded guilty to

41:15

both murders and was sentenced

41:17

to life in prison. Afterwards,

41:21

Mickey's mother Nancy released

41:23

a statement saying that her courageous

41:25

child had faced down a monster

41:28

and she was in awe

41:30

of Mickey's strength in fighting him. With

41:33

Brandon having killed two women in 13

41:35

years, there were investigations into if there

41:38

were other victims either prior to Brandon

41:40

going to prison in February of 2000

41:42

or after his release

41:44

in April of 2008. And

41:48

one of those cases looked into was

41:50

that of Allie Lowitzer, a

41:52

16-year-old who went missing from Spring, Texas in 2010.

41:56

Brandon had family in that area and one

41:58

witness said Allie had been talking to someone

42:00

in a white truck on the afternoon

42:02

of her disappearance. Some

42:05

reports say that the white truck that Brandon

42:07

owned at the time matched the

42:09

partial license plate that the

42:11

tipster had remembered. Brandon

42:14

was interviewed in the case, but he denied

42:16

any involvement. He said he was

42:18

in Louisiana at the time, and this has apparently been

42:20

backed up by his employer.

42:23

Brandon didn't have the type of job that he

42:25

could just take off from unnoticed. He was working

42:27

offshore at the time. So if

42:29

he was out on an oil rig, he

42:31

would have needed a boat to have gotten

42:33

back to land. Next

42:36

month I'm going to cover Ali's case in

42:38

detail, so we'll get into the other tips

42:40

and leads in that case in

42:42

April. Brandon

42:44

has not confessed to any more

42:46

murders, and likely will not. I

42:49

say that because he has tried

42:51

to appeal his plea and sentence

42:53

repeatedly, saying he was pressured into

42:55

pleading guilty due to pretrial publicity

42:58

and the fear of the death penalty. But

43:01

the courts have continued to deny him

43:03

since he has, in their opinion, yet

43:06

to show that he has any

43:08

constitutional right that was violated. That's

43:11

the only way he can legally reverse his

43:14

situation. The most recent denial was

43:16

in 2023. Brandon's

43:19

denial in 2018, though, is the one

43:22

that has gotten the most publicity because

43:24

he attempted to escape from

43:26

Angola prison shortly after. According

43:29

to prison officials, he tried to make a run for it at

43:31

4.30 in the morning on October

43:33

15, 2018,

43:36

but he never even made it to

43:38

the fence before he was stopped without

43:40

incident. Angola

43:42

is one of those prisons that is

43:44

known for being hard to escape from.

43:46

It's not Alcatraz, but it is huge

43:48

and it has alarms that go off

43:50

any time there's an issue. And

43:53

it's also in a remote swampy area, so

43:55

even if you get outside the fence, where

43:57

are you going? After

43:59

this is escape attempt, the station KATC got

44:02

Brandon's records from Angola to see

44:04

if he's been in trouble before.

44:06

Now, getting into trouble in prison

44:08

is really easy. You can get

44:10

written up for pretty much anything,

44:12

but there was something that stood out to me

44:14

in what was reported. He got

44:17

in trouble for repeatedly trying to contact

44:19

one of the victim's family members. He

44:21

was told not to contact them, so he

44:23

sent letters to his family to ask them

44:26

to give them to the people he wasn't

44:28

supposed to be contacting. If

44:30

the victim's family doesn't want contact with

44:33

the confessed killer of their loved one,

44:35

just leave them alone. In

44:38

addition to Brandon's attempts to appeal his

44:40

guilty plea and life sentences, he did

44:42

submit several court filings for a variety

44:45

of issues. Most of

44:47

the suits were filed in 2013 and then

44:49

immediately appealed when they were denied in 2014.

44:53

There are some outside of this timeframe,

44:55

but the majority were in this block.

44:57

From late June 2013 until

45:00

early July, he filed by my count

45:02

22 lawsuits. Brandon

45:05

has an IQ of 116, which is above average. I

45:09

almost wonder if he was bored, and this

45:11

is what stimulated his brain as he adjusted

45:13

to prison. He has

45:15

attempted to sue various people connected

45:17

to the case, like investigators and

45:19

witnesses. He tried to

45:21

sue the appellate judges for civil rights

45:24

violations. And he

45:26

tried to sue a private website for civil

45:28

rights violations, except private websites aren't agents of

45:30

the state, so that didn't go anywhere. There's

45:33

only one lawsuit I really wanted to talk

45:35

about for a minute, and that is when

45:38

he sued Dateline. Dateline aired

45:40

an episode on this case called Missing

45:42

Mickey, really showcasing the work her sister

45:44

Charlie did to look for her and

45:47

how much the community rallied. But

45:49

obviously it also covered Brandon Laverne,

45:51

and he didn't like how he

45:53

was portrayed. I

45:56

of course had to double check what facts I

45:58

got from Dateline as one of my sources. against

46:00

his claims of defamation for

46:03

something to be defamatory, it has to

46:05

be untrue. So these are the things

46:07

Brandon claimed were in the Dateline episode

46:09

that were lies. The

46:11

first was the reporting on his

46:13

use of escort services. I

46:16

did not include that except to say he

46:18

was calling such services that night. And

46:20

that is according to the police document, which is

46:22

linked in my sources, so take it up with

46:25

them. The second on truth,

46:27

according to Brandon, was that Dateline claimed

46:29

he was in close pursuit of Mickey

46:31

prior to her murder. Now that

46:34

feels like an interpretation or a

46:36

characterization of the events. How

46:38

close is close? And

46:40

he claimed he wasn't pursuing her at all

46:42

and hitting her was unintentional, but that's definitely

46:44

not what everyone thinks happened. This

46:47

is a bit of a gray area. In

46:49

this episode, I decided to stick with

46:51

his confession as he told it, but

46:53

also pointing out that he

46:55

had some motivation to make himself look better.

46:58

The third complaint in this suit

47:01

was that Dateline said Brandon seduced

47:03

women and had multiple girlfriends at

47:05

the time. I left

47:07

that claim out of this episode because it was

47:10

really irrelevant to the case, in my opinion. I

47:13

used to try to shoehorn in every little

47:15

detail I learned about a case and

47:17

the people who were involved, but I've gotten a

47:19

lot better at leaving things out that

47:21

are really besides the point. I

47:24

don't know, nor do I care, how

47:26

many girlfriends Brandon had. The

47:29

fourth supposed falsehood was the

47:31

implication that because Brandon committed

47:34

the murders of two women,

47:37

that could lead one to conclude

47:39

that he killed other women. Now

47:42

this one, I did do, but it's factual

47:44

that the police looked into other potential victims

47:47

after his arrest. So I'm not

47:49

saying we can say for certainty that he killed

47:51

anyone else, but I am saying it's worth looking

47:53

into, and the police agreed. So again,

47:55

take it up with them. The

47:58

fifth allegedly defamatory statement was

48:00

the conclusion made that Mickey's

48:03

murder was brutal. This

48:05

is so subjective, and

48:08

I'll just go ahead and leave it up

48:10

to my listeners to decide if being stabbed

48:12

multiple times and then shot in the head

48:15

is brutal or not. The

48:17

sixth issue raised was that they

48:19

talked about Brandon's impairment from

48:21

drugs and or alcohol on

48:23

the night Mickey was murdered. According

48:26

to his own statement to the

48:28

police, he was drinking, so

48:31

I'm not sure where the issue is

48:33

here. If there is a complaint about

48:35

someone reporting on that, then Brandon needs

48:37

to take it up with himself. Now

48:40

the final thing he objected to was

48:42

Dateline referring to his quote, dark side.

48:45

And there really isn't much to say on this

48:47

one except Dateline's writers like to use a little

48:50

bit more flair than I do. Now

48:53

in the same suit, Brandon also accused

48:55

Dateline of FAST when they showed pictures

48:57

from his computer and his iPhone as

49:00

well as his driver's license. He was

49:02

basically saying they stole his

49:04

intellectual property and he

49:07

claimed a civil rights violation. But again,

49:09

Dateline and NBC are not government

49:11

entities. They are private companies. So that

49:14

was quickly dismissed. As

49:17

for the defamation claims, some of the

49:19

statements were connected to the case that

49:21

he pleaded guilty on. So

49:23

the court ruled that they couldn't

49:25

be defamatory until they were proven

49:27

untrue by having his conviction reversed,

49:29

which it wasn't. And

49:31

on any of the others, even

49:33

if they were untrue, the

49:36

amount they could damage

49:38

the reputation of a

49:40

convicted sex offender and twice convicted

49:42

murderer was so small. When

49:45

your reputation is essentially on the

49:47

floor, the potential damages

49:50

is so low, the amount

49:52

he'd be entitled to would be nominal. Brandon

49:56

strongly disagreed. He argued he was

49:58

entitled to 10th. $10,000 per image shown,

50:00

$500,000 for mental anguish, $1 million for libel and

50:02

slander, and

50:08

then punitive damages of $10 million.

50:13

And Dateline should have to retract the episode.

50:16

When the lower court dismissed his claim,

50:18

he did appeal, but obviously he didn't

50:20

win since I watched the episode a

50:22

full 10 years later. The

50:25

appellate court didn't even write their own

50:27

analysis when affirming the lower court's religion,

50:29

they just wrote that they accepted the previous

50:32

court's analysis as factual. The

50:34

thing with Brandon's lawsuits is

50:36

that not all of them

50:39

were frivolous or legally barred from proceeding.

50:41

Some of them actually raised a good point.

50:45

Like he said, he was denied his

50:47

CPAP machine and lockup, which is

50:49

a medical issue, and the medical care

50:51

received by inmates is something that

50:53

needs more public awareness. And

50:56

he had other things in there like

50:58

how his mail, including legal mail, was

51:00

being limited, and then there were

51:02

issues of being able to have visits with his

51:04

daughter. Those are issues

51:06

Brandon could have, if he put his mind to

51:08

it, advocated for from behind

51:10

bars and they would have helped

51:13

more people beyond himself. But

51:15

they mostly got ignored because he has

51:18

so many filings of all of these

51:20

claims and trying to sue his ex-wife

51:22

for defamation for something she said to

51:24

the police and things like that, it

51:26

got all mixed in there. And

51:29

so it got no attention. Had

51:31

he chosen to do so, if he focused up,

51:33

he could have done some good with his intelligence.

51:36

And maybe someday he will. Because

51:38

at 45 years old and with two

51:40

life sentences ahead of him, it definitely

51:42

looks like he has plenty of time

51:44

to do so. Thank

51:49

you for listening. If you want more

51:51

content, check out my other show, Crimelines

51:53

and Consequences, wherever you get your podcasts.

51:56

I also offer bonus content and ad-free

51:58

listening at patreon.com/crimelines or through the Apple

52:00

Podcast app. If you want to buy me a coffee,

52:02

the official Drink Up! crime line, you can give

52:04

a one-time donation at basementfloorproductions.com slash...

Unlock more with Podchaser Pro

  • Audience Insights
  • Contact Information
  • Demographics
  • Charts
  • Sponsor History
  • and More!
Pro Features