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Thread: Death Penalty Sought for Seth Jameson Frazier in 2017 NC Murders of Howe, Smith, Darden and Shannon

  1. #21
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    Jury selection begins in first prison murder trial

    By Paul Nielson
    DailyAdvance.com

    MANTEO — Jury selection began Monday in Dare County for the trial of the first of four prison inmates accused of slaying four prison workers during a failed escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institution nearly two years ago.

    Mikel Brady is on trial for four counts of first-degree murder and other associated charges in the state’s deadliest prison escape attempt.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Brady and the three other inmates accused in the murders: Wisezah Buckman, Seth Frazier and Jonathan Monk. Buckman will be tried in March. Trial dates for Frazier and Monk have not been set.

    Brady’s trial is being held in Dare County Superior Court in Manteo after Brady’s attorneys were successful in winning a change of venue from Pasquotank County because of publicity surrounding the prison workers’ deaths.

    Killed in the Oct. 12, 2017 escape attempt were Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica “Ronnie” Darden; corrections officers Justin Smith and Wendy Shannon; and maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe.

    Smith’s mother, along with about a dozen family members of the victims, attended part of Monday’s proceedings.

    A potential pool of 600 jurors have been summoned for the trial and almost 200 arrived Monday morning, entering the courthouse under a blanket of heavy security. A second group of around 200 jurors were originally told to appear Monday afternoon but were told to arrive at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday morning as the selection process slowed.

    Once the 12-person jury and alternates are seated a trial that could last up to two weeks will get underway.

    District Attorney Andrew Womble told the court Monday that the prosecution has a potential witness list of 73 people. He also told jurors they could be subject to viewing graphic crime scene photos.

    Prosecutors interviewed almost 20 prospective jurors, eliminating several from serving on the panel. After exhausting their objections, six women and three men remained as possible members of the jury. Three other prospective jurors were added but not interviewed after prosecutors concluded their phase of the juror interview process.

    The defense is expected to begin its interviews of the prospective jurors this morning.

    Brady arrived in the court with shackles around his waist and hands. He was surrounded by six officers from the N.C. Department of Public Safety, two of whom sat directly behind him during proceedings.

    Brady routinely glanced back at the jury pool when prospective jurors were called for interviews and he was given a pad and pen at one point during the proceedings.

    Several jurors were dismissed after stating that they had already formed an opinion on the case or that they were opposed to the death penalty.

    If found guilty, Brady will either be sentenced to death or receive life without parole. Womble told prospective jurors that a first-degree murder charge “is as serious as it gets in our state.”

    “I don’t agree with the death penalty,” one prospective juror said.

    Womble then asked the prospective juror if they would always vote for life without parole.

    “Yes,” the prospective juror said.

    Another prospective juror said they wouldn’t want to pass judgment in a death penalty case while another said, “I don’t know if I want that (death penalty) on my conscience.”
    Several other jurors told prosecutors that they had formed an opinion in the case but said they could set aside those opinions and render a decision based on the facts that will be presented at trial.

    Prior to jury selection, defense attorney Jackson Warmack asked Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett to ban members of the media from using television cameras, still cameras and other recording devices in the courtroom, saying the proceedings could turn into a media circus that could “deprive our client (Brady) a fair trial.”

    Womble argued for an open courtroom for citizens and the community.

    Tillett agreed to allow one media pool television camera and a single pool still camera in the courtroom during the proceedings. The judge also told the defense and prosecutors to refrain from talking to the media until the trial is concluded.

    At the time of the murders, Brady was serving a 24-year prison sentence for the attempted first-degree murder of a state trooper in Durham County.

    Buckman was serving a sentence for second-degree murder conviction in Mecklenburg County. Monk was in prison serving a sentence for attempted first-degree murder in Cumberland County. Frazier was serving a sentence for first-degree burglary in Onslow County.

    http://www.dailyadvance.com/News/201...der-trial.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Prosecutor: Inmate escape plan targeted workers

    By Sandy Semans Ross
    DailyAdvance.com

    MANTEO — Mikel Brady took part in the murder of four prison workers at Pasquotank Correctional Institution in October 2017 during an inmate escape attempt that, while it ultimately failed, was elaborately planned, even to the point of targeting specific employees for attack, a prosecutor said Friday in Brady's first-degree murder trial.

    One of Brady's attorneys, Thomas Manning, meanwhile didn't deny his client's involvement in the workers' deaths. He instead told jurors Brady never should have been assigned to the Elizabeth City-based prison, noting the inmate's past history of violence and mental illness, the latter a condition he said was misdiagnosed by state prison officials.

    Opening statements by prosecutors and defense attorneys in Brady's first-degree murder trial finally got underway in Dare County Superior Court on Friday afternoon, following four and a half days of jury selection.

    The murder charges stem from an escape attempt by Brady and three other inmates at Pasquotank Correctional Institution on Oct. 12, 2017. Prosecutors allege that during the escape attempt, Brady, Wisezah Buckman, Seth Frazier and Jonathan Monk killed two correctional employees — Correction Enterprises Manager Veronica “Ronnie” Darden and Correctional Officer Justin Smith — and beat two others — Correctional Officer Wendy Shannon and maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe — so severely that they died several weeks later.

    Several other correctional employees were seriously injured during the escape attempt, according to prosecutors.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against all four defendants who, if found guilty must be sentenced to either death or life in prison without parole.

    After the jury was empanelled late Friday afternoon, Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Pellini presented the prosecution’s opening statement. In graphic detail, she walked the jury through the sequence of events the day of the escape attempt, including the order and manner in which each attack was carried out.

    Pellini told the jury that Brady and the three other inmates had meticulously planned the escape attempt over a matter of months. She said weapons, including hammers, a metal pipe and scissors were found at the murder scene; survival gear, including clothes, food and water, were stowed away; and particular employees who were deemed to be weaker than others were identified and their schedules noted.

    Pellini added that the four inmates even trained on how to carry out their plans.

    When Brady's defense team got its turn to address jurors, Manning, a Raleigh criminal defense attorney, provided the panel of seven women and five men a series of mitigating factors about his client that, if believed by the panel, could argue for a sentence of life in prison instead of the death penalty.

    According to Manning, Brady should never have been assigned to the medium custody unit at the Pasquotank prison due to his history of violence, which included the attempted murder of a state highway patrolman. At the time of the prison workers' deaths, Brady was serving a 24-year sentence.

    Manning also said Brady has a history of mental illness that was misdiagnosed by the state and for which he wasn't taking medication.

    Manning also said Brady had been both a victim of abuse while growing up as well as a drug user.

    The jury sat motionless while listening to the two sides offer their view of the crimes what each felt Brady's sentence should be.

    It was the first time that the jury had come together to begin to hear the evidence that will be presented during the trial.

    Earlier in the day, four alternate jurors were accepted and within an hour, a juror who had already been seated told the judge that after more consideration, she felt that she could not vote for the death penalty. She was dismissed and one of the alternates was chosen to replace her.

    Brady's trial will resume on Monday.

    http://www.dailyadvance.com/News/201...rosecutor.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    ‘It was just chaos’: Graphic testimony in Pasquotank prison murder trial

    By Lucy Papachristou
    The Outer Banks Voice

    “The thing that’s always stuck with me was the smell,” William Davis, an Elizabeth City policeman, recounted on the witness stand during the murder trial of Mikel Brady. “The odor of pure blood.”

    On Monday, Oct. 14, some five dozen observers sat in a windowless courtroom for seven hours, rapt with attention as they listened to witness after witness recount the horror of October 12, 2017 — the day when four Pasquotank Correctional Institute employees lost their lives during a failed prison escape.

    The defendant faces four counts of murder in the first degree and other related charges in the deadliest prison escape attempt in North Carolina history. The other men charged are Wisezah Buckman, Seth Frazier and Jonathan Monk. Each defendant will be tried separately, with Buckman’s trial slated for March; Frazier’s and Monk’s trial dates have not yet been set.

    Eight prosecution witnesses took the stand on Monday, and while their testimony often overlapped, each had a deeply personal story to tell. District Attorney Andrew Womble and Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Pellini guided their witnesses minute-by-minute through their memories of that deadly Thursday two years ago.

    “It was just chaos,” “covered in blood,” and “there was nothing I could do for him,” were phrases uttered during the proceedings. All of the witnesses had either worked at the prison or were in law enforcement. Many of the prison employees had been on the job for years, but none of them had ever experienced anything like this before.

    Michelle Godfrey, the lead nurse on the second shift at Pasquotank, had been a registered nurse for 29 years and an emergency room nurse for six. She and other nurses examined all of the victims that day, and she described in graphic detail to the jury the injuries she saw. “His neck was just laid open. I could his trachea, his larynx,” she recounted.

    Godfrey didn’t leave the prison until midnight that night, many hours after her shift ended. She went back to work the next day, having not slept a wink, but she found she couldn’t continue. That was the last day she ever worked at Pasquotank Correctional. She is not currently employed.

    Many of the witnesses had worked with the victims for years, and although they didn’t necessarily know Wendy Shannon, Justin Smith, Veronica Darden, and Geoffrey Howe very well, they recounted on the stand their small acts of kindness. Marshall Connor, a correctional officer, recalled that Darden had made bags for many of the guards with their names embroidered on the straps.

    Often, their testimony ended with a recollection of a trip to the hospital, as many prison employees were injured beyond the four that died. According to the accounts delivered in the courtroom, Timothy Lewis was stabbed less than half a centimeter away from his spine. Steven Sanders was hit with a hammer and also suffered three broken ribs. One of the ribs punctured his pancreas, and he developed sepsis. He has visited the Intensive Care Unit three times since the incident to be treated for sepsis and an increased heart rate.

    A soft-spoken man, George Midgette, walked with a cane to the witness stand, and told his story in an even tone. Confronted by an inmate wielding a pair of shears, Midgette was hit repeatedly on the head and face and stabbed.

    He spent six days in Norfolk General Hospital for severe head trauma and a punctured left lung, according to the testimony, and still suffers from headaches, dizziness, and nausea to the point where he can no longer drive or work. When asked by District Attorney Womble to estimate his pain level, he said that he once hit a deer while riding a motorcycle and broke his collarbone, foot, and shoulder, “and this hurt worse than that.”

    Perhaps the most riveting testimony came from the first witness, police officer William Davis, who recalled responding to the emergency dispatch while on duty two Octobers ago. Davis was wearing a body camera, which he turned on as he raced over to the prison in his squad car.

    With the courtroom clock having just struck ten in the morning, Assistant District Attorney Pellini inserted a DVD and projected onto the screen a 26-minute segment of Davis’ body camera footage, giving the jury into a brutally graphic view of the escape attempt’s aftermath.

    On the video, Davis runs through the prison and encounters each of the four deceased employees, as well as numerous medical and correctional personnel. He hands out medical supplies, carries stretchers from the ambulances, and pushes one man out of a smoke-filled room on a metal dolly. As the clip goes on, Davis stays calm, but clearly becomes more demoralized until he finally yells out an expletive.

    About three dozen family members and friends of the victims sat behind the prosecution, and as the video played, several were overwhelmed with emotion and ran out of the courtroom.

    The trial will continue tomorrow and is expected to last several weeks.

    https://outerbanksvoice.com/2019/10/...-murder-trial/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Pasquotank prison inmates beat a guard until she stopped moving, defendant said in video interview

    By Jeff Hampton
    The Virginian-Pilot

    Defendant Mikel Brady admitted to striking a prison guard until she quit moving in a video interview shown Thursday in Dare County Superior Court.

    Brady, now 30 and facing a first degree murder charge, sat in a desk chair shirtless and in handcuffs as he watched the video of himself telling the story of a deadly escape attempt from Pasquotank Correctional Institution on Oct. 12, 2017.

    District Attorney Andrew Womble seeks the death penalty for Brady, who has pleaded not guilty.

    State Bureau of Investigation agent Paul Munson conducted the interview just hours after Brady and three other inmates were arrested that day. The jury listened and watched the two-year-old interview.

    The audio was difficult to hear in the courtroom. At one point, Judge Jerry Tillett stopped the proceedings as unsuccessful attempts were made to improve the sound.

    Brady was the first to bring up the idea of breaking free months before the escape, he said in the video. He had been sentenced to 40 years and had nothing to lose, he said.

    “Escape was always on my mind,” he told Munson.

    At one point he teared up and Munson wiped his eyes with a tissue.

    Brady had been assigned to work in the prison and had access to a warehouse. He found out about tools available and built a pallet that might help them get over fences topped with razor wire.

    He said Veronica Darden, one of the prison employees killed, was like a “mother figure” to him, and he felt bad about hurting her.

    He also described how they attacked guard Wendy Shannon and struck her until she “stopped.”

    “Until she stopped what?” Munson asked.

    “Moving,” Brady said.

    He said he made it to the outer fence before he faced several officers with guns. He demanded they shoot him, but they would not. In the interview, he cursed the officers for not shooting him.

    “I didn’t have anything to live for,” he told Munson. “I wanted to die.”

    Brady, Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman are charged with first-degree murder. Killed were prison sewing plant supervisor Darden, 50, maintenance man Geoffrey Howe, 31, and corrections officers Justin Smith, 35, and Shannon, 49.

    All four prisoners were serving time for violent crimes.

    https://www.pilotonline.com/news/nor...m3y-story.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    After just 35 minutes, jury finds Pasquotank prison inmate guilty of first-degree murder


    By Jeff Hampton
    The Virginian-Pilot

    After deliberating 35 minutes Monday, a jury found Mikel Brady guilty of all four counts of first-degree murder in connection with an attempted escape from a Pasquotank County prison two years ago.

    Brady, 30, remained stoic at the announcement of the guilty verdict.

    In closing arguments, District Attorney Andrew Womble revisited much of the testimony given last week in Dare County Superior Court. He showed photos again of the four prison employees lying in pools of blood following the attacks. The photos were taken from prison video cameras.

    The photos showed Brady and three other inmates armed with hammers or scissors and standing over the victims. He emphasized the brutality of the attacks and that the escape was planned for months.

    “The victims in this case are entitled to justice,” he said.

    Brady was also found guilty of 10 other counts, including attempted escape, assault with a deadly weapon and setting a public building on fire.

    The jury is set to hear testimony in a second phase over whether Brady should get life in prison or the death penalty.

    Brady is the first of the four inmates to go to trial. He pleaded not guilty. The four inmates involved worked in the sewing plant of the Pasquotank Correctional Institution when they tried to escape on Oct 12, 2017.

    Brady, Jonathan Monk, Seth J. Frazier and Wisezah Buckman were charged with first-degree murder.

    Killed were sewing plant manager Veronica Darden, 50, maintenance worker Geoffrey Howe, 31, and corrections officers Justin Smith, 35, and Wendy Shannon, 49.

    It is the deadliest prison escape attempt in the state’s history.

    https://www.pilotonline.com/news/nor...uk4-story.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Sentencing phase underway for man found guilty of murder in Pasquotank attempted prison break

    Mikel Brady could face the death penalty or life in prison for his part in the murder of four prison workers in a deadly prison escape attempt in Pasquotank

    By 13NewsNow Staff

    MANTEO, N.C. — The sentencing phase is underway after a jury found Mikel Brady guilty of murder in a botched prison escape in Pasquotank two years ago.

    Brady was convicted of four counts of first-degree murder after that deadly escape attempt at Pasquotank Correctional Institute in October 2017.

    Prosecutors sought the death penalty in Brady's case and jury members will decide whether he will go to death row or face life in prison without parole.

    Brady testified ahead of his sentencing. He spoke of his childhood and how he came from an abusive home. He said he went to counseling for some time after his father was murdered. He says he discarded medication prescribed to him because it made him "feel like a zombie."

    Click here
    to read the entire Twitter thread filled with more details and statements from Mikel Brady's testimony.

    The four prison workers who were killed in the incident were Justin Smith, Veronica Darden, Wendy Shannon, and Geoffrey Howe.

    Family members of the victims testified before the verdict came down.

    Jasmine Herring, daughter of Veronica Darden, talked about the close relationship she had with her mother.

    "She was my best friend, I could tell her everything. We talked at least three to four times a day," Herring said.

    Deborah Howe was Jeffrey Howe's only child. She recalls how much working at the prison meant to her father.

    "He really loved that job. He only worked there for a year," Howe said. "You never get over this."

    Justin Smith's mother, Melanie Mathewson, says she still struggles emotionally with her son's death.

    “Part of my heart is gone. It’s been so hard each day," Matthewson said. “He was such a good, good son since he was a child. Still from this day, I’ve been waiting for him to walk in the house."

    Tammy Shannon Williams, the sister of Wendy Shannon, recalls her sister's generous spirit.

    "We were like twins. She cooked for everybody," Williams recalled. "She would give you the shirt off her back."

    The other three inmates who face the same murder charges as Brady are still waiting for their day in court. Wisezah D. Buckman, Seth J. Frazier, and Jonathan M. Monk were all charged with first-degree murder and are currently in jail awaiting their trial dates.

    https://www.13newsnow.com/article/ne...d-96192cde2c80
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    “Whether it hurts me or helps me”: Testimony points to mental illness in death penalty trial of prison break defendant

    By Gordon Rago
    The Virginian-Pilot

    Mikel Brady was handed the photo of the bloody prison sewing plant manager but couldn’t say how the blood got there.

    Her neck had been cut, said Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Pellini.

    If he didn’t do it who did?

    “I believe that’s your job,” Brady, 30, said under sworn testimony, the second day he took the stand in his own capital murder trial at Dare County Superior Court.

    The response elicited gasps from the courtroom gallery, where the families of the four people who died during an escape attempt two years ago gathered. Jurors, who had already found Brady guilt of first-degree murder in the deaths of four people, looked on.

    Their next decision: life in prison or the death sentence.

    All it takes is one juror to dissent on the question of the death sentence and the judge, Jerry Tillett, can declare a hung jury and sentence Brady to life in prison.

    On Wednesday, Brady’s back-and-forth with Pellini was at times theatrical as the district attorney showed him crime scene photos and held up the type of hammer used in the attack that day.

    Their interactions featured smiles and laughs on the part of Brady and Pellini referring to his cohorts — three inmates charged in the attack who have yet to go to trial — as his “little friends” or “buddies.”

    Her questioning brought the courtroom through Brady’s life, from growing up in small-town Vermont to living in North Carolina, where he was convicted of attempted murder for shooting a state trooper.

    Brady talked about his father’s abuse, about blinding his sister in the left eye with a knife — he and his doctors said it was an accident — and about fleeing from police after breaking parole.

    Brady admitted to breaking the wrist of a woman whose house he broke into near his home after dragging her up the stairs.

    As a boy, he said, his father was arrested on charges of exposing himself to neighbors from the window of their home. Brady was in same room as his father, according to court testimony. At 14, he was in a car wreck with his best friend who died in the car with him — an event one doctor who later testified said was a moment that traumatized Brady.

    Regarding the traffic stop with the state trooper in Durham in 2013, Brady said he shot him “knowing full well if he died so be it.”

    “I’m up here to tell the truth,” Brady said, “whether it hurts me or helps me.”

    Dressed in a plaid button down, Brady often smirked or laughed as Pellini questioned him. She asked him about recently grabbing the arm of a corrections officer where he’s currently incarcerated.

    He denied the incident had happened that way, answering with a sarcastic, “this is great." Then he leapt into a lengthy description of setting a fire in his cell to get officers to open his cell door, where he had at least one shank in his uniform pocket. He said the officers beat him.

    In the midst of one answer, Brady used an analogy to explain some of these events.

    “I’m like a hot water tank,” he said, with a safety device that goes off if there’s too much pressure. Then all is well again.

    “That’s how I am until some big event,” Brady said. “Once that big event, all that pressure’s gone. That’s how I am.”

    Dr. Donna Maddox, a forensic psychiatrist in South Carolina called by the defense as an expert witness to evaluate their client, diagnosed Brady with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and adult antisocial behavior.

    In a separate case, she also reviewed Dylann Roof, who was convicted and sentenced to death for gunning down nine church members in Charleston in 2015.

    Maddox reviewed a number of Brady’s medical and jail records and met with Brady himself. In a video deposition played in court, she said Brady has a “strong" family history of mental illnesses.

    That included his father being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Maddox said.

    Brady was assessed with learning disabilities and depression from age 9 and 10, but his father, Mikel Brady Sr., was resistant to him taking medications.

    At 15, the younger Brady was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He was getting medications for that.

    “He had all aspects of trauma,” Maddox said.

    District Attorney Andrew Womble cited studies that found no correlations between people diagnosed with mental illness and violent crime.

    Maddox said people who are hospitalized with manic bipolar disorder can be violent, especially with doctors they first come into contact with. But in general, people with bipolar disorder are irritable and more a danger to themselves.

    More witnesses are set to be called on Thursday morning.

    https://www.pilotonline.com/news/cri...lom-story.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Prison break defendant, family testify about childhood abuse while jurors consider death penalty

    By Gordon Rago
    The Virginian-Pilot

    Mikel Brady’s dad was Superman, his son’s best friend and only role model.

    Then when he was 12, Brady found out his father had died, murdered in Connecticut along with his uncle.

    The boy had been afraid of death before the 2002 killings.

    Things changed after.

    “It was like I was chasing death itself,” Brady testified in Dare County Superior Court on Tuesday in Manteo, N.C.

    Brady would go into counseling after his father’s death but became a “wild child.” He’d do things to get his adrenaline going, like jumping off high bridges near his Vermont home into the water beneath.

    Later, he got that rush from breaking into homes, stealing things like beer, handguns and chainsaws he and his friends could sell later or keep to themselves.

    Brady’s testimony — and that of his mother, younger sister and brother — offered a window into Brady’s life.

    It came a day after the jury found him guilty of all four counts of first-degree murder in connection with an attempted escape from Pasquotank County prison two years ago. Brady is the first of four inmates to be tried.

    The jury settled in to listen to witnesses called by Brady’s defense. Later they’ll make a decision on whether his sentence is life behind bars or the death penalty sought by prosecutors.

    Brady was born in Randolph, a city of about 4,700 people about 30 miles south of Vermont’s capital city, Montpelier.

    His mother, Tina, had Mikel when she was 16 years old, she said over roughly an hour’s worth of testimony before Judge Jerry Tillet and the jurors.

    “Their father was very abusive,” she said.

    When Brady was a little over two years old, his dad — Mikel Brady Sr. — would lock him in his bedroom. The younger Brady would escape through a hole in the closet wall. Each time he did that, he earned a beating.

    Brady’s father would also hold his son down, pinch and poke him like the “don’t say uncle” game, Tina Brady said, to see how long he’d go without screaming.

    His dad would twist his arms behind his back and choke him, she said through tears.

    “None of us were allowed to give in,” she said. “He was making Mikel what he wanted Mikel to be.”

    Brady was no stranger to the law growing up. He was charged for breaking into homes as well as for possession of explosives after he stole a large number of sticks of dynamite from a quarry near his home, according to Brady’s testimony. He was charged in federal and state court.

    After his release, Brady testified about breaking his parole by shooting a rifle at a mechanical deer.

    In 2013, Brady was charged with attempted first-degree murder after shooting a state trooper in Durham County. It landed him in Pasquotank on a 19-to 24-year sentence.

    In his testimony on Tuesday, Brady talked about wanting to escape and devising a plan that he later worked on with three other inmates.

    His job at the sewing plant and warehouse put him in an easy position to get tools like hammers, saws and box cutters, he said.

    As Brady explained his plan and his attacks on the prison staff with little emotion, his attorneys stopped asking questions, allowing him to speak uninterrupted until the end of the day.

    A number of family members of the victims got up and left the courtroom while he spoke.

    He described how fellow inmate Seth J. Frazier hit sewing plant supervisor Veronica Darden but she didn’t go down at first. After she screamed, Brady punched her in the face.

    He later testified how he saw two other inmates struggling with corrections officer Justin Smith on the ground in the warehouse nearby.

    Smith was kicking at them so Brady knelt on his legs to stop him, pulled a half blade of scissors out and stabbed him in the side of his body several times.

    “I held him while the others finished him off,” Brady said.

    Brady said he later was trying to jump fences outside to escape. After jumping over one, he came very close to a corrections officer who had a 12-gauge shotgun pointed at him.

    In Brady’s mind, he was getting his freedom by escaping. Or by getting killed, he said in court.

    At that point he told the corrections officer to shoot him.

    “Aim for the chest and pull the trigger,” Brady testified saying to the officer.

    The officer fired, but missed, Brady said.

    “I was disappointed he missed me,” Brady said. “I tried to get them to shoot me. I could see that wasn’t happening.”

    Willett asked the jurors to return Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m. Brady will go under cross examination from the prosecution.

    https://www.pilotonline.com/news/cri...z24-story.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #29
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
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    Related:

    Pasquotank inmate sentenced to death after 4 killed in 2017 escape attempt

    DARE COUNTY, N.C. (WAVY) — A jury has sentenced a former Pasquotank inmate to death for his role in a 2017 escape attempt that took the lives of four prison employees.

    The same jury convicted Mikel Brady in connection to the 2017 attack. The jurors decided unanimously for him to be executed.

    Brady is the first of four inmates facing charges in this case to go to trial.

    10 On Your Side’s Jason Marks has been covering the trial since it began two weeks ago and will have live updates through the evening. Check back for updates on this breaking news.

    https://www.wavy.com/news/north-caro...n-attack-case/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #30
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Related:

    Death penalty trial for co-defendant Wisezah Datawn Buckman underway.

    https://www.thecoastlandtimes.com/20...bout-to-begin/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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