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- [00:03]
Brandi Churchwell
Y'.
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Judge Nicholas Prim
All.
- [00:03]
Brandi Churchwell
This was a huge week in these true crime streets. We have emotional testimony from a grieving father, a stunning attempt to undo one of the biggest plea deals in recent memory, and a case where Internet speculation is threatening to overshadow the search for truth. Let's get you caught up on everything you need to know. This is the 13Zero podcast where we explore the trials, investigations and true crime stories that everyone is talking about. I'm your host Brandi Churchwell and this is Court Report, your weekly roundup of the biggest courtroom headlines, breaking stories and the legal developments shaping the nation's most talked about cases. This week there weren't many verdicts reached, but there were some significant resolutions in the case of the 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Now Colt Gray was only 14 years old when he walked into the school on September 4, 2024 carrying an AR style rifle and opened fire. Two 14 year old students, Mason and Christian, were killed along with two teachers, 39 year old Richard Aspinwall and 53 year old Christina Irmey. Nine other people, eight students and one teacher were also injured. Colt was charged as an adult and Last Friday, now 16 years old, he pleaded guilty to all 55 charges against him, including four counts of murder, 25 counts of aggravated assault and 24 counts of aggravated battery. Now this was a non negotiated plea, meaning there was no agreement with prosecutors about what his sentence would be. Colt gave up his right to a trial, admitted that he was responsible for the shooting, and left his fate entirely in the hands of the judge. On the morning of the attack, Colt sat through about nine minutes of his second period class before telling his teacher that he needed to leave and speak with a crisis counselor. But Colt never went to the counselor's office. Instead, he went into a bathroom, entered a stall and prepared himself to carry out the shooting that he had been planning and wr about in a notebook for months. Over several days of sentencing testimony, the judge heard from survivors and members of the victim's families who described not only the lives taken that day, but also the trauma that continues for those who survived. The state also presented evidence that Colt had meticulously planned the attack, seemingly hoping it would earn him fame and notoriety within one of the online communities that he was in that seem to share an obsession with school shooters. And somehow y', all. This is where this story becomes even darker. Prosecutors played recorded jailhouse calls between Colt and his mother, Marcy Gray. Now in those conversations, Colt appeared to like, bask in the attention that he was receiving. He talked about surpassing Thomas Crooks in popularity. That's the man who was killed by the Secret Service in July of 2024 after firing at then former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Colt even asked his mom whether she had created a shrine to him yet. He even referred to himself as a celebrity. But y', all. What made the calls even more disturbing was the way his mother responded at times. She laughed along with him and seemed to indulge his fascination with the attention. There was no sense whatsoever that Colt was tormented by the four lives that he had taken or the countless others that he had shatter, shattered. Instead, he seemed proud of his notoriety, his complete disregard for human life. Y'. All. It was chilling. And before handing down the sentence, Judge Nicholas Prim made it clear that he heard the same thing. Here's a clip.
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Judge Nicholas Prim
You understood the horror of what you were going to do. You studied the trials of those other shooters. You even critiqued the victim statement given in those cases. And yet you did this anyway. You wrote, I want to make history. I want people to remember the pain I caused. And there you succeeded. The pain that you visited upon this community is unlikely to disappear in my lifetime. You do not seem to be tormented by what you did. You seem to relish following in the footsteps of the murderers you idolize. You aren't racked with guilt. You're proud of yourself. Less than a month after the tragedy, you weren't concerned with the horror you wrought, but rather with finding out which mass murderers they were comparing you to.
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Brandi Churchwell
The judge went on to tell Colt that planning, fantasizing about visualizing and executing a school shooting put him in an unredeemable moral wasteland. He sentenced Colt Gray to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Because Colt was under 18 when he committed the shooting, he was not legally eligible for the death penalty. But this sentence means that despite being only 16 years old today and 14 at the time of the shooting, he is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars. And while Colt's criminal case has now reached its conclusion, the courtroom consequences of the shooting did not end with him. His father, Colin Gray, was separately convicted earlier this year after prosecutors argued that he ignored repeated warning signs and gave Colt the rifle that he ultimately used in the attack. Collins trial included emotional testimony from the students and teachers who lived through the shooting. But jurors also heard from Colt's mother and grandmother during this trial about his deteriorating mental health and the many signs that he was spiraling. Now, Colt's mom testified that he became easily agitated and suffered from panic attacks. She said that it was obvious that he needed professional help, but claimed that Colin simply did not want to deal with it. Now, after hearing those jailhouse calls between her and Colt, I'm not sure how much stock I personally put into anything this woman says. Now, in case you haven't been following, she actually did not have custody of Colt at the time. She lost custody and was facing some struggles with drug addiction and was in. In and out of rehab. So she was not actually involved in a parental role at the time. So I don't know how much I put into what she's saying here, but I will say that when it comes to Colin ignoring Colt's worsening condition, the other evidence seems to support her testimony here, because the warning signs were everywhere, y'. All. Colt had a shrine in his bedroom dedicated to the Parkland school shooter. And just weeks before the he sent a text that said, whenever something happens, just know that the blood is on your hands. But perhaps the most damning evidence was that law enforcement had already visited the Gray home once before. In 2023, the FBI received a tip about online threats to carry out a school shooting, and local deputies questioned Colt and his father. Colt denied making the threats, and investigators said that they didn't have enough probable calls to arrest him. But by this point, Colin had now been explicitly warned. And later that same year after that investigation, and despite the warning signs surrounding his son, Colin bought Colt the rifle that he would eventually use to do exactly what authorities had been warned that he might do now. Colin Gray returned to court Thursday for sentencing. The families of the victims, along with others whose lives were forever changed by the attack, were given the opportunity to address the court. And after hearing their impact statements and the arguments from both sides, the judge called a recess to consider the sentence. When they came back, the judge had some words for Colin as well. One thing that the judge pointed out really stood out to me. He said that throughout the first 39 witnesses called during Colin's trial, Colin himself was barely mentioned. Witness after witness testified about the unimaginable tragedy that unfolded because of Colt's actions. Now, that's an important distinction here, because while Colin did break the law and was convicted for it, the judge explained that Colin's crime was fundamentally different from Colt's. Colt made a plan to commit a mass shooting, and then he carried out that plan. Colin did not. Colin's conviction was for criminal negligence. In other words, the court found that he should have recognized the warning signs and he should have acted, and he should have intervened, but he didn't. And because of that, all of this happened. Now, the judge also acknowledged just how unprecedented this case is. This is the first time in Georgia and only the second case in the country where a parent has been held criminally responsible for the actions of their child in a school shooting. Now, he emphasized that this wasn't about punishing Colin because he's a bad parent. The law doesn't criminalize bad parenting, unfortunately. Instead, he said that the conviction came down to foreseeability. The warning lights, in his words, kept flashing brighter and brighter. The risk became more and more apparent. And yet Colin failed to get Colt the help that he needed, and he failed to restrict his access to firearms, according to the court. That's where the criminal responsibility lies here. Not in Colt's decision to pull the trigger, but in Collins failure to act when the danger had become foreseeable. So in the end, Colin was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Now, this has been an incredibly emotional week for the community of Winder, Georgia, because on Tuesday, Colt Gray was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. On Thursday, his father faced his own sentencing. Fifteen years. And now on Friday, the students and teachers of Apalachee high school are scheduled to begin a new school year. Now, there's no sentence that can return the four lives taken that day or erase what the survivors witnessed or undo the grief carried by all of these families. But with the criminal cases reaching their conclusions and a new school year beginning, I can only hope that this marks the start of a new chapter for everyone whose life was forever changed by the senseless tragedy. We'll be right back. All right, y', all for trials to watch. Now, the biggest and certainly one of the most controversial trials happening right now is the Lindsay Clancy case. Opening statements began this week. And, y', all, I can already tell you that this is going to be an incredibly difficult trial to follow. It has already been incredibly difficult. Lindsay Clancy is a Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three beautiful young children by strangling them with exercise bands before attempting to take her own life. Now, she was airlifted to a hospital, and she survived, but she was left paralyzed. Now, the prosecution says that these were calculated, premeditated murders. The defense says that Lindsay was experiencing severe postpartum mental illness and psychosis while taking numerous medications, and she should not be held criminally responsible for what she did. So opening statements presented two completely different versions of Lindsay's mental state and what happened inside that home. And then the very first witness called to the stand was Patrick Clancy. That's Lindsay's husband at the time, ex husband now, and the father of their three children. Y', all, this is a huge, huge case. And by popular demand, I have decided to cover it as a deep dive in the regular 13th year episodes. So instead of giving you the full update on everything here, each week, I will break down the testimony, evidence, and arguments presented in court and explain all of the details that may get lost in short clips or headlines. So those episodes will be released every Thursday so that we can follow the case together week by week as that trial unfolds. Now, for appeals and legal twists, we have a surprising and frankly, pretty audacious development in the case of Brian Kohberger. Just over a year after standing in court admitting that he murdered four University of Idaho students, Kohberger is now claiming that he's innocent and he just wants to reverse uno. Take it all back. Now, As a reminder, Co Burger pleaded guilty in July of 2025 to murdering Kaylee, Maddie, Zana, and Ethan. And in exchange for those guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to remove the death penalty from the table. Now, Kohberger was then sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus another 10 years for burglary. Now, as part of the agreement, Coburger also gave up his right to appeal. But what he has filed now is not technically a traditional appeal. So let me explain the difference in the simplest possible terms. An appeal generally argues that the judge or the court made a legal mistake during the case. Coburger agreed that he would not pursue that kind of challenge. Post conviction relief, however, is a separate process that allows someone who has already been convicted to claim that the conviction itself was obtained in violation of their constitutional rights. So Coburger is not technically appealing the judge's rulings or his sentence. He is trying to use this separate legal door to attack the validity of the guilty plea itself. And his argument is essentially, well, yeah, I waived my right to an appeal, but that waiver should not count because my attorneys pressured and misled me into accepting the entire agreement. Now, in a handwritten petition filed from prison, Coburger claims that his attorneys convinced him to falsely confess through coercion, disinformation, false promises, and the withholding of potentially exculpatory evidence. He says that he repeatedly maintained his innocence, but was told that whether he was actually guilty was not an important factor in deciding whether to accept the deal. He also claims that his attorneys misled him about what life would look like after pleading guilty. I'm rolling My eyes. I know y' all can't see me, but I'm rolling my eyes. So according to Coburger, they promised him more freedom of movement, employment opportunities, and immediate contact visits in prison. He also accuses them of frightening him with what he calls, quote, unquote, elaborate lies about the conditions that he would face on Idaho's death row. Now, Coburger further alleges that his attorneys failed to properly investigate or disclose evidence that could have helped his defense. One example that he points to involves hair or debris that reportedly was recovered from Ethan's hand. But this part needs some important context, y', all, because public reporting indicates that there was a DNA expert hired by the defense that tested the hair and determined that it belonged to Ethan, not an unidentified third party. So Kohberger has not presented any kind of evidence showing that that hair belonged to another perpetrator or that it proves that he was not involved. In a separate statement, Coburger declared, my actual innocence is my truth. And he said that his plea was based on false promises and blatant disinformation. Now, he now says that he wants to plead not guilty, go to trial, and allow the state to seek the death penalty against him. So trying to throw down the UNO reverse, and now he wants to take it back. Jk, brb, all that good stuff. But here's the enormous problem that Coburger faces, because nearly every allegation that he is making now directly contradicts what he repeatedly, repeatedly told the judge under oath. And this was not a situation where the judge asked him one vague question. And Coburger was like, yeah. And then the hearing ended. Before accepting the guilty pleas, Judge Stephen Hippler went through the agreement with Coburger in painstaking detail. Y', all, I remember my husband even asked me, he's like, why is he asking so many questions? But Coburger had already completed, initialed, and signed a nine page plea questionnaire, answering all of these questions in writing. And then during a roughly hour long, I think it's about 50 minute long hearing, the judge asked him all of this over and over again in open court. And Judge Hippler asked Kohberger whether anyone had promised that the judge would be lenient with him. Coburger said no. He asked whether anyone had threatened him or anyone close to him to make him plead guilty. Kohberger said no. He asked whether anyone had promised him anything beyond what was written in the plea agreement. Kohberger said no. He asked whether anyone had told him to be untruthful while Answering the judge's questions, Kohberger said no. He asked whether anyone had offered him any reward or incentive beyond the written agreement. And again, Kohberger said no. The judge even asked whether Kohberger had been given enough time to make his decision. He said yes. He asked him if he was entering the pleas freely and voluntarily, and he, under oath, said yes. He asked whether Kohberger had fully discussed the decision with his attorneys and was satisfied with their advice. He said yes. He asked whether his attorneys had adequately explained his rights and his possible defenses and the consequences of pleading guilty, and Coburger said yes. He asked whether his attorneys had done everything that Coburger had asked them to do, and he said yes. He also said that he was satisfied with their representation. And y'. All. Then Judge Hippler asked the most direct question possible. Here's a clip.
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Judge Nicholas Prim
Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty? Yes.
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Brandi Churchwell
But the judge still wasn't finished. He went through the charges individually, naming Kaylee, Madison, Zanna, and Ethan. One at a time. And for each victim, Judge Hipler asked Kohberger whether he had willfully, unlawfully, and deliberately killed that person with premeditation and malice aforethought. Now, four victims, four separate questions, four separate admissions, y'. All. Kohberger answered yes each time. Then, when asked how he pleaded to each of the five charges, the four murders and the burglary, he said guilty five separate times. So this wasn't one admission made during one confusing moment. Coburger confirmed in writing and then repeatedly confirmed under oath that he understood the agreement, that he was satisfied with his attorneys, and that no one had threatened or improperly promised him anything, and that he was pleading guilty voluntarily and that he was pleading guilty because he was actually guilty. Now, that doesn't automatically prevent him from filing for post conviction relief. Claims involving ineffective assistance of counsel or an involuntary plea can sometimes survive an appeal waiver because the defendant is challenging whether that waiver was valid in the first place. But being allowed to file the claim and being able to prove it are two very different things, because Kohberger had already been sentenced when he made this request. So he cannot just change his mind and demand a new trial. He has to convince the court that allowing his guilty pleas to stand would result in what the law calls a manifest injustice. In plain English, that means he must prove that something was seriously and fundamentally wrong with the process, not just that he regrets the decision he made and wants to take it back. Now, courts place enormous weight on a defendant's sworn answers during a plea hearing. That is precisely why judges ask so many repetitive questions before accepting a guilty plea. They're creating a clear record showing that the defendant understands the decision and is making it voluntarily. Now, for Coburger to succeed, he would have to overcome that entire record and provide credible evidence that despite everything he said under oath over and over, his attorneys were constitutionally ineffective or. Or his pleas were not truly voluntary. And if a judge eventually allowed Kohberger to withdraw his pleas, the agreement could be undone, and the case could return to where it stood before the trial. Prosecutors could revive the original charges, seek the death penalty again, and present their evidence to a jury, including the DNA that prosecutors say connected Coburger to the knife sheath, the surveillance footage of the vehicle that resembled his, and the cell phone evidence, all of that. But we are a very long way away from that happening right now. Coburger is just dishing out allegations and UNO reverse cards. He has not actually proven anything. His guilty pleas have not been withdrawn, his convictions remain in place, and he is still serving four consecutive life sentences without parole. So the court would have to first determine whether his petition meets the legal requirements to move forward and whether he should be appointed an attorney and whether there is enough substance behind those claims to actually justify an evidentiary hearing. I don't see it happening, but I could be wrong. We'll watch together and see how it goes. Now, as for the families of Kaylee, Madison, Zanna, and Ethan, this means being pulled back into a legal fight that they reasonably believed had ended when Coburger stood in court, said he was acting of his own free will, and admitted again and again that he murdered their children. We'll keep an eye on it and see what happens. We'll be right back. All right, we have a quick update on Sean Diddy Combs. Now, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Diddy's projected release date has once again been moved up. He is now scheduled to be released on January 24, 2028. His prison release date seems to change as much as his name, y'. All. He was actually scheduled to be released May 8th of 2028, and then he got himself into some trouble by violating a lot of prison rules, like drinking homemade alcohol. Bad boy for life, I suppose. Now, that toilet hooch earned him another month, and his release date was pushed to June 4, 2028. Then at some point, it moved up to February, and now it's moved up again to January. And that's actually surprising considering the story that just recently broke about Diddy getting into a heated Altercation with another inmate. TMZ reported that Diddy got dissed and apparently took matters into his own hands. Can't nobody hold him down. Okay, I'll stop. Anyway, prison staff separated the men during the fight, and Diddy was thrown into solitary confinement. Now, the Bureau of Prisons has not explained the reason for the latest adjustment, and projected release dates can change as time credits and other factors are calculated. But as of now, Diddy is appealing his convictions and his sentence. But he is still, as of right now, getting out in January of 2028. We also have a quick update on the Corey Richards case. Now, a few weeks ago, I told you that Corey was asking for a new trial after being convicted of murdering her husband Eric by poisoning him with Fentol. Now, her attorneys claimed that errors throughout the proceedings denied her a fair trial. And among those allegations was that the judge repeatedly favored the prosecution and assisted prosecutors during the trial and made disparaging comments about the defense in front of the jury. Now, because the request for a new trial accused the judge of bias, Corey also asked that he be disqualified from deciding that motion. Now, the judge actually stepped back from the case and let another judge review this and see whether or not he should be removed. Now, at the time, there was some confusion about this because of the wording. So there were a lot of reports that the judge had voluntarily recused himself. Technically, that's not fully what happened. He recused himself from that situation, making that decision. So basically, he temporarily paused his involvement and referred the matter to an associate presiding judge as required under Utah's court rules. So basically, he kind of recused himself from doing anything on the case until another judge looked it over and decided if he needed to be recused from the case. Now, that judge went in and was like, nope, you're good. So he rejected Corey's request to disqualify that judge, meaning Judge Razek will remain on the case and will be the one to decide whether Corey should receive a new trial. So this is not a ruling on the new trial motion itself. Corey can still pursue that request, as well as an appeal of her conviction and sentence. But she was unsuccessful in her attempt to remove the same judge who presided over her trial and sentence her to life in prison without parole. So for our cases making headline section, y', all, I want to return to the case of Nolan Wells, because over the past week, this investigation has started to spiral into something that I believe is becoming genuinely dangerous. Nolan was the 18 year old college football player from Mississippi whose body was recovered near Horn island two days after he traveled there with friends over the fourth of July weekend. Now, his calls and manner of death remain undetermined, and his family deserves a complete, transparent investigation into what happened to their son. But y' all wanting answers for Nolan does not give anyone permission to manufacture those answers. And right now, there are a lot of people online treating rumors, altered recordings, and their own interpretations of blurry videos as if this is proven evidence. Now, the biggest example involves a call placed around 4pm on the 4th of July. Now, this is not a 911 call about Nolan. This is actually a distress call placed to Seato, which is a private marine assistance company. It's kind of like AAA, but for boats. So the boat that they were on began taking on water, and one of Nolan's friends called Seato. Now, the original recording is real. This was released by the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. And in that call, one of the young men says, the boat's bilge pump has stopped working and the boat is taking on water. The caller is. You can tell he's kind of frantic. You know, there's a lot going on. It's very loud. So TMZ enhanced and isolated portions of that audio, and some listeners believe that they can hear someone in the background ask, is he dead? Others believe they hear Nolan's name followed by someone saying, oh, my God. And in other sections, people have interpreted the muffled voices as saying, check his chest and wake up. Now, obviously, none of this has been confirmed, and the audio, even when enhanced, leaves so much room for interpretation. I have listened to these clips repeatedly, both the original and the so called enhanced, and I don't consider those interpretations reliable evidence. I am all for having theories. I'm all for discussing the evidence, debating it, picking it apart, seeing what we can find. But this is one of those situations where I feel like a lot of people online are fueling the fire here. And TMZ even acknowledged that none of the supposed phrases that have been maybe heard have actually been confirmed. But also, y', all, that newly quote, unquote enhanced version is like 20 seconds longer than the original clip. So I don't know, take it how you will, but that's exactly how suggestion works. If someone tells you that a muffled voice says, is he dead? Your brain begins to search for those words inside that noise. Someone else can tell you the same sound and that it's saying something completely different. And suddenly you hear that instead. That is sometimes called auditory pareidolia. Our brains are basically trying to turn unclear noise into recognizable language. And Enhancement can make an existing sound louder or reduce competing noise, but it cannot magically recover words that were never captured clearly. And depending on the method used, there's aggressive processing, especially AI based processing, that can distort sounds or introduce artifacts. And that's why a forensic examiner needs the original file, a documented process, and reproducible results before anyone should treat a proposed transcription or suggestion as evidence. But instead, people online heard what they believed was the name Bart and immediately began accusing a young man named Bart Edmondson Jr. Of being involved in Nolan's death. So here's what the publicly available evidence actually tells us about Bart. He traveled to Horn island on his own boat. When the other boat experienced the mechanical trouble, he reportedly boarded it, removed the transom plug to help drain the water, and then kind of helped in towing it. And now, because of that, suddenly there are rumors swirling all over the Internet that he is romantically linked to the young lady that Nolan was talking to and that he is somehow involved in Nolan's death. Now, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources reported that he cooperated with investigators and gave them access to his boat and its GPS equipment. He's not been charged with anything. His family says he didn't even know the young woman that Nolan had met on the island before that day, despite social media posts claiming that the two of them had been romantically involved. People heard one little thing, and all of a sudden, there's so much stuff swirling around this, it's wild. And those claims have now led to what Bart's attorney describes as a credible death threat against him. According to the attorney, the FBI, state authorities, and local law enforcement have been notified. And his family is also threatening legal action against people making defamatory accusations. And this is where I think we all just need to take a breath. This is not a game. Nolan Wells was a real young man who lost his life. His parents are living through an unimaginable loss while still trying to understand what happened to their son. But the other young people who were on Horn island are real people, too. They have parents. They have families. They are now receiving threats because strangers online believe that they solved a death investigation by listening to a muffled recording through their phones. It is completely fair to question conflicting accounts, debate it out, talk about it, question it. But asking questions is not the same as publicly identifying a murderer. No one should have to be killed, assaulted, or have their life destroyed because an online creator wanted clicks and told millions of people that an uncertain sound definitely contained a confession. Now, if new evidence eventually implicates someone that person should be held accountable through the legal system. But, y', all, we cannot decide who that person is first and then twist every sound, photograph, and rumor until it fits the story that we've already chosen. How many times do we watch that happen in trials, in wrongful convictions? So, leaving the enhanced audio aside, what do most credible available sources actually tell us about when Nolan was last seen? The Jackson County Sheriff's Department initially listed Nolan's last known sighting at approximately 3pm Warren Hudson, one of his friends who traveled with Nolan, says that was the last time he personally saw him. Warren described Nolan as laughing and holding a young woman that he had met that afternoon. Now, another close friend, Trayston shepherd, said that he encountered Nolan later at approximately 3:50pm while walking back toward another boat. According to Trayston, they exchange a brief goodbye and Nolan was walking in the opposite direction. Now, Nolan's friend Jayvon Williams reportedly told the Sun Herald that he saw NOLAN Sometime after 4pm still socializing with the young woman and other friends. And that would place Nolan alive shortly before the boat departed at 4:31pm we also know from a video and the accounts currently available that Nolan was not on that boat when it left Horn Island. Nolan's body, of course, was ultimately located near the northwestern end of the island. On the morning of July 6, authorities said that there were no obvious signs of any major physical trauma. The independent autopsy requested by Nolan's family did not determine how he died. I went over that a little bit in last week's episode, Y'. All. I really want the truth for Nolan's family. I want to know why he remained on that island, what happened after his friends left, and how he ended up up in the water. If another person caused his death, that person should be identified and held fully accountable. But justice for Nolan cannot be built on another injustice. So until evidence establishes otherwise, the young people who are with him are witnesses, not convicted killers. Threatening them, publishing their addresses, accusing them of murder, and telling people to hunt them down does nothing to honor Nolan. It can endanger innocent people, contaminate witness memories, discourage people from cooperating, and make the real investigation much harder. Nolan's own mother has asked people to remain peaceful. She described her son as someone who did not like fighting or division. And I think the most respectful thing anyone following this case can do is listen to her. Keep asking for a thorough investigation, keep Nolan's name at the center of this story. But let's stop turning speculation into guilt and before the evidence has had a chance to speak. For now, Nolan's Cause and manner of death remain undetermined. No one has been charged, no finding of homicide has been made, and the central question remains unanswered, what happened to Nolan Wells during the final hours he was alive? We'll be right back. Okay, I want to quickly talk about a case out of Oklahoma that has received a lot of attention online over the last few days. And it's one of those stories where the more you learn about what happened before the murder, the more upsetting it becomes. The woman at the center of this story was 43 year old Sarah Gilson. Now you may also see her identified sometimes as Sarah Duffy, which was her married name. Sarah was a mother of two, a hair stylist and a lifestyle content creator from the Tulsa area on TikTok. She posted under the name Mrs. Gilson and tens of thousands of people followed her videos about clothing, food, beauty, motherhood, and basically just everyday life. She showed off hairstyles that she had created for clients and highlighted her father's artwork and shared funny and relatable moments involving her children and her relationships. And Sarah wasn't someone whose entire platform revolved around crime or controversy. Most of what she posted was just normal lifestyle and family content that allows her followers to kind of feel as though they actually know the person behind the account. Now, Sarah worked as a hairstylist at Glaze Salon in Collinsville, Oklahoma, and the people who knew her personally have described her as funny and loving and full of life. Now her former husband, Lyle Landers, with whom she shared her two children, said that Sarah took enormous pride in her work, but that motherhood was her greatest accomplishment. He described her as someone who went over the top for her children and always made sure that they knew how much they were loved. Sarah was separated from her current husband, 48 year old Jeremiah Sean Duffy, who generally went by Sean. Now, he was also active on TikTok, where he used the name Duff Daddy and he was involved in competitive youth basketball as a coach. Then in June, very serious allegations were made against him. On June 9, a mother and her 15 year old daughter contacted the police department and reported that Sean had behaved inappropriately with the girl. Now, she was a player on one of the traveling competitive basketball teams that he coached. And according to the police and the allegations later filed in court filings, another coach actually witnessed Shawn touching the teenager inappropriately and immediately intervened and reported what he had seen to the girl's mother. Now, after that initial report, the teenager allegedly disclosed that there had been other behavior as well. Her mom claimed that Shawn had kissed and touched her daughter, sent inappropriate messages, invited her to his hotel room during a basketball tournament, and offered her money to keep quiet about his messages and his actions. Now, we have to be careful with the language here, because Sean was never actually convicted of sexually abusing this child. Now, these were allegations included in police reports and protective order filings, and the investigation had not resulted in a criminal conviction or apparently even formal criminal charges before his death. That doesn't mean it wasn't coming. But at the time of his death, it had not happened. But these weren't just rumors on tick tock, y'.
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Judge Nicholas Prim
All.
- [38:45]
Brandi Churchwell
A report had been made directly to law enforcement, and another coach reportedly witnessed and interrupted at least one incident, and the girl's mom went to court seeking protection for her child. Now, there was also an unusual jurisdictional issue that affected the investigation because the police said that Sean was a member of of the Osage nation, and the alleged incident actually occurred in Indian country. Now, because the allegations potentially involved a major crime committed by a member of a federally recognized tribe, the case was referred to the United States attorney's office for review under the federal Major Crimes act. Now, once that referral was made, the police said that their jurisdiction over the portion of the case basically ended. Now, police said that Sean left the area after the June 9 incident and had not been seen by police officers again before Sarah's murder. Apparently, according to Sarah's later protective order application, when Sean was confronted about the allegations, he had a gun, he threatened to kill himself, and he, quote, unquote, went on the run. Now, on June 10, one day after the report was made to police, the girl's mother filed for a protective order on behalf of her daughter. That same day, Sarah also filed for an emergency protective order against Sean. This is her estranged husband. Now, he was ordered to leave their home and remain at least 100 yards away from her. So this is the point where they became estranged. Now, this was reportedly not the first time that Sarah had sought legal protection from him. Court records reviewed by multiple news organizations show that she filed two protective order petitions against Shawn in 2021. Those earlier petitions were dismissed after Sarah didn't appear for the hearings. Now, we don't know why she didn't appear, and I don't think it's fair to speculate about that. But what we do know is that she returned to court in June of this year and obtained another order on June 23rd. Both Sarah's protective order and the order protecting the teenage girl were extended through August 24th. That means that the order requiring Sean to stay away from Sarah was still active on the night that she was killed. Then on July 11, Sarah made a tick tock video that is now. It's been shared like millions of times. So she participated in the popular trend right now where people pretend like they're sitting down to be interviewed for a Netflix documentary. But in Sarah's video, she sat down with, like a somber expression, and there's text on the screen that read, preparing for when Netflix drops a documentary about my soon to be ex husband husband who I just found out is a pedophile. Sarah captioned the video. I wish I was joking at the time. Her followers may not have understood the full story behind that post, but based on the timing, Sarah had recently learned about the allegations involving the girl and had filed for the emergency protective order and had begun referring to Sean as her soon to be ex husband. So less than two weeks after she posted that Sarah was killed, On Thursday night, July 23, around 11:15, emergency dispatchers received a call from inside Sarah's home, and police identified that the call was coming from Sarah. Now, according to investigators, dispatchers heard a woman screaming and crying, followed what by what sounded like a gunshot, and then the caller stopped responding. So this is where this gets so crazy, y'.
- [42:24]
Judge Nicholas Prim
All.
- [42:24]
Brandi Churchwell
Dispatchers attempted to call back, but nobody answered. But Moments later, a second 911 call came from a neighboring home, and this time it was Sarah's son. Police say that he had escaped from the house, run to a neighbor, and reported that his stepfather had shot his mother. Authorities said that he witnessed the shooting. When officers entered Sarah's home, they found Sarah and Sean dead from gunshot wounds. Investigators with the police department concluded that Sean had shot and killed Sarah and then turned the gun on himself. Sarah's son was not physically injured. Police initially placed him in protective custody before releasing him to his other parent, who was not involved at all in this incident. Sarah leaves behind two children from her previous marriage, and Sarah's former husband has said that he begged her for years to leave Shawn and even offered to help her do it. According to him, Shawn had exercised a level of control over Sarah that made it really difficult for her to get away. And that's his account, and it gives us some insight into what those who are close to Sarah believed that she had been experiencing. But Sarah's friends do not want the final moments of her life or the man who took it to become the only things that people remember about her. Her best friend of more than two decades said that she had spent part of Sarah's final day with her and remembered her as happy and laughing and enjoying herself. And her co workers at the salon described Sarah as family. Her former husband called her a beautiful person inside and out. Someone who loved people without judgment and loved her children more than anything. And while millions of people are only learning that name because of the way she died, the people who loved her asking that she be remembered for the life that she lived before that final night. All right, our final story from this week. I want to turn to one of the biggest hearings that happened this week. It actually concluded earlier in the week. This is the preliminary hearing for David Burke, better known as the singer David. Now, I went over this last week because it started last week. This is the first time that prosecutors have been laying out the evidence in court and explaining why they believe David was involved in the death of 14 year old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. And I gave you the background of all of this, this whole case last week. So I'm not going to get too much into that right now. But it all stems around the allegations about David's relationship with the girl and the discovery of her remains. And this week, the preliminary hearing wrapped up up. So I have a couple of big updates on that for y'. All. Now, on Monday, prosecutors introduced a series of text messages showing an explosive argument between Celeste and David on the night before they believe Celeste was killed. The argument appears to have been driven largely by jealousy. Celeste was upset that David was spending time with a woman named Asia Collins. Asia was a friend of David's. They met when she was modeling on one of his sets, and then she later worked as a stylist on his tour. Asia has previously said that she and David were never romantically involved. They were just friends. And she also has said that when she learned about David's relationship with Celeste, she actually confronted him because Celeste was a child. She was only 13 years old at the time. But according to Asia, David basically manipulated her into believing Celeste was actually 19 and even showed her some kind of proof that was supposed to convince her of that. But regardless of how Asia viewed their relationship, David's friendship with her was apparently enough to make Celeste extremely jealous. So in these texts that were shown in court on Monday, Celeste basically demands to know why David wants to remain friends with Asia and becomes furious when she learns that Asia had been to David's Hollywood home. Now, as the argument escalates, Celeste texts David and says, oh, my God, I swear to God, I'll kill you. And she threatens to strangle him. To tell her father about him and to mutilate his man parts and also destroy both his career and his life. Now look, y', all, those messages sound terrible and there's no reason to pretend that they don't. But we also cannot read them as though they were written by another adult. In this relationship, Celeste was a 14 year old child. At that age, the parts of the brain responsible for impulse control, emotional regulation and understanding long term consequences, all that's still developing. Teenagers can experience emotions with enormous intensity, but they lack the maturity and coping skills to express them in a healthy or measured way. And keep in mind, this is not like an equal partner relationship Here. Prosecutors say that Celeste had been involved with David since she was only 11 years old, meaning much of her understanding of quote, unquote, love and conflict and jealousy would have developed inside an alleged relationship with an older and far more powerful person. And, and that context does not make her threats acceptable. But it does matter when we interpret them. These are the words of a deeply emotional child, not proof that she held the same power, judgment or responsibility as the adult that was actually involved with her. Now, the following day, the messages between Celeste and David were much calmer. David arranged an Uber to bring Celeste to his Hollywood home. And then shortly after tidy pm, she texted him that she was almost there and asked him to open the door if he was home at 10.10pm David replied that the gate was open and the door was unlocked, but Celeste never responded again. So prosecutors believe that Celeste entered David's home that night and that he killed her shortly afterward. But beginning around 10:30pm, David started sending her messages asking where she was. He wrote that the Uber showed that she had arrived, but he didn't know where she was. And he followed that with messages saying hello and bro and then just her name. At one point, he even asked whether she had blocked him. He actually continued texting her until after midnight. But prosecutors suggest that those messages were not genuine attempts to find Celeste. They believe that David already knew exactly where she was and sent the text to create a digital trail, making it appear as though she had never arrived at his house. Because this was only a preliminary hearing, the defense was not required to present its entire case. But still, we did get a glimpse of some of the arguments that they may try to use at trial. The defense focused heavily on the threatening messages that Celeste had sent David the night before. And y', all, at one point, they actually appear to suggest that Celeste's injuries could have been self inflicted. Really, the medical examiner, I guess technically did not completely rule out that possibility, but they explained that self inflicted wounds commonly have hesitation marks, which are like smaller or more superficial injuries made before the fatal wound. And none of that was found on Celeste. She also suffered two separate deep penetrating wounds, one to her chest and another to her abdomen. So the thought of her doing that to herself. Of course, if they go that route, then I guess that would try to get him out of the murder charge. But then how do you explain all of the dismemberment in your garage, in a pool? I don't know. But after five days of testimony, the judge ruled that prosecutors had presented enough evidence for the case to move forward on all charges. Now that doesn't mean that the judge found him guilty. The standard at a preliminary hearing is really low. It's much lower than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It just means the judge found probable cause to believe that the crimes occurred and that David committed them. So David will remain in custody without bail, and his next arraignment is scheduled for August 31st. From there, the case against David Burke will officially begin moving toward trial. So that's everything from this week. Now for trials to watch next week. There is one major case that is scheduled to begin in Georgia, and that's the trial of Sarah Grace Patrick. Sarah was just 16 years old when her mother, 41 year old Kristen Brock, and her stepfather, 45 year old James Brock, were found shot to death inside their Carroll county home on February 20, 2025. Now this one's kind of wild, y'.
- [51:25]
Judge Nicholas Prim
All.
- [51:25]
Brandi Churchwell
Okay, so the couple had been shot multiple times while laying in their bed. And it was unfortunately, Sarah's six year old little sister who discovered their bodies. I can't imagine how hard that must have been on her. So Sarah then called 91 1. Now, for months this case remained unsolved. And during that time, Sarah publicly mourned the loss of her mother and her stepfather. And she posted these emotional tributes online and she was contacting true crime creators on TikTok and other platforms and asking them to cover the murders. And then in July of 2025, nearly five months after the shooting, authorities announced that Sarah was their actual suspect. She ended up turning herself in and was charged as an adult with two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault. And she has pleaded not guilty and maintains her innocence. Now, investigators have said that they uncovered what they described as a mountain of physical and digital evidence during the investigation, but we still have not seen the full case against her. So no clear motive has been publicly established. The murder weapon has not been publicly identified, and Sarah's family seems to remain divided on whether they believe she is responsible. So this trial was supposed to begin in January, but it was postponed after the defense obtained a neuropsychological evaluation, and prosecutors requested additional time to review that and potentially have Sarah evaluated by their own expert. Then, just a few weeks ago, the defense asked for another delay after receiving what they described as newly disclosed evidence involving a firearm that had been investigated and tested. Prosecutors responded that the gun was determined not to be the murder weapon. And they argued that that information didn't justify postponing this case again. And the judge ended up denying the defense's request, keeping the trial on schedule. So as of right now, jury selection in the trial of Sarah Grace Patrick is expected to begin on Monday, August 3rd. Sarah is now 18 years old, and this will be the first time that the public hears prosecutors really explain why they believe a teenage girl murdered her mother and stepfather, and the first time that the defense has the opportunity to challenge the evidence that investigators say led them to her. So that's your court report for this week. I'll be back next week with the latest developments. Until then, keep asking questions, keep looking at the evidence, and decide for yourself what you believe. My name is Bracelet Randy Churchwell, creator and host of the 13th Juror podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast platform and leave a rating or review. For additional episodes, case updates and more information about the podcast, visit our website@thirthjurporpodcast.com the evidence has been presented, the arguments have been made, and now comes the same question faced by every juror. What do you believe? Thank you for listening.