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This is an iHeart podcast.
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Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful
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thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.
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Don't go down the rabbit hole.
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Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast.
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Healthcare just got less painful. Now streaming on Paramount, the acclaimed series
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from executive producer Lena Waithe reaches its final chapter. The Shy. For seven seasons, these stories, these streets, this community have stayed with us.
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Now it all leads to this.
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As friendships are tested, families evolve and and secrets refuse to stay buried, one thing is certain. The SHY is more than just a series. It's a legacy. Don't miss the final season of the
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Shy, now streaming on the Paramount Premium Plan. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available@public.com Disclosures
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hey everyone, it's Kel Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book club you've ever heard with my podcast Hearsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. Every episode I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book club for your ears. Listen to Hearsay, the Audible and iHeart audiobook club on the iHeartradio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Hey there folks. It is Thursday, May 21 and what a story, a murder for hire, a millionaire art dealer and a husband on trial for murder. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy&TJ. No, it's not Amy&TJ. It's Amy&TJ Presents. Get it right. Yeah, we're presenting, we're presenting today. And this is a hell of a case to present. Robes, as true crime goes, this is intriguing, shall we say?
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Yes. And all the dramatic details are playing out in a Manhattan courtroom. We are wrapping up week two, two of a murder for hire trial here in Manhattan. And it's a murder that truly rocked the art world, folks. And reporters who were there in the courtroom each day say one side is for the defense, the other side is basically the who's who in the art world. They want to see this, they want to see justice for their friend and someone who they looked up to in the art world. We're talking about renowned gallerist, 75 year old Brent Sikima. And he was brutally murdered while traveling to Brazil. They have a town home, he and his estranged husband, who is Brazilian, but he was found stabbed 18 times in his Rio townhome on January 14, 2024.
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Now, do I have right? He's being stabbed and killed there. The husband meanwhile is here in the US at the time in New York
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City with their son. Yes. So Basically, how could 55 year old Daniel Sikema, who was on trial right now for his life, how could he have brutally murdered his husband if his husband was in Brazil and he was here in New York? Well, he is charged with first degree murder for arranging the murder of his prominent art dealer husband. Yes. And so this alleged hitman who he hired, according to prosecutors, was, was arrested pretty quickly after the murder and he pretty quickly sang. He said, yeah, I got paid to do this. His name is Alejandro Triana Prevez and he is currently in jail in prison in Brazil. And he is talking. So he is pointing the finger directly at Daniel Sekema. And what we've seen in court this week is pretty damning.
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It's kind of remarkable, I guess. Robes, how do you explain this? Like, I know his defense team is doing what the. How do you explain being in contact with the hitman?
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How do you explain that?
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They kind of haven't. Basically in their opening statements, the defense said, we know who killed Brent Sekema and it wasn't Daniel, it was Alejandro Prevez. Right. Okay. They said Prevez was obsessed with the woman in Cuba and was laser focused on buying her a house in Spain. So they are Claiming this is about robbery.
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Okay.
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This is about motive. And they say prosecutors have no direct proof linking their client Daniel, the estranged husband, to the murder. And the hitman won't testify. Didn't testify. So they're hoping that will help them. But when you hear what the prosecution has, it's pretty. It seems almost insurmountable.
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Yes.
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The opening statement. I actually wanted to read it for you because it was well done by the prosecution when this trial started, and it started May 12th here in Manhattan. So again, end of week two here they started with this to the jury. In the year 2024, Brent Sema was brutally murdered. A hitman snuck into his home in Brazil, took a knife and stabbed Brent over and over again. The killer immediately made a phone call. Who did he call? He called that man. And they pointed directly at Daniel. Daniel Sikema, that man who hired and paid him to kill Brent.
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Yeah.
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And they said. And they provided the digital financial and location data showing frequent contact with the hitman before and. And after the killing.
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Yeah.
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So there's that. That's a tough one. But the evidence doesn't stop there. Have you gotten a chance to check out? So Daniel liked voice memos. My daughters do this, too. Instead of typing out a lengthy text message to me, they just go ahead and record it into the phone and send their voice to me in a voice memo. That's how they text me a lot when there's a lot to say.
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And it's 90 seconds to five minutes, depending on daughter.
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That is absolutely correct. Well, the voice memos that Daniel was sending to Brent during their divorce are pretty ominous and pretty telling now that we know what happened to Brent. So would you like me to read some of these? I'll try not to do it in dramatic fashion.
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Just do it straight up. Just do it straight up.
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So here's one of several voice memos that he sent to friends during the divorce. I'm still fighting with this old bastard who won't die. But anyway, I'll tell you until he dies or some. Or until someone kills him or until. Or until I get divorced. That's how it's going to be. Well, anyway, kisses. Here's another one. And here I am struggling with, oh, this old bastard who won't die soon enough, for God's sake. Every day it's something different. Every day now he's cut off the credit card he gave me to pay for their son's things and stuff. Making up lies that I spend on this and that. That. And then how about this? 1. One month before the murder, we are in the divorce process, which never ends well. He can take all the time he wants. Let's see if instead of getting divorced, I end up a widower, which would suit me much better. He literally sent these voice memos with his voice to folks in the days and months leading up to the murder. That's tough.
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Minus the phone records. I wouldn't listen to someone saying, hey, this is just somebody angry. It's emotional. It's divorce. They talk like this sometimes and they don't really mean it. I would listen. Rose, the phone, the phone info is. You can't. How do you overcome that?
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How, How.
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Why is the, the hitman calling you right after they hit?
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Just happenstance. So what the defenses had to say about those voice memos is very much what you were saying. Yeah, and they're trying. They said during contentious divorces, people can say things they don't mean. They also said sometimes during acrimonious splits, people just say things that reflect, quote, the worst versions of themselves.
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That is true.
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Okay, fine. So you've got these voice memos, you've got phone calls or at least phone records between. And it never really was explained between the defendant and the hitman. Now, the hitman did not testify, but. And there is no obviously forensic evidence directly tied to the murder itself because he wasn't there. He was thousands of miles away. But certainly the circumstantial evidence is fairly damning. And so the prosecution wrapped up their closing arguments today. Now, tomorrow we get to hear. This is on Friday. We get to hear the defense give their closing arguments and then this case goes to the jury. So it is possible we're recording this on Thursday, late afternoon on May 21, but it is possible we could have a verdict as soon as tomorrow, Friday, May 22. In this case, if the jury,
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if
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the jury has a unanimous decision pretty quickly.
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Again, timing that out robes, we, we, we deal with a lot of guessing on juries and it's a holiday weekend.
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You know what, you just made a really, really, really good point.
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So they're either going to say the hell with it early or they're going to really give us a quick verdict.
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They're going to be motivated for a verdict. I would not be surprised. If we have a verdict on, then we'll probably need to hop back on to, to fill in everybody. But when we come back, we're going to tell you how this relationship ended so tragically and horribly wrong.
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Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I.
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I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing For Amazon Health AI chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24.
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7 Health care just got less painful. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Corporate Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc, SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
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is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture Research with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. We all know the feeling when life gets really busy. Taking care of yourself can feel impossible. That's why Premier Protein shakes are my go to. They have 30 grams of protein, 160 calories, no added sugar, and they taste amazing. So they're a healthy choice you'll actually want to make. It's not just for fitness, it's for getting after life. Premier Protein powers me to say yes to more Find your favorite flavor@premierprotein.com that's P-R E M I E R protein.com
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hey everyone, it's Kal Penn. I'm the host of Irsay, The Audible and iHeart Audiobook Club. This week on the podcast, I am sitting down with Ray Porter, the narrator of Andy Weir's audiobook project Hail Mary Massive Sci fi adventure about survival and science and what happens when you wake up alone, very far from Earth.
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I really had to make a decision because I caught myself getting that frog in my throat and starting to get teary as I'm narrating some of these sections and it's like, okay, yo, yo, yo, is this indulgent? And I really thought about it. I was like, no. At this point, it would kind of be betraying the trust the author and the listener have in telling this story if I don't go through it. But there's places in this book that that deeply, emotionally affected me and I left it on the mic. That's great because it served the story. People will say like, oh my God, I cried at the end. It's like, yeah, dude, me too.
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Listen to Irsay the Audible and I Heart Audiobook Club on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ Presents. We have been following this murder for hire trial that is taking place in Manhattan. The stabbing death of a prominent New York city art dealer, 75 year old Brent Sekema. He, if you even google his name, you will see his picture with stars, celebrities. The one that stood out to me was him with Michelle Obama. This was somebody who really built his brand and built his, his art. Is it an art dealership or is it just a car dealership? Art gallery. Thank you. I don't know why I couldn't come up with that. But art dealership, I don't know why we can't call it that. But anyway, an art gallery, a very, very prominent art gallery here in Manhattan and just was just revered. And now he's going down for business to his Brazilian townhome that he shares, or I should say he shared with his estranged husband. Now, his husband was Brazilian, a Brazilian national. They married and fell in love pretty quickly. And so the story of their romance, they met in Miami 19 years ago, reportedly fell madly in love, became romantic pretty quickly. And Daniel was a Cuban national at the time. But because they got married, he was able to move here to the United States, moved into Brent's New York City apartment and they began their lives together. They had a son via a surrogate in 2010. They officially married in 2013. And things were going along really well. They had this beautiful circle of friends. They were able to go back and forth between Brazil and New York City and they had millions and millions and millions of dollars to spend. Spend. What could possibly go wrong? Well, according to friends of the couple, Daniel obviously much younger. I said obviously. But if I didn't give their ages before I mentioned that he, Brent who was killed was 75, but Daniel is 55, so there's a 20 year age gap. I guess that's not that big of a deal these days. But.
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Wait, what. So go back then when they met. It was, what, 35 and.
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Yeah, 35 and 55. So, I mean, that. That's not unreasonable. He was of an age to obviously make a decision on who he wanted to be with. But what happened? What went wrong? According to friends and as we look into their relationship, according to everyone, Daniel wanted to have an open marriage. He wanted to. He wanted to be with other men.
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And this is according to whom?
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This came out in trial, and this is pretty well known among their circle of friends. And Daniel was very, very verbose, as we heard about all those voice memos with his friends about being frustrated about being in the middle of a divorce and everything that was going on. But Daniel ended up filing for divorce in 2022 because Brett did not want an open marriage. He wanted. He was interested in other men. And so, yes, he filed for divorce in 2022. But then a custody battle ensued, and there was all sorts of ugliness where Daniel literally took their son out of school, told the school that he'd be not returning, and he was going to be in Brazil, and literally took the son to Brazil. And Brent had to go through a bunch of steps to get his son back to New York City. So then just this massive custody battle went back and forth and back and forth. At one point. Listen to this. The divorce got so nasty that when Brent was going to JFK to go back to Brazil again for business, because he went back and forth to. With. With his art dealings, he called police and told police that Brent was going to commit mass murder at JFK airport. Police acted on the tip, arrested Brent, and Brent actually spent 22 hours in a holding cell being interrogated. Because Daniel was obviously so convincing on the phone to police, they actually believed he. He was a potential mass murderer.
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Daniel wasn't arrested for this.
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Apparently not. Which I also. He could just say, well, the way he was talking, I thought he was going to do it. He. He could basically say, I had every reason to believe he was going to do something crazy.
D
That's. It's pretty twisted.
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Yeah, divorce can get. Can get pretty brutal. But that might have been like the fact that he was willing to do that and to put his estranged husband in prison for 22 hours and suffer and have. Have authorities stop him from going. That was just a baby step.
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He could have gotten killed. Yes, that's really making a wrong move. Shocked by people running up on him. Who knows? Robes. That's A little out. I mean, even keying somebody's car, I think is too far.
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But this was sadistic. And then. So it does make sense. Someone who was willing to do that and then took the next step, according to prosecutors, and decided, you know what, I'm just gonna finish this thing once and for all. And look, plenty of folks have been testifying, friends of the couple who are just discussing. Basically, Daniel talked nonstop about wanting Brent to die. And look, again, not unusual for people in a divorce. I think a lot of people have wished that their ex would die rather than see a divorce through to the end.
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Your, your last two sentences were just hilarious to think that that's the case, but it just flowed out. It's just weird to. Yes, there are divorces. And we have all seen. We are not speaking from firsthand knowledge.
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Absolutely not.
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Things never get there. But we've known folks and we have heard folks. And yes, divorces can get ugly. Robe. So I don't know some of the language. I could understand this. The behavior is beyond normal and just a heated divorce.
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Correct. So you just, you see the prosecution just showing how things escalated and escalated and escalated. And so now as soon as tomorrow, this case will be in the jury's hand and they have heard and seen all of this evidence and it will be fascinating to see if they come to a unanimous decision and hopefully quickly, at least for folks who were hoping to get away for the Memorial Day weekend. And we will see what happens in this murder for hire trial. But a lot of people have a vested interest in seeing where this ends and whether or not 55 year old Daniel will end up paying for his crimes. But he's been behind bars this entire time. And then he did post some bail, so he has been back and forth. But they have a young son, you know, to think about. We always talk about these cases and when you think about a child who basically if, if Daniel Sigma goes to prison for the rest of his life. This child just lost both of his parents in a very short amount of time. And he's at a very impressionable age. I believe they said he was. I think now he is. He's a teenager. Yeah, he's 13 years old. So this is a tragic story no matter what. But of course, we'll continue to keep our eye on what happens in that Manhattan courtroom for you. And as always, we appreciate you listening to us on our regular feed. Amy and tj and certainly on this one, Amy and TJ presents. We'll talk to you soon.
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This is Bowen Yang. From Lost Culture Research with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, we all know the feeling when life gets really busy. Taking care of yourself can feel impossible. That's why Premier Protein shakes are my go to. They have 30 grams of protein, 160 calories, no added sugar, and they taste amazing. So they're a healthy choice you'll actually want to make. It's not just for fitness, it's for getting after life. The 30 grams of protein gives you the fuel you need. It's not just for intense gym sessions, it's just for life. With the wide variety of flavors, from cafe latte to cake batter, it never feels boring. There's a flavor for everyone. I personally love the peaches and cream, but maybe you're a root beer floater cinnamon roll kind of person. Premier Protein empowers me to say yes to more Find favorite flavor@premierprotein.com that's P R E M I E R protein.com or at Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers.
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this is Sophia Donner from OK Storytime this summer. Find your next obsession on Prime Video and listen. We're not saying you need another obsession, but there could be a lot worse ones. Steamy romance, addictive love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice, so why not watch them a third time off campus? Elle, the Love Hypothesis and more Slow Burns Second Chances Chemistry you can feel through the screen and it makes you wish you were actually in that movie. We've got binge worthy series can't miss movies perfect for when you're ignoring your own problems or procrastinating as one does. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime.
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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Release Date: May 22, 2026
Hosts: Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts
This episode of Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present dives into the gripping murder-for-hire trial surrounding the stabbing death of renowned New York City art dealer, Brent Sekema. Amy and T.J. break down the twists of week two in the Manhattan trial, discussing the prosecution and defense strategies, the tumultuous backstory between Brent and his estranged husband (and alleged orchestrator), Daniel Sekema, and the emotional fallout for all involved. The episode provides a detailed, true-crime analysis of a case that has shaken the elite art world and offers insight into the personal dramas that led up to the crime.
On the prosecution’s opening:
“The killer immediately made a phone call. Who did he call? He called that man...Daniel Sekema, that man who hired and paid him to kill Brent.”
— Amy, reading the prosecution’s opening (06:25)
On damning voice memos:
“I'm still fighting with this old bastard who won't die...until he dies or...someone kills him or...I get divorced.”
— Amy, quoting Daniel’s voice memo (07:54)
On the divorce battle gone too far:
“Even keying somebody’s car, I think is too far...But this was sadistic.”
— Amy (19:46)
On the tragedy for the son:
“If Daniel Sekema goes to prison for the rest of his life, this child just lost both of his parents in a very short amount of time.”
— Amy (21:55)
On jury speed and motives:
“They’re either going to say the hell with it early or they’re going to really give us a quick verdict. They’re going to be motivated for a verdict.”
— T.J. (11:07)
Amy and T.J. expertly guide listeners through the complex narrative of the Sekema murder-for-hire trial, blending courtroom revelations, personal history, and true crime intrigue. Their analysis raises questions about motive, emotional distress, and the limits of circumstantial evidence, while never losing sight of the real human cost at the center of the case—a son entangled in tragedy.
Stay tuned with “Amy and T.J. Presents” for updates as the verdict arrives.