The People vs. Vincent Brothers - BrothersTrial's Blog - Bakersfield.com

Brothers' attorneys face contempt hearing

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:13:08 PDT

In an exclusive report, The Californian's justice reporter, Jessica Logan, writes:

Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush today served defense attorneys on the Vincent Brothers case an order to show why they should not be held in contempt of court.

Bush wants to know if defense attorneys Michael Gardina and Anthony Bryan mishandled evidence regarding a crash with a boy on a bicycle in Ohio.

Gardina declined to comment after Brothers’ sentencing this morning. Bryan left without comment.

You can read the entire story in our special coverage of the Brothers case.

What do you think of the judge's order?

Judge: Brothers deserves to die

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:39:21 PDT

Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush sentenced convicted murderer Vincent Brothers to death Thursday.

Brothers has an automatic appeal under California law.

Brothers, a former vice principal, was convicted May 15 after a three-month trial of killing his wife, Joanie Harper; their three children, Marques, Lyndsey and Marshall; and Joanie Harper’s mother, Earnestine.

The same jury voted May 29 that Brothers should be sentenced to death.

Bush made an independent assessment of the case and decided Vincent Brothers deserved to die.

The judge also denied a defense motion for a new trial.

Bush ordered that Brothers be transferred to San Quentin State Prison within 10 days.

"You shall suffer the death penalty at San Quentin," Bush said, adding that the warden at the prison is to hold Brothers during the appeal process.

Jury recommends Brothers should receive the death penalty

Tue, 29 May 2007 10:26:31 PDT

A jury decided Tuesday that Vincent Brothers should receive the death penalty for killing his three children, his wife and his mother in law.

The jury deliberated for 6 hours over three days.

They deliberated for about 30 minutes this morning.

The judge will have to confirm the sentence.

Brothers was found guilty of the five murders on May 15.

The judge will review the jury's recommendation on Sept. 27.

VERDICT IN DEATH PENALTY

Tue, 29 May 2007 09:51:21 PDT

The jury reached a verdict this morning in the penalty phase of the Vincent Brothers' case.

The verdict will be announced at about 10 a.m.

The jury deliberated for just a half an hour before the jurors announced they had reached a verdict.

They have deliberated for about six hours.

They started deliberating on Wednesday.

The jurors decided Brothers was guilty of killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law on May 15.

No Verdict This Week

Thu, 24 May 2007 15:25:16 PDT

The jurors will be dismissed early Thursday in the Vincent Brothers trial.

The court is dark Friday.

Jurors will resume deliberation on Tuesday.

They have been deliberating for about five hours over two days.

Brothers has already been convicted of killing his wife, three children and mother-in-law.

The jury will now have to decide if Brothers should live the rest of his life in prison or if he should be executed.

Jury begins deliberations in Brothers penalty phase

Wed, 23 May 2007 16:01:12 PDT

The jury has begun deliberating in the penalty phase of the Vincent Brothers trial.

The jury has already convicted Brothers of killing his wife, three children and his mother-in-law.

The jury will now decide if Brothers should live or die.

Defense attorney finishes closing argument

Wed, 23 May 2007 15:57:58 PDT

“We would never be here in Nepoleonic France,” defense attorney Anthony Bryan said, digressing into a history lesson.

“There is always the hint from those that worship authority...and make it comfortable for folks like you in your situation...It’s a necessity argument. One of the greatest prime ministers of England was William Pitt,”

He goes on to quote Pitt.

“Necesity is the plea...it is the crea of slaves,”

“No one here proposes freedom for Vincent Brothers,”

“We’re asking you to allow him to spend the rest of his life in prison,”

“And you have the record of a long life before you,”

“At the very worst, you have found that there was a horrible weekend in his life of 41 years, if you have no lingering down, but all the rest of that 41 years was honorable discharges... excellent bachelor’s degree, credential, mater’s degree, this is not a wreckage of the past case. His years are in his favor.”

“What else would you have him do?” “Did he go to the wrong college, should he have gone to the Airforce, should he have gotten a Ph.D.”

“We know Joanie and her immediate family were religious, but so was Vincent’s,” Bryan said.

“Brothers was reading scripture to some athletes, that he separated some athletes from a fight,” Bryan said.

“Counsel suggests that was a different person, that is convenient. That is Vincent Brothers, the same person that is in this courtroom,”

“It is not only, not to be scorned, it is to be praised,” Bryan said.

Bryan apologizes if anything he said has aggrevated the jurors.

“Do not hold it against Vincent Brothers,”

“I want to remind you of one more thing you will see in the jury instructions,” Bryan said.

“You can vote for life if you wish,”

“There were some attempt to attack them, and belittle them,” Bryan said.

“In the last analysis, you can vote for life just because you want to vote for life,” Bryan said.

“We have a horrible crime and nothing I have said or done has been intended to minimize,” Bryan said.

“It’s been the most community effecting event since I lived in Bakersfield,” Bryan said. “I don’t in any way minimize it,”

“I think there is lingering doubt, as to whether they convicted the right person,”

“All things considered, I ask you to vote for life in prison,”

Defense continues closing argument

Wed, 23 May 2007 15:45:39 PDT

Bryan said the laceration to Kern’s face was “superficial.”

“The prosecutor suggested incorrectly that you can solve the problems of the world,” Bryan said.

“A civilized society, when a member or a group of members such as yourselves the jury have the opportunity to kill or not we generally like to think that we have rules and there are things that we will do and consider before we make such a momentous decision. That is what we are doing here. And everybody here agreed to listen...even though we all agreed we would never get to the penalty phase unless you agreed beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant killed his entire family...It’s horrible.”

“I guess there must be a law against moving across country...I don’t know of anybody who has ever been sentenced...because they have moved from the east coast to the west coast which do create communications problems.”

“There aren’t a lot of people who can produce the quantity and quality of friends from back east who were willing to come from back east,” Bryan said.

“Relatives who are teachers and ministers, but because he didn’t, he was a teacher he taught during the school year and he taught many summer schools, but you are being to asked why he did not go back and forth all the time. Look at the volume of pictures seized from his apartment.”

“You have heard from many hard working teachers who thought the world of Vincent,”

“And you are supposed to ignore what they say. I don’t know how that works out with the timeline people presented,”

“It isn’t a different human being that was Vincent Brothers,” Bryan said. “They described him exactly as the teachers described him,”

“On their side, superficial facial lacerations,” Bryan said.

“The entire presentation of the prosecutor was to try and create the burden of proof that does not exist. To make you think that you should start off with death in your mind and that I then have to move you somehow away from death and that is absolutely untrue. That is not my burden. There is no favorite. Death is not favorite. There is no assumption from death. I do not have to move you from death, hopefully, if you follow the law...It is your decision. It is sometimes subteranean me suggesting to you that you do not have to make this decision. And because this is sucha horrible decision and such a horrible sent of facts it is comfortable to accept a theory of law that allows that permits us to avoid making that decision, but that is where we are. There is no presumption of death that I somehow have to superhumanyly have to move you away from. It is up to you. You have gotten some kind of rules that the prosecution has read to you...These are fairly concise and the judge did read them to you.”

“Let’s not forget the special arrangement he made in Marques’ school room,.. that is all stuff that can be considered mitigating.”

“If we are going to do a weighing process from the penalty phase...nothing I have said should be interpretted as anyone not recognizing the horrific nature of this crime,”

Bryan asked what the United States would be known for if archeologists studied us. “it isn’t art and it isn’t archetecture,”

“We are what we are because of things we are doing right now,” Bryan said. “That is what is so strange about this place. That is why more people try to get in here than any other place that ever existed. They don’t go to listen to Bethoven, they come here because of our system of our, because of our system of freedom,”

Defense attorney begins his closing argument

Wed, 23 May 2007 15:00:24 PDT

Defense attorney Anthony Bryan begins his closing arguments.

“Naturally I disagree with the verdict you reach. My opinion doesn’t mean anything,” Bryan said.

“There is anything thing that you can consider and that is lingering doubt,” Bryan said.

Bryan reminds the jurors that they all said they could consider life in prison even if Brothers were convicted of the murders.

Bryan, who is known for his loud arguments, is speaking so quietly that he can barely be heard.

“I think one of the things that shows the extreme weakness of the prosecution’s penalty phase case is, I want you to look at the hospital records,” Bryan said. “See if there is anything there that resembles the description as described by Ms. Kern,” Bryan said.

“We have another witness to that, Keith Powell,” Bryan said. “This is a department head at Cal State Bakersfield, he has no reason to lie.”

“There was quite a bit of contact with Margaret,” Bryan said. “It is not uncommon in this society that the contact with a child is limited by the fact that the parents no longer get along.”

“The prosecutor wants you to believe that the defendant should receive among other reasons, because of his contact with (Shann Kern),”

Bryan shows an article The Californian wrote about Brothers because of his participation in the community.

Bryan reminded the jurors that Brothers was an “outstanding” teacher and vice-principal.

“One of the defendant’s abilities is his ability to get along with others,” Bryan said.

“You do not complete high school and college and graduate school and a complete tour with the army and with the marines if you cannot get along well with others,”

“If Mr. Calloway saw Mr. Brothers that weekend at the house is it at all possible to believe that he had done what she says he did,” Bryan said.

“I know you’ve determined otherwise but I must argue lingering doubt, I think that is an enormous amount of doubt,” Bryan said.

“You have three inherintly incredible...clay of the worst sort,” Bryan said.

Bryan said that every time a bug was found, their ranges expanded.

The prosecution bug expert said bugs she would expect to see were not there, Bryan said, if the trip west were made.

“Dr. Kimsey said there should have been white butterflies, they weren’t there,” Bryan said.

“Try driving across the west in the middle of the summer without getting those things on your car and in the air intake system.

Prosecutor finishes closing argument

Wed, 23 May 2007 14:31:01 PDT

“Why was Vincent Brothers able to give the same kind of attention to his own daughter Margaret...why did Mr. brothers attend his niece Tanya’s eighth grade graduation and not his own daughter’s,” Green said.

“It was that they only know Vincent Brothers in a professional capacity, none of them, not one of them knew him. This man did not have any friends...If the truth be told nobody knew him. The co-workers testimony mirrored that of the women he slept with...he really had no friends,”

Green said this was the same as his childhood friends. “That he was studious, polite, shy, athletic, but not one of them had any contact with him in adulthood...they came here to stand up and testify from memory...the boy that these men described is not the same man you’ve seen and heard from in this courtroom the man who testified in this courtroom...They don’t want to believe he could have changed....but each and every one of you know better and you said so in your verdict.”

“Would you expect them to believe that someone they know and liked 25 years ago would would do something like this?” Green told the jurors. “Who would believe that someone they know is capable of what happened in this face, capable of killing their entire family.”

“They did not see him often and when they did there is no evidence their relationship is close,” Green said, speaking so quietly, her voice was at times inaudible from the audience.

“Is any of that enough to cause you to return a verdict of life...does any of what they said mitigate waht he did. Does anything they said make you think Brothers deserves to spend the rest of his life eating, drinking, laughing,”

“The boy who did that 30 years ago, that person does not exist any more, you know that,” Green said. “The man you see before you is the face of evil. There is no sugarcoating that. Is there anything about what the defendant’s 25 witnesses offered that cause you to say this is an extenuating circumstance that justifies voting for life,”

“My answer is no, never,” Green said.

“Vincent Brothers took an oath to tell the truth and he looked you in the eye and he lied” Green said. “He made up a story that he was in Columbus Ohio when he was in (California) killing his family.”

“When Mr. Bryan argues lingering doubt, you remember that he lied,”

Green said Brothers’ demeanor on the stand will erase any lingering doubt.

Green shows the jurors the video of the crime scene the day the Harper family was found.

The courtroom stood still as Green played the video that panned past the bodies and through the house.

“When Mr. Bryan gets up here....In a loving home often pictures are displayed on the wall...when Mr. Bryan brings up all these pictures the defendant had just remember the photos he had were not out, were not displayed...They were in a bin on the floor in that apartment.”

Green told the jurors that one juror said life in prison gives you time to take care of your soul.

“I think while that may be true as to some people...it is not true of Vincent Brothers...your conscience is a part of your soul and you can’t take care of your sould if you don’t have a conscience.

“When Vincent Brothers walked in that room with the intent of killing his entire family that is what he saw was three sleeping children,”

Green displays once again the photo montage of the family.

“In the space of an afternoon the lives of three children were brought to an end...the hopes and dreams of the people they would become were gone,”

“If you don’t believes these crimes impacted the community...you need only look at that photo and the testimony of Vincent Brothers who said more than 2,000 people attended that memorial,” Green said.

Bryan will ask you “to show Vincent brothers mercy and to allow him the rest of his life behind bars. I have heard it said that justice is getting what you deserve and mercy is getting what you don’t deserve. Vincent Brothers deserves as much mercy as he showed his victims and that is none,” Green said.

“If not the death penalty for this case than which case, if not the death penalty for these victims, for which victims, if not the death penalty for Vincent Brothers,”

“In the killing of these women and these children...I will not stand up here and talk about how many times they are shot because I know you know...Only the most soulless coward could commit crimes such as these. Are there any more innocent victims,”

Green said that if they don’t vote for the death penalty they will be sending a message to the community that this is tollerated.

Prosecutor presents closing argument

Wed, 23 May 2007 14:01:39 PDT

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green told the jurors that the only appropriate punishment is death.

“There is only one question,” Green said.

“What punishment does the defendant Vincent Brothers deserve?”

“I’m quite sure that none of you imagined that none of you thought that you would be in this position making this extremely difficult decision,” Green said.

“It is one of the most serious decisions you will ever make,”

“Always remember and always be guided by the knowledge that you are here, you are in this position because of what he did on July 6, 2003,”

“Remember you are here because of him because of what he did and because of choices he made,”

“His choice to brutally murder five people,”

“I do not have the burden of proof any longer,” Green said.

“One aggravating circumstances is enough,” Green said.

She said there are two aggravating factors.

“The primary factor is factor A,”

“The only appropriate sentence is a sentence of death,”

They can consider all of the evidence from the guilt and the death penalty phase.

“Now that you know how they were murdered, the planning that went into it, the calculated way the defendant killed a sleeping mother...the way the defendant shot a 4-year-old boy,”

The crime is “so brutal, so immoral,” that Brothers deserves the death penalty on this alone, Green said.

The jurors can consider the impact the deaths had on the Harper family and on the community.

“It helps you to access the enormity of the offense,” Green said.

Joanie was a good athlete, she was a loving mother, Green said.

Green quotes Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you said...but they won’t forget how you made them feel.”

“She was a strong woman in a day when being strong was not fashionable...she was a working mother in a day when maybe that was not fashionable,” Green said.

Her faith in God translated to her children, Green said.

“She tried at all times to better herself so she could better her family,” Green said.

“She bettered herself by going from a one-bed room apartment to buying a house,”

“She raised five wonderful children,” Green said.

“When you deliberate and you consider the harm..please consider that ()the children) will never see their mother again, their sister again, and their niece and nephews again,”

Green said the second factor the jurors should consider is the use of violence.

She said this involves the incident with Shann Kern from 1988 when Brothers punched her in the face repeatedly.

“You can only find this a factor in mitigation if you found that true beyond a reasonable doubt,” Green said.

The crime would be corporal injury on a co-habitant or a battery.

She remains the jurors that Keith Powell was remembering the incident from about 20 years ago and that it didn’t involve him.

“I’m not suggesting that he is lying, I’m just suggesting that his memory isn’t very clear and is inaccurate,” Green said.

His comment to Kern was “Why did you keep getting up, as if somehow it were her fault,” Green said.

She told the jurors that Kern was two months pregnant at the time.

Green said Brothers was not emotionally disturbed.

Green said there is no evidence he was acting under the influence of another.

Green said Brothers’ age is not a factor in mitigation because at the time he committed the crimes he was 41 years old.

Green said defense attorneys typically argue this when their client is young to suggest he did not know any better. “He was 41, you have found he committed these crimes in a premeditated and deliberate way and he did know better,” Green said.

“The only factor that any of the defense evidence falls under is K. That allows sympathy, pity for the defendant.

Judge reads jury instructions

Wed, 23 May 2007 11:29:16 PDT

Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush has reviewed all of the jury instructions.

He will now instruct the jury on the law.

The attorneys will begin closing arguments this afternoon.

Judge reviews jury instruction in Brothers case

Wed, 23 May 2007 10:09:07 PDT

Kern County Superior Court Judge Michael Bush reviewed the jury instructions which will guide the jurors on the law.

The judge said he will not read special instructions from the defense regarding reasonable doubt because he thinks this is covered with other instructions.

Bush said he will instruction the jurors that if they vote for the death penalty, Brothers will be executed.

Judge reviews evidence

Wed, 23 May 2007 09:49:12 PDT

The judge and attorneys are going through the evidence that will be admitted from the penalty phase of the trial.

The prosecution wants to allow in a medical record from Shann Kern’s trip to the hospital. Shann Kern is the mother of Brothers’ only living child. Kern testified during the penalty phase that Brothers punched her in the face several times while she was pregnant with their child.

Kern said she was living with Brothers at the time. But Brothers’ roommate at the time said Kern was not living at the apartment. Kern wrote Brothers’ address down as her address in the medical records. The judge said this portion of the records will be admitted.

But he said some of the record will be redacted.

The judge and attorneys later reviewed the family photos Brothers had at his apartment and other family photos.

The prosecutor agreed to allow a blown up article written about Brothers published in The Californian in 1996.

Defense and prosecution finish calling witnesses

Tue, 22 May 2007 16:27:57 PDT

The defense said it is finished presenting witnesses. The prosecution said she is finished presenting witnesses as well. The judge said he must finish a few issues tomorrow morning and the jurors will return at 10:30 Wednesday for argument.

Vincent Brothers' mother testifies on his behalf

Tue, 22 May 2007 16:18:07 PDT

Defense Attorney Anthony Bryan calls to the witness stand Brothers’ mother Margaret Brothers.

Vincent has two sisters and seven brothers.

Vincent was the first one born in New York.

She lived in Calverton or Bayton Hollow. Then they lived in Riverhead a couple years or more and then moved in Belport.

Bryan showed Margaret Brothers a series of photos.

She does not remember when she moved into the house in Belport. Donde is 40 and they moved to that house when he was a baby.

Thearl was still there. At some point there were 10 children living in the house. It had 3 bedrooms. The family went to church, not as regular as they should have, Margaret Brothers said.

She required the children to go to church at times.

“I noted he loved school and he loved reading and things like that,”

She would have Vincent help the other children with his homework.

Brothers would babysit for his sister “and clean too.”

“I didn’t like his cleaning,”

“I told him go where he thinks would be best for him,” Margaret Brothers said.

She knew of his sporting activities.

She does not remember about his scholarships.

He would return for holidays.

She remembers when he went to California.

He would stay in touch through the telephone and letters.

“I’m a person, I believe in doing a lot of writing,”

She met his first wife Angela. He was going to California and she took her home a couple of weeks before.

She found out they were divorced.

She knew of the marriage to Sharon.

She knew that was over.

She knew of her granddaughter Margaret who she talked to a few times on the phone.

She would mostly talk to her mother, Shann Kern.

She never met Joanie, but she spoke to her three or four times on the phone.

They spoke a little before the murders. She talked with Vincent and her on the phone before and after Joanie had the baby when Joanie was still in the hospital with Marshall.

Vincent told her about the birth of his two other babies, before and from the hospital.

She spokes to Marques and Lyndsey on the phone, Lyndsey didn’t talk that good, but Marques would say a few words. Vincent would arrange those calls.

“Sure I love my son, I love all my kids,”

She did not really work while the children were in school.

She bought their clothing at good will, but they did not know it.

Vincent Brothers is wiping his eyes.

She last saw her husband in July 1996. Vincent offered for her to fly out many times but she did not want to because she was afraid of flying.

She did not even want to go on Amtrak.

Vincent talked about bringing the family out around the Fourth of July of 2000 but she thought the baby was too young.

Vincent Brothers helped support her. She bought a new car and she was out of disability for 18 or 19 months. Vincent paid the car off for her in 1989. She bought a new Nissan Sentra. “He would send me extra money,”

“He would send me extra money every month,” “He would just send it.”

Brothers' neice testifies on his behalf

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:45:20 PDT

Defense attorney Anthony Bryan calls to the witness stand Tanya Howard.

She is Brothers’ niece. Her mother is Thearl Bernard. She is 32.

“At 10 years old she went to his college graduation,”

“He would visit and give us money for good grades and teach us wrestling moves,”

“He always and still encourages me to go to school and learn foreign languages and travel and do better...he encouraged me to go outside Belport and New York and see other places and further my education,”

She is enrolled in college now.

She lives in Atlanta Georgia. She is a tax accountant.

“When I bought my house, my mother was busy a lot and he helped me get through the whole house buying process,”

He was in California and she was in Atlanta. That was in 2003 and 2004.

She had contact with Vincent while he was in California through e-mail, and telephone and they would send photos. He would never e-mail her, but he would call her.

There is a photo of her with her cousin and her uncle Vincent.

There is a picture of her eighth grade graduation and a cheerleading parade.

There are inscriptions on the backs of the photos from Tanya to her uncle.

These photos were taken out of a tub inside the defendant’s apartment.

She was 12 when she went to Brothers’ college graduation. He was in marine corp uniform.

A second sister of Brothers testifies

Tue, 22 May 2007 15:04:46 PDT

Defense attorney Anthony Bryan calls to the stand Jennie Yvette Combs. She is Brothers’ sister. She is the third down. She is 48.

She was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The family moved to Long Island.

She is an ordained minister and she is a teaching associate at a local school. Another teacher was also ordained as a minister. There is a photo of that.

There is a photo of Combs with Vincent and her daughter. There are other family photos.

She is three or four years older than Vincent.

“I always looked at him as being a very bright, a very quiet child, he was always a little different because he always kept to himself, you could see that he was going to be someone important,” Combs said.

“He was very involved with sports, he had quite a few good friends, I noticed that when he went to school he wore a shirt and a tie, he was a professional,”

“Yes I use to call him poindexter,” “He use to wear these big glasses, he was very smart, very intelligent, so we use to call him Poindexter.”

She is not sure of the school where he graduated from college. He visited the family including to her house in Mastic.

“I know he had graduated from college and he decided to move to California,”

Her daughter Tamika was born before Vincent moved to California. “When he called he would talk to the girls,”

On one ocassions, “he spent money through the mail to make sure those girls had gotten those sneakers,”

“He always when he came to visit he always encouraged the children to do positive things and to go to school,”

After Vincent went to California, he could visit the family periodically and everyone would visit with him.

She knew he had a daughter Margaret. She knew later he had Marques and Lyndsey.

She never met their mothers. She talked to Shann Kern when she came for the funeral services.

She saw Brothers at their fathers’ funeral 16 or 17 years ago.

She met Sharon Barniard and Angela RIchardson. He brought Angie home on a visit from school. Sharon came out to visit the family once alone and once with him after he came to California.

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green asks about the last time she saw Vincent Brothers.

She does not remember the years of these visits.

She and the family went to church together. There are a number of ministers in the family

Brothers' sister testifies on his behalf

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:48:48 PDT

Defense attorney Anthony Bryan called to the stand Thearl Barnard.

She is a second grade teachers. She has taught for 10 years. She teaches at Center Morchies School. She is Vincent’s oldest sister.

“Vincent was born in New York,” she said.

He may have been the first of the children to be born in New York.

She was born in North Carolina and so were some of the other children.

Vincent is No. 5. Yvette is younger than her.

They first lived in Calverton and then in Baytown Hollow, then their parents purchased a home in Belport.

They always lived in a house. She does not remember what her father was doing for a living. Her father eventually became a father and worked at a mental health institute.

She was in eighth grade when the family moved to Belport.

Bryan showed Bernard a photo of their high school. Another photo of Brothers with family. Another photo with family.

She is eight or nine years older than Vincent.

She helped her mother with the family. “From time to time I took on a paternal roll”

“Vincent was a very studious brother, funny, energenic,...he was always very studious, helpful positive memories, those are my positive memories,”

“Vincent was always very engaged in school, with sports, he had a positive relationship with his peers, with his teachers, he was very studious,”

“He was always reading, he was interested in classical music,”

“He was always involved with sports,”

“Anything that was academically challenging or positive,” Thearl Bernard said.

“In comparison, they had boy energy and some of my brothers were involved in sports, some weren’t as academic as Vincent, they were doing well in school, but they were not the A plus students,”

“At one time he was the state championship,”

“He was the brothers that I wouldn’t have to say go get your homework, let’s do it together,”

Vincent Brothers was the only brother to complete college.

Brothers was community minded.

Brothers started working at age 14 with a community group.

“His friends were academically engaged.. they were gentlemently young boys, they had directions and goals for themselves,”

“Vincent was the brother that made good choices and decisions,”

“He made choices and decisions based on what was right,”

After Brothers went to college, at old Westbury, he was home frequently. When he went away to Norfolk, they went to the college twice. They maintained some letter writing and some phone calls.

She was away at Pace University.

Bryan shows her a photo of Brothers in the Marines. There is another picture of Vincent in his uniform.

“I maintained contact with Vincent,” Vincent visited her, she had her own apartment and stayed there. “I did a lot of letter writing, I maintained phone contact,” Before and after he came to California.

Bernard said Brothers moved to California within a year of graduating. She maintained contact through the telephone. She called him once when there was an earth quake.

Brothers returned at times to visit them.

She knew he had gotten married. His first wife’s name was Angie, whohe met at Norfolk State University. Vincent Brothers remaried. She knew he had a daughter named Margaret Kern, named after his mother.

“There was always contact via phone or letter,” His mother sent some pictures.

“I spoke with him two weeks prior” to the killings in June. Prior, they spoke to each other in May. He was born on the 31st.

They always talked on birthdays. Toward the end of the school year, they spoke.

Prior to that it was sporadic phone calls and prior to that they saw each other at their father’s funeral.

She does not remember speaking with Joanie on the phone. He knew they were married. He spoke with the children on the phone from time to time.

She thinks that happened four times over a couple of years.

She spoke with Margaret when she was younger and gave her an e-mail address and sent her a letter to come out and spend some time in the summer.

The last attempt she made, Margaret was 14. “It just never transpired,”

“Vincent is a very sociable person, he’s very positive, he gets along well with people,”

“He has always had a number of friends,”

“He has had long term relationships and short term,”

High School friend testifies on Brothers' behalf

Tue, 22 May 2007 14:13:23 PDT

Defense attorney Anthony Bryan calls to the witness stand Rodney Cooke.

He lieves in Belport New York. He moved back from Virginia four months ago. He has lived in Belport all together for 34 years.

He works maintenance and framing and anything he can find. He just moved back.

He is 44 years old. “Vincent is a good friend of mine. I have known his since the third grade.”

Their mothers “prayed plenty of nights with us.”

“While we were doing some of the things we aught not have been doing, he wasn’t doing those things,”

He wrestled with Vincent Brothers.

After one wrestling tournament, Vincent was reading the Bible to the team. “It really drew a lot of people. A lot of people not just from out team, but to other teams were flocking to listen to what he had to say.”

He broke up a fight between two wrestlers on the Belport team to break up the fight. “He was the type of person who would step in the middle of things,”

“He was an all together stand up type of guy,” Cooke said.

Cooke is married with two children.

He went to college at Tulane and wound up back in Belport and for the last seven years he was in Virginia.

He did not keep up with he. “We are and always will be good friends,”

When Brothers was in North Carolina he tried to go see him, but just missed him, in the summer of 2003 when the case first started.

“I believe in him and I know his character,”

Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green questioned Cooke.

“Well you don’t know his character do you...you haven’t seen the guy in 27 years,”

“You have no idea who Vincent Brothers is do you?”

“I do,” Cooke said.

“I know Vincent Brothers, I know his family, I know his values,” Cooke said.

Green asks if some of the brothers have been in jail.

“People chance, to a degree,” Cooke said.

He graduated in 1981.

He did not maintain contact with Brothers since he graduated in 1980.

“He didn’t drink,”

“That’s the type of job that shows his character, not money, looking after people, children,”

“The time that I spent with him...I would step up and give my life for him because of his character,”

“You are here to talk about his character in high school regardless of the evidence presented here,”

“From what I see, I don’t see any evidence...I don’t believe in all of my heart that he did these crimes,” Green said.

“Have you read the police reports...have you sat in here one day and listened to the evidence,”

Mr Bryan told the judge, “If we are going to retry this case, let’s go ahead and start right now.”

The judge asked the jurors to step outside.

The judge told Bryan that he does not want him to do speaking objections.

The witnesses are opening the door to an assault and battery conviction in 1980 and another in 1982.

Green said she has not challenged the witnesses, but she will when his “high school buddies” start talking about what a great guy she is. Green said Brothers is convicted of slaughtering his family.

The defense objects to retrying the case by asking this witness what he knows of the case.

The judge said he will allow a few questions along these lines.

The jurors are asked back in.

Cooke said he followed the case through the Internet. He has not followed the whole trial.

“You would agreed that any person who would kill two women and three men is not a stand up kind of guy,” Green asked.

“Yes, I don’t believe he is that person,” Cooke said.