WEBVTT
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What the State offered the jury in the first part
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of Ron Mortenson's trial was difficult to ignore. The gun
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that killed Daniel Mendoza was registered to Mortenson. All the
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bullets found at the scene came from that gun. No
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shell casings were found inside the truck's cab, and five
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witnesses had described the shooter as the passenger in Brady's truck,
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a man wearing glasses.
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But they had not yet heard from the two officers
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at the center of the case. One would testify for
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the state, one would testify in his own defense, each
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asking the jury to believe that the other man killed
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Daniel Mendoza, and by the end, Las Vegas would be
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waiting for a verdict that carried far more weight than
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one man's fate.
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Hi, and Welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas
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true crime podcast where we focus on missing persons, unsolved cases,
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and on cases involving the number one cause of homicide
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in the Las Vegas area, domestic violence. I'm your host Sean.
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And I'm your co host John.
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Welcome to Part four of our series on the murder
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of Daniel Mendoza. If you haven't yet had a chance
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to listen to the first three episodes in this series,
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we strongly recommend you start with Part one at sinspod
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dot co slash one twenty nine so you can hear
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the full story. Part two is at sinspod dot co
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slash one thirty and Part three is at sinspod dot
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co slash one thirty one. Last week, we covered the
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beginning of Ron Mortenson's trial. The state built its case
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through five eyewitnesses who described the gun coming from the
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passenger side window of Brady's truck, the forensic evidence tying
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the bullets to Mortensen's sig sour, and the evidence that
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the truck was moving as the bullets were fired. We
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discussed the controversy over Christopher Brady, the officer who drove
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the truck but had not been charged. Local Las Vegas
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activist groups were calling Daniel's murder a hate crime and
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were demanding justice.
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We also shared one of the most moving parts of
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the story. When Daniel's father, Ramone Mendoza, and his grandmother
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Maria invited officers over to their home to celebrate Ramone's birthday,
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the family was in pain. It was just two days
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before the start of the trial, yet they were working
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to build community and healing in their neighborhood. We ended
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Part three at one of the most pivotal parts of
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the entire trial, the testimony of Christopher Brady. From the
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start of the investigation, Metro had viewed Brady as the
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key witness and positioned him as the one who came
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forward to help solve the murder case. When Christopher Brady
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took the stand on Monday May fifth, nineteen ninety seven,
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he was no longer a Metro officer. He had resigned
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from the department in January due to intense public scrutiny
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surrounding the case. Courtroom observers and reporters described the intense
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security that surrounded Brady was impossible to catch for a
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statement or an interview before or after he testified. One
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reporter wrote that he seemed to just magically appear in
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the courtroom after successfully eluding the hordes of photographers that
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had assembled to capture a photo of one of the
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city's most infamous witnesses.
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Brady's sworn testimony covered a lot of what we shared
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in Part two of the series. We also want to
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remind everyone that Brady was never charged with anything, and
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it was consistently reported that there was no deal cut
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between Metro, the DA's office, and Brady. Under oath, Brady
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fully admitted that he and Mortenson had spent the night
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of Daniel's murder drinking heavily to celebrate Mortenson's thirty first birthday.
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They left the party and took a detour to a
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second bar, driving recklessly through poor neighborhoods in Brady's custom
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blue nineteen seventy four Dodge pickup truck. Brady told a
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jury they were seeking to harass people they didn't like
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because they thought that they were nasty. This is where
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the description you heard us use of the bangers, the dopers,
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and the screwball people comes from, directly from Brady's mouth.
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He told the jury the two of them frequently encountered
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these kinds of people while working shifts on the force.
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According to Brady, they routinely harassed citizens while off duty.
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They thought they could easily get away with it in
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the late night hours, simply because they were cops. He
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admitted that night that the two of them were acting
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like quote jerks.
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Brady admitted that the two of them were legally drunk
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and that he was the one behind the wheel making
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the decisions about where the two of them were driving,
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but he was very clear that when they approached mckeller's circle,
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it was Mortensen who directed him to approach the apartments.
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According to Brady, once they were near the group outside
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Daniel's apartment, he saw a young man making a slicing
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motion across his neck, which he interpreted to mean either
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get out of here or I have no drugs. He
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swore under oath that he saw Mortenson stick the sig
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sour pistol fully out the passenger window, which prompted him
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to react. Brady explained that he too pulled his gun
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because he believed his partner could be in some kind
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of danger. He said he had his revolver pointed out
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the window, with the gun across from Mortenson's chest, about
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six inches away from Mortenson's head, fully inside the truck,
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but aimed outside. Again. He emphasized that the truck's bench
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seat prevented him from reaching all the way out the window.
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He testified that once he realized there was no threat,
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he dropped the gun and he was looking straight ahead
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when he heard a shot, and then at least four
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more shots as he drove away.
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From the state's perspective, this testimony summarized all prior testimony
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and evidence presented so far. It put the gun that
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killed Daniel in Mortenson's hand and explained why Brady had
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drawn his own gun without making him the shooter. But
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from the defense's perspective, Brady's testimony gave them multiple opportunities
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to poke holes in his story. One clear inconsistency the
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defense locked in on was the way Brady described one
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of the most important physical details in the case. Brady
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had previously told police and the grand jury that he
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stuck his gun out the window, but at trial he
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clarified that he did not mean his arm or his
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weapon actually went outside the passenger window. It was just
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pointed in that direction. As we have mentioned earlier, Brady
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backed up his story by focusing heavily on the custom
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bench seat of his truck, which featured a large center console.
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He testified that the console was flipped down in the
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armrest position that night. Because it was down, Brady claimed
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it was simply impossible for him to stretch his torso
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entirely across a passenger to fire six shots outside the
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window frame while keeping his foot on the gas. However,
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none of the other eyewitnesses testified to seeing a second gun.
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The defense posed the question that if Brady was also
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pointing his gun at the crowd, why had no one
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else seen that? So, the defense was arguing two things.
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Number one, Brady was changing his story to make Mortonson
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more culpable, or maybe because he just realized things weren't
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like up. But also two, maybe the witnesses didn't see
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everything as well as they thought they did.
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The defense was relentless in its cross examination of Brady.
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Mortenson's attorney, Frank Krimin, brought up what he viewed as
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a highly suspicious detail about the exact route Brady chose
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to drive Mortenson home from the pets in Spring Valley.
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Instead of getting directly onto the I fifteen South at
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Flamingo and taking it to Blue Diamond Road, which would
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only be a fifteen minute drive to Mortenson's house, Brady
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took a long detour. He drove down Twain Avenue toward Eastern,
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a route that went through roughly thirty stoplights and took
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nearly twenty five minutes. Kremon pointed out that this specific
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route directly intersected with Paula Verda Street, a road that
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led straight back to the crime scene on McKellar Circle.
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Cremon said, you thought maybe something had gone wrong, and
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you wanted to look to see if there were police
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wagons there. Brady flatly denied that accusation, claiming that he
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chose the lengthy route home entirely arbitrarily. We covered the
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truck evidence in Part three, so we won't rehash all
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of that here, but in front of the jury, Kremen
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also used those changes to attack Brady's credibility. Brady admitted
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that after the shooting, the truck had been changed. The
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custom seat was removed and sold, it was repainted, and
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the window tint was taken off. Brady said he made
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those changes because he was afraid that the truck would
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be recognizable to the friends of Daniel Mendoza or members
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of the Eighteenth Street Gang, and that he feared retaliation.
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The defense used those changes to posit to the jury
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that they were actually an attempt to alter or destroy evidence.
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The defense wanted to question him about prior internal affairs complaints,
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including allegations involving his conduct in earlier encounters, including claims
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that he had pulled a gun on a motorist, and
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that there were complaints about aggressive or improper policing. Judge
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Pawlakowski limited what the defense could bring in the jury
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did not get the full picture of every allegation and
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concern that would later surround Chris Brady. We're going to
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pause here for a short break, but when we come back,
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we're switching gears to talk about the pivotal moment when
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Ron Mortensen took the stand in his own defense.
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Martinson and his attorneys took a major risk in order
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to have Mortenson tell the jury in his own words
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what he claimed had happened that night. Mortenson did not
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deny being drunk or that his gun was the weapon
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that fired the fatal shots, and said he told the
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jury that Brady had taken his gun and used it.
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According to Mortenson, the night began to shift before they
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ever reached mckeller's circle. He testified that he felt sick
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from drinking and wanted to go home. He said he
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told Brady he was not feeling well and he wanted
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to call it a knight, but according to Mortenson, Brady
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did not want the night to end. Mortenson said Brady
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told him they weren't going home yet and that they
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were going out to another bar, but first he wanted
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to trip something out. Mortenson testified that Brady drove erratically,
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cutting through neighborhoods, speeding through alley and looking between the
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buildings until they arrived at mckeller's Circle and saw Daniel
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and his friends. Mortenson's version was that he immediately understood
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this was stupid and wanted it to stop. He testified
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that he told Brady, come on, Chris, let's go. This
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is stupid, and then, according to Mortenson, Brady said look out.
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Mortenson claimed Brady came across the seat, elbowed him in
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the chest, and put his arm out of the passenger
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window and fired. In Mortenson's version, Brady fired one shot, laughed,
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fired more shots, and said you better run. Mortenson claimed
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he tried to stop him, but Brady told him to
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let go. Then Brady slid back fully into the driver's
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seat and drove away. He said he asked Brady why
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he had shot at the group, and, according to Mortenson,
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Brady said, the son of a bitch had a gun
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and you just sat there. Mortensen told Brady he had
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not seen a gun. According to Mortenson, Brady then said
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he had shot into the air and he was just
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trying to scare them. Mortenson claimed that's when he realized
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that Brad had his sig sour between his legs. When
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he asked why Brady had used his gun, Mortenson said
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Brady told him he couldn't get to his own gun.
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Morton testified that when he asked Brady why he had
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done it, Brady told him I told you I was
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an evil man. I am evil. The jury had to
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decide whether they believed Brady would say something like that,
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or whether Mortenson had invented the line to make Brady
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sound monstrous. Later, another person would say Brady used very
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similar language in a very different context. We're holding off
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getting into the details of all of that for now.
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There was one more loose thread that surfaced during the trial,
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though at the time the jury never heard the details.
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Kremin told the court that he had received an anonymous call,
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claiming that Brady had previously talked to another Metro officer,
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Mark Barry, about wanting to do a drive by shooting.
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The state responded that an investigator had spoken to Barry
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and that Barry had dismissed that claim as non sense. Sense.
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That kind of testimony feels pretty material to the matter
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at hand, but that was the judge's ruling. But like
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so many of the unresolved questions around Christopher Brady, that
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allegation would not stay under wraps forever. Years later, that
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allegation would come back in a much more serious way.
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Mortenson testified that after the shooting, Brady tried to make
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what had happened just sound like something small, something that
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would be simply written off as a four to three
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four call, which was the Metro Police code for an
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illegal discharge of a firearm. According to Mortenson, Brady told
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him not to worry about it, to him back natural,
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and then once they arrived at the bar, Mortenson said
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he was scared, sick, and visibly shaken by what he
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claimed he had just witnessed. The State had a very
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different view of that testimony. To prosecutors, Mortenson was not
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a frightened bystander trapped in Brady's truck. He was a
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defendant trying to save himself, and his version required the
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jury to believe something the state argued was physically unlikely
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that Brady, a smaller man, could lean across the cab,
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across Mortenson's body, fire out the passenger window while driving,
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and somehow do all of this in a way that
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made the people outside the truck believe that it was