CHAPTER 1 – THE ONE-ARMED MAN

On Memorial Day weekend in 2012, I was one of three detectives who were on call for all of Mesa, Arizona. I wasn’t in the Homicide Unit; I was in the Robbery Unit. Early in the morning, I was called out to assist the Gang Unit with a shooting that had occurred at a house party. Gang detectives handled the major parts of the investigation, but they needed help with interviewing dozens of witnesses and party attendees. I completed my assigned tasks in the late afternoon and went home to have dinner with my friends. Just as I finished cooking, I received a call on the dreaded department cell phone.
The on-call sergeant told me a male had been stabbed and pushed off the top of a parking garage in downtown Mesa. There were several witnesses, and patrol officers were actively looking for a possible suspect. The victim also told a first responding officer that he knew the suspect; he said his name was Deshawn. I was told the victim was in critical condition and undergoing surgery at a local hospital. I was also informed that I would be the case agent.
To understand criminal investigations, you should know the jargon that is the titles assigned to various functions done by detectives. Case agent is the title given to the lead detective in the case. In the Mesa Police Department, a case agent is always a detective, not a supervisor (such as a sergeant or lieutenant). The supervisors make sure the case agent gets the resources he or she needs and updates executive staff members (assistant chiefs and the chief of police) on the case status. In the Mesa Police Department, supervisors for a specific unit did not have to have experience in that unit’s specialty. In most cases, supervisors did not have any expertise in the units they supervised, so they really relied heavily on the knowledge of their detectives. Supervisors were also responsible for administrative duties, including approving overtime and the verbiage used in charging documents. Supervisors acted as a safeguard to make sure detectives operated within department policies, state laws, and county attorney protocols. As a case agent, your main focus is identifying the person(s) who committed a crime and developing probable cause to support an arrest and conviction. I want to reiterate the word “conviction.” Patrol officers are trained to develop probable cause for an arrest; a professional detective develops probable cause to make an arrest and secure a conviction in court. A professional detective digs deeper into cases and explores every aspect of the case than the average patrol officer. The case agent is responsible for ensuring all the facts in the investigation are accurately presented to the county attorney, who formally charges a potential suspect. The case agent’s role is very demanding as it involves understanding what all the other detectives and units assisting in the case are doing or have done. This can be difficult as most police officers have type-A personalities and will almost always go above and beyond their normal duties.
When I arrived at the crime scene, I was rushed by a flurry of officers and detectives. In the forty-five minutes it took to get from my home to the crime scene, officers and detectives who were on scene had identified a potential suspect and were actively looking for the person. This is when it becomes difficult as a case agent since you have to control everyone else’s overwhelming desire to put handcuffs on a suspect and then hand the individual to you to figure out the probable cause. A professional detective has to be methodical and logical when handling a complex investigation. You also have to be careful not to be dismissive of an officer’s enthusiasm because as a detective you need all the information you can get, in this case and any future cases. Consequently, I listened to everyone shouting out why Deshawn was the suspect and all the places he frequented, his criminal history, and how he matched the physical description given by the victim.
Normal protocol for investigations where detectives are called to the scene hours after the incident occurred calls for the detectives and supervisors to be given a briefing by first responders. This gets all the parties involved in the investigation on the same page so that everyone has the same information.
Over the course of my career, I’ve learned that briefings can be biased in nature. As a detective, you have to take in the information, but without evidence or witness statements to support that information, you cannot take it as a fact. It’s not that you don’t trust your fellow officers, but we’re all subject to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when we think we are right about something and then form our explanations around our presumptions to support what we think. This happens all the time in law enforcement and in society.
In the incident briefing, I learned that the Mesa Police received a 911 call stating that a man was yelling for help as he was hanging over the side of a two-story parking garage. Witnesses were walking back to their vehicles after attending a Memorial Day event. As the man was hanging from the side of the parking garage, a one-armed man was hitting or stabbing the victim’s hands in an attempt to make him let go. The victim eventually let go and fell to the ground, and his head struck a concrete curb. The bystanders rushed to the victim’s aid and noticed he was bleeding not just from the head but also from his chest. A SWAT officer was in the area doing directed patrol for the special event; he heard the radio traffic about the injured man and quickly responded to the scene. He was the first officer on scene. Being a SWAT officer, he had been trained in attending to traumatic situations, and he began assessing the victim. The SWAT officer noticed the victim had been stabbed several times in the chest and had stabbing-type wounds on his forearms and hands. The SWAT officer was present in the briefing and told us the victim was conscious when he attended to him. The victim was able to give his name and describe the man who stabbed him as Deshawn, a homeless male who was missing his lower right arm. The victim told the SWAT officer Deshawn had been arrested many times by the Mesa Police and they should know who he is.
A patrol sergeant interjected that the victim was in critical condition and was immediately rushed to surgery when he arrived at the hospital. The extent of his injuries was not known, but hospital staff stated the victim had numerous stab wounds to the upper torso and was bleeding internally.
A fellow detective chimed in that he was in the area when the call was initiated, and he arrived on scene with most of the patrol officers. He identified two witnesses who told him they heard the victim yelling for help and saw him hanging from the side of the garage. As the victim was yelling for help, they saw a male stabbing the victim’s hands. Both witnesses recalled the attacker was using his left hand to stab the victim. Both witnesses stated they would recognize the attacker if they saw him again. The assisting detective continued and said that he created a photo lineup and showed it to the two witnesses, who positively identified the attacker as Deshawn.
As the briefing continued, a patrol officer spoke up that he routinely patrolled this area, and he had contacted Deshawn many times. Deshawn did not have an address and had been arrested several times for trespassing and public intoxication. The officer confirmed Deshawn was missing the lower portion of his right arm. Finally, I was told the victim’s backpack and a lot of blood was on the second floor of the parking garage.
At the conclusion of the incident briefing, the sergeant usually makes case assignments. I was already assigned as a case agent. Normally, a detective would be assigned to conduct the crime scene investigation and another detective would be assigned to interview witnesses. However, since this seemed to be a straightforward case, the sergeant decided to send the other detectives home and I would take care of anything that needed to be done. The sergeant coordinated with the supervisor of the undercover unit that was looking for Deshawn and told them to contact me when they found him. While I was looking at the crime scene and planning the collection of evidence on the top floor of the garage, the sergeant called me and told me he was on his way home for dinner. As I mentioned before, the sergeant in this case was new to investigations.
As a case agent, you have to always be prepared for the next stage in the investigation. I was mentally preparing for Deshawn’s apprehension. I knew once he was in custody I would have to write a physical characteristics search warrant for his fingerprints and DNA. The victim’s property was scattered all around the top floor of the parking garage. There was also a broken pair of eyeglasses that had blood on them. It looked like there was a fight at the top of the garage.
Case agents also have to think about what will be challenged by defense attorneys. In 2012, the Mesa Police Department did not have officer-worn body cameras, and there was not audio or video proof of what the victim told the SWAT officer about his assailant. I met with the SWAT officer and made sure that he understood the importance of his supplemental report. Being that the victim was in surgery and was not fully interviewed, probable cause to arrest Deshawn was primarily derived from what the SWAT officer heard from the victim. I wanted to convey the importance of this fact to the SWAT officer and make sure he fully documented every detail that he recalled about his conversation with the victim.
Police departments are tribal by design. Each division or unit has a very specific function, and the members of those divisions and units are very good at their duties for their particular function. Where law enforcement flounders at times is mixing the mentalities of different units. In the police world, detectives are considered “pencil pushers” and “desk jockeys.” This is true most of the time. For every hour in the field, I would spend double the hours in the office documenting my actions. I rarely put handcuffs on suspects and would only carry a sidearm (no extra magazines) and a cell phone (not a police radio). SWAT officers, on the other hand, spend hours in the field and minutes in the office. Most SWAT officers do not even write reports on their actions because they operate in a group setting. Usually the lowest-ranking SWAT officer will write a report on what the entire team did.
In this case, I explained to the SWAT officer that if the victim were to pass away, his report would be the only documentation of the victim’s statement. Legally, the victim would be making a dying declaration to the officer and the officer could testify to that in court. His conversation with the victim was the probable cause that we had to arrest Deshawn. I also reiterated that this case might not go to trial for several years, and a well-written report now would help the officer’s memory when he had to testify. The SWAT officer admitted he had not considered any of that. We discussed what the victim said, the victim’s voice inflections, and the victim’s mannerisms, and made sure all the details the officer remembered were accurately documented. After speaking with the SWAT officer, I felt confident that the victim believed Deshawn stabbed him.
Next, I met with each witness who had positively identified Deshawn and confirmed where they were standing when they saw the attack. I had photographs taken from the witnesses’ vantage points to prove they could actually see what they said they saw. Information is not a fact until there is evidence to support it.
Finally, I walked through the parking garage, starting at the first level and continuing up to the second level. I learned the parking garage was overflow parking for the Mesa Fire Department vehicles and open to the public. Because it was open to the public, I could search the property and collect any evidence. As I got to the second floor, I noticed there was a large amount of blood where the victim was hanging onto the side of the garage. But there was also blood on almost every vehicle parked on the second level. Every parking spot was occupied with fire department vehicles or personal vehicles, and there was blood and blood smears on a majority of those cars. The victim’s backpack was by a light pole at the entrance ramp to the second level. The nylon backpack had been ripped open, and personal belongings were scattered around the concrete floor. Next to the torn backpack were a lighter and a pair of eyeglasses, and each had blood smears on them. The contents of the backpack identified it as belonging to the victim.
I determined that from the torn backpack to the spot where the victim ultimately fell off the parking garage was over 600 feet. It appeared as though the victim was stabbed and was chased for that distance before he tried to avoid the suspect by jumping over the side of the parking garage. My impression was this was a more violent encounter than previously portrayed. The fact that the victim would risk a jump from the second floor of the garage led me to believe he was desperate to get away from his attacker.
As my crime scene investigation was ending, I got a call from the hospital where the victim was. I was told that he was being moved to “comfort care,” and it was just a matter of time before he passed away. The nurse told me the victim had been stabbed numerous times in the sides and chest; despite several hours in surgery, doctors were unable to control the internal bleeding. At that time, the sun was just coming up, and I had been on this case for about nine hours. I called the sergeant and notified him that the victim was going to die and we should get the Homicide Unit briefed on this case. He instructed me to call him when the victim passed and then he would contact the Homicide Unit.
An hour later, I was notified that the victim had passed away from his injuries. This was no longer an aggravated assault case but was now a homicide investigation. The protocol in this instance was the Homicide Unit sergeant would be contacted by my sergeant. I would give an incident briefing to homicide detectives, and they would take over the investigation. I began preparing my notes and getting all the information I was going to need to get the Homicide Unit up to speed on the case. I was also in constant communication with the detectives looking for Deshawn. However, I did not tell the apprehension detectives that the victim had passed away as I didn’t want them to overreact when confronting Deshawn. I only wanted Deshawn detained for questioning and to obtain fingerprints and DNA from him.
I met with homicide detectives in their conference room. Just as I was preparing to start the briefing, I received a phone call that Deshawn had been located at a hotel less than a mile from the crime scene. He was contacted by detectives and detained without incident. “Without incident” in the police world means a person was put in handcuffs and no force had to be used, the suspect was not injured, and no officers were injured. The detective told me Deshawn’s outer clothing was covered in blood.
After briefing the homicide detectives, I was told I was relieved and could go home. However, the new case agent, a senior homicide detective, complimented me on my attention to detail and suggested that it would be a great help if I monitored his interview as I knew so much about his case. Although I was exhausted, I caught my third wind and stayed to help out.
Deshawn was interviewed about his involvement in this incident and at first denied knowing the victim. Later, he admitted to knowing the victim but said he hadn’t seen him in years. Then he changed his mind and stated he had seen the victim earlier in the day and had an argument with him about a girl they were both dating. However, Deshawn denied being present during the murder and vividly recalled riding his bicycle to a nearby town that was twenty miles away on a day when it was over 100 degrees. He could not recall how he got to the hotel where police found him. In an almost five-hour interview, Deshawn gave inconsistent statements about where he was during the murder, on the day of the murder, and his relationship with the victim. After being confronted with his lies several times, he finally told the detective he wanted a lawyer and didn’t want to talk to police anymore.
Deshawn was booked for second-degree murder. Subsequent forensic processing of the eyeglasses and lighter found near the victim’s torn backpack revealed the blood belonged to the victim, and Deshawn’s fingerprints were found on the lighter. Interviews of the victim’s mother and friends led detectives to believe the motive for the fight was a dispute over a female. The female was interviewed and initially denied knowing the victim or the suspect but later admitted to knowing them both. Due to her heavy intoxication and drug use, she couldn’t remember what exactly the two men were angry with each other about.
Deshawn proclaimed his innocence, and this case went to trial. The trial took place two years after the murder occurred. A jury of his peers found Deshawn guilty of second-degree murder. Several times during my testimony, Deshawn blurted out my last name. When I was answering questions presented by the lawyers, Deshawn would yell out, “Those aren’t even real words! That shit’s made up!” and laugh. Deshawn and his lawyer were warned several times during my portion of testifying to remain quiet. I wasn’t present for all the witness testimony, but the homicide case agent told me Deshawn heckled every witness and despite being warned repeatedly to be respectful to witnesses was never removed from the court.
During the course of the trial, the defense raised two major challenges to the evidence against Deshawn. One of them was the “dying declaration” made by the victim to the SWAT officer. The defense questioned every word the SWAT officer heard and documented in his report, questioning if there was bias in his meaning and understanding of what the victim was saying. The defense wanted to convince the jury the SWAT officer misunderstood what the victim was saying. The second issue presented by the defense was the photo lineups. The defense objected to their use and stated the photographs selected for the lineup were prejudicial and biased the witnesses to inadvertently select Deshawn.
At this point in my career, I hadn’t really considered testing for the Homicide Unit since I didn’t believe I had the experience to handle those types of cases. But after working closely with the homicide detective that took over this case, I learned that I was already doing most of what was done in a homicide case. The detective encouraged me to test for the unit and would later become a mentor and good friend. I tested for the Homicide Unit one month later and four months later was accepted into the unit.

CHAPTER 1 – THE ONE-ARMED MAN

On Memorial Day weekend in 2012, I was one of three detectives who were on call for all of Mesa, Arizona. I wasn’t in the Homicide Unit; I was in the Robbery Unit. Early in the morning, I was called out to assist the Gang Unit with a shooting that had occurred at a house party. Gang detectives handled the major parts of the investigation, but they needed help with interviewing dozens of witnesses and party attendees. I completed my assigned tasks in the late afternoon and went home to have dinner with my friends. Just as I finished cooking, I received a call on the dreaded department cell phone.
The on-call sergeant told me a male had been stabbed and pushed off the top of a parking garage in downtown Mesa. There were several witnesses, and patrol officers were actively looking for a possible suspect. The victim also told a first responding officer that he knew the suspect; he said his name was Deshawn. I was told the victim was in critical condition and undergoing surgery at a local hospital. I was also informed that I would be the case agent.
To understand criminal investigations, you should know the jargon that is the titles assigned to various functions done by detectives. Case agent is the title given to the lead detective in the case. In the Mesa Police Department, a case agent is always a detective, not a supervisor (such as a sergeant or lieutenant). The supervisors make sure the case agent gets the resources he or she needs and updates executive staff members (assistant chiefs and the chief of police) on the case status. In the Mesa Police Department, supervisors for a specific unit did not have to have experience in that unit’s specialty. In most cases, supervisors did not have any expertise in the units they supervised, so they really relied heavily on the knowledge of their detectives. Supervisors were also responsible for administrative duties, including approving overtime and the verbiage used in charging documents. Supervisors acted as a safeguard to make sure detectives operated within department policies, state laws, and county attorney protocols. As a case agent, your main focus is identifying the person(s) who committed a crime and developing probable cause to support an arrest and conviction. I want to reiterate the word “conviction.” Patrol officers are trained to develop probable cause for an arrest; a professional detective develops probable cause to make an arrest and secure a conviction in court. A professional detective digs deeper into cases and explores every aspect of the case than the average patrol officer. The case agent is responsible for ensuring all the facts in the investigation are accurately presented to the county attorney, who formally charges a potential suspect. The case agent’s role is very demanding as it involves understanding what all the other detectives and units assisting in the case are doing or have done. This can be difficult as most police officers have type-A personalities and will almost always go above and beyond their normal duties.
When I arrived at the crime scene, I was rushed by a flurry of officers and detectives. In the forty-five minutes it took to get from my home to the crime scene, officers and detectives who were on scene had identified a potential suspect and were actively looking for the person. This is when it becomes difficult as a case agent since you have to control everyone else’s overwhelming desire to put handcuffs on a suspect and then hand the individual to you to figure out the probable cause. A professional detective has to be methodical and logical when handling a complex investigation. You also have to be careful not to be dismissive of an officer’s enthusiasm because as a detective you need all the information you can get, in this case and any future cases. Consequently, I listened to everyone shouting out why Deshawn was the suspect and all the places he frequented, his criminal history, and how he matched the physical description given by the victim.
Normal protocol for investigations where detectives are called to the scene hours after the incident occurred calls for the detectives and supervisors to be given a briefing by first responders. This gets all the parties involved in the investigation on the same page so that everyone has the same information.
Over the course of my career, I’ve learned that briefings can be biased in nature. As a detective, you have to take in the information, but without evidence or witness statements to support that information, you cannot take it as a fact. It’s not that you don’t trust your fellow officers, but we’re all subject to confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is when we think we are right about something and then form our explanations around our presumptions to support what we think. This happens all the time in law enforcement and in society.
In the incident briefing, I learned that the Mesa Police received a 911 call stating that a man was yelling for help as he was hanging over the side of a two-story parking garage. Witnesses were walking back to their vehicles after attending a Memorial Day event. As the man was hanging from the side of the parking garage, a one-armed man was hitting or stabbing the victim’s hands in an attempt to make him let go. The victim eventually let go and fell to the ground, and his head struck a concrete curb. The bystanders rushed to the victim’s aid and noticed he was bleeding not just from the head but also from his chest. A SWAT officer was in the area doing directed patrol for the special event; he heard the radio traffic about the injured man and quickly responded to the scene. He was the first officer on scene. Being a SWAT officer, he had been trained in attending to traumatic situations, and he began assessing the victim. The SWAT officer noticed the victim had been stabbed several times in the chest and had stabbing-type wounds on his forearms and hands. The SWAT officer was present in the briefing and told us the victim was conscious when he attended to him. The victim was able to give his name and describe the man who stabbed him as Deshawn, a homeless male who was missing his lower right arm. The victim told the SWAT officer Deshawn had been arrested many times by the Mesa Police and they should know who he is.
A patrol sergeant interjected that the victim was in critical condition and was immediately rushed to surgery when he arrived at the hospital. The extent of his injuries was not known, but hospital staff stated the victim had numerous stab wounds to the upper torso and was bleeding internally.
A fellow detective chimed in that he was in the area when the call was initiated, and he arrived on scene with most of the patrol officers. He identified two witnesses who told him they heard the victim yelling for help and saw him hanging from the side of the garage. As the victim was yelling for help, they saw a male stabbing the victim’s hands. Both witnesses recalled the attacker was using his left hand to stab the victim. Both witnesses stated they would recognize the attacker if they saw him again. The assisting detective continued and said that he created a photo lineup and showed it to the two witnesses, who positively identified the attacker as Deshawn.
As the briefing continued, a patrol officer spoke up that he routinely patrolled this area, and he had contacted Deshawn many times. Deshawn did not have an address and had been arrested several times for trespassing and public intoxication. The officer confirmed Deshawn was missing the lower portion of his right arm. Finally, I was told the victim’s backpack and a lot of blood was on the second floor of the parking garage.
At the conclusion of the incident briefing, the sergeant usually makes case assignments. I was already assigned as a case agent. Normally, a detective would be assigned to conduct the crime scene investigation and another detective would be assigned to interview witnesses. However, since this seemed to be a straightforward case, the sergeant decided to send the other detectives home and I would take care of anything that needed to be done. The sergeant coordinated with the supervisor of the undercover unit that was looking for Deshawn and told them to contact me when they found him. While I was looking at the crime scene and planning the collection of evidence on the top floor of the garage, the sergeant called me and told me he was on his way home for dinner. As I mentioned before, the sergeant in this case was new to investigations.
As a case agent, you have to always be prepared for the next stage in the investigation. I was mentally preparing for Deshawn’s apprehension. I knew once he was in custody I would have to write a physical characteristics search warrant for his fingerprints and DNA. The victim’s property was scattered all around the top floor of the parking garage. There was also a broken pair of eyeglasses that had blood on them. It looked like there was a fight at the top of the garage.
Case agents also have to think about what will be challenged by defense attorneys. In 2012, the Mesa Police Department did not have officer-worn body cameras, and there was not audio or video proof of what the victim told the SWAT officer about his assailant. I met with the SWAT officer and made sure that he understood the importance of his supplemental report. Being that the victim was in surgery and was not fully interviewed, probable cause to arrest Deshawn was primarily derived from what the SWAT officer heard from the victim. I wanted to convey the importance of this fact to the SWAT officer and make sure he fully documented every detail that he recalled about his conversation with the victim.
Police departments are tribal by design. Each division or unit has a very specific function, and the members of those divisions and units are very good at their duties for their particular function. Where law enforcement flounders at times is mixing the mentalities of different units. In the police world, detectives are considered “pencil pushers” and “desk jockeys.” This is true most of the time. For every hour in the field, I would spend double the hours in the office documenting my actions. I rarely put handcuffs on suspects and would only carry a sidearm (no extra magazines) and a cell phone (not a police radio). SWAT officers, on the other hand, spend hours in the field and minutes in the office. Most SWAT officers do not even write reports on their actions because they operate in a group setting. Usually the lowest-ranking SWAT officer will write a report on what the entire team did.
In this case, I explained to the SWAT officer that if the victim were to pass away, his report would be the only documentation of the victim’s statement. Legally, the victim would be making a dying declaration to the officer and the officer could testify to that in court. His conversation with the victim was the probable cause that we had to arrest Deshawn. I also reiterated that this case might not go to trial for several years, and a well-written report now would help the officer’s memory when he had to testify. The SWAT officer admitted he had not considered any of that. We discussed what the victim said, the victim’s voice inflections, and the victim’s mannerisms, and made sure all the details the officer remembered were accurately documented. After speaking with the SWAT officer, I felt confident that the victim believed Deshawn stabbed him.
Next, I met with each witness who had positively identified Deshawn and confirmed where they were standing when they saw the attack. I had photographs taken from the witnesses’ vantage points to prove they could actually see what they said they saw. Information is not a fact until there is evidence to support it.
Finally, I walked through the parking garage, starting at the first level and continuing up to the second level. I learned the parking garage was overflow parking for the Mesa Fire Department vehicles and open to the public. Because it was open to the public, I could search the property and collect any evidence. As I got to the second floor, I noticed there was a large amount of blood where the victim was hanging onto the side of the garage. But there was also blood on almost every vehicle parked on the second level. Every parking spot was occupied with fire department vehicles or personal vehicles, and there was blood and blood smears on a majority of those cars. The victim’s backpack was by a light pole at the entrance ramp to the second level. The nylon backpack had been ripped open, and personal belongings were scattered around the concrete floor. Next to the torn backpack were a lighter and a pair of eyeglasses, and each had blood smears on them. The contents of the backpack identified it as belonging to the victim.
I determined that from the torn backpack to the spot where the victim ultimately fell off the parking garage was over 600 feet. It appeared as though the victim was stabbed and was chased for that distance before he tried to avoid the suspect by jumping over the side of the parking garage. My impression was this was a more violent encounter than previously portrayed. The fact that the victim would risk a jump from the second floor of the garage led me to believe he was desperate to get away from his attacker.
As my crime scene investigation was ending, I got a call from the hospital where the victim was. I was told that he was being moved to “comfort care,” and it was just a matter of time before he passed away. The nurse told me the victim had been stabbed numerous times in the sides and chest; despite several hours in surgery, doctors were unable to control the internal bleeding. At that time, the sun was just coming up, and I had been on this case for about nine hours. I called the sergeant and notified him that the victim was going to die and we should get the Homicide Unit briefed on this case. He instructed me to call him when the victim passed and then he would contact the Homicide Unit.
An hour later, I was notified that the victim had passed away from his injuries. This was no longer an aggravated assault case but was now a homicide investigation. The protocol in this instance was the Homicide Unit sergeant would be contacted by my sergeant. I would give an incident briefing to homicide detectives, and they would take over the investigation. I began preparing my notes and getting all the information I was going to need to get the Homicide Unit up to speed on the case. I was also in constant communication with the detectives looking for Deshawn. However, I did not tell the apprehension detectives that the victim had passed away as I didn’t want them to overreact when confronting Deshawn. I only wanted Deshawn detained for questioning and to obtain fingerprints and DNA from him.
I met with homicide detectives in their conference room. Just as I was preparing to start the briefing, I received a phone call that Deshawn had been located at a hotel less than a mile from the crime scene. He was contacted by detectives and detained without incident. “Without incident” in the police world means a person was put in handcuffs and no force had to be used, the suspect was not injured, and no officers were injured. The detective told me Deshawn’s outer clothing was covered in blood.
After briefing the homicide detectives, I was told I was relieved and could go home. However, the new case agent, a senior homicide detective, complimented me on my attention to detail and suggested that it would be a great help if I monitored his interview as I knew so much about his case. Although I was exhausted, I caught my third wind and stayed to help out.
Deshawn was interviewed about his involvement in this incident and at first denied knowing the victim. Later, he admitted to knowing the victim but said he hadn’t seen him in years. Then he changed his mind and stated he had seen the victim earlier in the day and had an argument with him about a girl they were both dating. However, Deshawn denied being present during the murder and vividly recalled riding his bicycle to a nearby town that was twenty miles away on a day when it was over 100 degrees. He could not recall how he got to the hotel where police found him. In an almost five-hour interview, Deshawn gave inconsistent statements about where he was during the murder, on the day of the murder, and his relationship with the victim. After being confronted with his lies several times, he finally told the detective he wanted a lawyer and didn’t want to talk to police anymore.
Deshawn was booked for second-degree murder. Subsequent forensic processing of the eyeglasses and lighter found near the victim’s torn backpack revealed the blood belonged to the victim, and Deshawn’s fingerprints were found on the lighter. Interviews of the victim’s mother and friends led detectives to believe the motive for the fight was a dispute over a female. The female was interviewed and initially denied knowing the victim or the suspect but later admitted to knowing them both. Due to her heavy intoxication and drug use, she couldn’t remember what exactly the two men were angry with each other about.
Deshawn proclaimed his innocence, and this case went to trial. The trial took place two years after the murder occurred. A jury of his peers found Deshawn guilty of second-degree murder. Several times during my testimony, Deshawn blurted out my last name. When I was answering questions presented by the lawyers, Deshawn would yell out, “Those aren’t even real words! That shit’s made up!” and laugh. Deshawn and his lawyer were warned several times during my portion of testifying to remain quiet. I wasn’t present for all the witness testimony, but the homicide case agent told me Deshawn heckled every witness and despite being warned repeatedly to be respectful to witnesses was never removed from the court.
During the course of the trial, the defense raised two major challenges to the evidence against Deshawn. One of them was the “dying declaration” made by the victim to the SWAT officer. The defense questioned every word the SWAT officer heard and documented in his report, questioning if there was bias in his meaning and understanding of what the victim was saying. The defense wanted to convince the jury the SWAT officer misunderstood what the victim was saying. The second issue presented by the defense was the photo lineups. The defense objected to their use and stated the photographs selected for the lineup were prejudicial and biased the witnesses to inadvertently select Deshawn.
At this point in my career, I hadn’t really considered testing for the Homicide Unit since I didn’t believe I had the experience to handle those types of cases. But after working closely with the homicide detective that took over this case, I learned that I was already doing most of what was done in a homicide case. The detective encouraged me to test for the unit and would later become a mentor and good friend. I tested for the Homicide Unit one month later and four months later was accepted into the unit.