215: The Death of Annie Burkett Shell

WEBVTT

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Southern fried True crime covers cases that
are not suitable for young listeners, and

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there may also be some explicit language
used. Listener discretion is advised. I

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don't usually cover cases involving children.
I know that for many people it's something

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they simply can't stomach, especially parents
and caregivers, and I obviously count myself

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in that group. I struggle deeply
with covering children. This isn't a story

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I wanted to tell just for the
sake of telling it. It involves an

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insidious type of crime. I wanted
to bring more attention to something unique to

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the deaths of babies and toddlers that
we don't see in the deaths of older

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children or adults. It is inflicted
by adults who should and do know better.

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For some, it is a brief
moment of anger and frustration, and

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they may not realiz how grievously they
can injure a child. But others know

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what they are doing is vicious and
wrong, that it is child abuse,

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but they still don't know it could
end in death. The first time I

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remember hearing about this kind of abuse
that led to the death of a child

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was in the late nineties, when
an American case when international Thirty years later,

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Shaken baby syndrome cases are still often
national news because despite how long the

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medical community has agreed about the syndrome, in courtrooms, expert opinions suddenly began

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changing, and in the media it
started to be considered controversial, which is

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unconscionable to many people. Parents and
medical professionals alike do not see a gray

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area. They see a public health
issue. It is child abuse that can

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lead to death, and calling it
controversial is endangering children. Welcome to Episode

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two fifteen, the death of Annie
Burkett Shell. Today's case takes place in

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a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
a neighborhood further away from the hustle and

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bustle of downtown, where kids play
in front yards, neighbors stop to chat,

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and things are a little quieter.
The morning of August ninth, twenty

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eighteen was warm and overcast, with
the threat of an afternoon thunderstorm predicted.

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Tiffany and David Shell would have had
their hands full that morning in their usual

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bustling schedule. It was a school
day, and the Shell household in the

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Chattanooga neighborhood of Hickson just northeast of
the city was a hive of activity as

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several of the couple's school aged children
prepared to head out the door. David

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and Tiffany had plans themselves that day, including having lunch together. Around eight

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thirty am, twenty six year old
Brandy Gannuonsio arrived at the Shell house to

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collect the two youngest members of the
household, two year old Annie and her

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younger sister, Peyton. Brandy would
be babysitting the girls that day, at

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least until David and Tiffany finished up
their lunch date. The Shells knew Brandy

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well as a family friend, and
her job was babysitting children in her home.

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She was trustworthy, reliable, caring, and had been babysitting Annie and

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Peyton for around five months. Annie
Elizabeth Burkettshell came into the world on August

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twenty eighth, twenty fifteen. David
and Tiffany were actually Annie's maternal grandparents and

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her legal guardians, always referring to
the girls as their daughters. The late

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summer of two twenty eighteen was an
exciting time for Annie and her parents.

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Her third birthday was fast approaching,
and as any parent can tell you there

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is a dramatic shift in toddlers around
that age. It feels like overnight your

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baby has become a preschooler. We've
heard about the terrible twos for decades,

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but parents now joke about the age
of three, calling their spunky little ones

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three nators. It seems like Annie, who was about three weeks away from

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turning three, was still the sweet
little ray of sunshine the Shells thought of

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as their baby. But of course
she had a definitive, little upbeat personality

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already. They said. She loved
playing outside, learning gymnastics, and of

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course the color pink. She was
thriving. Their baby was growing up.

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That day, August ninth, Brandy
drove the girls as usual, the ten

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to fifteen minute drive back to her
house in the Hamilton County community of Saudi

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Daisy. Like Hixon, Saudi Daisy
is northeast of the downtown area, but

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it's just outside Chattanooga city limits.
Its unusual name comes from the merging of

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the two communities of Sadi and Daisy
back in nineteen sixty nine, and is

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today home to a little under fourteen
thousand people. The morning passed quietly enough,

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but at around twelve fifteen PM,
a call came in to nine to

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one one from Brandy's home on Vine
Street. The desperate babysit or reported that

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something was terribly wrong with Annie.
The toddler was experiencing some sort of seizure

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and Brandy had no idea what was
causing it. Brandy then called David Shell,

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telling him Annie had a seizure,
fell over and hit her head.

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They agreed that Brandy would ride in
the back of the ambulance with Annie,

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and David and Tiffany would meet them
at Erlinger Hospital. As hospital staff ruled

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out neurological conditions in the following hours
and days, they told David and Tiffany

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that the seizures Annie was experiencing were
not brought on by natural causes. The

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toddler had sustained blunt forced trauma to
her head. She had a visible bruise

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on her face. Whether it was
accidental or intentionally inflicted was difficult to tell

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at that point. Sadly, further
scans eventually showed Annie was unlikely to recover

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any brain function. There was also
bruising at the front of Annie's heart and

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a two centimeter split and her esophagus
on August twenty first, twelve days after

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Annie was rushed to the hospital,
and just a week shy of her third

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birthday, she passed away. There
had been no hope that she would recover.

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Annie's life support was withdrawn at the
decision of David and Tiffany, and

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the little girl died surrounded by her
shattered family. Annie's autopsy showed she died

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as a result of blunt force trauma
to the head and chest, causing internal

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bruising and bleeding. The medical examiner
found bleeding around her spinal cord cavity and

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in the surrounding tissue, as well
as bleeding around her optic nerves behind her

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eyes. The manner of death was
homicide, with a blood clot on her

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brain, indicating that her injuries were
sustained very suddenly around the time that she

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was in Brandy's care. Annie's devastated
family still didn't understand what could have happened

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to cause such serious head injuries.
Just the night before the incident, Annie

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had been running around at home,
laughing and playing happily. She showed no

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sign of illness or distress. How
could this buoyant little girl suddenly be on

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the verge of death less than twenty
four hours later. I'm going to pause

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now for a short commercial break from
the day Annie was rushed to the hospital.

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The wheels had started turning behind the
scenes. Hospital staff notified the Saudi

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Daisy Police Department that they had grave
concerns about the nature of Annie's injuries and

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what exactly had occurred in the hours
and minutes leading up to Brandy's nine to

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one one call. And of course, Annie's sister, Peyton, had also

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been in Brandy's care that day.
Because of the suspicions that Annie had been

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a victim of child abuse, Peyton
was also examined. She had dried blood

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around her nostrils and swelling and bruises
around her nose. Her parents told local

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news Channel three that she had gotten
some bumps and bruises, but no charges

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were ever brought about Peyton's injuries.
Investigators learned that when paramedics first arrived at

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Brandy's home, her boyfriend was also
there, twenty seven year old Benjamin Spencer

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Brown. Ben and Brandy had a
baby girl together, and he would later

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testify that he lived with Brandy and
his daughter, But the Shells didn't know

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that David and Tiffany didn't know Ben
was at Brandy's house that morning. In

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fact, they had never even met
the man. It was only after Annie

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was taken to the hospital that the
Shells first heard about any other adult being

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present while Brandy was caring for their
children. Lieutenant Jake Lrod interviewed Brandy and

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Ben. Brandy said she was home
all morning and saw Annie have a seizure

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in the bathroom before falling and hitting
her head. Ben supported Brandy's story,

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saying he didn't know what it calls
the mark on Annie's face. Lieutenant Elrod

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had a niggling feeling about the couple's
accounts. Something didn't feel right, but

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without something more substantial to go on, Elrod wouldn't even be able to get

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a search warrant for Brandy's home.
But the investigator felt like Benjamin Brown wasn't

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the kind of guy anyone would necessarily
want around their kids, and if the

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Shells had known about his history,
they wouldn't have allowed their children to stay

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at Brandy's house if Ben was there. And he wasn't wrong about that feeling.

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Brown did have quite a history.
He had been smoking marijuana daily since

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he was twelve years old. After
leaving school in the ninth grade, Ben

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had worked as a roofer. He
also had a prior record for two charges

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of theft, violating pearl, failure
to appear in court, and the most

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concerning to assault charges. In fifteen, Benjamin Brown viciously assaulted his sixty five

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year old father in law and former
boss, Claude Stamey, on mister Stamey's

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front porch. Ben attacked his father
in law because he used to work for

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mister Stamey, but he had fired
Ben when he caught him stealing. He

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beat the older man, who was
recovering from open heart surgery, with a

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metal statue and then pulled a knife
on him before police arrived. Brown pled

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guilty in twenty fifteen to a lesser
charge of simple assault. Claude would get

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another chance to testify about his son
in law because of Annie's case. At

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the time of Annie's death, Benjamin
was in the process of divorcing his wife

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of several years and mother of their
young child, so he had two very

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young children of his own. Brandy's
cell phone records revealed just after midday on

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August ninth, there was a number
of incoming and ongoing calls, including her

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call to David Shell telling him about
Annie's alleged seizure and accident. There were

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also unanswered calls from Benjamin, as
well as text messages between the couple.

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After Annie arrived at the hospital,
Brandy texted her boyfriend she fell in the

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bathroom and hit her head, to
which Ben responded okay. Brandy's later text

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messages to Ben from the hospital revealed
she knew they were under suspicion early on.

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One text said cops got called,
with another reading CPS. They think

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I'll beat her the hospital does,
Ben replied, wanting to know if the

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Shells or he and Brandy were being
investigated. Brandy didn't answer this question,

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instead just replying that she didn't want
to babysit anymore. She did text several

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other people that day. One was
a friend, and she also texted former

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employers. It became clear to law
enforcement that Brandy had lied from the beginning

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about the extent of Ben's involvement.
Why else would she text him from the

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hospital hours later to tell him what
had happened if they had both been at

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home at the time. Investigators then
learned that on the morning in question,

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Brandy had visited a local hair salon
that was just a two minute drive from

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her house. When they contacted the
business to verify her visit and examine videotape

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from the salon's security camera, they
saw that just after nine am on the

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day Brandy picked up Annie and Peyton. She entered the salon, but she

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was alone. Brandy didn't leave until
two and a half hours later, when

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she came out and sat in her
car at eleven thirty. After a few

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minutes, she went back inside.
She came back out at noon and appeared

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to be in a real rush to
get in her car and leave. Where

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were the little girls she was supposed
to be caring for. It was obvious

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now that Brandy wasn't at home at
all when Annie sustained her injuries. One

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of the first responders had already told
police that something seemed off when they arrived

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at the home, as in Brandy
and Ben's accounts of what happened to Annie,

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like they were trying to get their
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00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:26.920
a DC health dot com. Funeral
services for any Elizabeth Burkett Shell were held

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on the afternoon of August twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, at Williamson and Son's

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Funeral Home in Saudi Daisy visitation for
family and friends was held the night before

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she was laid to rest at Hamilton
Memorial Gardens in Hixon, Tennessee, following

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her funeral service. Three days after
her funeral, her family released balloons on

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what would have been Annie's third birthday. On September twenty sixth, Benjamin Brown

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and Brandy gun Nuzio were arrested and
soon after indicted by a grand jury for

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their roles in Annie's death. Ben
was charged with felony murder and the death

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of a child in addition to aggravate
a child abuse and released on a one

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hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond.
If convicted, he faced life in prison

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without the possibility of parole. Brandy
was charged with making false reports for lying

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to police and hospital staff, and
two counts of being an accessory. After

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the fact, she was released on
a fifty one thousand dollars bond. Police

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were still investigating, so they were
limited in the amount of information they could

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pass on to the grieving family.
So it was all terribly confusing to David

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and Tiffany, who grappled to understand
what was going on and why Benjamin's bond

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was so low. The Shells had
no specific details, let alone any clue

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as to a possible motive. In
March twenty nineteen, David Shell reached out

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to the media questioning Benjamin Brown's bond
following the news of a man accused of

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homicide and sitting in jail on a
two million dollar bond after allegedly killing his

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four week old baby girl. I
can't even imagine the anger David must have

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felt when he heard that other man's
bond amount. Why would it be so

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different because he was the child's father. You would actually think that a stranger's

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bond might be higher. Domestic murders, be they spouses or children, are

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much more common, the nuances and
possibility of accidents would be more understandable,

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if not forgivable. But when a
stranger kills your little girl, and the

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bond is so low, I don't
know how you could reconcile this, David

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had learned, though it wasn't public
information at the time about ben prior criminal

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history, which David felt should have
been given more weight when the original bond

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amount was set. In Tennessee,
bond amounts vary based on a number of

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reasons, including a suspects tied to
the community, and the amount of evidence

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the police have, not just the
accused person's prior criminal history. David later

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told WTVC that before Annie went with
Brandy that morning, she was hollering out

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to him like she didn't want to
go. David said, I don't know

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if something had been happening before,
and she was just scared and she wasn't

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able to tell me. You can
just imagine how his mind must have been

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spinning thinking back, so afraid that
he had missed some sign from Annie that

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something was wrong in Brandy's house.
Kids usually cry when they go to the

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sitters. It's hard for parents,
but you get used to it, especially

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since most kids calm down so quickly
after a parent is out of sight,

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as long as they feel safe.
But David and Tiffany had never felt any

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reason to worry. At the accused
couple's arraignment on October fifth, Benjamin Brown

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and Brandy g Nuzio pled not guilty
outside the courtroom. After another hearing a

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week later, when the judge granted
the couple two months to retain attorneys.

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Brandy made no comment, but Ben
didn't shy away from the TV cameras.

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Before swaggering off, he told WTVC, we didn't do nothing wrong to nobody.

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The little girl had a seizure and
that was it. Unfortunately, the

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couple's upcoming court appearances coincided with the
global pandemic COVID nineteen caused massive court delays,

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and many cases were caught in the
limbo of the huge system backlog.

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To the frustration of the show,
Ben and Brandy's court dates kept getting pushed

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back. Annie's heartbroken family could do
nothing but wait, but they made sure

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the public did not forget about their
little girl, starting a Justice for Annie

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campaign on social media within seven days
after she was rushed to the hospital.

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Before she passed away, local businesses
put Justice for Annie signs in their windows,

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and the Shells gave media interviews whenever
they could. Thirty year old Benjamin

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Brown's trial finally began on February ninth, twenty twenty two, before Judge Barry

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Stillman, David and Tiffany Shell were
there every day, praying and believing they

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would see justice done for Annie.
According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press,

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the court was shown video taken from
inside the Shell home in the days leading

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up to the assault. David testified
he had installed a Google Nest camera as

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a way to monitor the kids to
sure they were safe. In the video,

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Annie played happily in the company of
her family, corroborating David and Tiffany's

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00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:12.240
accounts that the toddler was perfectly fine
the night before she went to Brandy's.

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More video was shown, this time
of Brandy arriving at the hair salon in

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Saudi Daisy alone around nine am the
next day. Jurors also heard about the

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text messages between Brandy and Ben on
the day Annie was injured. The timeline

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was damning. Brandy is seen coming
out of the salon and sitting in her

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car at around eleven thirty. Then
at twelve pm she is rushing out and

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is back at her home by twelve
fifteen pm. When she called nine one

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one, the prosecution called Hamilton County
Chief Medical Examiner doctor James Metcalfe to the

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stand. He testified that the seriousness
of Annie's injuries suggested she had received repeated

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blows in the form of being violently
shaken, causing something most commonly referred to

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as shaken baby syndrome, but also
recently known as shaken impact syndrome or abusive

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head trauma. But doctor metcalf also
said Annie's injuries could have been caused by

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someone shaking her and hunching her.
According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons,

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shaken baby syndrome, as the most
common name implies, is a serious

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form of child abuse as well as
a major public health issue. It is

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usually inflicted by an angry or frustrated
parent or caregiver, usually male. Usually

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when a child exhibits prolonged bouts of
inconsolable crying. The victim, who is

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typically between two and four months old, suffers a brain injury from bruising or

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bleeding, which can result in serious
permanent harm, disability, and sometimes death.

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This is due to violence shaking,
not the type of movement caused by

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going over a bump in the car, bouncing your child on your knee,

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or even in a fall. During
deliberate shaking, the baby or the child's

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head moves back and forth, similar
to extreme whiplash, causing her brain to

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move around and impact against her skull. The scenario or explanation I just gave

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as for a baby much younger than
Annie, But it's not like it never

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happens to children her age. While
statistically, infants are more likely to be

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00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.200
the victims of this kind of abuse, according to the CDC, children up

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00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:48.240
to five have also been victims,
though exact statistics are difficult to gather.

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It's found to be the leading cause
of child death resulting from abuse. In

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the US. There are up to
one three hundred deaths a year attributed to

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00:27:00.359 --> 00:27:06.880
SBS. Infants and toddlers who have
been shaken exhibit a range of symptoms presenting

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anywhere from between immediately to within hours, including drowsiness, vomiting, seizures,

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unconsciousness, breathing problems, pallor to
the skin, and cardiac arrest. More

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00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.960
recently, mostly in legal terms,
there is what is called a triad of

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internal symptoms that pediatricians and emergency physicians
are educated to look for subdural and retinal

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hemorrhages and brain swelling. Annie had
all three of these symptoms. She also

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had a bruise on her chest.
Think of how you hold a baby,

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you or child up where your hands
would be your thumbs at the center of

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00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:56.200
her chest. If she was gripped
hard enough, maybe that's what could have

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caused the bruise, rather than being
struck. If you have ever watched a

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00:28:00.640 --> 00:28:07.359
video demonstration of this kind of shaking, it is sickening, but the majority

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00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:12.839
of people who do it are not
strangers to the child. Parents and caregivers

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00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:18.920
who inflict the sort of abuse are
likely to have a history of family violence

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00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:26.640
and or substance abuse, which definitely
describes Benjamin Brown. Environmental stressors like social

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00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:33.559
and financial factors also increase the risk
of abuse of head trauma. It's unstable

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00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:41.119
homes, feelings of isolation. But
no matter how desperate things are, help

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00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:47.400
is available and this sort of abuse
is entirely preventable. I mean stating the

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obvious. Parenting is hard and no
one should feel ashamed to reach out for

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help. But you can imagine the
stigma a parent would feel about this kind

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00:28:57.559 --> 00:29:03.000
of frustration and anger at a helpless
baby. How do you admit that to

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00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:10.559
someone. It's about losing control with
a tiny human being who cannot help their

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00:29:10.559 --> 00:29:17.519
behavior. It's not a punishment gone
too far. But it's also not a

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00:29:17.559 --> 00:29:23.960
deliberate murder. That's why it's such
a complicated public health issue. But recently

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00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:30.920
judges have been ruling differently in appellate
courts, citing a lack of cohesive opinions

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about sbs and the medical community as
a whole. This past September, a

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00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:42.759
New Jersey court called shaken baby syndrome
junk science when they ruled in favor of

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00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:48.759
a dual appellate case combined for two
fathers. There is a lot of controversy

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00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:56.839
over these kind of rulings on both
sides, and the sentences for offenders can

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00:29:56.839 --> 00:30:00.960
be all over the place. There
is a father on death row in Texas.

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00:30:00.759 --> 00:30:06.200
A North Carolina father took an alfred
plea and got a five year sentence.

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00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:12.400
An article from Slate by an incarcerated
journalist named John Jay Lennon, who

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00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:18.880
works with the Prison Letters Project for
Yale Law, was published just last week

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00:30:18.160 --> 00:30:25.920
about the controversy, citing the cases
I just mentioned. Despite the problems Lenin

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00:30:26.039 --> 00:30:32.640
was investigating what dueling medical professionals as
well as judges are recently finding. There

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00:30:32.720 --> 00:30:37.319
was a review of one thousand,
four hundred appellate rulings between two thousand and

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00:30:37.359 --> 00:30:44.519
eight and twenty eighteen. Only three
percent of the cases were overturned. In

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00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:52.359
understanding the controversy, it is mainly
pediatricians and emergency physicians versus theoretical scientific opinion.

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I can understand how every case has
different nuances, but I know personally

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00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.240
I would rather trust the opinion of
doctors who have actually treated children, not

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00:31:04.400 --> 00:31:12.680
scientists conducting biomechanical tests. I always
do last minute research for any new sources

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00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:18.039
on different issues before I record,
and like I told you in my last

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00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:22.480
episode, it often results in rabbit
holes. It also happened in this case.

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00:31:23.319 --> 00:31:27.359
I am old enough to remember the
court case known as the Nanny Trial

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00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:33.319
from nineteen ninety seven. A British
aupair was convicted by a jury of second

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00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:38.640
degree murder in an SBS case,
only for the trial judge to reduce her

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00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:45.519
conviction to involuntary manslaughter and sentence her
to time served. The case wasn't just

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00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:52.759
big here, it made international headlines. The judge said he based his decision

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00:31:52.839 --> 00:31:56.720
on his belief that the oapair injured
the baby in a state of confusion,

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00:31:57.000 --> 00:32:05.960
inexperience, frustration, immaturity, and
some anger, but not malice. So

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00:32:06.119 --> 00:32:09.200
as I am searching for more sources, I found a long form article by

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00:32:09.240 --> 00:32:15.839
doctor Sanche Gupta of CNN from two
years ago. He was investigating another case

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00:32:16.119 --> 00:32:22.559
where charges were actually dropped against a
babysitter of a child who had been diagnosed

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00:32:22.839 --> 00:32:30.599
with shaken baby syndrome or abusive head
trauma. The defense took nine different opinions

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00:32:30.640 --> 00:32:35.519
of physicians who did not see the
child and gave them to the medical examiner,

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00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:40.200
who, it would seem under pressure, changed her opinion from homicide to

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00:32:40.319 --> 00:32:46.480
undetermined, and the charges against the
sitter were dropped. There was some discussion

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00:32:46.839 --> 00:32:52.400
on how or why the defense was
allowed to talk to the state's medical examiner

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00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:57.880
instead of putting those nine doctors on
the stand at trial. The charges were

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00:32:57.920 --> 00:33:02.359
just suddenly dropped, and that doctor
had resigned from the state's em office and

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00:33:02.519 --> 00:33:08.200
changed her opinion after she was no
longer working there, resulting in this baby

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00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:15.119
and her parents being denied their day
in court. Doctor Alice Newton, the

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00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:21.359
child abuse pediatrician doctor Gupta, interviewed
about this case, said, these doctors

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00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:25.599
the defense used are the kind of
paid experts who testified to the same theories

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00:33:25.920 --> 00:33:31.480
all over the country, regardless of
whether their theory actually fits the medical evidence.

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00:33:32.799 --> 00:33:37.720
Goup decided what he called a cottage
industry of paid experts. And though

358
00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:43.799
I have done research over the years
about paid experts and often talk about the

359
00:33:43.799 --> 00:33:47.519
battle of experts in court, I
did not know there was actually an online

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00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:53.359
expert witness calculator you could refer to. I can't believe I've never come across

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00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:59.920
it, and it was eye opening. But also, according to GUPDA,

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00:34:00.599 --> 00:34:07.960
twenty four domestic and international medical organizations
acknowledge abusive head trauma as an accepted diagnosis.

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00:34:08.599 --> 00:34:15.320
In other words, shaken baby syndrome
is real and after a few high

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00:34:15.320 --> 00:34:21.360
profile reversals in these cases, a
survey of specialists, including those from pediatric

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00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:28.159
neurosurgery, pathology, radiology, critical
care, and pediatrics, showed that the

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00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:35.679
vast majority believed in the science behind
abusive head trauma or SBS. The American

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00:34:35.719 --> 00:34:42.920
Academy of Pediatrics president doctor Lee Saviobiers
told CNN there really is not a controversy

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00:34:42.960 --> 00:34:47.360
in medicine about the existence of abusive
head trauma. The science behind it is

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00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:54.920
really quite clear, but still an
appellate judge actually ruled it as junk science,

370
00:34:55.639 --> 00:35:01.119
setting precedent for a syndrome first to
discovered in nineteen forty six, then

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00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:07.719
coming into our vernacular in nineteen seventy
four, fifty years ago by medical professionals,

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00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:13.960
not judges, not criminalists. This
is not a subjective science like hair

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00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:19.559
and fiber analysis or handwriting analysis.
This is evidence found from CT scans,

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00:35:19.960 --> 00:35:27.840
MRIs, and autopsies. Pediatricians and
er doctors are trained to look for the

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00:35:27.880 --> 00:35:34.239
signs, but they always first rule
out possible neurological problems, just like Annie's

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00:35:34.280 --> 00:35:39.239
doctor did. Doctors interviewed say they
obviously want to find a natural cause of

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00:35:39.280 --> 00:35:45.320
death, a reasonable explanation. None
of them want to find abuse. It's

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00:35:45.320 --> 00:35:51.760
absurd to think that Goopeda spoke with
many doctors, a few who sounded more

379
00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:58.159
angry than you might expect about SBS
becoming a controversy. They say it's only

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00:35:58.199 --> 00:36:02.920
a controversy brought on by paid witnesses
and overexposure in the media, and that

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00:36:04.039 --> 00:36:10.199
it's very dangerous to small children.
These paid experts are using rare blood disorders

382
00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:15.559
and other medical conditions which do not
actually match the evidence in these cases to

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00:36:15.719 --> 00:36:24.159
discredit decades and decades of legal precedent
about shaking baby syndrome or abusive head trauma.

384
00:36:24.199 --> 00:36:29.159
I know it feels as though I've
turned a corner here from Annie's case,

385
00:36:29.599 --> 00:36:34.400
but I want to explain why.
In those cases that the incarcerated journalist

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00:36:34.519 --> 00:36:38.239
cited, it was fathers who were
imprisoned, but in the cases doctor Gupta

387
00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:44.559
discussed, it was babysitters. In
most of the high profile cases, it

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00:36:44.639 --> 00:36:51.400
is sitters or caregivers rather than parents, which I think is an important distinction

389
00:36:51.800 --> 00:36:57.679
that does relate to Annie's case.
I'm going to pause now to hear a

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00:36:57.719 --> 00:37:07.880
word from our sponsors. Although Annie's
case was about babysitters and not parents,

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00:37:07.159 --> 00:37:12.440
I do want to point out parental
statistics as well as encourage parents to reach

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00:37:12.440 --> 00:37:15.800
out for help. Talking to a
trusted friend, family member, your doctor,

393
00:37:16.199 --> 00:37:21.639
or a parenting helpline is the first
step in helping to manage the stress,

394
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:27.119
exhaustion, and frustration of new parenthood, and the broader community plays an

395
00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:31.000
important role in raising awareness and providing
support to new parents. Who are struggling.

396
00:37:31.599 --> 00:37:37.360
Friends, family, and coworkers of
people caring for babies and toddlers can

397
00:37:37.400 --> 00:37:42.400
also help by taking the first step
and checking in, as embarrassment and feelings

398
00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:46.559
of inadequacy can be a reason why
parents do not seek help. That's something

399
00:37:46.559 --> 00:37:51.559
else that's so important to point out. Reach out to your friends and family

400
00:37:51.599 --> 00:37:54.440
who are new parents. Check in
on them. Because of the shame of

401
00:37:54.480 --> 00:38:00.239
what can come with admitting being so
frustrated with their own baby, they don't

402
00:38:00.239 --> 00:38:06.599
want to reach out to you.
But as we know, Benjamin Brown was

403
00:38:06.639 --> 00:38:10.199
not Annie's parent or even her real
caregiver. He should not have been alone

404
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:16.440
with her that day. Annie's parents
had never even met this man. I

405
00:38:16.519 --> 00:38:22.840
definitely wanted to present the statistics and
encourage the empathy and help that would prevent

406
00:38:22.880 --> 00:38:28.880
this type of abuse in many cases. But it's not just difficult to empathize

407
00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:34.880
with Brown. I found it just
about impossible. In Annie's case, the

408
00:38:34.920 --> 00:38:39.039
prosecution argued she was shaken so hard
it caused the blood clot on her brain.

409
00:38:39.719 --> 00:38:44.519
To show how Annie could have sustained
her injuries, the chief medical examiner,

410
00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:50.559
doctor Metcalf, used a life sized
doll demonstrating that severe and consistent motion

411
00:38:51.119 --> 00:38:54.639
which caused her injuries, not just
a one off impact like a fall.

412
00:38:55.760 --> 00:39:00.880
The emergency pediatrician, doctor Mary Palmer, also to justified. While she didn't

413
00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:06.440
agree with blunt force trauma to the
chest, she stated Annie did sustain direct

414
00:39:06.440 --> 00:39:13.079
trauma from two blows each to her
head and stomach, and as the er

415
00:39:13.159 --> 00:39:17.199
doctor was explaining, these were not
just found at autopsy. There was visible

416
00:39:17.239 --> 00:39:22.719
bruising on Annie's face and torso as
she lay in the hospital. The prosecutor

417
00:39:22.800 --> 00:39:28.480
held up a photo of Annie's face
in court to make that point whether she

418
00:39:28.559 --> 00:39:32.079
was shaken or struck, Benjamin Brown
was violent enough with a toddler to kill

419
00:39:32.119 --> 00:39:37.920
her. I do doubt that he
meant to kill her, but it doesn't

420
00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:42.800
mean he didn't realize that he was
hurting her, which is an important distinction.

421
00:39:44.599 --> 00:39:47.719
The defense put a few doctors on
the witness stand to refute the emms

422
00:39:47.800 --> 00:39:53.039
and the er doctor's opinions. Just
like in those other national cases of caregivers

423
00:39:53.039 --> 00:39:59.920
on trial, The defense put on
an array of paid witnesses offering alternative fear,

424
00:40:00.519 --> 00:40:05.400
but their ace in the hole was
famed former New York City Chief Medical

425
00:40:05.440 --> 00:40:08.599
Examiner doctor Michael Boden. I am
sure you've heard of him. He has

426
00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:14.960
testified in several high profile trials,
including those of Jeffrey Epstein, Derek Chauvin,

427
00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:19.079
Phil Spector, and O. J. Simpson. And you probably know

428
00:40:19.199 --> 00:40:23.280
that doctor Boden is controversial in several
aspects of his career, but he himself

429
00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:28.719
has said his reputation never recovered.
After testifying for O. J. Simpson's

430
00:40:28.760 --> 00:40:32.760
defense, he disavowed some of his
own statements in that case. Later at

431
00:40:32.760 --> 00:40:38.360
the civil trial which Simpson lost,
he has said he is now repeatedly confronted

432
00:40:38.400 --> 00:40:43.800
with this stain on his career every
time he is cross examined as a so

433
00:40:43.960 --> 00:40:47.679
called rented expert who basically sold his
soul to Simpson for one hundred and sixty

434
00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:54.320
five thousand dollars retainer. Now understanding
what a hit his reputation took in the

435
00:40:54.400 --> 00:41:00.159
legal world, it frankly explains how
a normal man like Ben Brown, who

436
00:41:00.239 --> 00:41:05.559
had public defenders, could afford to
hire someone as famous as Boden. And

437
00:41:05.679 --> 00:41:09.639
again, he is a paid expert, just like in those other high profile

438
00:41:09.679 --> 00:41:15.719
cases I discussed, only more famous
who was testifying in disagreement with the medical

439
00:41:15.760 --> 00:41:22.599
professionals who actually treated any shell and
also, in this case, like the

440
00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:28.199
others, it was not the parent
on trial. Doctor Boden, who reviewed

441
00:41:28.199 --> 00:41:34.199
Annie's autopsy report but did not examine
her body, rejected the prosecution's allegation that

442
00:41:34.239 --> 00:41:38.280
Annie had died from being shaken.
He testified that, in his opinion,

443
00:41:38.400 --> 00:41:45.159
Annie died from an infection resulting from
an undiagnosed terar in her esophagus occurring the

444
00:41:45.239 --> 00:41:50.400
night before or that morning. He
even went so far as to allege malpracticed

445
00:41:50.400 --> 00:41:55.000
by the hospital, saying Annie had
died from a fentanyl overdose when one of

446
00:41:55.039 --> 00:42:00.679
her tubes was removed. Fentanyl was
used as a sedative to leave the pain

447
00:42:00.760 --> 00:42:06.960
from her brains swelling. Doctor Boden
also disputed that a firm conclusion could be

448
00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:10.920
drawn about the time of Annie's injuries
without the blood clot removed from her brain

449
00:42:12.199 --> 00:42:17.039
being examined. He also questioned why, if Annie did die from being shaken,

450
00:42:17.480 --> 00:42:22.519
it was not mentioned anywhere in her
autopsy report. In that study I

451
00:42:22.599 --> 00:42:29.320
told you about earlier, physicians and
medical examiners pointed out that shaken baby syndrome

452
00:42:29.679 --> 00:42:35.000
or abusive head trauma were not as
well understood in small towns or rural areas.

453
00:42:35.719 --> 00:42:39.719
It could be that doctor Metcalfe did
not have extensive experience with sbs and

454
00:42:39.840 --> 00:42:45.679
left it off of the report,
thinking that Annie's injuries spoke for themselves,

455
00:42:45.280 --> 00:42:52.800
along with her manner of death being
ruled as homicide. In this age of

456
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:58.840
confusion and controversy, experts like doctor
Boden will pick apart an autopsy report for

457
00:42:58.920 --> 00:43:06.079
details. After Baden's testimony, the
defense showed a video of Annie climbing at

458
00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:09.800
the Shell home, claiming she fell
from an open pantry which caused her injuries.

459
00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:16.119
To be clear, they showed her
climbing, not falling. Then Benjamin

460
00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:20.920
Brown took the stand in his own
defense, and he admitted to the court

461
00:43:21.320 --> 00:43:24.280
that on the morning in question,
he was at Brandy's house alone with the

462
00:43:24.360 --> 00:43:30.280
children. After Brandy had picked up
Annie and Peyton, she dropped them off

463
00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:34.880
at home with him before heading to
the hair salon. He testified that late

464
00:43:34.920 --> 00:43:38.679
in the morning, close to lunch, Annie told him her head hurt.

465
00:43:38.920 --> 00:43:44.079
He claimed that he told Annie that
if she went to use the bathroom he

466
00:43:44.119 --> 00:43:47.800
would give her a chewable tilinol.
When she was done, he said he

467
00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:52.840
put her pants on and got her
a tilonol from the bathroom closet. Then,

468
00:43:52.920 --> 00:43:58.679
according to Brown, he carried Annie
into the living room. He testified

469
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:01.639
that when he set the top down
on her feet, she began seizing.

470
00:44:02.719 --> 00:44:08.239
Annie's legs buckled underneath her, and
she fell to the floor. But instead

471
00:44:08.239 --> 00:44:14.360
of calling nine one one, Ben
admitted that he called Brandy twice and then

472
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:19.920
his father, claiming he didn't have
any's information to give to nine one one,

473
00:44:19.960 --> 00:44:23.320
even despite his own dad telling him
to call nine one one, as

474
00:44:23.400 --> 00:44:29.000
if you need the child's last name
to summon an ambulance in an emergency.

475
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:34.800
Brown then testified that he was concerned
Annie would bite her tongue, so he

476
00:44:34.880 --> 00:44:38.199
put his thumb in the little girl's
mouth, picking her up and laying her

477
00:44:38.239 --> 00:44:44.440
on the sofa. He said he
tried putting cold water on Annie to revive

478
00:44:44.519 --> 00:44:49.760
her, but she began pulling her
hair out. Around this time, Brandy

479
00:44:49.880 --> 00:44:54.119
arrived home and she called nine one
one. Ben also testified that he did

480
00:44:54.119 --> 00:44:59.559
not see a mark on Annie's face
until she was being examined by the paramedics

481
00:44:59.719 --> 00:45:05.639
who responded to the call. He
insisted that he had not struck Annie and

482
00:45:05.760 --> 00:45:09.920
had no idea how she got the
mark on her face. As expected,

483
00:45:10.280 --> 00:45:15.920
the prosecution tore Brown's testimony apart.
He was accused of lying in court and

484
00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:22.280
in multiple statements. On cross examination. The court heard that the actual reason

485
00:45:22.360 --> 00:45:27.719
he didn't call nine one one was
he didn't want anyone besides Brandy to find

486
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:32.559
out he had been alone with Annie. I mean, can you imagine the

487
00:45:32.639 --> 00:45:37.920
audacity of his reason for not calling
nine one one? As if a nine

488
00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:40.519
one one operator would say, I'm
sorry, sir, but if you don't

489
00:45:40.519 --> 00:45:45.000
know the child's last name, we
can't help you. Why was he not

490
00:45:45.119 --> 00:45:50.360
prepared to just tell the truth by
his defense attorney. The lawyer had to

491
00:45:50.400 --> 00:45:54.320
know it would come out on cross
Brown also admitted to having lied to the

492
00:45:54.320 --> 00:46:00.440
police about Brandy being home that morning, saying Brandy told him to tell law

493
00:46:00.519 --> 00:46:05.639
enforcements she was home the whole time. After they lied, Brandy rode in

494
00:46:05.639 --> 00:46:09.159
the ambulance with Annie and been followed
in a car behind bringing Peyton to the

495
00:46:09.159 --> 00:46:15.119
hospital. You can see parts of
his testimony on YouTube, and under this

496
00:46:15.239 --> 00:46:21.119
fiery cross examination, as he is
called a liar, you can see Benjamin

497
00:46:21.159 --> 00:46:27.360
Brown take a deep breath and several
moments before answering having to control his temper.

498
00:46:28.519 --> 00:46:32.000
It was not a good look and
a reason why defense attorneys often begged

499
00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:40.000
clients not to testify for themselves after
the state and defense rested. Despite Brown's

500
00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:45.480
own admissions in court, it did
not stop his attorney from moving for him

501
00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:50.679
to be acquitted on the basis that
the case against him was entirely circumstantial.

502
00:46:51.880 --> 00:46:57.239
Judge Stillman denied the motion, given
that Annie had not exhibited any symptoms until

503
00:46:57.280 --> 00:47:01.119
she was in Benjamin Brown's sole care, which he admitted on the stand.

504
00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:09.239
The jury deliberated for two days.
On Valentine's Day twenty twenty two, he

505
00:47:09.320 --> 00:47:15.800
was found guilty, but not on
the original charges. In the state of

506
00:47:15.800 --> 00:47:20.920
Tennessee, when juries are determining an
accused person's guilt, they can take lesser

507
00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:25.880
charges into account, and that's how
Benjamin Brown came to be found guilty on

508
00:47:25.960 --> 00:47:35.480
the significantly lesser charges of criminally negligent
homicide and reckless endangerment. The jury obviously

509
00:47:35.519 --> 00:47:39.360
did not come by this ruling easily. They deliberated for eleven hours over those

510
00:47:39.400 --> 00:47:45.039
two days, but it was crushing
to Annie's parents, who desperately wanted justice

511
00:47:45.079 --> 00:47:50.559
for their little girl and had waited
so long for their day in court.

512
00:47:52.400 --> 00:48:04.320
I'm going to pause now for a
final commercial break. The Shells were understandably

513
00:48:04.320 --> 00:48:07.840
heartbroken by the verdict, and not
just because the convicted killer would be free

514
00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:15.159
until sentencing. Even if Brown received
the maximum penalty of just two years in

515
00:48:15.199 --> 00:48:21.960
prison, this essentially meant he could
immediately be eligible for probation. The prosecutor

516
00:48:22.039 --> 00:48:27.480
explained that the Class E felony,
even with the maximum sentence, only required

517
00:48:27.519 --> 00:48:32.719
thirty percent served, so Brown could
be eligible for probation immediately. The family

518
00:48:32.880 --> 00:48:38.880
was now on desperate tenterhooks waiting for
the judge's decision, but Judge Stillman was

519
00:48:38.920 --> 00:48:45.760
clearly surprised too, later saying it
sentencing. While I respect the jury's verdict

520
00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:50.800
and the verdict is for negligent homicide, the court, having heard the evidence

521
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:54.760
in the case, has difficulty reconciling
that verdict with the facts that the court

522
00:48:54.760 --> 00:48:59.719
has heard. The jury made its
decision, and I don't disrespect it,

523
00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:02.719
Isa, but with regard to what
the court heard in the case, the

524
00:49:02.800 --> 00:49:08.880
facts were so much more egregious than
just probably what most criminally negligent homicides are

525
00:49:09.360 --> 00:49:15.400
in the state. You might be
thinking about the charge of involuntary manslaughter in

526
00:49:15.440 --> 00:49:23.119
other states. In Tennessee. Involuntary
manslaughter is divided into three categories, vehicular

527
00:49:23.159 --> 00:49:29.840
homicide, reckless homicide, and criminally
negligent homicide. Obviously, this was not

528
00:49:29.920 --> 00:49:35.039
a case of vehicular homicide. So
what is the difference between reckless and criminally

529
00:49:35.079 --> 00:49:39.800
negligent homicide. The main example I've
seen given is that reckless homicide is like

530
00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:44.960
playing Russian Roulette by picking up a
gun with a single bullet in it and

531
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.280
shooting it at a friend you know
there is substantial risk that the friend will

532
00:49:49.320 --> 00:49:52.760
die. In comparison, if you
picked up a gun you believed was empty

533
00:49:53.119 --> 00:49:58.159
but failed to check before shooting it
at your friend, that would be criminally

534
00:49:58.199 --> 00:50:01.400
negligent because you should have look to
be sure it was empty before shooting.

535
00:50:02.519 --> 00:50:08.400
I think Russian Roulette is either an
oversimplified or an extreme example. It's hard

536
00:50:08.400 --> 00:50:15.239
to say, but obviously this would
be an extremely complicated and nuanced decision between

537
00:50:15.280 --> 00:50:20.840
the two. The other biggest thing
between the two is reckless homicide is a

538
00:50:20.880 --> 00:50:25.119
Class D felony, whereas criminally negligent
is a Class E. You can get

539
00:50:25.159 --> 00:50:30.400
a maximum of twelve years with Class
D and six years with Class E.

540
00:50:30.119 --> 00:50:35.239
So for that thirty percent served with
a Class D felony, you might serve

541
00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:38.920
four, but with a Class E
you would serve two. Although this is

542
00:50:38.960 --> 00:50:45.440
a complicated choice for a jury,
Tennessee has these different types of homicides so

543
00:50:45.480 --> 00:50:50.239
that there is not a quote one
size fits all solution in murder trials.

544
00:50:51.920 --> 00:50:54.559
Of course, if it is your
child that has been murdered, you would

545
00:50:54.559 --> 00:51:00.280
hope that it would be a first
degree homicide conviction, if not a second

546
00:51:00.320 --> 00:51:05.960
degree, which would still be significant
time in prison. Second degree murder in

547
00:51:06.039 --> 00:51:09.840
Tennessee is a Class A felony punishable
by fifteen to sixty years in prison.

548
00:51:12.599 --> 00:51:15.639
At this point in Annie's trial,
all the Shells could do is hope that

549
00:51:15.719 --> 00:51:22.079
Judge Dillman would still sentence Brown for
the maximum. That's better than probation,

550
00:51:22.599 --> 00:51:29.000
which would be nothing. The devastated
Shells gave victim impact statements before sentencing.

551
00:51:29.719 --> 00:51:35.360
Tiffany said the loss of a child
is a continuous loss that unfolds every day.

552
00:51:36.719 --> 00:51:39.400
She also told the court that in
the eight months after Annie died,

553
00:51:39.679 --> 00:51:45.199
she had stopped eating because she had
given up on life. She had to

554
00:51:45.199 --> 00:51:50.599
be treated in a mental hospital after
losing so much weight due to the anguish

555
00:51:50.760 --> 00:51:55.480
of losing Annie. Tiffany's Shell was
still suffering from ongoing depression and anxiety.

556
00:51:57.679 --> 00:52:00.480
She told Brown in court, every
time time I pass you, I get

557
00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:04.599
sick to my stomach. I thought, for a long time, Ben,

558
00:52:05.039 --> 00:52:08.000
I thought you were innocent. But
after seeing all this evidence, I have

559
00:52:08.039 --> 00:52:13.000
my own opinion of what happened.
I've been told to forgive you, and

560
00:52:13.079 --> 00:52:15.760
I'm working on that. I do
think that you deserve to spend time in

561
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:23.519
jail. David Shell was more blunt
and sounded much less conflicted about forgiveness when

562
00:52:23.559 --> 00:52:28.800
he told Brown, I think you
got away with it. Two years is

563
00:52:28.840 --> 00:52:32.440
nowhere near enough. I miss my
little girl. You don't deserve to have

564
00:52:32.559 --> 00:52:38.239
your kids, as I said before. Ben's ex father in law, Claude

565
00:52:38.239 --> 00:52:45.639
Stamey, testified at the sentencing hearing, explicitly detailing Ben Brown's disturbing history of

566
00:52:45.719 --> 00:52:50.719
violence before he killed Annie. And
let's be clear, it's not like he

567
00:52:50.840 --> 00:52:55.000
punched the older man in a mutual
altercation. Ben went and attacked his father

568
00:52:55.039 --> 00:53:00.480
in law on his front porch,
knocking mister stami down, beating him with

569
00:53:00.559 --> 00:53:05.840
a fifteen pound metal statue, hitting
him at least ten times, and then

570
00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:08.519
he got a knife out of his
vehicle before the police pulled up and intervened,

571
00:53:08.880 --> 00:53:14.440
and Ben Brown knew that his father
in law was just days recovering from

572
00:53:14.440 --> 00:53:20.199
an open heart surgery. Mister Stamey
would die months later in November of twenty

573
00:53:20.280 --> 00:53:24.239
twenty two. But the spunky old
guy said in court that day I begged

574
00:53:24.239 --> 00:53:28.400
my wife to please go get my
gun and shoot this son of a bitch.

575
00:53:28.960 --> 00:53:32.840
He was out to do me.
In hearing all this, it's amazing

576
00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.480
Ben Brown was offered a plea of
simple assault. In that case, brandishing

577
00:53:37.519 --> 00:53:43.320
a weapon which I think a fifteen
pound metal statue would be should have been

578
00:53:43.360 --> 00:53:46.920
considered aggravated assault. Not only would
he have spent more time in jail,

579
00:53:47.280 --> 00:53:51.440
he would have had a felony on
his record, which would have affected his

580
00:53:51.519 --> 00:53:54.320
sentencing in this trial and could have
had an impact on the jury as well.

581
00:53:54.880 --> 00:54:00.960
Judge Stillman even pointed out that due
to his familial relationship with mister Stamey,

582
00:54:00.519 --> 00:54:06.719
his actions that day constituted a domestic
assault, also much more serious than

583
00:54:06.800 --> 00:54:09.400
simple assault, as he was offered
in a plea deal. You know,

584
00:54:09.519 --> 00:54:15.599
we see on TV all the time
how ninety something percent of cases never even

585
00:54:15.639 --> 00:54:20.119
go to trial and that's true for
Tennessee as well. But can you imagine

586
00:54:20.119 --> 00:54:24.280
how different Benjamin Brown's trial might have
been if he had been punished fairly for

587
00:54:24.400 --> 00:54:30.880
mister Stamey's assault. But at least
she can't say that Judge Barry Steelman didn't

588
00:54:30.920 --> 00:54:35.039
take all of this into account,
because he did, and he gave Brown

589
00:54:35.119 --> 00:54:39.000
the maximum. On April twenty seventh, twenty twenty two, Benjamin Brown was

590
00:54:39.039 --> 00:54:45.400
sentenced to two years for criminally negligent
homicide and for the reckless endangerment charge.

591
00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:50.559
He was sentenced to eleven months and
twenty nine days in a workhouse. These

592
00:54:50.599 --> 00:54:55.760
sentences were to be served consecutively,
and he was then taken into custody.

593
00:54:57.159 --> 00:55:00.920
The judge, when ruling, said, the circum stances of the offense involved

594
00:55:00.920 --> 00:55:07.719
dishonesty. They lack empathy for a
helpless child. The defendant shows an incredible

595
00:55:07.760 --> 00:55:13.519
amount of selfishness, not just misrepresenting
the facts, but affirmatively hiding the facts

596
00:55:13.559 --> 00:55:19.039
from law enforcement. Then the judge
said something that I had thought about immediately

597
00:55:19.159 --> 00:55:23.119
when I first read about Benjamin Brown. It is disturbing to the court that

598
00:55:23.159 --> 00:55:29.159
Brown would have such a lack of
sympathy, especially since he has children.

599
00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:34.599
Ben Brown was a father himself.
It's easy to forget that when you get

600
00:55:34.679 --> 00:55:38.679
submerged in Annie's case. Like I
told you before, when David Shell was

601
00:55:38.719 --> 00:55:44.840
so incensed by Brown's low bond amount. When it is a stranger when it

602
00:55:44.880 --> 00:55:51.760
comes to kids, we are picturing, in essence a monster. This man

603
00:55:52.079 --> 00:55:57.440
was also a daddy to a baby
girl, two daughters, actually, which

604
00:55:57.519 --> 00:56:01.239
was probably why the judge was all
the more disturbed by Brown's tone when he

605
00:56:01.320 --> 00:56:07.039
was describing what happened to Annie.
Stillman said his tone was mocking and disrespectful

606
00:56:07.320 --> 00:56:14.280
when he was imitating the little girl. Benjamin Brown uphealed his sentence by Judge

607
00:56:14.280 --> 00:56:19.119
Stillman because, as the Tennessee Supreme
Court put it, his defense asserted that

608
00:56:19.159 --> 00:56:24.639
Stillman disagreed with the jury's verdict and
took into consideration Brown's entire criminal history,

609
00:56:25.079 --> 00:56:30.480
even speeding tickets, when he sentenced
him to the maximum on both charges.

610
00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:36.519
One of those tickets Brown got while
he was out on bail before Annie's murder

611
00:56:36.599 --> 00:56:40.159
trial. He also admitted that he
could not pass a drug test two weeks

612
00:56:40.199 --> 00:56:46.280
after her death. These more minor
offenses are not always considered during sentencing,

613
00:56:46.679 --> 00:56:52.599
but the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed with
Stillman that Benjamin Brown's criminal history and totality

614
00:56:52.960 --> 00:57:00.920
certainly warranted the maximum sentence. Considering
the judge's comments, I'm not surprised about

615
00:57:00.960 --> 00:57:04.519
the nature of the appeal, even
though most of us would think that Benjamin

616
00:57:04.599 --> 00:57:09.519
Brown got off light and should be
thinking his lucky stars. But even though

617
00:57:09.559 --> 00:57:15.440
his defense attorneys called his verdict a
big win, they were far from accepting

618
00:57:15.440 --> 00:57:20.599
the judge's ruling. Then, I
thought of the judge in the infamous nanny

619
00:57:20.639 --> 00:57:24.599
trial from nineteen ninety seven, reducing
the charges and then sentencing her at a

620
00:57:24.639 --> 00:57:30.840
time served. He spoke of a
lack of malice, meaning legal malice,

621
00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:36.920
of course, and perhaps that is
what this jury felt. That Benjamin Brown

622
00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:42.239
did not mean to kill any Shell. I said it myself earlier that it's

623
00:57:42.239 --> 00:57:45.840
hard to believe he did mean to
kill her, but it's harder to believe

624
00:57:45.920 --> 00:57:50.880
he didn't consciously hurt her. I
think he meant to hurt her. There

625
00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:55.599
was intent there, maybe just not
intent to kill. But the difference is

626
00:57:55.719 --> 00:58:01.519
really hard to swallow when it comes
to the death of a child. When

627
00:58:01.519 --> 00:58:07.599
it was finally time for Brandy Gannuzio
to go to trial, for various reasons.

628
00:58:07.880 --> 00:58:12.239
She went through three attorneys before things
got down to brass tacks. In

629
00:58:12.280 --> 00:58:15.800
the end, after multiple hearings and
much legal wrangling, Brandy pled guilty in

630
00:58:15.840 --> 00:58:22.440
February twenty twenty three to making a
false report. In return, the accessory

631
00:58:22.519 --> 00:58:27.679
charge was dropped. Six months later, on August twenty second, the thirty

632
00:58:27.679 --> 00:58:30.519
one year old woman was given a
suspended sentence of four years in prison,

633
00:58:31.519 --> 00:58:37.320
which means she will spend those four
years on probation. The judge declined her

634
00:58:37.360 --> 00:58:42.440
request for judicial diversion, noting that
Brandy was not just still in a relationship

635
00:58:42.480 --> 00:58:46.440
with Benjamin Brown, but she was
now his fiancee, though it should be

636
00:58:46.519 --> 00:58:52.039
noted that Brown was still not divorced
from his first wife yet. Other key

637
00:58:52.079 --> 00:58:57.400
factors in Brandy's sentence were that she
did not have custody of either her twelve

638
00:58:57.440 --> 00:59:00.039
year old daughter with a former partner
nor the now five year old daughter she

639
00:59:00.119 --> 00:59:07.159
had with Brown. Brandy's attorney asked
Judge Stillman to recuse himself from the case,

640
00:59:07.559 --> 00:59:13.239
questioning his ability to be impartial given
his previous comments at Ben's sentencing about

641
00:59:13.239 --> 00:59:21.400
the jury's decision to convict unlesser charges. Stillman declined. The Shells again made

642
00:59:21.440 --> 00:59:27.320
victim impact statements at Brandy's sentencing.
Tiffany said, my family and I have

643
00:59:27.400 --> 00:59:30.519
gone through hell the past five years. Brandy, I will never be able

644
00:59:30.559 --> 00:59:36.440
to forgive you. And then Tiffany
looked at her and said something profound.

645
00:59:37.079 --> 00:59:40.760
She said, I also pray that
you will never have to endure the pain

646
00:59:40.800 --> 00:59:46.079
of losing a child. That is
the kind of love parents have for their

647
00:59:46.159 --> 00:59:52.079
children, that they wouldn't wish that
pain on any other person, even the

648
00:59:52.119 --> 00:59:57.920
one who had been responsible for their
own child's death. Brandy took the stand

649
00:59:57.960 --> 01:00:02.000
at her sentencing, saying, take
full responsibility for my actions. Not a

650
01:00:02.079 --> 01:00:07.480
day goes by that I don't think
of or miss Annie. Brandy showed more

651
01:00:07.480 --> 01:00:13.079
remorse than her fiance, and though
she did not assault Annie, she was

652
01:00:13.159 --> 01:00:16.000
responsible for her safety that day,
and she did in fact lie to the

653
01:00:16.039 --> 01:00:22.360
authorities. So probation still seems generous
to me, though I don't think it

654
01:00:22.400 --> 01:00:25.400
would have been fair for her to
serve as much or more time than Brown.

655
01:00:28.079 --> 01:00:32.760
Speaking of him four months before Brandy
was finally sentenced on April twentieth,

656
01:00:32.920 --> 01:00:38.480
two thousand and three, Benjamin Brown
was released on probation just seven days shy

657
01:00:38.599 --> 01:00:45.519
of a year in prison for killing
a three year old little girl. Today

658
01:00:45.119 --> 01:00:50.480
he walks among us, a free
man, engaged to the woman who was

659
01:00:50.519 --> 01:00:54.239
supposed to be taking care of Annie
that day, and at the end of

660
01:00:54.280 --> 01:01:00.960
it all, a shattered David and
Tiffany Schell still understandably film they won't ever

661
01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:07.000
get true justice for Annie. On
August twenty first, twenty nineteen, a

662
01:01:07.119 --> 01:01:10.960
year after Annie passed away, her
family stood on the banks of Chickamauga Lake

663
01:01:12.039 --> 01:01:16.960
at Chester Frost Park and released floating
lanterns on the water. This was as

664
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:22.400
they were still awaiting court dates,
before the world stood still for the pandemic.

665
01:01:22.960 --> 01:01:28.880
The family has honored Annie in any
way they can ever since, quietly

666
01:01:28.960 --> 01:01:34.519
celebrating each birthday, which comes so
close on the hills of that other painful

667
01:01:34.519 --> 01:01:39.000
milestone, the day they lost her. At Annie's grave, there is a

668
01:01:39.039 --> 01:01:45.000
small mailbox where Tiffany Shell leaves letters
of things she said she never got to

669
01:01:45.039 --> 01:01:50.519
tell Annie. Watching interviews of David
and Tiffany Shell, I am in awe

670
01:01:50.599 --> 01:01:54.159
of their strength. They waited so
long for justice, only to have the

671
01:01:54.280 --> 01:02:02.400
jury choose the lightest charges. It
really is the unthinkable any would have been

672
01:02:02.480 --> 01:02:08.079
nine years old this August in the
third grade, maybe still doing gymnastics.

673
01:02:08.480 --> 01:02:13.320
Or maybe the girly girl who loved
pink would be in a kid's club for

674
01:02:13.440 --> 01:02:19.079
cheerleading or dance classes. Or maybe
she would have loved to climb trees and

675
01:02:19.159 --> 01:02:23.360
discovered she was a great ballplayer.
Maybe she would have loved reading or drawing

676
01:02:23.800 --> 01:02:30.960
or painting. There are too many
heartbreaking maybees when a child dies, especially

677
01:02:31.440 --> 01:02:38.960
when it is a violent death.
Southern frid True Crime is hosted and produced

678
01:02:39.000 --> 01:02:44.280
by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode
was researched and written by me and Jima

679
01:02:44.320 --> 01:02:47.920
Harris. As usual, any editorial
comments and opinions are my own. Southern

680
01:02:47.960 --> 01:02:52.800
Fred's original music is by Rob Harrison
of Gamma Radio and the original graphic art

681
01:02:52.119 --> 01:02:57.320
is by Cooley Horner. Today's episode
was edited and mixed by Brandon sheck Sneider

682
01:02:57.360 --> 01:03:00.679
of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly.
If you have any case suggestions, please

683
01:03:00.679 --> 01:03:05.199
go to my website, Southernfred True
Crime dot com and click on the listener's

684
01:03:05.199 --> 01:03:10.480
suggestion tab, or email sftcresearch at
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685
01:03:10.519 --> 01:03:14.880
way for me to get those little
known cases. Y'all always send me.

686
01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:19.440
Please remember that I do not accept
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687
01:03:19.519 --> 01:03:23.039
please come join our Facebook group,
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688
01:03:23.079 --> 01:03:28.039
we swap recipes, worship Dolly Pardon, and share memes. We do,

689
01:03:28.159 --> 01:03:30.079
of course discuss true crime, not
just Southern Fried, but all kinds,

690
01:03:30.440 --> 01:03:34.880
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691
01:03:34.920 --> 01:03:37.320
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692
01:03:37.360 --> 01:03:39.480
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693
01:03:39.519 --> 01:03:44.119
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694
01:03:44.159 --> 01:03:46.800
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695
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696
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thanks so much for listening. Y'all, Take care,