Anatomy of Murder - Aisle 52 (Brooklyn Sims)

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

A young woman is shot and killed at work, in a local home improvement store. The shooter’s unlikely accomplice would prove pivotal to this crime.View source material and photos for this episode at: anatomyofmurder.com/aisle-52Can’t get enough AoM? Find us on social media!Instagram: @aom_podcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @AOM_podcast | @audiochuckFacebook: /listenAOMpod | /audiochuckllc Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Let me ask you this while we're here. Why on earth would you send him out of dress? Yeah, no idea where that girl was. If it had been you sent him out of dress. You basically put these things in motion. Look, you sit here and tell me that you love Brooklyn, but you set that girl up to be killed. I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former deputy sheriff.

I'm Anasiga Nikolazi, former New York City homicide prosecutor and host of investigation discoveries true conviction. And this is Anatomy of murder. Unfortunately, one of the awful and tragic truths about modern life today is the increasing number of indiscriminate, deadly assault in public spaces. A mass shooting is defined as an attack on multiple people over a short period of time, often occurring where unsuspected citizens gather, in a public park, at a workplace, or House of Worship, or, most tragically, in a school. The increasing number of gun deaths from mass shootings

is undeniably an epidemic in this country that seems to show no signs of abating. But we'll leave that discussion of the cause as impossible solutions for another time. Today, we'd like to talk about an incident in Pensacola, Florida, that had all of the markings of yet another deadly public attack. That is until police discovered evidence that the shooting at a local Home Depot may not have been what it initially seemed.

Skimmy County Sheriff 911, this is Andrea. Where is your emergency? Home Depot, David Highwick. What's going on? I got an active shooter in the store. At approximately 1.30 p.m. on the afternoon of March 30th, 20, 23, customers at a crowded Home Depot suddenly found themselves confronting one of their worst fears. an active shooter inside the building and the unmistakable sound of gunshots.

Customers screamed and ran for cover while employees attempted to lead people to safety. You could hear the panic in their voices as several customers managed to find safety and dial 911. You got to run hard fight. You saw him lead? Is anybody injured?

Yes, he's a victim on our 52. He locked the door. They said the shooter ran. I don't have it just good. Turn this off and close the door. Police from the surrounding area rushed to the scene with very little information about the scale of the threat or potential casualties. Sadly, it was something local law enforcement had trained for, but this was not a drill. When they call went out as an active shooter, it basically became an all hands on deck.

There were a number of agencies that responded from the area. the Pensacola Police Department. We have the Ascambe County Sheriff's Office. I believe Highway Patrol also responded. Joining us today are two veterans of the Pensacola District Attorney's Office, Bridget Jensen and Trey Myers, who are going to walk us through what I can only imagine must have begun as a community's worst nightmare. When law enforcement arrived, it was chaos. There were employees and customers from the Home Depot that were running out into the parking lot. They were running to their cars. I mean, literally people were just freaking out thinking that there was an active shooter inside the store. Deputies from the Ascambia County Sheriff's Office were the first

to arrive. Witnesses reported hearing as many as 10 gunshots, but at this point, police still had no idea how many people may have been hurt or if the shooter was still in the building. Trained to put themselves in harm's way, officers entered the store. According to some witnesses, the shooter had fled, but not before his attack claimed the life of at least one victim. When officers entered the Home Depot, they were directed to aisle 52 in the lighting section where there was one gunshot victim, a female, lying on the floor. And that's where they located Brooklyn Sims. Eighteen-year-old Brooklyn Sims had suffered multiple gunshot wounds

and had likely died within seconds of being struck. She was shot at least seven times, and the reason we say at least seven times is because that's how many casings were found at the Home Depot. There could have been more. Let me take a moment to talk about Brooklyn's injuries. She was shot at point-blank range multiple times to her face and chest, and evidence would point to the fact that Brooklyn was facing her killer at the time she was shot. And there was also other victims as well. Some were struck by ricochet or flying debris, but increasingly, Probably, it seemed that no one else in the store had been seriously injured.

There certainly could have been a number of victims during the course of this shooting. There were employees that were on the same aisle as Brooklyn Sims when she was shot. However, the shooter immediately went directly to her and fired shots directly at her. We thought a couple of the other employees had been grazed by some of the bullets, but it was an absolute miracle that no one else was harmed or killed. After securing the scene and tending to the injured, officers began to gather as much information as they could from witnesses at the store. And pretty soon it became clear that despite the chaos and terror that the shooting caused, the shots fired all seemed to be directed at just one person, Brooklyn. Which meant that this may not have been an indiscriminate shooting at all.

This attack may have been targeted and personal. certainly when you have an individual go into a store in broad daylight in front of everybody and go directly to a person, it was clear that he was on a mission to take the life of Brooklyn Sims. A life that had just gotten started. Brooklyn, a recent high school graduate and the young mother of a two-year-old daughter was described by her friends as the kind of person who lit up a room, a devoted mom and friend with nothing but joy in her heart, an unlikelyer target for violence you would not find.

She was working for an inventory company that provided services to Home Depot's in a particular area in Alabama, I believe, and also certain areas of Florida. She seemed to be hardworking and trying to get her life together and take care of this child. Brooklyn was working that morning stocking shelves, trying to earn enough money to keep food on the table for herself and her daughter. Tragically, she would never make it home for dinner. Now it was law enforcement's job to find out who was responsible. The investigation moved relatively quickly. While they were on scene there, they got a description of the vehicle that may have been used. The police officers were notified and a bulletin was placed for trying to locate that vehicle.

There were also statements by numerous employees describing what the shooter looked like. There was also video surveillance that was obtained while on scene there. Detectives also accessed the store's video security system, pulling footage from multiple cameras inside and outside the store. The security video from the Home Depot was obviously of good quality. It showed the shooter entering the Home Depot. It showed the shooter go to the lighting section. However, the video does not shoot down the aisle,

so the actual shooting was not caught on camera. The footage seemed to corroborate many of the witness statements. of the witness statements that the male gunman entered through the front door, fired multiple shots from a handgun, and then fled the scene back through the front door and into the parking lot, into a parked car. From the video surveillance, they obviously had a description of what the shooter looked like, because he came in, went immediately to the lighting aisle, fired shots, and then immediately ran out. And he was in his work attire. I mean, he had a fluorescent, like, work jacket on. So they were able to get a good description of him pretty quickly. And so at that

point, they were just on the hunt for him and the car that he had driven there in. A description of the gunman's car was broadcast to surrounding law enforcement agencies. And thanks to traffic cameras and those automated license plate readers, it wasn't long before police had a name. The vehicle owner and the gunman seen shooting Brooklyn Sims was a 20-year-old Alabama man named Keith Agee. He had a very personal connection to his victim. Keith Agee was the father of the child shared between he and Brooklyn Sims. Brooklyn's suspected killer was her own child's father, confirming what police already suspected, that this terrifying and deadly attack in a public space was actually targeted and very personal.

According to Brooklyn's family, A.G. and Brooklyn had an on-again, off-again relationship for the last several years. And while he was the father of her daughter, he played almost no role in raising her. But he was not totally out of Brooklyn's life. Looking into the background of Keith Aegee and Brooklyn Sims, it came to light that they had somewhat of a volatile relationship. I believe there was a restraining order between Keith A.G. and Brooklyn's mother at some point, we learned that they did. did not live together on a consistent basis, but that they were still in communication with each other. But what could have possibly led Aegee to kill the mother of his child was a total mystery.

According to police reports, he was not a career criminal and had no history of violence. And yet on that day, he had showed the savagery of the most cold-blooded killer. He was on the run, armed, dangerous, and obviously a huge risk to public safety. so police were in a race against time to get him in custody. The shooting took place in Pensacola, Florida, and Aegee lived across the nearby border in Alabama, so the multi-state manhunt would have its complications. There was, I believe, a law enforcement officer

that actually spotted a firearm on the side of the road, so they were able to locate that relatively quickly. Their luck continued when law enforcement got another assist from an unlikely source, A.G. himself. Pensacola 911, where's your emergency? I'm trying to turn myself in. What are you trying to turn yourself in for? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. In March of 2003, a brazen daytime shooting in a Pensacola Home Depot claimed the life of 18, 18-year-old Brooklyn Sims, the suspect, a 20-year-old man named Keith Aegee, an ex-boyfriend of the victim and the father of her two-year-old daughter. Armed with the description of Aegee and his car, police initiated a massive manhunt, one that was over before it really began. And then what helped us was the shooter actually called 911 to turn himself in. What are you trying to turn yourself in for? I'm a mistake. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

When Keith A.G. called 911, he told them that he was at a movie theater and that he wasn't armed. I think he had a concern that police were going to respond and shoot him. Look, I do my gun. I don't have a gun. But I just want me to shoot me. I can't. So being an officer who's responded to these types of calls, you're already on a heightened state of alert. The subject who is currently admitting to committing a murder and wanting to turn himself in, That doesn't happen every day, but you can't take what they say at face value. And two things to consider here.

He may actually be armed and wants to engage with you in something known as suicide by cop. And also you have to consider he's calling from a public location, which here is a theater, which is probably crowded. And as the officer responding, you have to think about your backdrop, meaning if you end up engaging in some type of gun battle, innocent people could be hurt. So to say this is a tense situation may be a bit of an under. statement out of SIGA. So it's important to understand how and what you're going into. And I think it took a really good point because I think you said it perfectly. It's like you can't take it at face value. It could be legitimate. It could be, by the way, a hoax. They don't know what this is. Or it could be, again, loring police in because, you know, unfortunately, it's not so uncommon.

I think those of us that have worked these cases for a long time have seen multiple that if they're going to go down, they want to bring law enforcement with them to make them somewhat like a martyr of sorts of others. So police definitely had to be careful as they arrived. So within minutes of A.G.'s call, deputies had swarmed the movie theater parking lot where they found A.G. already on the ground, and he was ready to surrender to police. He placed his cell phone on the ground. He didn't have anything in his hands. I believe he took his shirt off as well in an effort to make sure that they did not shoot him. So there are at least two reasons that quickly come to mind about why someone might surrender like

this so soon after the murder. One, that here, Keith A.G. really felt guilty about what he had just done, which definitely is possible and does happen after some homicides. And I'll throw in number two here, Anasiga, he realized that shooting someone in a public place in broad daylight was a really bad way to get away with murder. And it was only a matter of time before he got caught, in which case it was not remorse as much as it was self-preservation. And you could hear that in his voice on that 911 call. He told him he was unarmed. He tossed his gun on the side of the road. So he's clearly most concerned at this point by what he's saying with not getting shot by police. And you don't have any weapons on you now? You said you threw your gun?

My gun's in the street. I threw it way back there when I left. I don't think the 911 call was in response to any feelings of guilt whatsoever. I believe it was more so that he had no idea where he was in Pensacola. He wasn't familiar with the area. He had dumped his car and taken off running. He went through some water and then just ended up at a movie theater. So I think at that point, he had nowhere else to go, and he knew that he was going to be caught. So he called 911.

So A.G. was taken into custody with that incident and transported to the Ascambia County Sheriff's Office for questioning. And that interview was recorded on video. We're going to play you some of those parts right here. Before we ask you any questions, do you mind if I'll get your first name so I know who I'm talking with? Listen, what's happened, it's happened, okay? We can't go back now, all right?

What we can try to do is, you know, we're going on this thing. We'll help us on them. We want to understand it. It doesn't matter. Yes, it does. It does, too, because I don't want to be talking no stranger. Nobody can't. When Keith A.G. was taken into custody by the sheriff's office, he gave an interview after he was read Miranda rights and basically,

confessed to the entire situation acknowledged that he went inside to kill Brooklyn Sims. Will you be real with you? Absolutely. Go ahead. Is she still alive? No, she's dead. In the taped interview,

Aegee is visibly upset and can be heard crying as he admitted to several things, that he was the father of Brooklyn's daughter and that it was a recent argument that had caused him to drive to Florida to confront Brooklyn where she worked. But the disagreement

agreements A.G. described, they didn't seem to add up to a motive for murder. A.G.'s grievances? They sounded more like those of a jilted ex-boyfriend, not someone angry enough to kill. Investigators were sure that there had to be something more. And as it turns out, there was. When Keith A.G. was arrested. A.G. was found on the ground where he was located. Police took the cell phone, applied for a warrant, and did a download on that cell phone. which enabled them to locate and read his text messages. And those messages were very telling because they showed extensive communications in the hours leading up to the murder, not with Brooklyn, but with another woman.

And that woman, Aegee's own mother, Sheila Aegee. After the detectives received the download of the cell phone from Keith Aegee, they were able to read text messages between himself and his mother. Those text messages revealed what we call a motive or why he did it. So what was the motive? It seemed to stem from Keith Agey's suspicion that despite being broken up, Brooklyn had started seeing another man. The detectives were able to learn that the defendant Keith Agee or the shooter was texting his mother about Brooklyn giving him an STD or what he believed was Brooklyn giving him. and STD.

Brooklyn knew that wasn't true and decided it was in her best interest to make their on again off again break up more permanent. But if you listen to Aegee's interview with police, it's clear that this latest fight did not fill him with homicidal rage. In fact, from the way he spoke,

he admitted to being more sad than angry. I didn't get a chance to fix him. Every time we break up and something like that happened, I just leave and, you know, I got to stop us from, you know, taking it any further because you're that mad, you don't want to put your hands on somebody. But Keith A.G.'s mother, Sheila, she was a different story. In her texts to her son, she seemed

determined to stoke his anger and his jealousy. The text messages that we saw between Keith A.G. and his mother were pretty shocking, to be honest with you. This was a son who was very upset about what he believed the mother of his child had given him, and his mother, Sheila A.G, did not do anything to calm him down. In fact, her text messages encouraged her son to not just confront Brooklyn, but to take his revenge. She was calling him names, telling him that if he didn't come do it, he was an MF bitch. She was saying not to worry that someone would take care of his small child. She was providing him information as to where Brooklyn Sims was located.

They were shocking that this was the advice that a mother was giving to her son. Faced with an opportunity to calm Keith and keep him and Brooklyn out of danger, Sheila Agee instead bullied her own son into a murderous rage. But she didn't just stoke his anger. She did everything short of putting a gun in his hand, including telling her son exactly where Brooklyn would be on the day of her murder. Sheila A.G. also worked for the same company as Brooklyn Sims doing inventory. She was, in fact, her supervisor. And they were both working at the Home Depot in Pensacola on that day. In one of the most shocking exchanges, Sheila Aegee even suggested that he should do it while Brooklyn was at work to spare their daughter the sight of her own mother being killed.

On the day of the homicide, Sheila Aegee was the one to suggest he, A.G. come to Pensacola and commit the homicide here to kill her here in Pensacola. She then sent them a screenshot showing the exact address of where they were working that day. Without that, Keith had no idea where they were. The text exchange painted a picture not just of a conspiracy to commit murder, but a manipulation of a son by his own mother, who I will point out was actually at the Home Depot when her son arrived with a gun. and a plan. When investigators went to interview Sheila Aegee,

they interviewed her and confronted her with those text messages and even told her that what her son had said and that he was honest and forthcoming, and she still denied it. Sheila Aegee did agree to cooperate, at least by giving investigators a statement, but it was clear that her goal was to downplay what those text messages really meant.

So what was your involvement in what happened on Friday? It was my bombardment and what happened? My only bombardment that what happened was he texted my phone. He said that he was going to, the same come back, thinking Brooklyn gave him something. But he was going to let it go, and that's fine. I told Brooklyn, I said, crazy's texting. What'd you call him?

Crazy. Okay. I'm sorry. None of you're fine. You're right. That's a crazy texting. And she wasn't above blaming her own son, too, as she tried to distance herself from any responsibility for the murder.

And then I went to telling him, look, you've been. going to do this to Casey and this, this, this, this, and you're going to leave her out of mom and a dad and this, and this, this, this, this, this. And he was like, I don't care. I think he's like, I don't have nothing to live for or whatever. I was like, so you hate Brooklyn that bad that you would leave Casey to be molested or abused or, I said, because she won't have her mom or a dad or whatever. He's like, I think he cussar or something. And actually, she initially tried to blame them on the victim Brooklyn since. She made comments to law enforcement that she actually gave her cell phone to Brooklyn

and that Brooklyn probably sent those. So she was initially trying to blame the victim for her own death. She said, let me see the phone. I said, okay. So I give her the phone back, and then whenever I got the phone back, she had to link the message or something. And then they said, well, I went in the bathroom, especially she gave me the phone. But the guy that's out on the floor, a couple of guys said that she was texting.

They said she was texting him, But she was texting somebody for what they said. I'm not sure. And when she gave me the phone back, I stood the phone bank and went back to work. What was interesting is when they received her phone and did a phone download on her phone, she had deleted that whole conversation. From the perspective of investigators, the fact that she had deleted all those conversations she'd had with her son about Brooklyn showed not just conscience of guilt, but a clear effort to cover up her crime. I believe she knew those text messages were damning for her, and she needed to get rid of the evidence, and she attempted to do so. She even told her son to delete his phone, but he never did.

Would it surprise you to find out that the text messages on Key's phone weren't deleted between you and him that day? Between me and him? I mean, I don't know. It would surprise you? Would it surprise you that I have 32 pages of y'all? tax measures just for all that was right okay do you want me to read some of those i think you can i mean can you want to sir police were facing one of the strangest family dramas they'd ever seen a mother and her own son pointing fingers at each other it would take not one but three high-stakes trials to finally uncover the truth behind the murder of brooklyn sims

So Keyes' intention was to shoot Brooklyn, and then when the Citro police showed up, he was going to shoot at them so that they could kill him. That's what the key intentions were. Up until he said he was leaving work, and you said, in a text message, about to leave work, that's up to you. A text exchange between mother and son had revealed a dark plot to kill Brooklyn Sims. Listen as the detective reads back some of the most damning text found on Keith Agee's phone. And I have to drag her out or can't, I'm going to ask you to step out. Because I'm going to open the door and just shoot her. As long as you don't shoot me.

But I know you've got work. Just don't forget me this evening. Hell, if you're getting off right now, I'll give you the address here. You send a screenshot. Of the address. Of the address? From your word. I did.

I did. So you acknowledge to send the address? Yes, sir, I did. Let me ask you this, while we're here, why on earth would you send him out of dress? He had no idea where that girl was. Okay. If it had been you sending that address. You basically put these things in motion.

You sit here and tell me that you love Brooklyn, but you set that girl up to be killed. Despite her denials that she had, in fact, put the plan into motion, Schiller A.G. was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Her son, Keith, was also charged with first-degree murder. The reason why Keith A.G. committed this crime always seemed senseless. He committed a crime for what in his mind was something that a shot of penicillin could have cured. Keith A.G., we found out later, actually did not give. an STD from Brooklyn. Brooklyn tested negative for an STD. So even in his mind, if it was

valid in reality, it was not. The truth is that the real motive may not have been Keith AG's at all. Prosecutors believed it may have been Sheila's idea for Keith to take revenge. And if you follow the chain of texts, it is clear that Sheila Agee had so many opportunities to calm her son down. You almost get the feeling that Keith was not really convinced that killing Brooklyn at that moment was what he really wanted to do. But it seems like his mother's encouraging, almost coercing him into taking action. Now, there was a good amount of evidence to corroborate Keith A.G.'s confession and prove he was indeed the killer. Security cameras and phone location data verified his movements on the day.

Multiple witnesses also placed him at the scene, entering the Home Depot walking to Isle 52. and firing at least seven bullets into Brooklyn's body with the gun he later threw out the window as he fled. Keith A.G.'s DNA was located on the firearm that was recovered on the side of the road. The ballistics from that firearm matched the shell casings and projectiles found at the Home Depot, as well as the projectiles located in Brooklyn Sims during her autopsy. We felt like Keith A.G.'s case was obviously very strong for the state. We had video surveillance, We had DNA, we had the firearm, we had a confession. But when it came to Sheila A.G., we definitely had some concerns on whether a jury of 12 people was going to convict the non-shooter pretty much based on text messages alone.

Keith A.G. went to trial in December of 2003. And while the case against him seemed pretty cut and dry, it still would not be easy, especially. for the family of the victim, Brooklyn Sims. Anytime we are getting ready for trial, we like to meet with the victim's families to go over the evidence that we anticipate showing. That way, they're not seeing it for the first time in court. We don't want any kind of emotional outbreak or outburst from the victim's family in front of a jury because a jury is not supposed to be swayed by emotions. And so we did that in this case, and we've done.

brought in Brooklyn's family, showed them photos and videos from the crime scene and also from the autopsy. It was just one of the many painful experiences the family would have to endure as the prosecutors walked the jury through the crime one step at a time. The jurors would see the full surveillance video, which captured Keith Agee entering the store, approaching the aisle where he killed Brooklyn, and quickly fled the scene. And there was forensic evidence, too. Keith A.G.'s DNA was located on the firearm that was recovered on the side of the road. The ballistics from that firearm matched the shell casings and projectiles found at the Home Depot, as well as the projectiles located in Brooklyn Sims during her autopsy.

Keith A.G. testified in his defense, but while he admitted to killing Brooklyn, he claimed it was all in the heat of the moment and that a killing was not meticulously planned as prosecutors alleged. Well, I'm going to quit beating around the bush now. You killed brok once. Yes, sir. When you arrived at the Home Depot, was it your intention to shoot Brooklyn?

Not fully. And what I mean by that is I was enraged until I arrived on hour 52. When I got to hour 52, seeing Brooklyn bought sort of a sense to me about me back down the earth you know

being hot the whole way there driving and mad seeing her kind of brought me back down the earth the biggest thing I remember from Keith AG testifying is that he tried to say he was not coming to kill her he was trying to minimize the premeditation and that he only decided to shoot her

and kill her when he He confronted her and she said something to the effect of not you again and turned her back on him. He says that's when he shot her. In other words, A.G. was claiming that he just snapped, that the murder was committed in the heat of the moment with no premeditation and happened in a moment of instant rage. And the reason for that that you would say something like that at trial as a defense would be to lessen the degree of crime and also potentially the sentence if convicted. But that was an argument prosecutors weren't buying. In this case, specifically, I think premeditation was absolutely clear. This man started talking about killing Brooklyn almost two hours prior to the homicide.

He left his work. He went to his grandma's home, got a gun. He then drove an hour and a half to two hours to Pensacola, Florida, went directly in the store, and shot and killed Brooklyn Sims. So if that's not premeditation, I don't know what it is. It would be up to the jury to decide who to believe. And there were some factors that Bridget feared could complicate their decision. The only concern I really had with Keith Agee's trial is the fact that he was so young.

And then when he testified, he came across very sympathetic. I mean, Trey and I met with him on several occasions. And he was always very respectful, very polite. And we were worried that that might come across to the jury. and that they would do a lesser included offense. I had no concern whether the jury would convict Keith Agee of killing Brooklyn Sims. The only concern or question was to what degree the jury would find, would it be first degree or would it be second degree?

There was also concerned that the jury's anger at Schiller Aegee and her malicious influence on her own son might also contribute to their sympathy for the actual killer. Like I said, Keith Aegee, came across as kind of sympathetic. But Sheila Agee, I thought jurors would dislike more, even though she wasn't the shooter, just because this was a mother that was speaking to her son in the way that she did and encouraging him and just egging him on to come commit this horrible crime. In the end, the jury found Keith Agee guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. Next on trial would be his mother, Sheila Agee. The defense attorney did file some pre-trial motion.

in an effort to keep some of the text messages out. We had a hearing on that. Obviously, we presented case law in support of our position, and the judge denied his motion. And in her testimony, Sheila Agee denied helping her son plan the murder or egging him on towards violence. She was certainly trying to act like she did not believe he was really going to come all the way to the Home Depot

and shoot and kill the mother of his child. She said, you know, that was just the way she talked and she didn't mean anything by it and she was basically, you know, just telling him he was stupid and she was trying to dissuade him from doing it. But the one thing she couldn't get away from was the fact that she sent the address to where Brooklyn was located. And the fact that at no time did she warn Brooklyn

that her son was on his way and that he was armed with a gun, well, that certainly didn't seem the actions of someone who loved Brooklyn as Sheila had said in her statement to police. The case against Shielda Aegee was solid, but the attention of one of the jurors proved to be considerably less so. Well, when Trey was questioning a witness, I was actually sitting relatively close to this juror, and I could hear some kind of paper rustling, and I looked over, and I thought she was doing a crossword puzzle. So I asked our legal assistant who was directly behind me to kind of keep an eye and see if that was what she saw. And, of course, we learned that that was in fact true.

Then we were told during the course of deliberations that she was again doing crossword puzzles after the judge had instructed her not to do that. So that is what ultimately led to the mistrial. The judge's decision to declare a mistrial and then dismiss the jury was a huge blow to prosecutors who had presented a powerful and likely very persuasive case. Obviously, with all the work that it takes and the preparation and the coordination of witnesses, and schedules, getting a case to trial is extremely difficult. And so when we have a mistrial for whatever reason, it's always kind of disheartening because you know with all that work, you're going to have to do it all over again. I agree with everything he just said.

My heart also went out to Brooklyn's family because we knew that they'd already been through Keith's trial. We were trying to give them some finality with Sheila's trial. And the fact that we were going to have to do it all over again was, I felt very sad for the family of Brooklyn's domes. Sheila Agee's second trial began in July of 2024. It was as open and shut as it gets. Trial number two for Sheila A.G. We were able to do in two days.

Prosecutors again told jurors this was a quote, mother's role in orchestrating her son's revenge and pointed to her text as calculated directives that resulted in Brooklyn's death. The focus of the defense's attorney in both trials was the intent. They were trying to say that Sheila A.G. loved Brooklyn. She loved the baby that Brooklyn and Keith shared in common. She had no intent for Brooklyn to be killed. And so that was what their main focus was. But this time, the jury was not buying it. Sheila A.G. was also found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder for being a principal to her son Keith Aegee.

When the verdict came back, I immediately turned around and I looked at Brooklyn's mom and her sister and her aunt that were there and they were just overcome with emotion. They were sitting with our victim advocates and they were crying and obviously very upset. Keith A.G. was sentenced to life in state prison without the possibility of parole

as well as his mother, Sheila A.G., the same sentence, life in state prison without the possibility of parole. It was the painful but rightful ending to a tragic story. This case was unique and important to us, I think mostly because of Brooklyn's age. She was so young and she had a young daughter at home and a whole life together that they're both going to miss out. Two families in this case have been totally upended and it's unfortunate and it was really all for nothing. And in like so many homicide cases, the killer did not just claim the life of his.

victim, Brooklyn Sims, but all the people she left behind, especially her daughter. These cases, when we're done, always come back to the victim for me because that's why we do what we do. We do this to get justice for our victims. And this case was so sad. They're all sad, but this case was so sad because it left a young child with her mother dead and her father spending life in prison. So she's orphaned essentially, and she's being raised by wonderful grandparents and Brooklyn's wonderful family. But still, obviously, it's not the same. And that's what's so heartbreaking is this little girl does not have either one of her parents. I came across this term recently, narrative control, and it really stuck with me. Because when you look at this case, it's exactly

what's at play. And here's what I mean. What happened to Brooklyn Sims shows how a single false story, one built on emotion, jealousy, and misinformation can take control of everything. The moment she was accused of giving him an STD, that lie became the narrative. It shaped how he saw her, how he justified what he was about to do, and eventually how the public first heard her name. That's the danger of losing control of the truth. When anger and humiliation take over, they start writing the story for you. And in this case, that false belief, became the fuel for murder. So when I talk about the narrative control here,

I'm talking about the power of perception. A rumor became motive. A lie became lethal. Brooklyn Sims was only 18 years old, murdered by the father of her young child and murdered at the direction of his mother. Keith Aegee used a gun. Sheila Aegee used her words

as an equally powerful and destructive weapon. I've read some of the text message between mother and son, and this was absolutely a premeditated act by them both. The content is sickening in its ruthlessness to read. We'll put a link on the AMM website to part of Bridget's closing argument, which goes through some of the specific texts so you can read them for yourselves if you'd like. The reasoning here was petty, hollow, and ultimately even proved to be false. But no matter their feelings for Brooklyn,

how on earth did they decide that the thing to do would be to take this teenager's life? No matter how many decades I've been involved in prosecuting or talking about these cases, I still cannot wrap my head around some of these crimes, and this is one of them. Brooklyn Sims had barely lived life when she was killed. After her death, family and friends gathered to release balloons into the sky in her memory and to bring awareness to domestic violence and how quickly it can escalate. October is recognized as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, so we thought it was a fitting time to release this episode.

Brooklyn Sims brothers said that all his sister wanted in life was to be a good mom to her daughter. Her daughter is being raised by Brooklyn's family. We hope she is doing well and is often reminded of the incredible love felt for her by her mom. Tune in next week for another new episode of Anatomy of Murder. anatomy of murder is an audio chuck original produced and created by wineburger media and frissetti media Ashley Flowers is executive producer this episode was written and produced by Walker LeMond researched by Kate Cooper edited by Ali Sirwa Megan Hayward and Phil Jean Grande I think Chuck would approve