Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Shattered Souls: Jessie Bracelett

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

Join veteran forensic investigator Karen Smith on the Shattered Souls podcast! Jessie Bracelett was brutally murdered in the pre-dawn hours of December 17, 2012. As Karen and other detectives investi...gated the crime scene and related items they discovered bloodstain evidence that would reveal, indisputably, who murdered Jessie on that cold December morning.Subscribe to the Shattered Souls podcast and catch up on all of Season 1 available now:Apple PodcastiHeartSpotifyMusic: The New Real by Sam Johnson at www.samjohnsonlive.com  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an iHeart Podcast. In my mind A picture frozen of a time Far away from the way I'm feeling now Where'd I go wrong? So long Farewell To what you thought So long, farewell To what you thought would go so well You can hold on like hell But it doesn't matter how you feel
Starting point is 00:01:04 This is the new real This is the new real This is Shattered Souls. I'm your host, Karen Smith. This podcast contains graphic language and is not suitable for children. This is the new real Welcome back. This is the new real. Welcome back. This is Episode 10. When we left off, murder suspect Maurice Johnson was being interviewed by homicide detectives about the brutal slaying of 22-year-old Jesse Bracelet at the Williamsburg apartment complex.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Maurice was asked about the horrendous injuries to Jesse, and he said he had no idea what happened to his friend, and he didn't ask any questions. A witness had called 911, reporting a beating taking place in the parking lot. Mm-hmm. He landed a stream. We've got rescue coming to him, okay? In episode nine, I purposefully left some loopholes for you to sort through and bring out your inner sleuth to try to figure them out. Let's review some of those points. At the scene, Detective Kim Longendye had sorted through a host of evidence, including a blood trail, bloody shoe prints, cast-off, impact, transfer patterns, and more blood that was located on the interior surfaces and rear as having originated from a low position about 15 feet away, right where Jesse's body had been located. Shoe prints and blood, consistent with the pattern on the bottom of Maurice Johnson's sneakers, were found on the sidewalk. The blood trail was extensive and changed direction, leading back to the area where Maurice Johnson collapsed by an ambulance, pleading for help. Where are you exactly? Are you at the intersection with Toledo and St. Augustine?
Starting point is 00:04:05 Hello? Kim Long found a T-shirt belonging to Maurice Johnson at the scene. Maurice had a stab wound to his upper left chest and received staples at the emergency room before being brought to the homicide office for questioning. When Maurice Johnson called 911, he said that two, no, three armed black males had attacked both him and Jesse as they sat in the Toyota.
Starting point is 00:04:48 Did you get a description of the person? Two armed. Three armed black men. There was three armed black males. In the homicide office, Maurice told the detectives that not two, not three, but four unknown perpetrators attacked him and Jesse. Maurice laid out a pretty ridiculous story and couldn't answer some very basic questions, including a description of the alleged robbery suspects. He rambled on and tried to make himself out as some kind of hero, saying that he fended off multiple perpetrators who were armed with a gun and a knife. Questioning continued and became more antagonistic after the detectives finally confronted him and said that they knew his robbery story was a complete lie. With that backstory in mind, here are some questions that you may
Starting point is 00:05:49 have asked yourself after episode 9. Number one, how was Maurice Johnson stabbed if his story about being robbed was a lie? Two, isn't it plausible that both Maurice and Jesse were jumped by two, three, or four males, which resulted in the injuries to both of them? 3. The blood trail could have been from Maurice when he ran away from the unknown perpetrators after being stabbed in the chest by one of them. 4. Whose blood was inside of that Toyota? Number five, did the witness who called 911 see anything important that could identify the perpetrator? Number six, what forensic information could Maurice Johnson and Jesse Bracelet's clothing provide?
Starting point is 00:06:48 And number seven, the bloodstains around Jesse Bracelet showed that the suspect was clearly right-handed. Was Maurice Johnson right-handed? If you asked yourself a couple of these questions, well done, and I have answers for each one using the forensic evidence. Let's go through this case step by step. We'll start with disassembling Maurice Johnson's story. In the interview room, the detectives were tired of hearing Maurice's lies about a robbery, and they booked him for murder. On the way to the jail, Maurice had a change of heart and said that he wanted to go back to the interview room to talk to the detectives again.
Starting point is 00:07:25 So they drove him back around to the police memorial building and sat him back in the interview room. The detectives had Maurice sign another Miranda form and asked him on camera if the second interview was at his request. He said yes, signed the form using his right hand, and the detectives asked him what he had to say. Maurice admitted that his first story about the robbery had been a lie. There were no other assailants, nobody else involved in the death of Jesse Bracelet. Maurice now claimed that he acted in self-defense when Jesse Bracelet took a knife and stabbed him first. This is lead prosecutor Matt O'Keefe. And that's when he said, yeah, you're right, it wasn't a robbery.
Starting point is 00:08:19 It was, in fact, the story that he would then claim at trial. In a fit of rage, the victim, Jesse Bracelet, grabbed his knife, which he carried, but he didn't have in his sheet at the time that was on his belt, but grabbed his knife and just stabbed him in the chest. During the second interview, he said that he met Jesse in the parking lot and sat in the passenger seat of the Toyota that was still idling when the patrol officers arrived just a couple of minutes later. He wanted Jesse to front him a small baggie of marijuana.
Starting point is 00:08:56 He said that Jesse balked at this and asked why he always needed a favor from him and asked why he just couldn't pay for it up front like everybody else. Without giving the full details of their argument, the likely precipitating moment before the attack, Maurice said that Jesse took a folding knife from the dashboard of the car that Maurice normally carried on his belt and stabbed Maurice in the chest while he sat in the passenger seat. Maurice also said that during a scuffle inside of that vehicle where he was bleeding profusely from his shoulder wound, he stabbed Jesse in the back and they both tumbled out of the driver's door and onto the ground. The fight continued, and Maurice said that he got the knife away from Jesse and tossed it. In the middle of a fight for his life, Jesse Bracelet
Starting point is 00:09:52 somehow managed to get the knife back into his hand from somewhere on the pavement and continued to stab Maurice Johnson, slicing him in the nose. Maurice said that he regretted not throwing the knife further away and said he got the knife away from Jesse a second time and stabbed Jesse in the neck while he was down on the pavement. He was trying like hell to account for every piece of forensic evidence left at that scene, anything that would sell the detectives on a self-defense story. But here's one very important detail. Maurice Johnson was 6'2 and weighed 230 pounds. Jesse Bracelet was 5'6 and weighed 115 pounds. Even without the forensic facts that I'm going to give you, with those statistics, Jesse Bracelet didn't stand a chance. The detective listened and once again confronted Maurice about
Starting point is 00:10:55 the ridiculousness of his story and told him that the forensic evidence, witness statements, and crime scene told a completely different story. He gave Maurice multiple opportunities to tell the truth. He told Maurice that he must have been really angry about something that Jesse did in order to inflict over 46 stab wounds, mostly to Jesse Bracelet's neck. This is Matt O'Keefe. The struggle continued, and as a result of this, again, actions of self-defense, if you were to believe Mr. Johnson, he would then stab Mr. Bracelet about 46 times. They mentioned almost pretty much decapitated him.
Starting point is 00:11:37 This is Detective Kim Long. I actually remember we all kind of kind of gasped because they had to literally hold his head to keep it from basically just happening. Just the brutality of the marks on his, you know, trying to saw his head off, you know, cutting him. That's right. Jesse Bracelet had sustained over 46 stab wounds. The medical examiner couldn't count any higher because the wounds to his neck overlapped to the point that he was nearly decapitated. But let's go back to the interview room. Without giving any information away, the detective asked Maurice for more details. His head spun with ideas to explain away each piece of evidence left at the scene. Out of left field, Maurice said that he was wearing tinted glasses that fell off during the struggle. He said that somehow, while he was fighting for his life,
Starting point is 00:12:40 he put the glasses back on his face, but they fell off a second time when he bent over Jesse's body and accidentally stepped on them because he heard a crunch sound. He also said that he knelt down in the blood and picked Jesse's body up by his neck when he checked on him and heard gurgling from the blood building up in his chest, which is why he had blood on his hands. How convenient. The detective told him that witnesses in the apartment complex had called 911 to report the incident and saw a man fitting Maurice's description rummaging through the Toyota and then run away just as police pulled into the parking lot. Maurice wouldn't budge. After another hour of questioning, rebuttals, and more BS, he stuck to his self-defense story and was booked for murder once again. Let's go back to the scene, starting with the blood trail documented by Kim Long.
Starting point is 00:13:43 She found drip stains along the sidewalk that led between two buildings and then came back to the area where Jesse's body was. Along that path, she found a large blood clot and she took a sample. Next to that blood clot, there was a back patio that had a number of drip stains in a close pattern which were indicative of an open, bleeding wound. Since Jesse Bracelet had not moved from his position, we knew that the blood most likely belonged to Maurice Johnson, and it came from that stab wound to his chest. But that left the question, when did Maurice get stabbed stabbed and by whom? The female caller to 911 and two other eyewitnesses said that two men were on the pavement in a fight.
Starting point is 00:14:32 All three of the witnesses said that they saw the larger male on top of the smaller male striking him with his right hand. None of the witnesses reported seeing any other persons at the scene, which became crucial to the investigation and the subsequent testimony. This is prosecutor Matt O'Keefe. There were three civilians unrelated to the drug transaction who were actually playing cards in an apartment nearby, heard Mr. Bracelet plead for his life, kind of caught a little bit of the action of the larger individual, who in this case was Maurice Johnson, sitting or straddling over the smaller individual.
Starting point is 00:15:11 They reported that the larger individual was beating on him. It appeared to be punching him. A subsequent interview of those witnesses revealed much more important information. They described the larger male as wearing a dark shirt, dark jeans, and a ball cap. They said the male went to the Toyota and was rummaging through it when police cars pulled into the parking lot. The man ran toward the back of the complex.
Starting point is 00:15:41 The witnesses came outside to their front porch to get a better view of what was going on when a man walked by them talking on his phone. He didn't have a shirt on. He was bleeding and was holding a black shirt to his shoulder and walked over to one of the paramedics where he fell to the ground. It was Maurice Johnson, and he was on the phone with the 911 operator. DNA analysis would show that the majority of the stains along that drip trail belonged to Maurice Johnson, but that large blood clot belonged to Jesse Bracelet. How could this be? Maurice Johnson's clothes, hands, and arms were so covered in Jesse Bracelet's blood that the clot had dislodged from his person
Starting point is 00:16:35 and dropped onto the sidewalk as he ran away. This would have required Maurice to do a whole lot more than simply pick Jesse Bracelet up to check on him, as he alleged during his interview. This is Kim Long. Some of the blood trail that we actually found as he was walking away belonged to Jesse. So he had that much blood on him as he was walking away. That blood belonged to the victim. So he was actually depositing Jesse's blood onto the ground because he had so much, I guess, on his clothing and maybe
Starting point is 00:17:11 on his arms. The act of bleeding from the blood trail started a little further back in the complex toward an adjacent building. We later found out that Maurice lived in that apartment complex in number 41, which was directly in line with the blood trail. It seemed like he was going to go home, but at some point he changed his mind. Maurice Johnson had taken his shirt off, used the knife to stab himself in the shoulder and to also poke two tiny holes in his butt and his leg to portray himself as a victim. The other injuries, the cut to his nose, scratches on his face and arms,
Starting point is 00:17:56 those were all sustained as Jesse fought him off before succumbing to the massive number of stab wounds. Hard to believe? At first, we thought so too. But keep listening, and the evidence will bear itself out. Let's talk about the interior of the Toyota, where Maurice said that Jesse stabbed him in the chest before they both tumbled out of the driver's door and onto the pavement.
Starting point is 00:18:22 When Kim Long and I looked, there were only a couple of drip stains on the driver's seat, a swipe mark on the door, and a small transfer stain on the lid of the center console. There was no blood at all on the passenger seat or the floor. None. If Maurice Johnson had sustained a major bleeding injury inside of that car while he sat in the passenger seat, his blood would have been all over it. This is Kim Long. It was quite interesting because the story on that one was that he was in the passenger seat
Starting point is 00:18:55 and Jesse was in the driver's seat, of course, and Jesse's the one that stabbed Maurice while they were in the car. However, we didn't have any blood whatsoever inside on the passenger seat. And we only had a few transfer stains and maybe a few drip stains on the center console and the driver's seat, which led to believe us that's not necessarily what happened. Subsequent DNA analysis would show that the only blood found inside that Toyota belonged to Jesse Bracelet. Just like the witnesses stated, Maurice had gone into the car after stabbing Jesse and rummaged through it, likely for drugs, and he transferred Jesse Bracelet's blood from his hands and his clothes. He fled when he saw the patrol cars hightailing it into the complex. The clot
Starting point is 00:19:47 of blood from Jesse dislodged from his person, and the active bleeding blood trail told the rest of the story. I still had to do a closer analysis of the clothing belonging to Maurice Johnson, which would provide valuable additional forensic clues. So the next morning, I went directly to the property viewing room and requested Maurice's shirt, jeans, and ball cap, and Kim Long joined me. The ball cap was covered with bloodstains, but their configuration and location were very important pieces of information. It was a black cap with a silver logo on the front and a shiny sticker remained on the top of the bill. I could see a number of stains on top as well as underneath
Starting point is 00:20:34 that bill, which meant that the source of blood was both above and below the cap if it was being worn when they were deposited. This was consistent with Maurice leaning over Jesse while he threw the blood out and away from his body. I took a DNA swab from the inside of the headband for wearer DNA and repackaged it. I moved on to Maurice's jeans and laid them onto brown paper. They were size 42 with a large embroidered logo on the right thigh. They were size 42, with a large embroidered logo on the right thigh. They were almost completely saturated with blood along the front, all the way down to the ankles. The central area between the thighs was clean, and the back of them only had slight transfer stains near the pockets. There were the two small rips in the denim that coincided with the superficial cuts on Maurice's butt cheek and leg, and tiny bloodstains were located only on
Starting point is 00:21:31 the interior side of the fabric, so those cuts didn't even bleed enough to soak through. I took a step back from the table, and I saw a pattern that nudged my memory back to Jesse's body at the scene. That L-shaped void pattern on his side. There was also an L-shaped void pattern on Maurice Johnson's jeans on the inside of the right leg. I got my laptop computer and put the CD of photographs from the scene into the slot. Like two puzzle pieces, we could configure Jesse's right side face down with Maurice's jeans against his body. The jeans would have blocked any blood
Starting point is 00:22:14 from being deposited onto the skin and the L patterns lined up perfectly. This meant that Maurice Johnson was straddling Jesse Bracelet's body during the attack, just as the witnesses had said. Prosecutor Matt O'Keefe. Obviously, a significant amount of blood from his mid-back area up towards his head. And then there was some blood on his pants and his underwear.
Starting point is 00:22:41 The t-shirt that Mr. Bracelet had on is clean and white, This also explained why there was no blood on the back of Jesse's sweatpants and the white void area on his t-shirt. Maurice's body was intercepting all of that blood and preventing it from being soaked up by Jesse's clothes because Maurice was literally sitting on top of him. All six foot two, 230 pounds of Maurice Johnson. I wrote the word void on the brown paper next to the L pattern on the jeans and took a bunch of photographs for court. This would have to be explained to the jury, and I might even have to demonstrate how that puzzle fit together depending on what the prosecutor wanted.
Starting point is 00:23:42 I put the jeans back into the bag and opened the other that contained Maurice Johnson's t-shirt. It was soaked with blood, but only on the bottom half. The upper half contained a number of stains consistent with impact or cast off, but no saturations, which was curious. Maurice was stabbed in the upper left chest. Not only was blood missing in that area, there was no cut in the fabric on the left side at all. This is prosecutor John Kalinowski. He was using it to cover the wound. And there was no knife wound, no corresponding knife wound in that shirt,
Starting point is 00:24:26 which indicated that it was something that was self-inflicted at a later time. On that shirt, there was a rip under the right armpit area, but there was no blood around it. If Maurice Johnson was wearing the shirt during the fight and Jesse stabbed him in the car before he ran. There would have been a slice through the fabric and blood saturation around that injury. So then the truth became very apparent. Maurice Johnson was uninjured during the fight. In order to make it appear as though he was acting in self-defense, he took his shirt off and then stabbed himself in the chest and the leg.
Starting point is 00:25:08 The theory explained why none of the injuries were life-threatening. However, I do believe that Maurice Johnson likely went a little bit deeper than he intended to on his own shoulder. Detective Kim Long agrees. He didn't realize when he stabbed himself in the shoulder, he went a little too deep. I honestly think he went a little too deep. And that's what caused some problems, is he went too deep. And then he was like, oh my goodness, I need help. The state filed its intent to seek the death penalty against Maurice Johnson in March of 2013. After numerous continuances, changes in attorneys, motion hearings, and amended discovery, the assistant state attorney withdrew the death penalty and lowered the charges to first-degree murder
Starting point is 00:25:48 with a maximum penalty of life without parole. Jury selection for trial finally went forward the week of March 15, 2016. The medical examiner testified that Jesse Bracelet had more than 46 stab wounds to his chest, neck, head, arms, and back. There were lacerations that showed multiple directionalities. The knife that was used was a single-bladed instrument. It was a frenzy of cuts, slashes, and stabs. She stated that Jesse was nearly decapitated,
Starting point is 00:26:22 that his larynx, pharynx, thyroid gland, jugular vein, and carotid arteries had all been severed. His fifth cervical vertebrae had been fractured. Photographs of his injuries and the internal autopsy were shown to the jury. The medical examiner also testified that it appeared that the same weapon used to murder Jesse Bracelet was used to inflict the injury to Maurice Johnson. This is prosecutor Matt O'Keefe. And in talking with the ME, again, as I told you, there was about 46. Most of them were in the neck area, repeated to the same location. So literally his head was almost completely removed. Couldn't tell the size of the murder weapon from those wounds. And there were some defensive wounds on his hand that gave us a better idea of the size of the blade.
Starting point is 00:27:10 Again, a rough correlation. The size of those wounds had a correlation to the size of the single wound on the defendant, which then a jury could conclude, single weapon, single knife. The emergency room surgeon testified that the injury to Maurice Johnson was serious, but it certainly could have been self-inflicted based on its location in the muscle tissue and not through the center of his chest. The doctor who treated him, Dr. Kerwood, said it was a significant injury. And so the biggest challenge we have, people out there, you've got to say, boy, if that was a self-inflicted wound, that's not how I would have done it. And that's a fair statement. So in combating that, we really had
Starting point is 00:27:54 to focus on the wound itself. One of them may have decided, you know what, that's a pretty bad wound. And I can't see a rational human being inflicting that on themselves. And so fortunately, we were able to show through the physical evidence, through the work of the evidence technicians about the blood trail and the blood in the car, not on a self-inflicted wound that happened to be serious, but on wounds on Jesse Bracelet that were fatal. Challenging point and looking back, the most interesting point when it came to this particular case and the justifiable use of deadly force argument that we needed to overcome.
Starting point is 00:28:33 Prosecutor John Kalinowski handled my testimony. He tendered me as an expert witness and the judge allowed it, which was given on the heels of the medical examiner. John began his focus on Jesse Bracelet's clothes. This is States 1-8. Could you describe what you're looking at as far as the blood and what you can see about its behavior on this exhibit? And I said, as we can see, it's obviously a large blood pool and there's a lot of blood at the scene. But we not only look for where blood is, which can tell a lot, but we also look to see where blood is not. And that can also be very telling at at the scene. But we not only look for where blood is, which can tell a lot, but we
Starting point is 00:29:05 also look to see where blood is not, and that can also be very telling at a crime scene. The first thing I noticed when I got there was not only the blood around the victim and on his person, but the areas where blood wasn't, but based on the surrounding areas, should have been. And that's what I see here. A white portion of the tank top or t-shirt, as well as a lack of blood deposition on the back of the sweatpants. There's also a lack of blood on the lower left back of the victim's skin and lower part of the left side of his boxer shorts. John moved forward to the patterns found on Jesse Bracelet's body. A photograph was shown of Jesse Bracelet after he had been rolled onto his back. It was a horrific sight, and several of the jurors cringed. John pointed at that L-shaped
Starting point is 00:29:53 void pattern on Jesse's skin. He wanted to show the jury the initial photograph and then juxtapose it to the photo of Maurice Johnson's jeans. States exhibit 1-117. What is it that you noticed in particular about the jeans? Well, as you can see, they're fairly saturated, but again, there's an area, and several areas, where blood isn't, but according to the surrounding areas, it should be. The particular area I have in mind is this one. You can see it's an area that's fairly 90 degree-ish. That's not a natural deposition of blood. It just doesn't happen that way. So that tells me that it's a void and tells me that something prevented its deposition
Starting point is 00:30:35 from being on that area. And then he asked, now you spoke earlier about a void pattern along the right side of the victim's body. Did you compare that void pattern to this void pattern on the jeans? of the victim's body. Did you compare that void pattern to this void pattern on the jeans? And I said, yes, I did. And he said, what were you able to say that that's consistent with? And I said, we know the victim was found face down and that pattern was found on the right side of his abdomen in a fairly 90 degree angle. This is on the right side pant leg of these jeans,
Starting point is 00:31:05 and it would be consistent with matching up to the victim's side. So that tells me that these jeans, or the person wearing them, was at some point kneeling over the victim or knelt down on top of the victim. And I watched the jurors, and they were writing notes as we continued. After discussing Maurice Johnson's other clothing, including his t-shirt, which lacked the cut in the fabric where he had been stabbed in the chest, John Kalinowski moved forward to talk about the bloodstains left on the parking lot pavement, around Jesse's body, and on the Toyota parked to the south.
Starting point is 00:31:39 This is in evidence as States 1-75. Is this the area where the victim had been after he is removed from the scene? Yes. Okay, could you just give an overview of what you're looking at in this exhibit? And I said, sure. The preponderance of blood, as you can see, would have been on the victim's right side. What I looked at in particular were these stains that went all the way around the periphery on that side. And he said, you mentioned a vehicle, so I want to go to that.
Starting point is 00:32:07 Now, there doesn't appear to be any blood in States 1-87, is that correct? And I said, that's correct. So no blood that you found on the hood or on top or on top of the trunk area of that vehicle, correct? That's correct. Now, I want to move to States 1-88, showing the back of that vehicle, correct? That's correct. Now I want to move to states 1-88, showing the back of that vehicle. Just for reference, all of those little white pieces of tape are depicting areas of blood cast off, he asked. And I said, yes, they are. And what would be the approximate maximum height
Starting point is 00:32:38 of those blood drops on the back of the car? And I said, between 40 and 41 inches. And he said, for a little while, but if the force is too great and overcomes those adhesive properties to the object, it will come apart and break into little droplets that we talked about. So the radiant pattern on the ground is connected to the blood on the back of the car. It all came from a very low angle to the north of the car. And that tied the majority of the crime scene together for the jury. Maurice Johnson was right-handed. He straddled the body, pulled the knife across Jesse's neck numerous times, and flung that blood out and backward onto the pavement and onto that Toyota. Maurice Johnson's clothing intercepted a lot of that blood on the front of his clothes and blocked the blood from getting on the back of Jesse Bracelet's clothes. John Kalinowski thanked me and completed his questioning after
Starting point is 00:33:51 two hours of direct. The defense attorney was a gentleman I had faced a number of times before. He was always fair, but he could take you to task if there was any questionable evidence during the investigation. Good afternoon, how are you? He asked. I said, I'm good, sir. How are you? Very well. Good to see you again. I'm going to try to go back to the side of the car. I know there were a bunch of photographs and I'm going to see if I can get us back there. I think it was 1-93. The photographs we talked about over here on the side of the car and I'm looking at, I'm sorry, it's 1-94. Those droplets on the side of the car, am I correct in that those are coming down like a straight fashion? And I said, at an angle top to down, yes.
Starting point is 00:34:37 Top to down? Yes. And that's the side of the, the driver's side of the car, he asked. And I said, that's right. Okay, so clearly we've seen the photograph and the blood spatter at the back of the car. But clearly something was going on. Some altercation or some bleeding or dripping was occurring outside the driver's side door of that vehicle. And I said, I don't know about dripping. I do know that this is a swipe that was outside the driver's door.
Starting point is 00:35:02 And there are some droplets down here. So again, mechanical causation, they are very small droplets and that would be consistent with blood being broken up as a result of energy. Yes. And he said, but the ones we're talking about that were on the side of the car, those were in a downward fashion, correct? And I said, yes. Thank you so much. That's all I have. I was excused from court at that point and thought about what a weird cross-examination that was. During closing arguments, the defense attorney argued that Maurice Johnson was never inside of the car after he was injured and that the entire struggle took place on the pavement. He used my information about the downward
Starting point is 00:35:44 trajectory of the blood on the back of the car as being from the struggle just place on the pavement. He used my information about the downward trajectory of the blood on the back of the car as being from the struggle just outside of the driver's door. He took my information out of context, but it didn't matter. On March 17th, the jury was excused for deliberation and returned one hour later with a verdict. They found Maurice Johnson guilty of the lesser included offense of second-degree murder. Two months later, the judge sentenced him to life in prison. On a side note, this murder was Maurice Johnson's 19th arrest in Jacksonville. And one more thing, during his interview, his initial interview, Maurice told the homicide detectives that he was, quote, shell-shocked from doing eight years in the Marine Corps.
Starting point is 00:36:31 Maurice Johnson never served his country. He never wore a uniform and certainly did not hold the respected and earned title of United States Marine. Not only did he steal Jesse Bracelet's life, he stole the valor of the men and women who have served. Jesse Bracelet did make some bad decisions in his short life. Yes, he dealt drugs. But before that, he was employed by a landscaping business, and he earned an honest living before he was laid off. Jesse wasn't flashy. He wasn't trying to earn street cred. He was trying to pay his bills. It's easy to judge when you're on the outside looking in. I think it's better to remember that
Starting point is 00:37:18 Jesse Bracelet did have a family and friends who loved him, and they didn't deserve this either. So let's keep all of them in our thoughts. Opening music by Sam Johnson at SamJohnsonLive.com. Underscore music by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. All rights reserved by Angel Heart Productions. This is an iHeart Podcast.

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