Dateline NBC - The Mystery of the Lost Weekend

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

After Vincent Brothers’ wife, children and mother-in-law are murdered on a weekend when he was out of town, his Bakersfield, California community is shocked to learn he is a suspect. Keith Morrison reports in this Dateline classic that originally aired on NBC on July 24, 2009.

They say people reinvent themselves when they move to California. Something transformative about the road west, the cities on the hills and in the valleys by the sea. They're not exactly the same anymore once they're there. But if that's so, can you ever really know a person? A person like Vincent Brothers, for example. By all accounts, popular, successful, and kind. I thought he was a very loving individual. I thought he had a heart of gold. Ah, yes, a heart of gold. Your ability to know a man, know what he is or is not really capable of, is about to be challenged. Give him a hug. Vincent Brothers was an elementary school

vice principal, a very good one apparently. Later big guy. His wife Joan, a school supervisor in Bakersfield, California. Joanie was the sweetest, most gentlest person you'd ever meet. They had three kids. Vincent was the love of her life, said her brother Eddie. Vincent was very nice, very giving toward Joni. She thought he was an incredible person. We knew that Joni was in love with this man, deeply in love with him. So here he was,

the respected educator, father, happily married man. And who'd have thought it, given his beginnings back in Bellport, Long Island? Where we grew up, it was easy to get in trouble. And that was the biggest thing, was to stay out of trouble. But Vincent remembered childhood pal Donald Collier had a kind of Pied Piper popularity. Kids gravitated to this guy like you wouldn't believe. They'd run out like he was the ice cream man. They loved him. One of 10 kids, his mother Margaret struggled and worried, but not about Vincent. Vincent was just blessed with the gift of knowledge because he never had to study. But he took things serious, but I never saw him down or depressed or going through anything. He went to college, served in the Marine Reserves, and headed west in the mid-80s to complete his master's degree at Cal State Bakersfield.

He wasn't perfect. There were two brief marriages, which ended even as he rose quickly as a school administrator. And then he met sweet, quiet Joni Harper, from a modest but respected Bakersfield family. Joni's mother, Ernestine, was an outspoken community activist, who most recently had been working with the defendant in a high-profile murder case. My mother's main work was helping those defendants who were unjustly accused. She was fearless. Joni had been a gifted athlete, a star basketball player,

but her real passion, like Vincent's, was helping children. She loved working with children. She was also a Division I women's basketball official. And yes, she was multi-talented, multi-talented. And so Vincent and Jon Joan became a team themselves, going above and beyond for the local kids. Give me a hug. Which did not go unnoticed around Bakersfield.

We had done previous stories on how he walked kids home from school. Kiyoshi Tomono was a Bakersfield news anchor at the time. He was known as the caring vice principal, the guy that really wanted to make sure his kids succeeded. And were safe. And were safe. Bakersfield's got a lot of heart. They said this guy should have bikes so they can help, you know, escort these kids home. Vice Principal Vincent Brothers and Joni Harper, who is the campus supervisor, are escorting students home on wheels. This is the best Christmas we ever had.

And he was there with his wife in our stories, riding brand new bikes and thanking the community for doing that for him. I'm excited and I really appreciate it. I didn't expect this and thank you. How about you? It's a bit overwhelming, but we appreciate their support that they've given us the years that we've been here. And so it's just an opportunity for us to show that we care and make sure their children get home safely.

He's kind of like a neighborhood hero. Absolutely. It was a pillar in this community. Their son, Marcus, was born in 1998. And to the relief of Joan's family, the two married in January 2000. And this is where we would like to have used the words, happily ever after. But of course, that's not why we're here.

Things happened. The first thing was Vincent's odd disappearances. He would leave for three days, wouldn't say where he's going. He'd come back and Johnny could not question his whereabouts or who he was with or what he was doing. And so that behavior was extremely strange. They fell out of love. They divorced. They fell in love again. They divorced. They fell in love again.

They had a daughter, Lindsay. Joni, said her brother, worked very hard at this. Joni wanted her children to have a father. She wanted it to be husband and wife. That was her main concern, that he was really involved in the children's life. And it seemed that Vincent wanted that too. He began a study program with a local minister. And in January 2003, he and Joan secretly remarried.

And four months later, their third child, Marshall, was born. Seeing him change, watching him, how he was with the children, and he was, in all intent and purpose, very good. July 4th weekend, he took a break, flew east to Ohio to visit his brother Melvin. Joan stayed home to enjoy fireworks and barbecues with her mother and the children. It was Tuesday the 8th, Vincent still back east. A friend dropped by to see Joanie and the children. It was Tuesday the 8th. Vincent still back east. A friend dropped by to see Joni and the children.

What she found was horrifying. Where are you? 901-537-7. Hold on, hold on. Take a deep breath. My husband, my best friend, he's dead. He's laying on the bed. Okay. I'm my mother. mother and three children.

I thought I was dreaming. I thought that this day was not really happening. The news about what happened over the July 4th weekend at the Bakersfield home of Vincent Brothers and Joni Harper was delivered in pieces like shrapnel to Joni's brother, Eddie. My cousin's husband called me and told me that Joanie and Lindsay had been shot and killed. About two hours after, he called me back and informed me that not only was Joni and Lindsay killed, but my mother and Marcus were also shot and killed.

Marcus, stop. He called me back the third time and told me that they had found Marshall and he too had been shot and killed. A massacre. A whole family murdered in cold blood. Save for Vincent, who was on the road, thousands of miles away in North Carolina, on the way to see his mother, Margaret. It was she who broke the news to Vincent when he arrived. I healed him real tight and he broke away from me. He started running and screaming and hollering.

Who would have done it? The police in North Carolina talked to Vincent, hoping for leads. According to the detectives that interviewed him initially, he was crying unconsolable and at one point asked for a trash can. Asked for a trash can. Because he was so sick to his stomach that he needed a trash can. Still, as the husband, Vincent, was of course an automatic suspect, at the request of Bakersfield police he was even arrested briefly. Five counts of murder and that's what the arrest warrant will also state. Within hours, Bakersfield police announced that North Carolina was releasing him, and he was free to return home.

He has ties to this community, has property in this community, and he voluntarily came in. So the flight risk issues are fairly minimal. Where is he now? He's free. What's the phrase? Person of interest? Anyway, when he got back to Bakersfield, Vincent Brothers entered a kind of limbo.

His family was dead. He was now famous for the worst of reasons. And the town was nervous. You know, we have heightened our police patrols in that particular neighborhood because we know there's a heightened sense of concern in that neighborhood. A terrible criminal might still be in their midst. But who? And why of all people them? Why the whole family? Why little children? Why a baby?

People just came out in droves. For several days it was a shrine outside the home. We've never had a tragedy such as this. So it has a great impact on all of us. Well, I'm singing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. had a tragedy such as this. So it has a great impact on all of us. Well, I'm singing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. And then it was over.

The dead were buried, anxiety about the possibility of a serial killer in town began to fade, the police couldn't find the murder weapon, and for all the chaos and carnage at the scene, forensics provided no real clues.

But there was Vincent. This is kind of classic. You know, they look towards the people that know these people first and then move outward. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Still, Vincent was certainly an unlikely suspect. After all, wasn't he thousands of miles away in Ohio when his family was murdered? And anyway, he was a respected and, by all accounts, gentle man who loved his family. A murderer of his own kids? Impossible.

My mom, my dad, they was like, Vincent, Vincent wouldn't do nothing like that. No, there's no way, you know, Vincent't do nothing like that. No, there's no way Vincent would do something like that. Johnny, nor my mother ever talked about him having a bad temper. I talked with him after the funeral, and he told me, Eddie, I was not there. I did not do this. Maybe Vincent's wife and children weren't even the intended victims. Maybe the target was actually Vincent's mother-in-law, Ernestine Harper. After all, as a community activist, she'd been working closely with some very rough characters, including murder suspects.

If my mother helped anyone, her car was not off limits, her house was not off limits, nothing. The work that she was doing in the community would automatically bring enemies, you know. I know my son had told me years ago that Ms. Harper was very nervous and always had fear somebody was going to break in her house. Had Ernestine Harper opened her life to the wrong person?

Vincent's mother-in-law was a woman who worked with gangs, and dangerous people hung around. Were any of those leads considered to be, you know, possible early on? I don't know if they were thoroughly investigated. I don't think they ever presented evidence that they were. I think the police did look into that angle. No, police seemed to feel that Ernestine's contacts were a dead end. A year went

by. The investigation cooled. And then, quite suddenly... They charged him with first count felony murder. He was proven to have alleged that it was a multiple murder. Once they were so full of promise, a fine family, Vincent Brothers, Joan Harper, three small children, known, liked, respected. And now this family, in one horrible moment, was over. It was nearly a year later when they finally brought a suspect into court. And who was the accused mass killer? Your two-name is Vincent Edward Brothers?

Yes, sir. Mr. Brothers, you're charged in a criminal complaint, first count of felony murder. I said it's no way possible. There's no way he could have did this. Surely not Vincent, anybody but him. Unless, as the state contended, nobody really knew him. We've never heard of him being violent with Joni. We did learn that he had been with the mother of his first child. For a year, investigators have been quietly poking around in Vincent's past.

They found a former girlfriend, Shan Kern. Once upon a time, years before he met Joan, the two had lived together when both were studying at Cal State Bakersfield. I was in love with Vincent. I loved him. I admired him. Shan was the mother of his first daughter, Margaret, born in 1988. That year, Shan said she filed charges against Vincent for assaulting her after she confronted him about one of his unexplained disappearances. I had little slippers on, and I had a little fuzzy slipper, and I picked that thing up, and I said, Vincent, you can't treat me like this.

Man, when that slipper hit him, he just, boom, boom, boom, jumped on me and just started beating me like he didn't even know me. Like he didn't know me. Just kept, wah, wah. Every time I would get up, he would hit me. And he could turn on a dime? Just like that. And when he did that, he was capable of what? Anything?

A complete different person than what you were really dealing with. And just had this most evil face, scared to live and lie in front of me. Vincent spent several days in jail after that incident Two sides to every story, of course Vincent continued to deny he attacked Shan In fact, he claimed there was a time when she went after him With a gun and a knife But she was cleared of those charges

But one certain thread police were discovering Was Vincent's penchant for other women Did he cheat on you? Oh yeah, by far, yes. Vincent's disappearances turned out to be covers for serial infidelity. During their marriage relationship, there were a number of women whom he had relationships with. All but one of his affairs, it turned out, had occurred while he and Joanie were separated. Still, hard to dispute he was a womanizer. Sometimes you're not ready for the relationship you get into.

That's what happened with Vincent, you know. Sometimes we don't mature. But of course, just because he cheated on his wife, it certainly doesn't mean he killed her, and his mother-in-law and his three children. Besides, wasn't he thousands of miles away in Ohio the weekend of the murder? Didn't make any sense. Unless, unless he was in both places that long holiday weekend. In the year since the murder, Bakersfield investigators had worked hard to piece together that very case. On Wednesday, July 2nd, Vincent Brothers flew from Bakersfield to Columbus, Ohio,

rented a car, a Dodge Neon, and went to stay with his brother Melvin and his family. Then, the state claimed, Thursday or Friday, Vincent drove that rental car all the way back to Bakersfield, 2,300 miles, and there slaughtered his family sometime on Sunday, July 6th. Then he drove all the way back to Columbus, 2,300 miles, arriving late Monday. Early the next morning, Tuesday, he and Melvin got in the same Dodge Neon and drove more than 600 miles to see their mother in North Carolina. Really? Or was there another explanation for the five murder charges? They assume it's somebody that people know, and they jump to the conclusion it would be Vincent Brothers, who was the husband. Obviously, Vincent needed a lawyer, and we spoke

to that lawyer, Michael Gardena, in 2009. What was compelling about the case is there was a total lack of physical evidence to tie Vincent Brothers to the crime scene. And, said his lawyer, Vincent could offer solid evidence he had been in Ohio with his brother Melvin and his family the entire holiday weekend. The family first saw Vincent Wednesday night when he arrived. He was with them on Thursday. They went out to a restaurant called the China Buffet, and they had a receipt from there that Vincent had signed. He used his credit card to purchase lunch. But although Vincent's credit card showed up on more Ohio purchases that weekend,

it wasn't Vincent who used the card. He'd given it to his brother, Melvin, to use over the weekend. Wasn't that just an alibi? No. The fact that one brother would help out another brother, another family member, is not unusual. Elvin and his family said Vincent was with them all weekend. However, after Friday, the family didn't actually see him again until Monday. Then he disappeared after Friday.

Well, he didn't disappear. He was with Troy on Saturday. Came back, left early in the morning, came back late. Troy was yet another of Vincent's siblings. He was with Troy on Saturday. Came back, left early in the morning, came back late. Troy was yet another of Vincent's siblings. Troy had come from New York to see Vincent. The two of them, according to Vincent, spent Saturday driving around to investigate universities for Vincent's graduate work. Unfortunately, he had no receipts to prove it. But he did have something.

And that was the memory of an incident that occurred while he was in Columbus that Sunday. On Sunday, two witnesses that were from this neighborhood had seen Vincent and seen his car. This is the car accident? This is the car accident. A young boy on a bike had accidentally hit a car stopped at an intersection in Columbus. Nobody was hurt. No police report was filed. Vincent Brothers said that he was the driver of that car. Martin Yant, an Ohio investigator, went to work for the defense. He scoured Columbus,

looking for anybody who'd seen the incident. And he found them. Witnesses said that the man who was driving the car resembled Vincent Brothers. And the description of the car they gave matched the car that Vincent Brothers had rented when he arrived in Columbus. That kind of bolstered the feeling that Vincent Brothers was telling the truth or how he would know about this otherwise, since it wasn't even reported. But Vincent had even more proof he was in the Midwest and not in California when the murders happened. In the cellular age, no one goes untracked. And a little of Mr. Yance checking revealed that Vincent's phone records had already told their tale. It confirmed that there were some cell phone

calls made from Columbus when he would have had to have been in Bakersfield or on his way to Bakersfield. Certainly, Bakersfield wanted answers. But how could that answer lie with a man who seemed to have solid proof that he had been thousands of miles away from the scene of the crime?

A man the community had admired and trusted for over a decade. That was the shocking part. This community is really divided over whether or not Vincent actually did. There's many people, especially in the school system, that believe he was not capable of such a crime. Of course, the state had to have other proof. It had to be something else. Had to be. We can only guess now at the terror in that house.

Two women slaughtered, three little children, an infant exterminated. Now, four years later, the state was finally ready to claim in court that Vincent Brothers, a popular educator, a school vice principal, had driven across the country and back to obliterate his own family. Was any motive mentioned? The motive, even all the way down the road after all the investigation, even to the prosecutor, still wasn't entirely clear. The scorned former girlfriend felt Vincent Brothers needed no motive at all. There's something wrong with his personality, where he just flips. He will flip, and he will not, he's still Vincent, but he's just this evil Vincent.

It was like this evil one is a good one, and this evil one, it was just two. Prosecutor Lisa Green contended Vincent was lying when he said he spent the entire fateful July weekend in the Midwest. Oh, the state agreed Vincent did arrive at Columbus Airport on Wednesday, July 2nd. But Vincent's rental car during that very weekend racked up enormous mileage. Enough, in fact, for a trip to Bakersfield and back. He told him how it was driven in July 2nd and July 11th date of 5,424 miles. Is that right? Correct.

The prosecution then offered a truly creative piece of investigation direct from the land of CSI. Just little fragments of insects. Bug experts examined the grill of Vincent's rental car and found there scores of dead insects. Mute evidence that told a remarkable and damning story. We were asked to look at a radiator and an air filter to see what kind of insects we could find and see if we could tell where they were from. The question was whether it had been in the western part of the country. So, where did those shredded bits of bug encounter Vincent's rented Dodge Neon? The areas of distribution of these corn insects

consistent with the person traveling west on Interstate 70? Yes. In other words, the bugs the Neon collected lived out west on the road to Bakersfield. And Vincent might have had time to make the round trip from Columbus and back again. But only if the state could impeach his alibi witnesses, his brother Melvin and family. In fact, said the prosecutor, Melvin had given several versions of his dealings with Vincent that weekend. First, he'd waffled on the day Vincent gave him his credit card. Was he trying to cover for his brother?

Were you lying when you told the detectives that your brother Vincent's brother had given you the credit card on Monday, July 6th? I was lying. Were you lying when you told the detectives that your brother Vincent's brother had given you the credit card on Sunday? Yes. She painted him as a liar, as somebody who couldn't be trusted, that his testimony couldn't be trusted. And he was flying out that weekend.

The state even implied it was Melvin, not Vincent, who signed the credit card receipt for that Thursday night family dinner in Columbus, which would give him an extra day, assuming that Melvin is lying about his presence there. It would give him an extra day and more time to get across the country. And if Vincent had given Melvin his credit card for an alibi, did he do the same thing with his cell phone, the one that seemed to prove Vincent's presence in the Midwest far from the crime scene all weekend? So if he'd given away his credit card, he could well have given away his cell phone also. That's what she was implying. It was clear the prosecution wanted to destroy any credibility

Melvin had as an alibi witness. In fact, in different interviews over the years since the crime, Melvin said, he saw Vincent at his home sometime Saturday. Then he said he saw him on Sunday. His story kept changing. And now, in court, Melvin told the jury he didn't see Vincent from Friday night until late Monday. Would the truth be that you have no idea what time your brother got home? Like I said, it was Monday. I don't know the exact time. I mean, how do you want me to answer it? You want me to say it was 12?

I said, I don't know. I don't know exactly what time it was. If Melvin had hoped to help his brother's case, that hope crashed to earth under the prosecutor's withering questions. But where was the prosecution's proof that Vincent was actually in Bakersfield at any time during the weekend his family was murdered? There was nothing to show that an individual had driven 2,200 miles from Columbus, Ohio to Bakersfield, had been in the crime scene, and had positive physical evidence.

There was simply nothing. And the defense had something pretty interesting up its sleeve. The one man who could claim he was with Vincent thousands of miles from the crime scene, when it mattered most. What about their brother, Troy? Troy was with Vincent on Saturday and his three youngest children. Vincent Brothers was on trial for the savage slaughter of his wife, his mother-in-law, and his three youngest children. Do you know who might have done this?

No, I don't. And prosecutor Lisa Green was holding nothing back. Vincent Brothers killed his six-week-old son, Marshall. She's a take-no-prisoner sort of prosecutor. Pretty much. So the Harper family would have gotten home around 2 o'clock. She's a take-no-prisoner sort of prosecutor. Pretty much. But the prosecutor offered little in the way of motive. No life insurance, no threatening lover, no why.

But now, here was the defense that carrying out that terrible plan would have been, simply, impossible. The evidence will show that it was and it remains physically impossible for Vincent's brothers to have committed these crimes. Let me repeat that. It was physically impossible for him to have committed these crimes. Remember, the prosecution alleged that Vincent drove almost 2,300 miles,

Columbus, Ohio, to Bakersfield, California, committed those gruesome murders and then drove all the way back again. How could he do it? By averaging 70 miles an hour without stopping or sleeping the entire way. A defense expert

on fast driving. I wouldn't expect 70 to be something you can average cross-country. It would be very difficult at best. You can't change the physical impossibility of the drives as testified to by the engineers. You can't change the mechanical composition of the car that was rented. This is not a car that can go at speeds of 100 miles an hour for 2,200 miles without stopping for gas. It's the stuff that makes you go, wait a minute, is this even possible?

That was the fundamental linchpin, if you will, of the defense in this case, that it was physically impossible for him to make such a trip. But hadn't the man from the rental car company testified the car had indeed driven over 5,000 miles on the weekend? Well, yes. But that very prosecution witness had to admit that his company's mileage records were not always very reliable. So there can be many scenarios where bad mileage would be intentionally entered into the computer. That is correct. They make mistakes on mileage all

the time. All the time. And the defense elicited the fact that the rental car attendants, when they get the car back, don't actually physically look at the odometer. They just put down a number, basically, to check it back in and get the person on their way. And as for those specifically Western insects the prosecution found splattered on the Neon's grill, those bugs, it turns out, have been found in the Midwest, too. And what circumstances would they be found outside their areas of distribution? If they are dispersed in some unusual fashion. If they hitch a ride on a truck, for example? Possible.

Then there was the whole question of timing. For the prosecution's theory of the drive time to Bakersfield and back to work, then Vincent would have killed his family on Sunday, July the 6th. But the defense pathologists testify those murders happened much later, perhaps as late as Monday morning. And if that were the case, then Vincent certainly could not have done it. Remember, Vincent's brother Melvin and his family

had offered various accounts of Vincent's sightings over that weekend, making it impossible for him to have committed the crime in California. But the prosecution had worked hard to prove that Melvin in particular was lying. But was he? Do I put a case on Melvin or do I use him as a witness? That's basically how this is going to work. This is how you treat witnesses? Oh no, right now, right now, right now, you know what you are right now? You're a suspect. I'm a suspect, Dan. Okay, you want to play hardball. I'm not playing hardball. No, no. Or had police used overly harsh methods to get Melvin to change his story? Did they want you to change your testimony from Friday to Thursday? That is

correct. Did they threaten your family. Yes. That they was going to lock my wife up, me up, put my kids in a home. They said, the nice house you're living in, you won't be living in that no more. That nice vehicle that you drive, it will be gone. Yes, I did. The police scared the hell out of him, so he changed his story and backed off. The defense presented the interrogation tape. You don't want to go down with your brother, pal, because there ain't nothing more serious than this. Nothing, except maybe what Hitler did.

We had an expert analyze the video, and he concluded that the techniques that were used on this individual were so psychologically coercive that it was the equivalent of using a rubber used on this individual were so psychologically coercive that it was the equivalent of using a rubber hose on an individual. But now it was going to get tricky. Remember that minor accident in which Vincent said he was involved that Sunday of the murder weekend? A cyclist hitting Vincent's car on a Columbus Street corner? The defense called people who witnessed the mishap, and they were helpful, sort of. There were several people who say they saw a dark-skinned man in a car that appeared to

be Teal, and it appeared to be Vincent Brothers. But they weren't able to say specifically. I mean, they certainly leaned that way. Yes. Which meant it was quite a surprise when the prosecution suddenly put up a witness who told a completely different story about that little accident. In fact, said car dealer Tamba Lebby, it wasn't Vincent who had the accident. It was him. Soon as I started moving, this little boy came with his bicycle and hit me on my side of the car. Quite a shock to the defense, given that Levy, before the trial began, actually talked to the defense investigator. He told our investigator that he had nothing to do with it. He had never been there. He doesn't drive that car.

In fact, he said he didn't even own that car. He had sold it to somebody else. Mr. Levy did not fit the physical description of the defendant or the description given by the witnesses at the scene. We have no idea why Mr. Levy did what he did or said what he did. Who to believe? Waiting just outside the courtroom was Vincent's ultimate alibi witness. His brother Troy, who had already sworn the two of them spent the bulk of that murder weekend together, thousands of miles away from the crime. Well, now was Troy's chance to come into the courtroom and tell his story. And then? He did not testify. He didn't show up. Did not show up. He was actually in the courtroom at one point. We all saw him. But then there was a lunch break and he was supposed to be called and he never came back.

The courtroom was buzzing. Why had Troy disappeared? The defense maintained it was a conscious decision, finally, not to have Troy testify. Troy was the only member of the family that did have a felony record and that influenced our decision because we had put no one on the stand who had a felony record. So you put Troy on the stand, he gets impeached by the prosecution, your whole case looks a little shaky. Yeah. Instead, the defense made a risky move. Risky, but maybe crucial.

Why did you decide to put Vincent Brothers on the stand? He was very adamant about the fact that he was not involved, that he loved his children, he would never do this to his children. And I think that's something the jury needed to hear. If there is anything on this earth we can call true evil, then surely it would apply to Vincent Brothers, a man who slaughtered his whole family. If, if he did it.

Please state your name for the record, sir. Vincent. Edward Brothers. Now he could tell the jury how he really felt about his family. Joni, Marcus, Lizanne Marshall, and Miss Harper. How, for example, he had cared for his wife through a difficult pregnancy. I just asked her what was wrong, and she said she was having cramps and her back was hurting. And I kissed her, and she told me to go get the kids, and that's what I did.

I told her I love her, and I'll be right there. But where was he that dreadful weekend? He told the jury he was with his brother Troy in Ohio on Saturday, but the two of them went for a drive out of state to look at colleges and take in a basketball game. On the way back, we stopped in St. Louis, Missouri. What did you do there in St. Louis? We stopped and listened to jazz, got something to eat, stretched our legs before getting back on the road. And then there was that little mishap back in Columbus on the Sunday. A little boy, he came running.

He was running with his bicycle, and he was running on the side of it. And when he came down the curb, he tripped off the curb, and the bike kept going, and it hit the car. This was Sunday. Give him a hug. Over the years, thousands of people had put their trust in him as a school administrator, a champion of children. Innocent men do not lie.

But here he was, on trial for his life, and the prosecutor's assessment was blunt. And he looked you in the eye and he lied. And that's because he is an evil man. What he did was evil. And I'm asking you to return verdicts of guilty because that's what justice calls for and that is all that is left.

Thank you. So we gave you witnesses. We gave you engineers, medical experts to show that Vincent Brothers could not be the perpetrator of this crime. There's also a total absence of evidence to put Vincent Brothers in the house

when those homicides occurred on Monday, July the 7th. So it went back and forth. There'd been over a hundred witnesses and now it was up to the jury. Emotionally, it was difficult. It was difficult. For two and a half days, they waited. Until... We, the jury and panel, to try the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Vincent Edward Brothers, guilty of felony to wit murder of Ernestine Harper,

murder of Joni Harper, murder of Marcus Harper. Truly, decided the jury, this man was evil. Murder of Lindsay Harper, murder of Marshall Harper. We were happy that he had been justly tried and found guilty. We know we can close the chapter. Who did it? We can close that chapter and move on. In 2009, Prosecutor Lisa Green declined Dateline's request for an interview. Nor would she comment on the case. And without cooperation from the DA's office, Bakersfield police also declined to talk to us.

A motion for a new trial was denied. An appeal is pending. After the trial, Vincent's family and his remaining friends continued to insist he was convicted by implication, not by facts. No, they didn't get the right guy. And a lot of people on the blog said, said they never even went after anyone else. So they never proved anything or they proved he was a womanizer. They never proved that he was a murderer because he wasn't a murderer. Or was he?

He thought he was so smart that he could not only fool Joni, my mother, but he could beat the system. Unfortunately, he met Lisa Green, and she made sure that he was not going to get away with murder. For the murder of his family, Vincent Brothers was given the harshest sentence the law allows, death. How did Vincent take it? Very hard. He deteriorated rapidly after that. He took it very hard. For just about everybody involved, it has been and will be a long, bad dream, a dream whose tangled roots might never be uncovered. I don't think that he will ever tell why,

because I'm sure he will continue to maintain that he is innocent. But we're no different. We're no different.