True Crime with Kendall Rae - The Murder of Brooke Preston & the Truth About Hulu's "Dead Asleep"

Episode Date: April 28, 2022

Petition: https://bit.ly/33KtxZk Jordan Preston’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jpresttt Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT:  For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

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on it for over a month now, so I'm excited to be sitting down and finally doing it. Also, today I found out Nancy Grace blocked me on Twitter, and I'm feeling really good about that. Anyway, today's video is very exciting because I am working with another family and I really love doing these videos. I love getting to know these families. They're all such amazing resilient strong people and I'm honored to be able to work with them and help tell their stories. I actually became aware of this case back in early December when I saw this TikTok posted by Jordan Preston. A lot of you may have seen that, I know it went pretty viral on TikTok. It just ended up on my for you page and I was instantly very curious in this whole situation. In the TikTok, Jordan was referring to a documentary that was

recently put out by Hulu called Dead asleep and it's about her sister Brooke Preston's case. And I was really excited to see that Jordan had submitted a request to be on my channel and tell her side of the story through my victim's advocate form, which is always linked below if you didn't know. It's always very exciting to be able to work with a family, especially when they are trying to get their side of the story out there when traditional true crime media has failed them in their opinion. So there is quite a bit to go over today when it comes to Brooks case. This one is very controversial. I know there will be mixed opinions, but as always, I ask that you guys remain respectful

in the comments section, especially because Jordan's family will likely be reading comments. Of course, 99% of you are just wonderful in the comments, offering words of support and encouragement to these family members. But of course, there is that 1%. So I got to include this reminder. Okay, let's go ahead and jump in here. So this documentary, Dead of Sleep, came out in December and it was trending number one on Hulu,

I think for a while, so many of you have probably seen it, especially if you're really into the true crime space. And you may have no idea that the Preston family was not involved in it and isn't comfortable with it. And that's for several different reasons. And when I talk to them, I think the main reason that they are upset above all else is that this documentary really seems to be focused on Brooks Killer and it's less about Brooke. And there's also just a lot of misleading information in the documentary that

I'm hoping we can kind of clear up today. And I really want to make sure that this video is more focused on Brooke and that everyone remembers at the end of the day that this is her story. So Brooke was born on September 1st, 1995, and while losing Pennsylvania, and she was the youngest daughter to Nancy and John Preston. She has two older sisters, Jordan and Jessica. Brooke growing up was a very happy child. She was also a very imaginative child. She could make

anything sparkle and she usually did because she loved to play dress up as a kid. My mother Linda Lue, as she called her, had a chest full of clothes and gowns and old-time boas. Brooke would constantly go through this chest, drive things out, put the high heels on, put the boas around her neck and dress up. And of course, she always had to have a crown, a tiara, because her nickname was Little Princess. And if he didn't address her as so, she would correct you. For almost a full year when she was younger, she would not answer to anyone unless they called her Little Princess. Like, if he was at a broke come here, she'd go on her business, go on to ignore everybody, say,, bro, come here. She go on her business, go on to signore everybody, say a little princess, come here.

Like, oh, yes, what did you mean? It was ridiculous. She always wanted to be the center of attention and you know, she was when she walked into a room, she grabbed the attention. We love that about her. Like she made family gatherings like no other. Just added somewhere spark to them.

Brooke and I were fairly close. And she was always very lovable. She was caring and loving. She loved life. She was just a fun, fun person. I just was very spontaneous and fun to be with Brooke. We would dance sometimes in the middle of the road if we wanted to.

Had some fun showing her different ways of cooking. Forky loves of paint. She started with charcoal and moved herself up into painting saw blades and things like that. I'm really enjoyed just being around people, family, friends, anybody. Brooke growing up was always the life of the party. She had a ton of friends.

She loved to go to prams and dances, dress up. But as much as Brooke was our little princess, she was also tough. She could stand up for herself. She was independent. She could take a punch, especially from her sisters or her pull. So from a very young age, she learned to defend herself and or take care of herself. She may be little, but she's fierce.

And that's how she attacked everything that she had done in her life. She had dreams. She wanted to them accomplished. She didn't stop just because somebody said, you know, no, you can't do that. Or I don't think you'd be good at that. She would try anyway. And she wouldn't give up. If there was something that she really wanted to do, she would fight to do it. You know the favorite things that broke love to do was tumbling, jumping on her trampoline, climbing things, she was fearless.

She did love any type of tumbling, which is I think why she got involved in gymnastics and cheerleading, she also loved going to the beach. She loved to be in the ocean. Brooke was known as an incredibly sweet person, someone who was very friendly and outgoing, and therefore she had a lot of friends throughout her life. Anyone that she talked to would instantly grow to love her. story from after she passed

made some others approach that he wasn't very popu have a whole lot of fre made sure to ask him how day going made sure that she was able to talk to people and really listen and make an impact on them. She was the life of the party, always center of attention, but in a great way. She wanted to make everybody laugh. She just wanted to

have fun. In her obituary, they refer to her as a spitfire. And this is so accurate. She was so just loud and out there, vivacious. And she was walking in the room, she captured everyone's attention. And you just couldn't not look at her and listen to her and what she had to say. Some days, she would walk in and she'd be wearing like a car heart sweatshirt or a car heart jacket and like boots, like Timberlin boots.

And then other days she'd walk in, she'd be a full makeup, the hair curl, then like the highest heels that were like all glittery. One of the things that I always admired about Brooke was that she can be a girly girl, but at the same time, she wasn't afraid to go swimming in the pond or ride her bike through a mud puddle, climb trees, and the woods, and get dirty. So she was truly the best of both world.

Brooke was so much fun to be around, um, literally never a dull moment. And of course, you know, they had the typical sisterly relationship where you love each other so much, but you're at each other's throats a lot of the time as well. I can definitely relate to that with my sister. Her and I, you know, sister's growing up, we would, you know, get an argument. We would have we would throw down and this girl, I was three years older than her and she could almost take me like she was tough. But despite, you

know, the normal sibling rivalry, they were very, very close and cared for each other so much. You know, when it came down to it, we were there for each other. And we would have each other's backs no matter what. So after graduating high school in 2013, Brooke ended up moving to Florida for college. And she lived in Sarasota and attended the state college of Florida where she studied until the spring of 2016.

And after she graduated college, she very briefly moved back to Pennsylvania to be with her boyfriend, Brian, who she had been doing long distance with. But this was kind of short-lived because in July of 2016, she was ready for a change and decided to move to West Palm Beach, which is another gorgeous area in Florida. And her sister Jordan had already been living down there, so she wanted to go down there mainly to be with her.

In back home in Pennsylvania, they had a friend named Randy. He was friends with both sisters, and he actually met them in late middle school, so he'd been a long time friend. Brandy was always around, he was always at her house, we did everything together, all of us did. He was always friendly and a good move. He first moved to Laceyville, Pennsylvania in eighth grade, and although they didn't go the same school, they lived in neighboring towns, so obviously it's common for people to make friends in other districts, and the three of them were actually really close so much so that they decided to move in together. Randy had been kind of going through a hard time, really wanted a change of scene and a new fresh start at life. So Brooke encouraged him to come down and live with them in Florida and he agreed.

You know, when we first all got down there and started as a party, we were condo. We didn't have any place or anything. We lived for like a month before we were able to run together. A home that they moved in to on Sarah's and Drive. And they all spent a lot of time together and they were really

enjoying being in West Palm Beach. I mean, it's a really area. There's a ton to do. You can party a lot. It's a great scene for younger people. Living in a new area together, obviously the three of us hung out quite a bit. We went to the beach together. We would go bowling together.

We did a lot of things together. We had game nights. We had family dinners. We went boating together. But after just a few months of living together, things started to change a little bit. You know, as time went on and we lived together for longer, we all kind of got our own friend groups and we stopped hanging out so much.

I mean, we still have the occasional family dinner or game night or a party at the house or whatever. But it wasn't like we were hanging out every night like we were when we first got there. We kind of just did our own thing. We kind of separated a little bit. Obviously, still tight knit, but we weren't spending all of our time together. We kind of had grown apart a little bit. So like I mentioned, Randy was going through a hard time before he moved to Florida.

And one of the main reasons for that was what happened with his father. His father, Randy Herman Sr., was actually the prime suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, whose name is Gail Monahan. He allegedly shot Gail in the head, in their home together, in LaZern County, Pennsylvania, in February of 2015. Now I say allegedly because, unfortunately, police were never able to convict him. Because Randy Senior actually took his own life and was found by police in a pickup truck in Alabama.

And obviously this was really hard on Randy Junior and he did end up getting an inheritance from his father not too much, about $10,000, but that's what he used in order to move down to Florida with the girls. But that wasn't the only stress in Randy Jr.'s life at the time. He was also having some trouble with the law himself, which is very ironic, considering he studied criminal justice at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania.

Randy had actually been working part-time as a corrections officer at the local county jail in Pennsylvania until he lost his job after being charged with drug use and possession in August of 2013. And that same year, Randy also got pulled over for drunk driving and was arrested and issued his first DUI. But he was able to put up $5,000 for bail while he awaited his court date. And just over one year later, when he was still on probation, he was caught drunk driving again. And this time, it was when he was leaving his sister's wedding. And he was arrested and issued his second DUI

in the state of Pennsylvania. So things weren't going great for him. So when he finished serving his probation, he decided to move down to Florida with the girls. When he first moved down there, he was working for Walmart, actually working for Comcast in Walmart, selling internet and cable service. And he was making decent money, however, Jordan noted, and he noted as well in the documentary

that most of his free time was spent drinking and partying. And he went kind of wild down there. He started draining his inheritance money from his father very quickly and he started to realize it was gonna be a problem. And eventually things got even more stressful for him because he made the decision to quit his job because the inconsistency of commission based pay was too much for him to handle. And then he started solely living on the inheritance

from his father's passing, which obviously made it drain a lot quicker. He tried to find a new job, but he wasn't having much luck, and the stress from that made him drink even more. So while the three of them were living together, Brooke was still dating her boyfriend, Brian, and they had been long distance, you know,

throughout college, and it had been a long time for them to be living apart. And they were getting more serious. So they decided that they wanted to live together. So Brooke decided that she was going to be making a move up to New York to live with him. So she ended up leaving Florida around December 3rd, 2016, and started a new chapter of her life living in Buffalo, New York. Berk was so excited to start her new life in New York with Brian. You know, they already had an apartment. She had decorated it.

She was really excited about meeting new people in New York. She had been there for a short time and had already made friends. And it wasn't long after that. She got a job offer with the same company that he was working with. She knew his boss. They all had a good relationship. She had a lot of goals. One of them, she said,

I'm not going to have kids right away just just in case you're waiting on me, but she said, Oh, I am probably going to have a diamond soon and, um, you know, I am going to be engaged and Brian and I are going to get married. Now, even though Brooke left, Randy and Jordan did remain roommates. However, they lived very separate lives. Jordan, honestly, didn't see Randy as frequently as you would think.

They just had very different lifestyles and with him drinking and partying late at night most of the time They just had really opposite schedules and really barely saw each other. So things weren't necessarily bad in the house Things had just changed quite a bit. You know, they really only saw each other and passing and it was quite different from when they all first moved in together And we're doing everything together I'm sure a lot of you have experienced what it's like to live with a roommate who you are kind of on opposite schedules with and really barely ever see. It's not like it's the best situation ever, but it's not like it was toxic where they were fighting all the time.

So that brings us to March 24th, 2017. Brooke had been living in New York with her boyfriend for four months at this point. Around this time, she decided to come back to Florida to visit and pack up the rest of her things that she wasn't able to move with her initially when she moved. Brooke had also left her car behind in Florida, so part of this trip was going down there so she could drive the car all the way back up to New York. She flew into the West Point Beach Airport and I picked her up before work and we got breakfast together and then I brought her to the house and I went to work and then I had a flight out to Denver.

So her and Randy and I, we went to dinner together because it was last time the three of us were going to be together for a while. We went out to dinner and they brought me to the airport and dropped me off. We said our goodbyes and that was the last time that I had seen both of them. This was a very short trip. Brooke had her last full day in Florida on March 24th and Randy, who claimed to be better about his drinking habits at the time, decided that this trip was cause for celebration. So the two of them packed up a bag in a bottle of champagne and went down to the beach together for the last time and they took this photo of Brooke. After the beach they went back home and

continued drinking for a little bit on their porch, which is normally kind of their hang spot when they did used to drink together, but Randy ended up drinking a lot more than just a little champagne and a few beers. So we got a little bit more information about what had actually happened that day from one of their friends named Kyle McGregor. Now, although Brooke had technically already moved out of the house, she was still fully intending

on sleeping at their place the night of March 24th. But we actually learned from Kyle that Brooke did not sleep there as she planned to. Instead, Brooke texted Kyle and let him know that Randy was completely belligerent and really upsetting her. So Kyle actually went over there to check on her and when he came in contact with Brooke, she was very upset about Randy's behavior. She said she didn't want to be around him that night, she wanted to leave the house and asked if she could come spend the night at Randy's behavior. She said she didn't want to be around him that night. She wanted to leave the house and asked if she could come spend the night at Kyle's instead.

And of course, he agreed. And once they left the house to go over to his house, Brooke told him some incredibly disturbing information. It turns out that night while Brooke was just trying to pack up the rest of her things, Randy got naked and hid inside her closet. And when she did find him in the closet, he held up a finger to his mouth and just said, shh. So she was very disturbed. She told Kyle that she just honestly didn't feel safe being in the same house as Randy

alone with the way that he was acting. It's likely that Randy doesn't even remember Kyle coming over to get Brooke because of how belligerent he was. But that night Brooke did spend the night at Kyle, so that's March 24th 2017. So the next morning, March 25th, Randy wakes up incredibly hungover, as you can imagine. He claims he got out of bed, incredibly hung over, as you can imagine. He claims he got out of bed, he walks to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and that's where he sees Brooke who would come back to the house to finish packing up her things. After getting his water, Randy goes back to bed, and Brooke and Kyle go out for breakfast before she makes the drive back up to New York. Brooke being the very kind person that she was, even

texted Randy after the way he had been acting and asked if he wanted to join them for breakfast, but Randy said he was way too hungover for that and wanted to stay home in bed. Brooke returned back to the home around 8.35 a.m., and this is confirmed with neighbors surveillance footage. And the only reason she actually came back was because Randy asked her to. Specifically, he wanted her to come back to the house so that he could give her a T-shirt. Now this shirt was actually a memorial shirt

that had been made in honor of one of their friends who had passed away. He told Brooke that he wanted to give it to her so she could pass it along to her boyfriend, Brian, who was also friends with this person who had passed. Now, I'm gonna play some footage that was taken at the police station later that night, but I do wanna say that it's incredibly difficult

to hear what Randy is actually saying because his head is kinda hung down and he's really mumbling his words. So I'm gonna do my best hung down and he's really mumbling his words. So I'm gonna do my best to summarize what he's saying. She stayed somewhere else. She came back. She didn't know where she stayed last night? What are you? Out of friends house.

You know what a friend's name is? Kyle. Where does Kyle live? You see him around you? Where's Mom somewhere? Okay. Where's your breakfast? You went to breakfast this morning?

Oh, her and Kyle went to breakfast this morning? Oh, her and Kyle went to breakfast this morning, okay? We sort of hear that Randy was telling the officers that Brooke stayed with Kyle that night, the 24th, and had come home that morning, which is when he gave her the t-shirt. And he also confirmed that Brooke had been with Kyle and the two of them had gone out to breakfast that morning. But according to Randy,

giving her the t-shirt and saying goodbye to her is his last memory. And that is when something absolutely horrific started to play out. It was then in that home that Brooke was attacked by Randy. He actually used this hunting knife that was next to his bed and stabbed Brooke more than 20 times. That's right, Randy, who was Brooke's friend for years and she still invited out that morning for breakfast and did her life in the most horrific way possible. Now, Randy claims that the last thing he remembers

after he said goodbye to Brooke was standing over her body with the bloody knife. He was covered in blood and even he knew that he was the one who had stabbed Brooke. So there is no question about who Brooke's killer is. Randy Herman Jr. killed Brooke that day. When Randy attacked Brooke, he was wearing just his boxers and he was absolutely covered in blood. And that's really all he remembers is all of the blood and being there holding the knife over her body. So he got changed. He took

Brooks car and drove up to have a Ville Park and called 911. This is less than a mile from their house and obviously it would have been much better if he could have called right away. So the bomb beach Sheriff's office was dispatched to the scene of the crime and Haverville Park where Randy was anxiously waiting and as you heard in the 911 call Randy actually says it was me I did it and remember this is all in the morning Randy was picked up by police just after 9 a.m. Randy also had a cut on his hand, so they brought in emergency services to deal with that. By 9.23 a.m., police had searched Brooks Car, which as a reminder, Randy had taken Brooks Car to go call 911.

And then Randy was brought in for an hour and 49 minutes of questioning, and they provided him with a change of clothes so that they could take the bloody ones that he was wearing into evidence. His hands, which were of course covered in blood, were photographed, and then cleaned afterwards. And when police arrived to their house on Sarasant Drive, they found Brooke lying on the floor, covered in a quilted blanket. Like I mentioned earlier, it is very difficult to hear what Randy is actually saying during the interrogation, and a lot of it he's just very quiet during. And throughout the interview, Randy seems very clueless, he keeps saying, I don't know, I don't remember, or I don't know what happened. And

considering he had called 911 himself and confessed to killing Brooke, this was incredibly frustrating. The officers end up asking him a lot of questions, hoping to learn anything about the events that went down earlier that day, and just trying to get to no Randy in his relationship with Brooke, and try to figure out why he would do something like this. They also asked Randy about the night before. You know, if they had been partying, if there had been an argument between the two of them, Randy said that they drank a little, but there was no fighting between the two of them. But we know from their friend Kyle, and what Brooke told him, that Randy had drank a lot more than he said. During the interrogation between all of the mumbling and the I don't know, we do learn that Randy said he was sleeping when

Brooke came back from breakfast at 835. And he also said that he never got out of bed when she came back and he only saw her when she came into his room to grab that t-shirt and to say goodbye. So that means that Randy was awake and talking to Brooke around this time in his room. So we know that Brooke got there around 835 and then Randy left the house in Brooks car Covered in blood at 857 and this is all according to neighbor surveillance footage So that means there was only 22 minutes between Brooke arriving at home and This incident occurring and Randy leaving so we know that some of that 22 minutes was spent in

Brandy's room and that the two of them were talking there. And in this clip from the interrogation, you can see that Brandy nods his head very quickly in response to the officer's retelling of these events. So you were still in bed and she came in your bedroom and you said you never got out of bed. So she came in and did you tell her, Hey, I want you to have that t-shirt. Okay. And did you tell her where the t-shirt was?

Yes. Okay. So she went inside your drawer and got the t-shirt. And you said you gave her a hug. She gave you a hug. But right after the officer goes through Brooke coming home, taking the shirt and giving him a hug goodbye, he asks Randy if he believed that Brooke was leaving right after this. And it takes him several seconds to respond. The officer also asked if Brooke walked out of his room to which Randy says nothing. And that's followed by him saying that he thought she walked out of the room and that he

must have gotten up and left his room after she did. And then at one point in the officer just straight up asks Randy if he thinks he killed her, which it's pretty obvious to the officer at this point that it was Randy. And it's really hard to hear, unfortunately, but Randy does say that he was the only person home so it must have been him. the police also start running through the events of what happened when Randy left the house.

When you left the house, you just ran out of the house. How did you get over to the park? Call. In whose car do you remember his car? Okay, so you took Brooks car over whose car? It's so cool.

Okay, so you took Brooks' car over. Randy, where's your phone at? Here's your phone. It's in Brooks' car. And at several points during their questioning, police have to ask Randy the same question over and over again to get a response from him. And unfortunately, this is really all we learn

from Randy's initial interrogation. It actually took more than two years after Brooks' death for the trial to take place. But on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019, Randy finally sat before the judge in court and faced a first-degree murder charge for the death of Brooke Preston. Now, despite his straight-up confession on the 911 call, Randy did not plead guilty. Instead, Randy pleads not guilty by reason of insanity. So even though Randy straight-up admitted to stabbing Brooke over 20 times, he now was saying that he was asleep for all of it. He was actually sleepwalking according to his defense team. And because of this, the defense made the argument that he should not be sentenced to life in prison, or maybe shouldn't be sentenced at all.

Yeah, that's right. Sleepwalking. This was actually the first time that this was used as a defense in the state of Florida. There are a couple of other cases where the sleepwalking defense is used. And it turns out Randy didn't even come up with this defense on his own. Sleepwalking was first mentioned to him by a psychiatrist during an evaluation. And it instantly struck a major chord with him because he had actually done this a few times as a child. And in the documentary, Randy's mom, Kathy Adams, confirms that this was something he used to do

and shared a few stories about him sleepwalking, you know, just with mild actions, such as trying to go get a glass of water from the kitchen and grabbing pancake mix out instead. And she said that she never thought anything of it or thought it was anything major. She also said that there was one time when she was working at a bar that Randy actually rode his bike there, sat up at the bar, put his head down, then got up, and got back on

the bike and rode home, all with no memory of it the next day. And of course, with this information, Randy's lawyers knew that this would be the only real way they could defend what Randy did to brook that day. And of course, with this information, Randy's lawyers knew that this would be the only real way they could defend what Randy did to broke that day. Like I said, there was no question that Randy was the one who stabbed Brooke. So saying that he had no idea what was going on and he was innocently sleepwalking was really the only defense that they could use. Like I said, there have been other cases where sleepwalking was used, and use successfully as a defense to acquit someone of a murder, but never in the state of Florida.

The trial was very hard to sit through. I remember there were so many people in Florida from Pennsylvania to support Brooke between Brooke's parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, and then a ton of friends, we filled at least half of the courtroom showing support for Brooke. And I remember the prosecuting attorney saying to us that she goes to trial for homicides all the time and even someone who is in Florida doesn't get as much support as Brooke did from people that were over a thousand miles away. So that tells a lot about how people felt about Brooke as a person and how amazing she really was. I remember sitting with the family and seeing the killer come in, shackled with the sheriffs

and the feelings that you can't even describe it. So the prosecuting attorneys obviously argued that Randy Herman Jr. could not have been sleepwalking while he viciously attacked and killed Brooke Preston. And they argued that he deliberately killed Brooke. So for nine days, the prosecution and defense made their arguments and brought in experts to help back up their side.

Of course, the defense tried to prove that sleepwalking was a feasible option. The defense brought in a forensic pathologist and laid out extensive testimony backed by scientific studies and said that it would absolutely be possible and probable that Randy was asleep during the attack. So one of the studies that the defense presented in court to try to back up their claim of sleepwalking being possible and probable was done by Dr. Boncullo in 1974, and he studied sleepwalking and violence in adults. And through his studies, he came up with 13 criteria that a person must meet in order to prove that sleepwalking occurred. Some of these criteria include complex motor behavior, victim being loved by attacker, attack followed by confusion,

history of childhood parisomnia, which is sleepwalking. Another one is no attempt to cover up the crime scene, feelings of remorse, and a few more. And of course, Randy does meet the criteria. So this study was relied on heavily does meet the criteria. So this study was relied on heavily by the defense throughout the trial. Randy did care for Brooke. He did call 911 and confessed that he was the one to kill her. He claimed to have no memory of what happened. He also clearly didn't try to clean up the crime scene and we know that he claims to have been a sleepwalker as a kid and this is backed up by his family. The defense also relied heavily on their claim that there was no motive for Randy to kill Brooke.

They argued that they were incredibly good friends. Why would he want to kill one of his closest friends who he cared about very much? Having no motive was something that, you know, the defense went back to over and over again throughout the trial. That's really what their whole defense was based on no motive, and also the fact that Randy was known to sleepwalk in the past. And surprisingly, Randy actually did testify in his own trial, which isn't very common, but it does happen, obviously. So the killer testified on his own behalf and explained that he remembered Brooke coming back to the house and coming into his

room, talking to her. He remembered telling her where the shirt was in the drawer. He remembers her getting it, hugging him goodbye, and he remembers her walking out of his room. And then he said after that, he doesn't remember anything until he was standing over top of her in the hallway with the knife in his hand and he was covered in blood.

But the prosecution brought in a forensic psychiatrist who was able to poke a lot of holes in their defense. Randy killed Brooke in such an incredibly violent way. And the forensic psychiatrist argued that it would have been impossible for Randy to have done all of that, you know, stabbing through skin and bone and cutting his own hand while he was asleep. It just does not make sense. Now, Brook's sister, Jordan, was subpoenaed to testify for the defense. And this is something that was definitely not portrayed correctly in the documentary, Dead asleep. It made it seem like Jordan was voluntarily doing this,

and she certainly was not. But Jordan was brought up on the stand, and she testified that in the six months that she lived with him, she never heard of or saw him sleepwalking one time. She never knew that this was something that he did. They also asked her a lot about Brooke and Randy's

relationship, you know, were they just friends? Was there something more to it? Did Randy like Brooke in a way that was romantic? And Jordan was honest on the stand. She said that there was no romantic interest between Randy and Brooke that she knew of. And asking her this line of questioning actually helped the defense solidify their argument that there was no motive for Randy to kill Brooke. I was subpoenaed to speak at the trial. So I did and I told the truth. And you know, obviously before any of this happened, he was my roommate, he was my best friend, he was like a brother. So yeah, I told the truth. And you know, obviously before any of this happened, he was my roommate. He was my best friend

He was like a brother. So yeah, I told the truth. I said just that Obviously after he did what he did my feelings changed. I no longer feel that way about him He ruined our family. He ruined one of the best parts of our lives and There's nothing he can do to change that now and a lot of people in Randy's life said that they felt like there was no romantic interest between Randy and Brooke. Many of Randy's close friends also said that they don't think that Randy ever had

any romantic interest in her. However, the prosecution believed differently and they used some information that they got to make the argument that maybe Randy did have feelings for Brooke. Randy never showed jealousy towards Brooke and Brian's relationship that I'm aware of. I hadn't really had any contacts with him since he moved down to Florida. We weren't that close. I mean there was times where we hung out or whatever, but I didn't have that kind of relationship with them to, uh, be around them that often and notice

if there was any kind of jealousy or anything. And the prosecution also made the argument that based off Randy's actions that day, that Randy's motive was sexual in nature. I do have my opinions on why this happened, and I think that the night before her murder tells a lot about his mental stability at that time. And what he was showing that he was capable of with him being naked in her closet, weighing in weight for her.

I think that was a big red flag. I think that it was one of the key factors in what led up to her murder. I think she kind of brushed it off, obviously, didn't think too much of it. But in my eyes, it was a huge deal. They argued that someone doesn't just hide in someone else's closet naked unless they

are hoping for some type of sexual experience. Obviously, he was bledgerant and this cannot be proven 100%. Now the timeline is obviously a huge part of this case, like many cases, and it was a huge part of the trial, especially because there was only 22 minutes where all of this would have happened. Revisiting the timeline was a huge strategy for the prosecution to prove that it just would have been impossible for Randy to have been asleep during this.

So let's revisit the timeline and break it down a little further. They showed video from the neighbors, security cameras, showing Brooke pulling up to the house and going inside and then 22 minutes later the killer was coming out and trying to get into his vehicle he couldn't get it started because he had an interlock and he must have been blowing over point 08 so the car wouldn't start. He goes back into the house, comes out, gets in Brooks' car and drives away.

So they really emphasized that within 22 minutes, whatever happened in the house had happened in 22 minutes. So in that 22 minutes, we know that the first couple of minutes were spent in Randy's bedroom. In his bedroom, Brooke and Randy chat for a few minutes, she grabs the t-shirt and they say they're good boys. And at 8.49 am, which is just 14 minutes after Brooke had arrived home, a witness, a man

who was just walking by the house, claims to have heard screaming. This is frustrating because this man didn't do anything. He didn't call police. And why that is, we have no idea. So between 835, when Brooke comes back to the house, and 849, when this man hears Brooke screaming inside the house, if we guesstimate that they chatted for about five to six minutes to say their goodbyes for a Brooke to get the shirt. That leaves only five minutes after Brooke had left Randy's room for Randy to have fallen back into such a deep sleep that he ends up sleepwalking and kills her. So the prosecution brought in an expert named

Dr. Myers to explain on the stand that it would have been impossible for Randy to have fallen into that deep of a sleep in only five minutes. Even though he was super hungover and very tired, five minutes is not enough for him to have entered the stage of the sleep cycle where you can start to sleepwalk. And they also pointed out that even though Randy drank all the time and was hung over all the time, he never, not once, was found sleepwalking in their house. So the prosecution and defense went back and forth on the timeline and if it was possible many times, I'm very curious to hear your opinions on if you think it would be possible. So after nine days of all of this back and forth, it was time for the jury to make up their minds.

And it took the jury only five hours to come back with their verdict. And in the end, the jury found Randy Herman Jr. guilty of the first degree murder of Brooke Preston. And shortly after, Randy was sentenced to life in prison. So the verdict ended up being read, and of course it was guilty of first degree premeditated murder. And I just remember getting complete chills and I just wanted to sob.

I think Papa John said it best when we left the courtroom. The media was all over the place and he said to the media, you know, no one wins in this situation. And that's completely true. You know, on that day that Brooke was killed, we lost two people. Obviously, Brooke, we lost her, but we also lost Randy and that too. Hill's been the rest of his life in prison and none of us want anything to do with him or to hear about him.

I don't even like to say his name. One jury member explained that a big part of their deliberation and the reason that they came to this verdict was the 22 minutes between Brooke coming home and Randy leaving the home, just saying that it would have been impossible for him to have fallen into a deep sleep that quickly. Some argue that Randy was asleep when he said goodbye to Brooke and she got the t-shirt. However, there is no way to prove that. And obviously the Preston family was happy with this verdict. Happy that Randy was found guilty.

However, it didn't change the fact that Brooke was gone and they just couldn't even wrap their minds around why or what really happened. Losing Brooke was devastating for all of them and this verdict was not going to bring her back. Even though we had the best possible outcome we could have at a trial, it just still didn't feel like a lot of closure or it didn't make anybody feel any better about the situation. This was a big win for them, but their sadness and anger towards Randy remained, and it only got worse when Randy decided to appeal his conviction in April of 2021. Randy actually cited two errors from his trial that he and his lawyers believed were grounds for appeal.

The first was that the court had erred in admitting the state expert's testimony regarding sexually motivated homicide. The second was that the court had denied his request for special jury instruction. So let's first talk about this error, that Randy Sites. Before the trial had started, Randy and his lawyers wanted to exclude the state expert, Dr. Myers, that was brought in. They did not want him to testify that this case was a relatively typical example of sexual homicide. Randy and his team believed that this expert's opinion was not actually backed by evidence. They also argued that it wasn't based on any recognized literature.

And while he was testifying during the trial, the defense did try to object to some of his claims. However, they were all dismissed by the judge. And to explain the second error in his appeal a little more, which was a failure to give him a specially requested jury instruction when Randy was precluded from admitting his record statement to police into evidence. Jury instructions for those of you who don't know are instructions given to a jury by a judge

at the end of a trial before they start deliberating. These rules are basically supposed to tell the jury what laws apply in this trial. It explains them a little bit more what should be met in order to have a fair and accurate verdict. So Randy's defense team argued that the standard jury instructions that the judge gave them didn't explicitly tell the jury that the statements he made out of court were not admitted into evidence. And I know that's very confusing. It's a lot of legal shit to try to break down. But basically, Randy and his

team wanted his out-of-court statements to be entered in as evidence because they showed remorse. Of course, they wanted the jury to hear these statements so that they could understand more how sorry Randy was for what he did to Brooke. Remorse is one of the key elements that they need in order to make their defense make sense. And they want this because one of the criteria that was listed by the expert that was brought in on sleepwalking is remorse felt by the sleepwalker to the victim. So these out-of-court statements that expressed remorse were not admitted as evidence because, according to the Florida evidence code, they would generally be considered hearsay. So they submitted this appeal and it was looked over by the court, of course, and was denied.

So as of now, Randy is still set to face life in prison. Obviously, there is nothing that can be said or done to bring Brooke back. And the pain that this family feels every single day is just insurmountable. I did ask her friends and family who have joined me in today's video, which to all of them,

thank you so much. It really does help people understand more when it's coming from the victims family. I asked them to share a few final thoughts about Brooke and about how she can be remembered and honored and also to share their thoughts a little more in depth about the Hulu documentary and how you can help them. I hope that after watching this, and hearing what my family has to say, that everyone can see how amazing and fun and crazy, awesome, how great my sister was. And I hope that you take something from this, you know, you can't always trust the

people that you think you can trust. You just have to be careful out there. I know that by making this video, I can't undo what happened to Brooke that day and I can't take away the pain that the Preston family feels. However, the Preston family and I really hope that everyone watching this video has the chance to get to know what a kind, fun and good, spirited person that Brooke was and that she did not deserve what happened to her. She had a wonderful life ahead of her that she should have had the opportunity to live. I can't change the fact that Hulu released this documentary. I can't change the fact that Brooke's family wasn't involved with it at all. Although I do want to clarify that they made the decision not to partake in the documentary because they didn't want to relive the trauma. I mean it's incredibly difficult to have to go

through this again. And when they were first approached it was by a production company. And they had no idea that this was going to be blasted out on one of the largest streaming platforms ever. So I hope that today I was really able to give them a platform to really share their side of things. The Preston family does have a petition to get that documentary taken down. And I'm going to link that below if you feel that it should be. If everyone could take a second to sign that it's got about 100,000 signatures

on it right now. We're hoping to get the documentary removed from Hulu. It was making us relive something that was the worst things in our lives. I felt personally and I've heard from other people that

I was in this and I said, how can that happen? The only thing that I remembered saying with the detective should have been personal, should have not been aired for the whole world to see the worst moment of my life. But we have to go on. We have to live now. We have to live for Brooke. She would want us to keep going on. Remember Brooke. Remember her for the lively, friendly, fun, authentic person that she was. I just want to say before I go that I think Jordan is such an incredible human. I think she's very brave taking on a huge company

like Hulu and standing up for her sister. She would be so proud. And again, I wanna thank all of Brooks family and friends who participated in today's video. I know it's not easy to get on camera and talk about the worst thing that's ever happened to you. I can't imagine the pain that you guys feel every day. And I want to thank all of you for watching till the end and giving the pressens an opportunity

to tell their side of the story. If you'd like to stay up to date on this case and support Jordan, she does have a TikTok account that I will link below. And she also shares a little bit of her personal life here and there. She's such a cool person. And I definitely recommend following her. And that's all I have for you guys today. I really want to know your thoughts on this one in the most kind way that you can possibly word it. I'm definitely wanting to hear your opinions. Do you think the sleepwalking defense makes any sense? Do you think it's feasible?

Or do you think it's just a defense? Do you believe that there was possibly a motive for Randy to kill Brooke? What do you think about the timeline? That is gonna be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out.

If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. And now for my next trick, I will combine the strength of hefty, ultra-strong trash bags with the joyfully clean scent of fabulous salt. Wow! Smells like drapes and unicorns! Happy, happy, happy, happy! Well, that turned out better than when I tried to split my assistant in half. New hefty ultra-strong trash bags with fabulous oescent, so strong, so joyful, it must be magic.