Southern fried True crime covers cases that are not suitable for young listeners, and
there may also be some explicit language used. Listener discretion is advised. I
don't usually cover cases involving children. I know that for many people it's something
they simply can't stomach, especially parents and caregivers, and I obviously count myself
in that group. I struggle deeply with covering children. This isn't a story
I wanted to tell just for the sake of telling it. It involves an
insidious type of crime. I wanted to bring more attention to something unique to
the deaths of babies and toddlers that we don't see in the deaths of older
children or adults. It is inflicted by adults who should and do know better.
For some, it is a brief moment of anger and frustration, and
they may not realiz how grievously they can injure a child. But others know
what they are doing is vicious and wrong, that it is child abuse,
but they still don't know it could end in death. The first time I
remember hearing about this kind of abuse that led to the death of a child
was in the late nineties, when an American case when international Thirty years later,
Shaken baby syndrome cases are still often national news because despite how long the
medical community has agreed about the syndrome, in courtrooms, expert opinions suddenly began
changing, and in the media it started to be considered controversial, which is
unconscionable to many people. Parents and medical professionals alike do not see a gray
area. They see a public health issue. It is child abuse that can
lead to death, and calling it controversial is endangering children. Welcome to Episode
two fifteen, the death of Annie Burkett Shell. Today's case takes place in
a suburb of Chattanooga, Tennessee, a neighborhood further away from the hustle and
bustle of downtown, where kids play in front yards, neighbors stop to chat,
and things are a little quieter. The morning of August ninth, twenty
eighteen was warm and overcast, with the threat of an afternoon thunderstorm predicted.
Tiffany and David Shell would have had their hands full that morning in their usual
bustling schedule. It was a school day, and the Shell household in the
Chattanooga neighborhood of Hickson just northeast of the city was a hive of activity as
several of the couple's school aged children prepared to head out the door. David
and Tiffany had plans themselves that day, including having lunch together. Around eight
thirty am, twenty six year old Brandy Gannuonsio arrived at the Shell house to
collect the two youngest members of the household, two year old Annie and her
younger sister, Peyton. Brandy would be babysitting the girls that day, at
least until David and Tiffany finished up their lunch date. The Shells knew Brandy
well as a family friend, and her job was babysitting children in her home.
She was trustworthy, reliable, caring, and had been babysitting Annie and
Peyton for around five months. Annie Elizabeth Burkettshell came into the world on August
twenty eighth, twenty fifteen. David and Tiffany were actually Annie's maternal grandparents and
her legal guardians, always referring to the girls as their daughters. The late
summer of two twenty eighteen was an exciting time for Annie and her parents.
Her third birthday was fast approaching, and as any parent can tell you there
is a dramatic shift in toddlers around that age. It feels like overnight your
baby has become a preschooler. We've heard about the terrible twos for decades,
but parents now joke about the age of three, calling their spunky little ones
three nators. It seems like Annie, who was about three weeks away from
turning three, was still the sweet little ray of sunshine the Shells thought of
as their baby. But of course she had a definitive, little upbeat personality
already. They said. She loved playing outside, learning gymnastics, and of
course the color pink. She was thriving. Their baby was growing up.
That day, August ninth, Brandy drove the girls as usual, the ten
to fifteen minute drive back to her house in the Hamilton County community of Saudi
Daisy. Like Hixon, Saudi Daisy is northeast of the downtown area, but
it's just outside Chattanooga city limits. Its unusual name comes from the merging of
the two communities of Sadi and Daisy back in nineteen sixty nine, and is
today home to a little under fourteen thousand people. The morning passed quietly enough,
but at around twelve fifteen PM, a call came in to nine to
one one from Brandy's home on Vine Street. The desperate babysit or reported that
something was terribly wrong with Annie. The toddler was experiencing some sort of seizure
and Brandy had no idea what was causing it. Brandy then called David Shell,
telling him Annie had a seizure, fell over and hit her head.
They agreed that Brandy would ride in the back of the ambulance with Annie,
and David and Tiffany would meet them at Erlinger Hospital. As hospital staff ruled
out neurological conditions in the following hours and days, they told David and Tiffany
that the seizures Annie was experiencing were not brought on by natural causes. The
toddler had sustained blunt forced trauma to her head. She had a visible bruise
on her face. Whether it was accidental or intentionally inflicted was difficult to tell
at that point. Sadly, further scans eventually showed Annie was unlikely to recover
any brain function. There was also bruising at the front of Annie's heart and
a two centimeter split and her esophagus on August twenty first, twelve days after
Annie was rushed to the hospital, and just a week shy of her third
birthday, she passed away. There had been no hope that she would recover.
Annie's life support was withdrawn at the decision of David and Tiffany, and
the little girl died surrounded by her shattered family. Annie's autopsy showed she died
as a result of blunt force trauma to the head and chest, causing internal
bruising and bleeding. The medical examiner found bleeding around her spinal cord cavity and
in the surrounding tissue, as well as bleeding around her optic nerves behind her
eyes. The manner of death was homicide, with a blood clot on her
brain, indicating that her injuries were sustained very suddenly around the time that she
was in Brandy's care. Annie's devastated family still didn't understand what could have happened
to cause such serious head injuries. Just the night before the incident, Annie
had been running around at home, laughing and playing happily. She showed no
sign of illness or distress. How could this buoyant little girl suddenly be on
the verge of death less than twenty four hours later. I'm going to pause
now for a short commercial break from the day Annie was rushed to the hospital.
The wheels had started turning behind the scenes. Hospital staff notified the Saudi
Daisy Police Department that they had grave concerns about the nature of Annie's injuries and
what exactly had occurred in the hours and minutes leading up to Brandy's nine to
one one call. And of course, Annie's sister, Peyton, had also
been in Brandy's care that day. Because of the suspicions that Annie had been
a victim of child abuse, Peyton was also examined. She had dried blood
around her nostrils and swelling and bruises around her nose. Her parents told local
news Channel three that she had gotten some bumps and bruises, but no charges
were ever brought about Peyton's injuries. Investigators learned that when paramedics first arrived at
Brandy's home, her boyfriend was also there, twenty seven year old Benjamin Spencer
Brown. Ben and Brandy had a baby girl together, and he would later
testify that he lived with Brandy and his daughter, But the Shells didn't know
that David and Tiffany didn't know Ben was at Brandy's house that morning. In
fact, they had never even met the man. It was only after Annie
was taken to the hospital that the Shells first heard about any other adult being
present while Brandy was caring for their children. Lieutenant Jake Lrod interviewed Brandy and
Ben. Brandy said she was home all morning and saw Annie have a seizure
in the bathroom before falling and hitting her head. Ben supported Brandy's story,
saying he didn't know what it calls the mark on Annie's face. Lieutenant Elrod
had a niggling feeling about the couple's accounts. Something didn't feel right, but
without something more substantial to go on, Elrod wouldn't even be able to get
a search warrant for Brandy's home. But the investigator felt like Benjamin Brown wasn't
the kind of guy anyone would necessarily want around their kids, and if the
Shells had known about his history, they wouldn't have allowed their children to stay
at Brandy's house if Ben was there. And he wasn't wrong about that feeling.
Brown did have quite a history. He had been smoking marijuana daily since
he was twelve years old. After leaving school in the ninth grade, Ben
had worked as a roofer. He also had a prior record for two charges
of theft, violating pearl, failure to appear in court, and the most
concerning to assault charges. In fifteen, Benjamin Brown viciously assaulted his sixty five
year old father in law and former boss, Claude Stamey, on mister Stamey's
front porch. Ben attacked his father in law because he used to work for
mister Stamey, but he had fired Ben when he caught him stealing. He
beat the older man, who was recovering from open heart surgery, with a
metal statue and then pulled a knife on him before police arrived. Brown pled
guilty in twenty fifteen to a lesser charge of simple assault. Claude would get
another chance to testify about his son in law because of Annie's case. At
the time of Annie's death, Benjamin was in the process of divorcing his wife
of several years and mother of their young child, so he had two very
young children of his own. Brandy's cell phone records revealed just after midday on
August ninth, there was a number of incoming and ongoing calls, including her
call to David Shell telling him about Annie's alleged seizure and accident. There were
also unanswered calls from Benjamin, as well as text messages between the couple.
After Annie arrived at the hospital, Brandy texted her boyfriend she fell in the
bathroom and hit her head, to which Ben responded okay. Brandy's later text
messages to Ben from the hospital revealed she knew they were under suspicion early on.
One text said cops got called, with another reading CPS. They think
I'll beat her the hospital does, Ben replied, wanting to know if the
Shells or he and Brandy were being investigated. Brandy didn't answer this question,
instead just replying that she didn't want to babysit anymore. She did text several
other people that day. One was a friend, and she also texted former
employers. It became clear to law enforcement that Brandy had lied from the beginning
about the extent of Ben's involvement. Why else would she text him from the
hospital hours later to tell him what had happened if they had both been at
home at the time. Investigators then learned that on the morning in question,
Brandy had visited a local hair salon that was just a two minute drive from
her house. When they contacted the business to verify her visit and examine videotape
from the salon's security camera, they saw that just after nine am on the
day Brandy picked up Annie and Peyton. She entered the salon, but she
was alone. Brandy didn't leave until two and a half hours later, when
she came out and sat in her car at eleven thirty. After a few
minutes, she went back inside. She came back out at noon and appeared
to be in a real rush to get in her car and leave. Where
were the little girls she was supposed to be caring for. It was obvious
now that Brandy wasn't at home at all when Annie sustained her injuries. One
of the first responders had already told police that something seemed off when they arrived
at the home, as in Brandy and Ben's accounts of what happened to Annie,
like they were trying to get their stories straight. I'm going to pause
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a DC health dot com. Funeral services for any Elizabeth Burkett Shell were held
on the afternoon of August twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, at Williamson and Son's
Funeral Home in Saudi Daisy visitation for family and friends was held the night before
she was laid to rest at Hamilton Memorial Gardens in Hixon, Tennessee, following
her funeral service. Three days after her funeral, her family released balloons on
what would have been Annie's third birthday. On September twenty sixth, Benjamin Brown
and Brandy gun Nuzio were arrested and soon after indicted by a grand jury for
their roles in Annie's death. Ben was charged with felony murder and the death
of a child in addition to aggravate a child abuse and released on a one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars bond. If convicted, he faced life in prison
without the possibility of parole. Brandy was charged with making false reports for lying
to police and hospital staff, and two counts of being an accessory. After
the fact, she was released on a fifty one thousand dollars bond. Police
were still investigating, so they were limited in the amount of information they could
pass on to the grieving family. So it was all terribly confusing to David
and Tiffany, who grappled to understand what was going on and why Benjamin's bond
was so low. The Shells had no specific details, let alone any clue
as to a possible motive. In March twenty nineteen, David Shell reached out
to the media questioning Benjamin Brown's bond following the news of a man accused of
homicide and sitting in jail on a two million dollar bond after allegedly killing his
four week old baby girl. I can't even imagine the anger David must have
felt when he heard that other man's bond amount. Why would it be so
different because he was the child's father. You would actually think that a stranger's
bond might be higher. Domestic murders, be they spouses or children, are
much more common, the nuances and possibility of accidents would be more understandable,
if not forgivable. But when a stranger kills your little girl, and the
bond is so low, I don't know how you could reconcile this, David
had learned, though it wasn't public information at the time about ben prior criminal
history, which David felt should have been given more weight when the original bond
amount was set. In Tennessee, bond amounts vary based on a number of
reasons, including a suspects tied to the community, and the amount of evidence
the police have, not just the accused person's prior criminal history. David later
told WTVC that before Annie went with Brandy that morning, she was hollering out
to him like she didn't want to go. David said, I don't know
if something had been happening before, and she was just scared and she wasn't
able to tell me. You can just imagine how his mind must have been
spinning thinking back, so afraid that he had missed some sign from Annie that
something was wrong in Brandy's house. Kids usually cry when they go to the
sitters. It's hard for parents, but you get used to it, especially
since most kids calm down so quickly after a parent is out of sight,
as long as they feel safe. But David and Tiffany had never felt any
reason to worry. At the accused couple's arraignment on October fifth, Benjamin Brown
and Brandy g Nuzio pled not guilty outside the courtroom. After another hearing a
week later, when the judge granted the couple two months to retain attorneys.
Brandy made no comment, but Ben didn't shy away from the TV cameras.
Before swaggering off, he told WTVC, we didn't do nothing wrong to nobody.
The little girl had a seizure and that was it. Unfortunately, the
couple's upcoming court appearances coincided with the global pandemic COVID nineteen caused massive court delays,
and many cases were caught in the limbo of the huge system backlog.
To the frustration of the show, Ben and Brandy's court dates kept getting pushed
back. Annie's heartbroken family could do nothing but wait, but they made sure
the public did not forget about their little girl, starting a Justice for Annie
campaign on social media within seven days after she was rushed to the hospital.
Before she passed away, local businesses put Justice for Annie signs in their windows,
and the Shells gave media interviews whenever they could. Thirty year old Benjamin
Brown's trial finally began on February ninth, twenty twenty two, before Judge Barry
Stillman, David and Tiffany Shell were there every day, praying and believing they
would see justice done for Annie. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press,
the court was shown video taken from inside the Shell home in the days leading
up to the assault. David testified he had installed a Google Nest camera as
a way to monitor the kids to sure they were safe. In the video,
Annie played happily in the company of her family, corroborating David and Tiffany's
accounts that the toddler was perfectly fine the night before she went to Brandy's.
More video was shown, this time of Brandy arriving at the hair salon in
Saudi Daisy alone around nine am the next day. Jurors also heard about the
text messages between Brandy and Ben on the day Annie was injured. The timeline
was damning. Brandy is seen coming out of the salon and sitting in her
car at around eleven thirty. Then at twelve pm she is rushing out and
is back at her home by twelve fifteen pm. When she called nine one
one, the prosecution called Hamilton County Chief Medical Examiner doctor James Metcalfe to the
stand. He testified that the seriousness of Annie's injuries suggested she had received repeated
blows in the form of being violently shaken, causing something most commonly referred to
as shaken baby syndrome, but also recently known as shaken impact syndrome or abusive
head trauma. But doctor metcalf also said Annie's injuries could have been caused by
someone shaking her and hunching her. According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons,
shaken baby syndrome, as the most common name implies, is a serious
form of child abuse as well as a major public health issue. It is
usually inflicted by an angry or frustrated parent or caregiver, usually male. Usually
when a child exhibits prolonged bouts of inconsolable crying. The victim, who is
typically between two and four months old, suffers a brain injury from bruising or
bleeding, which can result in serious permanent harm, disability, and sometimes death.
This is due to violence shaking, not the type of movement caused by
going over a bump in the car, bouncing your child on your knee,
or even in a fall. During deliberate shaking, the baby or the child's
head moves back and forth, similar to extreme whiplash, causing her brain to
move around and impact against her skull. The scenario or explanation I just gave
as for a baby much younger than Annie, But it's not like it never
happens to children her age. While statistically, infants are more likely to be
the victims of this kind of abuse, according to the CDC, children up
to five have also been victims, though exact statistics are difficult to gather.
It's found to be the leading cause of child death resulting from abuse. In
the US. There are up to one three hundred deaths a year attributed to
SBS. Infants and toddlers who have been shaken exhibit a range of symptoms presenting
anywhere from between immediately to within hours, including drowsiness, vomiting, seizures,
unconsciousness, breathing problems, pallor to the skin, and cardiac arrest. More
recently, mostly in legal terms, there is what is called a triad of
internal symptoms that pediatricians and emergency physicians are educated to look for subdural and retinal
hemorrhages and brain swelling. Annie had all three of these symptoms. She also
had a bruise on her chest. Think of how you hold a baby,
you or child up where your hands would be your thumbs at the center of
her chest. If she was gripped hard enough, maybe that's what could have
caused the bruise, rather than being struck. If you have ever watched a
video demonstration of this kind of shaking, it is sickening, but the majority
of people who do it are not strangers to the child. Parents and caregivers
who inflict the sort of abuse are likely to have a history of family violence
and or substance abuse, which definitely describes Benjamin Brown. Environmental stressors like social
and financial factors also increase the risk of abuse of head trauma. It's unstable
homes, feelings of isolation. But no matter how desperate things are, help
is available and this sort of abuse is entirely preventable. I mean stating the
obvious. Parenting is hard and no one should feel ashamed to reach out for
help. But you can imagine the stigma a parent would feel about this kind
of frustration and anger at a helpless baby. How do you admit that to
someone. It's about losing control with a tiny human being who cannot help their
behavior. It's not a punishment gone too far. But it's also not a
deliberate murder. That's why it's such a complicated public health issue. But recently
judges have been ruling differently in appellate courts, citing a lack of cohesive opinions
about sbs and the medical community as a whole. This past September, a
New Jersey court called shaken baby syndrome junk science when they ruled in favor of
a dual appellate case combined for two fathers. There is a lot of controversy
over these kind of rulings on both sides, and the sentences for offenders can
be all over the place. There is a father on death row in Texas.
A North Carolina father took an alfred plea and got a five year sentence.
An article from Slate by an incarcerated journalist named John Jay Lennon, who
works with the Prison Letters Project for Yale Law, was published just last week
about the controversy, citing the cases I just mentioned. Despite the problems Lenin
was investigating what dueling medical professionals as well as judges are recently finding. There
was a review of one thousand, four hundred appellate rulings between two thousand and
eight and twenty eighteen. Only three percent of the cases were overturned. In
understanding the controversy, it is mainly pediatricians and emergency physicians versus theoretical scientific opinion.
I can understand how every case has different nuances, but I know personally
I would rather trust the opinion of doctors who have actually treated children, not
scientists conducting biomechanical tests. I always do last minute research for any new sources
on different issues before I record, and like I told you in my last
episode, it often results in rabbit holes. It also happened in this case.
I am old enough to remember the court case known as the Nanny Trial
from nineteen ninety seven. A British aupair was convicted by a jury of second
degree murder in an SBS case, only for the trial judge to reduce her
conviction to involuntary manslaughter and sentence her to time served. The case wasn't just
big here, it made international headlines. The judge said he based his decision
on his belief that the oapair injured the baby in a state of confusion,
inexperience, frustration, immaturity, and some anger, but not malice. So
as I am searching for more sources, I found a long form article by
doctor Sanche Gupta of CNN from two years ago. He was investigating another case
where charges were actually dropped against a babysitter of a child who had been diagnosed
with shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma. The defense took nine different opinions
of physicians who did not see the child and gave them to the medical examiner,
who, it would seem under pressure, changed her opinion from homicide to
undetermined, and the charges against the sitter were dropped. There was some discussion
on how or why the defense was allowed to talk to the state's medical examiner
instead of putting those nine doctors on the stand at trial. The charges were
just suddenly dropped, and that doctor had resigned from the state's em office and
changed her opinion after she was no longer working there, resulting in this baby
and her parents being denied their day in court. Doctor Alice Newton, the
child abuse pediatrician doctor Gupta, interviewed about this case, said, these doctors
the defense used are the kind of paid experts who testified to the same theories
all over the country, regardless of whether their theory actually fits the medical evidence.
Goup decided what he called a cottage industry of paid experts. And though
I have done research over the years about paid experts and often talk about the
battle of experts in court, I did not know there was actually an online
expert witness calculator you could refer to. I can't believe I've never come across
it, and it was eye opening. But also, according to GUPDA,
twenty four domestic and international medical organizations acknowledge abusive head trauma as an accepted diagnosis.
In other words, shaken baby syndrome is real and after a few high
profile reversals in these cases, a survey of specialists, including those from pediatric
neurosurgery, pathology, radiology, critical care, and pediatrics, showed that the
vast majority believed in the science behind abusive head trauma or SBS. The American
Academy of Pediatrics president doctor Lee Saviobiers told CNN there really is not a controversy
in medicine about the existence of abusive head trauma. The science behind it is
really quite clear, but still an appellate judge actually ruled it as junk science,
setting precedent for a syndrome first to discovered in nineteen forty six, then
coming into our vernacular in nineteen seventy four, fifty years ago by medical professionals,
not judges, not criminalists. This is not a subjective science like hair
and fiber analysis or handwriting analysis. This is evidence found from CT scans,
MRIs, and autopsies. Pediatricians and er doctors are trained to look for the
signs, but they always first rule out possible neurological problems, just like Annie's
doctor did. Doctors interviewed say they obviously want to find a natural cause of
death, a reasonable explanation. None of them want to find abuse. It's
absurd to think that Goopeda spoke with many doctors, a few who sounded more
angry than you might expect about SBS becoming a controversy. They say it's only
a controversy brought on by paid witnesses and overexposure in the media, and that
it's very dangerous to small children. These paid experts are using rare blood disorders
and other medical conditions which do not actually match the evidence in these cases to
discredit decades and decades of legal precedent about shaking baby syndrome or abusive head trauma.
I know it feels as though I've turned a corner here from Annie's case,
but I want to explain why. In those cases that the incarcerated journalist
cited, it was fathers who were imprisoned, but in the cases doctor Gupta
discussed, it was babysitters. In most of the high profile cases, it
is sitters or caregivers rather than parents, which I think is an important distinction
that does relate to Annie's case. I'm going to pause now to hear a
word from our sponsors. Although Annie's case was about babysitters and not parents,
I do want to point out parental statistics as well as encourage parents to reach
out for help. Talking to a trusted friend, family member, your doctor,
or a parenting helpline is the first step in helping to manage the stress,
exhaustion, and frustration of new parenthood, and the broader community plays an
important role in raising awareness and providing support to new parents. Who are struggling.
Friends, family, and coworkers of people caring for babies and toddlers can
also help by taking the first step and checking in, as embarrassment and feelings
of inadequacy can be a reason why parents do not seek help. That's something
else that's so important to point out. Reach out to your friends and family
who are new parents. Check in on them. Because of the shame of
what can come with admitting being so frustrated with their own baby, they don't
want to reach out to you. But as we know, Benjamin Brown was
not Annie's parent or even her real caregiver. He should not have been alone
with her that day. Annie's parents had never even met this man. I
definitely wanted to present the statistics and encourage the empathy and help that would prevent
this type of abuse in many cases. But it's not just difficult to empathize
with Brown. I found it just about impossible. In Annie's case, the
prosecution argued she was shaken so hard it caused the blood clot on her brain.
To show how Annie could have sustained her injuries, the chief medical examiner,
doctor Metcalf, used a life sized doll demonstrating that severe and consistent motion
which caused her injuries, not just a one off impact like a fall.
The emergency pediatrician, doctor Mary Palmer, also to justified. While she didn't
agree with blunt force trauma to the chest, she stated Annie did sustain direct
trauma from two blows each to her head and stomach, and as the er
doctor was explaining, these were not just found at autopsy. There was visible
bruising on Annie's face and torso as she lay in the hospital. The prosecutor
held up a photo of Annie's face in court to make that point whether she
was shaken or struck, Benjamin Brown was violent enough with a toddler to kill
her. I do doubt that he meant to kill her, but it doesn't
mean he didn't realize that he was hurting her, which is an important distinction.
The defense put a few doctors on the witness stand to refute the emms
and the er doctor's opinions. Just like in those other national cases of caregivers
on trial, The defense put on an array of paid witnesses offering alternative fear,
but their ace in the hole was famed former New York City Chief Medical
Examiner doctor Michael Boden. I am sure you've heard of him. He has
testified in several high profile trials, including those of Jeffrey Epstein, Derek Chauvin,
Phil Spector, and O. J. Simpson. And you probably know
that doctor Boden is controversial in several aspects of his career, but he himself
has said his reputation never recovered. After testifying for O. J. Simpson's
defense, he disavowed some of his own statements in that case. Later at
the civil trial which Simpson lost, he has said he is now repeatedly confronted
with this stain on his career every time he is cross examined as a so
called rented expert who basically sold his soul to Simpson for one hundred and sixty
five thousand dollars retainer. Now understanding what a hit his reputation took in the
legal world, it frankly explains how a normal man like Ben Brown, who
had public defenders, could afford to hire someone as famous as Boden. And
again, he is a paid expert, just like in those other high profile
cases I discussed, only more famous who was testifying in disagreement with the medical
professionals who actually treated any shell and also, in this case, like the
others, it was not the parent on trial. Doctor Boden, who reviewed
Annie's autopsy report but did not examine her body, rejected the prosecution's allegation that
Annie had died from being shaken. He testified that, in his opinion,
Annie died from an infection resulting from an undiagnosed terar in her esophagus occurring the
night before or that morning. He even went so far as to allege malpracticed
by the hospital, saying Annie had died from a fentanyl overdose when one of
her tubes was removed. Fentanyl was used as a sedative to leave the pain
from her brains swelling. Doctor Boden also disputed that a firm conclusion could be
drawn about the time of Annie's injuries without the blood clot removed from her brain
being examined. He also questioned why, if Annie did die from being shaken,
it was not mentioned anywhere in her autopsy report. In that study I
told you about earlier, physicians and medical examiners pointed out that shaken baby syndrome
or abusive head trauma were not as well understood in small towns or rural areas.
It could be that doctor Metcalfe did not have extensive experience with sbs and
left it off of the report, thinking that Annie's injuries spoke for themselves,
along with her manner of death being ruled as homicide. In this age of
confusion and controversy, experts like doctor Boden will pick apart an autopsy report for
details. After Baden's testimony, the defense showed a video of Annie climbing at
the Shell home, claiming she fell from an open pantry which caused her injuries.
To be clear, they showed her climbing, not falling. Then Benjamin
Brown took the stand in his own defense, and he admitted to the court
that on the morning in question, he was at Brandy's house alone with the
children. After Brandy had picked up Annie and Peyton, she dropped them off
at home with him before heading to the hair salon. He testified that late
in the morning, close to lunch, Annie told him her head hurt.
He claimed that he told Annie that if she went to use the bathroom he
would give her a chewable tilinol. When she was done, he said he
put her pants on and got her a tilonol from the bathroom closet. Then,
according to Brown, he carried Annie into the living room. He testified
that when he set the top down on her feet, she began seizing.
Annie's legs buckled underneath her, and she fell to the floor. But instead
of calling nine one one, Ben admitted that he called Brandy twice and then
his father, claiming he didn't have any's information to give to nine one one,
even despite his own dad telling him to call nine one one, as
if you need the child's last name to summon an ambulance in an emergency.
Brown then testified that he was concerned Annie would bite her tongue, so he
put his thumb in the little girl's mouth, picking her up and laying her
on the sofa. He said he tried putting cold water on Annie to revive
her, but she began pulling her hair out. Around this time, Brandy
arrived home and she called nine one one. Ben also testified that he did
not see a mark on Annie's face until she was being examined by the paramedics
who responded to the call. He insisted that he had not struck Annie and
had no idea how she got the mark on her face. As expected,
the prosecution tore Brown's testimony apart. He was accused of lying in court and
in multiple statements. On cross examination. The court heard that the actual reason
he didn't call nine one one was he didn't want anyone besides Brandy to find
out he had been alone with Annie. I mean, can you imagine the
audacity of his reason for not calling nine one one? As if a nine
one one operator would say, I'm sorry, sir, but if you don't
know the child's last name, we can't help you. Why was he not
prepared to just tell the truth by his defense attorney. The lawyer had to
know it would come out on cross Brown also admitted to having lied to the
police about Brandy being home that morning, saying Brandy told him to tell law
enforcements she was home the whole time. After they lied, Brandy rode in
the ambulance with Annie and been followed in a car behind bringing Peyton to the
hospital. You can see parts of his testimony on YouTube, and under this
fiery cross examination, as he is called a liar, you can see Benjamin
Brown take a deep breath and several moments before answering having to control his temper.
It was not a good look and a reason why defense attorneys often begged
clients not to testify for themselves after the state and defense rested. Despite Brown's
own admissions in court, it did not stop his attorney from moving for him
to be acquitted on the basis that the case against him was entirely circumstantial.
Judge Stillman denied the motion, given that Annie had not exhibited any symptoms until
she was in Benjamin Brown's sole care, which he admitted on the stand.
The jury deliberated for two days. On Valentine's Day twenty twenty two, he
was found guilty, but not on the original charges. In the state of
Tennessee, when juries are determining an accused person's guilt, they can take lesser
charges into account, and that's how Benjamin Brown came to be found guilty on
the significantly lesser charges of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. The jury obviously
did not come by this ruling easily. They deliberated for eleven hours over those
two days, but it was crushing to Annie's parents, who desperately wanted justice
for their little girl and had waited so long for their day in court.
I'm going to pause now for a final commercial break. The Shells were understandably
heartbroken by the verdict, and not just because the convicted killer would be free
until sentencing. Even if Brown received the maximum penalty of just two years in
prison, this essentially meant he could immediately be eligible for probation. The prosecutor
explained that the Class E felony, even with the maximum sentence, only required
thirty percent served, so Brown could be eligible for probation immediately. The family
was now on desperate tenterhooks waiting for the judge's decision, but Judge Stillman was
clearly surprised too, later saying it sentencing. While I respect the jury's verdict
and the verdict is for negligent homicide, the court, having heard the evidence
in the case, has difficulty reconciling that verdict with the facts that the court
has heard. The jury made its decision, and I don't disrespect it,
Isa, but with regard to what the court heard in the case, the
facts were so much more egregious than just probably what most criminally negligent homicides are
in the state. You might be thinking about the charge of involuntary manslaughter in
other states. In Tennessee. Involuntary manslaughter is divided into three categories, vehicular
homicide, reckless homicide, and criminally negligent homicide. Obviously, this was not
a case of vehicular homicide. So what is the difference between reckless and criminally
negligent homicide. The main example I've seen given is that reckless homicide is like
playing Russian Roulette by picking up a gun with a single bullet in it and
shooting it at a friend you know there is substantial risk that the friend will
die. In comparison, if you picked up a gun you believed was empty
but failed to check before shooting it at your friend, that would be criminally
negligent because you should have look to be sure it was empty before shooting.
I think Russian Roulette is either an oversimplified or an extreme example. It's hard
to say, but obviously this would be an extremely complicated and nuanced decision between
the two. The other biggest thing between the two is reckless homicide is a
Class D felony, whereas criminally negligent is a Class E. You can get
a maximum of twelve years with Class D and six years with Class E.
So for that thirty percent served with a Class D felony, you might serve
four, but with a Class E you would serve two. Although this is
a complicated choice for a jury, Tennessee has these different types of homicides so
that there is not a quote one size fits all solution in murder trials.
Of course, if it is your child that has been murdered, you would
hope that it would be a first degree homicide conviction, if not a second
degree, which would still be significant time in prison. Second degree murder in
Tennessee is a Class A felony punishable by fifteen to sixty years in prison.
At this point in Annie's trial, all the Shells could do is hope that
Judge Dillman would still sentence Brown for the maximum. That's better than probation,
which would be nothing. The devastated Shells gave victim impact statements before sentencing.
Tiffany said the loss of a child is a continuous loss that unfolds every day.
She also told the court that in the eight months after Annie died,
she had stopped eating because she had given up on life. She had to
be treated in a mental hospital after losing so much weight due to the anguish
of losing Annie. Tiffany's Shell was still suffering from ongoing depression and anxiety.
She told Brown in court, every time time I pass you, I get
sick to my stomach. I thought, for a long time, Ben,
I thought you were innocent. But after seeing all this evidence, I have
my own opinion of what happened. I've been told to forgive you, and
I'm working on that. I do think that you deserve to spend time in
jail. David Shell was more blunt and sounded much less conflicted about forgiveness when
he told Brown, I think you got away with it. Two years is
nowhere near enough. I miss my little girl. You don't deserve to have
your kids, as I said before. Ben's ex father in law, Claude
Stamey, testified at the sentencing hearing, explicitly detailing Ben Brown's disturbing history of
violence before he killed Annie. And let's be clear, it's not like he
punched the older man in a mutual altercation. Ben went and attacked his father
in law on his front porch, knocking mister stami down, beating him with
a fifteen pound metal statue, hitting him at least ten times, and then
he got a knife out of his vehicle before the police pulled up and intervened,
and Ben Brown knew that his father in law was just days recovering from
an open heart surgery. Mister Stamey would die months later in November of twenty
twenty two. But the spunky old guy said in court that day I begged
my wife to please go get my gun and shoot this son of a bitch.
He was out to do me. In hearing all this, it's amazing
Ben Brown was offered a plea of simple assault. In that case, brandishing
a weapon which I think a fifteen pound metal statue would be should have been
considered aggravated assault. Not only would he have spent more time in jail,
he would have had a felony on his record, which would have affected his
sentencing in this trial and could have had an impact on the jury as well.
Judge Stillman even pointed out that due to his familial relationship with mister Stamey,
his actions that day constituted a domestic assault, also much more serious than
simple assault, as he was offered in a plea deal. You know,
we see on TV all the time how ninety something percent of cases never even
go to trial and that's true for Tennessee as well. But can you imagine
how different Benjamin Brown's trial might have been if he had been punished fairly for
mister Stamey's assault. But at least she can't say that Judge Barry Steelman didn't
take all of this into account, because he did, and he gave Brown
the maximum. On April twenty seventh, twenty twenty two, Benjamin Brown was
sentenced to two years for criminally negligent homicide and for the reckless endangerment charge.
He was sentenced to eleven months and twenty nine days in a workhouse. These
sentences were to be served consecutively, and he was then taken into custody.
The judge, when ruling, said, the circum stances of the offense involved
dishonesty. They lack empathy for a helpless child. The defendant shows an incredible
amount of selfishness, not just misrepresenting the facts, but affirmatively hiding the facts
from law enforcement. Then the judge said something that I had thought about immediately
when I first read about Benjamin Brown. It is disturbing to the court that
Brown would have such a lack of sympathy, especially since he has children.
Ben Brown was a father himself. It's easy to forget that when you get
submerged in Annie's case. Like I told you before, when David Shell was
so incensed by Brown's low bond amount. When it is a stranger when it
comes to kids, we are picturing, in essence a monster. This man
was also a daddy to a baby girl, two daughters, actually, which
was probably why the judge was all the more disturbed by Brown's tone when he
was describing what happened to Annie. Stillman said his tone was mocking and disrespectful
when he was imitating the little girl. Benjamin Brown uphealed his sentence by Judge
Stillman because, as the Tennessee Supreme Court put it, his defense asserted that
Stillman disagreed with the jury's verdict and took into consideration Brown's entire criminal history,
even speeding tickets, when he sentenced him to the maximum on both charges.
One of those tickets Brown got while he was out on bail before Annie's murder
trial. He also admitted that he could not pass a drug test two weeks
after her death. These more minor offenses are not always considered during sentencing,
but the Tennessee Supreme Court agreed with Stillman that Benjamin Brown's criminal history and totality
certainly warranted the maximum sentence. Considering the judge's comments, I'm not surprised about
the nature of the appeal, even though most of us would think that Benjamin
Brown got off light and should be thinking his lucky stars. But even though
his defense attorneys called his verdict a big win, they were far from accepting
the judge's ruling. Then, I thought of the judge in the infamous nanny
trial from nineteen ninety seven, reducing the charges and then sentencing her at a
time served. He spoke of a lack of malice, meaning legal malice,
of course, and perhaps that is what this jury felt. That Benjamin Brown
did not mean to kill any Shell. I said it myself earlier that it's
hard to believe he did mean to kill her, but it's harder to believe
he didn't consciously hurt her. I think he meant to hurt her. There
was intent there, maybe just not intent to kill. But the difference is
really hard to swallow when it comes to the death of a child. When
it was finally time for Brandy Gannuzio to go to trial, for various reasons.
She went through three attorneys before things got down to brass tacks. In
the end, after multiple hearings and much legal wrangling, Brandy pled guilty in
February twenty twenty three to making a false report. In return, the accessory
charge was dropped. Six months later, on August twenty second, the thirty
one year old woman was given a suspended sentence of four years in prison,
which means she will spend those four years on probation. The judge declined her
request for judicial diversion, noting that Brandy was not just still in a relationship
with Benjamin Brown, but she was now his fiancee, though it should be
noted that Brown was still not divorced from his first wife yet. Other key
factors in Brandy's sentence were that she did not have custody of either her twelve
year old daughter with a former partner nor the now five year old daughter she
had with Brown. Brandy's attorney asked Judge Stillman to recuse himself from the case,
questioning his ability to be impartial given his previous comments at Ben's sentencing about
the jury's decision to convict unlesser charges. Stillman declined. The Shells again made
victim impact statements at Brandy's sentencing. Tiffany said, my family and I have
gone through hell the past five years. Brandy, I will never be able
to forgive you. And then Tiffany looked at her and said something profound.
She said, I also pray that you will never have to endure the pain
of losing a child. That is the kind of love parents have for their
children, that they wouldn't wish that pain on any other person, even the
one who had been responsible for their own child's death. Brandy took the stand
at her sentencing, saying, take full responsibility for my actions. Not a
day goes by that I don't think of or miss Annie. Brandy showed more
remorse than her fiance, and though she did not assault Annie, she was
responsible for her safety that day, and she did in fact lie to the
authorities. So probation still seems generous to me, though I don't think it
would have been fair for her to serve as much or more time than Brown.
Speaking of him four months before Brandy was finally sentenced on April twentieth,
two thousand and three, Benjamin Brown was released on probation just seven days shy
of a year in prison for killing a three year old little girl. Today
he walks among us, a free man, engaged to the woman who was
supposed to be taking care of Annie that day, and at the end of
it all, a shattered David and Tiffany Schell still understandably film they won't ever
get true justice for Annie. On August twenty first, twenty nineteen, a
year after Annie passed away, her family stood on the banks of Chickamauga Lake
at Chester Frost Park and released floating lanterns on the water. This was as
they were still awaiting court dates, before the world stood still for the pandemic.
The family has honored Annie in any way they can ever since, quietly
celebrating each birthday, which comes so close on the hills of that other painful
milestone, the day they lost her. At Annie's grave, there is a
small mailbox where Tiffany Shell leaves letters of things she said she never got to
tell Annie. Watching interviews of David and Tiffany Shell, I am in awe
of their strength. They waited so long for justice, only to have the
jury choose the lightest charges. It really is the unthinkable any would have been
nine years old this August in the third grade, maybe still doing gymnastics.
Or maybe the girly girl who loved pink would be in a kid's club for
cheerleading or dance classes. Or maybe she would have loved to climb trees and
discovered she was a great ballplayer. Maybe she would have loved reading or drawing
or painting. There are too many heartbreaking maybees when a child dies, especially
when it is a violent death. Southern frid True Crime is hosted and produced
by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode was researched and written by me and Jima
Harris. As usual, any editorial comments and opinions are my own. Southern
Fred's original music is by Rob Harrison of Gamma Radio and the original graphic art
is by Cooley Horner. Today's episode was edited and mixed by Brandon sheck Sneider
of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly. If you have any case suggestions, please
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