Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: If I weer nlessues do the sounds, and I would
have let myself go stad before her.
Speaker 1: At just twenty years old, Brianna Berozini could pass for
a teenager, but today in the courtroom, she looks even younger.
Her blonde hair falls straight down her back, framing a
face strained of color. She stands motionless before an Ohio judge,
a shadow of fear flickering behind her solemn eyes. The
room is silent, racing for the words she's about to speak,
words that seal her fate. Brianna is here to plead
guilty to killing her former friend Aliah Culbertson.
Speaker 4: You're now pleading guilty, or admitting that you committed this crime.
When you plead guilty, you waive or give.
Speaker 5: Up constitutional rights. Do you understand each and every right?
Speaker 6: Yes? Sure?
Speaker 5: Are you waiving those rights?
Speaker 4: And are you pleading guilty knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily?
Speaker 6: Yes? Sure.
Speaker 1: Only a year has passed since Heliah was killed. It
all happened so quickly on that March evening of twenty
twenty three. It's been a year of legal battles, spawn hearings,
and fear on both sides. But today Brianna is admitting
to what she did and she will face consequences for
Helia's death.
Speaker 4: Prosecution's going to push for prison. Your lawyers asking for probation.
I indicated I would likely send you to prison with
the ability maybe to get out early.
Speaker 5: Is that your understanding of the discussions?
Speaker 7: Yes, sure, a right, but.
Speaker 4: I've made no commitment. I get to review the pre
sentence investigation.
Speaker 5: I'm going to do that.
Speaker 4: I'll listen to both sides, but I'm inclined to do
what I've told you, and you understand that.
Speaker 5: Yes.
Speaker 6: Sure.
Speaker 1: On the benches behind Brianna and her lawyer, the split
is as old as the feud itself. Helia's family is
on one side and Brianna is on the other. The
bad blood didn't start with Helia's death, but it's curdled
into something much colder now. Each side sits stiff waiting
for what comes next.
Speaker 5: When you plead guilty, it is a complete admission. You're guilty.
Speaker 4: You're going to be convicted today, and you're going to
be sentenced on July the eleventh, it'll be on your record.
Speaker 5: It's a nonexpungable offense.
Speaker 4: It carries up to three years in prison and a
fine of up to ten thousand dollars. Do you understand
the nature of the charge to which you're pleading guilty
and what the maximum penalties are?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 8: Sure?
Speaker 1: That is it a maximum sentence of maybe three years
and ten thousand dollars for Jeliah Culbertson's life.
Speaker 4: You have any questions for me about anything that we've
gone over, because if you do, now is the time
to ask me. Are you pleading guilty to this crime
I've outlined for you because you did, in fact commit
that crime.
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 5: Sure, all right, have a seat, thank you.
Speaker 1: Brianna has no questions. This plea deal is the best
outcome she could have hoped for. Because Brianna killed Heliah Culbertson.
That is a fact. But what that fact leaves out
is everything that led up to it, what was said,
what was seen, what was feared, and whether what Brianna
did that night was premeditated or panicked intent. Brianna stole
Helia's life, but now she gets to wait for her
sentence from the comfort of her family's home in Westerville, Ohio.
For the next month, Brianna will sleep in her own bed,
eat her favorite meal, scroll through her phone, and take
long hot showers. She's free for now. Helia, on the
other hand, is dead and her family lives inside a
grief that has no end. Even if Brianna gets the
maximum sense she could be out by the age of
twenty three. She will step into a future where most
people will never know she's a murderer. So carry on
with the very life she stole. No one in the
courtroom is satisfied. No one truly understands how it came
to this. If Brianna had stayed at home that night,
maybe Helia would still be alive. Whatever happened between those
two girls, it didn't start that night, but it did
end in murder. Now, let's rewind to about a year
before Brianna stood in the courtroom, March twenty sixth of
twenty twenty three, the evening Helia died.
Speaker 6: From her unc I'm going on, what's going on?
Speaker 9: My friend sat down at once to two one c
stop carry out.
Speaker 5: So one one that's the tree once one carry out? Stop?
Oh stop, okay, calm down.
Speaker 10: So one one.
Speaker 5: Carry out blow stop.
Speaker 8: I'm a.
Speaker 1: Night. It was almost midnight in Columbus, Ohio. Such a
beautiful place, Ohio, is, I always say? In the desolate
parking lot of a strip mall, Heliah Culbertson's best friend,
Kenzie Adrian called nine one one, desperate for help. Helia
was sitting in the front seat of a jeep that
belonged to their other friend, Dalon Barritte. Heliah took labored
breaths as blood spilled down her neck and onto her
orange tank top and pants.
Speaker 11: Sure I know who stabbed it.
Speaker 12: I know, free of your.
Speaker 11: Ergie, Brianna okay waiting.
Speaker 8: She watched and I don't know if he had, but
the closed.
Speaker 1: Up Kenzie couldn't get the information out faster. She needed
it to be known. Brianna Barrowzini stabbed Heliah. They all
witnessed it.
Speaker 5: Okay, this memory with me.
Speaker 13: We're gonna get you well throughout and health you guys.
Speaker 1: Dalen wrapped his shirt around Heliah's neck, pressing hard to
stop the bleeding. Kenzie clutched her hand, whispering to Haliah.
They waited, their ears straining for sirens, hearts pounding. Kenzie
and Dalen were paralyzed by the helplessness of it all.
Then the police swarmed it.
Speaker 12: Get back, boss, get back, I know, I know, I
need you to stay back.
Speaker 10: All right.
Speaker 11: Hey, you gotta let them do their work. Okay, come on, guys,
let's get back back.
Speaker 14: Let's get back.
Speaker 11: Come on, come on, I understand.
Speaker 8: Let's get back here.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna get your information.
Speaker 15: Did you see it?
Speaker 7: Yes?
Speaker 5: Who saw it?
Speaker 7: Okay?
Speaker 11: Okay in the red hoodie?
Speaker 10: Yes, all right.
Speaker 1: I need you to get in the cruiser for me.
Speaker 16: Okay, I'm gonna have to get you off your phone.
Speaker 3: All right, I.
Speaker 12: Understand that, but I need you Okay, I need you
to get in the cruiser.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm to the phone. The parking lot was utter
chaos as police quickly assessed the situation amongst these crying,
red faced teenagers. The paramedics scooped up Palia into a
stretcher and whispered to the nearest hospital. Dalen and Kenzie
were left in the parking lot, shaking from adrenaline and terror.
The police officer guided Kenzie to his squad car, instructing
her to hang up her cell phone and sit down.
Speaker 11: I have a seat. Is that you said, that's your friend.
Speaker 8: Yes, that's my best friend.
Speaker 11: Okay, what's her name?
Speaker 5: Jelia?
Speaker 7: H A l I ah, I know it's hard.
Speaker 1: Kenzie sat looking up at the cop her eyes wide
and teary. She stroked the end of her long ponytail
like a child with a security blanket.
Speaker 11: Do you know where she lives?
Speaker 17: Yes?
Speaker 10: Okay, very Ohio, but I don't know exactly.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, Actually, I need you here.
Speaker 12: We need to have I need you get that guy
in the red hoodie he saw it, and.
Speaker 11: That's not I'm here.
Speaker 5: I'm here, just sitting down.
Speaker 1: We had to tell them what happened.
Speaker 12: I need to separate you guys like that's fine, just
for integrity of the story.
Speaker 1: The parking lot pulsed with street lights and the flashing
blue of cop cars. Dyalen storm towards Kenzie, begging to
sit with his sister, but an officer blo locked him.
No one knew exactly what had happened yet, and right
now they needed call not a shirtless panic Dayalen tearing
through the scene.
Speaker 11: All right, what happened?
Speaker 16: Brie Barzini stabbed her. They were getting into a fight,
and I was sitting in the jeep because I cannot
be around brie bar Zini, because her baby, her brothers
and my baby, dad and me and her at issues.
Speaker 8: I don't know b a r z z I n.
Speaker 16: I I am I okay Pine Oak or at Western
Ohiots where she lives. She lives in West you think, wes,
I know she lives. Into a fight and Jelia walked
to the front door of the jeep. I saw she
had a gash on her. She got in the car
and she goes, I'm getting aschers. I hopped out the car.
I called hermong much because I didn't see the fucking fight.
I was sitting in the jeep looking away.
Speaker 1: Kenzie was in shock, scrambling with her words. But what
she knew was that Brianna Berezini that stabbed Heliah. Kenzie
had issues with Brianna from the past, so she stayed
away from the fights between the girls. The next thing
she knew, Alia was bleeding from the neck.
Speaker 11: You didn't see the actual fight, No, but I.
Speaker 6: Know who Briberzini is.
Speaker 8: I know her mother, and I know her address.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, all right, hang out for me, okay, okay.
As Kenzie nervously puffed on her nicotine vape. The officer
marched towards another kid who had witnessed the fight.
Speaker 5: I kind of fault.
Speaker 12: I didn't see if her gets stabbed at all.
Speaker 11: Okay, it just looked like they were throwing punches.
Speaker 5: Do you know either of them?
Speaker 12: I know her, that was a who.
Speaker 11: Jaliah the one that got stabbed. You know her, But
you don't know I barely, Like I know.
Speaker 15: I worked with Danielen for a little bit and I
was hanging out with them.
Speaker 5: Deny it, I need, I need you. Where did it
happen at?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 11: You take that right here in the front.
Speaker 12: Like in the front of the smoke shop, Yes, sir, okay.
Speaker 1: The off are continued collecting pieces of the story in
fragments from the teenagers. The fight had happened in the
strip mall, outside of a smoke shop that sold vapes, snacks, drinks,
you know, all the things that keep teenagers alive. Next,
the officer headed to the store, kicking oblivious customers off
the property as he made his way inside.
Speaker 5: Hey, guys, I have to shut this off.
Speaker 12: Somebody just got stabbed and I need to basically close
your doors.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Okay, even better, just don't let anybody come out this way.
Speaker 11: Okay, go out the bag.
Speaker 1: The officer closed the smoke shop and patrolman started taping
off the entire parking lot. Outside another police vehicle a
few yards away from where Kenzie sat waiting, Dylan was
pacing towards another officer.
Speaker 5: You're staying it right there, All right, okay, all right?
This is your sister they got.
Speaker 11: Is not blood related, but I'm not. He was fucking twelve.
Speaker 5: It's a good friend of yours. Yeah, what's your first name?
Speaker 1: Dalen's bare chest was covered in Helia's blood. He cried
as he walked with the officer giving him all the
information without question. He kept calling Haliah his sister, even
though they weren't actually related. It's the kind of thing
that made sense in his world, where closeness didn't need
blood to feel real. They'd been friends for half his life,
which for some like Dalen felt like forever, long enough
for him to believe he had a duty to protect her.
Speaker 5: Right, What did you see what happened?
Speaker 11: On video?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 1: Dalen stood up and pulled out his cell phone, holding
up the screen for the officer to see. He had
the entire fight on video. Every brutal second. He even
posted it on Snapchat. Dylan, her self proclaimed brother, thought
he was protecting her, but what he didn't realize was
that he may have helped to get her killed, because
buried in the footage, beneath the shouting and the blood
was something that no one had noticed, something that changed everything.
Outside of a smoke shop in a strip mall in Columbus, Ohio,
on opening that clearly tells you nothing goods coming, eighteen
year old Brianna Berezini had stabbed seventeen year old Haliah
Culbertson during a fight. When police arrived on the scene,
they found a group of distraught teenagers who had witnessed
the brawl, and one boy, Dalon Barritge, had filmed the
entire thing on his phone. Brianna had fled the scene
after the fight, and as another troop of officers headed
to her house to track her down, the ones on
the scene continued talking to the witnesses, Alia's best friends,
Daylon and Kenzie. After all, Dalen had the whole fight
on his cell phone. Through tears, he passed his phone
over and started playing. In the clip, you see Heliah,
she towers over Brianna by about a foot. Aliya is
walking towards Brianna with her arms out, shouting, you wake
it up.
Speaker 3: My sister.
Speaker 7: Bro.
Speaker 1: Alia charges towards brin on a yelling who's obsessed? Over
and over. Brianna backs up. She's got two canned drinks
in her hand, and her boyfriend is beside her. He
holds her arms and tries to guard her, being cautious
not to touch Haliah at all. In the background, Dalon
starts to tell him to get off his sister.
Speaker 15: Yay, if you touch my sister and I'll have to put.
Speaker 5: My phone down.
Speaker 15: Bro Heliah cuntra ass to get it over way, Bro
contra ass to get it overway, Helia.
Speaker 1: Oh great more thug culture. Helia keeps charging forward, screaming
in Brianna's face as Dalen keeps yelling. That's when some
say Brianna pulls out a knife from her pocket. Others
insist it was already in her hand. Heliah keeps thundering
towards her. That's when Heliah's open hand slaps Brianna across
the face. The fight ignites.
Speaker 15: Yeah, countra ass, Helia cuncherr ass, Helia, dress you better
get your girl before she gets fucked up even more as.
Speaker 1: The motion is lightning fast. But that's when Brianna swings
the knife up and slashes Helia across the throat. But
Heliah doesn't stop. She keeps yelling, She keeps swinging her
fists and throwing her body towards Brianna as blood spills
and can drinks go flying out of the pavement and explode,
which raises a chilling possibility. Did Brianna even realize the
knife connected? Did anyone? For a moment it seemed like
no one had been hurt at all. The fight breaks
up and Brianna's boyfriend pulls her away. Helia stumbles towards
Dalan and the video cuts out. The fight is crystal clear,
despite how short and frenzied the whole ordeal was. But
what isn't clear is why it all started. But for
that information and the officer's first turn to Dayalen.
Speaker 5: What did all start over?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 11: All right?
Speaker 12: So Kenzie, Kenzie's baby dad is Breeze older brother.
Speaker 11: Right, who's Kenzie the one in that.
Speaker 5: All right here? The blonde? The blonde?
Speaker 12: So her brother, her baby dad is her brother and
her Okay, Kenzie's baby dad. Yes, Kenzie's baby dads here
and she has a baby dad. And baby dad is
Bree's older brother, older brother. Got they've had beef for
the The child's going to four years old, so they've
had beat for almost five years.
Speaker 1: Type shit, you know what I'm saying, Like Brianna's older
brother is the father of Kenzie's child. This relationship went
very sour. Helia, being Kenzie's best friend, sided with her
and developed a hatred for the entire Berazini family, as
did Dalen. After all, Heliah and Kenzie were his so
called sisters.
Speaker 12: I look at Kenzie's mother adopted me, like, not legally,
but my mom teaching me out from the ages of
fourteen to seventeen, and Kenzie's family took me the fuck
in Okay, So I'm very protective over Kenzie and whoever
Kensey affiliates with.
Speaker 1: Dalen was a classic latch key teen, untethered looking for
something to hold on to after his own mother kicked
him out. He found a sense of belonging in Kenzie's world.
Her family became his anchor, and he clung to that
feeling of home with everything he had fiercely loyal but
emotionally adrift, Dalen absorbed every ripple of drama between Kenzie
Aliyah and the Berezini family. To most adults, it would
have seemed like none of his business, but to Dalen,
it was everything. He didn't just insert himself. He dug in,
rooted himself in the chaos, convinced that was where he
was meant to be and wasn't just going along for
the ride. That night, he was steering the ship and
when the fight broke out, he didn't step back. He
stepped in. He stepped up, I guess you would say,
with his cell phone in one hand and vicarious vengeance
in his heart.
Speaker 12: But like, that's my little sister and I've I've always
been protective over her and ray bear Zini. She she
the girl who did this hit. She just always runs.
She's assists here and she talks shit, She talks and
I saw, I saw the knife fucking drop, but I
didn't did she not used bro Brie and Healia were
supposed to be fighting while they were in the Columbus
thing or what.
Speaker 11: No, it was random as fucks. He came in while
we came in.
Speaker 1: The whole fight was spur of the moment. Aliah and
Brianna had known beef for months. According to Kenzie, it
was just a normal evening at the smoke shop, joking
around with the store's owner that they all knew. Then
Brianna and her boyfriend walked in.
Speaker 10: Three walks in with her friend, and I didn't notice
until Julia goes, that's brief, fucking Barrizini. I said, oh God.
Speaker 6: I turned around, my saw her. She looked at me.
I looked at her. I turned around.
Speaker 10: I know Brie because she's my baby dad's sister. Okay,
and I've known Brie since middle school, and I'm not
allowed legally. I don't go around her or her brother
or her family. I was fifteen and her brother was
nineteen when I got pregnant.
Speaker 6: Okay.
Speaker 1: When Kenzie had a relationship with Brianna's older brother, she
was a minor and he was legally an adult, which
made the situation a problem, A big one.
Speaker 10: Yeah, because I didn't know he was nineteen. He told
me he was seventeen to figure out he was turning eighteen,
and then he turned he was already eighteen. Then he
turned nineteen, and I got pregnant when I was fifteen
in April when he was nineteen that year, so I
was like.
Speaker 6: Oh, this is great.
Speaker 1: When Kenzie's family found out Brianna's brother was nineteen, they
filed criminal charges against him. This caused a major rift
between the two families. Still, Kenzie allowed Brianna and her
parents to visit the child on one condition. The child's
father was not allowed to visit. Everything was going all
right until they disrespected the rule and allowed Brianna's brother
to sneak a visit.
Speaker 10: Because before noon they would be like yeah, and they'd
come over and I'd see her, or they would drop
stuff off.
Speaker 6: But they just obeyed everything.
Speaker 10: And I caught them in a line and they saw
them out in public with him, and I picked up
my daughter and I said, you are all fucked in mind,
and they.
Speaker 6: Were like, you can't tell me what to do.
Speaker 10: I said, this nineteen year old is going to tell
your thirty five year old asked what I can do?
Speaker 6: Put my daughter in my corn.
Speaker 7: I left.
Speaker 1: That's when Kenzie banned anyone from the Berezini family from
seeing the child, including Brianna. Resentment grew between the two girls.
Speaker 10: She isn't like because I don't let her, her family
see my daughter. I guess her brother's not a good person.
I have a restraining order on him.
Speaker 6: He's legally not allowed to be around me or my family.
Speaker 1: This battle of custody, restraining orders, and accusations had been
going on for years. So when Kenzie saw Brianna enter
the smoke shop on that March evening, she immediately wanted
to get as far away from her as possible, but
Helia had other plans.
Speaker 10: Her and Brief start going at it because Brie gets
behind us in line and Julia goes, you're obsessed or what?
Because breposts tiktoks about Alio all the time. I'm just
saying like they were friends at one point. I don't
really know what happened there together. I don't know what
issues they have, but they have like like they hate
each other. Something Priest called Julia cocaid. Julia called Bria
cocade and was talking about her abusive brother and was
talking about her family being city, and then bri was
talking about Julia's mom and then Helia was like, well,
I'll catch you outside then come outside, and is all right, bet,
I'll be outside then. So I got into the cheap
in the front seat, and I was looking forward because
I'm not part of this fight.
Speaker 18: So that all happened in the store, yeah, where they
were where Brief was like, come.
Speaker 6: On outside, and Hellia was like, I'll be outside.
Speaker 10: Brie said, she'll be outside. Julia to her to come outside.
Speaker 1: I'll catch you outside, all right, bet? Why do kids
sound like retards these days? We've already got a language.
You don't have to make up new definitions for existing
words just to make yourself feel special. You're already plenty
plenty special. Trust me. Anyway, According to Kenzie, it was
that simple. Brianna and Helia started arguing, and the store
then agreed to continue things outside. Kenzie said that Brianna
had posted nasty things to TikTok about Heliah, that their
feud may have been fueled by Helia's loyalty to Kenzie
and her situation, but that they had their own fight
independent of her problems with Brianna's family. This wasn't a
premeditated showdown. It was a chance encounter that spiraled fast.
But even in spontaneous fights, there's a history, and this
one had years of its simmering just below the surface.
No one's saying Helia deserved what happened, but this wasn't
a clean cut case of victim and villain. Both girls
carried grudges and when the moment came, they each brought
their rage with them. Helia and her friends waited outside
in the dark, while Kenzie sat in the jeep to
distance herself from Brianna.
Speaker 10: They were outside of the cheap and I was like,
I'm not part of this shit because I'm going fucking car.
May can do another fuck you one, but I'm not
part of this shit. And then all I heard wasn't fighting.
I didn't really see anything. I didn't see anything at all.
On te Kelly was walking up to the front door,
thank to the driver door of the car, and all
I can see is that she's bleeding. I'm holding her
wrists and I'm trying to check for a pulse and
she peed her pants in her eyes.
Speaker 6: She was non responsive. Did you see Hellia with any weapons?
Speaker 10: No, she didn't have anything. I had all of her stuff.
I had her pepper sprare, I had her keys, I
had it all. She didn't have anything on her except hands.
Speaker 1: Kenzie and Dalen told the same story. The fight wasn't planned.
It started in the smoke shop, just another chance encounter
that got out of hand. Brianna agreed to meet Helia
outside to finish what they had started. Brianna had a
hidden knife, Helia had nothing but her two hands. She
looked like a victim of an unfair fight. But looks
can lie because at the same moment, another group of
officers were at Brianna's door. They had found her and
her boyfriend inside. Brianna had showered and her bloody clothes
were in the wash. The knife was hidden upstairs at
the station. Brianna his boyfriend sat down with the police
to talk.
Speaker 11: Or just started like, how did you get up there?
Who were you with?
Speaker 13: So?
Speaker 18: I was with Brite and we headed there just right
after a car meet.
Speaker 11: We were there.
Speaker 18: We got there around eleven thirty eleven forty.
Speaker 11: Since we got in, we noticed.
Speaker 18: Heliah and a girl named Kenzie and some guy that'll
never seen before.
Speaker 11: We tried to move out the way.
Speaker 18: Because there's always been issues between us ever since.
Speaker 11: November, between who specifically.
Speaker 18: So it's always been issues between me, Brite and Helia.
Speaker 11: Okay, Kenzie has had some you know, long term issues
with with family.
Speaker 18: Have Yeah, Haliah said something pretty called or obsessed, and
then it started an argument. The guy over over the
counter Ben He said he doesn't want anything to do
with this, so he got Haliah Kenzie and her friend.
Speaker 11: Outside, and then Halia was yelling a lot and then breathe.
The whole time was just you know, just trying to say,
I don't want to fight you, Brianna.
Speaker 1: His boyfriend had a feeling there would be trouble when
he saw Heliah Kenzie and Dalon, so they tried their
best to avoid them, but Heliah started shouting at Brianna,
instigating a loud and vicious confrontation. The cashier kicked Heliah,
Kenzie and Dalon out of the store. When police spoke
with him, he confirmed this. The cashier told police that
when the altercation in the store heated up, he knew
he had to take action and remove Jalia and her friends.
Speaker 5: So I told my coworker like, I'm going to defuse this.
Speaker 11: So I stepped outside and was talk from to her.
Speaker 12: She which.
Speaker 11: And when I got sagged the one that got sad.
You were talking to her.
Speaker 19: I was trying to tell her like I got got
his business, but just go.
Speaker 1: But they didn't go. Dylan started egging Haliah on, riling
her anger into a frenzy. He pulled out his phone
and started filming.
Speaker 19: He's standing right there and he's recording everything. And so
she's getting upset thinking the two telling me to.
Speaker 11: Go out there to stop her.
Speaker 19: One really is I don't want no incident to have
her here, period.
Speaker 5: Carly Blanking was recording.
Speaker 6: Was he with the girl that got staffed?
Speaker 7: Yes, he was with her, Okay.
Speaker 19: So he instigated it when I just calmed everything down.
Speaker 11: Even though she was still upset.
Speaker 19: Yeah, really yeah, and recording everything.
Speaker 1: So footage of the Smoke Shops outdoor camera showed Heliah, Dalon,
and Kenzie being escorted out of the store. They disappeared
into the parking lot. Then about two minutes later, you
see Heliah come back to the front of the store.
She's pacing like a bull, yelling and waving her arms,
taunting Brianna. From outside. In the corner, you could see
Dalen following her around with a cell phone filming. Here's
that recording, Halia, what you want to do?
Speaker 5: Bro?
Speaker 1: Where's she at?
Speaker 3: Bro?
Speaker 7: Where's she up?
Speaker 11: Bro?
Speaker 3: She's scared, Bro, She's scared. Alias should drag her at
the store. Buzz, No, we waiting right here till you
get your ones.
Speaker 5: I've been waiting to see her.
Speaker 1: Ask a beeper a minute, Bro, you should get arrested
just for that laugh. That's when the cashier came outside again,
telling Heliah and Dalen to go home.
Speaker 11: So he wasn't helping the situation.
Speaker 19: Nobody was hoping, No one like it was a dead silence.
The two girls was talking to me, the other two
was shopping, and once they had their words exchanged, nobody
was trying to say, chill, calm down, no nothing. I'm
the only one telling nobody just just go chill out.
Go ahead, go leave a store.
Speaker 1: According to the smoke shop cashier, it was Dalon who
took the situation from bad to worse. The boy who
was so hell bent on protecting his soul called sister
was the one who egged on the needless fight that
ended in murder. Breon his boyfriend said the same thing.
Speaker 18: The male who was with her just kept instigating, just
trying to make them fight.
Speaker 11: I try to push.
Speaker 18: Away Bertie and Julia because I'm sort of like, I
don't have a person like Kalia, but I don't have
the biggest problem with her. Yeah, just trying to basically
end things without you know, getting anybody hurt.
Speaker 1: You've heard the video anytime that Brianna's boyfriend tried to
pull the two girls apart, Dalen inserted himself and threatened violence.
If you touched my sister, gonna have to put my
phone down.
Speaker 15: Bro Heliah Contra asked to get it over waight, bro
Contra has to get it over with Heliah.
Speaker 11: But he's basically saying don't don't touch her or yeah, and.
Speaker 18: The whole time, I don't know if the video shows this,
that I was trying to back.
Speaker 11: Them up, yeah, from each other.
Speaker 18: It was polite, like the back of the hand, so
obviously you didn't like it. So I tried to plumb
breathe enough and everything escalated. Basically that if he didn't
instigate Helia start to fight, none.
Speaker 11: Of this would have happened.
Speaker 1: Brian, his boyfriend, said that the state happened so fast
he barely realized it until he noticed a sticky liquid
on his own body. Still, the police needed to know
why Brianna brandished that knife, Why was she even carrying
one in the first place?
Speaker 11: When did you know that Brie had a knife. She's
been carrying knives she always carries. She always carries knives because.
Speaker 18: Just a lot of people try to, you know, attack
her or just try to.
Speaker 11: Come up to her. Because the issues with.
Speaker 18: Heliah and Brie has always been a thing since November.
What happened in November, Haliah was just using me and brite,
you know, saying she has a kid, she doesn't have
a kid, basically using that as it excuse to get
money or anything, really to just get as much money
as she can. Uh, saying she needs to pay for
gas and she doesn't even drive.
Speaker 11: It just became a whole mess. We just loved it
that and every.
Speaker 18: Once in a while, either Helle would call me I
would typically ignore, or she would just message Brie on Instagram.
Speaker 11: Just talking crap.
Speaker 18: It just happens like every couple of months, just randomly
starts calling it again.
Speaker 1: No one could really explain what had gone down between
Brianna and Heliah to make their friendship curdle into hatred
and violence. But it was all petty, silly teenage stuff, lies, manipulation,
Instagram dms and TikTok gossip, bullshit.
Speaker 17: Did Hell have any any weapons or anything, Does she
have a knife out or anything.
Speaker 18: I don't recall she had a knife out, but I
know she does carry typically typically carries a knife. And
then she always talks about carrying guns and all that.
Speaker 11: That's why we take.
Speaker 18: Her threats to very seriously because she always talks about
either how having guns, hanging out with people that have guns,
saying that she can kill us.
Speaker 11: Is it's been a home best.
Speaker 1: Pelia may have used big, bad threats about knowing friends
with guns and saying she was going to kill Brianna,
but Brianna was the one who brandished the blade and
sliced it across Hillia's neck. But Brianna's boyfriend said there
were many reasons why Brianna always carried a knife.
Speaker 18: Another reason is that her ex boyfriend is abusive, always
pulls up her own what's sixty one and just that
what sixty one is not the best area to be in.
So she always carries in her knife because first of all,
she's small shoes and can't really protect herself in any
other way. And the way most of these people fight now,
they fight to kill.
Speaker 1: After the fight was over and her boyfriend left the scene,
they drove back to brionn his house where her brother
was waiting, the one who fathered Kenzie's child. Brion, his boyfriend,
said that he washed the knife and gave it to
her brother.
Speaker 18: So I took to the bathroom because it was still
dripping blood, cleaning as much as possible.
Speaker 11: Uh, and then I gave to Cameron in the living room.
He gave the knife to Cameron. Uh, so you mean
actually cleaned it up.
Speaker 18: So, yeah, cleaned it up some because it just kind
of dripping off the acteley knife and they were godn't
want to get it all over the place.
Speaker 1: Brion, his boyfriend and brother had hidden a murder weapon,
but no one knew Heliah was dying. After the stab,
she kept swinging and screaming. She didn't stop or surrender.
Not until Brianna was gone and she sank into Dalon's
car did her friends realize how deep the damage went.
Dalan's phone marked the fight at eleven forty eight pm.
By twelve twenty four, am Aliah was pronounced dead at
the hospital. According to the autopsy, the knife struck a
critical zone and Heliah's clavigal, damaging a major artery, over
half a gallon of blood poured into her chest. She
didn't stand a chance. Still, Brianna insisted her violence was
all a panicked reaction to Heliah's confrontation. It was all
just a blur. She premeditated nothing.
Speaker 7: And they're screaming at me.
Speaker 2: And then the dude tells Helia to run up on me,
and she's walking up and I keep telling her, I'm
not fighting you back up, so you're not worth it.
Keep telling her to back up, and I get my
knife out in my hand and I'm holding and I
said back up, and she attacks me. She first slapped me.
She was pushing me well before that.
Speaker 15: Ye.
Speaker 7: I was trying to push her away from me.
Speaker 2: But the other guy said was stealing to end up
to touch her orse he was going to do something
to him. I don't know what exactly had happened, but
I went like this and.
Speaker 7: Then she dragged me by my hair on the ground
and like there was just blood in my eyes. I
couldn't see anything.
Speaker 15: Contrast, Aeliah, fuck her up. You better get your girlfore
she gets fucked up even more.
Speaker 2: H I don't think I hit her or anything, because
I was on the ground getting blood out of my eyes.
Speaker 7: I had no idea what was going on. I was
just in shock at that point.
Speaker 1: It's chilling how clear it is on video. Heliah charges
at Brianna, who retreats, murmuring that she doesn't want to fight,
but Helia keeps coming. Dalen records it all, his voice
rising with every shout, not warning them, not breaking it up,
just feeding the fire. Dylan wasn't a bystander, he was
the catalyst. But then Brianna flashes the knife. Helia slaps her.
Brianna swings and blood splatters all over the paper. Still,
Heliah yanks her to the ground and Unlicia's brutal blows,
dragging her like a rag doll. Had she survived, there's
no question Helia would have won that fight. She kicked
Brionna's ass, even with a hole in her neck. Now
I'm turning, Ghettu.
Speaker 7: So during the.
Speaker 11: Fire, when she was hitting you, what happened with a knife?
During that time?
Speaker 2: It had dropped on the ground. Okay, it wasn't no
longer in my hand.
Speaker 5: Did you know she had been cut?
Speaker 13: At that point, I didn't know if it was many
or heard because they were yelling, saying that, they were laughing,
saying that she maybe bleed, so I was like, maybe
there's a cut on me, But then I was looking
all over myself when we got in the car, it
was like, it's I don't think it's me.
Speaker 5: What is this?
Speaker 7: All stuffs animosity? Heliah used to.
Speaker 2: Be a really good friend of mine, and then I
found out a lot that she's just a really bad person.
So I stopped being friends with her, and my friend
Yed stopped talking with and then after that she pretty
much just went crazy, like saying she was going to
kill us and slash his tires and do all these things.
Speaker 1: And like she does to most people, to her friends,
Heliah was fearless, the kind of girl who would never
back down. To Brianna, she was dangerous and unhinged, two
versions of the same Helia told by people who loved
her and people who feared her. Was Brianna the victim
of Heliah's rabid aggression. Was this simply self defense? But
there was one thing no one had seen yet, not
even the police. It was something buried in the digital
noise from two weeks before the fight. A text message
from Brianna to her friend tossed off like a joke,
maybe even forgotten After a long rant with her friend
about Halia's behavior, Brianna signed off with this message, I
would sooner slice Halia's throat if he comes near me again.
Just words, just teenage anger. But now with Haliah dead
from a single stab to the neck, these didn't feel
like just words anymore. Seventeen year old Heliah Culbertson had
died from his single stab wound to the neck during
an impromptu street fight with her former friend, eighteen year
old Brianna Brenzini. The two girls had been feuding for months,
each claiming the other was just a bad person, but
Helia's friend Kenzie also had big problems with her and
her family. Kenzie had become pregnant when she was fifteen
with Brianna's older brother, who lied to her and told
her he was a miner two when he was not.
Drama ran through that friend group like a river, a
big river, and on the night of Helia's murder, it
finally overflowed. Brianna was arrested on March twenty seventh for
the murder of Helia. She was taken to the county
jail immediately following her police interview. The Baronzini family quickly
took action and obtained a lawyer named Craypants.
Speaker 20: For the last twenty years, I bet at criminal defense attorney,
practicing out of Columbus, Ohio, trying cases in state court,
federal court, and representing people charged with really everything from
speeding tickets to aggravated death penalty murder.
Speaker 1: Brionna's bond was set at seven hundred and fifty grand,
but she only spent two days in jail. Her family
bonded her out as fast as they could, and she
went home under strict conditions from the court. That's when
Bob stepped into the picture and got to know her
side of the story.
Speaker 20: When the family came in and then Brionn had a
chance to explain what happened in her from her viewpoint.
You know, there's a lot of thoughts to kind of
go through your head, first one being you know, how
accurate is this account and what other evidence is he
going to be out there. I never really believe I
think that a client comes in and tells me one
hundred percent of the accurately, not because they're lied, but
they remember it a certain way. But my initial thought was, Wow,
this sounds to me like it was a self defense
and more of an accident and unintentional, but also just
a tragedy. Just a young girl sitting in front of me,
very very young, and another young woman dead. So it
was just I hate to say senseless, but even at
the first moment, I thought, this is just tragic.
Speaker 1: It was tragic the fight that never should have happened.
Brianna may have been fortunate enough to have been bonded out,
but when she met her lawyer the first time, the
prospect of going to prison for the rest of her
life wait on her heavily.
Speaker 20: My memories, it was a Saturday morning in my office
and she was there with her family, very quiet, very timid.
You know, she didn't just gush out with the account.
I had to kind of, you know, ask specific questions
and she would get to it, but very quiet, very scared,
very concerned, very you know, overwhelmed. I mean, she had
just been released from the jail I suspect within a
day of coming to my office, and her whole family
just supportive, was scared and appreciative of just how serious
this was.
Speaker 1: And what about that text message, the one where Brianna
said she would slice Helia's throat if she came after
her previous tests showed that Brianna was upset because Helia
had allegedly been driving past her house and making threats
against her. Bob argues that the text had nothing to
do with what happened that.
Speaker 20: Night, and would argue to the jury that's irrelevant to
what happened that night. It would be relevant if my
client went looking for It would be relevant if my
client said, there she is, I'm going to do what
I said I'm going to do in that text, But
she didn't.
Speaker 11: Go looking for.
Speaker 20: They ran into each other purely by accident, bad luck,
just by answer. So despite the text, those words, her
actions that I spoke louder, she backed up, She said
I didn't want to fight.
Speaker 11: She tried to avoid it.
Speaker 1: Brianna may have been backing away as Helia charged, screaming,
but according to Lee Detective Timothy Pribe, Brianna made one
move that raised questions. She had a weapon. Aliah didn't,
and what Brianna did with that weapon gave the police
pause when it came to her innocence.
Speaker 17: Haliah was unarmed. She was clearly unarmed. She did assault
Brianna one time open handed smack, and then she turned
and she walked away. I believe it was Brianna pulled
out her knife ten to fifteen seconds prior to the smack,
so there's there's more of an intent to harm on
her part. And if she's pulling out a knife with
an intent to do harm, that's a felonious assault, and
then that harm causes a death, that's a murder.
Speaker 1: Detective Pribe says that when they watched that video of
the fight relentlessly, and not just their investigative team, but
Pribe's boss and his boss's boss analyzing every millisecond to
make sure they weren't seeing things the wrong way. He
says that Brianna pulled the knife out prior to being
slapped by Heliah. She holds it close to the side
of her thigh and the blade is out of the switch.
That made all the difference in his eyes.
Speaker 17: Well, she keeps it concealed down at her leg mostly,
she pulls it out in a very comfortable manner and
holds it down, and then after she slapped and Heliah
is walking away, that's when.
Speaker 11: She charges her.
Speaker 17: The key portion of this incident or this altercation, is
that Afterjlia slaps her, she turns and starts to walk away,
and that's when Brianna then you know, starts to swing
her knife, and she swings and misses, and then then
you see her come over the top and you know
hit her right, you know, right at the top of
the chest.
Speaker 1: Detective Pride says that it wasn't the fact that she
had a knife that showed intent, but the manner in
which Brianna used it.
Speaker 17: She doesn't want people to see that she has a
weapon out and ready to go. That's how I'm looking
at it, because she's not threatening her with it. She's
not trying to back her off with it. You know,
she's not protecting herself with it. She's initiating the assault
with a weapon.
Speaker 1: You can watch the whole video in our bonus content,
and we encourage it to. The footage of Helia's death
is hunting, but it also brought clarity. Every second of
the raw, unfiltered truth was captured for both sides to examine.
The state indicted Brianna on three charges murder, murder committed
during a felonious assault, in voluntary manslaughter. She was looking
at fifteen years to life for the murder charges and
another three to eleven years for the manslaughter. As the
media grabbed hold of this sensational girl fight and did
what they always do, Bob worked on his defense, preparing
for an intense and very public trial.
Speaker 20: When I first look at it, I say, this is
pretty classic self defense. Now, Ohio law changed somewhat recently.
It used to be that to claim self defense, the
defense would then have the burden of proving that the
person was in fear of imminent serious, farbly harm or
death and that you know, they did not use disproportional
force to repel the attack, and that was the burden
of the defense. That changed Back in twenty and nineteen
there was a hospital that passed and signed by the governor,
and as a result of that, the prosecution now has
the burden of proving that it is not self defense.
Speaker 1: Ohio was the thirty seventh state to pass this law,
switching the burden of proof in a self defense claim
from the defense to the prosecution. To compound matters legally,
Ohio passed another law in twenty twenty one concerning self
defense cases.
Speaker 20: And that was a change in the law regarding your
duty to retreat. It used to be that if you
had at you had a duty to retreat, unless, of course,
you're in your home or your vehicle, then you did
not have a duty. But otherwise you had the responsible
if you could safely get away from the situation, you
had to get away from the situation. And if a
jury determined that, yes, you were in fear of imminent
serious bodily harm or death, yes you used reasonable force
to repel the attack. Yes, you did not cause the
situation that gave rise to the affray, but you had
an out. You could have left out the back door
of the bar you were in, or you could have
run across the street from the field you were in.
If they found that you had the opportunity and ability
to escape without exposing yourself to more harm, you could
not claim self defense. Between those two changes again fairly recently,
you know, it's a It changes the dynamic a little
bit about how you look at self defense cases because
now a jury is going to be instructed they are
not even to consider whether or not the person could
have escaped, could could have left, could have fled the situation.
It's nothing for them to consider. They don't get to determine. Well,
cheese that didn't have to happen. She could have left. Nope,
she doesn't have a duty anymore.
Speaker 1: These changes to Ohio law were a clear win for
the defense. Now it was the state's burden to prove
that Brianna wasn't acting in legal self defense, and the
jury couldn't fault her for staying in the parking lot
before Helia struck first. With the video of the fight
and the cascade of witnesses who all told the same story,
it was looking like Brianna had a solid self defense case.
Tensions were high as Bob worked on his defense and
the prosecution prepared their arguments. Aliah may have started the fight,
but she didn't walk into it expecting to die. No
one ever does. I guess she didn't think Brianna would
swing a knife. Who knows what was running through her
mind when she slapped Brianna across the face, but I'd
bet the last thing she imagined was dying in a
hospital less than an hour later, Because, like Brianna's boyfriend
told the detective, a fight isn't just a fight anymore,
not these days, that is, And.
Speaker 18: The way most of these people fight now, they fight
to kill.
Speaker 1: Helia's family was grief stricken, giving very few interviews to
the media. Kenzie posted videos on TikTok about how much
she missed her best friend. The guilt must have weighed
so heavily on her. Could she have done something to
stop this? Maybe if she'd been the only friend with
Helia that night, none of this would have happened. As
for Dalen, he was quiet all of a sudden, but
Brianna's lawyer, Bob was zeroing in on him because Bob
had reviewed the case inside and out, and according to him,
Dalen held as much responsibility in Helia's death as Brianna did.
Speaker 20: But I recognize right away that this dayling kid who's
recording this and encouraging it, it may not have happened
had he not been doing what he was doing. People
don't act the same when they know they're being videoed.
They perform okay. And you know, this young man was
the oldest of anybody there, and he could have stopped
us so easily, But he egged it on while they
were waiting for Breonn to leave the store. He egged
it on while it was happening. This process of events,
all of these little decisions that were made in the
span of call it ten minutes that evening. At any
given point, one different decision, and this doesn't happen. Aliah
is alive today.
Speaker 1: If Aleah had been alone in the store that night,
she might have just flipped Brianna off and gone home
the rant about it on social media. But she wasn't alone.
She had Dayalen, self proclaimed brother, her hype man, her
fierce defender, her peanut gallery. I could go on and on,
and with him by her side, everything changed. Dalen, with
his tears and loyalty, his dramatic storytelling and ride er
Die energy. He was the one who hit record. Heleia
wasn't just showing off for Dalen and his phone. She
was performing for the entire internet. That's a lot of people.
She knew this clip would hit social media. She knew
this would be on sortain scale. Now she didn't, but
you get my draft. She wasn't just in a fight.
She was on a stage with an invisible crowd ready
to judge her, mock her, and meme her. Y'all motherfuckers
are vicious. That kind of pressure warps everything in anything.
Maybe that's why she didn't back down, even when knife
was flashed inches from her face. Maybe that's why she
kept threatening Brianna, acting harder than she felt, because fear
in a viral video looks like weakness, and nobody wants
to be weak. And Brianna, maybe you shouldn't pull that
knife out to win the fight. Maybe she pulled it
out because she knew losing would be captured, replayed, and
ridiculed endlessly. Maybe the blade wasn't about fear of Helia.
Maybe it was about fear of becoming a joke on
the internet, the girl who got wrecked and went viral
for all the wrong reasons, that sort of thing, and
it still happened anyway. But by hitting record, Dalen changed
the entire course of these girls' lives.
Speaker 20: All it takes is for a friend to say, hey,
you know what, let her go, let's get in the car,
or I'm gonna put my phone away, I'm not gonna
do this, or you know what, Halih, let's go. You
know whatever, She's not worth it. One person says that,
and maybe it derails the whole thing. Maybe the decision
by mind client preant to stay in this store longer.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 20: I don't know if she even knew Hilia was waiting
for or when she did see her, maybe retreat back
into the store, or don't pull the knife out of
my pocket, or don't open the knife. Okay, I mean
there's many, many decisions that were made by multiple people,
and any one of them a different decision. I think
this thing goes a different direction.
Speaker 11: Look at the Brian, his boyfriend.
Speaker 17: I mean, yeah, he was standing next to her the
whole time, and he was kind of sort of trying
to stop it. But if he was the biggest dude
out there, I mean, if he could have just walked
her to the car and put her in the car,
that was always an option, you know, But they stood
out there, and I get it. It's it's a situation
that you can't you know, you necessarily don't know what
you're going to do when you're in that situation. But
so many things that people could have just made decisions
to step in and de escalate it.
Speaker 1: Many people could have stepped in, but they didn't. It
really came down to Haliah, Dalen, and Brianna, who each
played a part in how this night unraveled. They all
had choices, and they all made the wrong ones, feeding
off of each other's fear, ego and adrenaline idiots wilden
on TikTok so much. Should really do a study on
how much harm and literal death social media has inadvertently caused.
The results are probably terrifying, which is why we'll never
get one. That and the fact that morons love to
change the meaning of words, kind of like these kids
often to suit their own narrative. So harm, what harm?
What do you mean by harm? Never heard of it?
What's your definition of harm? That sort of thing? Utter bullshit.
The whole mess was a chain reaction. Aliah paid with
her life, Brianna faced prison, and Dalen Well, that innocent,
doe eyed stoner boy with a magical cackle that resonates
throughout the vape store, strip mall parking lot and a
heart of gold. Well he walked away scott free, like
just another witness. When Bob said, he was so much more.
Speaker 20: So when I look at who's responsible or who played
a part in his death, I look at him and say,
you know what you had? You had such a role
in this thing, and it was so unnecessary, and it
was so childish, and it's so dangerous, and it's just
so maddening that right away I'm thinking you know. I
can understand Alia, I can understand Brianna. I can't understand Dalen.
Speaker 1: We looked up Dalen's record. Of course, by twenty one,
he'd racked up nine arrests drunk driving, assault and firearm charges.
You know, like a gangster. Half came before Helia's death
and the other half came after, like clockwork. Dalen was astray,
cut loose by his own family, absorbed into Kenzie and
Helia's orbit like a ticking time bomb. Maybe he knew
what he did. Maybe the arrests, the violence, the reckless spiral,
they weren't just all accidents. They were confessions written and chaos.
Speaker 20: I'll be honest. When I first met with the prosecutor,
my first suggestion was to charge that guy. But they
felt that, Yeah, after interviewing all the other windowses, they
felt that, you know, Halia was going to do what
Halia was going to do, and he did really spill
the blame over to Dalen. I see it differently, but
you know, that's that's not unusual to me. There's some responsibility.
This should have been placed at his feet, but.
Speaker 1: That wasn't going to happen. Still, Brianna was the killer,
not Dylan. She was on trial for murder, and Bob
had a big task ahead of him. Despite the law
changes that swayed in his direction, Brianna made the choice
to pull out that knife and swing it. She killed Aliyah.
End of story.
Speaker 20: You know, I thought we had a problem with the weapon,
and I also thought that we had a problem or
difficulty with just the sadness of the thing. There is
a there is a family who is grieving, and rightfully so.
There's a girl there who is young and dead, and
it's it's horrible, and juris feel that they see sympathy,
and it's it's normal as humans, we want somebody to
answer for this tragedy. We want somebody to be responsible
for this tragedy, and the only person on trial is Brionna.
My whole approach was my client didn't want to fight,
She wanted to back up.
Speaker 11: She kept backing up.
Speaker 20: She wanted to get out of there, and that you know,
at some point I would have argued to the jury
that you know, the most timid of animals, when you
corner it, it has no choice what to lunch forward,
to do something to try to get out of that situation.
Speaker 1: But the trial would never come because in early June
of twenty twenty four, just before Brionna's murder trial was
set to start, the prosecution suddenly dropped the charges and
offered Brianna the chance to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
That was the plea you heard her accepting in the
beginning of this episode. The evidence was too strong for
the defense to argue that this was intentional murder. It
was very clear that no one went to the smoke
shop that evening with the intent of Helia losing her life.
When that fateful sentencing day came, Helia's family huddled on
one side of the courtroom while the baron Zenies were
on the other. Brianna stood in front of the judge
and accepted her guilt for Helia's death. Before the judge
relayed her punishment, Helia's family had a chance to speak.
Kenzie stood up first, barely able to get her words
out between sobs. After describing what a tough yet sensitive
girl Heliah was, she got into how this had all
changed her life.
Speaker 8: I'd rather be standing at her wedding and giving a
speech or her graduation, but I'm here and I know Julia,
and I know her killer. The best six years of
my life, I've dealt with her killer, her family. And
when I finally thought I was getting away away from
these people, and I finally got my family away from
these people, Helia's killer did this to the most important
person in my life. That night, I felt a part
of my soul, more like all of it left when
Helia left. I hope that her killer gets the maximum sentence.
I hope you realize or understand somewhat.
Speaker 6: Who Helia what was really was in this world.
Speaker 8: A daughter or sister, a cousin, a friend, a student,
a coworker, a granddaughter and niece aunt. She was someone's
child that got taken too soon, and she's now forever
seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: The blame that Heleia and her supporters placed on the
entire Baronzini family was palpable, especially when Helia's mother got
up to speak.
Speaker 9: In most scenarios, bringing a knife to a fistfight is
considered unethical, illegal, dangerous. It's crucial to approach conflicts with
a mindset of de escalation and consider the potential consequences
of introducing a weapon into a physical altercation. The right
course of action usually involved seeking a nonviolent resolution to
ensure your safety through legal and ethical means. Here we
have a smart, college educated four point zero student with
so many recommendations from friends and family for the pre
sentencing investigation. That sounds like someone that should know the
difference between right and wrong. Maybe she's just smart enough
to play us all.
Speaker 1: Like Bob said, in a senseless tragedy like this, everyone
is searching for someone to blame. Eliah's family blamed Brianna,
and Brianna's family blamed he Leah, but both girls for
some responsibility for the way that that night transpired. That
didn't make it fair, but it was the cold, harsh truth.
Before the judge relayed his decision, the prosecution made one
last plea to the courtroom, arguing that Brianna reacted with
disproportionate rage and intent not fear.
Speaker 14: It is reasonable that those actions would anger Brianna Barzini. However,
none of those actions justified Brianna Barzee taking a knife
and plunging it into Holi as clavigal. Rather, that is
an act of unjustifiable rage, as stabbing is a disproportionate
response to a slap.
Speaker 1: The prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence. Brianna stood up
and apologized for what she did, saying that she will
live with the guilt for the rest of her life.
Then the judge reminded the court that she was facing
three years in prison and a ten thousand dollars fine.
That was the maximum. Then he gave it to her,
reminding her to stay out of trouble. Behind bars. Brianna
was taken away to prison.
Speaker 17: When it comes down to it, all in reality should
have been was just a fight, just you know, if
his fight of some sorts, and then the guys would
have stepped in, hopefully and just broke it up, and
they would have yelled each other, they would have went
on their way, you know, and there you know, nobody
would have lost their life out of it. Cops probably
wouldn't even have been called for it. But you know,
Brianna chose to bring out a weapon and then to
use that weapon in the course of that assault, so
she escalated it, and that's that's how I look at it.
Speaker 1: The video Dalen captured still haunts Holiah's family. These were
her final moments and they were nothing like the Heliah
they knew and loved. And then she was gone. Brianna
currently sits in jail. She filed a motion of early
release and it's been granted this August, which means she
will have only served one year for the death of
Heliah Culbertson one year. Detective Pride knows that what happened
that night was a series of bad choices by every
person in that parking lot, but he believes Brianna got
away with murder.
Speaker 17: She's the one who brought a weapon into the fight.
She brought a knife into a fistfight, and I think
that there should have been more consequences for that.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of bad decisions made that night.
Aliah made one when she escalated the argument with a slap,
Brianna made one when she pulled out a knife in
the middle of a fist fight. And Dalen, well, Dalen
made his when he chose to hype up Palia and
film the fight instead of stopping it. Because Dalen is
an asshole. Once that camera comes out, everything changes. This
wasn't just a fight anymore. It was a show, and
all three of them knew it. They weren't just teenagers
in a parking lot, finally forced to face their internet
fights in the real world. Now they were performers playing
to an invisible audience on social media, a bunch of
board assholes that are taking a shit. That's what raised
the stakes. Social Media didn't kill Heliah, That's not what
I'm saying. But it created the environment for her to die,
a changed behavior. It added pressure, It made everything feel
dramatic and impossible to walk away from. A modern teenager's
world is already so insular, impulsive, and emotional, trapped behind
a screen where reality is half baked. But when performance
becomes instinct, and every reaction is subconsciously shaped for an audience,
even real danger can feel like just another scene to
play out. And in the end, Helia died, Brianna went
to prison, and Dalen walked away with no charges whatsoever,
just a ghost in the margins of a murder. He
helped set an emotion. No one wins in a story
like this, because the truth is it didn't have to happen.
But when teenagers are raised in a world where everything
is filmed, where attention is currency, and where the pressure
to show off never shuts off, even a fistfight can
turn into a performance. This time that performance ended in death.
It's not just tragic. That's the cost of a culture
that values footage more than the fallout. Speaking of footage,
we got a lot of it. Sword and Scale Television
available at swordscale dot com.
Speaker 5: I know you want it, you cheap fuck go get it.
Speaker 1: It's only twenty bucks and you can get twenty episodes
right now. They're an hour long each. That's a lot
of true cry