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You are now listening to true murder, the most shocking killers in true crime history and the authors that have written about them. Gasey, Bundy, Dahmer, The Nightstalker, DTK, every week, another fascinating author talking about the most shocking and infamous killers in true crime history True Murder with your host journalist and author Dan Zufanski.
Good evening. Where is Brandon Simms? The four year old had not been since scenes since July third, nineteen ninety two, when he attended a birthday party with his twenty year old mother, Michelle Jones. Jones was employed, confident, talented, smart, assertive, and involved in many community activities in Indianapolis, Indiana. In contrast, when he was last seen, Brandon Simms, an only child, was a serious, quiet, thin boy, rarely maintained eye contact
with his mother. After that night, he was never seen again. His body has never been found. For years, Jones lied to her friends about Brandon, telling some that he was living with his father, and others he was staying with his grandmother in another state. When Brandon's father, who had been in jail, came looking for Brandon, Michele's shocked friends confronted her, she confessed that Brandon was dead. She repeated her story of how Brandon died to a detective after
she admitted herself to the local psych unit. Days later, she checked out of the unit and refused to reveal where she had hidden Brandon's body. She was sure she had gotten no way with murder and she would have accept The detective didn't believe her story. He enlisted the help of a novice prosecutor because no experienced prosecutor would take the case. In Indiana, no one had ever been
convicted of murder without a body. That prosecutor has written a book that reads like a mystery novel instead of the real murder prosecution. Truth is stranger than fiction, where Santa Ria curses, the law and politics are only a few of the obstacles to justice. The book that we're featuring this evening is Inconvenience Gone, The Short Tragic Life of Brandon Simms, with my special guests, journalist and author
and attorney Diane marger Moore. Welcome to the program, and thank you very much for a green to this's interview. Diane marger Moore, thank you.
For having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Thank you very much. It's a fascinating case, and your bird's eye perspective here as prosecutor makes this even more fascinating. Let's get right to a little bit about your legal background and how you came to be involved in this case and want to write about it, but first tell us how you became first involved in this case and your legal background, please, I.
Had thank you. I graduated from the University of Georgia law school and spent a number of years as a criminal defense lawyer. And when I married my husband, he was from Indiana, and so I moved to that state, and not knowing anyone, I was fortunate to be hired as a deputy Attorney General, where I worked for several years, and then I was able to get back and be
hired by the Marin County Prosecutor's office. Although I'd already been a lawyer for nearly fifteen years, I'd never prosecuted the case, and so I was given the opportunity primarily as the chief Arson prosecutor. But after handling a couple arson murder cases, my door seemed to be open to other types of cases. And that's how I ended up with this case. When a detective just knocked on my door and began to talk to me about the case. At the time, I'd been a prosecutor for about six months.
Now. We talked about in the introduction, we introduced the idea that you said that no prosecutor would really want to look at this, So explain a little bit about how you come to be the prosecutor. And based on sort of the problem that you have with that, what does Sergeant Michael Krook tell you that prompts you to definitely want to be involved with this?
Well, I think prosecutors, like other people, like to prosecute cases that they're not only convinced of personally, but that they believe they can win. And in this case, because because there was no body in Indiana, there's a requirement that one proved the body of the crime, and normally in a murder case, it's the body that establishes that. It's called the corpus delecti. So in this case, with no body having been found, it was going to be
a very difficult case to prosecute. But Mike Krook, who at the time was a sergeant in a homicide unit and a very respected detective, just felt certain that this mother had done something so horrible that she needed to be prosecuted. And after going to the more experienced homicide executers, who had wonderful records because they only took cases that
were likely to succeed in. Having knocked on a number of doors, he came to my door to ask whether I would at least assist him in trying to get the case filed in some form.
Yes, you say that you were pretty well convinced that he was going to do this regardless, and so he was very determined. And that's one thing I think that really caught your attention. Now, what is the story that he relates to you that was related to him at this midtown which is I guess a unit at the mental hospital. At the mental hospital.
Yes, Mike Crook was the duty officer, the sergeant in the homicide unit when a uniformed officer explained to him that they'd received a call from Wishard, which is the mental health unit of the county hospital, that a woman had admitted that her son had died while in her care. The officer hadn't gotten very specific with it about it, but it was enough for Mike Krook to return to
the hospital and speak to the admissions clerk. The admissions clerk explained to him that Michelle Jones, a young woman, had come in allegedly having nervous problems because she had finally disclosed to friends that her son, Brandon Simms, who had been four years old, had died when she left him alone for a period of about a week in their apartment two years earlier. Krook tried to speak to Michelle Jones at that point, but was told that she had been seriously sedated and so he would have to
come back. By the time that I spoke to Sergeant Krook, he had gone back and interviewed Michelle Jones and she had related a similar story to him.
Now, with that information, with that revelation to you, how did you proceed and how did the further contact with Michelle proceed with Sergeant Krook and yourself.
Well, Obviously, the way that most prosecutions determine whether or not a death is accidental, a voluntary manslaughter, or a murder is to examine the body for evidence of how the death occurred. Michelle Jones is a brilliant woman, and she had told Sergeant Krook that she would show him
where the body was. And obviously he was very anxious for that one because he felt he needed a body to proved murder, but also so that Brandon's body could be examined to determine how he had died, whether he had died accidentally, or whether he had been killed in some other manner. So when Sergeant Kirk went back to take Michelle to look for the body, she refused to go with him and refused to show him the body.
And because of that, with nobody, the question was how do you build what is essentially a circumstantial case, because in Indiana, Michelle's statements would not be admissible unless we could independently proved that Brandon had died. And that was the real challenge is how to do that?
How did you plan to do that? And what happens with the Again with the contact, what point does she stop contact with Sergeant Crook and speak to a lawyer?
Still in the hospital, when she so, she told something to the admissions clerk she was actually admitted. Then she met with Mike Krook while in the hospital. There was also a nursing staff present during that interview, and Mike Kirk had agreed to come back in a couple of days so that he could take her and she would
show him the scene. In that interim period, apparently a nurse and we don't know this for certain, but apparently someone in the hospital referred her to a criminal defense attorney and at that point he advised the detective to have no further contact with Michelle Jones and that was his last contact at that point in time.
Now, right away, Sergeant Krook, he does an investigation and he finds out background information about out Michelle Engrin Jones, who, like you say, twenty years old. Tell us what he finds, and that on that trail, he quickly is trying to look for the biological father and any other relatives and any other family who does he find, who does he speak to? First? Tell us about that progress?
Sure, well, because Michelle Jones was in a mental facility, the first question was did she really have a son named Brandon Simms? Was he missing or was he dead? And so the first thing to do was to check. The Sergeant Crook checked for birth records and found out that Michelle Jones had indeed had a son named Brandon Lamar Simms on the date that she had told him she had him, and she had identified the father of
Brandon Simms accurately as Kevin Simms. And it was fairly easy for a detective Crook to meet with Kevin Simms because he'd been looking really furiously for his son and the grandmother of Michelle Jones. So it was able to confirm some of the information that Michelle Jones had given him that she did have a son, what his age was, and he then met with Kevin Simms to learn when the last contact had been. He met with Arlene Blevins, who was the grandmother, and then he started speaking with
Michelle Jones family. What he found out was that Michelle had become pregnant at fourteen or early fifteen years old. She'd given birth when she was fifteen. Her mother may Ingram had some serious issues with Michelle and with her pregnancy. There was some alleged abuse and Michelle had ultimately been put in a group home. So Michelle spent several years in the foster care system. So those were the people. In fact, he went further and met with Michelle's aunts cousins.
He did everything he could to see whether, for example, Michelle had placed custody or given Brandon to a family member to keep for her, because he hadn't been seen in years, and he was able to determine from all of those people that no one had seen Brandon for more than two years.
Now. When he's talking to the very important grandmother, Arlene Blevins, he finds out the information about the maintenance of Brandon, who has taken care of him in the family. As you mentioned, tell us about Arlene Blevins in her role in Brandon's life.
Sure, when Brandon was born, his mother, as I said, was a teenager and she was living in a group home, and the option was to either put Brandon in foster care or to allow him to stay with a family member. Kevin Simms, the father, was still involved with Michelle, but more importantly, he really wanted to be a good father this child, so he and his mother, Arlene, took Brandon into their home. Kevin was still living at home with his mother, Arlene. Arlene had worked at the same job
for more than twenty years. She was very stable, she was loving, and she adored having this little boy, and in fact, she kept him for nearly three years while he was in her care. She took him to visit his mother to try and create a bond there, she took him to doctor's appointments to the extent that Kevin could. He was involved and Arlene just loved this little guy, but she never had legal custody in the sense that Michelle was the biological mother and Michelle had never turned
over her rights. So at a point in time when Michelle became an adult, she insisted that Arlene gives Brandon back to her, and Arlene offered any kind of support, financial, babysitting, caring for anything that Michelle needed.
You talk about too, that there was a period of time when the father is incarcerated. Just tell us about when he's incarcerated and for what, and the care continued from his mother while he was incarcerated.
Yes, Brandon got into some trouble for a burglary that he committed. He was I guess he pled guilty, and he went to prison for a little over a year and a half or two years. And during all of that time, Arlene Blevins took care of Brandon alone. But
it was a joy to her. You know, you could see her eyes light up when she talked about this wonderful, bright child who you know, got into everything because he wanted to explore and he was just a he was larger than his what would normally be for child his age, and so he could climb on the counters and get into things, and she just said he was a joyful little guy who loved dancing and listening to music.
Right, and during this time when Kevin, the father was in prison, was there contact between Michelle and the father and did he try to contact Was there that contact that father interest from Kevin?
Yes, although the jury wasn't allowed to hear much of this. Brandon had repeatedly written to Michelle Jones asking for pictures of his son, and this is after Michelle had taken the baby from Arlene. She had precluded Arlene from having any contact with him, and so Brandon wrote regularly to Michelle. She sent him only one one photograph ever of Brandon, and it was a really disturbing photograph because the one photograph she sent was a Brandon who was obviously screaming
and unhappy. But that was the only photograph. After that, Michelle cut off all contact between Brandon and Kevin.
You talk about the Arlene's attempt as the grandmother, that was that she didn't really get to see Brandon after the time that she gave Brandon back up to Michelle, but she made incredible attempts to try to offer babysitting any kind of to be able to see Brandon, and she was rebuffed, wasn't she?
Oh? Yeah, I mean what you know, sometimes single mothers have problems because they don't have babysitters or it gets too much for them. Arlene tried in every way she could to let Michelle know that she wanted to continue to assist Michelle, and in fact, Arlene was so desperate that a couple of times she drove by the mosque
that Michelle had joined when she married. I don't know how many times she drove by in an effort to try and see Brandon, but she did see him at least twice, and Brandon ran into her arms into her car, and Michelle claimed that she would let Arlene see him at some other point, but really never did.
Now, part of this investigation from the dedicated Sergeant Crook and yourself trying to prosecute this trying to get enough evidence to be able to get around Indiana law and be able to prosecute this person for something that you knew was likely a murder, you knew in your heart and definitely Sergeant Crooked did how else does he proceed?
And you mentioned about the mosque, So tell us a little bit about what he finds out about her religiosity and some of the people that were surrounding that religious interest that she had. That Sergeant Crook was able to find, well, I.
Don't know that she had religiosity other than joining various groups, But what I can say is that shortly after she became an adult, and while she was still in foster care, she had met Damon Jones. Damon Jones was a musician and a dance that she went to, and she became involved with Damon who was was very involved with the Nation of Islam and was Muslim. And she married Jones and became part of the church, and so as a
result of that, she was involved in those activities. When Sergeant Kirk was investigating, he knew that some of the members of the mosque had been involved with Michelle. In fact, the woman she had been living with at the time she checked herself into Wichard was one of the members of the mosque, But he hesitated to really contact them at that point because he didn't know what the reaction would be, So he learned as much as he could
about Michelle. She was still working at Eli Lilly. She had an excellent job with an excellent employer as a pharmaceutical company, but in Indianapolis it's known as one of the best employers. They provide free daycare for children, they
provide all sorts of benefits, obviously medical and healthcare. So one of the things that we wanted to find out and a way to locate him was Sergeant Krook checked all of the schools in the area because by the time the investigation occurred, Brandon should have been in first or second grade, So he checked with all the schools to see if Brandon had been registered, both in and near the county. We got the Eli Lilly records that showed that Brandon had been on Michelle's healthcare for a
certain period of time and then taken off. That's pretty unusual. So those were the things that we began to build the evidence. Finally, Mike Krook, apparently, and we had talked about this in some ways, Mike Krook filed a missing person's report and the juven on Brandon, which I guess his father and grandmother just hadn't thought of doing, and that got the case into a juvenile court situation.
Right now, you explained too, that you need a lot of evidence to be able to proceed with this. But you do have enough evidence for what you call a be felony, a class BE felony, and that is regarding neglect. So tell our audience about this concept of neglect and how serious a sentence that might be in the goal of ultimate goal of trying to prosecute for murder.
Absolutely, of a dependent is a crime in almost every state, and I believe every state, but they call it a little differently. Neglect of a dependent can be anything from a very minor felony to a more major felony, and that's based on the type of neglected is. And what I think that most people, at least in the South are custom to is leaving a child in a hot car. That is neglecting your child in a situation that may
cause serious health problems. In Indiana, neglect of a dependent varies based on whether or not the child has actually been injured, and if the child is injured or killed as a result of Class B felony carrying a potential twenty year sentence. And what happened was Michelle in juvenile court admitted that Brandon was dead and described vibed and had already described to others how he died, which was
she left him alone. And at that point we felt that the case was strong enough to charge her with a neglect of independent resulting in serious bodily injury or death. And that's what we did, is charged her with the B felony.
Now there's a crucial at least it sounds like in this book, that's a very crucial development that you say if she had pled guilty, that she couldn't be charged for murder later. So tell us what the movie was and why do you think Why do you think someone made a misstep there? Why someone didn't see the ramifications of that, Why would they do that and risk what they did.
Well as a B felony? And because Michelle Jones had some sympathetic you know history, being in foster care, being as young as she was, being a single mother, it was my concern once we charged the B felony that she would come in and she would plead guilty to that. If she had, there was no minimum mandatory, so she could have received probation, she could have received a very short sentence. I think it's a matter of arrogance. I think that Michelle Jones thought that she was going to
get away with killing her son. In fact, she chose not to take any action other than to fight the charges, which she had every right to do and demand a jury trial. But that if she had pled to the bee felony, because of double jeopardy of the United States Constitution, we never could have tried her for murder. She would
have avoided that charge. And the reason is because, as I said, the neglect the way we charged it was neglect causing serious bodily injury or death, and that is of the same factual basis as a murder would have been. And so double jeopardy would have precluded us from charging her later with murder if we had found Brandon's body, or if we had obtained enough evidence to prove murder, but she chose not to.
Very interesting, I guess movie esque moment happens here when Sergeant Krook gets a call. You guys are driving together and he gets his call. His disposition turns much different, you say, turns white, and he puts the sirens on and you're heading to Crownhill Cemetery. Tell us about this call, and why on earth you'd be heading to the cemetery and what do you find there upon arrival.
Up to that point, I had thought that Michael Krook could not be disturbed by anything. He was one of those very experienced homicide guys that you sort of picture just unshakable. But as we were driving, this phone call came in and lights and sirens. We were headed to Crown Hill Cemetery. And Crownhill Cemetery is the oldest and largest cemetery in Indianapolis. I've driven by it, I'd never
been there. But when we got there, we found out that someone had left in the children's section against a tree something that appeared to be human flesh or a lump of human something, And needless to say, it was
very disturbing. When we arrived, there were a number of very high ranking Indianapolis Police Department officers present, and what had been found was inside a brown paper bag at that point, and as they looked in the bag, there was this chunk of red meaty something along with some earth and looked like spices, and a white piece of paper.
On the white piece of paper the Sergeant Crook's name, the name of my boss, the elected prosecutor, the names pretty much of everyone who had been involved in the case, they found, and they all seemed to find it rather disturbing.
You talk about what they think, is this maybe human flesh? And of course everyone's concerned, and you took a look in the bag. Tell our audience what ends up this being and the relevance to again religion.
When I looked in the bag, I saw what I believed was a beef tongue. It's a large, needy tongue. And I grew up in Haiti and was familiar with various things related to voodoo. But also I've eaten and my mother has cooked beef tongue, so when I saw it,
to me it was some form of warning. And ultimately police also determined, and the medical examiner determined that it was a beef tongue, and it became a very important, not a clue, but a substantial factor in the credibility of witness who later came forward.
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Tell us a little bit more about what they find about this witness that comes forward and Santaia, Well, what.
Really broke the case from a perspective of a murder charge was a woman called the Chief Trial Counsel at the prosecutor's office. She said that Michelle Jones, who she knew as a practitioner of Santa Ria, admitted to her that she had beaten Brandon before she abandoned him for a week, and when she came home, Brandon had died. But that phone call, she didn't leave her name a contact information. Even the prosecutor's office way back then had
an ability to determine what incoming phone members were. And so after waiting a day or two, Cal Bradford, the Chief Trial Council, called her back, reached her mother and it was ultimately spoke with her and found out that Michelle had left Indianapolis after the juvenile court action when she was charged with neglect, she was on bond, and Michelle had gone and tried to use Santa Ria as a means of both membership and a community, and had used this woman to try and create spells to harm
and persuade her prosecution, to harm those who were prosecuting her. Ultimately, there was there were spells, if you want to call them that. Clarissa Dunlap does not call them spells. She calls them works. But ultimately there were works, including the name of the trial judge. So Michelle had gone into this Santa Rea group in order to try and keep from being prosecuted for murder.
Now, in this endeavor to try to do that, you have a murder charge October twenty second, nineteen ninety six, and she's twenty four years old. You talk about that in Indiana, prosecutors don't have to go to the grand jury to charge someone, and they file instead something called an information a charging document. Just briefly explain that difference to our audience.
Sure, in some places and in the federal system, in order to charge, particularly a capital crime such as murder, a grand jury is convened, and that's normally twenty six members of the community who hear the prosecution side of the evidence and make a determination as to whether or not there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed, and if they believe that, then an indictment can be found. It's famously been said by one of our well loved jurists that a good prosecutor could
indict a ham sandwich in Indiana. Rather in Indiana, rather than going through the time, the cost, the expense. A prosecutor can charge an individual with any crime by filing an information. What happens when the document is filed is that a court a judge acts instead of a grand jury to review the evidence and determine whether or not there is probable cause for the information, and the judge has to sign off on the information. But essentially the
judge is substituted for a grand jury proceeding. Now, Indiana still has a grand jury, but they use them in different ways for very complicated corruption or you know, large conspiracy cases.
You talk about another witness contacting prosecution. I'm and her name is Jenn Morris, who is Janet Morris and what does she has to have to say to prosecution Prosecutors.
Remember, we're putting together a case without the body, so we have to prove that a murder happened, and that the murder happened in the way that we claim it did, which is Michelle had said that she had left branded
home alone in his apartment at the Georgetown Apartments. We'd gone to the Georgetown apartment, meaning Sergeant Crook and myself, and when we'd been able to find not on the carpet, because three tenants had been in the same apartment since Michelle, and each time a tenant left or was about to move in, they claimed the carpet. But when we pulled up the carpet, under the carpet, in the pad we had found some human DNA which we believed was likely
to be blood. When the testing was done, the DNA was too degraded to determine that the court would not allow the jury to hear about it. But we still knew that something had happened in that apartment. So this phone call came in and it was from the manager of the apartment who had rented the apartment to Michelle. Jones. She recalled and this was after some publicity in the newspaper. That's how she came forward. People were learning about the
case and were obviously it was pretty high profile. She related to us a day that she said she'd never forget. As she was doing her inspection around the apartment buildings, she came to the apartment that Michelle Jones had rented. It was a first floor apartment and the window nearest the parking lot and the sidewalk was the smallest bedroom, which we knew was Brandon's. As she came by this bedroom window on a summer day, she saw thousands, thousands of flies swarming in the bedroom.
Yeah, incredible. Another incredible witness comes forward or that you are able to find out who she is. And this talks about we talked about Michelle being talented and appreciated and doing a lot of volunteer work. You find out about all that theater work and Deborah Assante and this, ironically, you know her involvement, Michelle's involvement in children's theater. And you say they met in eighty eight or eighty nine. Tell us a little bit about what Deborah Assante tells Sergeant.
Group Deborah Asante created a children's theater in the black community in Indianapolis, which was an incredible thing. This woman engaged children from all socioeconomic backgrounds to participate in the
arts and to encourage them in the arts. She also served as a mentor for a mother's program for teenage mothers in her community, and it was through that program that she met Michelle Jones and mentored her for a brief time, and later Michelle Jones came to the children's theater and became an intricate part of that theater for a period of time. Deborah Assante had actually taken Michelle convention.
She didn't describe it as a convention, more of a get together of theater groups throughout the country for the period of time that was ultimately determined. That was the period of time that Michelle had left Brandon at a four year old child home alone for at least four and maybe more days.
She had asked, like a concerned person might or a friend might, where Brandon was and what was Michelle's response to who was taking care of Brandon while they're in Detroit.
Well, Michelle misled her. Obviously. Michelle said that Brandon was with a babysitter, and in fact, Brandon had stayed at periods of time with a babysitter named Lateva Parker Mohammad. But Brandon was alone and Michelle not only left him there, but during this event that she attended with Deborah Assante, had a very good time.
Talk about the four days you talk about the really good time. She also confides in her friend that while she's on this trip that's a business and some pleasure in networking, that she also meets someone when you talked about four days, possibly more, and later we'll find out where. She says she was gone for about a week. I don't think you spell it out completely, But is there
a possibility she didn't go. Did she spend any other days rather than those four days and with this man just to add even more sinister nature to her time away from her son, No, I don't think. So.
We know that after she returned and Brandon was dead, that within a few weeks she did go to Georgia to visit the.
Man she'd met at this okay, it's theater group. But it appeared that she went home right after the convention because she was driving Debora Sante.
Okay, okay, I misunderstood. Now let's talk about Latava Mohammed and what her role was and with Brandon and with Michelle, and what she had to say about the last few days.
Latava, like Deborah Sante, is this incredibly maternal, sort of lovely, caring woman. She and her husband were part of the mosque, and she had children who were Her son was about a year or two older than Brandon, and she had offered and had uh and Michelle had taken her up on babysitting Brandon while Michelle was at work, because Michelle worked days at Lily and then did a number of
things at night. So Latava Parker took Brandon and just really again, he was just this endearing, doe eyed child. She saw him at the last at the last time he was publicly seen, and at her son's birthday party, and Brandon had been invited to the birthday party, and she had Latava had expected Michelle to pick Brandon up that evening, you know, attend the party with the other kids, and in fact, without a phone call or anything else, Michelle had just left him there for a couple of days.
You talk about the talk of how he was in the home he who does he mentioned or pardon me, who does Michelle mentioned to the provision she's left for this child when she goes for the four day trip to Detroit.
Interestingly, yeah, to one of her friends, Candisha Amir, who's also known as Mahelia Amir, and Candisha is friends with and is in the same general age group as Latava Parker, is a little younger than Deborah Chante. Kadisha also had a child who was in the theater group, and Michelle
was staying with her for a period of time. When Kevin Simms was able to determine that Michelle was living with Kadisha Emir, he and his mother knocked on the door of Kadisha Emir to try and find Michelle, and that's the quote that she talked about from the beginning of the book. Katisha then brought Deborah Chante to the house and the two of them confronted Michelle and said, Michelle, where's Brandon?
Before we talk about that the incredible statement made to Kevin and his grandmother when they're looking for Brandon? What are they told? What they were told by Michelle to Kevin and as mother's horror, well.
For two years, Michelle had told Kadisha, Deborah anyone she spoke with, that Kevin had Brandon, even though Kevin was actually in prison, that Kevin had married and he and his wife had Brandon, or alternatively, she had said that Brandon was with Arlene Blevins and they had not seen him.
So now the confrontation from Deborah Sante and Kadisha in there. What does Michelle admit to and what's their reaction? What do they advise?
Michelle claims that she left a little plate of food for Brandon in his room and then left him for days. She says that when she returned, Brandon was dead. She was terrified. She wrapped him in a blanket, put him in the car, and laid him alongside a roadway.
She is crying in this explanation. She seems to be very very stressed. What are these two friends recommend that she do as a result.
Well, they obviously cared about her. Deborah Sante said that she was so shocked she couldn't even listen, but Kadisha Emir suggested that she get counseling, and Kadisha Emir went with her and sat with her through the admissions process at the psyche unit. At Wishard Memorial Hospital.
Incredible. Now in this too, there's another very profound issue, I guess, and it's really I guess relevant, and I'll get you to explain this. Even though he's a four year old boy, he is diagnosed with a condition, and that condition has certain characteristics within So what is his condition? And then who does Michelle tell about this condition and her reaction to that diagnosis and Brandon's future.
When Brandon was about two, Arlene Blevins noticed that he was growing too fast and had some characteristics more appropriate it for a much older little guy. And so, because Michelle had very good insurance to really Michelle took him to a pediatric specialist, and the pediatric specialist determined that Brandon had what's called precocious puberty, and it's a child
who grows and develops way too quickly. And so Brandon, by the time he was three and a half, had hair and places that most folks don't, and genitals were developing more rapidly, and the doctor had strongly recommended treatment. It doesn't stop, but it slows these things from happening. And the reason for that is ultimately the ultimate result is the children are very very short. They grow rapidly,
but then when they should be growing, they don't. When the final diagnosis came in, Brandon was still living with Arlene, and of course Arlene wanted to know what the doctor had said, and Michelle told her what the condition was, but then commented, I ain't going to raise no freak.
Incredible. Let's fast forward to the trial, because needless to say, you have more than enough evidence, regardless of the standards. Tell us a little bit, because we don't have too much time, but tell us some of the highlight rights of this trial. You do write that, of course it's a defense that's and challenges and endless motions and argumentive, and you even say across the line in some areas
you believed. But tell us what the most important parts of this trial were in terms of obstacles for you for this prosecution.
Well, the key witness in the case, Clarissa Dunlap, was the Santa Rea priestess in a very conservative Heartland city, presenting that evidence because she is the only witness to whom Michelle confessed having actually beaten Brandon before leaving him right and so dealing with that presenting her an incredible
way and building. The other poorted that theory for example, and this is you know, jurors actually commented at a later point, why would why would the mother have to leave a little plate of food for a four year old who was capable of opening the refrigerator himself. So it's the putting together of those small details. Why would a child? You know, we tried to present evidence that there was no lock on the door and that Brandon was capable of getting water and accessing food in the
house if there had been food. So I think the condish Emir was an extremely important witness and course of Dunlop was subject to all sorts of attack by a variety of individuals, and I didn't suggest that. I mean, the defense certainly tried very hard and did what they're obligated to do in a trial. There was some personal attacks on me, you know, but that comes with the territory, I guess.
Yeah, Now, in this you were successful in getting the verdict that you wanted. What is Michelle Jones demeanor like during this whole thing?
I never Michelle was, and I believe still live an attractive woman. She never had any facial expressions. I never heard her speak a word until the sentencing. So, I mean, she certainly seemed to speak with her lawyers, and I saw her, I mean many times whispering to them. But she, you know, she just she certainly did not express grief over Branded, one of the things that I mean, her lawyers never mentioned Branded.
Yeah, what was that statement at sentencing?
At sentencing she said she wasn't a murderer, and it was a very short statement. Her lawyers had put on a great deal of evidence and hired you know, jury consult I'm sorry, sentencing consultants and all of that. But Michelle said she was sorry for the pain that she had caused Kevin and Arleen, but never mentioned Brandon and never showed us the true place where Brandon's body was.
Right. What was the media response? You write about it, but we haven't spoken about it. How did the media treat this? Was there a circus?
There wasn't a circus. The newspaper really was certainly was highly publicized, but they were very respectful. I mean, this was the death of a small child, so I felt that they were very respectful of all the parties.
What was the jury let event, Well, that's a new one. What was what was the verdict, and did it take a long time for them to come to their decision? What was their verdict?
It didn't. It was very surprising after a week long trial. I believe they were out a little over two hours. The jury found Michelle guilty on all of the both of murder and neglect of in dependent causing serious bodily injury. In this case, the jury had been allowed to answer ask questions during the trial, and so I believe that that may have helped them get the responses that they needed to come to a verdict.
Now, in this book, you talk about the verdict, sentence and the reaction in the community, and of course you talk about how you felt as well. But you do talk about it an event that preempted this book. And a journalist contacts you, and you had gotten the transcripts from this trial that you prosecuted. So tell us what your feelings are, and it might surprise some people your feelings about rehabilitation and as you write, redemption.
Well, after this case and others, I became a judicial officer in Indiana and a magistrate master commissioner, and I believe in rehabilitation. I believe that we send people to prison. Yes, to punish them, but also to help them become better people.
And Michelle Jones spent twenty years in prison, did a number of positive things and was accepted to Harvard on a full scholarship to obtain a PhD. What I expressed was that I believe it's important that after someone has served their sins and served their time, that we give them opportunities. And I continue to believe that, and that
withdrawing her scholarship was not a wise decision. It also kept the wealth of knowledge just about being in prison and a number of other things that she could have shared away from the students. But I also suggested, and the article talked about that Michelle Jones had received redemption, and I highly question that. I don't know that anyone is ever redeemed from torturing and killing their four year old child.
Yeah. Absolutely, Sergeant Crook, you were work closely with him with this. What was your reaction after what any comments, any contacts, anything to say about Sergeant Crook?
Well, he left the he retired from the Indiana from the Indianapolis Police Department, which is now the Indiannapolis Marion County Police Department, and he is the chief of the Cumberland Police Department in Indiana, Indiana. I think Cumberland has one heck of a good investigative chief Sergeant Crook and I never became close friends, but I consider him an exceptional human being and investigator police officer.
Absolutely, it is. Your book is really a testament to his dedication as well and yours in this particular case. And it was a fascinating story Inconvenience Gone. I want to thank you very much for coming on and talking about Inconvenience Gone, the tragic short life of Brandon Simms. This is Is this a Wild Blue Press publication? And is there? Do you have a website for this book or Facebook page? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Contact there is Wild Blue Press is the way to contact. But of course the book is available on kindle and in print, and there will be an audiobook a bit all of those to Wild Blue Press.
That's fantastic. I want to thank you very much, Diane Margor Moore for this interview. It has been fascinating. I hope to talk to you again real soon. Thank you very much for this interview.
Thank you, good night,