One Puzzling Question

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JUSTICE DENIED!


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One Puzzling Question

One of the most puzzling questions that remains unanswered is why my trial attorneys, Bruce Kaplan and Chester Whittle never presented the evidence concerning Brandon Shelton’s confession to Robbie Smith and his wife that he and Michael Blackwelder killed Viktor Gunnarsson. There is absolutely no way that either of my trial attorneys could not have known this evidence existed.

During opening arguments to the jury at the start of my trial, defense attorney Chester Whittle, Jr. clearly told the jury that the defense would present evidence that a confession had been made by another man to Gunnarsson’s murder (TP. 1117).

District Attorney Tom Rusher told the court that Shelton was drunk when he made the confessions to the murder. On June 30, 1997 District Attorney Tom Rusher filed a motion with the court in an attempt to prevent defense attorneys from presenting evidence concerning Brandon Shelton’s admission that he killed Gunnarsson. Rusher informed the court that it was true a man had gotten drunk in Salisbury, North Carolina and admitted that he murdered Gunnarsson. Rusher also informed the court that statements made by Brandon Shelton to the murder were the kinds of statements drunk people make and the state viewed the evidence as unreliable (TP. 1250).

The District Attorney’s statement to the court that Shelton was drunk when he made the confessions to Gunnarsson’s murder was not a true statement based on the evidence that he knew existed.

Defense counsel Bruce Kaplan told the court that the statement the District Attorney had just made, that Shelton was drunk when he confessed to the murder of Gunnarsson, was entirely different than what the state had indicated. Kaplan also told the court that the District Attorney was making it sound like the confessions by Shelton to the murder were made when Shelton was drunk and the information that had been provided to the defense by the District Attorney was that Shelton was “sober” when he made the confessions to Robbie Smith and others that the killed Gunnarsson (TP. 1253).

The trial court informed defense attorneys that if they wished to offer evidence concerning Shelton and other witnesses to the confessions he would make a ruling on admissibility of the evidence (TP. 1253).

Unfortunately for me, defense attorneys never offered the evidence to the court for a ruling on the admissibility of the evidence concerning Shelton’s confession even after defense attorneys told the jury during opening statements that they would present evidence that another man confessed to the murder of Viktor Gunnarsson (TP. 1117).

The District Attorney never explained why he told the trial court that the confession made by Shelton to his friend Robbie Smith and to others were made when Shelton was drunk. The District Attorney had the statements of Brandon Shelton, Robbie Smith and Heather Shelton since August 1995 which was before I was arrested in October 1995.

The District Attorney Tom Rusher knew that not once in any statements taken by investigators from Brandon Shelton does Shelton claim to have been drunk when he made the confessions to Gunnarsson’s murder. In fact, all of the confessions by Shelton were made when he was sober.

The District Attorney has never explained why he told the court that Shelton made the confessions to the murder while drunk when he was aware that Brandon Shelton had told investigators that he admitted to Robbie Smith while sober inside a Food Lion store “Okay, I’ll tell you I killed Viktor Gunnarsson”.

You, the reader of this story have the statements taken by investigators from Brandon Shelton, Heather Shelton and Robbie Smith which appear at the end of this story as (Exhibit G, Interview of Heather Shelton; Exhibit H, Interview of Robbie Smith; Exhibit I, Interview of Brandon Shelton). If you take the time to read these statements I promise you that not once did Brandon Shelton claim he was drunk when he confessed numerous times that he killed Viktor Gunnarsson, nor does he ever recant his confessions, as the District Attorney told the court during my trial (TP. 1250).

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