BROOKHAVEN — Judge David Strong made his first significant ruling of the case by denying a request to suppress evidence Wednesday morning. The Mississippi vs Case trial is halfway through its second day of court. Opening arguments were heard Tuesday.

Brandon and Gregory Case are co-defendants and were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and shooting into a motor vehicle. 

Gregory’s lawyer Terrell Stubbs made a motion to suppress evidence in pre-trial motions. Strong said he reviewed the evidence, in this case a body cam video, and determined the evidence would not be suppressed. 

Attorneys Stubbs and Dan Kitchens said the evidence should be suppressed because Brandon Case was in custodial interrogation and was not read his Miranda rights and therefore the evidence needed to be suppressed. Strong ruled the meeting with Case was at his workplace of Brookhaven Honda and at no point did it become custodial. 

Brookhaven Police Detective Vincent Fernando is shown in a video shown to jurors arriving at Brookhaven Honda and talking to Brandon about what happened on Jan. 24. Fernado first asks Case if he owns any guns, Brandon said he owns several guns. Fernando then asks if Case shot at D’Monterrio Gibson. Brandon said he did not, in the body camera footage.  

“I don’t know anything about a shooting. I do know whoever was in the truck drove me off of the road,” Brandon Case said. 

Fernando said Gibson identified Brandon Case as having a gun. The pair went to Junior Trail Northeast before meeting Brandon to look for shell casings and gather more information about who owned which houses and contact numbers. Fernando said they did not find any shell casings there. 

He said Gibson produced photographs of the bullet holes in his van when he came down to Brookhaven to file a complaint on Jan. 25. Fernando said he was advised by Mississippi Bureau of Investigation to not process the van but allow them to do so. A projectile was found in the van. 

Fernando was able to get a warrant to search Brandon’s home on Jan. 25 and executed the search warrant on Jan. 26. 

 

Setting the stage

Alan Henderson was the first witness to take the stand of the day. He is currently employed with the Brookhaven Police Department as a dispatcher as he was on the night of Jan. 24 when D’Monterrio Gibson, a FedEx driver, was delivering a package on Junior Trail Northeast. 

Henderson testified he was working the shift to midnight when he received a call from Gregory Case. Fernando confirmed the call made by Gregory to BPD was made at 7:45. District Attorney Dee Bates entered a disk with a recording of the phone call into evidence. Henderson testified the audio was the phone call Gregory made to Brookhaven Police Department and it was played for the jury. 

In the phone call, Gregory Case says he saw a suspicious vehicle come down the road. He said he drove down to check it out and was nearly run over. Brandon Case, his son, tried to slow down the suspicious vehicle but he too was nearly run over Gregory says in the call. 

Gregory said in the call it was a Hertz delivery van with a Florida tag and he would like to find out who it was because, “They were up to something not good.”

Henderson testified Gibson called after Gregory had called. A disk with audio from the call was entered into evidence and played before the jury. Gibson tells Henderson he is a FedEx driver and was delivering packages on Junior Trail when he was chased and followed. 

Gibson tells Henderson he is in Jackson and he and a FedEx manager would be in Brookhaven on Jan. 25, 2022 to file charges. 

“It wasn’t anyone suspicious,” Gibson said in the audio. 

Patrick Wilson, manager of subpoena division for Telepax, testified on phone records collected through a subpoena issued in August of 2022 containing phone calls and texts from Jan. 24 to Jan. 25, 2022.

Tim Huckabee, a former manager of the Fleetway truck stop on Union Street Extension, testified he was approached about video evidence containing a Hertz rental van and a white pickup truck. Video showed about five seconds of the vehicles passing by at night. The camera is time stamped and showed it was 7:31 p.m. on Jan. 24 when the vehicles passed by. 

Fernando testified D’Monterrio Gibson made a phone call to Brookhaven Police Department at 8:05. He also testified the Cases made three phone calls before calling Brookhaven Police Department. One call was made by Brandon Case to his mother at 7:29, another call was made by Gregory to Brandon at 7:32 and again a call was made from Gregory to Brandon at 7:38 p.m. on Jan. 24 after the incident took place. 

Fernando testified the 2.8 mile drive from Junior Trail to Fleetway should have taken four minutes and 40 seconds going the legal speed. 

Court recessed for lunch at noon but should return at 1:15 p.m. Gibson is expected to testify today.