Bradley Jennings

Cases such as this one are difficult to blog about for me. Several things come into play here but no matter what legal or medical outcome is made in the end there is still a death and a family mourning a loved one.

As a reader of my blog you know that I am as interested and fascinated about the crimes as I am about the legal process and how things are done. Guilty or Innocent there are rules and laws to follow and there must be evidence to prove someone committed a crime. This was not a crime in which the death penalty was sought but I have often stated that it is those sorts of cases that I believe there should be absolutely no doubt of the defendant's guilt before imposing the death penalty. In those cases especially, but in all cases it is imperative that a proper investigation is conducted. Then things are not done properly not only can it delay or impede justice for a victim and their family, it can also cause undue stress, among other things to a suspect or defendant. In the end there never seems to be any sort of closure.

When a coroner or a police investigation determines that the deceased is not a victim of homicide but of suicide it is not uncommon for their family to not accept that conclusion. No one wants to believe that they could have missed something with a loved one or that suicide was a viable option for that person. Now, I am not going to sit here and tell you that there are not cases in which a homicide is purposely made to look like a suicide by the perpetrator. But, there have been several cases in which after a ruling of suicide a family has pushed to re-open a case and it seems they tend to find what I call a “gung-ho” investigators who is willing to give them the answers they want, whether they are correct and viable or not. These types of investigators can be found everywhere. They are the ones who have tunnel vision in an investigation and ignores anything that may point to a different conclusion than they have envisioned. These investigators are not only a danger to potential suspects but also to families in which they give a ray of hope to for them only see those hopes later demolished. The other difficultly that people face is changing their beliefs once they have come to a conclusion in their minds.

In the early morning hours of December 25, 2006 a 911 call was made to the police in Buffalo Missouri. While it was never made completely clear it seems that the caller was Brad Jennings. He was calling to report that he had found his wife, Lisa, in the closet of their master bedroom with a gunshot wound to her head. I found it interesting that throughout my research I never found anything that indicated that anyone reported hearing the sound of a gunshot nor did I find anything that indicated that there was any sort of silencer used in the shooting. The only thing that I found that could have indicated any sort of muffling of the sound was the indication that the gun had seemingly been directly against Lisa's head when it was fired. However, while that could have muffled the sound to a small extent it is unlikely that it would have done much.

Brad and Lisa had been married, or at least together for nearly twenty years. Going into the relationship Lisa had a daughter, Laci Deckard. By 2006 she was an adult and apparently had her own place to live. Brad and Lisa had gone on to have two children of their own, Amanda and Dallas who were fourteen and eleven at the time of the shooting. It is unclear what kind of relationship Laci had with Brad prior to the shooting but later she would be one of the people instrumental in having the case re-opened. It was said she believed that Brad had shot her mother. However, there are many people, including her siblings who have indicated that Laci continued to have a good relationship with Brad at times in which it suited her and he was able to provide help for her. I say this not because I necessarily believe it to be true, but simply because it was mentioned not only in the episode of Dateline in which I watched but in other areas of my research.

The responding officer at the scene would later indicate that he felt something to be “off” when he got to the home around two that morning. He was met at the door by Brad Jennings who he stated was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and shoes. Not only were there indications that shortly before that Brad had been wearing a robe and slippers but he has openly admitted this. When asked at some point why he changed clothes he gave an answer indicating that even he was unsure why he had done so. Of course this made things seem a bit suspicious.

Lisa would be found in the closet of the master bedroom deceased. Under her body, some research indicated specifically under one of her legs, was a .38 caliber weapon. Officially that gun belonged to Brad and there was never any indication that it was not the weapon used in her death. The fact that it was Brad's gun would be of little significance since they were married and lived in the same home.

The county coroner would conclude that the gun had been directly placed against Lisa's head above and behind her left ear when the trigger had been pulled. The initial findings would determine the death to be a suicide. For the next few months this would be the official and final ruling.

By all indications it appears that it was Lisa's family, specifically a sister, that contacted the Missouri State Highway Patrol about re-opening the case on the shooting. It appears that she found her way to Detective Sgt. Dan Nash and he began looking into things. One thing that I found interesting was that I never found anything that indicated how, why, or even if the manner of death was changed by the coroner nor if the state of Missouri required it. I have seen several cases in the past in which an investigation can be launched but before any charges could be officially filed there had to be a change in the manner of death by the coroner to at least “undetermined” and this is often the most difficult task for an investigator.

By the time Nash got on the case it had already been a few months after Lisa's death but one of the things he requested was the robe in which Brad Jennings had reportedly been wearing earlier in the evening. This request, as well as his later request to have it analyzed would play a large role in how things would eventually end in the case, although that would take nearly a decade. Reports were that allegedly the robe had not been washed as it had been left in the master bedroom of the home where the shooting had occurred and that room had barely been touched since the shooting. Whether that is true when it came to the room or with the robe I suppose no one can say for sure, but it was what was alleged.

Nash looked at the crime scene photos and apparently the other evidence related to the crime scene and he decided that Lisa's death was not a suicide but a murder and determined that Brad Jennings was responsible. So, how did he come to this conclusion? Nash proclaimed himself to it seems everyone, including later the court, to be a blood splatter expert. He concluded that the amount of blood on Lisa's hand, reported to be only a few drops, showed that she was not the person who pulled the trigger. Nash stated that had Lisa fired the gun herself, with the barrel against her head the blow back from the gun would have produced much more blood on her hand. A gunshot residue test was done on Lisa's hand and it had come back as positive but according to Nash it was possible that the residue had gotten there because her hand was close to the gun when it was fired. There was some indication that there had been a test also performed on Brad's hands that early morning but that it had resulted in negative results. Some say this test was not performed on Brad but I question that finding because at a 2009 trial against Brad Jennings the prosecutor would tell the jury they believed he had washed his hands and forearms after the shooting. I find not reason for the prosecution to even mention this unless there was a question about the results of a GSR test. Of course there is always the possibility that I am wrong and that the prosecution mentioned this as investigators believed he had washed his hands as a reason for not performing the test. However, in my opinion whether the investigators believed this or not they should have run a GSR test at the scene. If they did not do so that would indicate that they believed the shooting to be a suicide at that time.

It is unclear whether Lisa's daughter, Laci, had told her story to the original investigators or if her story would only be revealed after Nash got on the case. Regardless the story she would tell, from her point of view does not seem to be disputed very much, although her story still did not answer the crucial question of whether Lisa's death was a homicide or a suicide. According to Laci on the night of December 24^th she had been with her mother, Brad and siblings as they celebrated Christmas with some friends and family. The family had returned to the Jennings home rather late with intentions of continuing the celebration the following day so Laci had decided to spend the night in their home rather than her own. She would tell investigators, and apparently later the court, that she had been awakened around one that morning by yelling between Brad and Lisa. She had decided that instead of staying at the home that she would return to her own home and that when she left Lisa was in the bathroom connected to the master bedroom and that Brad was sitting on the couch in his robe and slippers drinking a beer. She would say that as the hour neared two she either received a call from her brother (or did she call? It was unclear) that she should immediately return to the home because her mother had been shot.

It was through the investigation that Dan Nash conducted that the district attorney decided to press charges against Brad Jennings. He was arrested and charged with second degree murder and armed criminal action in July of 2007. His trial would be conducted in August of 2009.

At the trial Brad's stepdaughter, Laci, would testify and tell her story. Dan Nash would apparently be the star witness. He testified as an expert on blood splatter. The prosecution proclaimed that Lisa had indicated to friends and family that she had planned to divorce after the holidays and that this was the reason for the argument on Christmas Eve between she and Brad. They used this as the motive behind their allegations of murder. At some point in the trial the issue of the robe was brought up. The prosecution would tell the jury that the robe had not been tested for GSR and that had been a mistake. What no one, except Dan Nash, knew was that the robe had in fact been tested for GSR and the results were negative.

If you do a search on the Internet about the trial you will find many comments about how quickly it ended and that the defense apparently offered nothing in an opening statement or a witness. It appears that when it was time for the defense to present their case they simply rested. There seems to be very little information as to how much, if anything, they may have been able to present to the jury through the state's case in chief. The jury deliberated for a little over two hours before coming back with a guilty verdict.

The episode of Dateline I watched seemed a bit confusing about what happened after the verdict was announced. Dateline stated that the judge allowed Brad to return home for the night until sentencing occurred on the following day. However, my research indicated that while Brad was convicted in August of 2009 his sentencing did not occur until November. I can only guess that the “overnight” that Dateline detailed and discussed was not for his actual sentencing but for the jury recommendation of sentencing which did apparently occur the day following the verdict. The jury recommended a sentence of twenty-five years and the judge agreed when he officially sentenced Brad in November.

Over the next several years there were many appeals made in which they were all denied. Brad's sister had hired a private investigator as well as new attorney's. One argument made was ineffective counsel and that too was denied by the appeals court. In 2015 the new attorney was in place and learned a few interesting things. First it was discovered that while Dan Nash had been said to be an expert in blood splatter at the time of Brad's 2009 trial he had no formal training and it was not until 2010 that he even took a week long course on the subject. In addition to this the attorney also discovered that Nash had in fact sent off Brad's robe to be tested for GSR and that he had been told the results were negative.

In February of 2018 a judge overturned Brad's conviction and sentence. He ruled at the time that the issues involving specifically the GSR testing on the robe had been suppressed from not only the defense, but the jury and that if that information had been released it had the potential of changing the outcome of the trial. The prosecutors argued that they had not committed what is known as a Brady violation (when the prosecution purposely withholds evidence from the defense) as well as argued that the issues with Nash would not have changed the verdict and that Brad was still responsible for the murder of his wife. The judge set Brad's bail at $250,000 while the prosecutors decided if they were going to continue pursuing the charges.

As is the case in most cases such as these the prosecutor had announced they expected to file for a new trial against Brad. In May of 2018 there was a court date in which a new trial was scheduled for October of that year. In the meantime the prosecutors hired a new blood splatter expert but the results were less than conclusive. When the results came in the new expert proclaimed he could not say with complete certainty that Lisa's death was a result of homicide or suicide. With that revelation, in July of 2018 the prosecutors decided to drop all charges against Brad.

The following month Brad would file a civil lawsuit against the county, the former sheriff and against Dan Nash. As of early December 2018 there seems to be no information on the case. It does seem however that Laci, Lisa's daughter, and Lisa's family continues to believe that Brad murdered her.

The reality is that with all of the twists and turns in this case it may never fully be known for certain what happened to Lisa. Some can say that there was a botched investigation. There are likely those that think that botched investigation was caused by tunnel vision in the beginning in which her death was considered to be a suicide. There are likely just as many who believe that the part of the investigation that was botched was when the investigation was re-opened at the urge of her family who did not believe the suicide theory.

The prosecutors office launched an investigation and they announced that they had determined that when the prosecutor stated at the trial that the robe had not been sent for forensic testing including a GSR test, they were telling what they believed to be true. This same investigation apparently determined that Detective Nash had in fact sent the robe for testing and had been personally told the results and had failed to pass them on. This has all led to what many considered to be an unfinished case.

There will probably always be people who believe Brad Jennings murdered his wife regardless of any outcome.

*** I want to note a few things that I failed to mention earlier. Due to some time restraints I have decided to add them here. It was late in the investigation when a few things became public about Lisa and her life. One thing that was significant was that her biological father had committed suicide when Lisa was young. Apparently many did not know this because they believed her step-father was her father and it was a well kept secret apparently. Lisa, herself, had her own suicide attempt when she was a teenager. This is something that is often strangely “inherited.”

Investigators, or at least friends and family, would also learn that for some time leading up to her death Lisa had been having an affair with her boss and he had recently, (some say with in a day or so of her death) ended the relationship. Many believe this not only lead to her decision to want a divorce but was also the reason for her alleged suicide. Of course those who do not believe her death was a suicide do not necessarily believe this theory completely but it seems as if few dispute the affair allegedly took place.