CHAPTER FOUR

Within the first several months after Neil's murder, we were given several tips and leads. Bennie  gave the information to several of the investigators on the case. We were told of a women who had seen the pistol and holster in the suspects truck and of a man who was hurt weeks before Neil's murder by the same suspect, over the same women and at the same place. This is the account of what happened to those leads in the criminal investigation and trial. Nothing. During the investigation for the civil trial we interviewed these people. You decide if their testimony would have been important in the criminal trial. We were told that a woman named Theresa had see the holster and gun in the suspects truck so our attorneys subpoenaed her. She was a reluctant witness. If she had come forward on her own there was a reward being offered.The questions are from the Maxwell's attorney and the answers are from Theresa. Q. "Okay. Did Brian Brooks ever help you change a tire?" A. "No. That isn't the way it happened." Q. "Tell me what happened." A. "We were at my granddaughter's 3rd birthday party....And we had to go to Walmart...And before we got to Walmart, we got a flat...It was around about quarter till 12..I'm going to say either November 21st or 22nd...We had just bought the truck...I call my husband..and we had discovered that we didn't have the tire tool to let the spare down...I knew that the car lot's..son was out there DJing at the Roadhouse...And he's my cousin...And I went in and asked him, you know, could he give me a number to get a hold of either his dad or Butch..the car lot..That,s where we bought the truck.'  Q. "Okay. So what did you do next?" A. "Vickie Brown approached me. I've known Vickie probably 35 years...and she said she had a friend that had a truck just like ours, only it was red...and he might have that tool. And so she went over and got this person, and he met me. And my sister-in-law was with me. and we followed him out to the truck...And he opened the passenger door..You know, and he reached under the driver's seat, and said he didn't have one either... But when he opened the door, I was frightened--frightened from what was in the truck." Q. "What did you see?" A. "Two rifles in the back seat and a pistol in a holster in the front seat and a lot of ammunition." For a while Mr. Brooks served as his own attorney. The following questions were asked by him. Q. "Okay. Is there any reason why not other witnesses ever mentioned you name?"  A. "I don't even know who any witnesses is." Q. "Well that's what I'm saying." A. "I don't-" Q. "Your name has never been mentioned before." A. "I'm saying a lot of people knew I was out there that night because there was a lot of people there that night in the parking lot at Wal-Marts when I left with my sister-in-law to go to the Roadhouse."...Q. "Have you ever been contacted by the plaintiff or his agents before being subpoenaed?" A. "Just I talked to Freddie Jr. and they wanted to--" Q. "I--it's--" A. "Wanted me to call Ron Eisenberg, and I did not do that." Q. "Was this prior to you being subpoenaed?" A. "Before I got subpoena. Before I got subpoena, I did not talk to Ron Eisenberg." Q. "You did not talk to him?" A. "I did not talk to him. I spoke to him after I got it." Q. "And what did you discuss with Mr. Eisenberg?" A. "He just asked me what kind of information that I might have. And exactly what I said. I went out there to see Freddie Jr. Walked out to the pickup, and the rifles and stuff was in there. You opened the doors. As soon as we realized it wasn't, we left because you were really intoxicated....And I don't go to bars. I just went out there because I was trying to find a tire tool. I would never have been out there that night." 

Several months after Neil was murdered we started hearing of another incident that we were told of that we felt the investigators should look at, so we passed on the information to the authorities. The individual was named Steve Berry. Before the criminal trial he was never interviewed. Before the civil trial, on 6/20/06 our attorneys took his sworn deposition. The questions are from the Maxwell attorney and the answers are from Mr. Berry. Q. "Okay. You've never had any kind of romantic relationship with her, have you?" A. "No. No, I don't even know her." Q. "Okay. And you do know Brian Brooks?" A. "..Wel, we've known each other for years. His children and my children they went to school together out at R-4...." Q. "Okay. and when did you and Mr. Brooks have an altercation?" A. "Well, I wasn't clear on the date but according to your paper here you asked me to dig up--there was no police report, I filed no police report so I didn't have to bring that. But I did have to go to the hospital and you asked me to bring that. And according to this on that date when I was at the hospital was on 10/31/03. And the only reason I was there was because I wasn't in bad shape--I wasn't--there wasn't hardly anything that was wrong with me other than I had an old condition from a broken rib prior past and that rib on my left side was broken and the police officers offered to take me to the hospital. And they drove my car down there and I had an x-ray taken and it --and it had been cracked. So that was basically it. So then the next two weeks I spent mostly at home laying in bed trying to--" Q. "This document that you brought, can I see that?" A. "Yes you can." Q. "You brought that in response to the subpoena?" A. "In response to your subpoena served. You said here to bring all the stuff according that was concerning that night..." Q. "We were talking about the altercation, I'd like to go back and go through that step by step as to what happened." Q. "What time did you arrive there?" (At the Roadhouse) A. "Well, I arrived a little bit after seven...I mean it's been quite a while so I don't remember a lot of the details but I remember, you know, just the altercation basic part about that between me and Brian...There was me at my table and a couple other people...And then on the other table..there was a handful there. And then Brian walked in and he came up and said hello and stuff like that and we talked for a while....Martin Hart was there." Q. "Was Don Gregory there?" A."No....I don't believe that Don was there but the bartender Lela....And that was about it...And other than--than Brian when he walked into the --the bar...and then he went and sit down at this table over there and was talking to them. And then this --this lady Vicki showed up which I didn't recognize her...Brian come over and talked to me two or three times about the boys...how they used to play basketball...I had noticed that this lady that I didn't recognize..she was there to party apparently...And I noticed that Brian and her were friendly and but when Brian would go to the  bathroom..she was just as friendly with the other people there at the table."  Q. "By this lady you're referring to Vicki Brown?"  A. "Yes, yes, that's after I found out, you know, who she was...Martin Hart the owner, he was going to close up early that night because it was slow....And then I kept noticing I mean I've known Brian for a long time and the--the thing about it is that two weeks prior to that we were all sitting at a table and the same person, Brent..and a couple other people and Brian was talking to us. Well, they were talking about a woman. And I probably misunderstood the whole thing, I don't know. I thought that I had understood it right. Well, Brian was talking about having trouble, and I thought he was talking about his wife....I'm not even sure if he even mentioned  Debbie's name....So that's why two weeks later when I saw this lady that was, you know imposing upon him, you know, well,..Brent had come back in that evening and set down at the table there while Brian was over there with the other group of people. And I asked Brent...'didn't Brian tell us that him and his wife were getting back together...So we finished our dinner and we played a few games of pool...I was in the automotive business, in auto parts for 23 years. And I did a lot of business with Brian and stuff. So we were basically friends up until that night. At the end of the night everybody was leaving...Martin was going to close early. And Brian was saying, well, I'll see you later, Steve. And I said, well, Brian come here and let me talk to you a little bit. And I asked Brian I said, Brian, didn't you tell me that you and your wife were getting back together. And he put his arm up around my shoulder and this is the best of my..memory, Brian said yes. Now Brian was pretty drunk you know. And they were all pretty drunk over at that table...I said, well, Brian you ought to just go on home and leave that--that lady alone....So I went out on the porch and I had a sit down and sit  there. And so Brian I seen--he was in his truck and left. And then that lady that they were sitting with, I don't remember what she was driving, I think it was a van or something like that. But she pulls up and I'm standing there--"  Q. "Hold on." A. "Okay." Q. "That lady, are you referring to the one who you later learned was Vicki Brown?"  A. "Vicki, yeah. Vicki. And she pulls up and sees me standing there on top of the--oh, the deck, the patio deck there...Well, she stopped and she got out of her car then and it was--and Martin was..leaving, locking up the door and she hollered at me and she waved and she said who are you. And I told her my name, Steven Berry. And she said, oh, and she got in her rig, swear to God, she got in her rig and she left.." Q. "What time was this?" A. "Oh, I--that I would say somewhere around eleven, eleven-thirty, somewhere in there." Q. "Do you know what day of the week this would have been?" A. "No, I don't. It's been to far back to remember that...Lela had left...Martin got in his pickup and said goodbye and stuff and Martin told me to stay as long as I wanted to because I had a couple beers for dinner and I had two or three beers after that playing pool. Well, I never leave. I always sit up on the porch up there. And so then everybody left. So then I was just getting ready to leave and I was standing there..just enjoying the evening..And then Brian comes pulling back in the driveway there and pulls up to the left of the building back up there on the south end of the building. He gets out of the truck and comes walking towards me gets up on--because it's a long deck. And the only thing that was coming out of his mouth was that what you trying to do to me, what are you trying to do to me. And I couldn't understand what he's saying. I said, Brian, you're drunk. I said go on home. I don't know what happened between the time he left and the time he came back. Have know idea. 

So I turned my back to him and I had my hands up on the railing. And no sooner I turn my back to him well, he got close--he was just close enough, I thought we just was going to have a few words and then he was just going to go on and we was just going to talk about it or whatever was bothering him. But he hit me in the back of the head. And then when he hit me once he hit me two or three times in the back of the head so I just--it was hard to do. What am I supposed to do, hit somebody, a friend that I've known for a long time. He's obviously screwed up. Something went wrong. And so I protected my head and told him to quit, quit. And all he could say was, well, what are you trying to do to me, Steven, what are you trying to do to me. I didn't understand what the heck he was trying to get across to me.".. Q. "And when--when he struck you was that with--with his fist or with--" A. "With his fist. I wasn't any--anything that he had in his hand.." Q. "How many times do you think he hit you?"  A. "Oh, I don't know he just--whatever turned him on the anger just kept coming out and he just kept waling me. And finally by the time I was--I was covering up my head so that he wouldn't, you know, cause too much damage. And I figured, you know, this is just--he'll quit in a minute. But instead he kicked my legs out from under me so I went down to--to the floor. And then he kept kicking me. So I protect--put my hand up over my head...All of a sudden he just quit and then he took off and he run towards his pickup. And while he was running toward his pickup there was a--a truck driver driving a big truck and he pulled in to the --the driveway there. And when Brian ran back I thought, well, I'll just get up, this fight's over you know. And so I thought, well, I'll just get up and I started to get up. And when Brian was running back from the truck he had something in his hand. I have no idea. He--him and this truck driver, they started having words and I thought, well, I don't know what's in his hand, I'm just going to lay still. I'm not going to move. So I just laid there. And I didn't--I just laid there and covered my head and I figured, well, if Brian's not going to cool down if the truck driver starts to leave I'm going to grab ahold of the patio deck and I'm going to go off the end of the patio deck and run out in the highway, you know, and catch--so that I can get away from Brian. Because I don't know what happened. He just kept--he was mad you know. I don't know what he was mad at.  So then that was it. Him and--him and that truck driver whoever it was, I never saw him,...Then all of a sudden I seen Brian throw down this thing and start to walk away and the truck driver left. And then so I get up...About four or five minutes went by and three police officers showed up, the Salem Police. And they asked me if I was okay. They check me over. Then when I started to move around I felt some hurting...So they talked me into going to the hospital and they said that they would drive me. I don't--I don't remember the names of the officers or even their faces."