Episode 265

Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is not intended for all
audiences. Listener discretion is advised. And sometimes I observed anything. It's it's
just the picture is I mean amazingly close. I mean it's you know,
it looks just like my brother. Sword and Scale episode two sixty five.
Let's go, Well, you simply haven't lived until you've cowered in a small
closet with three cats in your significant other thinking you're gonna die in the next
five minutes. Yeah, for a second there, I thought episode two sixty
four was gonna be the last Sword and Scale. Ever, I'm lying.
I wasn't thinking about Thorn Scale at all. In fact, I was thinking
about death, the imminent death that was coming via tornado. I'm not lying
when I say this. The entire sky turned black, It turned tonight in
the middle of the day, and this was the entire city of Houston.
And if you've ever been to Houston, you know how fucking big it is
that when we emerged from that closet, it was literally like a bomb had
gone off. But we're still here, So go check out the latest episode
of swordscal Television, Episode three. Sure E c Iyberson before the next twister
hits. I hear Big Daddy Government's doing some weird shit with the weather.
Just look at you buy two weeks ago. Sarasota Springs sits in the western
coast of Florida, about halfway between Tampa and Fort Myers. Sarasota, being
so close to the ocean is beautiful. It's lush and green in some areas,
specifically the safer inland neighborhoods in the suburbs. Blocks upon blocks of residential
neighborhoods house a community of about fifteen thousand residents. Sarazota Springs is arguably one
of the best places to live in Florida, specifically if you're raising a family.
There's lots to do, the beach is right there, and crime rates
are low. February one, two thousand and four, was Super Bowl Sunday,
Josh Grobin saying you raise me Up right before the kickoff of Super Bowl
thirty eight, a game between New England and Carolina. That year, the
game was in Houston, my hometown. The song choice and location of the
game were tributes to the seven astronauts who lost their lives in the tragic Space
Shuttle Columbia disaster exactly one year prior. Just to set this scene with pop
culture landmarks, this was also the super Bowl that featured Janet Jackson's infamous nipple
slip, remember that one. It's weird how you remember where you were during
moments like that, and I'm sure you'll remember that. All of the supermarket
tabloids obsessed over this for the next several weeks. Many residents of Sarasota Springs,
like the rest of the country, were tuning in for the game,
having parties eating buffalo chicken wings and drinking beer. But light, of course,
as the tranquil hush of the Sunday evening sunset enveloped the surroundings, the
unexpected cries of a terrified mother desperately searching for her child shattered the serene silence.
Eleven year old Carly Brushaw, a sixth grader at Macintosh Middle School,
was staying at her friend Danielle's house off of b Ridge Road, just a
little over a mile from where Carly and her family lived. Just after dinnertime
around six PM, Carly and her friend got into a little tiff over something
trivial, but being a kid, her emotions were very real to her,
and she was angry. Carl abruptly decided she wanted to go go back home
and watch the Super Bowl with her family, so she called her stepdad,
Steve Chansler, and told him she wanted to come back, which during the
game is an annoying at all. My daughter called, says she wanted to
come home. What was set on the phone? I don't know. A
couple minutes later kind of calls, says Carly standing across the street, come
pick her up. You remember what it was like being a kid, right,
I mean it hasn't been that long. Emotions feel twice as intense,
at least twice, I mean probably more like five times, and you have
almost no patience whatsoever. Carly was mad and she wanted to go home right
that minute. She didn't want to wait for her stepdad to get there,
you know, like the logical thing to do, so she just took off
walking. Carly's friend Danielle, watched Carly standing on the corner of the street
by her house just before she began her mile long trek home. It was
six eighteen pm. Though Sarrizonta Springs has a ton of residential areas. Carly's
walk back to her house would be along a very busy main road. There
were sidewalks, but the houses lining those sidewalks quickly disappeared and were replaced by
businesses like bars, mini golf and car washes. As she continues to walk
west towards her home. It was basically a straight shot from Danielle's house.
Carl would walk west on b Ridge Road for about twenty minutes before turning right
onto her street, Macintosh Road. Then she'd walk for another few minutes and
she'd be home to an eleven year old. I'm sure this plan seemed easy
enough. I've washed my hands and out the door I went, and I
got down there. I didn't see her. So maybe I passed through Bee
Ridge her and come back, drove real slow and see her. Went into
EV's, looked inside, see if she is an arcade fears. So maybe
she went the back way behind Nick's bar, the na in the street.
I went back around and came back. Didn't see her. So I went
back to there Connie's house, and I swears Carly, and so she left
walking. I said, I can't find it. So I went back home
and got my wife. Were driving around, took her back to the house
with the girls for she yielded the girls or whatever she said. We got
in the van. We drove down. So I came down be rich.
I was going real slow, my flash was on. She was screaming out
the one side. I was looking across eastbound traffic trying to see so going
across. She said, I'm going to get out because it's a bunch of
wooded area that had houses. Heart's just all rubble and just trees. So
she'll stop when I get out. She got out, screaming Carly. So
and she did. I pulled into Eve's and parked, took my little boy
out with me, and we started walking back to where my wife was.
Carly's mom, stepdad, and younger brother continued looking for her for another hour.
They took all the back roads home, weaving in and out of different
neighborhoods. Carly's mother, Susan, screaming Carly's name out the window as they
drove, but the effort was fruitless. Susan's only wish was to witness her
daughter, with her thick, ash blonde hair and smile on her face,
emerge from the woods unharmed. You don't see you walking on Berridge. You
get all the way to La Lania address. I didn't go to La Liai.
I passed it because I've only been there, you know once or twice.
I passed La LIAI. Go down to the next intersection. I was
there when I made a U turn come back. Then I recognized the house
during the corner now because I've passed it once. I saw it was too
late. So that's when I make a U turn come back, and I
didn't see her outside. So I made it just right there the little circle
and I come back out wet, back down be Ridge to see her when
never saw her, all right, So I went all the way down to
Macintosh, come in the back way by Nick bark Is. Sometimes she'll come
the back way because it's stay enough. It's shorter for her that way,
so I come down that way. I don't see her. So just before
I get to the golf course, I come out whatever that little road is
there. I turned left and then another left into Eve's and I looked.
I didn't see nobody, I said, because that makes she went inside.
But you at this point EV's is actually open. Yeah, there's people full
of people okay. Eve's was a landmark for Carly, given that it was
a center point between her and her friend's house. It was a multi building
collection of businesses all under the same name, EV's Express car Wash and Mobile
Detailing, EV's Tavern and Grill on b Ridge, and Eve's Family Golf Center.
Ev seems to have quite the enterprise. Inside the main building was a
kid's arcade somewhere. Stephen thought his stepdaughter might have stopped on her walk home.
When he didn't find her there, he thought perhaps she cut through EV's
parking lot and through another neighborhood to get back home quicker. Over an hour
had passed since they began looking for Carly, and Susan's heart was in the
pit of her stomach, so she decided to call nine one one at about
seven thirty pm a location of the emergency. My daughter is missing the ship
and missing. Before now, she had a fight with her girlfriend. She
decided to walk home and we end well, I only house. They have
to walk go on. We can't mind running where I could blo friends add
eleven and when was the last time that she was what she was seeing?
It was just six o'clock. Jean Round six o'clock and she was at a
friend helge. Yeah, okay. What's her name? Man? Carle c
A R L I think and the last name? Who? Sha b are
you b i A? She's a white female? Yah? O'kay? What's
your date of birth? Sixteen eighty two? How polishing? Who she too?
Shy f gener what she weighs? Were nice? And what color her?
Does she have? Pretty? Blood? And the colors? Lou do
you remember what she was wearing? She over come? Don't? Don't you
have? I can try to seven. That's okay. The deputies look at
that from me when they come out. Okay, does she have a medical
problems? You know? Okay? Where was the last place that she was
seeing? Was she did? She had leave her friend's house and that was
the last time that anybody saw her? Yes, okay for somebody there was
here. Okay, all right, we got the deputy coming over to meet
you. Okay, if you can get any information about what she was wearing
when she left her friend's house, so no, you can tell the deputy.
Can you get that right now? We're getting that right now. Okay,
you can give that to the deputy. Okay, Okay, they'll be
there as soon as they can. Okay, okay, did you say you
were looking around her for the last hour and a half and was somebody what
you looking around? Driving? All right, ma'am, we'll get the deputy
shout to you. Okay, okay, thanks you. Carly Brusha never made
it home that night. Police searched on and around Carly's potential path home until
three o'clock in the morning. They resumed the search the next day, and
by noon, a bloodhound tracked Carly sent to an area behind Evie's car wash.
That's where the scent trail stopped. But Eve's had security cameras everywhere.
You know, Evie, she doesn't miss a thing. Surely one of them
caught Carly on tape. Carly Brusha vanished February first, two thousand and four,
never making it home from a sleepover at a friend's house. The next
day, after talking with police about a missing girl in the area, car
wash owner Mike Evanoff looks at tape from his surveillance cameras. Just came in
and saw her walking and walking and it's just right away and I saw it.
Just threw chisen shivers right in my body. The video grainy and only
ten seconds long, is chilling. Carly is a half mile from her home.
A man in a mechanic's uniform walks up to her outside the car wash.
He leads her away the man hunt begin. The video surveillance from Evie's
car wash showed Carly clear as day. She was facing the camera, walking
towards it unknowingly, and a man in a blue mechanic shirt with a white
name tag appears to approach her from the opposite direction. We see his back
to the camera, but clearly he grabs her arm and pulls her closer to
him in a kind of aggressive way. Then he turns around to face the
camera and pulls Carly out of frame by the wrist. That footage is the
last time she's ever seen again. Shown on local and national television, the
video brings hundred of leeds. Surely someone would recognize the man on the grainy
tape, and they do. On February third, just two days after Carly's
abduction, numerous tips came into the Sarasota Sheriff's office, all pointing to one
man, thirty nine year old Joseph P. Smith. One of these callers
even new where the guy worked Joseph was apparently a mechanic at a place called
Saurus Autos. When detectives arrived at the auto body shop, they were greeted
by a man who admitted he'd been the one to call him the tip himself.
He told detectives that Joseph was his friend and co worker, but he
had just seen the clip of Carly Brush's abduction on television and he immediately recognized
Joe. The guy said that he called the shop's landlord and told him to
turn on the news. He watched the clip and agreed the guy in the
footage was Joe. It had to be. I seeing Joe with the uniform
from the backside, from the front side, of the way his hair was
cut, the way that he walked his gate was just like you know Joe
walking through the shop. I mean, he's got a different type of walk
to him. And then when I watched him reach out for the you know,
reach for the girl, I know it was him. The coworker told
police he didn't want to believe Joe would be capable of such a thing,
but he wasn't sure because he knew Joe did hard drugs and at the time
he was separated from his current wife. This coworker decided to call in so
quickly because he thought of his own eleven year old daughter and what he'd want
his community to do if she were missing. Imagine if we all lived by
that role. The man in the CCTV footage, apparently easily recognized by his
community, was wearing a name tag on his mechanics uniform, but the grainy
resolution of the video footage made it difficult to decipher. Interestingly, NASA at
software all the way back in two thousand and four that was able to enhance
grainy footage. It was called Video Image Stabilization and Registration or VISOR for short.
It was a million dollar piece of software, almost as expensive as our
new app. But NASA offered it to law enforcement in this case, and
guess what, it fucking worked. The name tag matched what all of the
callers were saying. It read Joe. On February first, two thousand and
four, eleven year old Carly Brushaw was staying at her friend's house just a
little over a mile from where her own family lived in Sarasota Springs. Carly
decided that she wanted to go home. Following a little argument she had with
her friend and said she was going to walk. When Danielle's mother called Carly's
parents to confirm she had permission to walk home, they said no, and
Carly's mother sent her stepfather to pick her up, but when Steve arrived,
Carly was gone. After a massive search, Carly's scent was picked up by
a bloodhound at EV's car Wash, a business located about halfway between Danielle and
Carly's houses. CCTV camera footage showed Carly's abduction in broad daylight. Law enforcement
narrowed the suspect down quickly, with the help of hundreds of tips from the
community and NASA's million dollar Visor technology. As if all that wasn't enough of
a jump start on this case, the suspect's own brother contacted law enforcement to
say the exact same thing everyone else had said. I recognized that guy you
called in a couple of days ago, right, well, a couple of
days ago, Yes, it was yesterday. Okay, it's been a blur
as we lost track of time as we've been in Golden But can you tell
us about what you know what led to your call, and what you saw
or what you observed or what it's not that I observed anything. It's it's
just the picture is I mean, amazingly close. I mean it's you know,
it looks just like my brother. Okay, the voice you're hearing is
John Smith. Now the other one, that's a joke because you know the
name's John Smith. Anyway, this one was his brother, and he suspected
thirty nine year old Joseph Smith as responsible for Carly's abduction. Joe Smith,
then John Smith. Their parents were really creative with the names, huh.
Anyway, As you can probably tell by his accent, John and his brother
Joseph were originally from Brooklyn, New York, along with every other annoying New
Floridian. John moved to Sarasota County in the nineties, and Joseph followed him
in two thousand and three. Joseph Sarasota's main suspect was an auto mechanic.
He was a two time devorce a is it divorcee or devorcee? I don't,
I don't know. And he had three toddler age daughters, a dad
were they full time job? And three little girls. Is not someone you'd
usually suspect of kidnapping someone else's little girl. But as we know, the
world is a wretched place. Sunday he called me just out of the blue.
I spoke to him a month or so. I don't know how I'm
doing. I said, I gotta go, and I hung up on them.
Then on Monday, you know, this this thing happened. I saw
it on the ten o'clock news and I said, my girl said, damn,
it looks like my brother, isn't it. And then at eleven o'clock,
don't don't don't my brother knocking on my door Monday morning? No,
at eleven o'clock at night? Oh, Monday night? Did I say Monday
morning? No? No, you said eleven o'clock. I was just eleven
o'clock at night, okay, Monday night. And remember he lives fall from
me, so it's kind of odd of him out of his way and opened
the door. You know. I was in my just my bottom pants.
Came in and go to bed, like, what do you want? He's
like, oh, I thought you wanted to talk to me. I'm like,
what made you think I wanted to talk to you. He's like,
no, I got to go to bed, and he's like, well,
I need to talk. I'm like I don't really care. I'm going to
bed. I gotta go and closed the door and then he left. It
was just real strange, And like I said, the next day came and
you know, everyone's talking about it and people calling me, hend I seeing
your brother on the news, and I'm like, you know, don't,
don't don't say that's my brother, because you don't know. You know,
it might look like him, but you know, unless you're hndre percent sure,
I don't, don't say it's him. And I just I was just
getting a lot of phone calls. You know, he's got a very bad
habit of drugs. You know what was his drug of choice when he got
when he was on that when we're kids, it was cocaine. And then
when he when I came down to Florida ninety yeah, ninety, he he
got into heroin. And heroin was this thing for a long time, sniffing
it and then in the past few years pushing it. Joseph had apparently struggled
with back pain his entire life, turning the pills to self medicate and eventually
escalating to intravenous heroin use. So he maintained a job somehow and looked and
behaved relatively normally. Joseph's drug addiction got him into trouble numerous times for things
like theft and possession. His most frequent target was his own brother John.
A friend of his called me and said that he was going around asking people
if they wanted to buy a snake, so he didn't have an immediate buyer,
unlike the other things that he stole from me in the past. Most
of its electronics, power equipment. Yeah, stuff that I usually leave out
in the bag guard. Like one time it was a paint sprayer. My
mom was coming and I was doing a few test spots and I got interrupted.
I left it there and a couple of days later it was gone.
You know, I lived in a pretty good need with it. You guys
know, it's you know, you know, we're part of ten again,
sever sort of golf club. There's no it's a circle, so there's no
passive buyers, there's no people walking around and for things to missing. You
know who it is. I mean, it doesn't just it doesn't happen over
there. We're too close over there. So you know, like I said,
he's gotten me about four or five times. So before you said he
came over Monday night at eleven eleven. Prior to Monday night at eleven,
when's the last time you had saw him face to face? So on December
twenty fourth, Christmas Christmas Eve, if he went to do a shake my
hand, I pushed him and shoved him. But we were all posted to
me to my sister's house and he just robbed me that the day before,
so I was still pretty mad. And then he picked up his kids and
left them. So that was like a family Christmas. Yeah, well,
everyone was going to my sister's house, and you know, I hadn't found
out about that until a few hours earlier that it was actually him that day.
I mean, I knew it was him when I first went home with
this first way he was missing his wife's is. At three o'clock, he
said, I'll be right home to his wife. Three o'clock came, four
o'clock came, five, six, seven, eight o'clock came. His wife
called me. I said, I got to run home, drop money on
to my girlfriend, and then I'll come back and I don't know what I'll
do, but I'll be there for you. I did just that, and
when I got home, I seen the spot where it was. I went
inside. I said, Babe, did you put that snake in the garage
because it's too heavy and didn't think she'd do it. He's like, no,
I thought you did. I was like, the fuck it? So
anyway, I know, but him missing, I know exactly put two and
two together. So the first time I went to his house, waited for
a little while. Then he called me in his cell phone and he said,
John, I'm trying to get in touch at everybody, but no one's
answering the phone, Like, Joe, cut the shit. I'm at your
house. Come here now. I want my snake back. And he's like,
what snake? What snake? I said, Joe, whatever, just
get home. Your kids are crying, wife's crying. Just get home.
He was right around the corner. He came home, and when he got
out of the car, the first thing he said was I mean, you'd
expect him to say I'm sorry, babe, and I'm missing while he's out.
No, He's like, what is John talking about the snake? I
was like, hello, whatever, you know. I said a few words
to him, and his eyes were like this, you know I know what
he was doing. And I left and then Christmas Eve came and we had
that altercation and that was it, and I didn't see him toild Monday.
Here's the biggest red flag of all. Joseph had no alibi for the time
Carly went missing, so you know, definitely he was also missing Sunday.
I don't know, you guys where we heard that? All right? He
was missing Sunday? What do you what do you know about that? He
was missing between I think three and seven, thirty three and eight, and
he lied to three different people. That's the part that I mean. I
haven't know my brother, but if he did it, he's gonna rot in
hell because that's pretty shitty to go for, you know, the little child
he told. Let me see, he told the people that he the stories
that you know of or what he told the people he was staying with.
He took their car, Mimi and Jeff, that's who he's staying with,
because they had problems at home because of all his drug shit. He told
them he was going to work. No, he told them he was going
with his wife, I think, and they told his wife that he was
working on someone's car. They told my mom they was sitting at Marina Jack's
looking at the water. You know, that's not like my brother. He's
not you know, a sight seeri or whatever. So everything was just like,
oh, you know, you did it again, you know, the
hell with you? And those were the hours he was missing. And then
to see that on TV, you know Monday, I mean that looks damn
clothes like him he was now Monday. He didn't have a white sneakers though,
he hit on black boots, and I did think that was strange because
I never seen him with black boots on. You know, he usually does
have the white sneakers on, which in the video he has white sneakers,
which his wife said he was wearing those white sneakers Sunday morning, and she
also confirmed that he was wearing his mechanic thing. Looks like the police had
the right guy in their crosshairs and his brother John was spilling the beans.
Granted it was probably because he had such a resentment built up against his brother
after years of repeated thefts, but either way, John Smith was useful to
police, and he'd proved useful later on. Also, the tips led police
right to Joseph Smith three days after Carly disappears. Joseph Smith is arrested at
his house on cocaine possession and a probation violation. Police believe they have their
man. These charges give them enough to hold him. Law enforcement pulled up
to Joseph's last known address in an unmarked vehicle and knocked on the door.
Joseph was staying with a friend because of his impending divorce. One of the
neighbors indicated there was someone inside the house, so an officer knocked. There
was no answer. The officer called his supervisor to ask for some instruction,
and the supervisor told him Joseph Smith was on probation, so they called his
probation officer to the scene. Eventually, Joseph's sister showed up and told the
cops she would go get her brother. They brought him out. They asked
him a few questions regarding his whereabouts the day Carly was abducted, and they
searched his room and car Joe acted like he had no knowledge of the abduction.
Detectives even showed him a still photo from the CCTV footage as the car
wash, and he replied, that looks like me, but it's not me.
You're right, okay, it's been a long day it's been a long
day with you. I've spent a long day with you. I know we
went together the whole time, but it's been a long day with you.
This is going to be exactly like out at your house. Okay, We've
got to sit down and we have to talk. Certainly, since I've up
to your house, I've been at work. But just like just like your
house, I want to just talk. You and I have some things to
talk about, okay, because some of the things at the house we got
to get straight. That's the most important thing, okay, in this room,
it's about the truth. Mm hmm. Okay, it's the most important
thing that goes on in this room is the truth. But we're not at
your house. We're at my house. Okay. And because we're at my
house and you're here, and I'm a law enforcement officer and this is a
police station. Before we can talk, I have to read to your rights.
Have you heard that before? Yeah, Adam twelve and TV and it
was already advised to talk to a lawyer who advised you, friend of mine?
When did you invite that? Wonderful okay, when did that happen?
When did that happen? Well, we talked to Okay, that means you
and I can't talk, should talk to a lawyer. The detective left Joseph
in the interrogation room for about fifteen minutes before returning. It's always a drag
for cops when the suspect of an exceptionally horrible crime decides he needs to speak
with a lawyer. But it's you know, also his right. In Joseph's
case, he didn't have a lawyer yet. When I came out to you
house, I told you the grave seriousness of my job. The most important
part of my job is to attempt to locate this child. As such,
I am willing to go to any links in order to work. Do you
have an attorney right now that I can contact to come down and talk to
you. Would you like me to contact the Public Defender's office and have a
lawyer come down and talk with you right now? I'd like to talk to
my family. This is an ongoing investigation. I have got to find that
little girl. You have asked and request a lawyer. I must provide you
that lawyer, but this investigation has to go on for it. In order
for this investigation to continue, I need you to talk to that lawyer?
Do you have one in mind? Can I contact the Public Defender's office for
you and they can bring a lawyer down here? Yeah? Would that be
okay? I guess, And you know, I'd rather talk to my family
see what they will suggest it with a lawyer. Do they have suggestion?
Do they know a lawyer? Sure? My brother, my mother wouldn't know.
Is that a lawyer that you want to represent you? I know,
I guess that they wouldn't know the direction would take. I mean, I
don't know. You know, I didn't give this much thought. You know,
well that's obvious you were caught on camera. Joseph also had no idea
that his brother had been blabbing up a storm about him. His family would
be of no help at this point. I don't. I mean, you
tell you tell me first that it's something different, and you go into the
house and you tell me something different there. I mean, I don't understand
you weren't totally honest with me there. What's my job to be honest with
you? Or find a little girl? That's number one? Number one?
Yeah, but I mean I can't discuss this case with you anymore. But
I need to talk. You need to talk because this case has got to
go. It's got to continue. You're the key person as such. I
need to get a lawyer in here, and he is going to sit down
and talk with you, and then maybe through him we can talk. Then
again, you won't. You won't tell me what's going on. I don't
understand. I guess how would I even know that? His lawyers from the
Public Defender's office. I have a set of rules that I've sworn to a
bed and like you said, you know this is a serious thing. I
mean, I was supposed to be clear to this thing. That's not so
simple. When cameras show you committing the crime, the whole community agrees it
was you, and your alibi doesn't add up. Things are not looking good,
Joe. What is the public defender going to tell me? Is he
going to tell me what's going on? Does he have any information? He
will, and then we can talk. That's what's gotta bean. I'm my
contacting Now. Okay, did you say something? Do you think do you
think that I could smoke up? But it is a federal buildings smoking here,
I mean like outside or something. All right, now you gotta tell
Yeah, we're working. We're working on right now. I don't need to
talk to you know, my family. See what's cold on, Joe.
Once you have decided to speak to a lawyer, I am under an obligation
to respect that right unless you revoke it and say, take of Davis.
Okay. I want to talk to you, but you have to do that.
Okay. As such, I can't talk to you. You have asked
for a lawyer. I am going to get you one from the Public Defender's
office. Okay, I can't talk to you. You have requested a What
about my family? Why can't I quote them? M You can't call them
because they're not part of this m HM. And these are the these are
the people that are telling me to get a lawyer. You know, I
want to I want to talk to my ANNs or my brother Joe, the
people they give you legal advice. I ain't here, of course I want
to talk to them. It's just a phone call. Let them know what's
going on. And my mom's real concerned, you know, my brother,
everybody Okay, Yeah, Joe's brother was concerned, but he was concerned about
whether or not Joseph had really committed this horrible crime, because it sure was
looking that way. Once they put Joseph in jail, they set up a
little scheme with his brother John. John knew Joe would never ever confess to
the crime. If it was something he really did, it was so horrible.
This would be a truth that Joe would take to his grave. John
suggested that if someone went to Joe and confessed to crimes that they'd committed that
were similar to the ones Joe was accused of, then perhaps maybe he might
be willing to open up about what he'd done. Well, that didn't work.
Then a meeting between John, Joe, and their mother was arranged at
the jail, but he wouldn't crack. He knew they were trying to get
a confession out of him and didn't say a thing. But on February fifth,
it all came spilling out. Tell me about and I'm talking about today.
Tell me about your first contact with him, May Smith. Contact today
was the beginning of the shift. We have to feed the inmates normally around
four point thirty, and I handed him a food tray and a cold beverage
and that was it. What was his mannerisms or did you observe anything about
him? He looked like he was under a lot of stress and his eyes
were glassy, like you just got done crying. Did he say anything to
you? No, and he gave him his food and left right. Tell
me about the next contact you had with him. The next contact I had
with mister Smith was when I got back the food tray from him. When
he was done eating. He was staring at me in a manner that he
wanted to talk to me and that he had some things on his mind that
he wanted to talk about. When he handed me to the food t right,
he told me that all that was going on around him was very stressful
and he wanted to end it tonight. While I instructed him that first of
all, I wasn't clear on what he meant by ending it, if he
wanted to end his life or end the ongoing investigation. His response was that
he wanted to speak to his attorneys because there was just too much going on
in his head and he wanted to get it out of his head now.
He made it clear to me that he wasn't suicidal and that he wanted to
confess to what was on his mind to his attorneys. Again, he said,
I have to end this tonight. And at this point he was demanding
to see his attorneys. He wasn't hollering, but he was standing up against
the bars talking to me, squeezing the bars. You could see that,
you know, the frustration in his forearms, that he wanted to speak to
his attorneys right now. He then said that he wanted to put closure to
this tonight. He then stated, I really fucked up. He then he
asked me, Divino, how big is this right now? Meaning the media
type of thing? And then he said, I think I guess he finally
realized that this is all over the place, meaning it's all over the country
within the news media. Did you respond to when he asked how big it
was? I told him that there's flyers around the county because that's what I
witnessed. Joseph then asked the officer if he can have the phones turned back
on, as they'd been turned off for the night already. He'd done this
before for other inmates, so the officer greed. Joseph called his brother,
and the officer tried hard to listen in on the conversation. According to the
timeline of events in this case, I'm assuming these Jael house calls weren't recorded
for some reason, and I guess John said to mister Smith that Joe,
I can't hear you. I can't hear you can speak up, and Joe's
mister Smith started talking a little louder. I guess there was a big connection
in the phone or there was noise in the background because John could not hear
mister Smith. He then said, she's between two trees, not too far
back. He then said maybe by the tree line. And then he said
to John. And at this point he was very emotional. His eyes were
wading, he was choked up. He said, John, tell mom,
I'm sorry. I was not thinking right. Please tell Mom, I'm sorry.
Did he hang up or you think he was cut off? No,
he hung up the phone very softly and walked back through the home. After
his arrest, Smith's brother John visits him in jail, and later the brothers
talked by phone. Later at the trial, John Smith testified about those conversations
and against his brother. Did he say anything about how it ended? I
asked he was to show what do you mean? What did you ask?
And try to speak up again? Remember you've got she was dead, and
what did he say? I don't know she could be John Smith testified,
Joseph told him what he'd done to Carly Brusha and that the body was hidden
near a church. Was there an open field at the church? Yes?
John Smith tells police where to find Carly Brushaw. February fifth, two thousand
and four. Her body is found on the grounds of the Central Church of
Christ in Sarasota. The body of beautiful love you, old girl, Carly
Yusha has been found. Joseph Smith is under arrest for the abduction and murder
of Carly. Joseph's phone confession detailed that he had raped Carly in a borrowed
beige station wagon before strangling her and driving her to a field behind a church
on Proctor Road. In a letter to John, Joe said that he took
Carly's pink backpack and threw it into the water at Marina Jack in Sarasota.
Later on, Joe had more conversations with his mother and brother. In one
of them, Joe's mother comforted him by telling him the best thing he could
do was to try to explain it was an accident. Nice right. Then
she went on to tell him she knew he would never do something like this
on purpose, but the news media and the community were all up in arms
because of the severity of his charges. Joe clarified with his mother, asking
her if she knew what his charges were in she said she did. She
also asked him what she should relay. Towards the end, the brothers seemed
to be discussing a plan that would have made them a lot of money.
Here's a later interview of John Smith explaining what really went down during and after
Joseph's first confession. He told me and he strangled her. You know,
that was what he told me when they put me together in a little jail
cell, a little meeting there. And the reason why when I came out,
they said, well, you know, what did he say? What
did he say? Isaiah said nothing, because he told me that he tied
her up, and I thought I'd just drove over there, let it go
like that. But after that he started sending me a letter and so forth,
and you know, in his own admission, and you know, he
talked to her death. John's admission is still slightly unclear, so let me
fix that. When Joseph originally confessed to his brother, he seemed to be
under the impression that though he raped Carly and choked her out. She may
still be alive. Joseph told his brother John where he could find the body,
and John planned to drive out there to untie her, take a photo
of her, and sell it to the media, then report his findings.
I guess they thought they would make John look like a hero, like a
Batman character. So John did actually drive out to the church with intentions to
carry out this ridiculous plan, but he couldn't find Carly's body. Joseph's mother
and brother seemed to be enablers, even participators. Perhaps that's the reason John
would later testify against his brother at trial, acting as the prosecution's key witness.
When Carly's body was found, she was of course no longer living.
She wasn't found bound, but her extremities had marking suggesting she had been.
She was found partially undressed, corroborating Joseph's confession of sexual assault, and they
were marking suggesting Joseph had dragged Carly's body to its final resting place on the
ground amidst some trees. This man, who had young daughters himself, had
raped and murdered an innocent little girl. He didn't even know whether he was
using drugs or not. He felt entitled to someone else's child for her his
own sexual deviancy, and he jumped on the first opportunity he saw. Joseph
pleaded not guilty to the charges of first degree murder, kidnapping, in sexual
battery. He wouldn't go to trial until late two thousand and five. In
the meantime, journalists and detectives were digging up disturbing things in Joseph's past that
should have had him locked up long before he saw eleven year old carl Brusha
walking alone on that fateful Super Bowl Sunday. Thirty nine year old Joseph P.
Smith pleaded not guilty to the crimes he committed against an innocent child,
eleven year old Carly Brushaw on February first, two thousand and four. His
DNA was found on her clothing. Her body showed evidence of strangulation and sexual
assault, and the fibers from the station wagon Joe was driving were retrieved from
Carly's body. Joseph was unaccounted for during the exact stretch of time Carly went
missing and was murdered. Joseph had even confessed his crimes in many different ways
to his brother and mother. He spoke with them over the phone, he
wrote letters, and eventually his brother John Smith was called to testify against him.
This was cut and dry. It retraumatized the community to have to relive
this crime two years later, but the jury made quick work of the whole
ordeal. You could feel the tension in the court room. The judge warned
everyone scream or shout and you're tossed out. And then came the verdict,
broadcast across the country. Will the jury find as follows as to count one
of the charges, the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree as
charged. Carly Bruce's mother broke down, crying and said thank you Jesus.
Carly's father simply nodded in approval. Joseph Smith guilty on all counts. Baylis
to give the ring to take Smith away when the judge had to slow them
down. I need to just slow down for one second. Smith will be
back in court a week from Monday when the same jury returns to recommend a
life or death sentence. I will now be preparing to present further evidence on
November the twenty eighth, and will be arguing that a sentence of life in
prison without possibility of parole is the best decision in this case. I almost
one of the most precious things to me in my life because of an animal,
a disgusting, perverted animal. The jury took five hours to pull over
the evidence, the surveillance video, the letter that Smith sent to his brother,
and the recorded conversations between Smith and his mother where he admitted killing her.
Joe, the best thignque you could do is just try and explain it
with an accident. I know that, Joe. You don't think that I
would do that off as well. And if Carly's mother could speak to Smith,
if I could speak to him, I'd like to know why he chose
my daughter and why he had to kill her. And I'm sure she let
him know that she was only eleven years old. How could he go through
with it? Carly's family members weren't the only ones affected by this horrible crime.
All of Carly's friends and classmates were on high alert. Joseph's former wives
and children had to deal with the shame of being connected to such a monster
and take this with a grain of salt. Given John's involvement in the aftermath
of his brother's crimes, but he sees himself as a victim. Also,
my life, my life crashed, like you have no idea when all this
shit happened, and he's the cause of it. He's the direct cause of
it. You think he cares how many legs you ruined? He doesn't give
a fuck. All he wants is money for her comments are he does not.
He does not give a fuck. I don't think he realizes, you
know what he's done to everybody, But still don't you people realize who he
is. He's a monster. The money killed a little kid. And you're
not gonna talk to me because I testifyed and that's crazy, but that's not
happened. I have no family. None of my family would talk to me.
He's my sister, so not only my whole life crash. No family
talks to me. He's been rough, you know, you know, I
die. I don't real hard and the drugs and the women since this habited
my life, just it just it just died. I can't explain it.
I testified, I did the right thing. None of my family talked to
me, only my sister. Nobody, not my end because it won't even
take a Facebook request because I'm a rat. You don't talk to cold.
That's bullshit. You know, he did something wrong, the worst crime you
can do. You murdered, you raped it, you killed a kid.
You know, so how could you? How could you look at me as
a riot? It doesn't even have any First of all, they didn't even
need me. They had all the events. Joseph's life was not virtuous,
not before he murdered Carly and not after. Joseph had already been arrested thirteen
times prior to his final act of vice violence, and he'd been on probation
nearly constantly since nineteen ninety three, often violating the terms. Joseph's brother believes
Joe may have also been responsible for the murder of a young woman named Tara
Riley in Bradington, Florida, just four years before Carly's murder. Tara Riley's
naked body was found in a retention pond behind a Bradington Walmart in two thousand.
Detectives looked into the case when it occurred, but it still remains unsolved
to this day. Long story short, Joseph wasn't likely to have any willing
character witnesses to speak on his behalf at sentencing, and a jury swiftly voted
ten to two in favor of the death penalty. During his time on death
row, Joseph watched TV, got some marriage proposals for some reason. I
don't know what's wrong with you people, and his dear old mother even moved
closer to the prison so she could visit him more often. How sweet.
He began writing a fifty nine chapter manuscript detailing the woes of his life.
Oh boy, can't wait for that on audible. In it, he blames
all of his transgressions on his drug use. So you, poor little victim,
poor baby, Oh, society should bend over backwards to help you.
He and his lovely mother tried to shop the book around to publishers, but
thankfully they weren't interested. At least some of the media hasn't gone to complete
shit, not entirely anyway. Joseph ended up living on death row until twenty
eighteen, when the unthinkable happened. A sun cohost prosecutor says the state will
again see the death penalty for the killer of Carlis Busha. A four to
three decision by the court Thursday vacates the death sentence of Joseph P. Smith,
who was convicted of raping and murdering the eleven year old on the sun
Coast in two thousand and four. In twenty sixteen, the US Supreme Court
decision vound FDA's death penalty process unconstitutional. The held of being reports juries must
now unanimously agree on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences. Carly's father,
Joseph Brusia, calls the vote a travesty. It's one of two things.
It's it's a trend of favoring the criminals over of the innocent and the
victims. Or is it just, you know, more way for attorneys to
make billible hours, Because it certainly doesn't make any sense. I mean,
it's a fellest thing from justice that comes to my mind. The David Smith's
new penalty phase has not yet been announced, but Brushes says he will be
attending alongside family. Two years later, Joseph's death penalty status was reinstated.
Then, on July twenty sixth, twenty twenty one, Joseph Smith passed away
at Union Directional Institution in Rayford. He was fifty five years old. Carly
Brusha was a little girl who liked classic little girl things. She had a
lavender bedroom and a pink book bag, posters of her favorite pop stars on
the wall, stickers all over the surfaces of the furniture in her bedroom.
And she was an innocent little girl, so full of excitement for life.
This degenerate fuck, this evil person, this inhuman monster, decided to take
this sweet child away from her parents, away from her family, away from
her friends, away from her home, away from this world. A memorial
garden was set up for the beloved Carly, and it sits behind the Central
Church of Christ at the spot where her body was recovered. Carly's ashes were
built into the memorial site itself. Unfortunately, Carly's mother, Susan Shorpen,
passed away in twenty seventeen, and since then reports seemed to suggest that Carly's
memorial has fallen into disarray. Though this was a case that law enforcement in
the community seemed to come together in perfect harmony to solve, it was a
case that really never should have happened. An innocent eleven year old girl made
the impulsive decision to walk home, and there are monsters out there. She
unfortunately encountered one of them, an evil adult man who had his own impulses,
his own deviant mind, and zero self control. Like a wild animal
waiting in the forest for slowly moving prey, Joseph spotted Carly and attacked.
All right, that does it. Go check out episode three shres iverson Swordscale
Television. It's one of the best ones we've done so far. I mean
it really made me physically ill. Go check it out and stay safe.