dictionary

Taped interviews show shooter changed his story

BRADENTON, Florida (Court TV) -- In a police interrogation just hours after he killed his best friend, James Brand waffled on key details of the accidental shooting.

Jurors in Brand's manslaughter trial listened Wednesday to a tape-recorded interview in which the 22-year-old movie buff tearfully told police he had no idea how bullets got in the gun that killed aspiring screenwriter Daniel Squires.

But confronted by skeptical detectives with crime scene evidence, Brand acknowledged removing an ammunition cartridge from the gun and hiding it as his friend lay dying.

"Wait, wait, wait," Brand abruptly told Manatee County Sheriff's Detective Rick Gherkin as the investigator quizzed him on his account. "I remember the magazine half in [the gun.]"

Later, he admitted the magazine was in the gun at the time of the shooting and said he placed it in a desk drawer before police arrived.

"I got scared ... I was freaking out," he said.

Brand faces 30 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter by culpable negligence. The prosecution maintains Brand, who drank beer and four or five vodka cocktails before the shooting, knew that pointing the gun at his friend was dangerous. The defense contends the shooting was a tragic accident, but not a crime.

Prosecutor Ed Brodsky rested his case Wednesday after showing jurors a videotape of Brand reenacting the July 2, 2001, crime. The defense opted not to call witnesses. Closing arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning.

The revised account of the magazine was not the only change in Brand's story during the three-hour interview. Brand also told police that Squires had asked to see the gun. But questioned further, Brand said the gun discharged while he was acting out a scene from the bloody thriller "The Way of the Gun."

"It's starting to come back to me, talking about the movie," said Brand.

Jurors were shown the scene from that movie in which actor Ryan Phillippe points a gun at an adversary while instructing bystanders to "Get the f--- out."

He also initially told officers he had not touched his gun for several days before picking it up to deliver that line. But after they interviewed his brother, who had seen him with the weapon that night and even warned him not to carry it, Brand conceded he had handled and loaded the gun hours before the shooting.

Despite the contradictions, the defense hopes the tape will sway jurors to acquit. By the defense count, Brand told officers more than 50 times that he thought the gun was unloaded. He sounded extremely remorseful during the interviews. When Gherkin informed Brand that Squires has died at the hospital, Brand's sobs drowned out other noise on the tape.

"Are you sure they tried everything?" he asked later.

"They've tried everything," Gherkin told him.

"Oh my God," Brand wailed.

The shooting came at the end of a typical night for the friends. Brand and Squires had shared a part of a pitcher of beer at a pool hall and then bought a bottle of vodka and returned to Brand's apartment.

Bradley Brand, James' brother, testified Tuesday that his brother relied on the gun, a gift from their father, for protection in his neighborhood. Bradley Brand said his brother tried to take the gun with him that night to walk the dog, but he discouraged that because James Brand had been drinking.

According to Brand's taped interview, he left the loaded gun on his computer desk as he and Squires watched a porn movie, drank and played cards.

Brand said he was walking to the kitchen when on the spur of the moment he decided to "throw a line" from the movie at Squires. He said both loved movies and quizzed each other constantly on lines of script.

"I got it off the desk and I turned around and the next thing I knew my ears were ringing and I saw him leaning over," said Brand. "He fell back and he was gasping for breath."