Adam Braseel, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2006 slaying of a Tracy City, Tennessee, man, will be in court Friday for what may be the last act in his bid for freedom.
Braseel, 36, was found guilty in 2007 in the beating death of Malcolm Burrows and in an assault on his sister. On Friday, he will go before Judge Justin Angel on a petition for a new trial in his conviction and life sentence in a case that lacked physical evidence placing him at the murder scene. The petition hearing began June 26 but was suspended until Friday, when Angel is expected to hear more testimony in the case. It was initially set for Wednesday but was postponed because of witness availability issues.
"We look forward to the hearing and the opportunity to present further evidence in Mr. Braseel's case," Braseel's attorney Alex Little said Wednesday.
Steve Strain, the 12th Judicial District assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case and has represented the state in actions since then, said Wednesday that the state intends to put on proof disputing some defense witnesses' June 26 testimony.
In his petition, the thin, redheaded Braseel contends he's been imprisoned in a case of mistaken identity for a dead man's crime and that state's evidence not only fails to pin the murder on him but points the finger at Kermit Eugene Bryson, another redheaded man of about the same height, age and build as Braseel and who drove a car resembling one Braseel drove in 2006 that was linked to the murder.
At trial in 2007, Braseel was identified by two eyewitnesses - Kirk Braden and assault victim Becky Hill, who is now deceased - in a since-disputed photo line-up. And the motive, according to prosecutors, was robbery linked to Burrows' missing wallet, court records show. Braseel's current petition was filed after Bryson's fingerprint was identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in November 2018 as being found in Burrows' car at the murder scene. Bryson was never identified as a potential suspect. In 2008 - almost two years after Burrows' murder - Bryson shot and killed a Grundy County deputy and then took his own life the same day.
In June 26 testimony in Braseel's petition for a new trial, one of two current Grundy County inmates to take the stand, Elizabeth Rector, testified about a confession while she and Bryson were getting high in the woods sometime in 2006 or 2007. She testified Bryson said he "had to kill" Burrows.
Also in last month's testimony, former Grundy County Sheriff's Office Detective Mike Brown told Angel he saw Burrows' wallet in his hip pocket, removed it and then put it back where he found it when he was working the murder scene in 2006.
Strain said Wednesday that the state plans to introduce evidence in which Brown denied ever having touched the wallet in a federal court declaration. The document he refers to is part of Braseel's federal habeas corpus filed in May 2017 in which Brown said he saw the wallet but didn't remove it or move Brown's body.
The state denies similarities in appearance between Braseel and Bryson, specifically pointing to evidence that "Kermit's hands had a lot of tattoos on them and I daresay that someone would notice that," Strain said, "very different from Braseel."
Strain also said prosecutors can prove Bryson's whereabouts that night.
"We think we know where [Bryson] was the night of the homicide," Strain said.
The hearing is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. CDT Friday in Altamont, Tennessee.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.