Richardson Cop Killer Brandon McCall Portrayed As Victim Of Childhood Neglect During Punishment Phase Of Capital Murder Trial
McKINNEY, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - Defense attorneys for Brandon McCall portrayed him as a victim during the punishment phase of his capital murder trial on Wednesday.
They brought Brandon McCall's brother, Michael McCall, over from jail to tell them their family's dark past of homeless and neglect to get the jury to try to spare the defendant's life.
Michael McCall is a habitual offender who told the jury he started shoplifting to feed his family at age 6.
The 32-year-old appeared in shackles and a jail uniform to testify in the sentencing phase of his younger brother's capital murder trial.
McCall says he hated life when he recalled growing up living in a car with his brother and their parents because their father was an alcoholic.
The defendant's brother says it led to drug abuse, unemployment by both brothers as well as run ins with police.
"If you knew we were going to live like this, why the heck would you have us? We might as well be dead."
Karen Revels knows Brandon McCall and provided character witness testimony along with his childhood friends and former employers.
She says he was a good person until he briefly lived with his drug addicted brother.
"Never felt threatened in any way at all and I don't know what happened when he went to Waxahachie with his brother," said Revels. "Something changed him."
But Revels and others could not explain and would not excuse McCall's decision to kill his roommate inside their Richardson apartment and then opened fire on responding officers killing Officer David Sherrard.
One of them told the jury, "I feel what he did, I'm very disappointed, but I can't let him go."
The jury will have to decide how this testimony stacks up with the states case that McCall let his roommate bleed to death after shooting him and then ambushing arriving police officers.
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