Federal jury reaches verdict in CresCom double-murder trial. Here’s what happens next
It took a federal jury less than 30 minutes of deliberation to find Brandon Council guilty of a double-murder and robbery at the Conway CresCom bank in August 2017.
The jury handed down its verdict on Tuesday and immediately moved into the penalty phase, where the panel will decide if Council should be executed for his crime. If the jury opts against the death penalty, Council will spend the rest of his life in prison.
“Katie Skeen and Donna Major died staring down the barrel of that man’s gun,” prosecutor Everett McMillian said in his closing argument.
McMillian detailed the Aug. 21, 2017, crime, including showing pictures of Skeen and Major soon after they were shot. The images were displayed in the courtroom as some of Skeen’s and Major’s family looked away and started to cry. The same photos were on a monitor a foot away from Council.
The prosecution also showed images from inside the 16th Avenue branch where Council entered and went to Major’s teller station.
“He waits till her head was down,” McMillian said about Major. “She never saw the bullet coming.”
Council then ran into Skeen’s office, where he shot her, before returning to Major and shooting her again as she was dying on the floor.
In an interview with police, Council said he went into the bank intending to shoot those inside. He said he was basically homeless and hit rock-bottom before committing the robbery.
“His actions were premeditated, they were deliberate and they were intentional,” McMillian said.
Defense attorney Michael Meetze didn’t offer much of a rebuttal in his closing statement. He again admitted Council went into the bank and committed the murders and robbery. But, Meetze also described how Council told police in the interview he was “winging it.”
“He was alone, he was desperate and he was on the run,” Meetze said.
Penalty phase
The trial moved directly into the penalty phase after the jury — made up of eight women and four men — delivered its verdict.
McMillian outlined what the government must prove for a death sentence. He discussed how the shooting involved intentional killing. He also described factors that made this murder worse, such as multiple people were killed and Council was escalating in his criminal activity.
At one point in his statement, McMillian showed a picture of Council taken the day after the murders. Council is smiling and holding several bills in front of a white Mercedes he bought with money stolen from the bank.
“The photo was taken so he could show it to girls he was trying to meet,” McMillian said.
There is no clean slate for the second phase, McMillian said, and the jury could consider evidence from the first phase.
“You will make the choice on how to hold the defendant accountable,” McMillian said.
The prosecution also called a couple of Skeen’s and Major’s coworkers to the stand on Tuesday. Part of their testimony included reading a journal entry Major wrote on Aug. 21, hours before she was murdered.
During the defense’s opening arguments, William Nettles talked at length about Council’s background as reasons why he should not be executed.
“It’s an individual, moral, reasoned judgment each of you will have to make,” Nettles told the jury.
Council served time in a North Carolina juvenile detention center that was riddled with violence and offered little help, Nettles said. Council’s family provided little support and his neighborhood became a haven for drugs.
No matter how the jury rules, Nettles reminded them Council will never be free again.
“He’ll die in prison. That’s a fact. He’ll never be released,” Nettles said. At his closing, he reiterated that point and said that’s what the defense was asking for as punishment. “We’re going to ask you in this case to be merciful.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 12:10 PM.
