Brewer Trial: Prosecution showing defendant stories differ

Tuesday afternoon's session of the trial of Clifford Brewer included a forensic look at the investigation, as well as finding differences in the story the defendant told police.

Livingston County State's Attorney Randy Yedinak brought a crime scene technician, the person who took the initial call regarding the deaths and an Illinois State Police investigator from Zone 5, who was part of the initial questioning of the suspect in the 2019 triple murder case that took place in Cullom. Brewer stands accused of murdering his wife, son and neighbor in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, 2019.

“I think everything went according to plan, everything went as we expected it would go,” Yedinak said of the first day. “We're confident in our case and I think everything came out the way we hoped it would.”

The building block of the case appears to be rather simple. Yedinak and his assistant, Mike Regnier, started Tuesday from the beginning with the officers who were first to respond.

“We the first responding officers testify to their observations of the scene, we had the main crime-scene technician who processed the scene,” Yedinak said. “We had the dispatcher at Vermillion Valley Communications who took the non-emergency call, and then we had one of the case agents testify to the interview with the defendant.”

The prosecution then relied on Master Sgt. Darrell Stafford, crime scene technician supervisor of the Illinois State Police, to explain the evidence he found to begin the afternoon session.

Stafford's testimony showed the jurors what was found and were through photographs. Some of the photos also showed the deceased where they were found and after the bodies had been removed.

Among the items were four spent shell casings and three bullets. He indicated that two of the victims suffered gunshot wounds to the head that included exit woulds, which meant the bullets went completely through.

The three victims were wife of the defendant Shirley Brewer, 48, son of the defendant Christian Brewer, 27, and neighbor Norman Walker, 51.

It was pointed out in opening statements by the prosecution, and then in testimony by Livingston County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Hoffmeyer in the morning session, that there was laundry being done at the time of the officer's arrival.

Stafford pointed out that there were moccasins, a rain coat and ball cap were in the washing machine, which was also set for sanitizing.

Defense attorney Joshua Richards questioned the swabbing of evidence involving potential blood splattering and gunshot residue.

Jordan Casey was the next witness for the prosecution. She was the dispatcher who answered the call from Clifford Brewer. After a few minor questions, Yedinak made it a point to say that Brewer called the non-emergency number instead of 911.

“My wife, my biddy, my son are all dead … there's blood everywhere,” Brewer said in the call.

“What happened,” Casey answered.

“I don't know,” Brewer responded.

Casey kept Brewer in conversation as she contacted the sheriff's department. In the conversation, Brewer explains that the three were upstairs partying — “they were upstairs hootin' and a hollerin' upstairs.”

Brewer also said to Casey that his wife had been “off-kilter for months … not right.”

Casey said she was still on the phone when police arrived.

The third witness in the afternoon was Sgt. Matt Thomas of the Illinois State Police. This is when the prosecution showed the entire interview of Brewer in custody at the Livingston County Jail.

Thomas, who was a Zone 5 special investigator at the time, was part of the two-person team to conduct this interview. The other was Paul Hennessy, who has since retired from ISP.

Brewer discussed what he did on Dec. 24 as he described what was going in in leading up to what happened at around 2 a.m. on the 25^th. He explained a medical appointment, going to Pontiac to pick up prescriptions, making a trip to Walmart a few times and back to CVS for his prescriptions before heading home with some gifts for his wife.

Another argument ensued and there was a brief time of peace before another argument took place.

Brewer explained who Norman Walker was and his wife, Tina, who Brewer described as a drug addict.

There were some issues with time frames, including when Brewer said he fell asleep after taking Ambien to help him sleep, and the fact that he left out a time period where he went and met with Katie Klitzing, an acquaintance.

Yedinak walked the jury through the schedule of events in his opening and said later that there were things Brewer left out during his interview at the jail.

Yedinak also pointed out that Brewer initially said he did not own a gun to eventually admitting he purchased a handgun for his wife.

“I thought it worked out pretty well, I thought both sides were taking shot, there was back and forth,” said lead defense attorney Stephen Richards. “There was evidence that helped us and there's evidence that didn't help us and a lot of issues were raised.”

Yedinak said the only thing surprising him to this point is the speed of the trial. He said he is expecting a full day of testimony Wednesday and possibly run into Thursday before resting his case.