Derik Brown was stopped on May 28, 2020 driving Randall Leslie’s Mitsubishi. At trial he was one of the State’s two witnesses against Donyell. Here is every account in the record of where and how he got Randall’s car, in date order, with the paper or recording each one comes from.
Quotes marked “recording” come from machine transcripts of the police recordings and are being checked by ear against the audio. The recordings themselves are the record.
Where Brown said he got the car
- May 28, 2020 · Coffee County deputy Blake Simmons, written report of the stop
Brown said he had rented the car for the weekend from a man so he could put brakes and rotors on it. He could not remember who he got it from, and said he got it at a hotel.
Source: Simmons narrative of the May 28, 2020 stop (paraphrased from the report)
Simmons narrative, May 28, 2020 - June 10, 2020 · Deputy Simmons briefing Chattanooga detectives (recording)
Brown first said he got the car from “a guy named Tom Tom … and a girl named Keke,” then that he “rented it from a guy in Chattanooga that rents cars.”
Source: Coffee County briefing recording, June 10, 2020, about 00:03:12 to 00:04:16
- June 10, 2020 · Brown, interviewed at the Coffee County Jail (recording)
He traded heroin “to rent a car from … Kiki,” through a “mutual friend … Pune.” He picked it up at night at a blue house off Bonny Oaks, a house he said he had been to “never [in] my life.”
Source: Brown interview, June 10, 2020, about 00:03:27, 00:04:57, 00:12:11, 00:57:50
Brown interview transcript pages, June 10, 2020 - June 10, 2020 · Same interview: the address comes from the detective
Reading Brown’s own phone, the officer says: “4062 Glenco … that’s where you picked up the car at.” Brown: “Yeah.” Brown did not give that address. The officer read it to him.
Source: Brown interview, June 10, 2020, about 01:26:50 to 01:27:00
- June 18, 2020 · Brown, second interview (recording) and Stokes’s report
Now the car came from “dude,” who “owed me $900.” The officer asks: “earlier you’re telling me you’re renting the car … You’re now saying the car from dude.” Brown: “Yeah.” The officer also tells him: “So the street’s called Glenn Close by the way.” Stokes’s report writes it up as: “Holland offered Randall’s vehicle as collateral for his debt owed.”
Source: Brown interview, June 18, 2020, about 00:41:33 to 00:41:49 and 00:59:51; Stokes report pages 9 to 13
Stokes report, pages 9 to 13 - November 1, 2021 · Brown’s proffer (after his federal indictment of February 9, 2021)
Holland brought the Mitsubishi “from the rear of the residence on Glencoe Street.” The report names “4062 Glencoe Street,” and says Brown “saw Randall in the back seat deceased.”
Source: Stokes Supplement, dated November 12, 2021
Stokes Supplement (Brown proffer) - April 8, 2024 · The prosecutor’s letter to defense counsel
The same pickup is now at “a residence on Gloucester Lane.”
Source: State letter of April 8, 2024
State letter, April 8, 2024 - May 15, 2024 · Brown at trial
“I was confused about the girl’s names … That’s how I was even really tricked to get over there.” Shown the State’s photo, he said he was “almost positive”: “they put the address in GPS and I’m just following the address.”
Source: Trial audio, day 2, part 3, about 00:18:45 and 00:38:58 to 00:39:17 (machine transcript, being checked)
Trial audio transcript, Brown - April 2026 · The State’s brief to the Court of Criminal Appeals
The State told the appeals court: “From where Defendant gets the impression that the State said that house was at 4062 Glencoe Street the State is unsure.” Its own lead detective wrote “4062 Glencoe Street” into the proffer report, and the prosecutor told the jury the witnesses “corroborate each other … using this Glencoe address.”
Source: State’s brief, page 27; Stokes Supplement; trial rebuttal, day 3, part 3, about 00:18:46
State’s brief, April 2026
Count them
- A man at a hotel, renting it for brake work.
- “Tom Tom” and “Keke.”
- A man in Chattanooga who rents cars.
- “Kiki,” for heroin, through “Pune,” at a blue house off Bonny Oaks.
- “Dude,” who owed him $900.
- The rear of a residence on Glencoe Street, “4062 Glencoe.”
- A residence on Gloucester Lane.
- A house he found by GPS after being “tricked” over the girls’ names.
The address that ended up in the State’s case, 4062 Glencoe, was first said out loud by a detective reading Brown’s phone. Two years later the State told the appeals court it was “unsure” where that address came from.
Donyell’s filings say 4062 Glencoe is a fenced, vacant lot. That property record is being checked before it is posted here.
What Brown said he was driving that night
- June 10, 2020: “an older Expedition … dark … green” (recording, about 01:19:35).
- June 18, 2020: “I rented that Expedition” (recording, about 00:14:22).
- At trial: “It was a suburban … forest green” (trial audio, day 2, part 3, about 00:24:20).
- The State’s brief: “Derik Brown was driving the Tahoe” (State’s brief, page 16).