What this means for Donyell
Brittany Lanham was recorded 18 months after Randall died, while she sat in jail on a drug charge, after the detective told her the case, the timeline and what “the jury needs to hear.” Her story then changed again by trial. Her claim that Randall bled heavily in the camper is contradicted by the TBI lab.
When and how she was recorded
- Police had her name by June 25, 2020. They recorded her on December 9, 2021, while she was in custody at Silverdale on a 46-gram methamphetamine charge she said was sweetener.
- She asked, “Do I need my attorney present?” The detective: “We are not charging you with anything in that at all.”
- Later in the interview: “we could relocate you.” She was taken out of the jail and bought Burger King.
- At trial she denied any offers, protection or money.
- That recording is in only one of the three versions of the detective’s case file.
The detective told her the story first
- Before she said anything about the event, the detective told her Brown was “fully testifying” and the “other guy” faced never getting out.
- He gave her the 911 facts: “a single gunshot” and “a female scream.” Then: “we knew that you were probably the girl that screamed.”
- He gave her the clock: “five minutes there, five minutes there … 31 minutes, right?”
- He asked for “something that the jury needs to hear,” whether Randall was “pleading.” Her first answer: “He didn’t say that … he was just in shock.” Then she gave the pleading.
- He told her who was cleared: “Playa D didn’t kill him, cuz we can prove that by our cell phones.” Brown’s phone downloads have never been produced.
- He said the purpose out loud: “You fill in gaps … The jury will not have a problem finding him guilty.”
Her story changed by trial
- On the 2021 tape, Stockton Drive is never mentioned. At trial, Randall was taken to Stockton.
- On the tape, the body was picked up by “two black males and one female.” At trial, by “the minivan.” In the State’s opening, by Brown at a corner on Glencoe.
- On the tape, her phone came back “a whole week later.” At trial, “four days later.”
- At trial she named Glencoe Street because, in her words, she “looked on the Google Maps.”
The evidence says otherwise
- She told police Randall bled “a lot” in the camper. The TBI tested the camper fabric: “Presumptive chemical testing did not indicate the presence of blood.”
- She told the detective Donyell shot Randall in the driveway. Nothing at that driveway was ever collected or tested.
Quotes from police recordings and trial audio come from machine transcripts that are being checked by ear against the recordings. The recordings themselves are the record.