What this means for Donyell
The day after Randall disappeared, the person driving his car was Derik Brown, wearing gloves and lying about how he got it. Officers searched the car and gave it back to the family.
May 28, 2020, Coffee County
- About 3 PM, Coffee County Deputy Blake Simmons stopped Randall Leslie’s Mitsubishi. Derik Brown was driving.
- Brown said he rented the car “for the weekend” from a man at a hotel. At trial the deputy said Brown wore green gloves, lied about the car, and ran.
- The deputy saw gloves and clothes in the back seat, did a “quick search,” and released the car to the family. Manchester officers searched the trunk. No report of either search has been produced.
- The State’s papers give four different accounts of where Brown’s Smith & Wesson came from: under the passenger seat, under the driver seat, found by a relative in Manchester, and seized from Brown.
The car afterward
- June 11 to 13, 2020: the crime-scene unit found suspected blood on the seat and in the trunk, and three pairs of gloves.
- A receipt from a 931 area-code business dated May 28, 2020 was in the car. Nobody tested or followed it.
- The rear seat was never tested for DNA.