2023/10/31 - Karen Coe, P.I. Ch. 01

AS: Well, I do need somthing, baby. The cash you left me is running down. Can you send me something? I mean, I guess asking you to come back to do a bit of trickin is, well, I guess you not down with that, ha ha.

DB: Good guess, Tony. What is it you want?

AS: Send me some travellers cheques, overnight them if you can. Send me $20,000 and I'll get us set up. I'm at the Lauderdale Inn on Federal Highway in Ft Lauderdale.

DB: Slow it down, Bucko. I'm back living in my house. Jason's house. The driveway is still all fucked up from the blast. I've got a couple of windows boarded up that I've gotta get fixed. I still have a mortgage and utilities. Maybe soon a funeral, too. Medical bills for sure. Lawyers bills once they catch up with me. I'm not swimming in a fucking ocean of cash. Look, I'll send you $5000. That will get you to Brazil.

AS: Wanna join me?

DB: I haven't decided whether I want to run to Brazil or jump off the roof. Those fucking babies! I don't know how I'd be able to live with myself any better in Brazil. The more I think of it, the more I just want to die.

That was the way their final phone call ended.

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As far as Deena Brenner was concerned the most revealing recording was of a conversation Antonio Soares had with a man, who sounded to be something between friend and associate. This conversation took place after Deena had purchased the bomb materials, but before the bombs were installed in the four vehicles:

Johnny Pereira: Tony-O!

Antonio Soares: J-Dog! Howsit hangin!

JP: Hangin' large, bro. Hangin large. Look, you still running with that old Ho, or you ready for some young fine? I got two barely legals coming over tonight. Man, some dust and a couple of wild things..... you down, or you still in love with that old bag?

AS: Love? Shit, she just my investment portfolio. Saggy old ass, man she almost like 30 or something. Can't fuck worth a shit. Hell man, I whore her tired ass out to old dicks who think she just platinum.

JP: Just sayin' bro, you spend more time with her than you do with the boys. We all wondering Where's Tony-O hanging. I'm telling 'em you got a sugar mama.

AS: Word, and there is some serious sugar there. Husband is loaded. But he is going away and she's cashing in.

JP: You serious about icing hubby? I thought you was just talkin'. How do you get the money if it's hers?

AS: Man, old Deena just crazy about the Tony-O, you know that. Shit, that woman is in love. She'll do what I tell her. Hubby dies, she inherits.

JP: Yeah, then she gets money. Then what?

AS: We going to Rio, J.... Look, I marry the bitch, then I get to inherit. She says she want scuba lessons. I'll fuck with her tank, hell, I'll just slash the air hose while she down there under water. I don't need no saggy-ass fossil tying me down.

JP: That's stone cold Antonio. I kind of feel bad for her.

AS: Don't go gettin all soft on me J-Dog, she ain't no innocent. That bitch up to her neck in this whole thing. She gonna have the same amounta blood on her hands as me. Law of the jungle, homi, Hubby is at the bottom of the food chain, Tony-O is at the top. Poor old Deena is just some old Ho in between. Once I got what I need, that Ho gots to go. Man, you come down and stay. I'll put you up. We be living large, bangin babes on the beach.

The recording ended.

Having heard all that, Deena had tears of rage in her eyes. She first shot a dirty look at Antonio, who merely shrugged his shoulders then looked away from her. Then she just went blank. She'd been had.

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"Your honour, my client is ready to allocute as to her involvement in the murders of Khalid Shah, Clinton Hopwood, Vanessa Voight, Olivia Voight, Priscilla Voight and Colton Voight, and in the attempted murder of Jason Brenner. She is satisfied that upon conclusion of her allocution, she will be allowed to change her plea to guilty on all counts and that she will be sentenced to death by this court in accordance with the instruction of the Justice Department."

"Thank you Ms Salazar. The court recognizes the defendant Deena Cooper Brenner. Ms Brenner, you may begin."

"Thank you, your honour. Um, I will be reading from a prepared statement. I'm not a good public speaker and I'm nervous, so I put it all on paper so that I wouldn't leave anything unremembered or unsaid. Ok, here goes. My name is Deena Marie Cooper Brenner. This is my dying declaration. I have nothing to hide anymore so I will tell everything as I understand it. Some of my explanations may come off as self-serving justifications, but let me be clear. I feel that nothing justifies what I did. My explanations are merely me reflecting what was going on in my mind at the time so that I give a full picture. Things that now make absolutely no sense to me, seemed for some reason to make some sense to me at the time. Some things that I thought were sensible at the time, seem delusional to me now."

"Now, I will cover some topics in no particular order. My first order of business here is to apologize. Not just a broad apology to ease my mind. But specific apologies to specific people. I murdered Khalid Shah. He was a son, grandson, nephew, husband, father and friend. So I apologize to Khalid Shah for stealing his life. I apologize to everyone who knew him and loved him, who are now grievously wounded by what I did."

"I apologize to Clinton Hopwood for stealing his life. He was a son, a grandson, a nephew. He was close to his cousins. He was a good friend to his ex-wife. I apologize to them. Now I have to talk about the Voights... I.... I....oh... "

Deena fell back into her chair and howled her grief. The judge looked stunned. "Ms Brenner, do you need a recess, or will you be able to continue?" She was brought a box of tissues, and she collected herself.

"I'm sorry, judge.... I'm just... the babies just hit me worse. No life lost is more or less valuable than the others, but I'm just especially broken up about the children." She continued, in a flow punctuated by weeping, sobbing, by a fistful of tissues dabbing at her eyes and blowing her nose.

"I apologize to Vanessa Voight for killing her, for stealing her life. She was a daughter and a granddaughter. She was a sister and a wife. What I have done has hurt them immensely. I killed Olivia Voight, Priscilla Voight and Colton Voight. I apologize to them for taking away their lives, so recently begun. They were beloved children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I apologize to all who loved them. My heart breaks for Tyler Voight, who lost his wife and three children in a single moment because of my evil. The murder of the Voights has hit me hardest of all. I try to find comfort, comfort that I don't deserve, that the four of them never had to suffer each other's loss. They do not endure the heartache of mourning loss. Then I get down on myself for thinking this way, but that's just the state of my mind these days."

"I tried to kill my husband, Jason Brenner. I apologize to him for trying to take his life. He was better to me than I deserved. He certainly did nothing to deserve what I did. He will carry physical scars and emotional scars and psychological scars for the rest of his life. I also hurt his family. Jason's mom and dad treated me like a daughter. His brother and sister treated me like a sister. I apologize to them for hurting them. I also apologize to my family. They have all but disowned me, and I don't blame them a bit. My sister is barely talking to me, and I am essentially dead to my parents. I have brought them shame, and I am far too ashamed myself to ask forgiveness from them or from anyone else for that matter."

"My actions frightened the community and traumatized children. I apologize to my neighbours, friends, co-workers and fellow citizens. Now I will give details of my crimes and what led up to them."

"I had a good childhood. My parents were good to me and certainly raised me better than I turned out. I have a sister two years younger than me who became my best friend. I was a good kid. I had some friends in high school. They were good kids. I was a solid B student, smart enough but no genius. Everything in my life seemed to be a B grade. Always above average but never excellent. Then I met Jason Brenner. He was grade A all the way. Going from a grade B life into a grade A relationship was an eye-opener. But I took it for granted over the years until the shine wore off."

"Druggies always remember their first high, which subsequent highs never seem to stack up to. When my marriage stopped being a novelty, I started missing that original high. My husband treated me very well. He worked hard to make a good life for us. He was saving his pennies and we were about to buy a larger house and start a family. But we were living frugally. I had a B-grade car and B-grade clothes. I took my eye off the prize, everything we were saving for. I started moping about my glass being half empty. Then the thing happened that ended my life and ultimately ended six others. I met Antonio Soares."

"We had worked across the street from each other for months when one day we met in line at the restaurant next to my office. He was nice to me and was good looking. He was about 7 years younger than me, and I was starting to feel old, neglected by my hard-working husband, bored, and nervous about starting a family. The attention from a young guy was flattering. He took an interest in me and told me that I was a beautiful lady who didn't deserve to be wearing frumpy clothes and driving a tired car. He showed me a snazzy car where he worked. Just imagining myself driving it made me feel good about myself. I told my husband about it and he bought it for me. He gave me everything I should have wanted."

"But I was more grateful to Antonio for the buzz I got from a newer car, a BMW at that, than I was to my husband for paying for it. I started wearing my best clothes because I thought it went well with my better car. I started dressing for work like I was going on a date. And I stopped by to see Antonio at the garage to learn how to use all the fancy features on the new SUV. And maybe to impress him. He would take me on the road to show me how things in the car worked, and I started stopping at places with him to eat or have a drink. Next thing I know we are dancing at a club."

"I started getting home later and later each evening, dressed too fancy for my office, reeking of club smells, like alcohol and smoke. It wasn't long before I also came home reeking of sex. Sudddenly I was off the deep end. I was partying at Antonio's place, plenty of alcohol, plenty of sex. I was having sex with his friends. I was in a haze. I never saw them put anything in my drinks, but looking back I wouldn't be surprised."

"Every night it was sex with Antonio and his friends. And the friends were different every time. He was whoring me out. I didn't realize it until a week in, when I caught him taking money from a couple of guys. He told me at first it was to cover costs for the party, but I knew better and so he split the money with me going forward. He told me to buy some nice clothes with the money and he'd set me up with some guys who could really pay. So I did, and next thing I know I was being taken out by wealthy clients to nice restaurants and having sex with them in nice hotels. Suddenly I was making between $1000 and $2000 a week, far more than my day job. I was putting money in my personal bank account."

"I was now just lost in a new world. The B-grade life was being replaced by A-grade excitement. I embraced the whole whore lifestyle and I decided I needed a whore name, too. Girls usually turn tricks under aliases and I didn't want to be called Deena on the job. Just like magic I thought of the first time I slept with Antonio and he told me Deena you're a fine girl and I thought of that song on the oldies station Brandy you're a fine girl, so Brandy became my escort name. Then Antonio got some girls to work for me and we expanded the prostitution operation. I started getting a commission from the earnings of the girls working under me."

"Now I was seeing over $3000 a week. When I was new to prostitution, I finished early and got home early. My husband was working long summer hours and I would beat him home. But as my business increased, and I worked longer hours, the colder weather shortened my husband's workday and he started to get home first. I would come home no earlier than 11 o'clock, and a few times as late as 2.30 in the morning. It was clear I was cheating on him but he had no idea how many men I was sleeping with or that I was working as an escort."

"I dreaded going home to my old B-grade life and dealing with an angry husband. I started making noise to Antonio about wanting out of the marriage. At first Antonio painted a rosy picture of me getting half of the marital assets. He said that he and I would live like kings on a sandy Brazilian beach. He worked on me a little at a time and never raised suspicions in me. I was just on autopilot and going along with whatever Antonio said, because he represented money, sex, freedom, youth and escape from boredom."

"Now, an important thing about me for you to know, is that I don't instigate. When things are going the way I like, I go with the flow. I don't ask questions or rock the boat. Everything is kind of imaginary to me, and I allow the wind to blow me around. So when Antonio and I talked divorce, it sort of fed a mood at the moment but went no further in my mind. I never actually made any moves toward a divorce. But it felt good to talk about it so I never shut down the talk. It was that same pattern of behaviour on my part that led me to where I find myself today."

"Antonio started joking about my husband Jason falling off a cliff, that if something like that were to happen, I would get 100% of the assets instead of 50. Once again, more talk. I didn't ask any questions. I didn't want to know. I guess I didn't want the bubble to pop on my new exciting lifestyle, so I didn't look too deeply into anything. Before I knew it, he was talking about actually killing Jason. He would drop these little suggestions and then quickly move the conversation to the upside, to the fun in the sun. There was no urgency on his part at that point."

"Then, one day, my husband had seen enough and now it was him talking about divorce. He didn't know what had hit him. A year ealier we were relatively happy. Yes I was getting bored, but it was still okay for me. And Jason loved me and treated me well. The change was not sudden, but it was still fast enough to make his head spin, and he had finally had it. I mentioned that Jason was now talking divorce, and suddenly Antonio had some urgency. In retrospect, I now know it was because he wanted me to get 100 percent of the assets, because he had his own plans to murder me once I got it. But at the time I didn't know that detail. Antonio was still telling me he loved me, was still telling me how beautiful I was, and still giving me the kind of energetic sex that a younger man is capable of. That plus my newfound cashflow made me see things through the lens of wishful thinking."

"I remember the day he first mentioned bombing. He had taken me somewhere nice for dinner, had bought me a beautiful necklace, which to this day I don't know if it was real or costume, but that day it felt like the Hope Diamond. He romanced me and my head was spinning, and I went along with the bombing idea. We didn't discuss particulars and the whole conversation on the topic was no more than a few sentences. It was along the lines of 'I think I can get rid of our problems fast and easy. I'll stick a bomb in his pickup and it will be quick and painless'. And I remember saying that I would never want him to suffer. And then he quickly switched topics to some happy thing about our future. But that was it in a nutshell."

"He spoke in terms of 'I've got a plan, and I can do this.' But I always treated it like a fantasy, that I would or wouldn't like this or that if it were to happen. Always hypothetical. Then he told me he could always plant a few bombs so that the police would not know Jason was the target. Once again I asked about how such a scheme would work. And Antonio would just tell me to leave everything to him. A few days later he gave me a list of things he needed me to buy, and where I should go to get them. He wanted me to use my money and he'd pay me back. And he actually did by not collecting his cut on a few of my escorting dates. So he sent me to buy a certain size of plumbing pipe, a certain number and certain size of threaded pipe ends, and some copper wiring."

"I knew what it was for. I'd seen cop shows on TV and I had to know what it was for. But in my delusion, I still imagined everything was still just fantasy. It was all talk. Nothing would ever happen. The dream about my husband disappearing was like fantasizing about winning a lottery jackpot. It would never really happen. Now, I understand that the cel phones I bought were part of the bomb construction. At the time I did not even suspect that, even though I had reason to suspect what the pipe and wiring were for. I just didn't know enough about bomb building to even connect the phones in my own mind with making a bomb explode."

"When Antonio announced that we needed to get away for a couple of weeks to Miami, I thought that it would be a fun trip, maybe a dry run for this Brazil fantasy he was always hitting me with. He did let it slip that it was time for me to kiss my husband goodbye when I left the house for our trip, because he probably wouldn't be there when I got back. Antonio told me to look Jason in the eye and smile at him when I left, and to remember when I was doing it that I was about to be free. Jason testified that the look I gave him was sort of an evil grin. I was just trying to smile, but I have to assume that my inner evil shone through because Jason saw it."

"Antonio and I got to Miami, and things cost more than we planned. So I got straight to work. I picked up some guys at the bar two doors down, called Antonio and told him to leave the room, then brought them back and had sex with them. I had sex with seven guys in the three days I was there before Jason was injured and I had to leave. I also did another three guys in the back seats of their cars. I raised about $5000 during those three days."

"I was watching TV in the hotel room the second morning. Antonio was asleep. He stayed up til 3 or 4 in the morning, playing with his burner phone. I didn't understand what he was doing at the time. I've since learned he was activating the bomb. Well, the news came on about a bombing outside of Providence. I wanted to pretend that it was just some dream. Later in the day they mentioned Mr Shah as the victim and it made me feel weird. It wasn't Jason, so it maybe had nothing to do with what Antonio and I had discussed. I deluded myself. Again, I didn't want to know."

"I went about my day. Washed my panties and bra in the bathroom sink. Went to get something to eat in the bar next door and sat by myself at the bar. Met a guy and offered myself for sex in his car for a price. We did the transaction, then I went back into the saloon, freshened myself up a bit in the ladies room, went back to the bar and met another ther guy. He didn't want to do it in the family car and risk his wife smelling something. So I told him I'd see if the motel room was available for a slight upcharge. I called Antonio and told him to make the place look presentable and then be out of there in 10 minutes. I took the guy back to my room and had sex."

"Things went on like this for a few days. The third day was almost a repeat of the second. Another bombing in the news. It wasn't Jason. It was Mr Hopwood. This time I told Antonio that I knew he had to be involved and that I wasn't taking it as well as I thought I would. He told me that things were just about over. I should have called Jason and warned him, but I didn't know how to even begin that. I couldn't say that Antonio and I were trying to bomb him to death. He'd know we'd been involved with the others and we would be in trouble. Now I wish I had. I would be in no less trouble than I am now, but I would have spared Jason what he went through and I would have maybe been able to save the Voights, I don't know for sure, but I sure do know that I gave them no chance."