12.Brittany Burke Pickle — Direct (Part 1)
153 linesBrittany BURKE, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
COURT CLERK: If you'll have a seat, please, and spell your name, spelling your last for the record.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: My name is Brittany Pickle, P-i-c-k-l-e.
DIRECT EXAMINATION By Mr. Graham:
SHAWN GRAHAM: Where are you employed, ma'am?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I am currently employed at American Lighting Store in Knoxville, Tennessee.
SHAWN GRAHAM: How long have you been employed there?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Since March of this year.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Prior to that, back in 2014 -- where were you working in 2014?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: In 2014 I was working at SLED, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And then at one time did you leave SLED?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I left SLED in February of 2016.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Back in September of 2014 what was your job responsibilities with SLED?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: My job responsibility was an agent in the crime scene unit. So my responsibilities were to respond to crime scenes as requested by other local jurisdictions or other state agencies throughout the State of South Carolina.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And did you respond to Alabama in relation to the discovery of five children?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, I did.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Could you tell the jury how you became involved in that case and how you arrived in Alabama?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, I will. I became involved in this case after receiving a call from my Lieutenant. She stated that Lexington County Sheriff's Department was requesting assistance from our crime scene unit to travel to Alabama to assist in the recovery of five deceased children that they were attempting to locate in Alabama. She provided Sergeant Novak as a contact for the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. I contacted him and he advised me of the same thing. And I arranged to meet at the Sheriff's Department at about 1:00 o'clock on that afternoon, and that would have been on September the 9th. I met at 1:00 o'clock on September the 9th at the Sheriff's Department here in Lexington and met up with crime scene investigator Glen Ross of the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, and he and I traveled to Alabama from here.
SHAWN GRAHAM: How long have you been, over your career, a crime scene analyst?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I started with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division in October of 2012.
SHAWN GRAHAM: In general terms, what does a crime scene analyst do?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: In general terms we respond to crime scenes. At SLED we only worked homicide, suicide, sexual assaults and officer involved shootings. So only a crime against a person. We did not work any burglaries or anything like that. So we responded to crimes against persons. And our job was to document the crime scene through photographs, through notes, through sketches, to locate any items of evidence, to collect that evidence in a manner as to preserve that evidence, and to take it to the lab and package it or process it as necessary.
SHAWN GRAHAM: When you arrived in Alabama what did you find?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: When I arrived in Alabama I was directed to a logging road. And after traveling up that road there were personnel from multiple jurisdictions that had arrived before I had who directed me to a spot where the victims -- the five children had been located. We located them in a wooded area off the dirt logging road in black plastic garbage bag type bags.
SHAWN GRAHAM: I'm going to show you what's been marked as State's 148 through 59 and ask if you recognize those.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I do.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And do they thoroughly and accurately reflect items that you prepared or if they are photographs of what you actually saw the day they were taken?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: They do.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Your Honor, the State would offer these into evidence at this time, 148 through 159.
ROBERT MADSEN: Judge, no objection subject to the previous objection, pretrial.
THE COURT: Pretrial objection. All right. Admitted subject to pretrial objection. (Whereupon, State's Exhibit numbers 148 through 159 were admitted into evidence.)
SHAWN GRAHAM: This is 148, are you able to see that from there, Ms. Burke?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, sir. I am.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Do you have a laser pointer? Can you explain to the jury what we are seeing on this area here?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Do I press the center button to make it work?
SHAWN GRAHAM: Pardon?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Center button?
SHAWN GRAHAM: Just press the center button.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Okay. Just making sure. This is the highway that this was located off of. This is a Google Earth picture of the crime scene. This was the entrance from the roadway. You can kind of see this logging road right, up through here is where the trees were located. I do not believe that the whole thing was built at this time. But this location -- this location right here was obtained via GPS coordinates, and that is the location that the victims were located when we were at the scene.
SHAWN GRAHAM: So if I understand, the pin mark here is the entrance off of Highway 10?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That is correct.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And the thumbtack up here was where the GPS type transponder, that is where you took GPS coordinates, correct?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. We took GPS coordinates from that spot. They are written up here, in the corner there. My eyesight's not quite good enough to read them from here. Oh, I was talking about the GPS coordinates there.
THE COURT: Let's don't publish the GPS coordinates. Just that's it, she's identified it.
SHAWN GRAHAM: The distance between the two GPS coordinates that you took, do you know what that amount, that as a bird fly's, that is a straight--
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: -- yes. That's 711.82, and I believe that would be yards there, from the entrance of the roadway to the location of the victims.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Moving to State's 149. Is this a sketch that you prepared?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. I did prepare that sketch.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And what does the sketch show?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: The sketch shows -- along the bottom it shows Highway 10. To the right here is towards Greenville, Alabama, and to the left is showing us toward -- going towards Camden, Alabama. Marker 6 right here is the item that we marked with marker number 6, which would have been a green in color drink bottle. And then markers 1 through 5 up here show the location of the victims.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's number 150. Can you explain to the jury what the purpose of this was?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. So this is showing three -- or, I'm sorry, four different Google maps here. May I refer to my notes here to read that small writing?
THE COURT: Sure.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Thank you.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Let me blow this up. In general terms, what was the purpose --
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: -- in general terms, the purpose of this sketch was to show the location of the spot where the victims was located in relation to four of the closest towns. It also shows their population of the towns to show that as it was taken during the 2010 census to show just how rural of an area that this area was.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Starting on the bottom of the left of the sketch that you prepared, what are you trying to depict here?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That was the closest town that I could find on the map, or community, and it was of Oak Hill, Alabama. And it was approximately .8 miles away according to Google Maps there and the population during the 2010 U.S. Census was 26.
SHAWN GRAHAM: So looking at the map, the red dot -- the red flag is what?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: The red flag is the location of the victims. That's the GPS coordinates used.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And the blue lines, the Highway taking you to, in this case, Oak Hill, Alabama?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That is correct.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Moving to the next closest town, is the upper left.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. This --
SHAWN GRAHAM: Can you tell the jury about that.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This one is showing from the location of the victims. Again, the red point up here, to Pine Apple, Alabama, which was the next closest there. And it's showing that the population during the 2010 U.S. Census was 132 people.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And that is approximately 5.9 miles?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That is correct.
SHAWN GRAHAM: The next closest town is on the bottom. Can you tell the jury about that?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This was from -- again, from the victim -- location of the victims at the red dot here to Camden, Alabama, which was approximately 14.3 miles and had a population of 2,020 people.
SHAWN GRAHAM: The fourth closest city that you have?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This -- this was to Greenville, Alabama, which was approximately 30.3 miles. This was over to the exit that you would get off of as you were coming down the interstate there from our direction to Alabama. From the direction here in South Carolina you would have traveled down this interstate and this was the next closest town there. And this was 30.3 miles, and the population of it was 8,135 persons.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Looking at State's number 151, could you explain to the jury what the photograph captures?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. This photograph is starting -- this is Highway 10 down here, and this is photographing up that logging road that the victims were located off of. So it's just showing you what the road looked like from the highway that you had to turn up to get to where the victims were located.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 152. How is that in relation to the first picture we saw?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: It's just us walking up that road. It's a picture a little bit further up the road there. Just photographing on the way in off the highway.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 153.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Again, the same thing. You saw that black car that you see in this picture was further in the background of the other picture. It's still just walking up the road.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 154.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Again, same thing. These cars here could be seen in the previous picture further in the background just walking up.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 155.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This is, again, same thing walking up towards where the victims were located.
SHAWN GRAHAM: The van that we see right there in that picture.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Looking at State's 156, is that the same van we see in that picture?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, it would be. As you reached up to where the road kind of took a turn to the right there was a flat spot where a top of the hill -- you got to the top of a hill and then it turned and went back down. And this van is parked up there at that top of the hill so you can see it there in that kind of flat area.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 157.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This is as you turn looking back down the hill. So if the van were still in the picture it would be over in this area. And you just turn and are looking back down the hill towards the area where the victims were located.
SHAWN GRAHAM: So, again, I guess, orient the jury, 157, that picture right there that we are looking at.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That's going to be past them down -- you can see their shadows in the picture. So the van would have been back up this way and you're down the hill looking down that way.
SHAWN GRAHAM: State's 158.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: This is going to be over to the left of that road as you're looking down the hill. This area with the crime scene tape marked off right here, you had to walk down through it and the victims were located in this foliage back in there.
SHAWN GRAHAM: So going back to 157 for a moment. The area where the crime scene tape was is where in relation to that photo?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: It's on the -- in these trees over on this side.
SHAWN GRAHAM: 159 -- 158 showed the crime scene tape. What is that we're looking at?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: 159 is just showing a picture, once you get under crime scene tape, this is what you are looking at back in that area. And the victims were located back in that area.
SHAWN GRAHAM: So the victims were kind of where?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Down in this area.
SHAWN GRAHAM: In front of the brush or on the other side?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I believe they were on the other side of this brush right here.
SHAWN GRAHAM: I'm going to show you State's number 160 and ask if you recognize that photograph?
SHAWN GRAHAM: And did you take that photograph?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That photograph would have been taken in my presence. But that one would have been taken by either the Dallas County Corner or Detective Glen Ross. I was documenting with notes as they were documenting with photographs. I was -- they were -- we were altogether. Just my job was notes and sketch and their job was photographs.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Does it fairly and accurately depict the children as you found their bodies?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: It does.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Your Honor, the State would offer 160 into evidence.
ROBERT MADSEN: Subject to pretrial.
THE COURT: Subject to pretrial, it will be admitted. (Whereupon, State's Exhibit number 160 was admitted into evidence.)
SHAWN GRAHAM: Your Honor, with the Court's permission, I'd ask that Ms. Burke be allowed to come down off the stand so I can show the jury, personally. (Whereupon, the witness stepped down from the witness stand.)
SHAWN GRAHAM: If you would, Ms. Burke, if you would explain what we're seeing here.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: What you're seeing is the location where we found the victims and the state that we found them. After finding the victims I placed a yellow evidence marker on top of each bag so that we could identify which bag was located where. The bag -- the photographs were taken of the yellow evidence marker. They were then marked with a piece of tape with that number on it, so that when we got to autopsy we knew bag number five, which location it came from at the scene. So you're seeing the five bags with the five victims located there. And the numbers are just markings so I knew which bag belonged to which victim.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And, the next--
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Again, it's the same thing. The numbers are just marking the bags so that when we got to autopsy I knew which bag was marked for which victim.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Were there any evidence of any animal activity?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: There was. Bag one was torn open. That appeared to be evidence of animal activity. There was also maggot activity. Mostly present on bags one and two, but you could see signs -- evidence of that activity on all five bags.
SHAWN GRAHAM: If you will go back to your seat. Thank you, Ms. Burke. (Whereupon, the witness returns to the witness stand.)
SHAWN GRAHAM: What, if anything, after discovering the five bags, at that time you didn't actually know they were -- what was inside the bags. Is that fair to say?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That is fair to say. We knew that there were human remains in bag one because it had been torn open and we could see. But the other four we felt like that was more than likely what was in them, but we were not certain at that time.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Because you weren't certain, what did you and the other law enforcement agents do?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: After marking the bags with those yellow evidence markers, putting a piece of tape to put which number belonged with which one. As we -- we picked up the bag and move it into a bag with a zipper that would then be tied with a seal to move to autopsy. While they were in that bags everything was contained in that bag in case something fell out. We did open each bag just enough to confirm that there were human remains in each of the five bags. We didn't want to collect all five bags and get back to South Carolina to realize two of them only had trash in them or something else. So we did open all five bags just enough to make sure that all five of the children were accounted for.
SHAWN GRAHAM: After opening the bags and confirming that there were human remains in each one of those five bags could you explain the process of how they were removed from that location from -- in Alabama to the autopsy?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. So as I said, we did -- we did -- took each child and worked with one of them at a time. We started with the bag that was marked number five. We picked it up. We moved it into the autopsy bag, confirmed there were human remains in it, zipped the bag. And then it is -- was sealed by the coroner's office in what can best be described as a zip-tie. You put it on. It clicks on. You can't remove it afterwards unless it's cut. And that's to make sure that they know that nothing -- that nobody has tampered with the remains that were in that bag from the time that it was sealed on the scene to the time that that tag is cut at autopsy. Each of those tags has a serial number on it that identifies that it only belongs on that one bag. And that process was repeated with each of the five victims at that point.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And after each of the five autopsy bags were sealed and banded, I guess, they were eventually transported back to South Carolina, correct?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: They were transported to the coroner's office in Alabama. The coroner's office in South Carolina was currently in route. They were actually transported to be put in -- to put in cold storage, or in the morgue, where they store the bodies there. Putting them in that cold storage slows the rate of decomposition and we did not want any more -- further deterioration to happen between the scene and getting there. So they were taken and put there until the coroner's office from Lexington County could get down there and retrieve them. They were retrieved by the coroner's office and brought back to Lexington, South Carolina.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Once they were brought back to Lexington County, South Carolina were you present at the autopsy?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, I was.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And can you tell the jury that happened? Who did the autopsy?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: The autopsy was conducted by Dr. Ross of Newberry Pathology, and it was conducted at Newberry Hospital.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Were you present for that autopsy?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I was.
SHAWN GRAHAM: When the bodies were received inside the bags, were the seals intact?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. All the seals were still intact on each bag.
SHAWN GRAHAM: You were present when each autopsy was performed?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, I was.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Your purpose there was to document the autopsy. Is that correct?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: That is correct.
SHAWN GRAHAM: To document the contents of the actual trash bags that were inside the body bags?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes. that were inside --
SHAWN GRAHAM: And also to collect biological samples for identification. Is that correct?
SHAWN GRAHAM: Your Honor, it is my understanding that the Defense has stipulated to the collection of samples that ultimately led to the identification of the children. That they are allowing us to go into which child was identified as being in which bag.
THE COURT: Is that fair?
BOYD YOUNG: That's correct.
THE COURT: Okay. So as I understand it, the stipulation is the remains that were analyzed for DNA were then assigned to each bag to identify which child was in each bag?
SHAWN GRAHAM: Correct.
THE COURT: Fair enough.
SHAWN GRAHAM: Ms. Burke, I'm going to show you State's -- what's been premarked as State's 161 through 165 and ask if you recognize that.
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: Yes, I do.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And did you prepare those for Court today?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: I did.
SHAWN GRAHAM: And do they document by number the names of the children and the contents of the trash bags and what the children were wearing?
BRITTANY BURKE PICKLE: They do.