3.Eric Brenton Sadreameli — Direct/Cross
146 linesBOYD YOUNG: The defense would call Eric Sadreameli.
ERIC SANDREAMELI, being first duly sworn, testified as follows:
COURT CLERK: Have a seat, sir. Once you're seated, state your full name, spelling your last, please.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Eric Brenton Sadreameli, last name is S-A-D-R-E-A-M-E-L-I.
RICK HUBBARD: Your Honor, may we approach with this witness?
THE COURT: You may. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)
THE COURT: If y'all would step in the jury room while I figure this out. Joy has got a lot of stuff to mark. Y'all don't talk about the case, step in the jury room. (WHEREUPON, the jury was excused from the courtroom for a lunch break.)
(Whereupon, a lunch break was taken.)
THE COURT: Y'all ready for the jury? I think they're ready for us. (Whereupon, the jury came into open court at approximately 2:04 p.m.)
THE COURT: But welcome back and we're ready to continue on.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. YOUNG:
BOYD YOUNG: Brenton, you've already been sworn. Brenton, in September of 2014, do you recall where you were working?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, I was working at the Capital Trial Division of the South Carolina Commission of Indigent Defense.
BOYD YOUNG: And is that the office where I was employed?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, sir.
BOYD YOUNG: And was Casey Secor also employed there?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, that's correct.
BOYD YOUNG: On September the 20th, 2014, were you in the office that day?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: No. At that time, I was with another attorney in the office, Bill McGuire, in Conway, South Carolina in court in a Capital trial.
BOYD YOUNG: Do --
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Excuse me, it may have been in a pretrial hearing, but it was for a trial in September.
BOYD YOUNG: Do you recall whether or not Casey and I came back to the office with a bunch of stuff?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I do. You guys had a number of Tupperware boxes, bags, all kinds of stuff, yeah, from the house.
BOYD YOUNG: And that was from Tim's house?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, from the house on South Lake Drive.
BOYD YOUNG: And what did we ask you to do with it?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Well, you asked me to take a picture of every single item and number them, so I started about doing that and spent a good deal of time doing that.
BOYD YOUNG: And where was -- where were those items kept like when you weren't working on them?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: We kept them in your office, the only office in that area that has a lock on the door. So during the day, you know, while we had access to them, we'd have the door unlocked, be using them and we'd put it all in there at the end of the day and keep it locked.
BOYD YOUNG: I'm going to show you some items. Is this everything that we took?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Absolutely not. There is many, many times that.
BOYD YOUNG: Okay. Did you make a list with an item number of everything and what it was and was that sent to the State?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, I believe so. I did make it and I was under the impression you sent it to the State.
BOYD YOUNG: I'm just going to go through some items. And I think with agreement from the State we're just going to sort of identify them now and we'll introduce pictures of these items at a later time so the jury can just go through the pictures of them.
RICK HUBBARD: Right. At this time, I think we'd just introduce -- showing it to the witness, but not publishing it or showing anything necessarily to the jury at this time. They're going to have photographs for that purpose.
THE COURT: He can show what was photographed as he goes. He can do that.
BOYD YOUNG: I'm just going to start off of the top, Brenton. I'm going to ask you what is that?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a spiral bound book. It's called "A Long Journey" and has a tag on here that says 908. That's my handwriting, so that has nothing to do with the court, this is just what we used in the office to keep track of everything.
BOYD YOUNG: Do you know what the "Long Journey" is about?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I believe that it is -- I looked it up at one point and know it has to do with religion.
RICK HUBBARD: My understanding, he's just going to show it to him.
THE COURT: That's right. And the numbers on it are the numbers that the Defense team notified the State of the things they removed from the house to keep track of what was what.
BOYD YOUNG: Right.
BOYD YOUNG: I'm going to show you what -- the Defense number was 811 and ask you if you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is the "New International version, the Bible Promise Book". The subtitle is One Thousand Promises from God's Word.
BOYD YOUNG: I'm going to show you, the Defense number was 814, what was that?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: It's a hardbound book called "At the Name of Jesus".
BOYD YOUNG: The Defense number was 923, what was that?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: "The Oneness of God". Again, this is my handwriting on the tag on there.
BOYD YOUNG: Number 918, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: "The Basics of Biblical Hebrew", and I'm under the impression that this is a kind of textbook form of -- has to do with grammar. It says it on the cover.
BOYD YOUNG: And I think the number came off that one, do you know what it is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This one, yeah, at one time -- and if you want, I can tell you what it was. This was our number 294 at one point. I guess the number is not on there, but it's "My First Read and Learn Book of Prayers", a children's book.
BOYD YOUNG: Your Honor, may we approach?
THE COURT: Sure. (Whereupon, a bench conference was held in the presence of the jury but out of the hearing of the jury.)
BOYD YOUNG: 954, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: 954 is "Hebrew to English. I believe it's a Holy scripture.
BOYD YOUNG: Is that a copy of The Torah.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, and it's obviously in Hebrew and English. It's got a translation.
BOYD YOUNG: Does it say in the front of it where it came from?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes. Here it's handwritten and it says, Presented to Tim Jones by Amber Jones 6/29/08, Happy Anniversary, I love you.
BOYD YOUNG: Defense 905, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: 905 is a black three-ring binder. Yes, this one has got worksheets for learning Hebrew, basically, the alphabet.
BOYD YOUNG: 829, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a small school-type folder, green folder and it's got some handwritten, it looks like practice for some of the Hebrew characters and some translations.
BOYD YOUNG: 920, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a book, "The New Birth", volume two, and it says Pentecostal Theology.
BOYD YOUNG: 952, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: 952 is, "The Complete Guide to Bible Prophecy".
BOYD YOUNG: 953, what is that?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is "Practical Holiness, a Second Look", volume four. And this also has -- this must be a series of Pentecostal Theology.
BOYD YOUNG: And 948, what is this?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Again, this is from the same series. This is "In Search of Holiness", volume three.
BOYD YOUNG: 941, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a hardback book that says on the front "The Strongest Strong's Exhausted from Words of the Bible". There are other subtitles on there as well.
BOYD YOUNG: So 940, 939 and 950, do you know what these are?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yeah, these appear to be -- well, let's start with 950 is a Red Bull can that I believe there's been previous testimony describing this looks like it was used to smoke something. And then there's -- 939 is the -- is a pouch that has a donkey with a shovel and it says, I believe, No Mames, M-A-M-E-S, and it's got other writing on it. 940 is Scooby Snax, pop-free product, blueberry bliss. And I put them in these bags. We didn't fill it out because at that time we were just going by those numbers.
BOYD YOUNG: 944 and 945, do you know what those are?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This, again, looks like one of these is Scooby Snax, it's S-N-A-X, limited edition, potpourri, strawberry smash. 945 is Cloud Nine blueberry Mad Hatter second generation legal herbal sachet, I guess is how you pronounce that. And it's got additional writing on there as well.
BOYD YOUNG: 883, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a textbook here. This is "Biblical Hebrew A, Units 1 to 30".
BOYD YOUNG: And the number came off of that one, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yeah. This one is -- at one point bore a number that was in my writing that was 284. And this is -- we have photographs of that, "My Favorite Bible Storybook for Early Readers". It's obviously a children's book.
BOYD YOUNG: And this one?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Same thing with this. This is "Beautiful Bible Stories and Bible Story Collections", also, a children's book. And this one at one point was our number 49.
BOYD YOUNG: 899, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is a spiral-bound, looks like a textbook and it's for a class, I guess it's B-I-S 3523, Advanced Languages One. And it's for the session of spring 2011.
BOYD YOUNG: 438, do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yeah. This is a child's tee-shirt, navy blue polo shirt with J-A-C Junior Epistolic Crusaders embroidered on the front left shoulder -- chest.
BOYD YOUNG: The number came off that. Do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This one is -- this was 645. It's a children's handwriting workbook, "My Writing Book". And under the name portion as a text is Eli Jones.
BOYD YOUNG: Do you know what that one is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is -- it's a spiral-bound notebook with graphing paper on it. It's 633, our 633. This one has a couple of drawings. It looks like balloons. One of them says, Daddy is good, in the child's handwriting. And the other says, I love Daddy.
BOYD YOUNG: Let me show you four kids books and if you would just tell for the record what they are and who they appear to have come from in the front cover.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Sure. So the first one is "It's Not Fair" and it looks like it's got some Sesame Street characters on it. The second one is "Oh, Cats". The third is "Ten Monsters in a Bed" and the fourth is "The Little Penguin". And I believe -- let me doublecheck to make sure. I believe every single one of these, the inside cover bears the name McKinney. This one is K. McKinney for "Oh, Cats". This one says Mrs. McKinney, "Ten Monsters in a Bed". "The Little Penguin" just says simply McKinney. And "It's Not Fair", the Sesame Street one has a stamp that says this book belongs to Mrs. E. McKinney, M-C-K-I-N-N-E-Y.
BOYD YOUNG: Do you know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This one is -- this was our number 621, and, again, the number's not on there. This is a black and white composition notebook and it has some scratching and scribbling, it looks like, but on the front, it has the name Merah. You want me to open it up? It has some children's drawings on the inside as well.
BOYD YOUNG: Okay. Number 240?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Number 240 is Lisa Frank giant coloring and activity book. It says, "Puppy Love".
BOYD YOUNG: Number 211?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Again, 211 is like a writing textbook. I think it's like for a child to practice their forming letters and numbers. It's "Letters and Numbers for Me". And under the name part, it says -- it looks like somebody wrote Nathan and then it was corrected with the H to say Nahtahn.
BOYD YOUNG: And do you know what that one is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This is another -- let's see, this one is -- this is number 646. Just like the 645 a moment ago, this is a book that says "My Writing Book". In here, it says Merah Gracie Jones handwritten at the bottom.
BOYD YOUNG: Couple more.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This appears to be -- this one is -- let me get the number for this. I'm not sure what our number is, but I guess it's relevant here. This appears to be a homemade book by a child. It's made -- the outside is made with green construction paper. You want me to read the --
BOYD YOUNG: That's okay.
BOYD YOUNG: You know what that is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yep, I recognize this. This is a sign that says, Repent. It's obviously hand drawn and it's got some felt cut outs and crosses and various things attached to it.
BOYD YOUNG: (Attorney hands witness piece of evidence.)
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Again, this says the same sort of -- it's got hearts and crosses, felt and this one says, Baptized. It looks like it was colored by a child.
BOYD YOUNG: (Attorney hands witness piece of evidence.)
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Again, this one here says Holy Ghost and it is similar style.
BOYD YOUNG: (Attorney hands witness piece of evidence.)
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: This has two sides. The first side is -- looks like a children's crayon drawing with some tempera paint on the back. And then on this side, it says -- you want me to read this?
BOYD YOUNG: Yes.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: It says in a child's handwriting, Dear Mommy, come back, Merah. It says, You have to stay so we can be happy. And then again, so we can be happy. And then it says Merah in crayon.
BOYD YOUNG: This red bin, do you recognize this?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yeah, that was -- I believe it was taken intact like that from the house on South Lake with everything in it. It's got -- from what I recall, it's got manila folders that have -- that are -- I think they're separated by the child's -- I mean, it's drawings and school materials and they're separated by the child and I believe their age as well.
BOYD YOUNG: And that's, basically, all their schoolwork?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yep. And that's how it was found. I've been informed by y'all that's how it was found at the house.
BOYD YOUNG: All this stuff that's not here, do you know where that stuff is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yep. I wasn't -- I don't believe I was present at the time. But I heard many references in the offices between you and the other attorneys before and after. I believe at some point, you guys had an occasion for Ms. Amber Kyzer to come by and take -- I think she looked through a variety of things and took some stuff that she wanted as well as the Defendant's parents and some other family members had a chance to come and go through it and take what they wanted.
BOYD YOUNG: Thank you, Brenton. That's all the questions I have.
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY MR. HUBBARD:
RICK HUBBARD: Your name again is?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Brenton Sadreameli.
RICK HUBBARD: We've met, I'm just horrible with names.
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Yes, sir.
RICK HUBBARD: All this stuff, all the religious material, this is stuff Tim Jones abandoned when he left his home?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I -- I -- I really can't say. I mean, I wasn't there. I just know that they brought it and brought it to the office at one point.
RICK HUBBARD: You are -- enough with the office to know that he made it clear he wasn't coming back. That's why y'all could go in, right?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: Again, I wasn't there. I was in Conway getting ready for another death penalty trial. I just know when I got back, they explained to me and it showed up.
RICK HUBBARD: Just did what they were telling you to do. All of it's kid stuff. All that stuff, it was left at the house, right?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I'm under the impression that it came from South Lake, the house at South Lake.
RICK HUBBARD: It was --
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: There's also pictures of it.
RICK HUBBARD: It wasn't found in his car when he was arrested?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I would have no reason to think that.
RICK HUBBARD: So he didn't take it with him when he went off to Mississippi?
ERIC BRENTON SADREAMELI: I would assume that would be physically impossible.
RICK HUBBARD: Me, too.
RICK HUBBARD: Thank you.
THE COURT: All right. You may step down. Mr. Secor.
CASEY SECOR: The defense calls Micah Sutton.
THE COURT: Okay.