The second week of the double murder trial of Rafael Aikens opened Monday with cross-examination of the Sheriff’s sergeant who headed the homicide team. Aikens is accused of killing Christy McKissic and her mother, Renee Metcalf, at their home on Bedouin Avenue in Twentynine Palms March 23, 2017. The prosecution then called a forensic pathologist, Diana Geli, who testified that both women died of gunshot wounds. McKissic was shot twice in the head; Metcalf was shot in the leg, back, and in the head. An audible gasp could be heard from those in the courtroom when autopsy photos of the two women were shown to the jury. Managing editor Tami Roleff was in the courtroom and says the prosecution’s last witness said Aikens admitted he murdered the two women…
The prosecution in the double murder trial of Rafael Aikens saved the most explosive testimony for last. Kory Brinlee, who described Aikens as “like a brother to him,” and someone he’d have taken a bullet for, testified in court Monday that the day after Christy McKissic and her mother Renee Metcalf were murdered in their home in Twentynine Palms in 2017, Aikens came in to his room and said, “Things around here are about to change drastically with me. I killed two people.” Brinlee said he thought Aikens was joking and didn’t think anything about it until Aikens’ roommate, Eric Branske, called him a week later to tell him that Aikens had been arrested for the murders. Under cross-examination by the defense, Brinlee said he never told anyone else about Aikens’ comment because he didn’t believe it, and the Aikens he knew would never do something like that. He said it wasn’t until Branske called to tell him about Aikens’ arrest that he thought, “Crap, it’s true.” Aikens’ defense attorney says he plans to put Aikens on the stand to testify in his own defense Tuesday.
Sgt Marc Goodwin still on the stand
Cross-examined by defense attorney Donald Calabria
Calabria shows the video of cars entering the base at 12:20 a.m. March 24. After a dark-colored Toyota 4Runner enters, it is followed by a silver or gold-colored four-door sedan, and another vehicle after that. Calabria asks Goodwin if the detectives investigated the drivers of those two vehicles. Goodwin says they tried, but like the driver of the Toyota 4Runner, they were never able to determine who the drivers of any of the vehicles were.
The video shows the drivers handing over identification to the gate guards, who scan them, hand the ID back, and wave the vehicles through. There is no record, it seems, of the information that was scanned by the gate guards.
Calabria asked if the detectives had DNA analysis performed on the partial condom wrapper that was found, on the bottle of Arbor Mist wine, a vape pen that was found, a sex toy in Christy McKissic’s bedroom, and in the Toyota 4Runner. Goodwin admits that detectives did request DNA analysis, but no blood evidence was found in the 4Runner, nor was any of Aikens’ DNA or fingerprints found in any of the other evidence samples. Nor did detectives find the mate to a black tube sock that was found on McKissic’s bed.
Dr. Diana Geli, forensic pathologist
Geli performed the autopsy on McKissic and Renee Metcalf. She testified to the gunshot wounds each woman received.
Christy McKissic was shot twice in the head—once in the forehead, with the bullet exiting out the lower right of her skull, above her right ear; and the other just to the right of her mouth, and exiting out behind the left ear. Gunpowder residue on both gunshot wounds indicate that she was shot from a distance of about two feet.
Renee Metcalf was shot three times: in the back of her left calf, exiting out the front of her leg after hitting her tibia; in her back (the bullet did not exit the body); and in her right cheek (the bullet did not leave the body). Geli testified that the shot in her back would have killed her in just a few minutes to a couple hours, as the bullet traveled inside her and damaged two ribs, her kidney, and her spine. Metcalf’s gunshot wound on her face also showed stippling from the gunpowder, indicating that she was also shot at a distance of about two feet.
Calabria did not cross-examine Geli.
Kory Brinlee, former Marine and good friend of Rafael Aikens
Brinlee testified that he met Aikens in 2015 and considered him a “brother, someone I’d take a bullet for.” They deployed together.
He remembered Aikens talked about McKissic and knew about their sexual relationship. He only saw McKissic once; he was with Canela and Aikens when McKissic walked into the AM/PM gas station convenience store as they were leaving, and Aikens told them later, “That was Christy.”
The day after the murders, March 24, Aikens, Brinlee, and another Marine named Gutierrez were going to Mammoth Mountain for a long weekend. Brinlee said he was in his room playing his Xbox, waiting to be released by the sergeant, when Aikens came in his room and said out of the blue, “Things around here are about to changes drastically with me. I killed two people.” Brinlee didn’t know what to think, didn’t take it seriously, and thought the Aikens must be joking, as he would never expect the man he knew to do anything like that. He never brought it up with Aikens after that, never mentioned it to anyone else.
He did think that Aikens seemed quieter during their trip to Mammoth. He said that Aikens was usually outgoing but at a bar in Mammoth on Saturday night he was quiet and didn’t dance. Not the Aikens he usually was.
Under cross-examination by Calabria, Brinlee said he thought Aikens was a good Marine, one of the best, like a brother to him, very good friends.
Calabria questioned Brinlee about who would drive Aikens around, since he didn’t have his own car. He also questioned Brinlee about how drunk he was at Edchada’s the night of the murders. Brinlee said he wasn’t drunk, he was just “buzzed.” He said he didn’t pay attention to how much Aikens had been drinking but that Canela was very drunk.
Brinlee said that Aikens insisted on parking the Toyota 4Runner owned by Mihlbachler. Calabria questioned his use of “insisted,” saying he had never told deputies that Aikens “insisted” on parking the vehicle. Brinlee said he used other words that are the same as “insisted.”
After returning from Mammoth, Brinlee went home to Oklahoma before going to a course on machine gunners, so he was not in Twentynine Palms when Aikens was arrested.
Brinlee said he learned of Aikens’ arrest when Eric Branskee called him in Oklahoma to tell him. That’s when he thought of Aikens’ statement about killing two people and thought, “Crap, it’s true.” He told Branske what Aikens had told him.
Under re-direct by the prosecution, Brinlee said that he didn’t believe that Aikens had murdered anyone until Branske told him Aikens had been arrested for the murders. He felt disbelief, was trying to let it sink in and acknowledge that what he told me was true, that he killed two people.
Brinlee said that when Aikens told him he had killed two people, he (Brinlee) was not drunk then. Brinlee said he didn’t want to believe it. Aikens was his best friend, he didn’t want to believe that Aikens killed two people.
The prosecution rested its case.
Juror number 14, one of three alternates, was excused from the rest of the case.
