Jailhouse phone calls admissible in Franklin Instagram murder trial, appeals court rules

A state appellate court has ruled that six phone calls made from jail to a suspect in a Franklin murder case that started over an Instagram post can be used as evidence in the trial.

William Brandon, 30, of the Somerset section of Franklin, is awaiting trial in the killing of Raphael Edwards, 27, at an apartment complex off Village Drive in Franklin on July 2020. Brandon has been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, unlawful possession of a firearm without a permit and certain persons not to possess firearms.

A second defendant, Chris Gardner, 31, of New Brunswick, is also facing a murder charge in the case, but the court ruling involves only phone calls between Brandon and his friend, Abubakarr King, who was incarcerated in the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center in North Brunswick, at the time.

In a recorded phone call from the jail a few weeks before the killing, Brandon told King he had been offended by an exchange he had with Edwards on Instagram, according to court papers.

Brandon said that if he saw Edwards, "I'm knocking him out," continuing, "I'm gonna do him dirty," court papers say.

Edwards was shot to death minutes before midnight on July 7, 2020, as he was leaving his apartment.

A witness told police he saw two men run past Edwards' body then get into a dark-colored car and speed away, according to court papers. Police also obtained a surveillance video showing the two men moving Edwards' car to a nearby apartment complex then returning to the scene and fleeing in a dark-colored car, court papers say.

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Two days after the killing, King called Brandon twice from the jail. In those conversations, court papers say, Brandon expressed annoyance that people in the community were claiming he was involved in the crime.

King said that whoever killed Edwards was a "known shark" and asked Brandon if he was a "shark," according to court papers.

"I'm a great white," Brandon replied, court papers say.

Two more phone calls followed as police were still looking to identify a suspect. In one of those calls, Brandon said a person had "seen God that day," according to court papers.

A fifth phone call was made on Aug. 14, 2020, the day after the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office had issued a press release asking for the public's help in tracking down a suspect.

In that call, Brandon said investigators did not have a suspect. "They just guessing," he said. "Einny, meeney, minney mo," court papers say.

But two days later police got a tip that identified Brandon as the person walking with a distinctive gait in the surveillance video. The tipster also identified the getaway car as Brandon's vehicle, a BMW, court papers say.

Police began surveillance of Brandon's home and saw him driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a temporary registration. Police then discovered he had traded the BMW for the Jeep on the same day the tip was given, court papers say.

Because Brandon had put his cellphone number on the bill of sale, the prosecutor's office determined that Brandon's cellphone had been at the scene of the killing, according to court papers.

In a sixth and final phone call before he was arrested, Brandon told King that he had "crossed all T's and dotted all I's," according to court papers.

At a pre-trial hearing Brandon objected when the prosecutor's office tried to enter the phone calls into evidence.

A Superior Court judge ruled in March that the "rapid, slightly profane and filled with slang terminology" phone calls could not be used in the trial because they are "unnecessarily prejudicial."

The prosecutor's office appealed and a state appellate court on Tuesday ruled the phone calls could be used to show that Brandon was upset over the Instagram post and would harm Edwards if he saw him.

The prosecutor's office argued that the phone calls "individually and collectively evince a consciousness of guilt, reveal (Brandon's) awareness of the circumstances of the crime, and show the efforts (Brandon) took to conceal his complicity," the appellate court wrote.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ court: Jail phone calls admissible in Instagram murder trial