Brooks murder trial update; another business owner murdered in Charlotte (11-11-2025--Hour3)

What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to vpeteclendershow dot com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button. Get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All right, So, the trial for the murderers of Scott Brooks, the well known restauranteur in No Dah neighborhood in just north of Uptown called No Da. It'll resume tomorrow. There's no trial today because of Veterans Day. Prosecutors though this is according to wsoctv's Hunter Saints. Prosecutors have presented surveillance footage showing two masked suspects approaching the business. This was back in twenty nineteen. It has taken six years for this case to come to trial. Scott Brooks and his twin brother owned Brooks's Sandwich House and he had approached the business. He was opening up for the day. It was early in the morning. I think it was like four in the morning or so. The assistant DA trying the case, Heidi Pearlman, said, their business talking about the murderers, alleged murders, Their business was shooting when things didn't go their way. She has been allowed to bring in evidence of other murders, and so she's making this connection that this is basically the mo of these defendants. It's to rob people and then murder them, so there are no witnesses. The footage showed Scott Brooks aviving at his restaurant before sunrise, unaware that the armed suspects were following him. Prosecutors detailed that after Brooks was robbed, he attempted to defend himself with a gun from his coat pocket, and the murderers then shot him. They got about one hundred bucks in cash. Quote. As soon as Scott pulled it out and tried to protect himself, one of the defendants started firing and he did not stop until Scott was on the ground. That's according to the assistant DA Pearlman. The defense is attempting to cast doubt on the investigation. See we have to ignore the video of the murder because the problem was the investigation. See She said that the crime scene was not properly handled by CMPD. That's going to exonerate these guys, see after they were caught on video murdering Scott Brooks. It's the way the CMPD handled the crime scene after the fact. That's the reason why we can't be sure that the guys on the video murdering Scott Brooks are not the guys that murdered Scott Brooks. I guess well, look, sometimes you don't have a strong defense to mount Okay. Laura Baker, defense attorney for one of the murderers. Alleged murders, question the integrity of the crime scene, stating quote, is that a problem for your original crime scene when people come in and stash their trash on your original crime scene? Yes? So, I guess what, maybe some homeless people made their way into the crime scene or something. Because he wasn't discovered immediately, his body was found a couple hours later, if I recall, prosecutors alleged that defendants Steven Staples and Terry Conner had a pattern of robbing cash only businesses and then killing victims to cover up their crimes. A CMPD officer testified about another homicide, a double homicide that has been linked to these two defendants. It involved a man and a woman found dead in a range rover with their hands and faces taped. So just for a moment, think about their final moments. These people were executed in their car in Charlotte. They had their hands wrapped up in tape and their face is wrapped up in tape. I imagine it could be like over their mouths, mouths and eyes. And then murder that executed in their car. That's that's the double murder that's connected to Scott Brooks's murder. I recall that there was Yeah, So they are accused of robbing and shooting Brooks to death at four forty five am December ninth, twenty nineteen, as he was preparing to open Brooks's sandwich house. I had the to do to do in one of these stories here, Oh yeah, there it is. The suspects have extensive criminal records are connected to several homicides. Staples, at eighteen years old, carjacked a public works truck and trailer before crashing it and taking off. Staples and his buddies were then arrested after that for kicking in hundreds of doors, hundreds of doors across the city. An armed robbery sent Staples to prison in twenty ten. He was released in twenty sixteen. Three years later, he went on a killing spree shortly after investigators shortly after he allegedly murdered Scott Brooks. Investigators said Staples became their suspect in a December twenty third, twenty nineteen slag of Anthony Leeks, also in Charlotte. So again they're murdering these people days before Christmas. Like the wreckage, the absolute wreckage that these men have left in their wake is an abomination and is an indictment on everybody that has had any interaction with them in the criminal justice system. It is shameful and people are dead because of it. The people, I would point out, the people that pay for the justice system through their tax dollars, that pay for an umbrella of security so they may lead peaceful, productive lives, engaging in commerce that generates revenue for all of these city functions and all of the projects that you guys want to build, all of the bright and shiny things. These are the productive members of your society that are being hunted and pray to upon by these career criminals that go on murder sprees. Staples and Connor, whom detectives called partners in crime, were also charged in a double homicide involving Asa Shannon and Chavon Joseph, who were found dead in their range rover as I mentioned, along a Tondo Avenue January eleventh, twenty twenty. Both shot in the head the home they were associated with, which is a weird way to say that, but I guess they lived there or rented it or something. But they had ransacked their home and burglarized their home, so they murdered them and they took I guess they found out where these victims lived from maybe the car registration in the glovebox, maybe on their driver's license, from their wallet purse, and then they went to the home, or maybe they went to the home first, or maybe they went to the home and kidnapped these people and then murdered them along a Tondo Avenue. I'm not sure the details. Judge trosh said that the crimes on a Tondo Avenue and at Brooks Sandwich House shared a similar motive, which was getting quick cash and allegedly killing to avoid being identified. So we allowed it to come in as evidence. The suspects defense attorneys hope the other case would not be allowed in as evidence, but it will be. Oh Staples, he had already pleaded guilty to second degree murder for killing a guy up in Hickory on January twenty third. He's already imprisoned for that one, infuriating you know. Stories are powerful. They help us make sense of things, to understand experiences. Stories connect us to the people of our past while transcending generations. They help us process the meaning of life, and our stories are told through images and videos. Preserve your stories with Creative Video. Started in nineteen ninety si Evan in Minhill, North Carolina. 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Also, yes, I have played the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard and now the Navy. One remains. Which one is it? I did the alphabetical also, so this like there's I was going to go random, but then I was like, no, I don't want people to accuse me of playing favorites or anything like that, so I just did them alphabetically. So that's a hint for you for the last one. So not far from where Scott Brooks was murdered in twenty nineteen in the Noda neighborhood, there's another neighborhood outside of Uptown Charlotte. It's called Plaza Midwood. In this story from four days ago, Monroe police set a suspect connected to a double homicide in Monroe is the same man responsible for another killing in North Charlotte. Adam Latif Mercado, thirty four, of Monroe, killed two men at an apartment complex in Nelda Drive in Monroe. He stole one of the victim's cars and drove it to a Plaza Midwood warehouse where he then killed Gerald Thomas Barnes, sixty eight years old, in the warehouse on Central Avenue. It was about ten pm. Surveillance video showed Mercado walk up to Barnes at about two pm and showed him showed him, opened up his book bag and showed Barnes something in the book bag. The video shows Mercado then stabbing Barnes multiple times before stealing his wallet and his car. So the murder occurred at two o'clock in the afternoon, but his body was not discovered until ten pm. That was from WSOCTV. Also from WSOCTV in I think this was the one of the first stories that they put out on this. Yeah, this was one of the first stories. He showed him something in the backpack before stabbing him in the neck. The suspect demanded the victim's car keys. The suspect then stabbed the victim more times after he was given the keys. The suspect then stole the victim's wallet and his vehicle, the Honda fit vehicle. Barnes's family expressed their devastation and frustration, believing that the system failed them by allowing Mercado, who has a wait for it, a lengthy criminal record dating back to two thousand and nine, to remain free. Yeah. Yeah, you should be frustrated with a system that allows this man to continue to walk the streets, as should the family of the other two people who were murdered. The family of Gerald Thomas Barnes said they knew something was wrong when he did not check in on them. They got very concerned about him when they called the warehouse Thursday afternoon and he did not answer. And that's unusual because in addition to being a businessman being a productive member of our Charlotte community, he was also his wife's caregiver. He and his wife were married for twenty five years, and he always answered his phone. He wasn't answering the phone. His family got very worried. They contacted an employee that had a key to the business, and when he entered the warehouse, he found Barnes's body. Charlotte Mecklburgh police then contacted Monroe police because the stolen car at the warehouse. At the scene, they ran the tags and they said, this belongs to somebody in Monroe. They call Monroe police, you may want to go do a wellness check at these apartments. When police arrived a couple hours later, they found Matthew Charles Moody fifty two and James Curtis Wallace forty nine, dead inside a first floor apartment. Mercado was taken into custody in Anson County and transferred back to Mecklenburg to be charged. Investigators in Monroe say there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment and they have not released the cause of death. So this guy went on a triple homicide murder spree. It's infuriating, all right. 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I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Let me jump over here to the phone lines and chat with Teresa. Welcome to the show, Teresa. How are you? I'm fine? How are you? I'm doing all right? What's going on? Well? I am the young lady that Adam Mercaro tried to come into my office on me because I was evicting his girlfriend and my case and some other cases is what seeming to prison. They told me that he wouldn't be out before twenty twenty six, so I kind of, you know, relaxed a little bit. I quit carry my gun because you know, he had been on ankle monitor and cut it off. So I had been really worried till they caught him again. Well, I'm at the store about to months ago, and I hear somebody yell derogatory name, and I looked up and it was him, and I was so shocked that he was out of prison. Nobody contacted me, Nobody told me. I mean, this is a man that came tried to come up in my office with two guns, a knife. He had on gloves and a mask. He wasn't coming in there to see what I wanted for lunch. Coming in there, I guess to try to hurt me. Of course, Yeah, it sounds like it, all right. So how long ago was this? Twenty eighteen is when the day after Christmas was the day he tried. To come up in here, all right, And so he was He had a girlfriend who was renting a property that you owned. No, I'm a property manager. Oh gosh, I've been. Doing this same property here for about twenty nine years. And I had moved her from where he came from Monroe to him. Oh, and I had promised her. I told her to promise me she wouldn't have no dealings with him and that so she had a restraint in order. And I said, if he comes around now and you start letting him, I'll have to put you out. Well, she did good for about two years, and then all of a sudden, here he started coming, and so I sent her an eviction letter because of it. And I believe he thought that if he come in here, because I was I guess I was about sixty six back then. He I think he thought he could scare me that he'd be coming here on me. He could scare me and I would leave and the eviction would go away. But it wouldn't have went away. Whoever sits down at this job is gonna do the same job I'm doing. So you yeah, so you sent the letter. How soon after the letter did he show up? Well, she had thirty days to be out and we were doing court the week after December twenty sixth, and he came in. It was like two weeks later. He came in on December twenty sixth, tried to come in right. So it's what he couldn't get through the door or something. Well know what happened was, and I tell people all the time when I tell this story, is that God had his hands on me. My son worked late and for some reason that day he called me and he said, Mama, where are you at. I said, I'm in the office. He said, I got to see you. I said, what do you mean? He said, I just I feel the need to see you. So he come up here. So when Adam opened up the door, he thought it was just going to be me and I have another elderly assistant. He thought it was just going to be two women in here. He didn't expect to see a man sitting there. And when he snatched up the door saw my son, and I got a big son. He slammed the door shut and my son said, Mama, that guy had on a mask and everything I said, just locked the door. I figured it was somebody that had gotten off the bus, you know, because we deal with a lot of homeless people sometimes. And next thing I know, it wasn't ten minutes. He was trying to rip the back door off. He was like a crazy man trying to pull my back door down. So you'd gone around to the back of the property to try to gain access that way after he got scared away from the front door. Yeah right, and so then so how did he so how did he end up leaving the property? Well, I called the comps and I said, look, y'all need to come on. He's trying to tear my back door down. And they got here. They must have been pretty close, and they got here, and they chased him down and they got him at the apartment complex down below me. And they didn't bring him up here for me to see him. But when they when they came in, they said he had two guns and a knife, Miss Teresa, And I said, well, I don't take cash, so what would he be wanting to rob me for? She said that they said they didn't know. Well, I left and went I went on home because it kind of shook me a little bit sure, And of course I got to the grocery store and I got a call from a detective and he said, we're just trying to figure out why this guy from Monroe is all of a sudden in Charlotte. He said, we arrested him three weeks ago for breaking into the funeral home down below you. And I said from Monroe. I said what's his name? And he said Adam and I said Adam Mercardo. He said yeah yeah. I said, oh lord, he wasn't coming to rob me. I said, he was coming either to hurt me or kill me or try to scare me. I'm a victim his girlfriend. Right, So where do you mind saying? Where? Like what part of town you were working in at this time? Oh? I worked right here off of Freedom Drive upside apartments on Freedom Driving TONSLS. Okay, so then all right, so they arrest him for that, and they what put him on. He gets released on an ankle monitor. After that, Well, he didn't get released immediately, and I was going to go do a restraint order and the cop said, ah, he'll not get out. You don't got to worry about it. And a restraint their owner is only good as the papers written, only if they don't abide, bye, So don't worry about it. Well, it wasn't a month or so. They let him out on electronic martyring. They didn't call me, but the detectives called me and said, look, he's out on electronic monitoring. So that's when I started chilling in my gun. Right. Well, it wasn't. Oh god, I can't remember. Now, three weeks a month, I get a call at about eleven thirty at night, Miss Hunt. He's cut off the monitor bracelet. You need to be careful. And so this was This would have been. Another two and a half months to catch him. So this would have been like twenty nineteen timeframe. Yes, okay, so they did. How did they end up catching him? Do you know? I think they got him in a traffic stop if I'm not mistaken, okay. And so at that point then he gets taken too what Mecklenburg jail and he stays there, yes, okay. Yes, he remained there till we went to court. And uh. And it's like everything he had a he had a list of charges and I've never understood this, but they break that and dismissed the majority of them, and they only keep the ones that are giving the most time, like the gun having a gun by failing and the breaking and entering I think at the funeral home. So I was there that day and I spoke, did they dismiss yours? Yes? They threw out the charges that he that he had caught for coming to your place. They tossed this, So is that a plea deal? And there is. Yeah. Their excuse to me was, you know, it's really not that much time. You know, we're just gonna give him these these heavy, heavy ones that he'll. Serve eight years for which he did not serve. Serve. No, he didn't serve I know, a year. I don't think. Wait say that again. I don't think he served a year of that eight years, not. A not even a year of an eight year sentence. I don't think he served much time at all. Yeah, because then he I mean, obviously he's out and this would have been around what at this point twenty twenty when he went to trial, right, and. Nobody told me anything. I didn't get a phone call. Because you were because you're charging. So that's it. So you're the charges against you got drapt or the charges against him for what he did to you. They tossed those out. So now you're not listed anymore as a victim. So now they're not contacting you because there's no record that you're connected to his his release. Correct. Unbelievable. Well, Teresa, I'm glad you're okay. He is in prison or he's in jail now. Unfortunately, three other people are dead. Worry about him now? Yeah three other men. My worrion days over him are gone. Yeah. Well it is still the Mecklenburg County court system, so you don't you don't know. Yeah, uh, Teresa, thanks so much for calling. I do appreciate it. You're welcome, all right. Take care of you, Glad you're okay. There you go like that's and for every Teresa, I'm sure there are dozens of others just you know, hunted by these predators that our court officials keep letting loose and our justice quote unquote justice system keeps letting loose. I don't understand it. I've tried to give people the benefit of the doubt. I've tried not to ascribe motive to people that are involved in the system that just let people walk out. And I'm just I'm at a loss. 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Former congressman, former state lawmaker, former Mecklenburg County commissioner, Conservative Republican. He's been working up at the Office of Management and Budget deputy director. A senior White House official confirmed this to The Federalist. Bishop served as a Conservative stalwart in Congress since twenty nineteen. He could start serving as US Attorney as early as this week on an interim appointment while awaiting Senate confirmation. But we'll see. Bishop was already confirmed once by the Senate in a fifty three to forty five vote earlier this year to take on that number two spot at OMB. So that sounds like a party line vote, which is unfortunate because Dan is supremely qualified for the gig. Bishop also served on the House Judiciary Committee as well as the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Oh, I see, that's why Democrats didn't want to. As a lawyer, he was a commercial litigator for nearly thirty years, receiving accolades in legal circles like Business nc's legal Elite multiple times, as well as being selected by super lawyers multiple times. I don't think they say it like that. It's not required that you say it like that. I just always say it like that. I don't know what super lawyers are. I guess they're just really good super Maybe. Before serving in US Congress, Bishop served in the North Carolina State House. He served in the Senate. He was a county commissioner. That's actually where I met him back in the day. He got a degree in business administration from UNC Chapel Hill as well as his law degree there. As US attorney, he would be in charge of all federal law enforcement in the middle District of North Carolina. That is not Charlotte. We are in the western district. But he may be coming home, all right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast, so if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to dpecleanershow dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.