Pod Insights Murder With My Husband 254. The Woman Who Dreamed a Murder About this episode In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the eerie case of Sheila Trott, who claimed to dream about her friend’s murder—only for the details to match reality. Was it a premonition or a confession?
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Case Sources:
CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/media/48-hours-sheila-trotts-letter-about-kelly-brennans-murder/
WESH.com - https://www.wesh.com/article/jury-finds-sheila-trott-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-slaying-of-kelly-brennan/4436576
WFTV.com - https://www.wftv.com/news/local/testimony-resumes-brevard-love-triangle-killing/107206266/
ABCNews.go.com - https://abcnews.go.com/US/mayors-wife-faces-trial-florida-love-triangle-slaying/story?id=25372739
MyNews13.com - https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2014/9/15/trott_murder_trial
Murderpedia.org - https://murderpedia.org/female. G/g/graham-trott-sheila.htm#google_vignette
FloridaToday.com - https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/crime/2014/09/16/graham-trott-found-guilty-sentenced-to-life/15743869/
SA18.org - https://sa18.org/press/id/536
Legacy.com - https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/floridatoday/name/kelly-brennan-obituary?id=21925967
VeroNews.com - https://veronews.com/2018/10/18/love-triangle-convicted-killer-seeks-new-trial/
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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0:45 Payton Moreland? You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.
0:52 Garrett Moreland? And I'm back. And I'm Garrett Moreland.
0:55 Payton Moreland? And he's the husband.
0:55 Garrett Moreland? And I'm the husband.
0:56 Payton Moreland? I wasn't sure you would be able to be back this week. So I'm actually really happy. You guys should have seen what he looked like.
1:04 Garrett Moreland? No, for those who don't know, this will be my 10 seconds as well. I got a hair transplant. I've got no problem saying it. I went and got one and I'll be honest. It was rough. Not the procedure itself. That part was great. Everything went smooth, but the next few days after that were rough. I still haven't really been able to sleep at night. I'm on day about nine or 10 and I just sort of have a lot of pains and stuff, but it's getting there. I'm taking some pain medication. My face was, my face, my eyes were swollen shut on day like three. It was, it was crazy. I wasn't expecting that.
1:47 Garrett Moreland? Kind of glad no one told me because I don't know if I would have done it, but also not everyone reacts the same way that I reacted. It's kind of what happened to me. If you're watching on YouTube, you can see a bunch of scabs in the front. So all right here is just pure scab. That's why it looks like a straight line.
2:05 Payton Moreland? Genuinely, people don't understand how swollen your face was. He looked like he had just gone literally out of a UFC fight where he didn't throw one punch the entire time.
2:17 Garrett Moreland? No, it was, I didn't know a face could get that swollen. Like, it looked like my head was like Play-Doh. It was like demented.
2:25 Payton Moreland? We'll tell people, oh, his eyes are swollen and they'll be like, oh, yeah. And then I'll pull up a picture and they'll be like, oh, my gosh.
2:31 Garrett Moreland? I'm like, no, you don't understand. Like, my whole entire face was like a balloon.
2:35 Payton Moreland? Like, his, his head was swollen.
2:38 Garrett Moreland? It was bad. It was pretty bad. Not swollen anymore. My head just hurts, but.
2:44 Payton Moreland? Hair grew back so fast.
2:46 Garrett Moreland? I'm getting there. Here I am. So that's why I was gone. I don't know. I don't got much to say. I'm not gonna lie. It's been a, been a pretty tough week. I am really tired. I haven't slept for a week, but you know, that's okay. I'm making my way. I chose it. I did it to myself. And Daisy's barking at me to go outside, so I'll pass it off to Peyton.
3:08 Payton Moreland? All right, you guys, our sources for this episode are CBSnews.com, WESH.com, WFTV.com, ABCNews.GO.com, MyNews13.com, Murderpedia, FloridaToday.com, SA18.org. So I think that most of us can relate to having a bad nightmare from time to time. You know that feeling of waking up in a cold sweat, remembering every vivid little detail, like, maybe it was just a little too real. But a few minutes after returning to reality, most of us can shake it off. Like, genuinely, when I have a nightmare, I actually shake it off. And then, a dream at that point is just a dream. And there's nothing real or truthful about them, at least
3:52 Payton Moreland? not usually. But every once in a while, those nightmares leave us with a lingering feeling, a what if, maybe like an omen, a premonition. The question is, do you act on it?
4:06 Payton Moreland? Well, if you asked Sheila Trott, she would say she didn't have a choice. When she had a dream about one of her good friends dying, she had to tell someone. And because her premonition was right, it actually put her at the center of a murder investigation. I mean, imagine that. Imagine having a dream that one of your friends is dead. And then you go to police and say, hey, and then it turns out she was murdered. And police are like, well, you're, you know, how did you know that?
4:36 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, I feel like that could happen a lot. You know what I'm saying? That for like, it's someone who's close to you. It's your family. It's your friends. I feel like I've had dreams that friends and family are dead. I think the coincidence of it happening is pretty crazy, but I do feel like it's pretty plausible.
4:50 Payton Moreland? Okay.
4:51 Garrett Moreland? Just saying.
4:53 Payton Moreland? So it's 2010 and we are in Indie Atlantic, Florida, a tiny little town on the eastern coast with no more than 2,800 people at the time. Okay, 2,800 people in 2010. And this is where 46-year-old Kelly Brennan lives. And while I don't know a whole lot about Kelly's upbringing, I know that she was pretty popular around town. Kelly had worked as a registered recovery nurse at Holmes Regional Medical Center, just a few miles away in Melbourne, Florida. And when she wasn't tending to her patients there, she was out in the world, living her life to the fullest.
5:35 Payton Moreland? Kelly and her husband of six years, a restaurant manager named Gino, they didn't have any kids, which meant Kelly had plenty of time for her personal passions like kayaking, bike riding, hiking, anything outdoorsy. She also spent her time volunteering overseas with organizations like ISMS Operation Kids, which brought her to Morocco. So Kelly's friends and family said she was always keeping busy, that there was never a dull moment with Kelly, whose contagious laughter could turn around anyone's day. They say that people really gravitated toward her and looked up to her when they needed a leader. And actually, at the hospital where she worked, she was given the nickname "The Sarge",
6:18 Payton Moreland? because she wasn't afraid to stand up and just take the lead. And shockingly, she managed to do a lot of these things through one of the toughest periods of her life. This was when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just a few years back. And friends said even with this diagnosis, it never slowed Kelly down. Even when she would have bad flare ups, Kelly would work through it, refusing to give her condition any power over her. And it only made the people who admired Kelly, love her even more, including her good friend, Sheila Trott. Now Sheila was a transplant to this area in Florida. She actually grew up in Ontario, Canada.
7:02 Payton Moreland? But throughout the years, she gained an obsession with the water, which ultimately drew her to Florida for college, where she also worked part-time as a dive instructor. And it was around that time, back in the late 80s or early 90s, that Sheila and Kelly first met, actually. Kelly was a nursing student and Sheila, fresh out of school herself, was working three different jobs to help pay for her fiance, Daniel Trott's, flight training. Sheila, at this point, apparently would have done anything for Dan, so it wasn't surprising she was working three jobs to get him through school. And when they eventually tied the knot in August of 26, 1989, it's possible that Kelly was even invited to that wedding.
7:46 Payton Moreland? But over the years, Kelly and Sheila would sort of go their separate ways, live their own lives. Sheila became a real estate agent. She had two boys, Creighton and Graham, all while her husband, Daniel, became that licensed pilot before going into politics in 2002. But even then, there was no bad blood between Sheila and Kelly. In fact, they had the kind of friendship where even if they didn't speak for a few months or even years, because their lives kind of went separate ways, it felt like they could pick right back up where they left off when they started talking again. At least, this is according to Sheila. She even said the two sort of leaned on each other when they were going through hard times in their marriages.
8:28 Payton Moreland? See, by the end of 2009, Kelly and her husband, Gino, were not in a great place. The two had been growing apart and it seemed as if Kelly wasn't sure whether their marriage would continue. So she reaches out to Sheila and Sheila could sympathize with that. By that point, she and Daniel were separated and on the road to divorce as well. And Sheila was pretty eager to get the whole thing settled and put the past behind her. Which is why she made an odd suggestion to Kelly when the two went out to dinner one night. So Sheila tells Kelly, her friend, hey, I actually think you and Dan would make a pretty nice couple.
9:12 Payton Moreland? Now, Dan is Sheila's husband that she's currently trying to divorce. So she's telling her friend Kelly, you can go for it. Like have my almost soon to be ex-husband. You have my permission. I think you guys would make a great couple. But according to Sheila,
9:27 Garrett Moreland? Weird.
9:27 Payton Moreland? She felt like this would actually help speed up the divorce process if someone else was in the picture, like if Daniel.
9:33 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, it makes sense. Okay.
9:34 Payton Moreland? Yeah. And so would maybe even save thousands in legal fees. And it seems like Kelly goes along with the suggestion. I'm not sure how long the two were seeing each other for. It was at least a couple of months. But I know Sheila was obviously aware. And apparently Gino learned about this in the hard way. Because one night he shows up at Dan Trot's apartment while Kelly is there. He kicks in the front door and according to Daniel, he's carrying some sort of jack in his hand, which he used to hit Daniel in the hands and face. Kelly ends up leaving with Gino that night, her husband, the Rock, on the Rocks marriage.
10:17 Payton Moreland? Perhaps as an attempt to kind of calm him down. But that didn't end the relationship between Dan and Kelly. And I do need to preface that although Dan's wife, ex-wife Sheila knows what's going on. I mean, she suggested it. Kelly and Gino are not yet divorced. And so Gino is looking at this as an affair.
10:38 Garrett Moreland? It wasn't like reported to the police or anything?
10:41 Payton Moreland? The attack?
10:42 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
10:43 Payton Moreland? No. So all of this, Gino coming over and beating up Dan, actually pushes Kelly further into Dan's arms. It seems Kelly moved in with her friend Jane after the altercation. And as she looked for a way out of the marriage, she and Dan kept seeing each other. So this goes well into February of 2010. But on the night of the 15th, Kelly was supposed to meet with her personal trainer at her local gym for a 9pm appointment. And when she didn't show, the trainer alerted Kelly's roommate. And after two hours of trying to reach Kelly and checking with every
11:25 Payton Moreland? police station, fire, rescue and hospital in the area, they decide it is time to file a missing persons report because no one can find Kelly. Now, I don't think her friend Sheila was high up on the list of emergency contacts for Kelly. So it is possible she hadn't even heard about Kelly's disappearance on the night of the 15th. But that evening, Sheila has her own set of strange experiences. After coming home from a trip to Walmart, Sheila's teenage sons noticed she's not doing well. She's dizzy and shaky, almost having seizure-like symptoms. So her son's girlfriend is like, hey, we need to call 911. So the paramedics show up to the house.
12:10 Payton Moreland? Keep in mind, Kelly's missing at this point. They run a bunch of routine checks on Sheila. She seems to be fine. So they say, hey, if anything gets worse, call us, but we're gonna leave. And then another hour later, the girlfriend calls 911 again, says, hey, she's still acting out of sorts. She's had another seizure. Can you come back? So this time, they come back and they take her to the hospital. But again, after a bunch of routine tests, they cannot find anything wrong with Sheila. It's bizarre, but they release her. They tell her to go home and get some rest. And she does. Which like personally for me, if I was having unexplainable seizures and not
12:49 Garrett Moreland? Probably be in the hospital.
12:50 Payton Moreland? I would be like, no, I'm not going home.
12:52 Garrett Moreland? That's weird.
12:52 Payton Moreland? You can try to discharge me, but I'm not going home.
12:55 Garrett Moreland? That's weird.
12:55 Payton Moreland? Um, but she does, and she falls asleep in her own bed for a few hours.
13:00 Garrett Moreland? And doesn't wake up.
13:01 Payton Moreland? But then she wakes up in the middle of the night, calling for her youngest son, sixteen year old Graham. She tells him, I just had a terrible dream. In it, she says, I keep, I kept seeing snapshots of Kelly Brennan's face. Kelly, her friend who's now dating her ex-husband. And she thinks that Kelly is hurt based on this dream, maybe even in danger. And then she tells her sixteen year old, we need to find her.
13:31 Garrett Moreland? That's weird. That's weird.
13:32 Payton Moreland? Sheila's like, I think she's somewhere by the beach over by a place called Mark's Landing.
13:38 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, see, we're getting a little too specific now.
13:41 Payton Moreland? So Sheila's sons say, okay, mom's insisting we go, let's take her out there, drive her around.
13:47 Garrett Moreland? No way.
13:47 Payton Moreland? Calm down her fears and show her everything's okay. So they get there, they get out of the car, they walk around the area. And just as the boys are about to say, see, mom, everything's fine, we can leave. They spot something. There are feet sticking out of the brush on this Florida beach. And a shadow of a body in workout clothes can be seen. So they begin to panic. They get back in the car, they're like, mom just had a premonition or a dream that they, that she was gonna be here and be in trouble. And then this is what they find. They're like, mom, you were right. And she goes, okay, but we also need to go somewhere else. There is a vacant lot nearby that we need to go to.
14:31 Payton Moreland? So the boys drive her to that destination as well, where she finds a reusable grocery bag and inside of it is Kelly's purse and wallet and her ID.
14:42 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
14:43 Payton Moreland? Now, her kids are probably thinking, Mom, what did you do? Like, what have you got yourself into? Um, they are sixteen and eighteen, so they figure, okay, we're just gonna take her home. We're not gonna call the police, even though we just saw a dead body.
14:56 Garrett Moreland? Oh, I wouldn't, I, I don't know either.
14:58 Payton Moreland? It's their mom.
14:59 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, I'd probably be like, Mom.
15:00 Payton Moreland? You gotta figure something, you gotta handle this. I'm not handling this.
15:03 Garrett Moreland? You're not telling anyone that you had a dream.
15:04 Payton Moreland? They're teenagers, and so they go home and they're like, I know exactly what we're gonna do. We're gonna take Mom home, and we're gonna call Grandma. And we're gonna meet Grandma, figure this one out.
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17:07 Payton Moreland? Luckily Sheila's mother, Grandma Margaret, lives close by. And so she rushes over in the middle of the night to help the kids. And when she gets there, she finds Sheila curled up on the floor in the fetal position. And that's when her son looks at Grandma Margaret and says, Grandma, I'm pretty sure mom killed Kelly.
17:32 Payton Moreland? And so Margaret's like, okay, we are calling 911.
17:36 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
17:37 Payton Moreland? She tells the operator on the 911 call, I think there's been some sort of murder. My daughter has had a nervous breakdown and she's killed somebody.
17:47 Garrett Moreland? Oh, okay.
17:48 Payton Moreland? So the police rush over to Sheila's condo. And now, at this point, she's saying over and over, not just that she had a bad dream, but that she thinks maybe she hurt Kelly. So Sheila's having a nervous breakdown and in this breakdown, she's saying, I think I hurt her. I think I hurt Kelly. Like, how else would I have known? How else would I have had this dream?
18:11 Garrett Moreland? Oh, she's going, she's, I mean, sadly, she's going crazy.
18:15 Payton Moreland? So they get the name out of Sheila and they realize, obviously, it matches the missing person's report that they had just received the night before. And that is for Kelly Brennan. So within the hour, police are putting two and two together and they are flooding the area of Mark's Landing. And for some reason, they don't seem to locate Kelly's body, the one the boys saw, just by searching on foot. So I'm assuming they didn't bring Sheila's sons back to the scene with them to like, point out exactly where the body was. Instead, they deploy a police helicopter. They do an overhead search of the area and that's when they make it out. Just along a footpath, there's a patch of brush and Kelly's feet and running shorts
19:00 Payton Moreland? are seen sticking out from there. So they land the helicopter. They're thinking, maybe is Kelly alive? But when they get there and they see the injuries to her head. Well, they realized quickly that Kelly definitely not survived the attack that she had had. It appears she'd been hit repeatedly in the head with a flat, roundish object of some sort, and they're thinking a hammer. And there's a trail of blood leading through the brush. But Kelly doesn't have any sand on her shoes or legs, which suggests that she probably wasn't walking through the sand to get to this spot in the brush.
19:43 Payton Moreland? She was likely killed off sight and then either carried or dragged to this part by her feet off the walkway. So something that's confirmed further when they finally locate Kelly's car on a street called Cato Court about half a mile away from Kelly's home, they find plenty of Kelly's blood inside her vehicle, which was clearly what was used to transport her. But the autopsy later shows there were no signs of a struggle that whatever happened between Kelly and her attacker, these blows to her head, Kelly did not see them coming. She was blindsided by this. She didn't even have a chance to fight back. It was swift and vicious.
20:26 Payton Moreland? They likely snuck up behind her and with a few quick blows knocked her unconscious before she could even understand what was happening.
20:33 Garrett Moreland? Oh, I'm trying to figure out
20:36 Garrett Moreland? if it was her or not. I mean, it has to be right. You would think that the obvious says it was her, something happened, she broke, she nervous breakdown and went crazy, whatever you want to call it, and she killed her. But maybe she can see the future or not the future, I guess.
20:54 Payton Moreland? Maybe she just
20:55 Garrett Moreland? A premonition, I don't know.
20:56 Payton Moreland? A gift.
20:57 Garrett Moreland? Maybe.
20:59 Payton Moreland? So at this point, the police are like, okay, who attacked Kelly? Is it Sheila? Or do we like, what is like, this is the strangest case.
21:07 Garrett Moreland? Because wasn't Sheila just in the hospital?
21:10 Payton Moreland? Earlier that night, but this happened the night before.
21:13 Garrett Moreland? Oh, okay.
21:15 Payton Moreland? So naturally, one of the first people the police are gonna explore in any case is a spouse. So they know they have Sheila, but they're like, we're just gonna look into the spouse, obviously. And let's face it, it wasn't looking good for Kelly's husband, Gino. After Daniel Trot tells them about the time he came banging down his door and attacking him like, "Hey, I was seeing his wife. My wife Sheila knows." I can't even imagine. It's already strange enough for police to be like, "Oh, Sheila saw her friend in a dream and then went and found her body." And now they're learning, "Oh, Sheila also offered up her ex-husband to date Kelly." And Kelly's cheating on Gino. Yeah, what a mess. It's just such a mess.
21:58 Payton Moreland? And so Daniel tells him, "Oh yeah, Gino's definitely violent. Like, he came and did this." But here's the problem. Gino has an alibi, and it's a pretty good one at that. He is seen on video surveillance footage at a Walgreens during the time of Kelly's death. So this is enough for police to rule him out for the time being. Which is why they immediately are like, "Hey, well, now we just circle back to the woman that basically confessed to the murder, and that was her friend Sheila Trot." Cause it's not just the dreams that make Sheila a bit suspicious to the police once they dig in a little more. It's not even the odd seizure-like symptoms she was experiencing earlier that night.
22:44 Payton Moreland? It was what she did even prior to that. Remember how her son said that she started having those episodes? And then they called 911 right after she had returned from a trip to Walmart? She'd gone to Walmart, come back and started having those episodes? This Walmart trip took her four hours. Like when they start interviewing the kids. Now, believe me, I know you can get held up in a place like Walmart, but four hours is very, very long. Yep. And interestingly enough, when police ask, the kids are like, "Oh, actually, she came home empty-handed. She had no groceries." Like she went to Walmart but came home without anything. Still, the police feel pretty confident at this point
23:27 Payton Moreland? that the intel Sheila had about Kelly's murder, it wasn't a dream, Sheila isn't some sidekick. The odds are far more likely that Sheila did something to her longtime friend Kelly Brennan. And according to those who knew Sheila... The divorce between her and Daniel was a lot uglier than she had made it seem to Kelly and honestly was making it seem to everyone, apparently. While Sheila and Dan were married, Dan had been having affairs with other women long before the two decided to separate in 2009, around the same time that Kelly and Gino were trying to figure things out. So after Sheila caught Dan without his ring on one too many times, she finally confronted
24:12 Payton Moreland? him about it and eventually told him she wanted a divorce. And that story about her setting Kelly and Dan up to speed up the process, well, that may have been Sheila's version of events. But Daniel claimed that he and Kelly had connected when he joined this new cycling group after the separation, one which Kelly Brennan was already a part of. And once the two started hooking up, they kept it a secret from everyone, including Kelly's husband, Gino, and Sheila.
24:46 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
24:47 Payton Moreland? So Dan is like, no, Sheila didn't tell Kelly to date me. Me and Kelly just started dating on our own. So if you ask Dan, there was no setup. In fact, several people who knew the couple were like, no, that's weird. Sheila never would have told Kelly to date Dan. Because according to people, Sheila is obsessed with Daniel. Maybe some part of her was hoping the time apart would be good and they would finally make their way back to each other. Only Kelly Brennan threw a pretty big wrench in those plans. It also didn't seem like a coincidence that Daniel and Sheila were supposed to start mediation on February 17th, 2010, two days after Kelly was killed. Here's the thing, though.
25:30 Payton Moreland? As far as concrete evidence against Sheila Trot, there just isn't any. That reusable grocery bag with Kelly's purse and wallet, the one that Sheila's sons said their mom led them to, the police can't find it anywhere.
25:45 Garrett Moreland? What is she saying?
25:48 Garrett Moreland? What is she saying about this? What is she saying? I did it? She's saying I didn't do it? Is she saying it was just a dream? Like, what is she saying about this?
25:56 Payton Moreland? She's saying, no, I think it's just a dream. But when she was having her nervous breakdown, she was throwing out the possibility.
26:02 Garrett Moreland? Besides that point, like to have they brought her into question her? Does she have an attorney?
26:07 Payton Moreland? Yeah, so they do bring her in. And actually, this is gonna like speed up really fast. So let me just keep going. They can't find that bag that the sons claim they found in the parking lot. It just no longer exists. So there's no DNA connecting Sheila to the crime, no witnesses, no fingerprints, no murder weapon, no bruising cuts, not so much as a broken nail on Sheila Trot. So say Sheila is an expert at leaving an immaculate crime scene. Why would she then go the distance just to rat herself out hours later? The whole thing is incredibly bizarre because there was, I mean, police wouldn't even have suspected her. There was nothing pointing to her. But right now, police figure she's the best they've got.
26:47 Payton Moreland? So just three days after Kelly's body is found, they arrest 44 year old Sheila on February 18th, 2010.
26:56 Garrett Moreland? I'm surprised they made an arrest because.
26:59 Payton Moreland? Well, they're gonna say that she confessed, essentially.
27:03 Garrett Moreland? I just don't.
27:04 Payton Moreland? I personally believe that confession could get thrown out.
27:06 Garrett Moreland? I was gonna say, that's not gonna hold up in court.
27:08 Payton Moreland? Right. And she was having a nervous breakdown.
27:10 Garrett Moreland? It's not gonna, good luck.
27:11 Payton Moreland? But then also you tell a jury, well, she led us right to the body.
27:14 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
27:15 Payton Moreland? That's a little suspicious as well. So not only is she facing first degree murder charges for killing her soon to be ex-husband's girlfriend, who was also her friend. She's also denied bail. So Sheila Trot sits behind bars for four and a half years.
27:32 Garrett Moreland? Whoa.
27:33 Payton Moreland? Awaiting her trial. And the entire time, she insists she's innocent. She's like, I was just freaking out. I really did just have a dream. I did not do this.
27:45 Garrett Moreland? How did she sit that long? She can't.
27:47 Payton Moreland? She's denied bail. So you can't get out while you're prepping for trial.
27:51 Garrett Moreland? Interesting.
27:52 Payton Moreland? And it's just kind of up, it's just case to case about who gets denied bail.
27:56 Garrett Moreland? So that's so interesting because say she's, I don't know what's gonna happen, but say someone's denied bail and then they're proven not guilty. Like, can you then sue for?
28:06 Payton Moreland? I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure no, because that is just the way the justice system works and like, even though you were found not guilty, it still took the proper channels of you building a defense.
28:20 Garrett Moreland? I guess I would understand the proper channels if it's been like six months.
28:23 Payton Moreland? But also you-
28:24 Garrett Moreland? But it's been four and a half years.
28:26 Payton Moreland? Okay, but you have a right to a speedy trial.
28:29 Garrett Moreland? Yeah, so that's not exactly.
28:31 Payton Moreland? What I'm saying is, I think technically, her defense could have said, no, we need to go to trial now, even if the state wasn't ready.
28:38 Garrett Moreland? Correct.
28:38 Payton Moreland? But they must not have.
28:40 Garrett Moreland? Something happened.
28:41 Payton Moreland? They just, they must have been trying to build a defense as well.
28:43 Garrett Moreland? I'm curious the legalities behind it. Wow, that's wild.
28:46 Payton Moreland? So, she's like, I'm innocent the whole time. As soon as she gets arrested, she says, I'm innocent. And because of this, she doesn't take a plea deal. She had took a deal, she probably would have been, it wouldn't have taken four years. She waits until September of 2014 for her day in court. Now, the defense feels pretty confident, at the very least, that they have a good case for at least some reasonable doubt. As I mentioned, there's practically nothing in way of physical evidence against Sheila. But the prosecution paints a convincing narrative for the jury of what they believed happened that night at trial. And this is what they say.
29:23 Payton Moreland? On the evening of February 15th, back in 2010, Sheila left her house sometime between 6:00 to 7:00 PM telling her sons she was making a trip to Walmart. But that was a total lie. Instead, Sheila went to Kelly Brennan's house, waited in her yard, and as Kelly was leaving, she snuck up behind her, ambushed her, and attacked her from behind, likely with a hammer for the autopsy, even though no weapon was ever found. And Kelly never saw it coming. They suggested that Sheila then put Kelly in her own car and drove the 13 miles to Mark's Landing where she left her body, and then drove back to Caddo Court, parked Kelly's car there, before making the half a mile walk back to her own car that was still parked at Kelly's house.
30:06 Payton Moreland? Now, part of this narrative is based on two things that they found in Kelly Brennan's yard. A drag mark and blood seemingly leading to Kelly's vehicle. So this is where they believe the initial attack happened, was at Kelly's home. But the defense has a lot of problems with this version of the story. For starters, they're like, there's no way 115 pound Sheila Trot was able to attack and then transport the 146 pound Kelly Brennan on her own. They're like, how do you drag a dead body like to multiple places at 115 pounds? When that body weighs 146 pounds?
30:45 Garrett Moreland? Uh huh.
30:47 Payton Moreland? Much less lift her up inside an SUV. And even if Sheila did sneak up behind Kelly on her front lawn, ambush her and manage to get her in the car despite her size. How the heck did Sheila do that without a single witness or neighbor seeing that happen in real time? This was in the front yard. Not to mention that blood found in Kelly's yard that police believe was the evidence showing that it happened there. Only one sample of that blood was collected and sent to a lab during the investigation. And when they ran it against Kelly's blood, it came back negative.
31:23 Garrett Moreland? I don't think you can find her guilty. I don't think there's enough evidence.
31:28 Payton Moreland? So.
31:28 Garrett Moreland? This is wild.
31:29 Payton Moreland? What police didn't test was the blood found near Kelly's body at Mark's Landing, which the defense is like, this is just shoddy police work because that could have been blood from an attacker.
31:39 Garrett Moreland? Yeah.
31:39 Payton Moreland? And you guys never tested it, so you can't prove if it wasn't my client. Aside from that, there's not a single piece of DNA, blood, hair, anything that puts Sheila Trot at the scene of the crime.
31:51 Garrett Moreland? Mm hmm.
31:51 Payton Moreland? But the prosecution comes back with an explanation for that, too. Based on one neighbor who said they did see a blonde woman at Kelly's house earlier that night, and she was wearing a light colored outfit, one that detectives deduced might have been Sheila in a yellow hazmat suit. So the neighbor said, oh, she was in like a light colored outfit. She was blonde and the prosecution was like, that was Sheila wearing a hazmat suit, which is why we found no DNA.
32:17 Garrett Moreland? This is getting thrown out. This is a hundred percent getting thrown out. Also, I've come to realize how many, after doing so many of these cases, how many neighbors, how many people just start saying they saw stuff that they didn't even see.
32:31 Payton Moreland? Well, they could have actually seen a woman.
32:33 Garrett Moreland? But I'm just saying in general, like people just start saying stuff and it's like, wait, no, you.
32:38 Payton Moreland? I think this is more on the prosecution because how do you take?
32:41 Garrett Moreland? That's insane.
32:41 Payton Moreland? That testimony of a light colored outfit and turn it into a hazmat suit, which is why there's no DNA.
32:47 Garrett Moreland? Got to reach, you know?
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35:29 Payton Moreland? But also, from what I can tell, police didn't do much to collect samples from either Kelly's house or where her body was found. And before you scream at me through your phone right now, I am not defending Sheila. Okay, I'm not in pro Sheila camp right now. What I'm saying is, I feel like there was more investigation that could have been done as far as physical evidence in this investigation that would have just helped overall in any trial, whether that was against or for Sheila or not. Like I said, they really didn't collect samples from Kelly's house or where the bodies found. There was blood where the bodies found and they didn't collect it. Which is why the defense thinks there's another more likely suspect in this and they believe it's Gino.
36:14 Payton Moreland? He had already threatened Daniel at his home after he first learned about the affair. Remember how he showed up with that carjack, caused injuries? According to Dan, Gino brought Kelly home that night and began choking her in the garage, meaning he was violent with her too. And then two months later, Kelly's dead. But once Gino took the stand, he placed the focus back on Sheila. Not only did Gino have a solid alibi during the time that they think Kelly died. caught on that security footage. He said that Sheila would call and email him all the time trying to provoke him into doing something about the affair. But Gino said that Sheila, so the woman being accused of killing Kelly, would call and email him all the time trying
36:54 Payton Moreland? to provoke him into doing something about their basically spouses affair. In fact, she was the one who told him it was happening. But Sheila denies all of this, saying, no, I never sent messages hoping to trigger Gino or turn him violent. That she really wasn't upset about the affair itself. Obviously, she has to say that for her defense. Just how much money Dan was spending now on his new girlfriend. But the prosecution still had one final trick up their sleeve. Two witnesses willing to take the stand to describe their experiences from that night, and it was Sheila's sons, Graham and Creighton Trot. Graham tells the jury exactly how strange his mother was acting that evening once she came home, empty handed, from her
37:39 Payton Moreland? four hour Walmart trip, while she was banging her head against the wall, which was why he thought she was having a seizure. But he also describes what happened after the hospital visit that night, how she woke up from a dream, saying she had seen Kelly's face on a beach, how she thought Kelly was hurt. But Graham's testimony now is a little different from what he told police back in the day, in February of 2010. Now he's saying he never hurt his mother that night, later on claiming she hurt Kelly, only that she was hurt. So he changes and says, no, my mom never actually confessed that night, which is not on those police transcripts from four years ago. In those, he tells police that later on, his
38:24 Payton Moreland? mother was repeating over and over that maybe she was the one that hurt Kelly. But when that's brought up in court, it doesn't look great for Sheila Trot. Neither does the rest of her son's stories about her taking them to the exact spot where Kelly was found, and the fact that they drove her to the lot where she discovered Kelly's purse and wallet. But before the trial wraps, there's one last twist, a final piece of evidence presented to the jury, and it comes from Sheila Trot herself. It is a 22-page letter that was written while Sheila was behind bars. It is her personal account of what really happened on the night of February 15, 2010. And in it, Sheila makes a confession, just not the kind that you'd think.
39:09 Payton Moreland? In it, she writes that dream that she had that evening, she now knows it wasn't a dream. It wasn't a premonition. It was a memory of what she witnessed earlier that evening. So this is her story now at trial.
39:26 Garrett Moreland? Oh, gosh. Okay.
39:28 Payton Moreland? She claims she stopped by Kelly's house on the way to Walmart that evening when she noticed another car she didn't recognize in her driveway. She had to park on the street because there was no room, but when she got out and approached the house, she saw a man standing before Kelly's front door and the two were arguing. Sheila couldn't make out the guy, who he was, because she said it was too dark outside, but she figured this had to just be another one of Kelly's lovers, maybe one she wasn't familiar with. Seems a little.
39:58 Garrett Moreland? Okay.
39:59 Payton Moreland? Instead of intruding on their conversation, Sheila says she goes back to her car and watched from there because she was being nosey. Sheila said the argument got nasty after she heard Kelly say to the man that she was done with him and that she needed to leave because she had plans that night. And that's when Sheila said the mystery man turned violent. She watched from her car as he began hitting Kelly, pursued her to the front lawn and continued beating her until eventually placing her in her own vehicle. But rather than race off or call the police, Sheila said something came over her, like she was possessed to follow the car to where it drove away from the house. She said she tailed it all the way to Mark's Landing where she saw the stranger pull Kelly's body from the passenger side and drag it to the trail.
40:42 Payton Moreland? And that's when she raced home, eventually had her panic attack, got her sons involved, goes to the hospital in a crisis and then plays it off as a dream later that night. Now, there's a lot that doesn't really make sense in this version, like why Sheila wouldn't have just gone to the police after witnessing Kelly be murdered.
41:00 Garrett Moreland? Done something, said something, yeah, there's so many questions.
41:03 Payton Moreland? Why she would have lied about it being a dream? And how she managed to stumble upon the bag of Kelly's belongings later on? Plus, her version does not match what the autopsy said, that this was a swift attack from behind. Now, it's very likely that a lot of these plot holes came up during the trial, but Sheila never took the stand, meaning many of these questions went unanswered. Though really, it seems the jury didn't need to hear any of it. She had already said enough. Less than three hours after deliberation, the jury of six returned with a verdict. Sheila Trot was guilty of first degree murder.
41:37 Garrett Moreland? No way.
41:38 Payton Moreland? She was sentenced to life in prison. To this day, Sheila Trot maintains her innocence. She says Kelly's real life killer is out there walking free. Sheila believes her crime was not stopping the attack when she saw it happen in real time or going to the police. And while she's filed appeal after appeal, Sheila has not been granted any sort of retrial. Both of her sons have told the press that they actually believe their mother is innocent. That what she says in that 22-page letter matches up most accurately to what they saw that night. As does Sheila's mother, Margaret, who called 911 and said, "My daughter killed somebody." Whether or not that's true, Margaret has told the press that she blames herself for her daughter's prison sentence.
42:23 Payton Moreland? It eats her life thinking, if on that 911 call, she had not said, "I think my daughter killed somebody," and had just said, "Someone's in trouble," would it have made a difference?
42:33 Garrett Moreland? Probably not, no.
42:34 Payton Moreland? But if that had been the case, then Kelly Brennan's friends and family might still have a lot of unanswered questions today as well.
42:41 Garrett Moreland? I would think they still do, because to be honest, I, I, okay.
42:49 Payton Moreland? You're gonna look at-
42:50 Garrett Moreland? Just speaking from a justice system and the evidence that was presented in court, I don't think there was enough evidence to say that it's life in prison.
43:02 Payton Moreland? Okay, but-
43:03 Garrett Moreland? You think, do you think there is? You think there's enough evidence? There's, it's insane, some of the crimes we've covered and people get off not guilty, and there's way more evidence than this.
43:13 Payton Moreland? Can I say what I was gonna say?
43:14 Garrett Moreland? Yes.
43:16 Payton Moreland? Not having enough evidence to convict is different than you thinking she's innocent.
43:23 Garrett Moreland? Correct. So I don't, I, I, I don't know whether she's innocent or guilty. I just don't think-
43:27 Payton Moreland? You just think she deserves a retrial.
43:29 Garrett Moreland? I think there's not enough evidence to convict.
43:31 Payton Moreland? Because there was no physical evidence.
43:33 Garrett Moreland? There's no way. There's, there's-
43:34 Payton Moreland? And they didn't test the blood.
43:35 Garrett Moreland? There's no way there's enough evidence to convict.
43:38 Payton Moreland? See, I-
43:38 Garrett Moreland? Who was on that damn jury? Who was on that jury?
43:41 Payton Moreland? Okay. Don't blame the jury. They can be persuaded to do anything. Very rarely is it the jury's fault.
43:45 Garrett Moreland? Whoever, whoever, if you were on that jury and you're listening to this, you did a crappy job.
43:49 Payton Moreland? Oh my gosh. Listen-
43:49 Garrett Moreland? There's no way there's enough evidence to convict.
43:52 Payton Moreland? This is all I'm saying.
43:53 Garrett Moreland? Oh crap, man.
43:54 Payton Moreland? I feel like she probably deserves a retrial just based on the fact that the investigation wasn't done very well. I don't know though, at the retrial, there's nothing to retest. They didn't collect the blood.
44:07 Garrett Moreland? I just think there's not enough evidence to convict.
44:10 Payton Moreland? But what are the chances she didn't do it?
44:12 Garrett Moreland? I mean, crazier things have happened.
44:13 Payton Moreland? I understand, but like, I too would have a nervous breakdown if I murdered my friend.
44:19 Garrett Moreland? I too would also have a nervous breakdown if I saw someone murder my friend.
44:22 Payton Moreland? No, you wouldn't. You would call the cops.
44:24 Garrett Moreland? But you don't know that.
44:25 Payton Moreland? I know. I know. Everyone's different. I know. It's, it's completely possible that she watched someone do it and had a nervous breakdown instead.
44:33 Garrett Moreland? The amount of people, I mean, it's, it's no different than when people talk about, well, if you were getting raped, why didn't you just say no or something like that? It's like, you don't know what you would do in that situation.
44:42 Payton Moreland? Right.
44:43 Garrett Moreland? You have no idea. You never know what the human brain's going to do.
44:46 Payton Moreland? I would say most people probably wouldn't fight back in a situation like that because of the fight or flight instinct.
44:52 Garrett Moreland? I think if most people saw someone they knew getting killed, they would freeze up.
44:56 Payton Moreland? Yes, but I, I think nine times out of 10, they would call the police.
45:00 Garrett Moreland? Maybe. We don't know. We don't know.
45:04 Payton Moreland? But then why did she? She had all the time in the world in the car following-
45:07 Garrett Moreland? Give me the dang bar test. I'm going to become an attorney.
45:11 Payton Moreland? I just, I understand that she could have been in a haze. I understand that she could have been in a haze following there, right? But then where does this bag? I'm just still very confused. All the sources weren't very clear about this bag that contained the belongings, because then all of a sudden it just went missing? I don't know. It just feels to me like the investigation. But it's almost like I can't, okay, I'm going in circles, but it's almost like I can't blame the police, because if you get a call from someone whose ex-husband, that according to everyone else she's still in love with, is dating this girl who's now dead, and she said I might have done it. What else are the police gonna do?
45:52 Garrett Moreland? Listen, remember that case we did cover where that guy had a dream?
45:55 Payton Moreland? And it was real.
45:56 Garrett Moreland? And it was real?
45:58 Payton Moreland? Yes.
45:58 Garrett Moreland? He actually, so.
45:59 Payton Moreland? I just feel like you're writing a little hard right now.
46:02 Garrett Moreland? Okay, I'm not writing hard for the fact that I don't know if she did it. I'm writing hard for the fact that I'm kind of sick of people being convicted when we don't have enough evidence.
46:12 Payton Moreland? And I would agree with that. We are 100% on the same page in that regard. In order for our-
46:17 Garrett Moreland? If someone does something and she did kill someone, I don't want to talk to them ever again. Put them in prison, kill them. I don't care. I'm pretty harsh about that stuff.
46:25 Payton Moreland? In order for our justice system to work correctly, it has to be black and white. And if there is not enough, if there is reasonable doubt, someone should not be convicted.
46:35 Garrett Moreland? A hundred percent.
46:36 Payton Moreland? Even if it feels like they did it.
46:37 Garrett Moreland? There was so much reasonable doubt in that, and they were just like, eh, now let's just put her in prison.
46:43 Payton Moreland? But there's also reasonable guilt.
46:44 Garrett Moreland? It's just hard. The jury's, it's just hard, justice system, man.
46:48 Payton Moreland? The circumstantial evidence is just really heavy hitting in this one. I don't know. All of her family thinks she's innocent. That's a doozy of a case.
46:56 Garrett Moreland? That's a crazy case.
46:58 Payton Moreland? All right, you guys, that was our episode, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.
47:02 Garrett Moreland? And I hate it.
47:03 Payton Moreland? Goodbye.
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