VIEWPOINT: Prosecutor, police delivered justice for Brinker family

May 31, 2008 09:06 pm

— By TERRY SOLLARS
I want to personally thank Madison County Prosecutor Tom Broderick for an outstanding job prosecuting the Jesse Pitts murder case. The first minute I was on the crime scene of Amanda Brinker I knew the person(s) responsible for this vile cowardly act had to be put in prison for a long time. Jesse Pitts has now been found guilty by a jury and rightly so. The evidence against him was the most evidence I have ever seen in my 25-year career as a detective in Anderson in a murder case. That does not count his quasi-confession in which he tried to actually blame Amanda herself for receiving the 8-10 blows to the back of her head. 

The Anderson Police Department should have a great deal of pride at this minute on a job well done. From the onset this case was a team effort between the nearly entire Detective Division, Lab personnel, and some great work by Uniform Officers as well. As the lead investigator on this case I am humbled by the fact that the case was so complete that the jury took less than an hour to convict this monster. I also want to tell the family of Amanda, her mother and sister, that you can now be at peace knowing that true justice has prevailed and this killer will not see the light of day as a free man for decades, if ever. Please take solace in the fact that without your help this case would have been much harder to cross all the i’s and dot all the t’s.

I now have formally retired from the Anderson Police Department and feel very greatful to have served the citizens of Anderson and Madison County for the last 25 years. I feel very confident that the Anderson Police Department will carry on its great tradition of catching the bad guys and putting them away. Please keep the family of Amanda Brinker in all your prayers and thoughts as they are now truly “Survivors of Homicide.”
Terry L. Sollars, now retired from the Anderson Police Department, is a resident of Chesterfield.

To My Loved Ones ,from Amanda

To My Loved Ones, from Amanda To My Loved Ones I Left Behind, but only for a little while... Remember me, but when you do, don't look for me at the cold earth. I am not there. Look UP Look to the Heavens that's where you will find me. Remember me, talk to me, leave me a flower, but do not leave without looking UP. Let the warmth of the Son shine down on your face and smile and remember my sparkling eyes my laugh my hugs.. In Heaven where I live I am ALIVE I am UNHARMED I know LOVE like I never did before. Be happy for this be happy for me keep sending me your love I receive it with joy! I am sending my love back to you. Every day, every night, always. there is no time in my Heavenly home On that joyous day that I am reunited with you no time will have passed for me, I just got here and there you will be! My precious friends, my precious family, you have to wait to be with me but there is no time passing here.. there is only LOVE indescribable JOY and never ending PRAISE I leave pennies to remind you to keep your heads UP towards the Heaven where God is holding me in His arms. My Heavenly Father in all his majesty and splendor holds me forever and ever So do not look for me where my body left your earthly home or where it is laid to rest in the ground I am not there I only feel your love I want you to feel mine Someday all the questions will be answered Jesus will wipe every tear from your eyes and there will not be any more tears for you to cry. He'll wipe them all away and you will know what I now know. Keep this close to your heart and you will know that it's true. All my love, Amanda Christian

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from Mikal to Amanda

This is a from a dear friend of Amanda's, Mikal Wyatt:

Who I'd like to meet:
Amanda Brinker, this is a person with a true character of her self. Thank you for showing me that i cant take life, nor my friendships for granite and that some of us arnt always given a second chance to make things right. Now she's be missed by everyone that knew her. You were such an amazing person. Rest In Peace Amanda we all love you.

12/10/92 - 9/20/07

A Cold Day in Hell

I decorated her grave for Christmas with baby blue and silver ornaments and ribbon shortly after her birthday.

She would have been 15.

Her grave is adjacent from the cross that can be seen by the road (Pendleton Ave.)

death poem

Friday May 2, 2008

Life

There was life

Soft and pink and small

Sweet

Sweet little baby

Big wide blue eyes

The same eyes that are now closed forever

Forever 14

Why

Why did evil take her

WHY

There was life

So sweet and innocent

Soft and new

In my arms

I gave her life

It was given to me

Then it was taken

The time

The time

Between the first day of her life

And the very last

Seems so so short

The time

Wasn’t enough

It wasn’t enough!!!!

She was only 14!!!!

She had her whole life in front of her

Or so I thought

So we take for granted

That she, that he, that any of us

Will have our whole life in front of us.

Not her.

Her life was cut short

Cut way too short.

And I look around

At all the others

Who are ALIVE

Alive

And well

Alive

And breathing.

But not her.

She doesn’t breathe anymore

She doesn’t breathe anymore…

Doesn’t’

Breathe

Anymore.

And that’s it

The image of her

On that thing

That cold thing

And she was cold

She was so cold

There was no life

In her

No life

Left in her

My once alive and beautiful child

Was now

A

Cold

Lifeless

Corpse.

My God

How will I survive

I love you with all the depths of my being

And cannot accept this

I don’t know how I will survive.

©Laura L. Brinker, Mommy

Anderson man guilty in girl's killing

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 21, 2008

ANDERSON - A man who called 911 to report a body in an Anderson park has been convicted of murdering the 14-year-old girl.

It took a Madison County jury less than 30 minutes to find Jesse Lee Pitts guilty Tuesday in the death of Amanda Brinker. She was found beaten to death with a jack handle at Edgewater Park in September.

Investigators became suspicious of the call because the girl's body had been dragged off a walking trail and was not in plain sight. Police said blood was spattered on clothing in Pitts' possession.

The Associated Press left a message with Pitts' attorney, Jason Childers, seeking comment.

Pitts faces 45 years to 60 years in prison when he is sentenced June 9.

Trial update May 15 2008

Desmond Rogers was the first witness called to the stand Thursday, the second day of testimony in Pitts’ murder trial. Pitts stands accused of killing 14-year-old Brinker in September 2007 and faces 45 to 65 years if convicted.

Published May 15, 2008 08:56 pm - ANDERSON — On the night before her death, Amanda Brinker planned a morning meeting with Jesse Lee Pitts at Edgewater Park, according to a mutual friend.
8:54 p.m.: Witness: Brinker, Pitts planned to meet

ANDERSON — On the night before her death, Amanda Brinker planned a morning meeting with Jesse Lee Pitts at Edgewater Park, according to a mutual friend.

Rogers attended Anderson High School with Brinker, and the two were neighbors. He came to know Pitts as an employee at the nearby Speedway gas station and introduced the two.

“He called Amanda about meeting in the park the next morning,” Rogers said. “She called me about 6:30 (a.m.).”

Rogers didn’t answer; he went to school instead. Two hours later, around 8:30 a.m., Amanda was found dead in Edgewater Park.

Anderson police Officer Randy Doss also testified Thursday. Using a large map provided by the prosecution, Doss recounted the events leading to the discovery of Brinker’s body. He said the body was not visible from the paved asphalt path running through the park, a fact that drew the suspicion of police toward Pitts, who made the initial 911 call.

“I had to walk out entirely to the edge of the river, and it was approximately a 2- or 2 1/2-foot dropoff to where you could see it,” Doss said. “I looked out, and I could see the body of the victim. She was lying face down in pretty shallow water, probably six to eight inches deep.”

Defense attorney Jason Childers made multiple references Thursday to a bicycle found in the park, but not included in the crime scene. When Madison County Chief Deputy Coroner Marian Dunnichay took the stand, she called the crime scene “appropriate.”

As part of the coroner’s office investigation, Dunnichay had the right to alter the crime scene as designated with yellow tape, but agreed with the scene established by the Anderson Police Department. In approximately 16 years with the coroner’s office, Dunnichay said, she has worked “hundreds” of crime scenes, and in her opinion, Brinker’s body had clearly been moved before police arrived.

“The body was moved; I can’t say if it was (dragged),” she said, noting that Brinker’s belt had been loosened on the back side between belt loops. “There was a crime scene where there was blood spatter and the body was moved to another area.”

Childers also questioned Dunnichay as to the possibility of someone crossing police lines and entering the crime scene, to which she responded that officers were posted at two entrances to the park to prevent unauthorized access. APD officer Doss previously testified that he kept a log of everyone who entered the crime scene during his shift.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Paul F. Mellen tied injuries that led to Amanda Brinker’s death to what police believe is the murder weapon. Mellen displayed photographs from the autopsy of Brinker that drew gasps and sobs from members of the audience and caused some to leave the courtroom. A close-up photograph of Brinker’s face revealed an injury to the left side, while photographs taken of the shaved back of her head revealed multiple lacerations.

Mellen said the injuries were consistent with a “relatively straight, heavy object like a rod,” such as the jack handle police believe to be the murder weapon. He said Brinker sustained a skull fracture to the back of her head, bleeding of the brain and swelling of the brain.

Childers asked whether such injuries were deadly in the absence of water, as Brinker’s body was found face down in the White River.

“I’m not sure that these injuries alone, had she not been in the water, would have been sufficient to kill her,” he said. “The brain swells over time. There may have been reversible treatment. Nothing here struck me as an injury that was unsurvivable.”