Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
In 2010, the quiet city of Tallahassee, Florida, was rocked by a heinous crime that left the community in shock and disbelief. Brandi Peters, a loving mother, and her three innocent children were found brutally murdered in their own home. The gruesome nature of the killings left even the most seasoned investigators deeply disturbed, with many describing it as the most horrific case in the history of Tallahassee. As the investigation unfolded, detectives found themselves grappling with a lack of substantial leads, leaving them desperate for answers.
Amidst the chaos and confusion, rumors began to circulate that the Peters family had fallen victim to a ruthless cartel hit. The speculation only added to the mystery surrounding the case, as investigators worked tirelessly to uncover the truth behind the senseless slaughter of a mother and her children.
Join us on this gripping episode of “Killer Cases” as we delve into the shocking details of the Brandi Peters murder investigation. Through expert analysis and exclusive interviews, we’ll explore the twists and turns that eventually led to the unmasking of the killer responsible for this unthinkable act of violence. Brace yourself for a chilling journey into the heart of one of Florida’s most disturbing homicide cases.
it is saturday november 20th 2010.
a police video evidence video of what had once been the happy family home of brandy peters.
brandi peters was shot several times in t various parts of the home starting in her bedroom, she was able to escape the bedroom get into the foyer and out the front door,drag back into h the home and was beaten to death.
she fougth with a great passion she took shot after shot with all kinds of one object ,bats and gun handles and crowbars ,she fought like a real hero for her kids.
cops entered the bathroom and that’s where they found the remaining victims inside the bathtub
the bodies of brandi’s peter’s twin girls .
and a three year old son.
there were stacked on top of one another and the tub was full of water
Javante the youngest had been drwoned one of the twins had also been drowned and one of the twins had been shot
the crime scene video told the story of the chilling l ast moments of lies of brandi peters and her three children .
somewhere in their pajamas
some were still in their daytime clothes sometimes after dinner but before bed
in the home there was the books of the girls that was there in the crime scene in the middle living room they were doing their homework when they got murdered.
detectives scrambled to understand why brandi peters and her family had been targeted ruling out robbery.
she was not living a lavish lifestyle that would indicate that,didn’t own property pretty much had no money .
there were foreign DNA under brandi’s fingernails from scratching there was foreign DNA on her phone in her bedroom that had been ripped out of the wall and the nhad the cord cut .
it became apparent from the beginning there were no force entry into the house either the victims knew the perpetrator and they were welcomed in or the door is simply left unlocked .
and soon the police began the sad task of notifying the next of king including brandi’s boyfriend henry Segura who already had heard rumors from a friend.
the little boy javonte was henry’s son .
persons who are murdered usually know the offender and that fender is close to them .you do want to get information from them but at no time was he a suspect during his interview .
Segura and brandi met at a gas station in tallahassee four years ago, Segura told the detectives there had been doubts about the paternity of the little boy and that he was behind on court-ordered child support payments
Segura said he had not been at brandi’s home for at least two days prior to the murder and told the detectives he was at his home the night of the murder.
when they said how are we going to prove that henry sagura weren’t over there that nigh and or how are they going to know sagura were home .
the phone’s GPS tracking data confirmed his alibi ,the primary cell phone number that he gave placed the handset, the cell phone at his residence.
and sagura’s wife malika came in to bolster the alibi, she was sick that day and was under medication so she wanted to sleep in a different bedroom in the house she says she saw henry there when she went to sleep
and she would have known that if he left because the door or the house was alarmed and it chimes every time the dorr opens and closes
in his interviews he was laughing a lot laughing just all throughout his his interview and it was really inappropriate behavior that you don’t expect to see in that type of situation .the investigators weren’t laughing.
asking about a number of minor scratches and red marks on his body
so without any hesitation sagura voluntarly gave a sample of his DNA confident it would put an end to any suspicion that he was involved in the murders.
tallahassees’s a bigger city that that got a small town feel.
this isn’t miami , this is isn’t Atlanta,this isn’t a cartel Hub
but in the world of crime tallahassee the florida state capitol.
and home to florida state university is certainly on the map
as the place where an infamous serial killer roam free for too many years Ted bundy anf left his mark here in Tallahasse
so the unsolved murder of brandi peters and her three children
and people here were worry ,there was pressure from the public to find out what happened and to get this case solved. there was no shortage of leads to follow
among the items discovered in brandi peter’s was a series of cryptic letters
from an apparent one -time boyfriend that shed new light on her background
you had a known tallahasse drug dealer who was dating brandi who had fallen into a drug debt himself.
a man identified as james carlos santos serving time in prison at the time of the murder .
mr santos was ultimately was identified as a member of a drug traffickng organization -the Loz Zetas cartel.
and DNA found at the crime scene on that phone cord was possible match to yet another convicted drug dealer who was then living in Italy.
at tallahassee police headquarters henry segura was called back in for a second round of questioning and he was upset that detectives had contacted some of his girlfriends.
and then homie in on his alibi that he was nowhere near brandi peters home that friday .
but in fact in the 10 days in since the first interview detectives learned that henry owed almost twenty thousand dollars in child support to brandy and the state of florida was about to garnish his wages .
the mother of the chils is taunting him and saying you better pay me my money or you’re going to be in jail
which was completely against everything he told detectives in the initial interview where he told them that the two of them get along fine and she’s okay with him making child support payments when he can.
and that’s not all he failed to disclose…..
his secret cell phone records showed that his location was consistent with being at brandi peter’s home the time that these homicides would have happened
at that point in time henry sagura became a suspect
detectives just kept on revealing lie after lie he was definitely being evasive didn’t wont to provide information
so one last try to get a confession as detectives tried a softer approach.
no confession -still defiant and not enough evidence to charge him
henry sagura walked out of the police station in Tallahassee a free man through cooperating and now looking for a good lawyer who would believe his story .
it’s a special kind of evil person who kill three children
and for almost a year tallahassee police were on the hunt for that person or persons and authorities could not ignore the possiblity that the murders of brandi peters and her three children were some kind of drug cartel hit as her one -time boyfriend james carlos santos had claimed from his prison cell .
james carlos santos claims that he was a member of a criminal organisation and under his direction brandi peters was running drugs for him and his allegation was that miss peters was skimming cocaine from him when he became awate of it he ordered her and her family to be murdered
he did have contact via letters and email with brandi peters where he was asking her to marry him maybe in his mind the two of them developed in a relationship-the investigation showed that was not true.
and detectives learned that it was not the first time that santos from prison had claimed responsibility for a number of other crimes
james carlos santos was evaluated by psychiatrist and during that evaluation it was shown that mr santos is delusional the pathological liar and simply cannot be trusted
but there was still that other possible drug connection the DNA found on the phone cord a possible match to a convicted drug smuggler found living in italy.
he agreed to meet FBI agents at the U.S embassy in Rom
he’s suppposed to be some monster drug cartel guy detective told him what they were investgating more than willing cooperating.
he went to this united states embasy walked inside made contact with an FBI agent and voluntarily gave the detectives his DNA .
his DNA snd that of four others in the national criminal databas were all potential possible matches.
each of them were eliminated as potential suspects either through incarceration, dead , things along those lines or alibis that fed out
the final step in the investigation of the cartel hit theory was the significant of a spade shovel discovered at the crime scene.
the argument was that the mexican cartel’s calling card is a spade bunch huey even if a spade is thair calling card
why would they have a spaged showel and lay it down instead of a ace of spades from a deck of cards that can easily be brought in.it just didn’t make any sense.having debunked the cartel hit theory
only one suspect remained-henry sagura
at one point the prosecutors said not to charge henry because he didn’t they had sufficient evidence.they bat this around a lot and take this responsibility very seriously in bringing charges against somebody especially something as severe as homicide.
in the end for prosecutors the twenty thousand dollars in back child support seemed to be the motive .
“you didn’t pay” he was going to get put in jail so prosecutors believe that it was all of those things that caused him to snap .
even if he only killed brandithe only way that he would get out of paying his child support was if javonte sagura died .
brandi died but not javonte ,he would still be on the hook for the child supportand the prosecution theroy went- the two twin girls were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
the twins girls Tamiyah and Taniyah were supposed to be at their grandmother’s house but when he went into the home they enforcement became victims of the plan as wel.
a Tallahassee man has been arrested in the brutal murder of 27 year old brandi peters and her three children ,henry sagura was located in Minnesota and has been charged with four counts of first degree murder
The key to bringing the case had been sagura’s repeated lies to detectives about his alibi -his second phone
hours after being arrested segura called his wife malika from jail all she wanted to talk about was his philandering.
he was essentially saying he’s screwed and he is going down for murder and gonna spend the rest of his life in prison and he did it for her.
but as the case was set for trial henry segura’s lawyer had a plan a risky strategy he had used successfully before.
and that was the plan he had to win the case for henry segura .
you have to be totally honest and forthright and that includes putting the defendant on stand no matter what that risk is.
a re-trial so henry segura and his lawyer had reason to be optimistic because an earlier trial had resulted in a hung jury
and the prosecution team knew it had to up its game .
prosecutors focused almost entirely on the lies henry segura had told about his cell phone which put him at the murder scene.
and the jury was shown the distubing crime scene police videos
and told it was alla bout segura upset with brandi peters threats to put him in jail for non -payment of child support.
for the defense was all in on the theory that it eas a drug cartel hit not a dispute over child support payments.
the prosecution knew its biggest weakness was lack of physical evidence
tying segura to the crime scene.
without incriminating DNA
they feared the so- called
CSI effect.
these TV shows have created a very unrealistic perception of the way an investigation is done .
a lot of the things that we do now we call analysts to explaine to people why we don’t have DNA rather than for the purpose of showing why we do.
but the strangth of the prosecution case was the police interviews and segura’s lies rto detectives
the tracking data on his second secret sell phone said otherwise
the retrial of henry segura- florida man retried for Quadruple homicide
convicted felon james carlos santos was brought from prison to testify for the defense.
this testimony made headlines but on cross- examination santos had a hard time remembering simple details about brandi peters.
the biggest thing is he said he’s known her for 10 years before she died that would make her about what 16 or 17
driving across the country to make contact with some mexican drug cartel persons they ‘re gonna load your car up with cocaine you can bring it back. brandi peters have her own car ,she was a child at the time.
even segura’s lawyer knew santos and his testimony had problems
but for the defense strategy to work there was one witness who the jury absolutely had to believe- henry segura .all risky but calculated decision for the defense.
the defense is not looking for a hung jury they trying to win the case. you got to give them what they want if you want a chance to win what they want is to hear from the defendant. the defendant has to explain why he lied.
only henry could explain why his cell phone was where it was during the time the that the state showed it was near the victim’s house.
henry is a dog like a lot of guys are are dogs,that sheat on their spouses or girlfriends
but you can’t drown children while you stare into their gasping faces without being the devil.
and now the prosecution needed to prove in their cross -examination that that’s is exactly who he was.
Henry segura is back on the stand he is subject to cross- examination having finished a direct testimony this morning.
prosecutor sarah dugan got the assignment from her boss to handle the cross-examination .
someone said that guy really hates women ,maybe a women might be better able to somehow get under his skin maybe dugan should do the cross .
starting with this dispute with brandi peters over child support payments and then exposing one lie after another .
sarah is like a methodical cross- examination robot that just sets it up knocks it down sets it up knocks it down nd that’s just a perfect stylistic matchup for someone like henry .
he lied to his wife repeatedly, he lied to his rest of his family,he lied to his girlfriend,he lied to the police multiple times over the course of interviews and he lied to god too when he made all of his promises to him .
and yet henry asking this jury to believe everything he have to say .
he’s getting nervous and ralizing he’s not able to keep his story straight
at one point the judge even interrupted segura and the prosecutor went back and forth .
the whole room tense up and the jury tense up that really gave them an opportunity to see what a bad temper henry had.
if he would react like that to a judge just saying hey wait for her to finish her question before you answer it like how would you react to this woman who’s trying to take his money for a child that she’s taunting him about and saying isn’t his.
the attorney now will present their final arguments
the big Question is how is the state proven that henry segura did this who has the motive,hwo has the means andwho has the means and who has the opportunity to commit this murder
then to the lies he told detectives all captured on the video shown to the jury
he lied 23 times in that video alone
and then the jail phone call to his wife after he was arrested.
she says” i’ve given up my life for you ” and what does he say ” looking like i gave up mine for you looking like i gave up my life for you as well”
after he’s just been arrested for homicide and when you take all of that and put it in context
his guilty killing brandi peters, Tamiyah peters, Taniyah peters and Javante.
defense lawyer nathan prince knew that the jurors were particularly upset over the death of the three children i’ts hard to get them to get past the emotion of seeing dead children
a lot of those jurors were parents and that makes a jury want to punish someone in some ways they would rather punish the wrong person than that nobody get punished
this aint’ baby mama drama stuff ,this is the most heinous violent offence in the history. that ‘s not domestic violence stuff that’s not how ” darn i got to pay another 200 bucks a months” that’s not what causes this offense that doesn’t make a father of four go drown babies ,doesn’t make a man just had sex with this women go beat herface in that doesn’t make sense.
what did make sense the segura’s lawyers told the jury was the defense theory that it was a drug cartel hit on brandi peters and her children ordered by james carlos santos.
they found like seven or eight letters from santos to brandi and these are all sent within like two weeks leading up to the murder
what it says on the back of this envelope is
‘ death before dishonor’
‘word is bond ‘bond is life’
and’ a man should give his life before his word fails’
“dear mailman if this letter happens to get lost just send it to heaven because it’s going to an angel “
on the other side it says ” i think god for you and i ask that he look out for you and our three little angels”
chilling right?
and then an effort to explain his clients outburst the day before with the judge.
” i put him onthe stan knowing he’s not a superstar witness , all i told him was get up there and be real but you’ve waited for this moment get up there and be real and be you and they want to try and say because he gets frustrated that he’s the killer is that your best evidence that he’s the killer who got frustrated.
i ask that you follow the law that you promised to follow that you hold the state to its burden that you find mr segura not guilty./nathan prince
But then they came back in less than three or four hours
the jury finds the defendant is guilty of first -degree murder
as to count two the defendant is guilty of first- degree murder
as to count three the jury find the defendant is guilty of first -degree murder.
as to count four the jury find the defendant guilty of first -degree murder.
” the moment henry snapped at the judge, i think that gave them the excuse that they were looking for for to say ” yeah that’s the guy we can punish somebody that was the moment i think we probably lost the trial”
but now even higher stakes as the jury would decide whether segura would get the death penalty or sentence of life in prison .
“this is not a case of a single murder it is a multiple murder, it is a murder of a family it is a murder of children .”/eddie evans
but then a suprise
as the defense came up with an unconventional and aggressive strategy
” frankly we were hoping for a death verdict because as you can probably tell i’m pretty cynical about the entire process and know that you don’t get the same attention from appellate courts without a death verdict on the table
and henry and i talked about that and we talked about what a psychotically aggressive strategy that was to invite a death sentence .we believe the best way to protect him was to invite a death verdict
the jury did not take long to make its decision on how henry segura should be punished.
not sentence to death but life in prison exactly what henry segura did not want to have happen- a suprise outcome that denied segura what his lawyers thought was his best shot at appeal
” i dont know if the life sentence was reflective of doubt or if they just did it to screw us because obviously we were inviting a death sentence/nathan prince
justice in its own way for the murders of brandy peters and her three children
condemning henry segura to a life behind bars without the possibility of parole.