The Trial of Brandi Turner
By Nali Milne
February 5, 2024On October 27, 2022, a 30 year old man named Quinn Hall was found dead behind the old Animal Services building on Kansas Avenue due to a fentanyl overdose. Now, his potential killer is on trial.
Brandi Turner is a 50 year old Templeton resident, though reportedly homeless at time of trial, who said she did not consider herself a drug dealer, but had experienced the effects of fentanyl before selling it to Hall, both in her own use of it, and in the people around her. Her husband had previously died due to an overdose on the deadly drug, and she knew that it was deadly before selling it. The following is a quote from Turner:
“Please do not screw me over. I put all my money out for you. I don’t f--k with that stuff and I don’t even want it in my house,” Turner wrote to Hall in a Aug. 16, 2022, text. “That’s how my husband died and I almost died. So please, come and get it as early as you can cause I literally have like 5 dollars left.”
In the quote above, Turner tells Hall that she doesn't even want fentanyl in her house because she knows how dangerous it is, and proceeds to sell it to Hall because she also needs the money. Because she knew of the danger, it is harder for the jury to set it aside as non-murderous.
Currently, the jury has convicted Turner of three drug offenses, however they are split 7-5 in favor of guilt on the charge of murder. The judge, Barry LaBarbera, just recently declared a mistrial. This means that since the jury can't come to a unanimous decision, there must be a new trial with a new jury, or Turner will not be charged with anything on the count of murder. The court now must decide whether or not to retry the murder case.