40 Years to Life for Tupac Shakur's Killer, Tyreek Hill Liable on Two Counts of Battery, the Crown Opens Its Case Against Russell Brand

0:03 Calaroga Shark Media. Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Friday, October 16th, 2026. Two corrections before we start, and I want to own both of them. On Wednesday's show, I said a verdict in Tyreek Hill's civil trial could come soon. The jury had actually reached its verdict on Tuesday night before that episode was released. And on Wednesday, I told you Brian Koberger's lawyers would ask the judge to step aside at a hearing on Thursday. That hearing had already been canceled. Both mistakes came from timing, and we've changed how we check right before each episode goes out.

0:48 You deserve current information, and I'm sorry. Now, the week. In London, the prosecution has laid out its case against Russell Brand, and the jury has started hearing evidence. Here's the question at the center of that trial. How does a jury weigh memories of events from 25 years ago? Let's get into it. First, the essentials. Every time. Russell Brand, who is 51, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court in London on seven charges. Three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them. He denies all of the allegations. If you know Bran mainly from American movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, it helps to know how big he was at home first.

1:41 In Britain in the 2000s, he was everywhere, hosting a Big Brother spinoff on television, presenting shows on BBC radio, selling out arenas as a comedian. Since then, he's reinvented himself. He now lives in Florida, has become a popular online commentator, and has spoken publicly about converting to Christianity. When the first charges were filed last year, he said in a video that he had been a fool and a sex addict in his younger days, but never a rapist. His wife, Laura, has been with him in court for much of this week. He's represented by solicitor Oliver Schneider-Sikorsky, who also represented Kevin Spacey, who was acquitted of sexual offense charges in this same courthouse in 2023. On Wednesday, the prosecution opened its case.

2:27 In England, the prosecutor works for the Crown, and the barrister leading this case is Riel Carmi Jones, a King's Counsel, which is the senior rank of courtroom lawyer in Britain. According to the BBC, she told the jury that the six women did not know each other, had never met each other, and came forward independently. She said the circumstances of what they allege were as varied as Brand's career, spanning the years from before he was famous to the height of his fame. She described a man who could be charming, funny, and likable when he wanted something, but also demanding and entitled, and who, she said, appeared untroubled afterward, sometimes leaving quickly, sometimes carrying on as if nothing had happened.

3:09 She then walked the jury through each woman's account. I'm not going to repeat the details. Some of them are graphic, and some details would risk identifying women who are legally entitled to anonymity for life. What I can tell you is the shape of it. The allegations range from a rape in 1999, before Brand was well-known, to incidents at parties and workplaces in the mid-2000s, to allegations from 2009. The prosecutor also told the jury what Brand said when police interviewed him. About the first allegation, she said, he told officers that if it happened, he didn't remember it, and he didn't remember the woman's name. And in 2023, she said, he told police he had never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity, and that the accounts had been reinvented or imagined after what he called a defamatory documentary and the press coverage that followed. That's a significant part of what the defense is expected to argue. that memories from two decades ago were shaped or reshaped by the 2023 investigation by the Sunday Times and Channel 4. One thing that's different from an American trial, in England, the defense doesn't usually give its own opening speech at the start.

4:19 It cross-examines the prosecution's witnesses and then, after the prosecution rests, presents its case. Brand has the right to testify in his own defense and he also has the right not to. We won't know which until the defense case begins, likely several weeks from now. The trial is expected to run six to eight weeks, so a verdict could come around mid-December. Then, on Wednesday afternoon, the first witness took the stand, Mark Pinero, who shared a flat with Brand years ago. He testified that Brand told him in 1999 that things had gotten heated with a woman and a little out of hand. According to the BBC, Pinero told the jury Brand's words were, quote, I think I may have gone a bit too far.

5:05 Under cross-examination, Brand's defense pressed him on whether he was really remembering that comment accurately after more than 25 years. Pinheiro said he was sure of the substance of it. On Thursday, the jury watched the video-recorded police interview of the first complainant. That's common in English sexual offense trials. It often stands in for part of a complainant's live testimony. She is expected to be cross-examined by Brand's defense. Also on Thursday, the judge, Mr. Justice Benethen, gave the jury an important instruction about the documentary. As reported by Sky News, he told them its allegations have never been tested in any court. He said it matters to the case only because it prompted some of the women to come forward, and because the defense may argue it caused them to twist their memories. He said he considered the documentary one-sided and dramatic, and that it will not be shown to them.

5:59 That's the question I asked at the top. Twelve jurors, eight men and four women, are being asked to decide what happened in rooms as long as 25 years ago, largely on the accounts of the people who were there. The prosecution says six women who never met coming forward independently is powerful evidence. The defense may argue, as the judge himself noted, that the documentary shaped how some of those memories are told. The jury will decide. As I promised at the start of this trial, I'm not going to tell you what I think of the evidence until there's a verdict. I'll tell you what happens in the courtroom. Every day it matters. Russell Brand denies all charges. The trial continues on Monday. When we come back, 30 years after Tupac Shakur was killed, the man convicted of his murder learns his sentence. On September 7th, 1996, Tupac Shakur was riding in a car on the Las Vegas Strip after a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand. The car was being driven by Death Row Records boss Marion Knight.

7:12 At a red light, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside, and someone inside opened fire. Knight was grazed. Tupac was hit several times. He died six days later. He was 25 years old. For decades, no one was charged. The case became one of the most famous unsolved murders in America. Then in 2023, Las Vegas police arrested Dwayne Davis, known as Keefy D., a former member of the Southside Compton Crips. For years, Davis had talked publicly about that night in interviews, on television, and in a book, describing himself as being in the Cadillac. At trial, prosecutors said he was the shot caller, that he was in the car, that he handed the gun to the back seat, and that he ordered the shooting. Earlier that night, Tupac and his entourage had been involved in a fight at the MGM with Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson. Anderson died in 1998. In August, a jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder. On Tuesday, he was sentenced. Court TV reports that before it even began, Davis interrupted to argue with Judge Carly Kearney about how much credit he should get for time already served. When she offered him the chance to address the court, he said he just wanted his belongings back from his house.

8:26 Asked if there was anything else, he said he would appeal. And at one point, he rolled his eyes at the judge. Tupac's younger sister told the court her brother was born an icon and described how, at 25, he was supporting 17 different families. Then his brother spoke and said something that I think gets at the whole thing. He said Tupac never got to have kids, never saw his nieces and nephews grow up, and never got a trial. All Pat got, he said, was a death sentence. Judge Kearney told Davis that he had spent three years saying some version of the same thing. That yes, he was involved, but he's different now, a grandfather, out of Compton. She told him that's not how this works. You don't get to take a man's life and just walk away, she said.

9:16 And especially not when that man is Tupac Shakur. She said it took 30 years, but he was going to face justice. She sentenced him to 20 years to life for murder, plus a consecutive 20 years to life for using a deadly weapon. That's 40 years to life. Davis is 63. The prosecutor acknowledged in court that, unless he wins on appeal, Davis will die in a Nevada prison. Davis has said he didn't fire the gun, and he plans to appeal. He has that right. Here's what strikes me. For 30 years, the official version of this case was that it couldn't be solved. Witnesses were afraid. Key people died. And the man now convicted was, for much of that time, telling his story to anyone who would listen. Sometimes a cold case isn't cold because nobody knows what happened. It's cold because nobody acts on it. This one finally got acted on. Tupac Shakur was 25 years old. Someone has to say his name. When we come back, a split verdict for Tyreek Hilton. On Tuesday night in Miami, after nearly four hours of deliberation, a six-person jury reached its verdict in the civil case Lakita Vaccaro brought against her estranged husband, NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill. According to ESPN

10:47 and the Associated Press, the jury found Hill liable on two counts of battery out of 10 claims. The first was in January of 2024 during an argument over a proposed post-nuptial agreement when Vaccaro testified he knocked her down, ripped off her necklace, and put his hands around her neck. The second was in April of 2025, an incident partly captured on a camera in their daughter's room, video that was played for the jury. On the other eight claims, the jury found Hill not liable. That included other battery and assault claims, and a claim that he intentionally inflicted severe emotional distress. The jury awarded Vaccaro $ 500, 000 in compensatory damages.

11:29 Her lawyers had asked for as much as $ 8 million. The jury awarded no punitive damages. As you'd expect, both sides say they won. Vaccaro's attorney Evan Marks told the sports website Defector that a jury found Hill committed battery against his wife, that domestic violence is unacceptable, and that they're satisfied with the verdict. Hill's attorney Michael Gottlieb told the same outlet that, from his client's perspective, This was a defense verdict because the jury rejected most of the claims and awarded a fraction of what was asked. Another of his lawyers, Christy Bright, said Hill was grateful to finally tell his story. ESPN reports, Hill hugged her and smiled as he left the courtroom. So here's my read.

12:11 Both of those statements are technically true and neither is the whole truth. A jury of six people heard Hill deny ever physically hurting his wife. And on two occasions, they didn't believe him. That's not nothing. It's a finding of battery. But on eight other claims, including several of the most serious, they found she hadn't proven her case. And remember, this is a civil verdict. The standard is more likely than not, not beyond a reasonable doubt. Hill has never been charged with a crime, and this verdict doesn't make him a criminal. What happens next? The couple's divorce is still not final. The NFL is reviewing the case under its personal conduct policy. And Hill, who's working his way back from a serious knee injury, is still a free agent. His agent says a deal could come any time. How the league and the teams weigh a civil finding of battery will tell us a lot. Lakita Vaccaro spent a week in that courtroom telling a jury about her marriage. On two counts, they believed her. That's the show for this week. A quick update on Brian Koberger.

13:18 As I mentioned at the top, the hearing on his motion to remove Judge Stephen Hippler which had been set for Thursday, was canceled by the judge on Tuesday evening. No new date has been set. The judge also canceled the evidentiary hearing that had been scheduled for June of next year, and those dates will be reset. A lawyer for Koberger's family told Fox News this is the start of a much longer process. We'll tell you when a new date is set. Here's my question for the Spotify crowd. In the Hill case, who do you think won? If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment and tell me why. If you've been with us all week through the Pike special and everything else, thank you. Send an episode to someone who'd like it. That's how we grow. And on Apple Podcasts, look for Listen Uninterrupted at the top of your screen. $ 5 a month, no ads, this show plus thousands of Calaroga media shows, and the first 30 days are free. To everyone who already subscribes, thank you. Coming up Monday, the Russell Brand trial continues in London, with cross-examination expected. And we'll be watching Tennessee and Krista Pike.

14:30 Have a good weekend. I'm Garrett Fisher. Do better. This episode of Daily Crime and Justice is produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and is intended for news and commentary purposes only. It is not legal advice. Everyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to all charges and denies all of the allegations against him. Dwayne Davis has been convicted and has said he will appeal. Tyreek Hill has not been charged with any crime. The findings against him were made in a civil case. Corrections. Wednesday's episode said a verdict in Tyreek Hill's civil trial could come soon. The jury returned its verdict on Tuesday, October 13th. Wednesday's episode also said Brian Koberger's hearing on disqualifying Judge Hipler would take place Thursday.

15:24 The judge canceled that hearing on Tuesday, October 13th. On Russell Brand, courtroom proceedings are as reported by the BBC and Sky News. Under the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act 1992, complainants in sexual offense cases in the United Kingdom are entitled to lifelong anonymity. we have omitted details that could identify them. On Tyreek Hill, the verdict is as reported by ESPN, the Associated Press, and others. Court TV initially reported that the jury found one instance of battery. Most outlets, including ESPN, report two. Statements by attorneys are as reported by Defector and ESPN. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available at 1-800-799-7233. If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, you can call RAINN at 800-656-4673.

16:19 In England and Wales, you can reach Rape Crisis at 0808-500-2222.