Russell Brand’s Wife Testifies and the Judge Stops One Question Cold, Closings Today, an Arrest 15 Years After Michelle Parker Vanished

0:08 Good morning. This is Daily Crime and Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher. It's Friday, October 30th, 2026. Yesterday at Southwark Crown Court, the woman who sat behind Russell Brand nearly every day of his trial, taking notes in a little black book, walked to the witness box herself. Laura Brand told the jury her husband is kind, caring, an amazing father, and that she feels, in her words, very seen by him. And when Brand's barrister asked her what she thought of the allegations, the judge cut him off. No, no, no. So here's today's question. What can a wife actually tell a jury about her husband? And what can't she? Let's get into it. This segment includes discussion of allegations of rape and sexual assault and some frank testimony about relationships.

1:03 I'll keep it to what was said in court, the essentials. Russell Brand 51 is on trial on seven charges, three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault involving six women between 1999 and 2009. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them and he denies all of the allegations. Everything here is from evidence in open court, as reported by Sky News. Brand arrived in a grey suit with a waistcoat, an open white shirt, a long red scarf and aviator sunglasses. Laura wore a navy pinstripe suit with a small gold crucifix at her neck. The day began with another defense witness, whose statement was read to the jury. Elia Alvarez-Diaz, a ballet dancer and one of Brand's ex-girlfriends. They met at drama school in London and dated for three years, living together for about one of them. She described him as curious, never dull, with a bad boy reputation. She said he was promiscuous and unfaithful, and that was the main reason they broke up. But she also said this, which is why the defense called her, When I said no to him, he always listened. Then the defense called Laura Brand. She gave her full name, Laura Kate Brand, and confirmed she's the daughter of the golfer Bernard Gallacher and the sister of the sports broadcaster Kirstie Gallacher. She and Brand have three children. She told the jury how they met. It was August of 2006 at the Edinburgh Festival. Her sister

2:34 took her to his show called Shame, which she described as daring and highly explicit, with a largely female audience that was very excited for him to come on stage. Afterwards, she said she told him the show was very funny. He first commented on her beautiful friend, but when he found out the friend had a boyfriend, he turned to Laura and said, and I hope you don't have a boyfriend. At that point, the judge gently intervened. How people meet and get together, he said, is often a touching story, and suggested the lawyer move on. And then she told the jury something that, in this trial, is very much the point. She said that on their first date, they were intimate, but she didn't want to have full sex, and he respected that. She said she doesn't remember him even asking. She said their relationship developed at her own pace, and that she felt entirely cared for and looked after.

3:25 She was 19, she said, and inexperienced. He was 31. But she was also honest about the other side. She said that as their relationship went on, she became aware he was seeing other women, and she wasn't interested in a relationship if he was sleeping with other people. They'd told each other they loved each other, she said, but it was clear it was difficult for him to be monogamous. They split up in February of 2007, and she was, in her words, a little heartbroken. Was she aware of his promiscuity after that? I was very aware of it, she said. I could read about it regularly in the papers, and he told her about it too. Asked to describe his character, she said he's caring and kind, a wonderful father, and an amazing, attentive husband with an eye for detail she's never known before. I feel very seen by him, she said. I love him very much. She said their marriage has always been built on honesty. Then came the flashpoint.

4:29 Brand's barrister, Ian Winter, asked if she was aware of the allegations. She said she was, and then he asked, What is your view as to the truth of the allegations? The judge, Mr. Justice Benethen, jumped in forcefully. No, no, no, she is not an expert witness. Winter tried rephrasing. What was her view of his character? This time it was the prosecutor, Riel Carmi Jones, who stood up and called it wholly unacceptable. The jury and Laura Brand were sent out of the room while the lawyers sorted it out. Here's why that matters. A character witness can tell a jury what she knows about a person, how he's treated her, what she's seen. What she can't do is tell them whether he committed a crime. She wasn't there. That's the jury's job, and only the jury's. On cross-examination, the prosecutor focused on the years when most of these allegations are said to have happened. Laura agreed she was 19 and Brand was 31 when they met, and that he knew who her family was. She said that after they broke up, they stayed close and hung out a lot, though she didn't see him during his 14-month marriage to Katy Perry.

5:41 The prosecutor confronted her with a podcast she did in 2020, in which she said that when she saw him again in 2014, she hadn't seen him for years. I have to say you're wrong, Laura replied. She said they stayed in touch but didn't meet in person again until 2015. They got back together that year and married in 2017. The prosecutor's last questions were about faith. Laura agreed that her husband was baptized in the River Thames in April of 2024 and after the allegations came out, and that he's published a book this year about becoming a Christian. Through all of it, Brand, who sat almost motionless for most of this trial, came alive in the dock. Sky's reporters say he rocked slightly and mouthed words toward her when she talked about his baptism, and laughed out loud when she said that despite everything, they do have many friends and colleagues, and they're grateful for them. So, back to the question. Laura Brand can tell the jury who her husband is to her, and she did. A man who, when she was 19 and said not yet, waited. The prosecution's answer is that what a man is like with the woman he married doesn't tell you what he was like with strangers in a toilet or in a hotel room or in his house in 2009. And she herself told the jury he couldn't be faithful during those years.

7:01 That's for the jury to weigh. It was a short day. Today, the jury hears closing speeches from both sides. In England, the prosecution goes first and the defense gets the last word. Then the judge gives what's called a summing up, a review of the evidence and the law, with written directions the jury takes into the room. Jurors are first told they must try to reach a unanimous verdict on each charge. Only after a set amount of time can the judge tell them a verdict of 10-2 or 11-1 will be accepted. And there are seven charges, so there could be seven different verdicts. The judge expects them to begin deliberating on Tuesday. And as I promised at the start of this trial, once there's a verdict, I'll finally tell you what I think.

7:47 Russell Brand denies all charges. When we come back, two cases from Orlando just in time for Halloween. On November 17th, 2011, an episode of the TV show The People's Court aired in Orlando. On it, a man named Dale Smith Jr. was suing his ex-fiancee, Michelle Parker, over a $ 5, 000 engagement ring. He said she threw it during an argument and it was lost. According to Law and Crime, he said it went off a ninth-floor hotel balcony. Judge Marilyn Millian ruled they were both responsible and ordered Parker to pay half.

8:32 On the show, Parker accused Smith of being abusive and unfaithful. That same day, Michelle Parker dropped off the couple's three-year-old twins at Smith's house, and she was never seen again. Her black Hummer turned up abandoned in a parking lot. Her phone was found weeks later in a lake south of Orlando. She was 33, a mother of three, and she was declared legally dead in 2013. Her body has never been found. For almost 15 years, police said publicly that Dale Smith Jr. was their only suspect. They searched property belonging to his father. They chased leads. He was never charged until this month. On October 14th, Orlando police arrested Smith at his business on a charge of second-degree murder.

9:17 According to Law and Crime, he was days away from boarding a flight to Columbia. Police said new evidence collected over the past year, along with new technology applied to old evidence, led them to him. All evidence leads to Dale Smith Jr., they said. He is pleaded not guilty and is being held without bond. Now, a 46-page arrest affidavit, as reported by Law and Crime, gives us the clearest picture yet of the case against him. The key, police say, is cell phone location data that couldn't be analyzed this way 15 years ago. Smith always said Parker was at his house for only about 10 minutes. Police now say the data shows she was there for more than an hour.

9:58 and they allege that after she was already dead, Smith sent a text from her phone to her brother saying she was at a shopping center when her phone was actually more than 10 miles away. The affidavit also describes the weeks before she vanished. Friends told police Smith was abusive and that she often had marks on her. One friend said Parker was a nervous wreck about the People's Court episode because Judge Millian had been insulting and Parker knew Smith wouldn't take it well with everyone watching. Texts between them grew more hostile. Parker threatened to take custody of the twins. And days before she disappeared, according to the affidavit, Smith offered to pay her $ 2, 000 to have sex with him one last time. She said no. Police also point to Smith's inconsistent answers about that day in depositions over the years, in a civil lawsuit. Detectives haven't said exactly how they believe she died or why, and Smith hasn't been convicted of anything. His lawyers will get to test every piece of that cell phone data. But after almost 15 years, the man police always suspected is finally in a courtroom. Michelle Parker was 33, a mother of three. Someone has to say her name. Tomorrow is Halloween.

11:15 And this week in Orlando, a judge reminded the city of what happened there two years ago. In the early hours of November 1st, 2024, an estimated 75,000 people in costumes filled downtown Orlando for Halloween. Among them was 17-year-old Jalen Edgar, carrying a gun. Shortly after 1 in the morning, according to prosecutors, he walked past a 25-year-old man named Tyrek Hill, turned around, and shot him at point-blank range. Minutes later, at another intersection, he opened fire again, killing 19-year-old Timothy Schmidt Jr., a student at the University of Central Florida. Seven other people were hurt, one of them trampled as the crowd ran. A police officer tackled Edgar to the ground. At trial, the defense didn't dispute that Edgar fired the shots. It argued instead that prosecutors hadn't proven the shootings were premeditated. The jury disagreed and convicted him of two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder. On Tuesday, Edgar, now 19, was sentenced.

12:19 Before he did it, Circuit Judge Keith Karsten told him, Nearly two years ago today, you terrorized this city. Family members of the victim spoke, and so did a survivor of the shooting. Edgar's lawyers had pointed to his childhood trauma. Edgar himself apologized, saying he wanted to apologize for the pain and trauma he'd caused. The judge sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences for the murders and another life sentence for the attempted murders. Because he was 17 at the time, he couldn't face the death penalty and under Florida law for juvenile offenders, his sentence will be eligible for review after 25 years. Orlando wasn't alone. A year earlier, in 2023, two people were killed and more than a dozen hurt when gunfire broke out during Halloween celebrations in Ibor City in Tampa. Three people are awaiting trial in that case. It's a reminder this weekend that Halloween crowds are some of the biggest of the year in a lot of American cities. If you're going out tomorrow night, stay with your people and have a plan to find each other. Tyrek Hill was 25. Timothy Schmidt Jr. was 19.

13:25 Someone has to say their names. When we come back, the week ahead. That's the show for this week. Here's my question for the Spotify crowd. Should a defendant's spouse be allowed to testify about his character at all in a case like this? If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment. If you've been following The Brand Trial with us, send this episode to someone who'd want to catch up before the verdict. That's how we grow. And on Apple Podcasts, tap listen uninterrupted at the top of your screen. $ 5 a month, no ads, this show plus thousands of other Calaroga Media shows, and the first 30 days are free.

14:16 To everyone already subscribed, thank you. Coming up Monday, the closing speeches in The Russell Brand Trial and what happens when the jury goes out on Tuesday. the defense case in the Sandra Birchmore trial in Boston. And next Thursday, Florida's scheduled execution, which would tie the state's record. Have a safe Halloween. 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. Dale Smith Jr. has pleaded not guilty. Jalen Edgar has been convicted. On Russell Brand, testimony is as reported by Sky News from Southwark Crown Court. Our description of the rules on character evidence is a general summary.

15:18 Under the Sexual Offenses Amendment Act 1992, complainants in sexual offense cases in the United Kingdom are entitled to lifelong anonymity. On Michelle Parker, details of the arrest affidavit are as reported by Law and Crime. Other details are as reported by the Associated Press, NBC News, WFTV, Fox 35, and Click Orlando. Allegations in the affidavit have not been tested in court. On Jalen Edgar, details are as reported by Court TV, The Orlando Sentinel, Fox 35, and Spectrum News 13. 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 RAIN at 800-656-4673. In England and Wales, you can reach Rape Crisis at 0808-500-2222.