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Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences.
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Listener discretion is advised. If I were to know she was getting stabbed tonight, I would have let myself go stabbed before her.
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At just 20 years old, Brianna Barrazzini could pass for a teenager. But today, in the courtroom, she looks even younger.
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Her blonde hair falls straight down her back, framing a face drained of color. She stands motionless before an Ohio judge.
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A shadow of fear flickering behind her solemn eyes. The room is silent, bracing for the words she's about to speak.
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Words that seal her fate. Brianna is here to plead guilty to killing her former friend, Aliyah Culbertson.
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You're now pleading guilty or admitting that you've committed this crime. When you plead guilty, you waive or give up constitutional rights.
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Do you understand each and every right? Yes, Your Honor. Are you waiving those rights and are you pleading guilty knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily?
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Yes, Your Honor. Only a year has passed since Halia was killed. It all happened so quickly on that March evening of 2023.
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It's been a year of legal battles, bond hearings, and fear on both sides. But today, Brianna is admitting to what she did and she will face consequences for Halia's death.
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Prosecution is going to push for prison. Your lawyer is asking for probation. I indicated I would likely send you to prison with the ability maybe to get out early.
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Is that your understanding of the discussions? Yes, Your Honor. All right. But I've made no commitment. I get to review the pre-sentence investigation.
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I'm going to do that. I'll listen to both sides. But I'm inclined to do what I've told you, and you understand that.
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Yes, Your Honor. All right. On the benches behind Brianna and her lawyer, the split is as old as the feud itself.
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Halia's family is on one side and Brianna's is on the other. The bad blood didn't start with Halia's death, but it's curdled into something much colder now.
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Each side sits stiff, waiting for what comes next. When you plead guilty, it is a complete admission you're guilty.
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You're going to be convicted today and you're going to be sentenced on July the 11th.
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It'll be on your record. It's a non-expungible offense. It carries up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
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Do you understand the nature of the charge to which you're pleading guilty and what the maximum penalties are?
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Yes, Your Honor. That is it. A maximum sentence of maybe three years and $10,000 for Halea Culperton's life?
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Do you have any questions for me about anything that we've gone over? Because if you do, now is the time to ask me.
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No, Your Honor. Are you pleading guilty to this crime I've outlined for you because you did, in fact, commit that crime?
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Yes, Your Honor. All right, have a seat. Thank you. Brianna has no questions. This plea deal is the best outcome she could have hoped for.
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Because Brianna killed Halea Culbertson. That is a fact. but what that fact leaves out is everything that led up to it what was said what was seen what was
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feared and whether what brianna did that night was premeditated or panicked intent brianna stole
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halia's life but now she gets to wait for her sentence from the comfort of her family's home
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in westerville ohio for the next month brianna will sleep in her own bed eat her favorite meals
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scroll through her phone and take long hot showers she's free for now halia on the other
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hand is dead and her family lives inside a grief that has no end even if brianna gets the maximum
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sentence she could be out by the age of 23 she will step into a future where most people will
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never know she's a murderer she'll carry on with the very life she stole no one in the courtroom
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is satisfied no one truly understands how it came to this if brianna had stayed at home that night
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maybe halea would still be alive whatever happened between those two girls it didn't start that night
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but it did end in murder now let's rewind to about a year before brianna stood in the courtroom
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March 26th of 2023. The evening, Aliyah died. It was almost midnight in Columbus, Ohio.
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Such a beautiful place, Ohio is. I always say. In the desolate parking lot of a strip mall,
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Halea Culbertson's best friend, Kenzie Adrian, called 911 desperate for help. Halea was sitting in the front seat of a Jeep
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that belonged to their other friend, Daylin Barrage. Aliyah took labored breaths as blood spilled down her neck and onto her orange tank top and pants
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Kenzie couldn't get the information out faster. She needed it to be known. brianna barozini stabbed halia they all witnessed it okay just stay on the line with me we're gonna
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get these officers out to help you guys dalen wrapped his shirt around halia's neck pressing
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hard to stop the bleeding kenzie clutched her hand whispering to halia they waited their ears
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straining for sirens, hearts pounding. Kenzie and Dalen were paralyzed by the helplessness
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of it all. Then, the police swarmed in. Get back, boss. Just get back. I know you're... I know. I know. I need you to stay back, all
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right? You gotta let them do their work, okay? Come on, guys. Let's get back. Let's get
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back come on come on i understand let's get back okay i'm gonna get your information did you see
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it yes who saw it happy okay okay in the red hoodie okay all right i need you to get in the
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cruiser for me okay i'm gonna have to get you off your phone all right i understand that but i need
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you okay i need you to get in the cruiser okay i'm talking to a cop on my house i have the phone
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the parking lot was utter chaos as police quickly assessed the situation amongst these crying
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red-faced teenagers, the paramedics scooped up Halia into a stretcher and whisked her to the
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nearest hospital. Dalen and Kenzie were left in the parking lot, shaking from adrenaline and terror.
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The police officer guided Kenzie to his squad car, instructing her to hang up her cell phone and
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sit down. Have a seat. You said that's your friend? Yes, it's my best friend. Okay, what's her name?
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H-A-L-I-A. Hold on, one sec, one sec. I know it's hard. I can write down. Kenzie sat looking up at the cop, her eyes wide and teary.
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She stroked the end of her long ponytail like a child with a security blanket. Do you know where she lives?
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Yes. Okay, where she lives? She lives in Sanberry, Ohio, but I don't know exactly where she is.
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Yeah, go ahead. Actually, I need you here. We need to have a... I need you. Get that guy in the red hoodie. He saw it.
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I saw it, too. I know. I'm here, I'm here. Okay, I'm here. Just sit now. We have to tell them what happened.
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Oh, that's fine. Can I sit with my sister? I need to separate you guys, okay? That's fine.
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Just for the integrity of the story, okay? I got you. I'm over here. Okay. The parking lot pulsed with streetlights and the flashing blue of cop cars.
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Dalen stormed towards Kenzie, begging to sit with his sister, but an officer blocked him.
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No one knew exactly what had happened yet, and right now they needed calm. not a shirtless panicked Dalen tearing through the scene.
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She said they got in a fight. Go ahead. They got into a fight, and as Halia walked to the front door of the Jeep,
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I saw she had a gash on her. She got in the car, and she goes, I'm getting nauseous. I hopped out the car.
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I called 911 because I didn't see the fucking fight. I was sitting in the Jeep looking away.
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Kenzie was in shock, scrambling with her words, but what she knew was that Brianna Barrazzini had stabbed Halia.
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Kenzie had issues with Brianna from the past, so she stayed away from the fights between the girls.
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The next thing she knew, Halea was bleeding from the neck. You didn't see the actual fight?
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No, but I know who Bree Barazzini is. I know her mother and I know her address. Okay, okay.
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All right, hang out for me, okay? Okay. As Kenzie nervously puffed on her nicotine vape,
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the officer marched towards another kid who had witnessed the fight. I kind of saw the end of it,
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but I didn't see her get stabbed at all. Okay. It just looked like they were throwing punches.
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Okay. Do you know either of them? I know her. That was it. Who? Halia, the one that got stabbed.
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That was it. You know her, but you don't know... I barely... Like, I know... I worked with Daylon for a little bit,
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and I was hanging out with him tonight. I need... I need you... Where did it happen at?
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Yeah, let's take that... Right here in the front. Like, in the front of the smoke shop?
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Yes, sir. Okay. The officer continued collecting pieces of the story and fragments from the teenagers.
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The fight had happened in the strip mall outside of a smoke shop that sold vapes, snacks, drinks, you know, all the things that keep teenagers alive.
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Next, the officer headed to the store, kicking oblivious customers off the property as he made his way inside.
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Hey guys, I have to shut this off. Somebody just got stabbed and I need to basically close your doors, I'm sorry.
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okay even better just don't let anybody come out this way okay go out the back the officer closed the smoke shop and patrolmen started taping off the entire parking lot
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outside another police vehicle a few yards away from where kenzie sat waiting dalen was pacing towards another officer
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you standing right there all right Is that is that positive That him come on is your sister that got got cut no she not she not blood related but i not
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okay she was fucking 12 okay so good friend of yours yeah man what's your first name
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dalen's bare chest was covered in halea's blood he cried as he walked with the officer giving him
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all the information without question. He kept calling Halea his sister, even though they weren't actually related.
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It's the kind of thing that made sense in his world, where closeness didn't need blood to feel real.
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They'd been friends for half his life, which for some, like Dalen, felt like forever.
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Long enough for him to believe he had a duty to protect her. All right. Did you see what happened?
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Man, I got that shit on video, man. Dalen stood up and pulled out his cell phone, holding up the screen for the officer to see.
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He had the entire fight on video, every brutal second. He even posted it on Snapchat.
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Dalen, her self-proclaimed brother, thought he was protecting her, but what he didn't realize was that he may have helped to get her killed.
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Because buried in the footage, beneath the shouting and the blood, was something that no one had noticed.
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Something that changed everything. Outside of a smoke shop in a strip mall in Columbus, Ohio,
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an opening that clearly tells you nothing good's coming, 18-year-old Brianna Barrazzini had stabbed 17-year-old Halea Culbertson during a fight.
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When police arrived on the scene, they found a group of distraught teenagers who had witnessed the brawl,
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and one boy, Daylin Barrage, had filmed the entire thing on his phone. Brianna had fled the scene after the fight,
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and as another troop of officers headed to her house to track her down, the ones on the scene continued talking to the witnesses,
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Halea's best friends, Dalen and Kenzie. After all, Dalen had the whole fight on his cell phone.
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Through tears, he passed his phone over and started playing. In the clip, you see Halea.
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She towers over Brianna by about a foot. but Haleah is walking towards Brianna with her arms out, shouting.
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Hold on the back! Hold on the back! Hold on the back! Hey, get off my sister, bro!
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Haleah charges towards Brianna, yelling, Who's obsessed? over and over. Brianna backs up.
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She's got two canned drinks in her hand, and her boyfriend is beside her. He holds her arms and tries to guard her,
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being cautious not to touch Haleah at all. in the background dalen starts to tell him to get off his sister yeah if you touch my sister
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girl i have to put my phone down bro halea crunch your ass to get it over with bro crunch
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your ass to get it over with halea oh great more thug culture halea keeps charging forward
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screaming in brianna's face as dalen keeps yelling that's when some say brianna pulls out a knife
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from her pocket. Others insist it was already in her hand. Halea keeps thundering towards her.
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That's when Halea's open hand slaps Brianna across the face. The fight ignites. Yeah, crunch your ass, Halea! Crunch your ass, Halea! Crunch your ass, Halea!
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You better get your girl before she gets fucked up even more. the motion is lightning fast but that's when brianna swings the knife up and slashes halia
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across the throat but halia doesn't stop she keeps yelling she keeps swinging her fists and
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throwing her body towards brianna as blood spills and canned drinks go flying onto the pavement and
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explode. Which raises a chilling possibility. Did Brianna even realize the knife connected?
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Did anyone? For a moment, it seemed like no one had been hurt at all. The fight breaks up and
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Brianna's boyfriend pulls her away. Halia stumbles towards Dalen and the video cuts out. The fight
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is crystal clear despite how short and frenzied the whole ordeal was. But what isn't clear is why
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it all started. But for that information, the officers first turned to Daly. What did it all start over?
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So, all right, so Kenzie, Kenzie's baby dad is Bree's older brother, right? Who's Kenzie?
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The one in that corner. Oh, right here? Yeah, the blonde, the blonde. Okay, that I called.
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Who called? Right. So her brother. Her baby dad is her brother and her baby dad.
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Okay, hold on. Okay. Kenzie's baby dad? Yes, Kenzie's baby dad. Okay, so the girl here, she has a baby dad.
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Her baby dad is Bree's older brother. Older brother, got it, I'm there. They've had beef for the child's going on four years old.
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So they've had beef for almost five years type shit. You know what I'm saying? I got it.
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Brianna's older brother is the father of Kenzie's child. This relationship went very sour.
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Halia being Kenzie's best friend sided with her and developed a hatred for the entire
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Barrazzini family as did Dalen after all Halia and Kenzie were his so sisters I look at it like Kenzie mother adopted me like not legally but my mom kicked me
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out from the ages of 14 to 17, and Kenzie's family took me the fuck in. So I'm very protective
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over Kenzie and whoever Kenzie affiliates with. Dalen was a classic latchkey teen, untethered,
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looking for something to hold on to. After his own mother kicked him out, he found a sense of belonging in Kenzie's world.
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Her family became his anchor, and he clung to that feeling of home with everything he had.
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Fiercely loyal but emotionally adrift, Dalen absorbed every ripple of drama between Kenzie, Aaliyah, and the Barrazzini family.
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To most adults, it would have seemed like none of his business. but to dalen it was everything he didn't just insert himself he dug in rooted himself in the
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chaos convinced that was where he was meant to be dalen wasn't just going along for the ride that
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night he was steering the ship and when the fight broke out he didn't step back he stepped in he
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stepped up i guess you would say with his cell phone in one hand and vicarious vengeance in his
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part. The whole fight was spur of the moment. but Halea and Brianna had known beef for months.
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According to Kenzie, it was just a normal evening at the smoke shop, joking around with the store's owner that they all knew.
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Then Brianna and her boyfriend walked in. Bri walks in with her friend Ead, and I didn't notice until Halea goes,
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that's Bri fucking Barrazzini. I said, oh God. I turned around and I saw her. She looked at me, I looked at her, I turned around.
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How do you guys know her? I know Bree because she's my baby dad's sister. Okay. And I've known Bree since middle school.
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And I'm not allowed, legally I don't go around her or her brother or her family.
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Why not? I was 15 and her brother was 19 when I got pregnant. Okay. When Kenzie had a relationship with Brianna's older brother, she was a minor.
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And he was legally an adult, which made the situation a problem. A big one. Yeah, because I didn't know he was 19.
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He told me he was 17 to figure out he was turning 18. And then he was already 18.
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Then he turned 19. I got pregnant when I was 15 in April when he was 19 that year.
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So I was like, oh, that's great. When Kenzie's family found out Brianna's brother was 19,
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they filed criminal charges against him. This caused a major rift between the two families.
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Still, Kenzie allowed Brianna and her parents to visit the child on one condition.
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The child's father was not allowed to visit. Everything was going all right until they disrespected the rule
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and allowed Brianna's brother to sneak a visit. Because beforehand they would be like, yeah, and they'd come over and they'd see her
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or they would drop stuff off, but they just obeyed everything and I caught them in a lie and I saw them out in public with him
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and I picked up my daughter and I said, you are all fucked in mind. And they're like, you can't tell me what to do.
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I said, this 19-year-old is going to tell your 35-year-old ass what I can do. Put my daughter in my car and I left.
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That's when Kenzie banned anyone from the Barazzini family from seeing the child, including Brianna.
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Resentment grew between the two girls. She doesn't like me because I don't want her or her family to see my daughter.
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I guess her brother's not a good person. I have a restraining order on him. He's legally not allowed to be around me or my family.
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this battle of custody restraining orders and accusations had been going on for years
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so when Kenzie saw Brianna enter the smoke shop on that March evening she immediately wanted to get as far away from her as possible but Halea had other plans
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her and Bree start going at it because Bree gets behind us in line and Halea goes you're obsessed or what because Bree posts TikToks about Halea all the time
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just saying like they were friends at one point i don't really know what happened there did they
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go to school together i don't know what issues they have but they have like like they hate each
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other they've got something brice called halea cokehead halea called brie a cokehead and was
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talking about her abusive brother and was talking about her family being shitty and then brie was
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talking about halea's mom and then halea was like well i'll catch you outside then come outside and
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Brie was, all right, bet. I'll be outside then. So I got into the Jeep in the front seat,
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and I was looking forward because I'm not part of this fight. So that all happened in the store?
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Yeah. Where Brie was like, come on outside, and Halea was like, I'll be outside.
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Brie said she'll be outside. Halea told her to come outside. I'll catch you outside. All right, bet.
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Why do kids sound like retards these days? We've already got a language. You don't have to make up new definitions for existing words just to make yourself feel special.
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You're already plenty, plenty special, trust me. Anyway, according to Kenzie, it was that simple.
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Brianna and Halea started arguing in the store, then agreed to continue things outside.
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Kenzie said that Brianna had posted nasty things to TikTok about Halea, that their feud may have been fueled by Halea's loyalty to Kenzie and her situation,
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but that they had their own fight, independent of her problems with Brianna's family.
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This wasn't a premeditated showdown. It was a chance encounter that spiraled fast.
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But even in spontaneous fights, there's a history. And this one had years of it simmering just below the surface.
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No one's saying Halea deserved what happened, but this wasn't a clean-cut case of victim and villain.
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Both girls carried grudges, and when the moment came they each brought their rage with them helia and her friends waited outside
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in the dark while kenzie sat in the jeep to distance herself from brianna they were outside
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of the jeep and i was like i'm not part of this shit guys i'm going fucking car you can do whatever
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you want but i'm not part of this shit and then i all i heard was i'm fighting i didn't really see
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anything. I didn't see anything at all until Helia was walking up to the front door, like to the
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driver door of the car, and all I can see is that she's bleeding. I'm holding her wrist,
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and I'm trying to check for a pulse, and she peed her pants, and her eyes, she was non-responsive.
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Did you see Helia with any weapons? No, she didn't have anything. Okay. I had all of her stuff. I had
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her pepper spray, I had her keys, I had it all. She didn't have anything on her except
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hands. Kenzie and Dalen told the same story. The fight wasn't planned. It started
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in the smoke shop. Just another chance encounter that got out of hand. Brianna agreed to meet
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Halea outside to finish what they had started. Brianna had a hidden knife. Halea had nothing but her two
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hands. She looked like a victim of an unfair fight, But looks can lie. Because at the same moment, another group of officers were at Brianna's door.
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They had found her and her boyfriend inside. Brianna had showered and her bloody clothes were in the wash.
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The knife was hidden upstairs. At the station, Brianna's boyfriend sat down with the police to talk.
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Just start, like, how did you get up there? Who were you with? So I was with Bree and we headed there just right after a car meet.
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We got there around 11.30, 11.40. As soon as we got in, we noticed Halea and a girl named Kenzie and some guy I've never seen before.
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We tried to move out the way because there's always been issues between us ever since November.
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Between who specifically? So it's always been issues between me, Brie, and Halea.
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Okay. Kenzie has had some, you know, long-term issues with Brie's family. Halea said something, Brie called her obsessed, and then it started an argument.
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The guy over-the-counter, Ben, he said he doesn't want anything to do with this,
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So he got Haleah, Kenzie, and her friend outside. And then Haleah was yelling a lot.
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And then Bree the whole time was just trying to say, I don't want to fight you. Brianna's boyfriend had a feeling there would be trouble when he saw Haleah, Kenzie, and Daylin.
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So they tried their best to avoid them. But Haleah started shouting at Brianna, instigating a loud and vicious confrontation.
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The cashier kicked Haleah, Kenzie, and Daylin out of the store. When police spoke with him, he confirmed this.
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The cashier told police that when the altercation in the store heated up, he knew he had to take action and remove Haleah and her friends.
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So I told my co-worker, like, I'm going to defuse this. So I stepped outside and was talking to her.
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She was her, Dad. Which one? The one that got stabbed. The one that got stabbed, you were talking to her.
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I was trying to tell her, like, I got this business. Yeah. Just go. But they didn't go.
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Dalen started egging Halea on, riling her anger into a frenzy. He pulled out his phone and started filming.
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He's standing right there, and he's recording everything. And so she's getting upset, thinking the two telling me to go out there to stop her.
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The one I was recording, was he with the girl that got stabbed? Yes. He was with her? Okay.
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So he instigated it when I just calmed everything down, even though she was still upset.
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Yeah. Really? Yeah. And recording everything. Footage of the smoke shop's outdoor camera showed Halia, Dalen, and Kenzie being escorted out of the store.
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they disappeared into the parking lot then about two minutes later you see halea come back to the
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front of the store she's pacing like a bull yelling and waving her arms taunting brianna
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from outside in the corner you could see dalen following her around with a cell phone filming
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here's that recording halea what you about to do bro Where's she at bro? Where's she at bro?
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She's scared bro. She's scared. She dragged her out the store. No, we waiting right here until you get your ones.
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I've been waiting to see her ass get beat for a minute bro. You should get arrested just for that laugh That when the cashier came outside again telling Haleah and Dalen to go home
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So he wasn't helping the situation at all? No, nobody was helping nothing. No one?
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Like, it was a dead silence. The two girls was talking to me. The other two were shopping.
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And once they had their words exchanged, nobody was trying to say, chill, calm down.
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of nothing i'm the only one telling them like just just go chill out go ahead go leave the store
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according to the smoke shop cashier it was dalen who took the situation from bad to worse the boy
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who was so hell-bent on protecting his so-called sister was the one who egged on the needless fight
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that ended in murder brianna's boyfriend said the same thing the male who was with her just kept
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instigating, just trying to make them fight. I try to push away Bernie and Halea
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because I'm sort of like, I don't personally like Halea, but I don't have the biggest problem with her.
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Just trying to basically end things without, you know, getting anybody hurt. You've heard the video.
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Anytime that Brianna's boyfriend tried to pull the two girls apart, Dalen inserted himself
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and threatened violence. If you touch my sister, girl, I'm gonna have to put my phone down, bro.
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Haleah, crunch your ass and get it over with, bro. Crunch your ass and get it over with, Haleah.
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But he's basically saying don't touch her. Yeah, and the whole time, I don't know if the video shows this,
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but I was trying to back them up from each other. It was polite, like back of the hand.
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So obviously he didn't like it. So I tried playing with Bree and then that's when everything escalated.
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Basically, if he didn't instigate Halea to start the fight, none of this would have happened.
00:31:58
Breonna's boyfriend said that the stabbing happened so fast he barely realized it
00:32:02
until he noticed a sticky liquid on his own body. Still, the police needed to know why Breonna brandished that knife.
00:32:12
Why was she even carrying one in the first place? When did you know that Bre had a knife?
00:32:17
she's been carrying knives she always carries knives because just a lot of people try to you know attack her or just try to come up to her because the
00:32:29
issues with Haleah and Brie has always been a thing since November what happened
00:32:35
in November Haleah was just using me and Brie you know saying she has a kid she doesn't have a kid, basically using that as an excuse to get money or anything really
00:32:50
to just get as much money as she can. Saying she needs to pay for gas, she doesn't even drive, it just became a whole mess.
00:33:01
We just left it at that. Every once in a while, like, either Halia would call me, I would typically ignore, or
00:33:10
she would just message Bri on Instagram, just talking crap. It just happens like every couple of months.
00:33:18
Just randomly starts calling again. No one could really explain what had gone down
00:33:23
between Brianna and Halea to make their friendship curdle into hatred and violence.
00:33:30
But it was all petty, silly teenage stuff. Lies, manipulation, Instagram DMs, and TikTok gossip.
00:33:38
bullshit Halea may have used big, bad threats about knowing friends with guns and saying she was going to kill Brianna.
00:34:17
But Brianna was the one who brandished the blade and sliced it across Halea's neck.
00:34:23
But Brianna's boyfriend said there were many reasons why Brianna always carried a knife.
00:34:30
Another reason is that her ex-boyfriend is abusive, always pulls up around 161. and just that 161 is not the best area to be in.
00:34:41
So she always carries a knife because, first of all, she's small. She can't really protect herself in any other way.
00:34:51
And the way most of these people fight now, they fight to kill. After the fight was over, Brianna and her boyfriend left the scene.
00:35:02
They drove back to Brianna's house where her brother was waiting. the one who fathered Kenzie's child.
00:35:09
Breonna's boyfriend said that he washed the knife and gave it to her brother. So I took it to the bathroom because it was still dripping blood,
00:35:19
cleaning it as much as possible, and then I gave it to Cameron in the living room.
00:35:24
You gave the knife to Cameron? Yeah. So you actually cleaned it up some? Yeah, cleaned it up some because it just kept dripping off the actual knife
00:35:34
and we didn't want to get it all over the place. Breonna's boyfriend and brother had hidden a murder weapon.
00:35:41
But no one knew Halea was dying. After the stab, she kept swinging and screaming.
00:35:47
She didn't stop or surrender. Not until Breonna was gone and she sank into Daylon's car
00:35:54
did her friends realize how deep the damage went Daylon phone marked the fight at 11 p By 12 a Aliyah was pronounced dead at the hospital
00:36:08
According to the autopsy, the knife struck a critical zone in Aliyah's clavicle,
00:36:12
damaging a major artery. Over half a gallon of blood poured into her chest. She didn't stand a chance.
00:36:21
still Brianna insisted her violence was all a panicked reaction to Halea's confrontation
00:36:28
it was all just a blur she premeditated nothing and they're screaming at me and then
00:36:36
the dude tells Halea to run up on me and she's walking up and I keep telling her I'm not fighting
00:36:44
you back up so you're not worth it keep telling her to back up and I get my knife out in my hand
00:36:50
and I'm holding an asset back up and she attacks me. She first slapped me. She was pushing me.
00:37:00
Well, before that, yeah, I was trying to like push her away from me, but the other guy said it was stealing him
00:37:05
to touch her or else he was gonna do something to him. I don't know what exactly happened, but I went like this.
00:37:13
And then she dragged me by my hair on the ground. And like there was just blood in my eyes.
00:37:19
I couldn't see anything. Crunch her ass, Haleah! Fuck her up! What's up, bitch? You better get your girl before she gets fucked up even more.
00:37:29
Or her! I don't think I hit her or anything. Because I was on the ground getting blood out of my eyes.
00:37:36
I had no idea what was going on. I was just in shock at that point. It's chilling how clear it is on video.
00:37:43
Haleah charges at Brianna, who retreats, murmuring that she doesn't want to fight.
00:37:49
But Halia keeps coming. Dalen records it all, his voice rising with every shout.
00:37:56
Not warning them, not breaking it up, just feeding the fire. Dalen wasn't a bystander, he was the catalyst.
00:38:04
But then Brianna flashes the knife. Halia slaps her, Brianna swings, and blood splatters all over the pavement.
00:38:13
Still, Halea yanks her to the ground and unleashes brutal blows, dragging her like a ragdoll.
00:38:20
Had she survived, there's no question Halea would have won that fight. She kicked Brianna's ass, even with a hole in her neck.
00:38:28
Now I'm turning ghetto. So during the fire when she was hitting you, what happened with the knife during that time?
00:38:37
It had dropped on the ground. It was no longer in my hand. Did you know she had been cut at that point?
00:38:44
I didn't know if it was me or her, because they were yelling, saying that, they were laughing, saying that she made me bleed.
00:38:51
So I was like, maybe there's a cut on me. But then I was looking all over myself when we got in the car.
00:38:57
I was like, I don't think it's me. What does this all stem from? What's that animosity?
00:39:04
Halea used to be a really good friend of mine. and then I found out a lot that she's just a really bad person.
00:39:14
So I stopped being friends with her. My friend Ian stopped talking to her. And then after that, she pretty much just went crazy,
00:39:21
like saying she was going to kill us and slash his tires and do all these things like she does to most people.
00:39:28
To her friends, Halea was fearless, the kind of girl who would never back down. To Brianna, she was dangerous and unhinged.
00:39:37
two versions of the same Halea told by people who loved her and people who feared her.
00:39:44
Was Brianna the victim of Halea's rabid aggression? Was this simply self-defense?
00:39:51
But there was one thing no one had seen yet, not even the police. It was something buried in the digital noise from two weeks before the fight.
00:40:00
a text message from Brianna to her friend tossed off like a joke maybe even forgotten
00:40:07
after a long rant with her friend about Halia's behavior Brianna signed off with this message
00:40:12
I would sooner slice Halia's throat if she comes near me again just words just teenage anger
00:40:20
but now with Halia dead from a single stab to the neck these didn't feel like just words
00:40:28
anymore The End 17-year-old Halea Culbertson had died from a single stab wound to the neck
00:41:06
during an impromptu street fight with her former friend, 18-year-old Brianna Baranzini.
00:41:13
The two girls had been feuding for months, each claiming the other was just a bad person.
00:41:19
But Halea's friend Kenzie also had big problems with her and her family. Kenzie had become pregnant when she was 15 with Brianna's older brother
00:41:30
who lied to her and told her he was a minor too when he was not Drama ran through that friend group like a river
00:41:39
a big river and on the night of Halea's murder it finally overflowed Brianna was arrested on March 27th for the murder of Halea
00:41:50
She was taken to the county jail immediately following her police interview The Baranzini family quickly took action and obtained a lawyer named Bob Craypants For the last 20 years I been a criminal defense attorney practicing out of Columbus
00:42:06
Ohio, trying cases in state court, federal court, and representing people charged with
00:42:12
really everything from speeding tickets to aggravated death penalty murder. Breonna's bond was set at $750,000, but she only spent two days in jail.
00:42:25
Her family bonded her out as fast as they could, and she went home under strict conditions from the court.
00:42:32
That's when Bob stepped into the picture and got to know her side of the story. When the family came in and Breonna had a chance to explain what happened from her viewpoint,
00:42:45
you know there's a lot of thoughts that kind of go through your head first one being you know how
00:42:50
accurate is this account and what other evidence is you're going to be out there i never really
00:42:55
believe i think that a client comes in and tells me a hundred percent of the truth accurately not
00:43:01
because they're lying but they remember it a certain way but my initial thought was wow this
00:43:06
this sounds to me like it was a self-defense and more of an accident and unintentional but also
00:43:14
just a tragedy. Just a young girl sitting in front of me, very, very young, and another
00:43:23
young woman dead. So it was just, I hate to say senseless, but even at the first moment,
00:43:28
I thought, this is just tragic. It was tragic. The fight that never should have happened. Brianna may have been fortunate
00:43:36
enough to have been bonded out, but when she met her lawyer the first time, the prospect
00:43:42
of going to prison for the rest of her life weighed on her heavily. My memory is it was a Saturday morning in my office,
00:43:49
and she was there with her family, very quiet, very timid. You know, she didn't just gush out with the account.
00:43:56
I had to kind of, you know, ask specific questions, and she would get to it, but very quiet, very scared,
00:44:04
very concerned, very, you know, overwhelmed. I mean, she had just been released from the jail,
00:44:10
I suspect within a day of coming to my office. And her whole family, just supportive but scared
00:44:17
and appreciative of just how serious this was. And what about that text message?
00:44:23
The one where Brianna said she would slice Halea's throat if she came after her?
00:44:28
Previous texts showed that Brianna was upset because Halea had allegedly been driving past her house
00:44:34
and making threats against her. Bob argues that the text had nothing to do with what happened that night.
00:44:41
I would argue to the jury that's irrelevant to what happened that night. It would be relevant if my client went looking for her.
00:44:49
It would be relevant if my client said, there she is, I'm going to do what I said I'm going to do in that text.
00:44:54
But she didn't go looking for her. They ran into each other purely by accident, bad luck, just by chance.
00:45:00
so despite the text those words her actions that night spoke louder she backed up she said i didn't
00:45:10
want to fight she tried to avoid it brianna may have been backing away as halia charged screaming
00:45:16
but according to lead detective timothy pribe brianna made one move that raised questions
00:45:24
She had a weapon. Haleah didn't. And what Brianna did with that weapon gave the police pause when it came to her innocence.
00:45:34
Haleah was unarmed. She was clearly unarmed. She did assault Brianna. One time, open-handed smack, and then she turned and she walked away.
00:45:45
I believe it was Brianna pulled out her knife 10 to 15 seconds prior to the smack.
00:45:54
So there's more of an intent to harm on her part. And if she's pulling out a knife with an intent to do harm, that's a felonious assault.
00:46:05
And then that harm causes a death, that's a murder. Detective Prybe says that when they watched that video of the fight relentlessly,
00:46:12
and not just their investigative team, but Prybe's boss and his boss's boss, analyzing every millisecond to make sure they weren't seeing things the wrong way.
00:46:24
He says that Brianna pulled the knife out prior to being slapped by Halea. She holds it close to the side of her thigh
00:46:32
and the blade is out of the switch. That made all the difference in his eyes. Well, she keeps it concealed down at her leg.
00:46:41
She pulls it out in a very comfortable manner and holds it down. And then after she slapped and Halea is walking away, that's when she charges her.
00:47:00
The key portion of this incident or this altercation is that after Halea slaps her, she turns and starts to walk away.
00:47:10
And that's when Brianna then, you know, starts to swing her knife and she swings and misses.
00:47:17
And then then you see her come over the top and, you know, hit her right, you know, right at the top of the chest.
00:47:26
Detective Prybe says that it wasn't the fact that she had a knife that showed intent, but the manner in which Brianna used it.
00:47:34
She doesn't want people to see that she has a weapon out and ready to go. That's how I'm looking at it, because she's not threatening her with it.
00:47:42
She's not trying to back her off with it. You know, she's not protecting herself with it.
00:47:48
She's initiating the assault with a weapon. You can watch the whole video in our bonus content, and we encourage you to.
00:47:56
The footage of Halia's death is haunting, but... It also brought clarity. Every second of the raw, unfiltered truth was captured for both sides to examine.
00:48:08
The state indicted Brianna on three charges. Murder, murder committed during a felonious assault, and voluntary manslaughter.
00:48:18
She was looking at 15 years to life for the murder charges and another 3 to 11 years for the manslaughter.
00:48:23
As the media grabbed hold of this sensational girl fight and did what they always do, Bob worked on his defense, preparing for an intense and very public trial.
00:48:36
When I first look at it, I say this is pretty classic self-defense. Now, Ohio law changed somewhat recently.
00:48:47
It used to be that to claim self-defense, the defense would then have the burden of proving that the person was in fear of imminent serious bodily harm or death.
00:49:00
and that they did not use disproportional force to repel the attack. That was the burden of the defense.
00:49:10
That changed back in 2019. There was a House bill that passed and signed by the governor,
00:49:18
and as a result of that, the prosecution now has the burden of proving that it is not self-defense.
00:49:25
Ohio was the 37th state to pass this law, switching the burden of proof in a self-defense claim from the defense to the prosecution.
00:49:35
To compound matters legally, Ohio passed another law in 2021 concerning self-defense cases.
00:49:42
And that was a change in the law regarding your duty to retreat. It used to be that if you had a duty, you had a duty to retreat,
00:49:54
unless, of course, you're in your home or your vehicle, then you did not have a duty.
00:49:57
But otherwise, you had the responsibility. If you could safely get away from the situation, you had to get away from the situation.
00:50:05
And if a jury determined that, yes, you were in fear of imminent serious bodily harm or death.
00:50:13
Yes, you used reasonable force to repel the attack. Yes, you did not cause the situation that gave rise to the fray.
00:50:20
But you had an out. You could have left out the back door of the bar you were in.
00:50:25
or you could have run across the street from the field you were in, if they found that you had the opportunity and ability to escape without exposing yourself to more harm,
00:50:35
you could not claim self-defense. Between those two changes, again, fairly recently,
00:50:41
it changes the dynamic a little bit about how you look at self-defense cases because now a jury is going to be instructed.
00:50:51
that they are not even to consider whether or not the person could have escaped,
00:50:57
could have left, could have fled the situation. It's nothing for them to consider.
00:51:02
They don't get to determine, well, geez, that didn't have to happen. She could have left.
00:51:06
Nope, she doesn't have a duty anymore. These changes to Ohio law were a clear win for the defense.
00:51:14
Now it was the state's burden to prove that Breonna wasn't acting in legal self-defense.
00:51:20
and the jury couldn't fault her for staying in the parking lot before Halea struck first.
00:51:27
With the video of the fight and the cascade of witnesses who all told the same story,
00:51:32
it was looking like Brianna had a solid self-defense case. Tensions were high as Bob worked on his defense and the prosecution prepared their arguments.
00:51:44
Halea may have started the fight, but she didn't walk into it expecting to die. No one ever does.
00:51:50
I guess. She didn't think Brianna would swing a knife. Who knows what was running through her
00:51:56
mind when she slapped Brianna across the face. But I'd bet the last thing she imagined was dying
00:52:02
in a hospital less than an hour later. Because like Brianna's boyfriend told the detective,
00:52:08
a fight isn't just a fight anymore. Not these days, that is. And the way most of these people
00:52:16
fight now, they fight to kill. Halia's family was grief-stricken, giving very few interviews to the
00:52:24
media. Kenzie posted videos on TikTok about how much she missed her best friend.
00:52:30
The guilt must have weighed so heavily on her. Could she have done something to stop this?
00:52:37
Maybe if she'd been the only friend with Halia that night, none of this would have happened.
00:52:42
As for Dalen, he was quiet all of a sudden. But Breonna's lawyer, Bob, was zeroing in on him because Bob had reviewed the case inside and out.
00:52:53
And according to him, Dalen held as much responsibility in Halea's death as Breonna did.
00:53:00
But I recognized right away that this Dalen kid who's recording this and encouraging it, it may not have happened had he not been doing what he was doing.
00:53:12
People don't act the same when they know they're being videoed. They perform. OK, and and and, you know, this this young man was the oldest of anybody there.
00:53:24
And he could have stopped us so easily, but he egged it on while they were waiting for
00:53:29
Breonna to leave the store. He egged it on while it was happening. This process of events all of these little decisions that were made in the span of call it 10 minutes that evening at any given point one different decision and this doesn happen Halia alive today If Halia had been alone in the store that night she might have just flipped Brianna off and gone home to rant about it on social media
00:53:55
But she wasn't alone. She had Dalen, her self-proclaimed brother. Her hype man. Her fierce defender.
00:54:06
her peanut gallery. I could go on and on. And with him, by her side, everything changed.
00:54:14
Dalen, with his tears and loyalty, his dramatic storytelling and ride-or-die energy,
00:54:21
he was the one who hit record. Halia wasn't just showing off for Dalen and his phone.
00:54:28
She was performing for the entire Internet. That's a lot of people. She knew this clip would hit social media.
00:54:34
She knew this would be on certain scale. Now she didn't, but you get my drift. She wasn't just in a fight, she was on a stage
00:54:43
with an invisible crowd ready to judge her, mock her, and meme her. Y'all motherfuckers are vicious.
00:54:51
That kind of pressure warps everything and anything. Maybe that's why she didn't back down,
00:54:59
even when a knife was flashed inches from her face. Maybe that's why she kept threatening Brianna,
00:55:04
acting harder than she felt because fear in a viral video looks like weakness. And nobody wants to be weak.
00:55:15
And Brianna? Maybe she didn't pull that knife out to win the fight. Maybe she pulled it out because she knew losing would be captured,
00:55:23
replayed, and ridiculed endlessly. Maybe the blade wasn't about fear of Halea. Maybe it was about fear of becoming a joke on the internet.
00:55:32
the girl who got wrecked and went viral for all the wrong reasons that sort of thing and
00:55:40
it still happened anyway but by hitting record dalen changed the entire course of these girls
00:55:48
lives all it takes is for a friend to say hey you know what let her go let's get in the car
00:55:54
or i'm gonna put my phone away i'm not gonna do this or you know what i'll leave let's go you
00:56:01
No, whatever. She's not worth it. One person says that, and maybe it derails the whole thing.
00:56:08
Maybe the decision by my client, Brianna, is stay in the store longer. Now, I don't know if she even knew Halia was waiting for her.
00:56:14
Or when she did see her, maybe retreat back into the store. Or don't pull the knife out of my pocket.
00:56:21
Or don't open the knife. Okay? I mean, there's many, many decisions that were made by multiple people,
00:56:27
and any one of them, a different decision, I think this thing goes a different direction.
00:56:32
Look at Brianna's boyfriend. I mean, yeah, he was standing next to her the whole time
00:56:37
and he was kind of, sort of trying to stop it. But if he, he was the biggest dude out there.
00:56:44
I mean, if he could have just walked her to the car and put her in the car, that was always an option,
00:56:50
you know, but they stood out there. And I get it. It's a situation that you can't, you know,
00:56:56
you necessarily don't know what you're going to do when you're in that situation,
00:57:00
but so many things that people could have just made decisions to step in and de-escalate it.
00:57:08
Many people could have stepped in, but they didn't. It really came down to Halea, Dalen, and Brianna,
00:57:15
who each played a part in how this night unraveled. They all had choices, and they all made the wrong ones,
00:57:23
feeding off of each other's fear, ego, and adrenaline. idiots wildin on tiktok someone should really do a study on how much harm and literal death
00:57:34
social media has inadvertently caused the results are probably terrifying which is why we'll
00:57:39
never get one that and the fact that morons love to change the meaning of words kind of like
00:57:45
these kids often to suit their own narrative so harm what harm what do you mean by harm
00:57:52
Never heard of it. What's your definition of harm? That sort of thing. Utter bullshit.
00:57:59
The whole mess was a chain reaction. Aliyah paid with her life. Brianna faced prison.
00:58:06
And Dalen, well... That innocent, doe-eyed stoner boy with a magical cackle that resonates throughout the vape store, strip mall parking lot, and a heart of gold?
00:58:16
Well, he walked away scot-free like just another witness. When Bob said he was so much more.
00:58:25
So when I look at who's responsible or who played a part in this death, I look at him and say, you know what?
00:58:32
You had such a role in this thing. And it was so unnecessary. And it was so childish.
00:58:39
And it was so dangerous. And it's just so maddening that right away I'm thinking, you know,
00:58:44
I can understand Halea. I can understand Brianna. I can't understand Daylon. We looked up Dalen's record, of course.
00:58:53
By 21, he'd racked up nine arrests. Drunk driving, assault, and firearm charges.
00:58:59
You know, like a gangsta. Half came before Halea's death, and the other half came after, like clockwork.
00:59:06
Dalen was a stray, cut loose by his own family. Absorbed into Kenzie and Halea's orbit like a ticking time bomb.
00:59:14
Maybe he knew what he did. Maybe the arrests, the violence, the reckless spiral,
00:59:20
they weren just all accidents They were confessions written in chaos I be honest when I first met the prosecutor my first suggestion was to charge that guy
00:59:32
But they felt that, you know, after interviewing all the other witnesses, they felt that, you know,
00:59:37
Halea was going to do what Halea was going to do, and they didn't really spill the blame over to Dalen.
00:59:43
I see it differently, but, you know, that's not unusual. to me there's some responsibility that should have been placed at his feet but that wasn't
00:59:55
going to happen still brianna was the killer not dalen she was on trial for murder and bob had a
01:00:03
big task ahead of him despite the law changes that swayed in his direction brianna made the choice to
01:00:10
pull out that knife and swing it she killed alia end of story yeah i thought we had
01:00:18
a problem with the weapon. And I also thought that we had a problem or difficulty with just
01:00:25
the sadness of the thing. There is a family who is grieving, and rightfully so. There's a girl there who is young and dead, and it's horrible. And juries feel that. They see
01:00:40
sympathy. And it's normal as humans. We want somebody to answer for this tragedy. We want
01:00:46
somebody to be responsible for this tragedy. And the only person on trial is Brianna. My whole
01:00:56
approach was my client didn't want to fight. She wanted to back up. She kept backing up. She wanted
01:01:01
to get out of there. And that, you know, at some point I would have argued to the jury that, you
01:01:07
know, the most timid of animals, when you corner it, it has no choice but to lunge forward, to do
01:01:13
something to try to get out of that situation. But the trial would never come because in early
01:01:19
June of 2024, just before Brianna's murder trial was set to start, the prosecution suddenly dropped
01:01:26
the charges and offered Brianna the chance to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
01:01:31
That was the plea you heard her accepting in the beginning of this episode. The evidence was too
01:01:37
strong for the defense to argue that this was intentional murder. It was very clear that no one went to the smoke shop that evening
01:01:45
with the intent of Halea losing her life. When that fateful sentencing day came, Halea's family huddled
01:01:53
on one side of the courtroom while the Berenzinis were on the other. Brianna stood in front of the judge and accepted her guilt for Halea's
01:02:01
death. Before the judge relayed her punishment, Halea's family had a chance to speak. Kenzie stood up first, barely able to get her words out between
01:02:11
sobs. After describing what a tough yet sensitive girl Halea was, she got into how this had all
01:02:19
changed her life. I'd rather be standing at her wedding and giving a speech or her graduation.
01:02:25
but I'm here and I know Halia and I know her killer the past six years of my life I've dealt
01:02:37
with the her killer her family and when I finally thought I was getting away away from these people
01:02:45
and I finally got my family away from these people alia's killer did this to the most important person in my life that night i felt i felt like
01:02:58
part of my soul more like all of it left when alia left i hope that her killer gets the maximum
01:03:06
sentence i hope you realize or understand someone who really alia was really was in this world
01:03:13
A daughter, a sister, a cousin, a friend, a student, a co-worker, a granddaughter, a niece, an aunt.
01:03:20
She was someone's child that got taken too soon, and she is now forever 17 years old.
01:03:26
The blame that Halea and her supporters placed on the entire Beranzini family was palpable,
01:03:33
especially when Halea's mother got up to speak. In most scenarios, bringing a knife to a fistfight is considered unethical, illegal, dangerous.
01:03:44
It's crucial to approach conflicts with a mindset of de-escalation and consider the potential consequences of introducing a weapon into a physical altercation.
01:03:55
The right course of action usually involves seeking a nonviolent resolution to ensure your safety through legal and ethical means.
01:04:05
Here we have a smart, college-educated, 4.0 student with so many recommendations from friends and family
01:04:13
for the pre-sentencing investigation. That sounds like someone that should know the difference between right and wrong.
01:04:20
Maybe she's just smart enough to play us all. Like Bob said, in a senseless tragedy like this,
01:04:26
everyone is searching for someone to blame. Halea's family blamed Brianna, and Brianna's family blamed Halea.
01:04:34
but both girls bore some responsibility for the way that that night transpired. That didn't make it fair, but it was the cold, harsh truth.
01:04:45
Before the judge relayed his decision, the prosecution made one last plea to the courtroom,
01:04:51
arguing that Brianna reacted with disproportionate rage and intent, not fear. It is reasonable that those actions would anger Brianna Barrazzini.
01:05:01
However none of those actions justify Brianna Berzini taking a knife and plunging it into Halea clavicle Rather that is an act of unjustifiable rage
01:05:16
A stabbing is a disproportionate response to a slap. The prosecutors asked for the maximum sentence.
01:05:24
Brianna stood up and apologized for what she did, saying that she will live with the guilt for the rest of her life.
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Then the judge reminded the court that she was facing three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
01:05:38
That was the maximum. Then he gave it to her, reminding her to stay out of trouble behind bars.
01:05:47
Brianna was taken away to prison. When it comes down to it, all in reality should have been was just a fight.
01:05:56
Just, you know, a fist fight of some sorts. and then the guys would have stepped in, hopefully, and just broke it up,
01:06:02
and they would have yelled at each other, they would have went on their way. You know, nobody would have lost their life out of it.
01:06:07
Cops probably wouldn't even have been called for it. But, you know, Brianna chose to bring out a weapon,
01:06:14
and then to use that weapon in the course of that assault. So she escalated it, and that's how I look at it.
01:06:23
The video Dalen captured still haunts Hulia's family. these were her final moments and they were nothing like the halea they knew and loved
01:06:33
and then she was gone brianna currently sits in jail she filed a motion of early release and it's
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been granted this august which means she will have only served one year for the death of halea
01:06:49
Culbertson. One year. Detective Prybe knows that what happened that night was a series of bad
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choices by every person in that parking lot. But he believes Brianna got away with murder.
01:07:05
She's the one who brought a weapon into the fight. She brought a knife into a fist fight.
01:07:09
And I think that there should have been more consequences for that. There were a lot of bad decisions made that night.
01:07:14
Halea made one when she escalated the argument with a slap Brianna made one when she pulled out a knife in the middle of a fist fight
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and Dalen? well, Dalen made his when he chose to hype up Halea and film the fight instead of stopping it
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cause Dalen is an asshole once that camera comes out, everything changes this wasn't just a fight anymore, it was a show
01:07:42
and all three of them knew it. They weren't just teenagers in a parking lot finally forced to face their internet fights in the real world.
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Now they were performers playing to an invisible audience on social media. A bunch of bored assholes that are taking a shit.
01:08:00
That's what raised the stakes. Social media didn't kill Halea. That's not what I'm saying.
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But it created the environment for her to die. It changed behavior. It added pressure.
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It made everything feel dramatic and impossible to walk away from. A modern teenager's world is already so insular, impulsive, and emotional.
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Trapped behind a screen where reality is half-baked. But when performance becomes instinct and every reaction is subconsciously shaped for an audience,
01:08:36
even real danger can feel like just another scene to play out. And in the end, Halea died.
01:08:44
Brianna went to prison, and Dalen walked away with no charges whatsoever. Just a ghost in the margins of a murder he helped set into motion.
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No one wins in a story like this, because the truth is, it didn't have to happen.
01:09:02
But when teenagers are raised in a world where everything is filmed, where attention is currency
01:09:08
and where the pressure to show off never shuts off even a fist fight can turn into a performance
01:09:15
this time that performance ended in death it's not just tragic that's the cost of a culture that values footage
01:09:26
more than the fallout Speaking of footage, we got a lot of it. Sword and Scale Television, available at swordscale.com.
01:09:53
I know you want it, you cheap fuck. Go get it. It's only 20 bucks and you can get 20 episodes right now.
01:09:59
They're an hour long each. That's a lot of true crime. Thank you. Thank you.