i think they were talking. nothing too extreme. maybe a couple dates. albert knew daniel through mutual friends. we would hang out with daniel, i would text him and say, hey man are you coming out. he d meet up with us. but albert hadn t spoken to daniel that weekend and didn t know daniel and brooke had been texting each other, making plans to meet up. investigators say they called the number listed for daniel on brooke s phone. he didn t answer. you couldn t find him? couldn t find him. investigators learned daniel lived in colorado, he was just in knoxville for the game. were you worried when you couldn t get a hold of him when he was out there? yeah. daniel had flown back to colorado by the time he got on the phone with the sheriff s investigator. basically interviewed him. where was he? from what i understand he was at the ball game. daniel hawkins told
he didn t see me. he was crouched down under his desk unhooking his computer, and i asked him if he was okay, and he said no. i asked him if there was anything i could do, and he said, turn back time. amy had already heard about the murder and that investigators had been to smoot s house. she told the jury what d defendant said next. at that point i asked him if he was directly or indirectly involved and he said both. did you take that as a total admission of guilt? absolutely, absolutely. it had taken nearly five years after brooke s murder to get her alleged killer before a jury. it took the jury less than four hours to reach its verdict. we the jury find the defendant shawn nelson smoot gl of premeditated first-degree murder of brooke nicole morris. what s your feelings of emotion when you hear that word?
here had the car in view. it was still sitting here the day after brooke died. so, they decided to trace his steps. they pulled his cell phone record and found something unusual. in the 2 1/2 hours after shawn and brooke had last been seen together there was no activity on his cell phone. at 11:00 p.m. his phone started pinging off towers at this major interstate heading out of knoxville. then it lacked looked like shawn turned around. his phone started pinging in the other direction all the way back to his house. did he talk about why he was about to leave town and didn t or why he turned around? in initially talking to us he told us he was home all night. so that s an inconsistency for you. it is. investigators were becoming suspicious of shawn smoot. and they weren t the only ones. brooke s closest friends never suspected clayton or daniel hopkins. they knew the relationship with
with very little evidence found at the scene of brooke morris s murder, data from her cell phone showed she had been in contact with two men the day she was killed. could one of them be responsible for brooke s murder, or was this another dead end? here again is andrea canning. the brutality of brooke morris s murder fuelled the search for her killer. we really hate they came into our community and committed such a crime. roan county investigators cleared brooke s ex-husband. but they had two men to look at. two men whose names and numbers were right there in brooke s phone. who was brook communicating with that day that seemed to have of potential importance? daniel hopkins. this is a man she used to date?
be confusing to the jury? absolutely. i think that s the underlying question every time we talk about domestic violence. why does anyone go back? the prosecutor hoped that it would be wiped away when they called the key witness to the stand. amy who was working for smoot when brooke was worried said her impression of the nice outgoing man who hired her didn t last. why did it change? he was cold. he got angry easily, not satisfied really ever. it almost seemed like he enjoyed getting somebody riled up. in court she testified about what happened the monday following brooke s murder? now, on that day, did mr. smoot come into the office? he came in that morning. when i saw him the first time,