'Killer Instinct'

Melinda Elkins was convinced that she’d proven her husband’s innocence.  DNA samples collected at the crime scene didn’t match her husband.  He couldn’t be the killer. 

And yet the court refused to grant Clarence a new trial. He was about to spend his seventh year in prison. But Melinda refused to give up.

Melinda Elkins: They are not gonna get away with this.  What the hell are they doing? What are they thinking?

But her only chance to win her husband’s freedom, Melinda realized, was to track down the nameless, faceless person — who had gotten away with murder.

And as Melinda went back over all the old leads she had come up with, a newspaper article caught her eye. It focused her attention on one woman who’d played a key role the morning after the murder, her mother’s neighbor, Tonia Brasiel. 

Remember, Brasiel said she was making her kids breakfast when a battered and blood-stained little Brooke showed up on her doorstep saying her grandma had been murdered.

Melinda had always wondered why Brasiel left the child on her porch for 30 minutes, before driving her home. Why didn’t she just call 911 right away?

As Melinda read that newspaper article about Tonya Brasiel, she began to suspect why.

Melinda Elkins: What jumped out at me was Tonia Brasiel’s name in the article. And what it had said was her common law husband, had been charged in three counts of rape of children under the age of 10.

In the same case, Brasiel was also charged with child endangerment.

It turned out Tonia Brasiel’s common law husband, Earl Eugene Mann, was a violent career criminal and convicted sexual predator. What’s more, he’d just been released from prison in June of 1998. 

To Melinda, it made perfect sense that a convicted sex offender staying next door to her mother would be a prime suspect.

Sara James, Dateline correspondent: Did he quickly go to number one suspect?

Melinda Elkins: Absolutely.

James: Top of the list?

Melinda Elkins: Top of the list.

Adding to Melinda’s suspicions—in that message her niece left on another neighbor’s answering machine, Brooke said – “somebody killed my grandma.”

“Somebody killed my grandma.”  “Somebody”—not “Uncle Clarence.”

By now a seasoned investigator, Melinda knew exactly what she needed.  She had to find some way to collect Earl Mann’s DNA to see if it matched those crime scene samples.

But there was a big problem because Earl Mann was behind bars sentenced to seven years.

James: How were you gonna get DNA of a guy who’s in prison?

Melinda Elkins: Send him letters of wanting to be a pen pal.

That was Melinda’s plan.  In writing to Mann, she pretended to be someone else. If he responded and licked the envelope,  a lab could test for his DNA.

James: What did it feel like to write those letters to this man who you thought killed your mother and raped your niece?

Melinda Elkins: Made me sick.

Melinda wrote 18 letters in all—and all in vain.   It seemed her cause was hopeless. 

Then she found out that Earl Mann had been transferred to a new facility, Mansfield Correctional. 

In an unbelievable stroke of luck, it was the very prison where Clarence was serving his sentence.

Melinda Elkins: It was an absolute miracle.

Even more extraordinary, Mann was transferred to Clarence’s very cell block. 

Melinda had a thought... maybe there would be some way for her husband to collect Mann’s DNA.

One of Clarence’s attorneys, Jana Deloach came up with a plan.

Jana Deloach, Clarence Elkins' attorney: I asked him, “Does Earl smoke?” And he said, yes.  So I said, “That’s it. Get a cigarette butt.”

It wouldn’t be easy. But if he could get a cigarette butt from Mann, and smuggle it out of prison, they’d be able to test Mann’s DNA.

Deloach: I did think about it a lot, about whether or not he would get in trouble, or i would get in trouble. But his life was on the line.

Melinda and the attorneys were also terrified for Clarence’s safety because Earl Mann had a violent past.  

Clarence Elkins: I come in one hot summer day and seeing out of the corner of my eye that Earl Mann was putting out a cigarette butt. I just knew at that point that I need to do something.

James: This was your chance.

Clarence Elkins: This was it. And it perfect time and opportunity to retrieve DNA from this individual.

Clarence picked the butt out of the ashtray.

Clarence Elkins: And took it into my cell and stuck it in one of my Bibles.

And just in the nick of time. Earl Mann was transferred to another prison a few days after he got the DNA. So if that opportunity hadn’t come up, it would have been lost forever.

Two weeks later, Clarence smuggled the cigarette butt out in a letter to his attorney who immediately sent it to a lab for testing.

James: And when you tested it, what did it show?

Melinda Elkins: A match to the crime scene evidence.

That’s right.  Earl Mann’s DNA matched DNA from the crime scene—DNA found on the body of Melinda’s mother and on Melinda’s  niece’s panties.

Melinda Elkins: Now tell me “no.” I dare you to tell me no.

But it was a dare Attorney Godsey was afraid to make. He feared the prosecution would say no new trial no matter what evidence he brought them. 

And so Godsey sought help from an unlikely source , another prosecutor—then Ohio State Attorney General Jim Petro. 

Petro was intrigued by the DNA evidence.

Then-Ohio State Attorney General Jim Petro: I am always one who believes that DNA is pretty darn compelling.

James: DNA is the gold standard?

Petro: It is an amazing indicator that usually proves to be just dead-on accurate.

After completing a six week internal investigation, Petro did the unheard of—and publicly pressured the local prosecutor to exonerate Melinda’s husband.

Petro: The whole concept of the justice system is to seek justice.

But legally, the attorney general couldn’t force the issue and the local prosecutor still refused to reopen the case. 

Then, Godsey learned of another, even more specific DNA test which could be conducted on a pubic hair found on little Brooke’s panties.

Godsey: So this would even be more evidence, which would raise the numbers and make the match against Earl Mann much more exact.

Finally, would this be the evidence it took to clear Melinda’s husband?

MORE FROM 'KILLER INSTINCT'

'Killer Instinct' Section Front

Housewife-turned-CSI investigator Sara James: This should be a movie Producer Bob Gilmartin on covering the story Motion from the defense to free Elkins (.pdf) Innocence Project letter of support (.pdf) Post-conviction DNA findings (.pdf) 'Killer Instinct' Section Front   Add 'Killer Instinct' headlines to your news reader: