Hey y’all, it’s Julie Mattson, and this week on Pushing Up Lilies, I’m diving into a case that has me absolutely fired up. We’re talking about the tragic death of Stephanie Diane Dowells - strangled during an overnight visit with her husband, convicted killer David Brinson, at Mule Creek State Prison in California. You heard that right. A man serving four life sentences for murdering four people execution-style was still allowed conjugal visits... and now another innocent person is dead. In this episode, I break down how this happened, why no safety measures were implemented after a nearly identical incident at the same prison just four months earlier, and how these so-called “rehabilitation” visits are putting people’s lives at risk. We’ll also look back at Brinson’s brutal crimes, his prison behavior, and the alarming loopholes that allowed this tragedy to unfold. It’s a tough conversation - but one we need to have. Because how many more victims are we going to allow, even behind prison walls? Join me as we talk about what went wrong, and what needs to change. * Listener discretion is advised.
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00:06
Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I'm your host, Julie Mattson. Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
00:24
Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Okay, so hey guys, we're back for another week. I know last week we ran a rerun because school is kicking my booty. And I'm just going to say I had a course that was, well, I had two courses back-to-back that were only three weeks long each.
00:49
Talk about trying to learn a whole lot at one time. It's stuff that I knew. But you got to remember I've been out of school for 30 years. And you forget stuff, especially when you're not using it all the time.
01:05
The location of all the lymph nodes and the location of all the cranial nerves and whether they're sensory or motor or both, how to tell if they're intact and oh my gosh, and then I had to find like a child and an adult to do an assessment on.
01:24
I don't have any kids at home. They had to be between the ages of seven and 17. And my granddaughter's five. My kids are older than 17. And so literally I'm on Facebook begging people to let me borrow their children.
01:39
It's terrible. And then if you have to redo something, you have to find another child because that child has a baseball game. So this assignment for the adult class that I just finished, I was able to use my husband, but you know, he travels some so he's not always here.
02:00
To be available at my beck and call and it is kind of asking a lot of people to give you an hour and a half Of their time on a weeknight or even on a weekend to try to get an assignment done I have to say I'm super super thankful that those two classes are over my next class started yesterday, I just downloaded my audiobooks last night Haven't started my assignment, but my first assignments are due tomorrow night Anyway,
02:33
There's not a lot of time between classes I love that it's accelerated, and you know I complained when I first registered because I was mad that I could only take one class at a time No, are you kidding me?
02:46
Like there's no way that I would be able to take two classes at once Absolutely. No way. They're just too compressed and I love that because I'll get out sooner But oh my gosh This week has been kind of rough, actually lost a friend of mine.
03:04
She had a massive heart attack, the name is Sandra, she was 62 years old. And I knew something was wrong when I got a call from her daughter-in-law. And the first thing she said when I answered the phone, I didn't recognize the number, cuz we met, but we don't talk frequently.
03:21
But she called, and she said, are you driving? And I knew immediately that something had happened, because I've said that to people before when I call to make a death notification. When she asked me that, I automatically said what happened.
03:40
And she said, are you by yourself? And again, I'm like, ugh, what happened is tell me, this is what I say to people when I call to tell them someone passed away. And so she told me that my friend Sandra had passed away of what they thought was a massive heart attack.
03:59
And I guess as a death investigator, we deliver the news all the time. But we also do have family members and loved ones that pass away. And I think that that makes us better at our jobs. Because I truly think that just being reminded of what it's like to be on the other end of that phone call is sometimes a good thing.
04:20
We do not like to call people to notify them of a death. But many times we don't have an address and all we have is a phone number. And we know that as a parent or as a relative or even as a really close friend, I would wanna know as quickly as possible.
04:40
Agreed that a phone call is not the best way to do it. But like I said, many times it's our only choice. We don't wanna be numb to the feelings that people on the other end of the phone conversation are feeling and so I guess just a reminder to everybody that not only do we give the news, but we also get that news sometimes.
05:07
And it doesn't make it any easier because we work in this field. I just knew though that something was wrong when she called me, because again, that's just what we do. We wanna make sure no one's driving so that we don't give them bad news when they're going down the highway and they don't wreck their car.
05:28
And we prefer that they're not alone so that they have a support system and that someone's there for them in their time of need. Many times, if someone's at work and the only thing that we can do is contact them at work, we'll ask for the person who supervises the person we're trying to reach.
05:47
And then we'll notify the supervisor. That way they can have the appropriate staff on hand. bring that person into the office and actually tell them behind closed doors instead of us just calling them at work and telling them.
06:04
We try to be very sensitive. But again, we don't always have an address. Sometimes we don't have a phone number. And so sometimes it's days before we're able to notify anybody. And I mean, we hate that.
06:17
But here, we aren't supposed to travel out of county for a death notification. So if we have an address, and it's not within our county, many times we will dispatch the appropriate police department and have them send an officer to the residence.
06:36
So that number one, we know they're not alone when they're being told. Many times the officer won't tell them they want us to. So they'll make the phone call for them. And then we'll give them the news while the officer is there.
06:50
So we try to be very thoughtful of what is going on at the time the phone conversation takes place. Again, ideally, we wanna notify people in person. And I've done that many, many times. A lot of times though, the phone call is just the only option, as much as we dislike it.
07:13
I would wanna know as soon as possible. And I hate that sometimes social media starts making announcements before we do. I don't want somebody to see their loved one's car mangled in a Facebook post and find out that way.
07:31
To me, that's even more disrespectful. I would rather call you and at least let you know over the phone so that you're not caught off guard by a Facebook post or an Instagram post or a phone call from somebody that says, hey, I just saw a wrecked car on the corner of Maine and highway 35.
07:50
It looked like your daughter's, was that her, is she okay? I mean, that. would be even worse. And nothing is good, nothing is good when you lose a friend or a family member. But a lot of people like to drive by and take pictures.
08:05
And when I'm on a scene, if I see somebody taking video, I will sick the police on them. I don't have a weapon, and I'm not very aggressive, have a hard time being aggressive. But I do tell the police, hey, we do keep as much as we can covered so that a body can't be actually photographed and posted.
08:28
You would like to think that the general public is smart enough to know better than to do that, but this happened, it's just happened. And it will continue to happen because some people are just nosy and some people consider themselves reporters, even though they're not.
08:46
And they wanna be the one who tells everybody what's going on. I always get on my nerves when I get on Facebook and there's a post that says Hey, does anybody know why there's three police cars at the Exxon on the corner of Bonnie Bray?
09:01
I mean, mind your own business. That makes me so mad. I don't understand that. It's like something's going on and it doesn't involve you. Move on and let them settle the issue and then you can ask later.
09:17
But oh, it gets on my nerves. Okay, my soapbox. Anyway, my friend Sandra, I wasn't able to go to her service. It was out of town and it was really hard for me to get there. So I wasn't able to. But you know, it's still hard.
09:33
Like I said, we do as investigators lose family members. And I did actually get to go see my, I say my mother-in-law, but she is my ex-husband's mom. And I have a daughter who is her granddaughter, and she was placed on hospice a couple of days ago after having a massive stroke.
09:55
And I went to the hospital and I really wanted to have a conversation with her. I wasn't able to because she's unresponsive, medicated and kept comfortable, which I love. The good thing is she made it perfectly clear before this happened that she did not want any resuscitative measures taken and that she felt like she lived a long, happy, great life.
10:19
And that when her time came that she was ready to go. It was comforting that she was able to share that with her family because I know many times people pass suddenly and they haven't had that conversation.
10:33
And so it causes a lot of problems between family members because one person's like, yeah, she's lived a long life. Let's let her go. And the other person is like, no, let's resuscitate. Maybe she'll be fine.
10:46
Maybe we can spend a couple more years with her, but her quality of life would not be good. And it would not be. what she wanted. And so they did put her on hospice. I have to tell you just a cute little funny story because she's such a sweet woman.
11:02
She actually made a quilt for my other daughter's baby when she was born. And that baby wasn't even her granddaughter. It was my daughter from another husband. You know, it was just crazy because she's just so thoughtful.
11:17
And she's one of those people that used to always, even after me and her son were divorced, would bring me chicken and dumplings or chicken noodle soup when I was six. So just very, very thoughtful. I remember years ago, I lived out in the country when I was married to her son, my first husband, and we lived in an old farmhouse with a tin roof.
11:42
And the house itself had been burglarized multiple times previously before we moved in. And so I was a little bit nervous about living there because it was in the country. And you know there's not a lot of people around, it's not like you can go outside and scream, you're miles from the nearest home. Anyway she lived down the road and my husband at the time worked nights and I was 21 years old and eight months pregnant, and I hear this loud noise on her tin roof loud loud noise and I'm scared to death, I'm convinced that there's a mountain lion that's gonna come down a chimney and attack me. I don't know it was you always picture the worst thing possible so I call her and I'm like, you know I think somebody's trying to break in. Like, I keep hearing really loud noises. Well, come to find out there was a horse apple. I don't know if y'all know what horse apples are, they don't have them everywhere, I don't guess. But there was a horse apple tree over our house and it was dropping these big huge horse apples onto our tin roof and they were rolling off, and it was super loud, almost sounded like a thunderstorm when more than one would fall at a time. So anyway, Texima, who is this sweet lady, I called her, and of course she was to my rescue. Drove her car down the road, got out of her car with a shotgun. She had a rope and she said get in the car little girl, and of course I took off running out there with nothing in my hand, just scared to death. Got in her car and she took me to her house and let me spend the night there until the next morning. But just completely like no fear, shows up with a shotgun and I was just like, you know I mean? That's the kind of mother-in-law you want to have, somebody that's just going to have your back and is worried about you, and will rescue you like that. Pray for her for me and that she doesn't suffer, she is currently on hospice. Again just my point that I was trying to tell y'all earlier, I mean we lose people too.
13:55
And so that helps us to kind of stay humble and realize how distressing the news is. And I just think it makes us better at our job. Wanna talk to y'all about a little story. This story just absolutely blows my mind.
14:12
I do not know how this happened, and it makes me mad. And if I was a family member, I would be irate, and I would do everything I could to get this changed. But Stephanie Diane Dowls died of strangulation during an overnight visit with her husband at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California.
14:37
This happened on November 13th of 2024. Now her husband David Branson was 54 years old and he was convicted in the 90s of murdering four men during a robbery and sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
14:56
So this guy's murdered four people and all of a sudden during an overnight visit with him at the prison his wife is dead. This had happened before in July of the same year and this was not Brinson but another inmate strangled a family member.
15:19
Tanya Thomas 47 was also strangled during a family visit with an inmate in July of 2024 right before this happened in November. So, it's like hello what safety measures were put into place none because it happened again there were no safety measures put into place.
15:40
Now Brinson was actually charged with murder in connection with Stephanie Dowell's death. While they were alone Brinson called prison officials in the early hours of November 13th claiming that she had passed out.
15:55
Now Dowell's son Armand Torres was confused because apparently Brinson kept changing his account of the events leading to his mother's death and also despite arguments between his mother and Brinson Torres tried to remain supportive of their relationship and how many times you know has that taken place.
16:18
I mean I know that when I was single and dating my kids could not have possibly liked everyone that I dated but if they knew that I liked them they tried to like them and they tried to be supportive and they tried to be okay with their mom dating but they're going to be very critical of any guy that their mom dates that's not their dad.
16:44
But also, they want what's best for their mom. And if they see something in a relationship that they don't like, they're going to stand up for them. Now, Dalles was a hairdresser and she met Brinson back in 1996.
17:01
I'm going to talk a little bit about the event that happened in July. The other victim, Tanya Thomas, was found unconscious on July 1st, 2024 during a family visit with her domestic partner, Anthony Curry, in the same prison.
17:18
Curry, 48, is serving a life sentence for attempted second-degree murder with an enhancement of intentionally discharging a firearm, causing great bodily injury. Now, he was also sentenced to 13 years in prison for carjacking with an enhancement of using a firearm.
17:37
He had not even committed murder. He carjacked and... got live for attempted second degree murder because he apparently did discharge a firearm during the car dacking. So, he's allowed to have a conjugal visit with his domestic partner, and she ends up dead and he's been charged with murder in connection with her death.
18:04
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation states that some incarcerated people are actually eligible for family visits, which occur in private, apartment-like facilities on the prison grounds.
18:19
And they can last anywhere from 30 to 40 hours. That's a long time to leave a convicted murderer in a room alone with somebody. The visits are intended to support positive family connections and rehabilitation.
18:35
That's fine, but he's got life in prison. He's not going to rehabilitate because he's never going to be back out in the public. We don't want him back out in public and we don't necessarily need him to rehabilitate.
18:52
It's great to support positive family connections, but when you're putting their lives at risk, it's not so great. Now apparently death row inmates and people convicted of sex offenses are excluded from the ability to have these family visits in these apartment-like facilities.
19:14
They say there's a strict eligibility criteria to be approved for that. I have a hard time believing that and I have an even more difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that it had just happened in July, and they continued to offer these visits, especially to someone who had murdered four people in November.
19:38
And then it happened again and it was two totally different people. But somebody that had gotten life in prison for attempted murder and then somebody else who got four life sentences for killing four men execution style, I mean, where are the criteria?
19:56
So the prison manual apparently states that inmates have to present themselves for a count a minimum of four times in a 24 hour period. So apparently to me that means even when they're in these apartment like facilities with a loved one, they have to present themselves for a count.
20:17
Well, that's great, but what about the loved one that's already been murdered that is in the apartment, you need to check with that person. Hey, are you safe? Do you feel like you're at risk? Is everything going okay?
20:30
How about asking them? Because she'd probably already been murdered when he popped his head out and was like, hey, everything's good in here. I don't know. Now, David Brinson was 18 when he committed these crimes of killing these four men.
20:44
He was 23 when he was finally sentenced to four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He killed these men execution style during a robbery in which he vetted virtually nothing. He went in there thinking he was gonna come out loaded with a suitcase full of money and drugs.
21:06
And he basically got nothing. Now, Brinson shot Robert Marks, a 59-year-old retired tavern owner and three other men on June 12th, 1990 in Mark's garage apartment on South Burnside Avenue in the Mid Wilshire district.
21:24
Now, first of all, let's remember that the two did not meet until 1996. And these murders were committed in 1990. Okay, now, Marks had definitely kind of lived quietly in this neighborhood for years, but he had begun to have recent streams of visitors.
21:44
And so the police kind of suspected that maybe he was selling drugs. You know, we've all had that house. It's like, holy cow, they're getting a lot of visitors. They must be selling drugs over there.
21:53
We made jokes about that all the time when we were kids. That's kind of what they suspected, that there was a possibility that he was selling drugs. Now, Brinson thought Marks was a high-level cocaine dealer.
22:07
And so he went to his apartment with a gun and two accomplices, seeking just that, money and drugs. And after Brinson ransacked the residence and found only a small amount of marijuana, he shot each of the four men in the back of the head as they lay face down in the floor of the bedroom.
22:27
Now, the other victims were Marks' roommate, Gene McCullers, who was 28, and then visitors, Celadino Lictis, who was 33, and William Terry. who was only 27. I mean, how sad these guys had no idea what they were in for when they showed up over there.
22:48
So apparently they had gathered at the apartment to watch a basketball game on TV. Now a fifth man who showed up late actually found the bodies. Man, talk about it not being your time. I mean, he wasn't there when all this went down.
23:05
It just was not his time. But thank goodness, Brinson and his accomplices were gone and weren't still there because that man would have ended up dead too. So I'm sure he felt pretty darn lucky. That's when you go buy a lottery ticket.
23:21
There's not a lot of information known about Brinson's childhood. He was born in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Again, he was imprisoned in 1994. And while he was in prison, keep in mind this murder happened in 2024.
23:39
He'd been in prison for a long time and had accrued serious rule violations for, to be exact, over the decades. Yet despite his disciplinary record, he retained privileges such as family visits, which to me is absolutely crazy.
23:59
The fact that you've murdered somebody should automatically disqualify you. But if you murdered somebody and you are committing serious rule violations while you're in prison, you definitely should not be allowed conjugal visits with your family members.
24:17
Now this case has ignited debates about the safety of the conjugal visit program, as it should, and it shouldn't have been this case. It should have been the case before. It should have been the case in July, because then this wouldn't be a case.
24:32
That's kinda how I look at it. I'm sure that y'all look at it the same way. But they are now looking into the fact that it's not so safe, especially for inmates with a history of extreme violence. Well, finally.
24:47
And that aggravates me, and let me just tell you, if I was a family member of Stephanie Dowells, I would be absolutely livid. And I would take this as high as I could and get the laws changed. Not only at that prison, but at all the prisons.
25:07
I'm gonna do some research to find out if this has happened at other prisons, but I'm quite sure it has. I mean, these guys have murdered, and they've got nothing to lose. They've got nothing to lose.
25:17
He's already got four consecutive life sentences. So he wasn't gonna get out anyway. And he's even misbehaved in prison and still got conjugal visits. Why be good? Why be good if you're an inmate? Not gonna get you out any earlier because serving four life sentences.
25:37
So it's just aggravating. Can y'all tell it aggravates me? I mean, we've talked about people getting released from prison and then committing murders again. But now we've got people that haven't even been released that are murdering while they're there.
25:52
And I know we've had inmates that have murdered jailers and it's just ridiculous, it's so aggravating. But again, these guys, nothing to lose, they're already there. They're getting three hot meals a day and a place to sleep.
26:08
And they can just keep on killing while they're behind bars. How convenient. Anyway, don't get me on my soapbox. Wanted to tell y'all, I got my subscription boxes in. I have ordered 30 for the very first box that will be available.
26:26
And that's just because I wanna see the interest. I also wanted to quickly curate the items that are put in there. And I wanna get a good, honest. amount of feedback from the people who get these boxes, what would you do different, what kind of things would you be looking for in the boxes? Just to kind of get a little bit of feedback, I want it to be as good as possible. But I'm telling you these boxes are going to be amazing, these are going to include items that any true crime lover would absolutely love to have. And I'll make sure of that because I'm a true crime lover and it won't be junk. It's not going to be something you can buy on Temu, it's not going to be something you can buy on Shein, these are going to be good quality items, that if you're a true crime lover you would love to have in your home and add to your collection. These are going to be things that there may be books, there may be bath bombs, there may be socks, there may be, I mean, there's going to be items that you will absolutely love, and you know what? If you don't love something you can give it away, I know you have a friend that loves true crime. The cool thing about the boxes is we're going to have it set up, and they're working on our website now, but we're going to have it set up where you can order them monthly. If you love, love, love true crime it's like Christmas once a month. Which is amazing! You can order them every three months, you can do it every six months so that you just get two a year. We will also have it where you can order a box for someone like one time on their birthday, and that's a great gift if you know that your friend loves true crime. Also, we are going to have specialty boxes for valentine's day, my bloody valentine. I know you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend that loves true crime that stays up all night watching forensic files because it relaxes them when they're trying to go to sleep ,I know you do this. Would be a perfect gift for those people men and women. And then also we'll have a Christmas box, so we'll have special boxes that are available during certain holidays, when you know you want to give a gift, but you just don't know what.
28:45
If they love true crime these boxes will be an amazing gift and you know what if it turns out that they become a subscriber then that's even more amazing. We really want to roll this out with red carpet on the floor.
29:01
We want you to love it and we're gonna do our best to make it the best that we can. If you are interested don't forget email me Julie at pushinguplilies.com and then also you can private message me on Facebook.
29:19
I can guarantee you that every message you send me will be answered by me. I don't use bots. I don't use AI. I don't have people hired to do that for me. It's me. And so I do get a lot of messages which I very much appreciate from people who are interested in a forensic career who are reaching out to me to get information.
29:37
And I am more than willing to share all the information I have. And as a matter of fact, I plan to use this as a teaching and educational tool as well. Because we need more forensic nurses. We need more people in the forensics field and we need more people who make a difference in this way.
29:58
And I love to help. Anyway, I hope that you'll have an amazing week. It has been so freaking windy in Texas. I don't know if it's windy where you're at, but good lord. I mean, I can't have a good hair day to save my life.
30:13
But I hope you have a great week and I look forward to talking to you next week. See y'all soon. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies. If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple Podcast.
30:31
This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public. Thanks again for spending your time with me. And be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.