Jail calls from accused Clark Atlanta student’s killer can be used in court
Supreme Court of Georgia rules incriminating phone calls made by Barron Brantley are admissible.
Editor’s note: The video above is from previous coverage.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The Supreme Court of Georgia has ruled that incriminating phone calls made by Barron Brantley while he was held in the Fulton County Jail can be used in his trial.
Brantley, along with his former girlfriend Jordyn Jones, is charged with murder and other crimes in connection with the 2019 killing of Alexis Janaé Crawford. Jones was a former roommate of Crawford.
While awaiting trial, Brantley made multiple statements to others during calls on the jail phones. None of the calls were to his attorney.
Prosecutors sought to use three of those calls at trial.
Brantley filed a motion to exclude the calls, arguing their use violated his due process and equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution and his right to privacy under the Georgia Constitution.
Brantley also argued the calls should be excluded because they referenced inadmissible evidence, such as his prior criminal history, previous statements to the police and news media reports.
The trial court granted Brantley’s motion to exclude the jail phone calls, but the prosecutors appealed. The Supreme Court of Georgia heard oral arguments in the case on Feb. 2, 2025.
In Tuesday’s opinion authored by Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson, the court rejected Brantley’s argument prosecutors’ appeals should be dismissed.
“Our precedent makes clear Brantley had no reasonable expectation of privacy in recorded jail calls not made to counsel,” the court ruled. “A nonincarcerated defendant is not similarly situated to an incarcerated defendant as relevant to Brantley’s claims here ... Accordingly, recording Brantley’s jail phone calls for use at trial does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.”
The case will go back to the trial court so it can consider any remaining arguments Brantley raised for excluding portions of his jail calls.
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