People of Fairfax County: Be Very, Very Scared
The fact that Brandon Paul Gotwalt is still walking the streets of Fairfax County seems scarier every day. Gotwalt, a U.S. Navy veteran now working for a Fairfax defense contractor, was never arrested or indicted for beating and shooting the unarmed Steve Cornejo in the back in the courtyard of a Fair Oaks apartment complex in June 2005.
But since last week, when a civil jury found Gotwalt liable for the wrongful death of Cornejo, folks who know the killer are coming forward to say they could tell he was a real creep before the verdict confirmed it.
Two posters on the Washington Post Web site told of witnessing a violent episode from Gotwalt nearly a year after he’d killed Cornejo.
And a blogger who’d written in May 2006 about a fight at his house that was started by an unnamed disturbed douchebag appended a postscript last week to that post so his readers would know that the disturbed douchebag in question was none other than Gotwalt:
I should add that Brandon’s parting words to Jesse before he came back and attacked him were, ‘I’ve killed men for less’. Everyone in the kitchen heard it though some may have been too drink to remember it.
Apparantly, it’s also true.
I got a call from a non-blogging partygoer from Northern Virginia who says he heard Gotwalt accuse another guest of hitting on his girlfriend the night of the blogged-about fight, and in a rage yell, “I’ve killed men for less!” before bashing down a door and trying to attack the alleged suitor. This partygoer, who called after reading a previous City Paper story about the Cornejo case, requested anonymity because, well, now he knows Gotwalt really has killed men for less. He says that he’d seen the killer’s irrational and violent sides even before that episode, and that ever since that night his friends have tried to keep tabs on Gotwalt’s social schedule to avoid ever being around him.
“Seeing his behavior that night, and now reading the stories about the evidence at the trial, about what he did, that’s very chilling,” says the partygoer. “That all sounded like the Brandon I knew.”
Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow any responses to this entry through its comments RSS feed.
Blogs Linking to this Article
-
Linked From: March 27th, 2007links for 2007-03-27 « Clint’s blog
6:18 pm[...] ARTICLE: People Of Fairfax County Be Very Very Scared Looks like my blog was once again cited in the papers due to me formely knowing a guy who killed someone. Not crazy about the exposure, but it’s out there, so I may as well mention it. (tags: news local CityPaper BrandonG) [...]
6:53 pm
nice sensationalism… I guess that’s what it takes to get people to read your ridiculous rag. > …In a world where Joe Fairfax Citizen thinks he’s safe… > Lock your doors and windows… don’t go outside… “Be Very Very Scared!”
People are accused of crimes and acquitted EVERY DAY. Then, the survivors feeling that they didn’t get a fair shake (right or wrong), go to the yellow pages and find the lawyer with the biggest, most colorful ad, and pay him to sue the GUY WHO WAS PREVIOUSLY FOUND INNOCENT in civil court. The plaintiff’s counsel then (regardless of the outcome of the criminal case) plays up to the jury, pulling their heartstrings, packing the court with every grieving friend and family member they can find, borrow, or rent in hopes that they will this time maybe find in favor of their CLIENT. You do know that these guys get paid a percentage of the winnings, right? I’d like to know what their counsel’s cut of the $1.97 million is… hmmm.
God bless our legal system, but for Christ’s sake some cases are total crap! And it’s a shame you jerks have to gussy your stories up just to get some readership….
you really suck.
11:33 pm
This case was not crap….my cousins life was lost affter a pshycopath shot him in the back…regardless of how much the lawyer gets that was not the family’s focus…it was to get justice…And just to let everyone know…everyone there were close people to steven…no one was BORROWED or RENTED…so shut your mouth if you dont know what your talking about…
11:01 am
Yea… I’ve met the guy, he’s a creep, I will avoid him forever, I think he’s a psychopath.