A real estate agent who worked with Vincent Brothers in 2003 to build a new home in Southwest Bakersfield says Brothers axed a fifth bedroom from the floor plan several months before the murders.
Real estate agent Cher Silliman called it a 'mother-in-law unit,' and Brothers told her his mother-in-law Earnestine was to live in the room. Brothers added the room to the basic four-bedroom floor plan in addition to an extra bathroom. The home was to be built in the Southern Oaks community. By reducing the number of rooms in March 2003, Silliman said Brothers saved more than $24,000.
But Silliman also said she called Brothers the week after the murders and offered to let him out of his construction contract at no cost. Brothers declined saying it was the home that he and his family had dreamed of building.
A sergeant with the U.S. Marine Corps. testified Wednesday afternoon that Brothers served as a reserve and trained in marksmanship with an M-16. "Are Marines trained to shoot to kill?" prosecutor Lisa Green asked. "Yes," replied Sgt. Joe Costellanos.
The defense vigorously contested Costellanos' testimony.
