The last time Fox 59 News viewers saw Brandy Majors, the 32-year-old mother of two and suspected escapee was uncuffed and unsearched in the back of a Marion County Sheriff’s detective’s car, going back to jail.
She was also within inches of his gun.
“He had his briefcase in the back of his car that, to me, looked like he had his weapon in it in the back of his car,” said Majors, who was being transported to the Marion County Jail by Capt. Wayne Sharp at the time.
She was asked if she was close enough to grab the deputy’s gun.
“Yeah, I could have. I wasn’t in handcuffs. There was no way I was going to attempt to that.”
Majors claims she was inadvertently released from the Marion County Jail Friday morning after she was picked up the night before on an outstanding auto theft warrant from Hendricks County.
“I didn’t escape. I didn’t go running out,” Majors protested. “They’re trying to cover up a mistake that they made and blame me.”
Marion County Sheriff John Layton told Fox59 News that his investigation into the release continues.
Layton’s department provided Fox59 News with a copy of its policies and procedures for jail releases written in 2009 for then-Sheriff Frank Anderson.
The policy indicates that it should be updated every year.
MCSD has reported 13 inadvertent mistaken releases since 2011. One of them was convicted Hovey Street killer Tommy Warren.
“Identification of outstanding wants, warrants or detainer identification,” read Majors off the MCSD policy. “Identity verification of release papers and other notification that the court designates.”
Majors was asked if the deputy who instructed her to leave the jail Friday morning ever completed those checks.
“No, they didn’t.”
Majors was inadvertently free for 48 hours until, seeing her mugshot on Fox59 Morning News Sunday, she called Fox59 to facilitate her surrender personally to Sheriff Layton.
During an interview in Fletcher Park, after a call was placed to Layton, Capt. Sharp arrived apparently unarmed, unidentified and without back up deputies to place Majors in custody.
Sharp was not wearing a badge and did not identify himself until Majors was placed unhandcuffed in the back seat of his car.
Right next to, she said, his service weapon unsecured in an open briefcase.
Sharp and his prisoner drove away without any other support personnel or vehicles apparent.
“His actual statement was, ‘You think they’re trying to help you. Fox59 just ratted you out.’ That’s what he said.”
Majors said she does not blame Fox59 for her arrest but rather herself for a mistake she made in our presence.
Majors said that she rode in the back of Sharp’s car for several minutes until he spotted an IMPD officer on an unrelated run and asked for his handcuffs and an escort to the sheriff’s department.
Once inside the sheriff’s department, Majors was placed in a conference room within earshot of Sharp’s office.
“He’s making prone calls, ‘Guess who I just picked up. You’re never going to believe who I got.'”
Majors said Sharp never questioned her about her disappearance from the jail nor advised her of her legal rights.
“He made a comment, ‘Did you give a male sheriff a (expletive) to get out of here?'” said Majors. “I said, ‘No, sir. You’re kidding me, right? There’s cameras all over your jail. You have to have seen that I did not escape. I was told to go free.'”
Majors said she has seen a photograph taken from a surveillance tape of herself walking out of the jail to freedom.
“There’s no way he didn’t even take the time to talk to me. He was more concerned about having me under arrest than he was about anything.”
The Marion County Sheriff’s Department is not commenting on its investigation despite earlier assertions that it was possible Majors was inadvertently released.
Majors has a previous arrest record and served probation, she said, for selling a stolen radio to a pawn shop.
She is listed in a number of drug-related reports and admits she has had run-ins with the law in the past.
“I understand you’re not trying to help me,” said Majors. “You’re trying to find out the truth.”
