‘I was afraid for my life.' Adriana Blake homicide Scott County trial continues
Adriana Blake took the stand Wednesday in Scott County Court to give testimony in her murder case. She and a co-defendant, Devon Braet, are accused in the deaths of Brian Goodwin, 44, and Amy Smith, 44, in January 2024.
Our Quad Cities News was in the courtroom when Scott County Attorney Kelly Cunningham asked Blake about details of taking an Uber to her uncle's house. Blake said she wasn't sure about some of the details and that she doesn't remember many details from that day. Blake said Braet had her cell phone the majority of the time between Jan. 14-16, 2024, and Braet used her phone to call for an Uber.
Cunningham told the court that personal items were carried into the uncle's home and Blake admitted taking a DVR from Goodwin's home. That DVR contained recordings from video cameras around the property.
Blake said she didn't know the password to the DVR, so Braet told her to take it, and they would figure out the password later. She said she did it because she was afraid for her life.
Blake said Braet thought Blake's ankle monitor was listening to them and recording them.
Cunningham asked how a gas can was removed from the home of Braet's mother. Blake said it might have taken by Goodwin and Braet to use while they were snow-blowing the property. Blake said the can might have been in a Dodge Nitro SUV they drove.
A witness said the Nitro smelled like gas, like a gas can had tipped over in it. Blake admitted she may have driven the Nitro for days with the gas smell.
Blake said she and Braet recruited a person to work on the SUV to repair the heater and broken headlight so as not to draw the attention of police.
But Blake said she probably wanted to draw police attention to the situation. When Cunningham suggested that Blake could have called police, Blake said 'By the time they got there I'd be dead.' Blake said she was too afraid of Braet to call, even when she was with her uncle.
Blake said Braet had accidentally fired a gun in the house when the firearm was in a backpack, and she was afraid to lock him out.
Her uncle's testimony didn't mention a gunshot or accidental discharge of a gun. He testified earlier that Blake and he had a falling out and hadn't talked in months, but Blake told the court they had been communicating on Facebook during that time. There were no phone call records between her uncle and Blake until early Jan. 15, 2024. The uncle said he didn't know Braet, but Blake said the two had met at her grandmother's house and that her uncle's testimony was incorrect.
Blake said she had no idea how Smith's identification ended up in Blake's wallet and that Blake was surprised to see this during discovery. Blake said there was no body-camera footage of police finding the identification. She said she didn't dispute that it was in the car, but she had no idea how it got in her wallet.
Testimony in the trial continues Thursday.
Blake spoke quietly and sometimes see,d embarrassed as she described the events leading up to the deaths of Smith and Goodwin. The jurors watched and listened attentively along with more than 20 other people seated in the courtroom.
A fire and two deaths in 2024
In January 2024, Brian Goodwin, 44, and Amy Smith, 44, were found dead after a fire in a home on the 5200 block of Division Street. Both had been shot, investigators found.
Blake faces two charges of first-degree murder, a Class A felony; two charges of first-degree robbery, a Class B felony; two charges of assault while participating in a felony, a Class C felony; dominion and control of a firearm by a felon, a Class D felony; two charges of going armed with intent, a Class D felony; two charges of abuse of a corpse – mutilate/dismember to hide a crime, a Class C felony; and first-degree arson, a Class B felony; along with misdemeanor charges.
Braet will be tried separately.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Miami Herald
4 hours ago
- Miami Herald
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Denied asylum Valdes' mom had never heard of the American Dream. She said she had never even heard the phrase 'el sueño americano' before coming to the United States. The family fled Colombia in 2002, leaving behind comfort and status. Valdes' mother had been an architect in Cartagena, a city on the South American nation's Caribbean coast. The family had a driver, a cook and a nanny. But violence by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, the rebel group known as FARC, was encroaching on their lives: armed robbery at their home, threatening calls and the kidnapping of her cousin, a wealthy businessperson. The family was forced to pay a ransom for his release. The early 2000s in Colombia, under President Andrés Pastrana, were years of intense violence by guerrilla gangs such as the FARC, who targeted wealthier Colombians. 'They would just pick up anybody who they believed they could get money from,' said Valdes. Her aunt would often call Valdes' mom from Florida, telling her their family would be safer here. The family arrived on a tourist visa in 2002, found a lawyer and applied for asylum. It was denied in 2004. Under U.S. immigration policy, people who have suffered persecution due to factors such as race, religion, nationality, membership to a social group, or political opinion can apply for asylum. It must be filed within a year of arrival in the United States. Valdes' family's interview did not go well and they were placed in removal proceedings. They appealed and in 2006 took the case to the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals. The family's asylum application claimed that Valdes' mom would be killed by the FARC guerilla gang if she returned to Colombia, in connection with her cousin's kidnapping. But the court ultimately found holes in her case, and said her fear is not well founded and that she failed to prove that she would be in danger if she returned to Colombia. 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The one scholarship she did get was a $4,000 scholarship from the Global Education Center at Palm Beach State, but $1,500 was deducted in taxes because she was considered a foreign student. Starting in 2014, Florida universities provided in-state tuition waivers for undocumented students under certain conditions. But because Valdes didn't enroll in college within a year of graduating from high school, she lost access to the waiver. That waiver was recently canceled in Florida for undocumented students, and starting July 1, at least 6,500 DACA recipients in Florida enrolled in public universities will have to pay the out-of-state tuition rate. 'When people asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I would ask for money to pay my tuition,' she said. Throughout those years, people would come to Valdes asking for help filling out their work permit applications, DACA applications and other legal forms, and they would say, 'Wow, you are so good at it.' 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