On Thursday morning in the Polk County Courthouse, a 14-year-old girl bravely walked past Bryan James Riley, the man accused of murdering four members of her family and trying to murder her in September 2021. An armed sheriff’s bailiff and an assistant state attorney stayed between her and Riley.
The girl testified in a hearing to determine whether statements she made to police in the days after the killings can be admitted into evidence during Riley’s trial in May. She also testified about a conversation she had with her mother, which a defense attorney was concerned could be considering “coaching” a witness about what to say.
Why this matters: The Lakeland community was horrified by the murders of a family who had no prior connection with their alleged killer. Prayers were offered in churches across the city and people contributed to multiple charities for the girl, who was shot multiple times and was the only survivor of the attack.
The crime: Prosecutors say Riley, now 35, randomly stopped at the Gleason family’s north Lakeland home the day before the shooting and demanded to know where “Amber” was, saying God told him to rescue a girl thinking of committing suicide there. The family told him there was no one there by that name and to leave. They called the sheriff’s office, but Riley, who lived in Brandon, had already left.
Detectives say Riley returned before dawn in a commando-style raid and broke into the Gleasons’ home, shooting and killing:
- Justice Gleason, 40, who died trying to protect his family.
- Theresa Lanham, 33.
- The couple’s 3-month-old son, who was in his mother’s arms.
- Lanham’s mother, 62-year-old Cathy Delgado, who was in a second house on the three-home family property.
- The family’s large, black shepherd, Diogi.
Officials say Riley then shot the girl, who was 11 at the time, in the leg, stomach and hand, demanding to know where “Amber” was. He could be heard on a 9-1-1 call, yelling that her parents were child traffickers. She kept telling him there was no “Amber” and then played dead so he would stop shooting her.
Charges: Riley, a former U.S. Marine and security guard, is charged with four counts of murder, one count of attempted murder, seven counts of attempted murder on law enforcement officers, killing the family dog, aggravated child abuse and kidnapping a child under 13.
Thursday’s hearing: It’s that last charge — kidnapping — that had the girl and her other grandmother in court Thursday. The girl, who LkldNow is not naming, testified under oath about her mother possibly trying to coach her to lie on the stand. The girl confided in her grandmother about the private conversation, which her grandmother reported to officials in the state attorney’s office.
Pamela Freeman said her granddaughter approached her in April or May 2022. She remembered when it was because the girl had not walked for a long time, but she had recently completed her physical therapy and walked into the laundry room.
“She said, ‘Nana, Mama told me to lie on the stand.’” Freeman said. “I immediately said, … ‘You can’t do that. That’s wrong.’ And she said, ‘I know, Nana, and that’s why I’m telling you.’”
Girl’s testimony: The girl walked into the small seventh-floor courtroom normally, despite the injuries to her leg. Other family members sat in a front row just feet from Riley.
Assistant State Attorney Mikaela Perry questioned the girl about what it means to promise to tell the truth. “Could you describe to us what the truth is and what a lie is? What the difference between those things are?” Perry asked.
In a quiet voice, the girl said, “The truth is whenever you’re being completely honest and a lie is when you’re not.”
Judge Abdoney placed her under oath and asked her about the conversation with her mother.
“A couple months after the hospital, and I can’t remember what we were doing, where we were at, I just remember she had a joke, and was like, ‘Oh, just lie so he gets as much time as possible.’ And she just laughed it off,” the girl testified. “And it wasn’t like anything serious, and so it wasn’t anything that I actually took into my mind … I wasn’t actually planning to do anything like that. It was just a big joke.”
The girl was allowed to leave the courtroom, walking past Riley again.
‘Coaching’ issue cleared up: Perry told Judge Abdoney that the girl’s statement to police, given while she was still in the hospital in September 2021, should remain in evidence and that she knows the difference between a lie and the truth.
“It’s clear that it wasn’t actually coaching. It was probably an inappropriate comment, for sure, but (not an) actual coaching session of, ‘Let’s sit down and talk to you about what you’re going to say to the police,” Perry said. “And second, more importantly, this conversation took place after the statements that we are here to talk about for purposes of child hearsay. So I think, at this point, the record has been sufficiently cleared up to show that this conversation had no bearing on what she told the police for purposes of the child hearsay statement.”
Then Assistant Public Defender Rachael Roebuck, who was brought onto the case recently to fill in for another attorney, said there had been some confusion prior to the hearing that maybe the mother’s comment was made in between two statements the girl gave to detectives, the first on Sept. 7, 2021 — two days after the shooting — and the next statement on Sept. 8.
“I’m satisfied that that that this particular comment was not, but I am going to renew some arguments that were made previously and make some additional arguments,” she said.
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Concern about inconsistencies: Roebuck complained that the girl, who witnessed her father, his girlfriend and her baby brother murdered, was inconsistent in her two statements about:
- The order of the murders.
- Whether she was looking or had something over her head when the murders were happening.
- Whether her dad was shot as he was attempting to shut the bathroom door or whether the bathroom door was “shut and locked.”
The girl also apparently didn’t understand who Polk County Sheriff’s northwest Shift Commander Lt. Duane Tompkins was when he initially entered the house. Perry said the girl thought the lieutenant was a friend of Riley’s, although Riley shot at Tompkins.
In her statement, she talked about “friends coming over,” but the assistant state attorney said the girl was confused “as to who this other armed person in her home was, but I don’t think that that shows that she’s being unreliable. She may just not understand that it’s a police officer that’s in there, because she’s under this attack in an extremely stressful situation,” Perry said.
Perry added that the law “does not require the child to be absolutely 100% the same every single time to be considered consistent … And I would argue that whether the blanket was just on her or over her head, and …. the order in which everyone was shot are minor inconsistencies, compared to the fact that she’s very clear that she was in the bathroom, that there was a blanket she was using, that all of the people were shot, that it was a quick period of time during which they all were shot.”
Both argued the pain medication she was on might have contributed to the girl’s confusion.
Gifts from detectives: Roebuck then complained to Judge Abdoney about gifts given to the girl by Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives that Roebuck felt were inappropriate. After detectives questioned her on Sept. 7, 2021, they gave her an art set. The next day, before they talked with her again, they gave her an iPad and iPods.
Roebuck said the art set wasn’t “that big of a deal,” but that she found the iPad and iPods “kind of bizarre.”
“I don’t know if this is normal behavior for the Sheriff’s Office, but frankly, it irked me. So I don’t know what your honor is going to make of this, if anything, but I just didn’t want it to go unsaid,” Roebuck said.
She said it’s not best practice for law enforcement officers to give gifts to witnesses when they are trying to obtain neutral, objective, fact-driven information from them. She added that an 11-year-old is old enough to understand the significance of an expensive gift.
“I’m not trying to, sort of, strip the humanity out of this situation, but there are other more appropriate ways to show a witness that you care about them and care about their well-being, other than giving them gifts that are valued at $1,000,” Roebuck said.
The girl was then brought back into the courtroom to talk about receiving the gifts, walking past a seated Riley, who was wearing his orange prison scrubs, for a third time.
She was asked if the gifts affected what she told the detectives or if she changed anything she told the detectives after receiving the gifts. She simply said no to both questions. When asked what she would say when she takes the stand during the trial, she said she would tell the truth about what happened. Then she was allowed to leave, walking past him a final time.
Sheriff angered: At the time of the murders, the Lakeland community said prayers for the girl and the families of those killed, contributed nearly $24,500 to two Gofundme campaigns for the girl and Lanham’s sister, who had four funerals to plan, and contributed to the sheriff’s charity set up for situations like this. PCSO has a warehouse with gifts for children at Christmas and items to comfort them when they endure something traumatic.
Thursday afternoon, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was angered by Roebuck’s comments in court.
“I’m incensed that a defense attorney could stoop so low as to question why our charity would provide an iPad and ear pods for a child while she was recovering from the attempted murder of her — who a vicious spree-killer tried to murder after he slaughtered her family,” Judd said. “That was just the most outrageous conduct I’ve seen. Our victim had to play dead in order to avoid being further shot and killed.”
He said the sheriff’s office has a longstanding practice of comforting young victims who were significantly injured or saw violence.
“And she was no exception,” he said. “There was an outpouring of community support for her, including our charity, and we will always comfort our young children who are victims of evil, violent criminals. We have teddy bears, we have quilts, we have all kinds of things that we provide to children, and to think that we’re going to deal with an 11-year-old in a sterile environment who was shot to pieces is just ridiculous.”
What’s next: Judge Abdoney said he will review the girl’s statements and make a decision on their admissibility. He did not give a timeline as to when he would make a ruling.
Riley has plans to use the insanity defense. His defense attorneys and the state have bickered over admitting his veteran medical records and his application for disability into evidence. They will be allowed.
The state is seeking the death penalty in the case. A judge recently ruled that a jury only has to vote 8-4 for the death penalty if Riley is found guilty.
Riley’s trial is scheduled for May 2025. His next court hearing is in September.
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