On the early morning of June 19, 2008, a man riding his bicycle home from work discovered the bodies of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler lying in the street outside their recording studio in Garland shortly after 1:00 a.m. He immediately alerted firefighters at a nearby Garland fire station. When they arrived, firefighters quickly determined that both Swan and Butler had been killed only recently.
At Broadnax’s trial, the medical examiner testified that Swan had suffered an intermediate-range gunshot wound to the head, as well as a second gunshot wound to the left side of his chest.
Later that same day, Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, arrived at the Southeast Dallas apartment where Broadnax had been staying with family members. According to testimony, Broadnax openly boasted that he had “hit a lick,” street slang for committing a robbery, and displayed Swan’s driver’s license as proof. Broadnax and Cummings then left the apartment driving Swan’s Ford Crown Victoria, telling those present that they intended to sell the vehicle.
Roughly fifteen minutes after they left, a friend of Broadnax’s aunt, who had been in the apartment, saw news coverage reporting the Garland double homicide. Realizing that Broadnax and Cummings were likely connected to the murders, she contacted Garland police.
That evening, about 150 miles away in Texarkana, police officers spotted Swan’s Ford Crown Victoria in what they described as a high-crime area. A license plate check raised suspicion when the plates came back registered to a Cadillac rather than a Ford. Officers initiated a traffic stop. Broadnax identified himself, and once officers discovered outstanding warrants for his arrest, they took him into custody. The arresting officer later testified that Broadnax did not appear intoxicated at the time of the stop.
After Broadnax was returned to Dallas, he gave multiple interviews to local television reporters, interviews that would later become central to the State’s case. In these televised statements, Broadnax confessed to robbing and murdering both Swan and Butler, offering explicit details about the crimes. He stated that he and Cummings had traveled to Garland that day specifically intending to commit robbery. While he said Cummings had participated in the robberies, Broadnax claimed that he alone had killed the two men. He also told reporters that he felt no remorse and hoped a jury would sentence him to death.
At trial, Broadnax’s defense did not dispute that he had shot Swan and Butler. Instead, defense counsel argued that he had been under the influence of marijuana and PCP at the time of the murders. They further contended that Broadnax remained intoxicated during the multiple television interviews and confessions he gave four days after his arrest, attempting to cast doubt on the reliability of his statements.
Several State witnesses strongly challenged that theory. The arresting officer testified that Broadnax appeared lucid when taken into custody. The television reporters who interviewed him described him as intelligent, coherent, and rational. The jail nurse likewise testified that Broadnax showed no signs of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. In short, the prosecution’s witnesses painted a picture not of someone incapacitated by intoxication, but of someone fully aware of what he had done and willing to describe it in explicit detail.