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.

Later that same day, James 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.

Case Files

Let the evidence speak for itself.

Steve's Car

After being pulled over in Texarkana, Steve Swans stolen car was brought to the Forensic Investigation unit for processing. What follows is the report and their findings.

Key items to note:

• A mask
• A pair of gloves
• A white rag
• Two white towels with red stains
• Shoes with red stains
• James Broadnax's social security card and birth certificate
• 2 notebooks containing lyrics about robberies and murders.

No drugs were found in the car, and the arresting officer said Broadnax appeared sober. The gun was wiped of finger prints with the rag found in the car, but it is also possible the gun made contact at some point with the same towels used to try and clean the blood stains off their shoes. This is likely why the gun also tested positive with blood from Matthew Butler. Despite cleaning the gun, when the pair took the weapon to John Calhoun to hold on to, Cummings pulled the gun out of the bag which is how his DNA remained on the weapon.

Demarius Cummings' Confession

Shortly after their arrest in Texarkana, both men were separated and taken to the Garland Police Department, where Demarius Cummings instantly fessed up. Below is a brief written summary of his confession. What is important to note is that every detail in the confession was verified by police. Cummings’ gave an accurate description of the crime scene, consented to a DNA test, and immediately assisted police in locating the murder weapon. Broadnax would later make multiple comments about Cummings being a "snitch" and a "ho".

In his own confession, Broadnax provided similar details which confirmed the motive and accurate crime scene details.

Over 17 years later, Demarius Cummings told an entirely different story. In this new confession, Cummings claimed he had always been the shooter. Yet, unlike the original confessions both men gave, there are major inconsistancies which make it impossible. After their arrest in Texarkana, the two men were separated, yet both gave the exact same account of their motives and respective roles in the shooting. It would have been virtually impossible for them to conspire to create a false confession, especially since witnesses had already heard what they had done immediately after the shooting, when both men were bragging about it while Broadnax flashed Steve’s license. The other obvious problem with the new confession is that in 17 years, James Broadnax never once claimed he was not the shooter. Their original confessions aligned. Cummings’ new confession, made 17 years later, was a desperate attempt to save his cousin from execution. It failed.