Sleepwalking Murder or Unrequited Love? | Randy Herman Case Analysis

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the case of randy herman jr this murder case was the topic of a hulu documentary titled dead asleep just a reminder i'm not diagnosing you in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoyed this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i will put the link to patreon in the description for this video first i'll look at the background this case i'll move to the timeline of the crime and offer my analysis andy herman was born in pennsylvania in 1993 he lived with his mother and sister his mother and father divorced when he was young even though his father only lived about 40 minutes away randy rarely saw him his father was often intoxicated randy's mother worked three jobs to take care of him and his sister they moved several times eventually ending up in laceyville pennsylvania this is a small town with a population of about 400 people randy herman was friends with two sisters jordan and brooke preston after randy graduated high school in 2011 he enrolled at mansfield university and studied criminal justice he worked part-time as a corrections officer at a county jail he didn't know it but he was preparing pretty well for his future with that job albeit he would eventually be on the other side of the bars he lost his job when he was charged with possession of marijuana in august of 2013 a few days after pleading guilty to a lesser charge in that case he was arrested for dui he left college and moved back in with his mother he worked at a beef processing plant he felt as though it was a dead-end job randy was still on probation for the first dui when he was arrested again in may of 2014 he was sentenced to a month in jail around this time randy's father shot and killed his live-in girlfriend he then drove to alabama and hid from the police for two months before bringing an end to his life the police were just about to catch him randy received a 25 000 inheritance after his father's death in may of 2016 jordan preston again this is randy's friend moved to west palm beach florida at some point her sister brooke moved there as well randy often communicated with jordan joking about how he would like to move down to florida to be with them he wasn't too happy with his life in pennsylvania he viewed florida as a place where he could make a fresh start in july of 2016 randy drove to florida jordan brooke and randy found a ranch house in the city of west palm beach and moved in initially the arrangement seemed to be working jordan worked at a water management plant brooke had just finished her degree at state college of florida and randy found a job selling internet and cable service four months after starting his job randy quit he didn't like the fluctuations in his commission based pay he started staying up at night and sleeping most of the day he adopted a party lifestyle and started using substances excessively sometimes he spent as much as two hundred dollars a night on alcohol and cocaine he wiped out his inheritance in just three months as all this was going on brooke decided she was going to move to buffalo new york to live with her boyfriend of four years she moved there in december of 2016 left her vehicle and some of her belongings at the house in florida she intended to return to florida in march of 2017 to recover her property and say goodbye to her friends in the area in preparation for this visit randy tried to refrain from using any type of substance it was like he was trying to clean himself up to be more presentable when brooke arrived on march 23 2017 brook flew to florida randy picked her up from the airport jordan was not at the house she was on a trip in colorado the next day march 24 randy and brooke consumed an excessive quantity of alcohol and spent time at the beach later randy guessed that he drank about 30 beers on this one day randy and brooke made their way back to the house randy was feeling the effects of the alcohol brook started to get aggravated with his behavior she thought he was belligerent she texted a friend of hers named kyle mcgregor to come get her saying that she was ready to kill randy brooke walked to her bedroom to pack items to spend the night at kyle's residence her intent was to stay with him and travel to buffalo the next morning she discovered randy naked in her bedroom closet he had his finger in front of his mouth as if she should be quiet brooke left the bedroom immediately she was quite upset kyle arrived and she left with him the next morning now march 25 brooke was back in the house packing a few more items when randy woke up she was getting ready to go with kyle to breakfast and invited randy but he declined randy claimed that he went back to bed right after brook left the house randy claimed that he remembered a gift that he wanted to give her to take to her boyfriend in buffalo he texted her and indicated that he wanted her to return to the house before she left so she could retrieve this gift the gift was a t-shirt on the t-shirt was a memorial to a friend of theirs who was killed after becoming intoxicated and walking in front of a car i think this pretty much sums up the lifestyle that randy was living alcohol was such a hero to him that it was a badge of honor if somebody died from being intoxicated brooke arrived back at the house at 8 35 a.m randy claimed that after brooke came into the house she entered his bedroom he directed her to the location of the t-shirt and a dresser drawer she retrieved it they hugged goodbye and then he returned to bed he claims his next memory is waking up with his hunting knife in his hand standing over brook's dead body in the hallway brooke had been stabbed 25 times and her throat had been cut there was blood all over the house randy had injuries on his arms hands and chest consistent with perpetrating a knife attack against a victim who was actively defending themselves neighbors had heard screams coming from the house at 8 49 a.m but they didn't bother calling the police randy exited the house at 8 57 a.m after retrieving the keys to brooke's car he drove her car to a nearby park as he called 911 and admitted that he was responsible for the homicide randy was taken into custody and charged with murder he pretended that he didn't know what happened again he just woke up holding this knife he has stayed with this story since the murder randy didn't have enough money for an attorney so he was assigned a public defender they had no idea how they were going to defend randy according to randy's mother she his sister and randy all had episodes of sleepwalking in their history one time he walked from his bedroom to the kitchen and opened some cabinets on another occasion he rode his bicycle down the street to a bar where his mother worked he didn't say anything he just turned around and rode his bicycle home sleepwalking is a very unlikely explanation for murder but it's really all randy hat as far as defense randy was offered 50 years in prison for pleading guilty to first-degree murder but he insisted on pleading not guilty by reason of insanity and going to trial if he had taken that deal and earned the maximum amount of time for good behavior he would have been out in his mid to late 60s in may of 2019 randy was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole now moving to my analysis the theory of the defense in this case is that randy was sleepwalking if this defense was not true then he committed some type of murder premeditated murder in the he of the moment murder but murder either way there was no other explanation he was the only other person in the house with brooke and he admitted that he killed her this brings us to the question was randy herman guilty let's take a look at the factors both for and against the idea that randy herman was guilty starting with the inculpatory evidence randy admitted that he killed brook preston this item makes it pretty easy to believe he's guilty the murder weapon was a hunting knife that he kept on his bed his fingerprints were found on the knife randy had a history of criminality and substance use substance use is associated with impulsivity randy removed all of his clothing and stood in brook's closet the night before the murder she described his behavior as belligerent the timing of the murder was highly suspicious for several months randy lived with brooke and jordan and was never violent then all of a sudden when brooke is going to leave permanently he kills her what's more she was going to live with a love interest so it wasn't just permanent as far as the geography it was permanent as far as her romantic selection randy claimed that the last memory he had before waking up with a knife in his hand was a brook walking out of his bedroom if this was true randy only had about five minutes to get into a state of sleep most associated with sleepwalking the murder of brook preston required a number of complex actions on the part of randy he had to retrieve his hunting knife stab her repeatedly chase her from his bedroom to the living room then drag her body back into the hallway all this time rook was defending herself and screaming randy walked to the sink and attempted to clean up after brooke was dead why would somebody sleepwalking be interested in destroying evidence there is no possible way that somebody sleepwalking could have taken all these complex actions and there is no way they could have remained in that state during all this activity they would have woken up moving to the exculpatory evidence randy had no history of violence and he did have a history of sleepwalking his mother remembered two episodes some of the behavior randy described around the time of the killing was consistent with sleepwalking i don't think this really helped randy as much as his defense would have hoped in the documentary we see the defense presents some research that had 13 criteria that are associated with sleepwalking violence most of which appear to match randy's behavior we see arousal after the onset of sleep an extended period of complex activity the victim was loved by the perpetrator the victim was not recognized immediately following a crime the attack was followed by confusion there was amnesia for the event there was a history of parasomnia sleepwalking as a parasomnia there was no attempt to cover up a crime no apparent motive an extended period of emotional distress after the homicide there was a poor sleep pattern established on the preceding nights no history of violence and no alcohol use this one of course did not match randy's behavior he used alcohol excessively the defense tried to argue that this only meant he was more likely to sleepwalk but the research literature strongly disagrees with that conclusion the problem with these criteria of course is that most of these are just self-report randy claimed he'd love the victim randy claimed he didn't remember the event he claimed he was distressed he claimed he had sleep problems this was his narrative these are not facts that are proven these are just things that he stated when considering all the evidence do i think randy herman was guilty yes i believe he was guilty in reality and guilty beyond a reasonable doubt he was really guilty beyond almost any doubt there's really no question in my mind this case did not involve some type of sleepwalking violence the whole sleepwalking narrative was a desperate and pathetic long shot that was only introduced because randy had no other defense whatsoever the hulu documentary dead asleep left out a lot of details and overplayed the sleepwalking aspect it was one of the worst documentaries i've seen in recent times there was a lot of speculation with no actual understanding of the mental health aspects at work in the case what do i think actually happened in this case what was randy's motive this is a theory just my opinion randy herman had a tough time growing up he was depressed and started using substances at an early age his father was not the best role model with the homicide and all randy developed a friendship with jordan and brooke he was sexually attracted to them but did a good job at hiding it he had low self-esteem and was insecure he didn't consider himself attractive and he was focused on his alcohol use they never noticed the attraction randy was kind of aimless but getting the inheritance from his father and having a chance to move in with jordan and brooke in florida gave him new hope when he was in florida he had difficulty coping with his attraction for brooke specifically he started to misinterpret their living situation as consistent with brook being open to having a relationship with him for example in the trial it was mentioned that the trio used one bathroom it was not unusual that they would see each other in various levels of dress so sometimes they weren't always wearing a lot of clothing this may have meant nothing to jordan and brooke but it could have meant something to randy he was not good at interpreting their behavior maybe he read into it he may have also believed that because they tolerated his undressing behavior that meant there was some level of interest when brooke left to live with her boyfriend randy was upset he coped with the unrequited love by drinking which was a coping mechanism he was familiar with when he heard the brook was coming back for a final goodbye and to get her stuff he saw this as his big chance he was going to clean up his act get off of the alcohol and drugs and make a grand romantic gesture simply remaining sober for two weeks might seem like an unimpressive feat to qualify as such a grand gesture like it wouldn't be a good reason for brooke to select randy but from randy's point of view this was a real achievement by his standards it was amazing and almost impossible on march 24 randy and brooke became intoxicated in this disinhibited state randy made his big move he removes all his clothing and stands in brook's closet which is indicative of his level of dysfunction he thought that this was attractive brooke is understandably disgusted but doesn't pick up on the unrequited love component randy thinks about this rejection as brooke is spending time with their friend kyle he becomes increasingly angry he wakes up and sees brook in the house gathering her belongings and preparing to leave forever he can't stand it but he restrains himself in that moment perhaps at this time he makes one last effort to convince her that they're destined to be together or some other equally creepy proposition when she leaves without acknowledging his love or changing her mind his rage grows out of control he sends her a text message about returning for the t-shirt this was to lure her back to the house when she enters his bedroom he viciously attacks her in that moment all that pent up rage and frustration is released randy could not force brooke to love him but he could stop her from loving anyone else she tries to escape and he chases her down he drags her body back from the living room into the hallway perhaps on his way to the bedroom so he can fulfill some type of fantasy her body is heavier than he thought he becomes exhausted and stops killing somebody with a knife is a lot of work he covers her with a blanket perhaps in an effort to move her body or he just doesn't want to face what he has done he probably planned on putting her body in the trunk of her car and dumping it somewhere but he didn't have the strength to keep moving her body randy is so ashamed of his sexual motive for the murder that he just makes up the story about not remembering anything the sleepwalking defense is an afterthought in the hulu documentary we see the jury does take this case seriously like there were some jurors who thought that maybe randy was not guilty after looking at the evidence they of course concluded he was guilty i think it speaks to the power of this sleepwalking defense what i find interesting here is that if brooke had survived and the trial was about attempted murder and not first degree murder no one would have considered the sleepwalking defense for a second if brooke got on the stand and said yes this is the guy who stabbed me i tried to defend myself it was terrible nobody would have thought for a second that randy was not guilty this sleepwalking defense is really something that's used when the victim cannot speak for themselves it's this one-sided story and it's really developed to try to build some type of sympathy for the offender like they were in some dream state they had no idea what they were doing maybe this was just a parasomnia related accent and not a homicide so i think that's important to keep in mind when looking at this defense if there were two sides of the story there really wouldn't be a defense now moving to my final thoughts after randy went to prison he filed an appeal representing himself he is desperate to escape responsibility for his actions he wants out of prison he is still sticking with the sleepwalking story for the most part but he has also said that the killing occurred due to a combination of depression stress trauma and alcohol use sleepwalking murder may be possible but it's not what happened in this case if randy herman was sleepwalking when he engaged in the complex actions involved with killing brook preston then no one can be certain at any time they're not asleep i might be asleep right now this sleepwalking story strains credulity to such a degree that if it were believed it would challenge the very nature of reality itself those are my thoughts on the case of randy herman jr please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue as always i hope you found my analysis on this topic to be informative thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 147,621

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Id: Ui5uwmLT6VI

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/C-twix]

Murder! He text saying "I may be sleeping when you get here" .. that's him covering his tracks and planting the story before committing murder. He absolutely planned it.