Man Convicted Of Quadruple Murder Nine Years After Girlfriend, Her Three Kids Found Dead

A single mother and her three young children were found brutally slain in their Florida home, and it would take nearly a decade before their killer was brought to justice.

On Nov. 20, 2010, police in Tallahassee responded to the residence of 27-year-old Brandi Peters after a neighbor requested a wellbeing check on the family.

Inside the home, officers discovered Peters fatally shot and the bodies of her son, JaVonte, 3, and 6-year-old twin daughters, Tamiyah and Taniyah, submerged in a partially filled bathtub. Investigators determined Tamiya, like her mother, was fatally shot, while the other two young victims had been drowned.

Authorities identified Peters’ boyfriend, Henry Segura, as a suspect in the case, and police arrested him in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, 10 months after the slayings, according to WTXL.

In the summer of 2017, Segura was tried for the quadruple murder, but a judge declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked.

At a second trial over two years later, Segura took the stand and testified in his own defense.

WCTV reported that Segura admitted that while he lied to the police about being at the victims’ home the night they died, he claimed he had a reason: his marriage.

"When it pertains to me cheating on my wife, yes, I lied to [police] because I didn't want her to find out I was over there," said Segura, who claimed he first heard the news about the murders from his hairstylist.

"I have no reason whatsoever to kill my son, or those twins, neither Brandi," Segura, who was JaVonte’s biological father, insisted in court.

Prosecutors countered Segura’s motive for murdering his extramarital girlfriend and the children was because he was in a rage about the over $20,000 in child support he owed for Javante and he was facing possible jail time if he didn’t pay up.

Segura’s former cellmate took the stand and alleged the defendant confessed to the crime, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

“He told me he killed his baby’s mom because him and her were going through some child support issues and he was upset,” Kelsey Kinard testified. “He killed her and the kids and everybody.”

Segura’s defense team, meanwhile, presented a witness that potentially could have derailed the prosecution’s case. Imprisoned Mexican drug cartel member James Carlos Santos came forward and said he ordered a hit on Peters because she had stolen $90,000 worth of drugs and cash while working as a drug mule, The Washington Post reported.

The theory, according to the outlet, was bolstered when DNA evidence collected from Peters’ bedroom was determined to be a possible match with a known Colombian cocaine trafficker, Angel Avila-Quinones.

Avila-Quinones denied allegations he had anything to do with Peters’ murder, and her family dismissed claims the mother was ever involved in drug running.

Prosecutors countered in court that cartel member Santos, who was allegedly diagnosed with schizophrenia, previously tried to take credit for other murders but his claims were never proven, according to The Washington Post.

On Nov. 20, 2019 — nine years to the day Peters and her children lost their lives — Segura was found convicted of their murders.

“We always felt Mr. Segura was guilty of the charges,” prosecutor Jon Fuchs said of the verdict. “We were not about to drop the charges and so we persevered on and ended up where we did today.”

“There is no one else that it makes sense committed this crime,” Fuchs noted. “No one else has that motive and has a .32 revolver and was there on the day at the time. At some point, one plus one plus one equals three.”

Segura, 43, is currently serving life sentences in a Florida prison.

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