PHILADELPHIA — After Brandon Gardner started going out with new mother Brooke Stringer in the summer of 2019, some of his closest friends noticed a surprising change in him.
“Seeing him in that father role, it overtook me, with him taking that step to be a father to a child that wasn’t even his,” Steven Loper, 27, testified on Wednesday afternoon. “I asked him how he was liking it, and he said, ‘I love it ... I want to mean something to somebody.’”
The two grew up together, playing sports as youngsters and graduating from West Jones together in 2014 and they are now co-workers at the same plumbing company. Loper’s wife Kacie and Stringer have become best friends, too.
“He was kind of glowing,” she said of her first time seeing Gardner with Stringer and Rosalee. “It was a different Brandon. I was excited for him.”
When asked how he acted with the baby, Kacie Loper said, “He was always holding her, playing with her ... he picked it up quick, like it was a natural thing.”
Gardner and Stringer are charged with capital murder in the Oct. 28, 2019 death of 6-month-old Rosalee. Steven and Kacie Loper and his father Dustin Loper testified to seeing them all together at a cookout a couple of weeks before the baby’s fatal head injury.
Brandon Gardner
Dustin Loper, 44, of Sharon recalled having a serious conversation with Gardner after learning that he was dating Stringer. Both are longtime family friends of his.
“I said, ‘She’s a single mom of a baby, so she’s not one to play games with,’” he testified under questioning by Gardner’s attorney Chris Collins. “(Gardner) looked me in the eye and said, ‘I know it’s a package deal.’”
The older Loper also recalled visiting with his longtime friend Robert Stringer — Brooke’s father — back when Stringer was still suspicious that Gardner may have had a hand in his granddaughter’s death.
“I went to check on him,” Loper said. “I told him I’d known Brandon Gardner since he was 5 years old, and I said, ‘That boy didn’t hurt that baby.’”
Gardner is “like a brother to me,” Steven Loper said, and Gardner was best man in his wedding.
“He keeps his cool,” he said of Gardner. “It takes a lot for him to get overheated.”
The son Gardner and Stringer had together is best friends with the Lopers’ son, and they all see each other regularly. Gardner’s attorney Marcus Evans asked what they’re like together.
“You see amazing parents,” Loper said. “I wish I could be as patient as he is. I wish I had a mother as good as Brooke.”
The Lopers said they’ve never witnessed any concerning behavior from Gardner or Stringer, and said their young son spends the night with them regularly ... “and I don’t trust many people with my children,” Kacie Loper added.
Prosecutors Kristen Martin and Katie Sumrall asked each of them how Rosalee was acting when they saw her at the cookout — which was a little more than a week after a daycare injury left a bruise on her cheek. Steven Loper described her as “happy-go-lucky,” and the others had similar statements. They also asked each of them if they were at Gardner’s house on the night of Oct. 26, 2019, when Rosalee had to be rushed to SCRMC with what was a fatal head injury. All said they weren’t.
Jordan Allred, 27, also graduated with Gardner and had him as his best man. Gardner was “really upset” about Rosalee and “crazy rumors started getting to him,” Allred said. So he went with Gardner to his Gitano house to get some of his stuff so he could stay with his grandmother who raised him in Soso.
“He was getting death threats on Facebook,” Allred said. “I cut it off so he couldn’t see it.”
Gardner’s grandmother Chris “Nannie” Jones, 77, also testified about raising Gardner most of his life and seeing him take care of Rosalee.
“He was always carrying her, changing her diaper, like a father,” she said.
When Evans asked if he ever got impatient, she said, “No, he was affectionate, loving, and everywhere he went, he carried her.”
When Rosalee died, Gardner “couldn’t talk about her for crying,” she said.
Jones said Gardner lives with her now and she sees the young couple with their son “almost every day.”
Evans asked about their relationship with their son.
“They’re great parents,” she said. “They’re so frightened something is going to happen to him.”
Gardner’s expert witness Dr. Peter Dehnel, a pediatrician from Minnesota, was expected to testify on his behalf Thursday morning. Stringer’s attorney Tangi Carter told the judge her defense team may have one more witness. It is not known if Gardner will take the witness stand, but people familiar with legal proceedings say “he almost has to” since co-defendant Brooke Stringer did.
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