Brandon Arnou is a white supremacist and the killer of gay Black standup comedian Ellis Joyner.
Background[]
Arnou was an elementary school teacher who began training at Domhnall Kovac's MMA gym after his divorce. Kodak was actually a white supremacist who eventually indoctrinated Arnou into the beliefs of his gang. Arnou started getting tattoos and wearing the gym's uniforms as a result.
Facade[]
One day, Arnou saw Joyner with his boyfriend Michael Zane on the subway, and at first, he stared at them in racially motivated disapproval as they were both Black. When Zane got up to depart the train, Arnou got in his way and bumped into him; giving a racist tone, he told Zane to "watch himself". Later, Joyner started suffering from an asthma attack and was breathing heavily. Arnou believed that he saw Joyner harassing and attacking Rebecca Lasky on the subway, and he attacked Joyner with a chokehold. Joyner tried to pull out a phone, but both Arnou and Lasky thought he was reaching for a weapon. Arnou knocked the phone from his hand and continued his assault. When Joyner fought back, Arnold kept him in the chokehold for several more minutes than necessary, even after Lasky left. During the fight, Lasky heard Arnou utter something regarding "fighting", "blood", and "dirt", but she was not certain of exactly what he said, as she was scared and was trying to run away. Joyner had tried to record his assault on his phone, but it fell to the floor and only the audio was discernible. After Joyner died, Arnou stole the phone and tried to erase the video. However, he was unable to figure out the phone's password and abandoned the effort.
Arnou was tracked down through his uniform and tattoo, which were caught on camera, and the observation of his injuries from the fight led to his arrest. He said he acted in self-defense, but the Manhattan District Attorney's Office still charged him with second-degree murder. During the trial, ADA Maroun heard Lasky mention what Arnou said in the subway before she escaped, when she was testifying in his defense. She and EADA Price suspected Arnou was saying the phrase "Blood and Soil", which was a neo-Nazi racist slogan. After finding out about Kovac's gym's ties to various white supremacist groups, they called Kovac to the stand in an attempt to show the jury that Arnou was racist and that Kovac taught him his far-right ideologies. Nevertheless, Arnou was acquitted because of the strong doubt cast on Joyner's cause of death and the sequence of events on the subway, along with doubt placed on the veracity of the prosecution's claim that Arnou was racist. (L&O: "Facade")