Bringing Brando home
After son’s slaying, woman has custody of her grandson
PAULS VALLEY — On the day that Cyndi Wear was notified of the death of her son, Brandon “Brando” Duran, she did a curious thing. She opened her Bible to the sixth chapter of Ephesians and began in her mind putting on the whole armor of God.
The details of the Aug. 7, 2012, slaying near Elmore City were so shocking they escaped Wear and still have. All she could comprehend was that her former daughterin-law, Amber Andrews, had taken away her 32-year-old son, and in the process had taken away her 5-year-old grandson, also named Brando. All she felt she had left was her faith.
Fast-forward to her 15th trip to Oklahoma
last month from her home in San Diego. Her Bible is now so tattered, so filled with court minutes and gag orders that the spine gave way and has to be held together with rubber bands.
Her testimony against Andrews in Garvin County was the same as it had been in the trial of Justin Hammer, the first person charged in her son’s death; before a multicounty grand jury and during countless DHS hearings in Lincoln County concerning little Brando.
After her testimony she was allowed to observe the rest of the trial, but elected not to. She put big Brando’s bandanna in her hair, pulled on the screen printed T-shirt sporting his smiling face and his leather jacket and belt and clutched her Bible, already turned to Ephesians 6:10.
She let the jury see her each morning as a reminder, then walked downstairs to pass the time. Sometimes she visited a nearby Catholic church to pray the rosary.
Wear’s first trip here was insightful. Hammer was in custody, charged with murder, but his girlfriend, Andrews, was free as a bird.
Wear received her son back in 26 pieces, his body torn apart by a reciprocating saw. His motorcycle was in a similar state.
Her grandson was in DHS custody, staying in a foster home. He was a resident of California, but Lincoln County DHS officials claimed the case as their own since his mother, who did not have legal custody, lived near Meeker, where the boy was found after his father’s death.
Custody battle begins
Six months after the killing, Wear finally had her grandson back in California, but the DHS case remained open. He was ordered back to Lincoln County for visitation with Andrews on the anniversary of the homicide.
Within weeks, Wear and her family were mired in a custody battle. Complicating matters was the existence of a second child born to Andrews thought to be the offspring of either Hammer, as claimed, or possibly of Duran from a tryst filmed hours before Andrews drove him to his death. The video was part of the evidence in a growing case against her.
Without pending charges, however, DHS pressed on with its normal procedures. In February 2014, documents show, Wear was ordered back with the boy for more hearings. She was told to allow Brando to videoconference with Andrews three times a week.
Wear’s ire at Lincoln County DHS came to a fever pitch, she said, when in June of 2014 she was ordered to bring Brando to be turned over at Will Rogers World Airport for a kinship placement with an aunt.
“It was despicable,” Wear said. “We were clinging to each other as if we were political prisoners being torn apart.”
Wear claims she was approached by a DHS official on the arrival ramp, followed by uniformed and plainclothes officers who made them say their goodbyes and whisked Brando away through a back corridor to avoid journalists waiting on the main floor. She complained to a man she thought was a ranking officer, telling him: “You have no idea who you’ve turned my grandson over to.”
That same summer, she returned to testify in Hammer’s trial, during which he did his best to shield Andrews from culpability. He stuck to his claim that they were still a couple and that her second child was his.
It turns out it wasn’t, nor was the child Duran’s, tests showed.
Despite the forensic evidence that showed Duran was hit in the head by four shots from two different guns, from opposite directions, Hammer claimed to have shot Duran after he kicked in his door. He said Duran was a member of the Bandidos MC, an outlaw biker gang.
Prosecutors denied that Hammer stood in his living room with a shotgun and a revolver defending Andrews, and played videotape of him the day before the killing, buying materials for the body disposal from a list written by Andrews that was found in his gun safe.
After finding Hammer guilty, jurors told Wear and the prosecutors they hoped Andrews would be charged next.
Andrews formally filed for full custody soon after the verdict.
Wear and her family returned in the fall for formal sentencing, relaying their impact statements to the stone-faced Hammer, pleading with him to realize he had been played the fool just as Duran had been. Hammer was sentenced to life without parole.
DHS refused to budge on Andrews’ custody rights, more or less admonishing the 21st Judicial District to arrest Andrews or let them give the boy back to his mother.
Building a case
Former Assistant District Attorney Tara Portillo had seen the evidence, understood the sheer brutality of it. She had a son about Brando’s age. She and assistant district attorneys Jennifer Austin and Christy Miller worked to build a case against Andrews.
Portillo and Austin took their evidence to the multicounty grand jury. Wear testified about the beginning of Duran and Andrews’ life together. Andrews was pregnant when they were married and gave birth a few months later.
Wear testified that after her grandson was born, Duran was forced to make the hardest decision of his life, to divorce Andrews and leave behind her deteriorating lifestyle in the best interests of his child.
Duran lived with his son in California and taught him about snowboarding, motorcycles, music and his Catholic heritage, Wear said. The one chink in his armor was his wish for his family back. He yearned for Amber, his mother said.
Back in Oklahoma, prosecutors alleged, Andrews wanted custody of her son and was plotting to exploit that chink. She lured her ex-husband here under the guise of reconciliation and he was shot to death in a pasture. The pieces of his body were cemented in buckets and dropped to the bottom of a murky stock pond, grand jurors were told. They handed down an indictment in 15 minutes.
Andrews was arrested in April 2015 and taken to the Garvin County jail. Brando was allowed to return to California with Wear as his legal guardian.
Wear was threatened with prosecution for using Brando’s name in media interviews. But she was already coordinating with lawmakers, she said, researching legislation that might someday become Brando’s Law and enhance grandparent rights in custody cases.
Andrews was convicted April 27 of first-degree murder and given life without parole and 17 extra years. Austin, who saw the case to its end, closed her file in front of the jury and told them, “Amber Andrews deserves to die in prison.”
Wear and her family will return next month to give another impact statement. She says she will also return from time to time just to visit. In the five years since her son was murdered and butchered, she said, she has met people who will become lifelong friends. She expressed gratitude for the jurors, who she said must now live with the nightmares from the exhibits they were shown.
But for now, her heart is with Brando. She and her relatives clustered around him after the trial, telling him the truth about the verdict and what it means for his mother. The guttural anguish of a 10-yearold was a chilling sound. But as quickly as it came, it was gone.
Wear said she is starting over now with a clean slate, with years left to work to build the boy into a man, outfitting him piece by piece with the whole armor of God.