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Hey everyone, it's Kendall Ray. I just wanted to jump in here with an editor's note. This is actually an older archive episode, so the production quality is going to sound a bit different from my newer episodes. And since this is an older recording, it's possible that certain updates may not be included. Now, on to the episode.
Hello everyone and welcome back to my channel and welcome to another video where I am including family members in it to help tell their loved ones stories. This is now the fourth video I've done including family members in it and I think it's so so important to share their story right out of their mouth. I mean these people deserve a voice and I know that it's not always the best
quality. You know, not all of them are YouTubers and have a whole camera set up like I do. And I know some of you guys like me to tell the whole story, but I do think it is very important that these people get a place to tell their stories. And so I do want to continue making content like this in the future. So today I'm going to be telling you the story of a man named DJ who sadly lost his life.
And I'm going to tell you all the details and everything, but I specifically wanted to take this case on because I think there's a lot of sketchiness and a lot of unfairness in this case. And I think a lot of that is targeted at DJ because of his lifestyle, and I'll explain more of that. But I want to make it clear that I think that everyone, no matter what they were involved in or what they did during their life, they should have justice if they were murdered.
Absolutely. I mean, doesn't that seem like a God given right that you should have justice if you are killed, no matter how you got into that situation? Well, I think there's a lot of judgment in this story I'm about to tell you today. And there's reasons that is preventing this family for getting justice for their brother, D.J.
So let me go ahead and get into the story and explain everything to you guys. You will also be seeing clips in this video from DJ's sister Amanda and his wife Brandy. So Donald Fickey Jr. was born on November 14th of 1988. He was a 27 year old father of three who was currently living in Georgia and he was described as someone who would light up the room.
He was actually a member of the Oakwood Baptist Church and he also was an avid University of Tennessee fan. Growing up DJ was really close to his father until he sadly passed away when DJ was only 14 years old and this really had an impact on him in his life. It is said that DJ never fully got over his father's death. It left such a mark on him from that point going forward. Hi everybody, my name is Amanda Shirley. I am DJ Fikki's sister and
The main advocate for him since he was killed. Well, DJ was the boy the only boy of three girls him and myself were the two middle children we had a
Special connection, I guess because of that we were very close through our whole life I remember him aggravating the crap out of us all the time Anytime we would have friends over or anything like that. DJ would want to be stuck right under our butts followed us around You know, he wanted to be in the middle of everything. We didn't want him around but we came to accept him
Because he was our brother, but he was an average kid He loved Barney as a little boy as he got older he got into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers was one of his big things. Spooled, if I didn't say that he was Spooled. His daddy was his world and his he was his dad's world They had each other wrapped around their little fingers. He never met a stranger
DJ could walk up to anybody just anywhere and strike up a conversation with them and they would talk to him like they had knew him his whole life. He never met a stranger. He was just, people were lured to him. You could go into a room and DJ would be the one that got your attention. He was the one out there making everybody laugh, getting, you know, telling the jokes, telling the stories, getting everyone's interest.
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So DJ eventually ended up marrying a woman named Brandy in 2014. Hi, my name is Brandy Heath and I'm DJ Picky's wife. We went to school.
It's pretty much history after school. We kept crossing each other's paths and eventually we just stayed together and then we had kids and we got married. And things were going pretty good at first, but it wasn't long before they both started experiencing issues and challenges when it comes to substance abuse. And that is the main reason that I don't
think DJ has been treated fairly by the law in his case and why a lot of people have judged his case overall because of his use of drugs. And as someone who has, I mean, many people in my family who are addicts, I understand what it's like to love an addict, to have an addict in your family. And it's a disease like any other, and they deserve justice like anyone else would.
But both of them being addicts and trying to get through that part of their life while also being parents was really difficult. And DJ's mother did have to step in quite a bit to take care of their three children. I know a lot of people have had family members or even their self that have had drug problems or been addicted to something. I myself am addicted to sweet tea and I smoke, so that is an addiction.
I don't feel like people should be judged for addiction on drugs because of the fact that everyone is addicted to something. I still to this day say that DJ didn't have a big drug problem because DJ could come home and stay for months at a time and never use the first drug ever. It was like how some people are social drinkers.
DJ was a social drug user. He would get around the wrong people and if they were using drugs, DJ would use them. His drug problem didn't get bad until he met up with his wife, Brandy. She was also a struggling drug addict, so two drug addicts together
It didn't really work out very well. - But eventually DJ decided that he did want to go to rehab and try to get his life back on track. And rehab ended up being a great experience for DJ. He really benefited from it. It really encouraged him to turn his life around and inspired him to be the best version of himself.
He even started training to be a professional fighter and that became a real passion of his and a way that he could distract himself from the drugs. So while DJ was trying to become clean and get his life on the right track again, he was still having issues because Brandy was still having issues with substance abuse. Brandy at the time was struggling with addiction and she often would leave him and the kids to go to a man who supplied her drugs.
And DJ's family ended up referring to this man as the roommate. Uh, we met the roommate through, uh, DJ's friend. And he's just a mutual friend of DJ's friend. He was actually, um, a friend of the property owner of where the incident happened. Now this took a big toll on DJ and Brandy's relationship. Actually. They, they loved each other very much. They, they were in love. Um,
But like I said, Brandy had a drug addiction too. She had a drug problem. And when one would want to get clean, the other one didn't. When the other one wanted to get clean, the other one didn't. So it was kind of a clash. They just clashed together. When they would be coming off the drugs, they would argue, have little spats back and forth.
and they would end up taking off. One would end up leaving. Of course, DJ would be right behind her wherever she went, begging her to come back home, begging her to come back. It was a routine with them. We knew what to expect, but they did love each other.
I just believe that the drugs cause a lot of problems in their life and their relationship. They love their kids. They love their kids with all their heart. They had three babies. They had a little boy when DJ got killed. They had a little boy, Jack, who was three. They had a set of identical twin girls who was a little over a year old when DJ got killed. They love their kids.
And their kids loved them. Eventually Brandy and the roommate started having an affair. And not only that, they didn't get along in the first place. DJ and this roommate guy who we will refer to in this video the whole time as the roommate to protect his identity. But they had a lot of tension between them already. So having this affair on top of things did not make for a good situation.
But DJ was a very loyal person and he still wanted to be committed to his wife and see if they could make things work. So DJ would actually go visit Brandy when she was staying with the roommate and try to make things work with her. And sometimes when he was there, oftentimes actually, this guy would become violent with DJ.
DJ. One time when DJ was there in particular, apparently the roommate got really mad about something. They got into some confrontation and the roommate ended up holding a knife up to DJ's neck. DJ was getting out of the shower and when he got out, the dude was standing there holding the knife to his throat. Another time, he apparently tried to beat him with a golf club and DJ tried to fight back with a bat.
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DJ and Brandy had actually gotten back together a couple of days before he was killed. So he was on cloud nine. He was happy as he could be. He called and checked in and talked to the kids every few days. And a couple of days before he got killed, he had actually called and talked to my mom and talked to his little boy. And his little boy told him he wanted a choo-choo train for Christmas. Well, DJ made sure to tell my mom that he wanted a choo-choo train for Christmas.
not to get that choo-choo train for Jack, that he wanted to be the one that got that for him. So he was making plans for his future. We were a real close-knit family. We always did everything together, you know, for big family dinners, road trips, vacations, just spent the days together. You know, Sunday, we'd have a big dinner and spend the day together. Me and DJ was good. We was together. We'd been staying there, and there had been some things that had happened up
before the incident and I had felt it in my gut that something was going to happen. I just didn't know what. And you know, things were fairly normal, but then things got really bad. It took a major turn for the worst on October 3rd of 2016. They were all staying in this house that they referred to as being owned by the old man. But it was kind of just like this group house that like anyone would be in at any given time. It was kind of like, you know,
Whoever was there was there. That day there were several people there and apparently him and the roommate were fighting so much and it was getting so violent that DJ ended up reaching out to his mom. About how far away my mom lived when this, you know, the day that it happened when DJ was texting her, begging for a ride. And my mom herself has so many regrets and I try to explain it to her that she wouldn't have made it even if she had left as soon as DJ sent the first text.
DJ was killed in Georgia, obviously, as most of y'all know. We live in Alabama, myself and my mom, which is about 45 minutes to an hour away from where DJ was at. So, like I said, if my mom had left the time DJ first text her, she wouldn't have made it in time. She would have actually probably walked into a very bad situation.
At the time DJ was texting her, about two weeks prior to this, my mom found out from her doctor that she had a bad heart and he had scheduled her for surgery to have a pacemaker put in. The doctor also recommended that she stayed away from stressful situations, stayed away from stress period, that she needed to take it easy. And with DJ and Brandy around,
Staying away from stress was pretty hard to do. As you look at these text messages, you can tell there was a major sense of urgency. And I'm sure his mom looking back, you know, feels all types of things, but it's very hard when you're in a relationship with an addict to know when they really need you and when they don't or
when they're going to actually stay around or if they're going to, you know, stick true to their promises. It's, it's a hard thing. And so I really have compassion for his mom and understand that she didn't want to leave the house. She mentioned that she was sick and that she didn't want to come get him because of that. But he was, he was worried for his life. Clearly you can see in these messages that he was very concerned that
the roommate was going to actually hurt him. You can definitely see the fear. And what's crazy is that within three minutes of him sending that last text message, the roommate dialed 911 and reported that DJ had shot himself in the face with a shotgun.
Investigators noted in their reports that the caller changed his story multiple times and failed a polygraph test.
According to those reports, he said he was in another room at the time of the shooting. He later told detectives he was wrestling DJ for the gun when it fired. Ambulance rushed there, but there was nothing they could do. He had a horrible gunshot wound to the face. What do I remember about that day? What was it like for me? That's a hard question.
I've answered it numerous times and every time I answer it, it's just as hard as the first time because it brings back memories and flashbacks. And I'll never forget it. I remember it just like it was yesterday. It was the worst day of my life and I think it will be the worst day of my life for the rest of my life. I'm still to this day in shock and don't want to believe that it's real. I remember my mom calling me and telling me that DJ was dead and I hit the floor and I like I said, I was in shock.
i just kept telling myself no over and over again um i woke my husband up and screamed to him and told him that dj was dead and i was just shaking uncontrollably um but i knew i knew as soon as my mom told me he was dead what happened and who did it suicide never crossed my mind never because i knew dj wouldn't have never come
committed suicide. Now, DJ was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for a limited autopsy with the information that this was a self-inflicted suicide by gunshot, along with a bunch of other false information. For example, the coroner also told the GBI that the gun was removed from DJ's hand by the first responding officer, which is not true.
So once DJ's body arrived, the medical examiner automatically ruled it a suicide. Now, along with DJ and the roommate, there were two other people in the room at the time to witness this crime. One of them was a friend of the roommate. He said that he heard the roommate and DJ fighting in the living room and that he went in there to break it up. He says that he saw the roommate come out of a room on the left side of DJ point a gun at him.
and then the gun suddenly went off. I remember coming out of the bathroom and as soon as I seen DJ sitting on the couch texting his mom, the roommate came out from behind him and cussed him and shot him. After the incident, I ran towards the roommate in shock. Then I ran outside the house, but I realized that I had left DJ sitting in there. So I went back to him and
held his hand and hoping he would pull through. - Who would get a giant shotgun and shoot themselves in the face in the middle of a fight with someone else? It's just weird. DJ's family says that there were no signs that he wanted to commit suicide. Not to mention the fact that he was
wildly texting her, clearly worried for his life right up until he died. DJ was right-handed, yet he was shot on the left side of his face, left to right in a downward angle. I mean, do you guys know how hard it would be to shoot yourself with a giant shotgun like that on the left side of your face when your right hand dominated?
And also it's important to note that the bullet was at a different angle than it normally is in suicide shots. There was a bottle of bleach on the patio table right outside the front door. Not to mention the shotgun that was used to kill DJ
didn't belong to DJ. It was the roommate's gun. Not only that, the police never did any forensic testing on the gun itself. Hey, everyone. It is Ryan Seacrest here. Ready to heat up your summer vacation? Get ready. Things are about to get sizzling at Chumba Casino. Your summer getting a whole lot hotter with a special daily login bonus waiting just for you. So,
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Welcome to another round of Drawing Board or Miro Board. Today we discuss technical diagramming with systems architect Maya. Let's go. First question. You've spent 10 hours slogging over a sequence diagram that should have taken 5. Drawing Board or Miro Board? Drawing Board.
And if I'm being honest, Miro would probably cut that time down by half. You know, with its AI tools and ready-to-go templates. Next, your diagrams become so bulky, it's more complex than the solar system. But all it takes is a few clicks and... It's Miro. I've used those technical shape packs way too many times. Now, the final question. Everyone's brought in, but you have to make all these tasks...
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Also, when the police first arrived, there was a trash bin that had a white towel with blood all over it in it. Eventually, one of the detectives actually changed the case from suicide to homicide, but the medical examiner and the detective never talked. So it was eventually just ruled a suicide. Family ended up meeting with a private investigator and they ran a toxicology report on him. Medical examiner said that DJ had meth in his system that day
day, whether he was actually using it that day, which his family claims that he wasn't, or it was just in his system. Um, and so he claimed that, you know, he should have been able to defend himself because it's a stimulant, but he also had marijuana in his system, which is a depressant, which, you know, kind of counteracts and the medical examiner never noted that.
And I mean, basically meth doesn't make you invincible. And if you have it in your system, it doesn't mean that you are like high on meth at that exact moment. But the next day, October 4th, 2016, Brandy went ahead and made a statement. She said that the police were wrong and that DJ's death was indeed a murder. She said that she saw the roommate
come out of the room in the back with the gun and shoot DJ. And after this came out, the investigators went ahead and made the roommate do a polygraph test. And he ended up failing the polygraph test. After the polygraph test, the Walker County Sheriff's Office changed the cause of death to a possible homicide. But despite the sheriff making this change, the DA refused to change the medical examiner's ruling that it was a suicide. I just assumed everything that they were doing was protocol.
that that's what they were supposed to be doing. Because of course I had never dealt with an investigation like this before. They lied to us throughout the investigation many, many times. Now, they won't have nothing to do with us. They won't talk to us. They won't return emails.
They're done with this case and they want it to go away. Matter of fact, to this day, I'm still waiting for a return phone call from the sheriff of Walker County or even the coroner of Walker County that was on the scene because I have questions about my brother's death, his murder and
I have yet to get a response or a return phone call. Well, the family of a man who was found dead in Walker County more than a year ago wants some answers. Donald Fickey Jr.'s death was ruled a suicide back in 2016, but family members believe it was a homicide. In a letter to detectives in the case, the district attorney said that physical evidence and other witness statements showed the death was a suicide. Now, Fickey's sister doesn't believe that, and she wants justice for her brother.
I knew from the time my mom called me it wasn't a suicide. We all knew it wasn't a suicide. He was literally texting my mother when he was shot. I think his sister is one of the reasons she will continue to fight for answers is because her brother left her three children behind. So DJ's family clearly wants justice for him. He deserves justice just like anyone else. The family has decided to hire a private investigator. My name is Eric Echols and I'm a private investigator.
I was hired by Amanda Shirley and her family to look to the death of their brother, DJ. Some of the evidence that was identified, there was an eyewitness who stated that the person of interest actually went and got the gun and held it to DJ's head. There was evidence where, a 911 tape, where the 911 operator gave specific instructions for the person of interest to tamper with the crime scene. There was no gun residue test done on DJ's hand.
There's just countless number of mistakes. The coroner did not have all the information needed to solidify or to do her investigation as far as the autopsy was concerned and to rule it a homicide. So again, it was a lot of different things that happened and occurred that led to
of misjustice being done and ruliness of suicide. - DJ's family wants the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to reopen this case. As of right now, they have no intention of doing so. So they need people to tell them how important it is that everyone gets justice. The family has made a petition to be signed and shared. That will be linked below. So please check that out. It only takes a little bit of time and you can be really making a difference in these people's lives.
Also, the family has really struggled financially trying to get justice for DJ. It is not cheap, my friends, to go through this type of fighting. It's not. We have that for costs for our own private investigators, our own private experts, forensic pathologists, court costs.
I mean just everything. You would be so surprised and shocked at how expensive this can be. You're looking at, you could get into a couple of hundred thousand dollars if it had to go that far. Hopefully it don't have to go that far. Every penny's worth it that I spend on DJ's case and I'll continue to do so. It just hurts my family financially when I have to do it. They just looked at it as he was just another drug addict off the street.
You know, no big deal, but that isn't the case whatsoever. DJ was loved. He was loved more than anything in this world. He still is. And I'm not going to give up and accept what they told us because what's right is right, wrong is wrong. And letting someone get away with murder is not right. How can people help? Can letters be written? Yes, most definitely. Send letters to the district attorney of Walker County.
Send letters to the Georgia Attorney General's office. Send letters to the governor. Call them. Email them. Do whatever it takes. Put as much pressure on these people as you can to get them to do the right thing. They're wanting to ignore this and make it go away because they messed this case up and they're not willingly going to admit it. And as long as the pressure's not on them, they're not going to do anything. They'll figure I'll give up and I'll go away and nobody cares and nothing will ever be done. You know, DJ,
just because he had trouble with drugs and he was around the wrong crowd doesn't mean he doesn't deserve justice at the end of the day. You know, he was a father, he was a son, a brother, he was a person and he was living his life. He was trying to get his life back on the right track and who knows what he could have done if he continued on. There is social media accounts as well to follow if you want to stay up to date on DJ's case. I'm so sorry for DJ's family having to deal with this. You know, it's hard enough to lose a loved one
as it is, but then having to fight for them and go through all these obstacles and you know, just a bunch of bullshit, legal bullshit is just so draining and not what they should have to do. I mean, his sister told me she feels like she hasn't even had time to grieve his death because she's been in, you know, fight mode ever since. So it's tough stuff that these people are going through. And I really appreciate all of you guys taking the time to listen and take his story seriously. - There's so many things I miss about DJ.
Everything. I miss everything about DJ. That was my little brother. One of my best friends. And I miss him every day. I'm sorry. What do I want people to remember about DJ and his case? I want them to remember how big of a heart DJ had. How good of a person he was. How he was there for anybody and everybody. He would do anything for you. He would go out of his way to help someone. He was just a wonderful man. And he had so much left.
in this life that he could have done and it was taken away from him way too soon. I want people to see how easy it is to have an injustice and I want people to remember to stand up and fight it. Don't accept it. Do something about it. Don't give up. The last thing I'd like to add is I would like to
Tell everybody that has supported us, helped us, taught us, been there for us financially, emotionally, physically. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It means the world to us. I couldn't honestly continue to fight and get through this without all of y'all's help and support and encouragement.
It's hard, it's a hard battle. And just always, always be there for victims' families and help them any way you can because there is so much, there's not nobody we can turn to. There's not hardly anyone out there that can help us. So we need your help. That's it. Thank you.
That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.
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Welcome to another round of Boardroom or Miro Board. Today we talk retrospectives with Agile coach Maria. Let's go. First question. You've spent two hours in a team retro, but the only input you've heard is Dave's. Boardroom or Miro Board? Boardroom. In Miro, Dave can't hog the space because everyone can add thoughts anonymously, online at the same time. Correct.
Next, you need the team to act on feedback fast. So you turn all those retro notes into Jira tasks. Miro all the way. And I can assign those tasks to teammates. You're nailing this. Now, you see hundreds of sticky notes from the retro. A real mess. But you organize them into five themes in just seconds. Miro, I basically get back an entire hour when I use its AI tools for clustering.
And she's done it. For a limited time, visit miro.com slash retro now for a free business plan trial to unlock advanced retro tools like private mode, voting, and two-way jira syncing. That's miro.com slash retro now. Did you know that most vitamin D3 supplements come from sheep's wool? I'm Kat.
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