Brendan Kirby
Investigative Reporter
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Brendan Kirby is a 25-year veteran journalist who previously has worked for newspapers, including the Mobile Press-Register and AL.com.
For three years, he also covered politics for a national news website.
A graduate of American University in Washington, D.C., he lives in Daphne with his wife and two children.
Brendan has lived on the Gulf Coast since 2000 and is excited about covering the region again.
Brendan’s interests include traveling, sports and history. He is the author of the 2015 book “Wicked Mobile,” which chronicles the villains and notorious events of the Port City’s 300-year-old history. A native Philadelphian, he is a devoted fan of its professional sports teams.
Updated: May. 31, 2023 at 9:47 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby and Gray News staff
The punishment delivered to Jeffery Sikes on Tuesday is twice the prison term recommended under advisory guidelines.
Updated: May. 25, 2023 at 10:17 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Federal prosecutors in Mobile are seeking millions of dollars in restitution and prison time and for defendants they consider most culpable for a string of Walmart arsons two years ago.
Updated: May. 2, 2023 at 5:42 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Cruises are coming back to Mobile, Avelo Airlines will start flying out of downtown later this month and Amtrak plans to restore passenger train service this fall. All the while, area hotels are benefiting from marketing paid for by a fee charged to guests.
Updated: Mar. 21, 2023 at 11:07 AM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A jury on Tuesday found a former Mobile neurosurgeon guilty of reckless murder in the death of a passenger during an August 2020 high-speed car wreck.
Updated: Mar. 6, 2023 at 11:38 AM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile County judge on Monday reluctantly granted a prosecution request to dismiss a robbery charge in a case where two witnesses have been murdered and the alleged victim has skipped town.
Updated: Jan. 30, 2023 at 5:27 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Meeting in the Port City, the mayors of Alabama’s 10 most populous cities took a cruise near the Port of Mobile and discussed issues of mutual interest.
Updated: Jan. 9, 2023 at 4:37 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile man accused of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend’s brother and engaging in a shootout with police admitted to shooting the man but told police the victim was grabbing at him, an investigator testified Monday.
Updated: Jan. 5, 2023 at 6:10 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Two guns that police say were used in a New Year’s Eve massing shooting downtown are illegal under federal law, but not state law. Mobile officials vow to change that.
Updated: Jan. 3, 2023 at 4:11 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Two Georgia men charged with felonies under a new law cracking down on catalytic converter thefts accepted a plea bargain on Tuesday, each admitting a misdemeanor charge.
Updated: Dec. 7, 2022 at 5:53 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile County jury convicted a man of injuring his uncle and fatally stabbing another man in Trinity Gardens, but prosecutors say they still are at a loss for why he did it.
Updated: Dec. 2, 2022 at 6:38 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Mobile police investigating complaints of a scam traced payments to an address on Basil Street in 2018 and charged a woman who lived there with financial exploitation of an elderly person. A judge found probable cause to send the charge to a grand jury, but then the case stalled. In the four years since, there has been no indictment. Now, she is facing charges again.
Updated: Dec. 1, 2022 at 6:33 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Months after a missing 14-year-old girl from Mobile turned up at a Mississippi motel and then died at a hospital, investigators still cannot determine how she died.
Updated: Nov. 28, 2022 at 4:35 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A federal judge on Monday sentenced a Mississippi man to 21 months in prison for faking his own death, but it will not affect his overall punishment.
Updated: Nov. 22, 2022 at 7:30 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Foley-area man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal gun charge, admitting that he illegally sold a gun without a federal firearms license.
Updated: Nov. 22, 2022 at 2:25 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile County prosecutor on Tuesday said Zachery Hannah would be a prime candidate for a no-bail order under a constitutional amendment approved by voters this month. Just one problem – Aniah’s Law has not yet officially taken effect.
Updated: Nov. 10, 2022 at 5:52 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile man accused of threatening to “put a bullet” in President Joe Biden’s head is not competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Updated: Oct. 25, 2022 at 4:21 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The alleged mastermind of a string of fires at Walmart locations along the Gulf Coast pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge.
Updated: Oct. 24, 2022 at 1:13 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A fatal shooting in Mobile over the weekend resulted from a dispute between a father and his adult son and culminated with a gunshot to the back of the victim’s head as he was running away, a prosecutor said Monday.
Updated: Oct. 6, 2022 at 2:03 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Mobile County prosecutors said Thursday they believe a 13-year-old shooting victim was asleep in his bedroom when the mother fired her gun.
Updated: Sep. 28, 2022 at 4:37 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Reginald Thadeous Blevins walked into court in handcuffs and stood passively as a judge pronounced the only sentence he could for a 2020 robbery and shooting of a convenience store clerk – life in prison.
Updated: Sep. 22, 2022 at 4:01 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The alleged mastermind of a string of fires at Walmart stores along the Gulf Coast fled Nebraska just before he was to be sentenced on a wire fraud conviction, according to court records.
Updated: Sep. 19, 2022 at 7:13 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The triggerman in a 2015 murder-for-hire plot in Mobile is back in jail.
Updated: Aug. 30, 2022 at 1:43 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby and Andrew McMunn
The children were rushed to the hospital but died from smoke inhalation and related burns.
Updated: Aug. 29, 2022 at 6:29 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A jury on Monday took 24 minutes to convict a man of first-degree robbery and second-degree assault stemming from a holdup of a convenience store in 2020.
Updated: Aug. 22, 2022 at 12:06 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A man accused in a 15-year-old cold case home invasion killing has been indicted.
Updated: Aug. 22, 2022 at 11:17 AM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby and Lacey Beasley
A Mississippi man pleaded guilty Monday to orchestrating a scheme to fake his own death off the coast of Orange Beach to escape a sexual battery charge.
Updated: Aug. 11, 2022 at 6:08 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Two murders. Two child victims. Two different sets of charges. The approach by the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office to killings that occurred a day apart in May have drawn attention to the discretion prosecutors exercise in determining whether or not to bring capital murder charges.
Updated: Aug. 10, 2022 at 5:34 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Another defendant pleaded guilty Wednesday to fraudulently obtaining money under the Paycheck Protection Program, adding to the growing list of cases in the federal court here.
Updated: Aug. 8, 2022 at 3:31 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A man convicted of hog-tying and suffocating his mother to death and then burying the body in Baldwin County will go to prison for the rest of his life, a judge ruled Monday.
Updated: Aug. 3, 2022 at 4:21 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A federal judge has ordered a woman who admitted to defrauding the Paycheck Protection Program to surrender more than $41,000, equal to the amount of money that the government paid her as a result of her fraudulent scheme.
Updated: Jul. 28, 2022 at 2:27 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The family of a teenager who died in a collision with a former Chickasaw police officer has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit.
Updated: Jul. 20, 2022 at 5:55 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A judge on Wednesday set a high bail for William Devon Anderson Jr., the fourth man to be charged with murdering an 11-year-old boy in his home.
Updated: Jul. 20, 2022 at 11:41 AM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile man has been charged with threatening to kill President Joe Biden.
Updated: Jul. 19, 2022 at 5:32 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The reputed mastermind of a plot to burn down Walmart stores along the Gulf Coast admitted during an interrogation by the FBI to lying to his alleged accomplices and warned investigators that his arrest would not stop his “mission.”.
Updated: Jun. 13, 2022 at 10:53 AM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Two mean caught during a traffic stop in Mobile County with fake identification cards and forged payroll checks will not have to serve any more time behind bars, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Updated: Mar. 31, 2022 at 6:03 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby and Jordan Gartner
A 13-year-old girl has died in a Mississippi-area hospital after being a reported runaway from Alabama earlier this month.
Updated: Mar. 18, 2022 at 6:04 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
There was no warning for a powerful storm that descended on the Big Oak Mobile Home Park on Friday, injuring six and destroying several homes. Escambia County Sheriff Heath Jackson said ambulances rushed five people to the hospital, including two who had to be transferred to Mobile with critical injuries. Another resident took himself to the hospital, according to the sheriff.
Updated: Mar. 17, 2022 at 6:59 AM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Officials are investigating after school buses at McDavid-Jones Elementary School on U.S. 45 in Citronelle were burned.
Updated: Mar. 11, 2022 at 6:47 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A string of four shootings hit Mobile in a little more than 13 hours Thursday and Friday, claiming a life of one victim and injuring five others.
Updated: Mar. 3, 2022 at 6:53 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A federal magistrate judge on Thursday granted a request by prosecutors to detain two men charged with a conspiracy to set Walmart stores on fire.
Updated: Feb. 3, 2022 at 10:19 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A proposal to ban handling cell phones in cars failed by a single vote last year in the Alabama House of Representatives.
Updated: Jun. 16, 2021 at 12:38 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A Choctaw County man accused of falsely claiming to be a Purple Heart recipient and engaging in a multi-layered fraudulent scheme that prosecutors allege cost the government nearly $1 million pleaded guilty to federal charges Wednesday.