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: 8 hours ago
|By Brendan Kirby
Prosecutors Monday told jurors that after nearly three weeks of testimony, they delivered what they had promised – proof that former neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla’s excess drinking and speeding caused a fatal car wreck.
Updated: 16 hours ago
|By Brendan Kirby
The reckless murder charge against former Mobile neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla will go to a jury Monday, but it is not the only option jurors have.
Updated: Mar. 17, 2023 at 5:32 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
After three full weeks, testimony now is complete in the reckless murder trial of former Mobile neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla, who is accused of causing a deadly traffic accident.
Updated: Mar. 17, 2023 at 12:53 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The reckless murder trial of a former Mobile neurosurgeon hit a delay Friday amid a dispute over a defense witness.
Updated: Mar. 16, 2023 at 7:11 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A lawyer for a former Mobile neurosurgeon took direct aim Thursday at the prosecution’s contention that excessive speed caused a 2020 traffic accident that resulted in a young woman’s death.
Updated: Mar. 16, 2023 at 1:25 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Former Mobile neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla would not have crashed in 2020 if he had been driving the speed limit, an expert witness testified Thursday.
Updated: Mar. 15, 2023 at 8:28 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A man targeting a pair of rivals engineered separate nightclub shootings, one of which resulted in the death of an innocent man in a case of mistaken identity, Mobile police detectives testified Wednesday.
Updated: Mar. 14, 2023 at 6:42 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The water board soon will lose one of its most outspoken members. Board member John Johnson Jr.’s six-term ends on April 24.
Updated: Mar. 14, 2023 at 5:29 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
With chronic leaks bleeding the water system of previous resources, local leaders increasingly are gravitating toward a radical solution – paying to relocate the remaining residents of Alabama Village.
Updated: Mar. 14, 2023 at 12:10 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Jurors in the reckless murder trial of a former neurosurgeon on Tuesday heard the defendant’s side of the story in his own words. Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla, 38, did not take the witness stand. Instead, jurors watched him on a video recorded by the body camera worn by a Mobile police officer sent to monitor him at Mobile Infirmary hours after an accident that resulted in the death of a passenger on Aug. 1, 2020.
Updated: Mar. 13, 2023 at 2:25 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
A man who was turning into a motel parking lot just before a fatal traffic accident told jurors Monday that he had plenty of clearance and was not close to defendant Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla’s car.
Updated: Mar. 13, 2023 at 1:06 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Prichard Mayor Jimmie Gardner on Monday recommended that residents here boil water and then later backed off it somewhat as state environmental officials indicated the water is safe.
Updated: Mar. 12, 2023 at 9:49 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
Thousands of jobs and millions of dollars. That’s the familiar argument the Poarch Band of Creek Indians has made for several years in support of expanding gambling in the state. On Sunday, the tribe launched a TV ad campaign that differs slightly in form but not in substance.
Updated: Mar. 12, 2023 at 8:17 PM CDT
|By Brendan Kirby
The Prichard water board is set to vote Monday on a proposal to stop providing service to new customers in the Alabama Village area, effective immediately.
Updated: Mar. 10, 2023 at 7:18 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
In an unusual move, the judge presiding over the reckless murder trial of former neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla on Friday ordered TV cameras outside the courtroom turned off during the testimony of one of his acquaintances.
Updated: Mar. 10, 2023 at 12:02 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A judge on Friday denied bail to a pair of men charged with a Mobile nightclub murder – one because he previously was out on bond in a different case and the other under Aniah’s Law.
Updated: Mar. 9, 2023 at 2:42 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine said Thursday he personally believes the officer who fatally shot a man on Tuesday was justified and laid blame squarely at the feet of the man’s brother, who was the target of police officers that morning.
Updated: Mar. 9, 2023 at 10:25 AM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Prichard water system has not defaulted on a $55 million bond issue and is close to catching up on contributions to a repayment fund, the board’s chairman said Thursday.
Updated: Mar. 8, 2023 at 5:51 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The water system serving Prichard and Chickasaw wastes more than half of its water some months, at a cost approaching $3 million a year – with potential risks to public health, according to a report by state environmental regulators.
Updated: Mar. 7, 2023 at 6:08 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Citing a $7 million civil judgment against AltaPointe Health Systems, a Mobile city councilman Tuesday called for the organization’s chief executive officer to be removed.
Updated: Mar. 7, 2023 at 5:33 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A fire early Monday tipped through a house in Prichard's Eight Mile community, claiming the lives of a young mother and two of her children.
Updated: Mar. 7, 2023 at 12:49 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Mobile City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to give $1.5 million to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office to support additional prosecutors in an effort to whittle down a COVID-era case backlog.
Updated: Mar. 6, 2023 at 5:32 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A judge on Monday denied a mistrial request by for a former Mobile neurosurgeon charged with reckless murder.
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: Mar. 3, 2023 at 6:10 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A judge will determine Monday whether to grant a defense request to declare a mistrial in the reckless murder trial of a former Mobile Infirmary neurosurgeon.
Updated: Mar. 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A federal judge in Mobile on Friday sentenced a member of a fraud ring to 10 months in prison – with credit for the nearly two months she previously spent locked up after her arrest.
Updated: Mar. 3, 2023 at 11:30 AM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The judge in the reckless murder trial of a former Mobile neurosurgeon abruptly sent the jury home for the day Friday morning while he sorts out allegations of surveillance video that the defense did not receive until Thursday.
Updated: Mar. 2, 2023 at 6:19 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The judge presiding over a reckless murder trial in Mobile warned the defendant’s father Thursday about violating his rule prohibiting communications with people inside the courtroom.
Updated: Mar. 2, 2023 at 2:58 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A man arrested in Mobile last year after a high-speed chase admitted Thursday that he stole mail was part of a scheme to steal tens of thousands of dollars using forged and counterfeit checks.
Updated: Mar. 2, 2023 at 12:41 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
After a legal fight over admissibility, jurors in a Mobile reckless murder trial on Thursday watched police body camera footage of officers and first responders at the scene of a fatal accident in 2020.
Updated: Mar. 2, 2023 at 12:16 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Lawyers interested in filling a vacancy on the Mobile Cunty Circuit Court bench have until Friday to pick up an application.
Updated: Mar. 1, 2023 at 6:55 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Jurors in former neurosurgeon Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla’s reckless murder trial on Wednesday heard a series of 911 calls that came in after his wrecked off of Interstate 65.
Updated: Mar. 1, 2023 at 2:22 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The reckless murder trial of a former Mobile neurosurgeon started Wednesday with two very different pictures of the defendant.
Updated: Mar. 1, 2023 at 6:08 AM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The trial of Jonathan Pishoi Nakhla, which kicks off Wednesday, will follow a set of rules laid out this week by the judge.
Updated: Feb. 28, 2023 at 6:12 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Mobile County prosecutors and defense lawyers on Tuesday picked a jury for the reckless murder trial of a former neurosurgeon charged with reckless murder in the death of a medical student who died in high-speed wreck in 2020.
Updated: Feb. 28, 2023 at 2:15 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A proposal by Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson to contribute $1.5 million to the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office would cut a backlog that built up during the COVID-19 pandemic, a top aide said Tuesday.
Updated: Feb. 28, 2023 at 12:10 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A Mobile County juvenile court judge has been suspended amid an ethics complaint, Presiding Circuit Judge Michael Youngpeter confirmed Tuesday.
Updated: Feb. 27, 2023 at 6:31 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Prichard water system could default this week on a $55 million bond issue, but it is unclear what exactly that would mean for customers.
Updated: Feb. 27, 2023 at 5:13 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Mobile County Commission on Monday approved a proposal to divert some money devoted to repairing lift stations in the Prichard water system to fix water leaks, as well.
Updated: Feb. 27, 2023 at 1:11 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Mobile County Commission on Monday gave its blessing to a plan city officials hope will transform the economically distressed Dauphin Island Parkway corridor.
Updated: Feb. 24, 2023 at 6:14 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
The Mobile County Commission is set to vote Monday on a proposal to help the Prichard water system fix leaks. But officials do not hold out hope that it will make much of a dent in a system that water board attorney Jay Ross said loses half of the water it buys from the Mobile Area Water and Sewer System.
Updated: Feb. 24, 2023 at 5:04 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A federal jury on Friday failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of a former Citronelle police chief accused of using excessive force on a suspect following a high-speed chase in 2021.
Updated: Feb. 24, 2023 at 11:33 AM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
To the growing list of costs burdening the Prichard water and sewer system, add one more expense – a lawsuit filed by a woman whose job offer it rescinded after learning she had a disability.
Updated: Feb. 23, 2023 at 7:15 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Alabama’s two leading press associations are weighing in on a case before the state Supreme Court over whether Transportation Director John Cooper can withhold internal communications over a bridge planned for Baldwin County.
Updated: Feb. 23, 2023 at 6:46 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Longstanding divisions among the leaders of the Prichard water system took center stage Thursday, with sharp disagreement over a financial crisis that the chairman dubbed “Guccigate.”
Updated: Feb. 23, 2023 at 5:47 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A three-time convicted felon from Georgia admitted Thursday that he had almost 9 pounds of fentanyl when Baldwin County sheriff’s deputies arrested him last year.
Updated: Feb. 23, 2023 at 4:26 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
An Irvington man who ran a tow truck business admitted Thursday to simultaneously fraudulently applying for pandemic unemployment insurance and aid under a state COVID-19 program designed to help businesses.
Updated: Feb. 22, 2023 at 6:50 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
A judge on Wednesday threw out a murder charge, ruling prosecutors had failed to offer sufficient evidence for a Mobile Country jury to decide the matter.
Updated: Feb. 22, 2023 at 6:16 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
For decades, the city has been operating a police academy, a fire training complex and other facilities on a graveyard. The discovery last year of those unmarked graves dating back more than a century has prompted officials to craft plans to relocate at least five city-owned facilities.
Updated: Feb. 21, 2023 at 4:35 PM CST
|By Brendan Kirby
Semmes police Tuesday arrested a man they say smashed into a liquor store, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
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