When Brett was 13, his parents caught him experimenting with pot. They punished him and sent him to a residential treatment center in Utah.
“It was not going to be OK for him to do that,” Adkins said. “Our son was raised in a Christian home. He was taught the difference between right and wrong.”
His parents agreed, and they pulled him out of the boarding school in November. At Plano West Senior High, Vicki Adkins said, his classmates knew him as funny, respectful and a good friend.
“That kid had the biggest heart, generous,” she said. “We gave him a lot, but he had some decisions to make.”
Did she know he was using drugs? Maybe. There were some signs, she said.
Did she know he was selling drugs?
“No, no, not at all,” Adkins said. “It wasn’t like Brett needed to make money.”
The family returned from an international vacation on Dec. 23 and slept in the next morning. They watched football and talked about their plans for Christmas Day. Brett was excited to go to a relative’s house for a steak and lobster Christmas dinner.
He and his girlfriend left his parents’ Plano home and visited a friend’s home, where Vicki Adkins says her son posted on Snapchat about selling marijuana.
When Brett showed them the marijuana, the man at the car door pulled out a handgun and said, “Just give me it all,” the affidavit stated.
Brett tried to talk with the men. At one point, the man in the back crawled over the front seat, and he and Brett both got out of the car, the affidavit stated. A fight broke out among the three, according to the affidavit.
When the hospital called her at home about her son’s injury, Adkins said she and her husband rushed to Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Grapevine. Brett died there early Christmas morning.
“I just kept believing I was going to get my Christmas miracle because that’s my faith,” she said. “Once he saw heaven, he didn’t want to come back.”
Now, the grieving mother is hoping her son’s memory can help others. She wants his legacy to stretch beyond his short life.
“Make no mistake, his life will not be in vain,” she said. “Sometimes the last person you’d think has the biggest impact.”
She and her husband are still in the early stages of planning the charitable foundation. Their family had the resources to send Brett to a treatment facility, Vicki Adkins said. Other families aren’t as fortunate. She wants to use his memory to help those teens handle their problems.
“Don’t ignore it. Talk about it. Follow through. Drug test. Check their phone. Get around good friends that love you,” she said. “This isn’t a show or a movie. It’s real.”
Address: 2220 Coit Road Suite 215
Plano, Texas 75074
