Family Bonds

Piloting her destiny, an unlikely suspect enjoys bailing others out of jail.

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Look. Up in the sky. She flies. She scuba dives. She bails people out of jail? No. A bail bondsman is a rough, burly bouncer type of guy sitting behind a cluttered desk and a plume of cigar smoke, right? A tough, hard, bitter man who rarely smiles and whose grimace makes you want to run for the nearest exit. Someone you’d never want coming after you. That’s a bail bondsman, or is it? Meet Brenda Marshall, a thirty-something delicate, petite brunette. She’s not exactly the sort of person whom you assume to be a bail bondsman. That’s what makes her so good at her job. “I’m the last person you’d expect knocking at your door to take you to jail,” Brenda says.
 
Brenda owns A-Advanced Bail Bonds, with offices all around 417-land. At the ripe age of 21, Brenda began helping her mom write bail bonds while on break from what was then Southwest Missouri State University. When Brenda told her mother she was going to write bonds full-time instead of finish her studies, her mother wasn’t as enthusiastic. “I said, ‘Oh, no you’re not,’” Karen Trimble, Brenda’s mom, recalls. But after some convincing, Karen agreed, and A-Advanced Bail Bonds was formed shortly after.

Brenda’s typical day consists of a lot of time on the phone making sure her clients will be in court as ordered. Any time a client misses a date with a judge, she’s held responsible. Locating her client and bringing him or her in is the challenging part of her job.

Fourteen years ago, Brenda’s first client made her think twice about her profession. After bailing her client out of jail, she noticed he was a little scuffed up, but she assumed it was from running from police to escape arrest. The next thing she knew, the client missed court and headed to Arizona. Brenda rented a car and took a road trip to bring him back. When she arrived at the residence where the client was staying, he began shooting at her. Her car was pitted with bullet holes. After police were called and the client arrested, Brenda learned the client owed money to drug dealers and thought she was sent by them to collect. This first encounter forced Brenda to be more cautious of her clients and taught her to ask questions before writing bonds.

“I’m more selective now,” Brenda says. “A lot of my clients are normal people like you and me that just made a mistake and need a little help.” Brenda’s job may be tough at times, but she loves it. “I can’t imagine going to work and hating it, like so many people do,” she says. “I get a lot of satisfaction from my clients.”