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Horror House On Fuller Ave. A True Crime Nightmare OneCrimeTV · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The prints that you left behind were bloody. They could
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: only have gotten bloody if she was bloody.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: He said, I just got out of the gym for
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: a minute and I ain't trying to go back.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: On the afternoon of January 26th of 2017, a frantic
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: mother's call to 911 would mark the start of an
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: event so horrific that it would shock the city of
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Cleveland right down to its very core. The following investigation
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: revealed a sadistic tragedy that no one saw coming.
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: What's the child's name?
• 0:55
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 0:58
  Speaker 6: Has she ever done this before?
• 0:59
  Speaker 7: And she never made it to school this morning at all?
• 1:16
  Speaker 8: No. And they usually give out a phone call if
• 1:20
  Speaker 8: a child doesn't come to school, but I didn't get
• 1:22
  Speaker 8: a phone call.
• 1:23
  Speaker 7: She's never ran away before?
• 1:24
  Speaker 9: Did this say, you know, nothing like this before?
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: No.
• 1:27
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 1:28
  Speaker 7: She's trying to get his own car over to you now.
• 1:30
  Speaker 7: If anything happens or if you hear back, give us
• 1:33
  Speaker 7: a call back, because we're going to have an officer
• 1:34
  Speaker 7: come make the report for you, okay?
• 1:36
  Speaker 6: Okay, thank you.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: All right, bye-bye. Can you explain how your DNA would
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: have ended up inside her? We have your DNA inside
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the house. We have your fingerprints inside the house. Now
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: we have your DNA inside of her.
• 1:53
  Speaker 6: And this is just the beginning.
• 1:56
  Speaker 10: No one just vanishes into thin air.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: At 6.30 on the Thursday morning of January 26th of 2017,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Denisha Cooper walked her 14-year-old.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Daughter, Aliana defrees to a bus stop at East 149th
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Street and Kinsman. From there, by herself, Aliana boarded the
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: RTA No.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: 14.
• 2:21
  Speaker 11: It is so chilling watching that surveillance video because you
• 2:25
  Speaker 11: knew this is about to be terrible.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: It was 6.53 a.m. when the teen exited the bus
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: at East 93rd and Kinsman. She normally got off on
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Kingsbury and Kinsman where she would catch the southbound RTA No. 10.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: This was the normal weekday bus that would usually drop
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: her off at her school, but on the day in question,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: that never happened. Aliana confided in a friend on the
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: number 14 bus complaining there were kids on the number
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: 10 bus that bullied her. She told this friend that
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: she was going to get off and head toward McDonald's
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: to wait for a different bus there instead. Shortly after,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: she was spotted on CCTV walking down Kinsman Avenue alone.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: But Aliana DeFreeze never got on another bus that day.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: She never made it to school, and she never made
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: it back home either. After her mother called 911 at 4.15 p.m.,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Aliana was listed as a missing person with a physical
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: or mental disability. Police and family members of the missing
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: teen reacted quickly, handing out missing posters throughout Cleveland while
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: conducting a thorough canvassing of the area she was last
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: seen in. But there was no sign of the child.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: The following day, Friday the 27th of January, a vigil
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: was held on Fuller Avenue for the still-missing Aliana DeFreeze.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Roughly 34 hours had passed since she'd last been seen.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: A worried community showed up in full support of her family,
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: united in hope for the girl's safe return. But unfortunately,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: that's not how this story ends. The people of Cleveland
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: could have never predicted the horror of what was going
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to happen next. They were unaware of the nightmare that
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: awaited them, and little did they know that the person
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: responsible for what happened to Aliana was right there at
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the vigil the whole time, a wolf in sheep's clothing
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: right under their nose, pretending to be concerned for the
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: child's well-being, all the while knowing that she would never
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: be coming home alive again. The farther we get, the
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: greater the possibility that something.
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: Bad has happened.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: For days, authorities turned over every stone they could find
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: in pursuit of answers that might lead them to the
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: missing 14-year-old. But every lot, every person they questioned, and
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: every tip they received ultimately came to nothing. Where was
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Aliana DeFreeze? What caused her to miss the bus? Was
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: she in trouble? Or did she run away on her
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: own free will? Cleveland was about to stumble upon the
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: answer to their questions. and it would no doubt leave
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: them confused, disgusted, and heartbroken. Sunday at 6.30pm on January 29th,
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: three days after Aliana disappeared, authorities began searching abandoned houses
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: and vacant lots on Carton Avenue, just east of where
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: the child was last seen. But still, they found nothing.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: Roughly one hour later at 7.30 p.m., officers entered an
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: empty house with an open rear door at 9412 Fuller Avenue.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: After clearing the kitchen, the bathroom, and a bedroom, the
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: authorities made their way into the dining room of the property.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Upon entering the first floor room, cops found a large
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: pool of blood on the floor. There were also drag
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: marks in the blood that led to the closed door
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: of a second bedroom nearby. When the door was kicked open...
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: The badly brutalized body of Aliana DeFries was discovered inside.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Someone had tried to put her in the bedroom's closet,
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: but they failed. The horrific crime scene contained evidence that
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: painted a grim and sadistic picture. There was a red-stained
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: box cutter, gloves, a bloody plaid tie, wire pliers, several wrenches,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: a screwdriver, a hammer, a tape measure, and a bloody
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: electric drill. all inside the bedroom. It was clear that
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: these items had been used on Aliana. The medical examiner
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: later ruled her cause of death as stemming from multiple injuries.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: The numerous wounds found on the girl were so severe
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: that he couldn't pinpoint which of them dealt her fatal blow.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Four puncture wounds on her cheek matched the electric drill.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: Another drill made injury on her forehead had dislodged her
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: right eye from its socket. There were also multiple slashing-type
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: wounds on her neck consistent with the box cutter. The
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: examiner wasn't even sure how many there were. These were
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: multiple cuts done with repeated motions. Several additional puncture wounds
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: to her head and torso were observed that matched consistency
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: with the shape of the other tools. There were even
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: other stab injuries found on her neck and upper body,
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: including a puncture wound that went through her right ear
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: and into her brain. At least 10 more puncture wounds
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: were found on her left side, back, and shoulder, none
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: deep enough to reach any vital organs. Aliana also sustained
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: blunt force trauma injuries, including fractured facial bones above her teeth.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Her jaw had also been fractured. Further testing revealed that sadly,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: the girl had also been assayed. DNA was found in
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: her body and sent away for testing.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Well, I was enraged. I was enraged. Somebody killed my daughter.
• 7:54
  Speaker 10: Our precious, beautiful Aliana was no more.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: One could be forgiven for harboring a bleak ounce of
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: hope that Aliana DeFreeze had departed long before she sustained
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: her injuries. But the sad and devastating reality is that
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: the medical examiner discovered signs of healing pertaining to some
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: of her wounds. This means that Aliana's last moments of
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: life as a 14-year-old child were spent in hours of suffering.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: This wasn't just murder. This was extreme torture. Whoever was
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: responsible was a cruel and twisted individual, someone that authorities
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: desperately needed to track down as quickly as possible. Cleveland's
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: local authorities were left in a state of shock. They
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: put in a request for aid with the feds immediately.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: The following day, the FBI's Violent Crime Task Force got
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: involved with the case. From the get-go of the investigation,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: There was no shortage of tips and suspects that authorities
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: initially had their eyes on. Several witnesses and callers divulged
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: information that seemed promising. In fact, none more promising than
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: Aliana's mother's ex-boyfriend, Thomas Daniels. Thomas quickly became a person
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: of interest. He'd previously been to prison. He was also
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: a registered SA offender after being convicted of gross sexual imposition.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: In Ohio law, this is a serious felony involving non-consensual
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: sexual touching of an erogenous zone by force, threat, or
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: when the victim is impaired or under 13 years old.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Thomas resided in a men's shelter at the time of
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: the murder. During his interview, he claimed to think of
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: Aliana as his stepdaughter. He also stated that he hadn't
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: seen her in about two years. His story seemed to
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: check out. Thomas Daniels was quickly cleared as a suspect.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: At least 12 other male individuals in the area were
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: questioned by police. Many of these men were also SA
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: offenders who were mentioned as possibly connected via tips submitted
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: through Crimestoppers and other witnesses coming forward. But every single
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: one of them ended up being cleared. After the crime
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: scene was discovered, a witness by the name of Ebony
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Burrell came forward. She stated that she did see Aliana
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: standing outside the church on the day she disappeared, but
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: the pair didn't exchange any words. Aliana wasn't the only
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: noteworthy person Ebony saw in the area that morning. In fact,
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: around the same time, she spotted a strange man whose
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: behavior she found deeply concerning. He was a stocky black male,
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: standing about 5'7, aged roughly in his 30s or 40s,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: with possible gray facial hair and a dark blue bubble coat.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Ebony claims the man aggressively tried to get her attention,
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: but she didn't stop because he gave her bad vibes.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: She further stated that she saw the same man in
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the area two days prior to Aliana's disappearance.
• 10:52
  Speaker 6: Who are we here for?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Aliana!
• 10:54
  Speaker 12: Who must we stand for?
• 10:56
  Speaker 10: Aliana! Who must we speak for?
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: Aliana!
• 11:00
  Speaker 12: Because she can't be here tonight.
• 11:02
  Speaker 10: To speak for herself. This should have never happened!
• 11:05
  Speaker 12: I'm very upset about it.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: This could have been my granddaughter.
• 11:09
  Speaker 12: My daughter.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: This is somebody's child.
• 11:12
  Speaker 13: This is what community is about. And we appreciate the
• 11:15
  Speaker 13: support that you're showing Aliana and her family. And I'm
• 11:19
  Speaker 13: sure they appreciate it. I want you to know that
• 11:21
  Speaker 13: the men and women of the 4th District, our hearts
• 11:24
  Speaker 13: are broken because of this. This is our community too.
• 11:27
  Speaker 13: One of our girls in this community that this happened to.
• 11:30
  Speaker 13: We're working very, very hard to find out who did
• 11:32
  Speaker 13: it and bring them to justice.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: After the body was discovered, during a second vigil for
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: the fallen 14-year-old on February 2nd, a woman named Alyssa
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Willis came forward and reported hearing screams of panic in
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: her neighborhood sometime on the morning Aliana disappeared. She claimed
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: she didn't report what she heard at the time because
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: yelling was common in the area. Alyssa's house neighboring the
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: one Aliana was found in. Another witness in this case
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: is 18-year-old Kenneth Chambers. While waiting for his bus on Thursday,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: January 26th at 7 a.m. on East 93rd Street and
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Cardin Avenue, he too saw Aliana defreeze. She was also
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: waiting for the bus. During this time, Aliana was approached
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: by a heavy, bald man in his late 30s. The
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: man was wearing what Kenneth described as a girly-looking sweater,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: khaki pants, and black shoes. With a hand in his pocket,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: the man put his other arm around Aliana and led
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: her away from the bus stop, heading south down Fuller Avenue,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: the same street where Aliana's first vigil was held, the
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: same street that laid host to the house her body
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: would later be found in. The 14-year-old didn't seem to panic,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: nor did she try to resist the man. Still, Kenneth
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: felt something was off, so he tried to capture a
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: video with his cell phone. Unfortunately, it was too dark
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: to be of any use in the case.
• 13:00
  Speaker 9: Very grainy and very hard to make out who's who,
• 13:03
  Speaker 9: but you can see the image of two people walking
• 13:05
  Speaker 9: down Fuller Avenue towards the abandoned house where Eliana was found.
• 13:10
  Speaker 9: These two people, one of them is smaller, and it
• 13:12
  Speaker 9: appears that the larger one is kind of shuttling the
• 13:15
  Speaker 9: smaller one down the street.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: On February 2nd, A major breakthrough in the investigation led
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: cops to a 43-year-old man named Christopher Whitaker. Whitaker matched
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: the build and description of both Kenneth Chambers and Ebony
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Burrell pretty closely. Then once CCTV from local security cameras
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: were observed, authorities confirmed that Whitaker had indeed been pacing
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: up and down the area where Aliana was last seen
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: for hours on the morning of January 26th before she
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: went missing.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: It's going nowhere.
• 13:49
  Speaker 9: He's just walking back and forth, up and down, looking
• 13:52
  Speaker 9: for the victim. At this point, the detectives start searching
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: through their files, looking at repeat offenders, identifying anybody who
• 13:59
  Speaker 9: may kind of match the description of the guy that
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: they saw in the earlier video.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: But the cops had something else tying Whitaker to the crime,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: something they'd reveal later on. Even still, this isn't the
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: biggest twist in the story.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Mr.
• 14:15
  Speaker 6: Whitaker, before we.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Get started, I just want to remind you I'm Detective
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Carl and this is Detective Antimac. I know it was
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: kind of rushed when we came in here and allowed,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: so I want to make sure you knew who we were.
• 14:25
  Speaker 6: Before I ask you anything, I'm going to advise you
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: to do this, okay?
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Christopher has read his rights, after which he consents to
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: the interview with detectives.
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: Are you familiar with.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: The area over there on East 93rd by Kinsman?
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: I lived over there years ago. How long ago?
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: A friend of mine lives over here. This has been over.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, man.
• 14:48
  Speaker 4: I'd say over ten years.
• 14:52
  Speaker 6: Ten years ago?
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: Christopher claims he actually lives on Colony Road with his
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: great aunt, Martha Johnson. He was picked up on Mayfair
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: Road at the house of his friend, Anita Jackson. Christopher
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: says he and Anita once were a couple, but now
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: he claims she's very sick and he occasionally looks after her.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: When was the last time you were over in that area?
• 15:15
  Speaker 10: Maybe last week, maybe Monday or Tuesday, doing some work
• 15:22
  Speaker 10: for a friend. What kind of work did you do?
• 15:26
  Speaker 10: I was doing some drywall in his kitchen. In his
• 15:31
  Speaker 10: kitchen and then his upstairs.
• 15:33
  Speaker 6: What address was that at?
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I don't know the address.
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: What street?
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: It's on Fuller. It's on the other end of the street.
• 15:40
  Speaker 6: On the floor you're talking about by Kingsbury Run?
• 15:42
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it's closer to Kingsbury. Like more in the middle
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: of the street.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: Oh.
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: So between 93rd and Kingsbury.
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: What's the person's name you were doing the work for?
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: Raymond.
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: Do you know Raymond's last name?
• 16:01
  Speaker 10: Beckwith.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So were you working on the crew?
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: No, just me. I mean, it's just.
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: Just you and Raymond, or was he with you?
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: Just buddy work, you know, just working for a buddy.
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: What I mean is, was Raymond doing the work with you?
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: No, I was doing the work.
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: So you were in the house by yourself?
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: No, there's people there. They live there.
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: So the residents of the home were at the house?
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: You said we, that's why I was asking.
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because every now and again his uncle would have me.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: So the residents were there?
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Christopher claims the last time he worked in the area
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: in question on Raymond's house was Wednesday the 25th. the
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: day before Aliana went missing. He tells detectives that his
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: friend Will Rucker picked him up later that same day
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: on Fuller Avenue between noon and 2 p.m. He states
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: that he then met his aunt, before later going to
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: work on a different house owned by Will on 84th Street.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: From there, he claims to have stayed at Will's house
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: until Saturday or Sunday when he went to meet his girlfriend, Debra.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: But detectives have more questions about where Christopher was and
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: what he did on Thursday and Friday, the day of
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and the day after Aliana DeFreeze went missing.
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: Did you do any work for him or with him
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: on Thursday or Friday?
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: For Will?
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, or anyone.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was.
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: With Will, is it at the 84th Street house again?
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: Were you actually working or just hanging out or.
• 17:23
  Speaker 10: Well, we work in the house. We just finished sanding
• 17:26
  Speaker 10: the floor. We was about to put down some carpet.
• 17:28
  Speaker 10: We was in the process of building a bar in
• 17:32
  Speaker 10: the house.
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: What time did you start working with Will that day, Thursday?
• 17:39
  Speaker 10: I'm trying to think, make sure we did any.
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: Work on Thursday.
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: We.
• 17:57
  Speaker 6: That'd be a week ago today, right?
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: Trying to think what did we do.
• 18:05
  Speaker 10: Probably checked out a few jobs and probably did most
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: of nothing most.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: Of the day.
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: On Thursday, do you know what time you started?
• 18:13
  Speaker 10: Probably like we do every day, get up around 10, 30, 11,
• 18:18
  Speaker 10: sit around until either we.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: Clean up or.
• 18:23
  Speaker 10: But we don't work every day in the house because
• 18:26
  Speaker 10: money is low, so we don't have the materials.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: So sometimes we just sit around.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but just that Thursday and Friday, you're saying that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: you worked at the house on 84th, and you started
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: around 10, 30, 11 a.m.? Yeah, I mean.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: We got up around that time. I mean, like I said,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: we cleaned up, ate.
• 18:42
  Speaker 6: So you were staying over at the house on 84th
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: at that time?
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I stayed over there.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: So Wednesday night you stayed overnight? Yeah.
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: Were you in?
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: You mentioned that you were on 84th most of the day.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: You said you were in and out with Will.
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: Were you over in the Fuller area at all on
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: those two days?
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Not at all.
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: Not at all?
• 19:09
  Speaker 10: Once he picked me up, I mean, I don't have
• 19:12
  Speaker 10: a lot of money, so the only way I can
• 19:13
  Speaker 10: get around is if I get dropped off for somebody
• 19:17
  Speaker 10: loaning me bus fare.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: The Hulls and Christopher's story are already beginning to show.
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: We know he didn't simply just stay in Will's house
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: at 84th Street on Thursday the 26th and Friday the 25th.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: He's been ID'd on multiple surveillance cameras in the area
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: on the exact same path as Aliana on the day
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: she went missing. And not just hours before she was
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: in the area, but also the exact same time. Further
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: adding to the evidence, a witness saw him in physical
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: contact with the victim heading towards Fuller Avenue, the same
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: place her body was later discovered. But that's not all
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Whitaker failed to mention about what he did on the
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: day Aliana disappeared. According to police records, at around 10.15am,
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Whitaker assisted with the offloading of a U-Haul containing a
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: monthly food delivery at Golgotha Church on Marshall Avenue. This
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: took about an hour. During this time, Christopher told the
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: pastor of the church that he'd given up on life,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: was losing hope, and needed help. He also stated that
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: he would be at the church service on Sunday, but
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: he never showed up. That was the exact same morning
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Aliana's body was discovered. About an hour later, at 11.15 a.m.,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Christopher was spotted on the front porch of his friend's
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: house on Fuller Avenue, right across the street from the
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: residence Aliana was slowly dying in. Moments later, he's seen
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: at the Sunoco gas station on East 93rd Street. He
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: was described as wearing beige pants that were stained, boots
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: that looked dirty, and it was noted that his hands
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: were covered in something dark, consistent with dried blood. He
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: was also carrying a small tool bag. The woman that
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: saw Christopher at the gas station had known him for
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: about six years, but she stated that she'd never seen
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: him in such a disheveled state. That evening, Whitaker's friend's wife,
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: a pregnant woman named Laquita, gave Whitaker a lift to
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: a scrapyard to trade some scrap in for money. Laquita
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: is important. We'll come back to what she has to
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: say later.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Do you know, um, have you seen the news or
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: anything recently in the past week or so?
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: You know what's going on in that area?
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So then you know why I'm asking all these questions?
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: I know. Are you familiar with the girl that went missing?
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: I do not know anything.
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: You don't know her? When you were over there working
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: or anything, did you ever see her?
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: Never.
• 21:30
  Speaker 10: I wasn't even out that early in the morning. First
• 21:35
  Speaker 10: we heard about it, I was in the car with
• 21:39
  Speaker 10: Ray's brother T. We were going to move a friend
• 21:42
  Speaker 10: of his and we saw a lady passing out flyers
• 21:46
  Speaker 10: and we stopped and He grabbed two flyers and was
• 21:50
  Speaker 10: reading the flyers as far.
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: As we heard about it.
• 21:52
  Speaker 6: What day was that, do you know?
• 21:59
  Speaker 10: That was like, yeah, I did go back over there
• 22:02
  Speaker 10: that Friday because I wouldn't have to move.
• 22:05
  Speaker 6: Okay, so Friday you were on Fuller.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: And I went back home, yeah.
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: And people were passing out flyers?
• 22:12
  Speaker 10: Yeah, it was, I don't know if she was white
• 22:13
  Speaker 10: or Puerto Rican or something. She was standing right there
• 22:16
  Speaker 10: in 93rd Casino passing out flyers.
• 22:18
  Speaker 6: Some females passing out flyers. Do you recall what the
• 22:21
  Speaker 6: flyers looked like?
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: They had a picture of the girl and they had
• 22:25
  Speaker 10: a description of where she lived and the time description
• 22:29
  Speaker 10: or whatever.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: It said she was missing. That's about it. And after that,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: we just went to see what we saw in the news.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: So you.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: You took the flyer, you didn't recognize her at all,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you hadn't seen her while you were working around the neighborhood?
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: Do we have one of those? Who were you with,
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: you said, when you got the flyer?
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Ray's brother, too.
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: Do you know his real name?
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: No.
• 23:05
  Speaker 6: Did T get a copy of the flyer, too?
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he got a copy of the flyer.
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: Did he recognize it? Is T familiar with that area?
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he lived over there all his life.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Did he recognize her or know who she was? No.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Did the female that was passing this out tell you
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: who she was or why she was passing out?
• 23:21
  Speaker 14: No.
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: I'm just wondering if it was a family member or something.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: I didn't get off the car. He got off the
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: car and ran over and got the flyer.
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: And T's the one that actually got the flyer. You
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: didn't talk to the female.
• 23:32
  Speaker 12: No.
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: So you didn't get any circumstances. I was going to
• 23:34
  Speaker 6: pass it. Is that the flyer that you're referring to?
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: That's exactly the flyer.
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: Okay. I see on here that it mentions a time.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Is that what you were referring to when you said
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: you weren't even over in that neighborhood around that early
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: in the morning?
• 23:51
  Speaker 10: I don't even hang in that area that time of
• 23:53
  Speaker 10: the morning. It's too crazy over here.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: So nothing about her looks familiar?
• 23:57
  Speaker 4: You don't know her? Not at all.
• 23:58
  Speaker 6: You have no information as to her whereabouts or what
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: happened to her?
• 24:02
  Speaker 14: No.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: What's the next thing that you heard about what was
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: going on over there?
• 24:08
  Speaker 10: I mean, what I heard on the news, basically. What
• 24:10
  Speaker 10: did you hear on the news? They discovered the body.
• 24:14
  Speaker 10: They weren't releasing much information.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know. Just basically what I heard
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: on the news.
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: So you saw the news?
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean.
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: Did you recognize the area?
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Fuller, I mean, I've been going back and forth
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: over there for about a couple years.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Well, I'm just wondering, when you saw the news, you
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: saw the house, did you recognize the house and where
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: it was on Fuller?
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we pass the house all the time.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Did you ever see anybody over at that house, working
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: on that house, doing anything over there?
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: I never saw workers over there, but they said they'd
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: seen workers over there.
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: Who had seen the workers over there?
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Tea and people that live over there that are over
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: there every day.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: Interestingly, Christopher says he doesn't know Aliana DeFreeze and had
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: never seen or heard of her before Friday the 27th
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: of January, which is when his friend T gave him
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: a missing persons flyer. But here are some facts that
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: raise suspicion about what Whitaker says. We know Christopher was
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: friends with Will Rucker. Will is the friend who he
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: claimed to pick him up on Fuller Avenue on Wednesday
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: the 25th, the day before Aliana's disappearance. The same Will
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: whom he said he stayed with on 84th Street from
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: Wednesday until Saturday the 28th. A neighbor next door to
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: Will stated that Christopher had been staying on and off
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: at Will's house for roughly two years. But the interesting
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: thing here is that Will Rucker's best friend is Damon DeFreeze,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Aliana's father. Could you live with someone off and on
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: for two years and never so much as hear about
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: the daughter of your roommate's best friend? It's certainly possible,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: but highly unlikely. Will and Christopher were more than just
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: acquainted roommates. Whitaker did work for Will. The pair also
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: scavenged for scrap metal together. Perhaps this is why Aliana
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: felt comfortable enough to go with Whitaker that morning. To
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: my knowledge, it's never been publicly announced whether or not
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: Aliana and Christopher knew each other prior to the encounter
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: at the bus stop. But what we do know paints
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: a certain kind of picture.
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: Were you ever in the house?
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not going to lie. Yeah, we went
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: in the house.
• 26:15
  Speaker 10: Me, T, and what's the other guy's name? What do
• 26:21
  Speaker 10: they call him?
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: What is his nickname? They call him Boogie.
• 26:26
  Speaker 15: On what?
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: Boogie.
• 26:27
  Speaker 6: Boogie?
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: Yeah. I mean, we went and we took the hot
• 26:30
  Speaker 10: water heater and the furnace out.
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: Tea and boogie?
• 26:32
  Speaker 10: And we took a couple pieces of some wiring, some,
• 26:40
  Speaker 10: you know, little metal stuff connected to the furnace.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Took that out.
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: So you're talking about the piping and wiring?
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Took it to the scrap yard.
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: How long ago was that?
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: It's like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So long. Just recently?
• 26:58
  Speaker 10: I mean, Monday and Tuesday, then a couple days later,
• 27:00
  Speaker 10: we heard she was missing, so we were like, wow.
• 27:03
  Speaker 10: And they said she was found in that house.
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: Where did you scrap the metal and all the rest
• 27:08
  Speaker 6: of it at?
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: At Aetna.
• 27:11
  Speaker 14: At Aetna?
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: On Aetna, scrapped it up, yeah.
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: Whose name did you guys use?
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Because I know they require you to have a name
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: when you're doing the scrapping.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: Boogie used his name. I don't know his real name.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: You remember what day you scrapped that stuff? Yeah, we
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: scrapped it the same day. We scrapped... We took a
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: load out of the building. I think Monday I took
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: another load. Yeah, probably Tuesday. Did you burn the insulation
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: off the wire? I didn't burn nothing, no. Wrapped it up.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Just scrapped it up. Includes the furnace and water tank
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: and all that?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Is the electricity connected over there? I'm just wondering why
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you're doing the work.
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: If he noticed. No, we had flashlights.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Christopher went to the scrapyard being referenced here three times
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: in four days with the final time being on the
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: afternoon of the day Aliana was murdered. He's now admitted
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: being in the house where her body was found for
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: the purpose of raiding it in search of material he
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: could sell for scrap. He also claims he did this
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: with two other people. If Christopher is guilty, one might
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: on the outside view this as self-incriminating. But in reality...
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: It's also a very strategic defense for a person trying
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: to cover up what they've done. If Christopher Whitaker killed
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: the victim, his admission to the lesser offense of stripping
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: the house for scrap is actually quite clever. It's a
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: good alibi for why his DNA or fingerprints might be
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: found at the crime scene. And because he's placed two
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: other people in the house, he widens the list of
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: potential suspects. Perhaps he's hoping to take some of the
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: pressure off of himself. If, of course, he is the murderer.
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: What's interesting is that from the start of Christopher's interview,
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: his demeanor has been overly casual. He knows exactly why
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: he's being questioned. He knew before he got in there
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: that he was at the crime scene multiple times during
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: the week of the murder. In my opinion, his reactions
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: do not reflect the situation he's facing accurately. A normal
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: innocent person would likely be experiencing high anxiety and demand
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: to know why they are being questioned. They would be
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: prone to adamant denial of having anything to do with
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: the crime. They'd also probably be upfront about being at
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: the house in question from the start. After all, an
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: innocent person wouldn't want to seem like they're hiding anything,
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: especially if they were there with two other people. If
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: I was innocent, and happened to be at a crime
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: scene on the week a little girl was found murdered there,
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't even wait to be called in for questioning.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: It's a child. I'd want to help any way I could.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: I'd come forward immediately and report the other two guys
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: as potential suspects as soon as the news broke about
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: the victim. Christopher doesn't. He's nonchalant, as if he's totally
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: unaware that a crime has taken place. Of course, this
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: isn't direct proof that he's guilty, but all the things
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: I just mentioned, bundled together, paint another bleak picture.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: What kind of tools did you use in order to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: get this stuff out?
• 30:04
  Speaker 10: We used just a pipe wrench to just loosen up the.
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: Thing, and that's about it. We carried them out. Me
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: and T carried them out.
• 30:21
  Speaker 6: No other tools were necessary?
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: No. I mean, I saw the house. I understand that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: it was... pretty much abandoned for a while. Was most
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of it disconnected, or did you have to use any
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: pressure or muscle to get it?
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: No, no, just the pipe wrench, it came right loose.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: That was it. Okay.
• 30:42
  Speaker 6: Did you bring these tools with you?
• 30:45
  Speaker 10: We took a T-head of pipe wrench, we took the
• 30:48
  Speaker 10: pipe wrench, and he put it back in his pocket
• 30:51
  Speaker 10: and left.
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: So you didn't leave any behind?
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: No.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Do you have your own toolkit that you use when
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: you're working on these houses for Will and Ray?
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: I use Will's tools.
• 31:04
  Speaker 6: Will's tools?
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What kind of tools are you using when you're
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: doing these jobs?
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: Depending on the job. Like drywall?
• 31:12
  Speaker 10: Drywall, we basically use a drill and measuring tape and
• 31:21
  Speaker 10: probably a board cutter or whatever.
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: You, like, installed the drywall with nails, or did.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: You use a screw gun? Yeah. Drill, yeah. A drill?
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: I used, with the drywall, I used a battery drill.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: I just.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: Want to make sure I'm understanding.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: You never went into any other part of the house
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: upstairs other than that kitchen?
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: Well, not me, too.
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: So you didn't enter the dining room at all?
• 31:59
  Speaker 10: Not that I can recall. I mean, if anything, I
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: probably told them to hurry up and let's go.
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: So they went in that part of the house?
• 32:07
  Speaker 10: I mean, it was three of us. I mean, I'm
• 32:09
  Speaker 10: trying to get, I don't know where they was at.
• 32:11
  Speaker 10: I mean, I'm trying, I'm getting the furnace when I
• 32:13
  Speaker 10: got the furnace, whatever.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: But when you're all in that kitchen, you got your
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: flashlights going, you're trying to take off the storm door.
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: No, we never tried to take it off. I just
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: looked at it and looked.
• 32:24
  Speaker 10: I couldn't see what type of screws or whatever, because
• 32:27
  Speaker 10: I thought it would screw it in, but it's like,
• 32:29
  Speaker 10: if we'd have got it, we'd have needed to get, like,
• 32:32
  Speaker 10: probably some type of crowbar and take it off.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: And it would have made too much noise. And we
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: didn't bother with it.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: So I can tell you that we didn't find your
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: DNA in the kitchen. That's not the room that we
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: found your DNA in.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: That's the reason I'm asking you if you went into
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: any other part of the house. Mm-hmm.
• 32:53
  Speaker 6: You know your DNA is on file.
• 32:55
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I had a case back in 2004.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: The kitchen isn't where we found it because there was
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: nothing in the kitchen. The kitchen was empty. The dining
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: room was where we found your DNA. Do you want
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: to think about whether or not you were in that
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: room at all?
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Let me get it right.
• 33:21
  Speaker 10: Oh, boy, shit, I don't want to get it right.
• 33:24
  Speaker 10: We went and looked at the door. She had a
• 33:33
  Speaker 10: tool bag. She had the crowbar that I used to
• 33:45
  Speaker 10: knock the little board out the way so that I could.
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: Get the hot water heater out. Other than.
• 34:07
  Speaker 6: That, I mean.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Then how do you explain your DNA and actually your
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: print in the dining room?
• 34:12
  Speaker 10: We walked around the house, but we just didn't walk.
• 34:15
  Speaker 10: I mean, it's like we didn't focus in there, like,
• 34:18
  Speaker 10: We in here trying to see.
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: What's in here. We just looked around.
• 34:22
  Speaker 10: I mean, I'm not saying the basement and the dining
• 34:25
  Speaker 10: room is the only thing we looked at.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: I mean, we looked around the house.
• 34:29
  Speaker 10: But I didn't go around the house like just trying
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: to see what's.
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: All in here we can take.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: Let's take a look at two clips featuring statements Christopher
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: just made about where he went inside the house. See
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: if you can spot the shift. This is clip one
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: and what Christopher said first.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: So the last time that you were in that house
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: was on Monday or Tuesday? Yeah.
• 34:50
  Speaker 6: And you never went into any other part of the
• 34:52
  Speaker 6: house other than the basement?
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: No.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Now this is clip two and what Christopher said second.
• 34:58
  Speaker 10: I'm not saying the basement and the dining room was
• 35:01
  Speaker 10: the only thing we looked at. I mean, we looked
• 35:04
  Speaker 10: around the house, but I didn't go around the house
• 35:06
  Speaker 10: like just trying to see what's all in here we
• 35:10
  Speaker 10: can take.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: In the first clip, Christopher denies going anywhere in the
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: house other than the basement. In the second clip, after
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: investigators confront him with the fact that his DNA was
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: found in other areas of the house, specifically the dining room,
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: his answer changes. Now, these statements are made only moments apart,
• 35:28
  Speaker 3: and they cannot both be true. But what really stands
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: out is not just the contradiction. It's the timing of
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: the second conflicting statement. Christopher doesn't volunteer this wider version
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: of events from the beginning. His story expands only after
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: the evidence forces it to. This is what you might
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: call an evidence-triggered revision. At first, he admits to being
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: inside the house, but tries to limit himself to the basement.
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: If he's guilty, that's important. If he can keep himself
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: in the basement, he can explain why he was inside
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: the property while still keeping distance between himself and the
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: room Aliana was killed in. But here's the key. Once
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: investigators reveal to him that his DNA is in other
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: parts of the house, the boundary moves. Suddenly, he was
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: never saying he was only in the basement, only he
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: was and we heard it. And then, I'm not sure
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: if you caught it or not, but there was this
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: strange line. At the end of the second clip, Christopher said,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying the basement and the dining room is
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: the only thing we looked at. That phrasing is worth
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: paying attention to. If he had simply said, I'm not
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: saying the basement is the only thing we looked at,
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: then that would make sense. But he added the dining room,
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: the very room he just previously denied entering. The room
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: directly connected to the murder. Once again, that doesn't prove
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: guilt on its own. But during an interrogation, investigators are
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: trained to listen for exactly this kind of movement. A
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: suspect narrowing his story, then expanding it only when evidence
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: makes the original version impossible. You see, Christopher's story doesn't
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: evolve naturally. It adapts, defensively. The changes to details he
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: introduces aren't consistent with him remembering more. It seems more
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: like he's adjusting to the introduction of new evidence.
• 37:09
  Speaker 10: I'm trying to get it right, but I'm sitting here
• 37:10
  Speaker 10: and I'm nervous because I'm actually in the house that
• 37:12
  Speaker 10: this girl's body was found in.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, I want to get this right. And
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: I understand that, and I respect that. I'm just, in
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: order for us to make certain that we have our.
• 37:24
  Speaker 6: Information correct, I have to pinpoint some of these things
• 37:27
  Speaker 6: for you.
• 37:28
  Speaker 10: I have no problem with it. Anything I've got to
• 37:29
  Speaker 10: do to clear me up.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: Getting back To her now, now that we've got the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: house down pat. You've never met her? You've never seen
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: her before? You didn't recognize her when you saw the flyer?
• 37:43
  Speaker 6: Never.
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Okay. She's not a friend of yours or somebody that
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: you talked to on the street when you were working
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: on the street?
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: I would have no reason to speak to a 14-year-old.
• 37:53
  Speaker 6: Well, sure, she's a 14-year-old girl. I can understand that.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: So then my next question would be, can you explain
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: how your DNA, your CNN would have ended up Inside her?
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know anything about that.
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: You don't know anything about that?
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: I mean, I wasn't even over there on that day.
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 38:16
  Speaker 6: You weren't over there.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: Then I've got to wonder how your son could have
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: ended up inside of her. So now we have your
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: DNA inside the house. We have your fingerprints inside the house.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And now we have your DNA inside of her. And
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: this is just the beginning because you know there's going
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to be more things that are going to come up
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: once they're finished testing it.
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: So I'm asking you this now.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: You can get in front of this, straighten this out,
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: tell your side of the story, or you can just
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: let us assume whatever we want to.
• 38:52
  Speaker 6: It's up to you. All right? You want to explain
• 39:00
  Speaker 6: to us what happened? Well, sure you do. How did
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: you meet her? How did you get to talking to her?
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: Did you see her before that day? Never.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Well, then how did you get talking to her? Tell
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: us what happened.
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: This is your opportunity, all right? Did they call you
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: Chris or Christopher?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Christopher.
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: Christopher, you've got kids.
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: Chris, Christopher, whatever.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Her family needs to know what happened. They need to
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: know why it happened. You're the only one that can
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: tell them that. Unless you're telling me that these other
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: two were with you.
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: So why don't you.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Just tell us how you came upon Eliana, that's her name.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: How you came upon her, how you got to talking
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to her. How did that come about?
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: What happened? What did you say?
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: It's crazy.
• 41:09
  Speaker 6: What did you run into?
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: I'm a crackhead.
• 41:12
  Speaker 10: I get high and I do stupid shit for people
• 41:15
  Speaker 10: for money.
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: Okay. Everybody you hang with.
• 41:25
  Speaker 10: That you smoke with or get high with you don't
• 41:29
  Speaker 10: know everybody you deal with.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: Sure.
• 41:34
  Speaker 10: You don't know everybody's situation or how everybody got in
• 41:38
  Speaker 10: that situation. So, I mean, for me to sit and
• 41:41
  Speaker 10: try to put names or faces to everything that went
• 41:51
  Speaker 10: on that night or that morning, it's probably impossible because
• 41:57
  Speaker 10: I was high.
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: So you're telling me there was more than just you there?
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: Is that what you're saying, Chris?
• 42:07
  Speaker 10: By the time I realized how old this girl was,
• 42:14
  Speaker 10: I left.
• 42:17
  Speaker 4: Okay. I left. And it was other smokers around.
• 42:22
  Speaker 10: I mean, like, late at night you're trying to find
• 42:26
  Speaker 10: dope and you don't know who to ask. So, I mean,
• 42:30
  Speaker 10: smokers come together to get high. whatever what not you
• 42:33
  Speaker 10: don't even know it's like I might not know you
• 42:35
  Speaker 10: if you were getting high and I'm like look you
• 42:37
  Speaker 10: know where to get something at yeah when you gonna
• 42:39
  Speaker 10: look out for me yeah whatever.
• 42:40
  Speaker 6: I mean.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: How this little girl got involved I do not know.
• 42:47
  Speaker 10: And if I could go back to this day.
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: And prevent what happened.
• 42:59
  Speaker 10: From happening I would Had I been in the house
• 43:03
  Speaker 10: for the remainder of that day, I probably would have
• 43:06
  Speaker 10: never let anything happen.
• 43:08
  Speaker 6: How did you get into the house? Start with that.
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: That part I can't tell you. I was invited in.
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: Okay, who invited you?
• 43:23
  Speaker 10: I can't give you, I don't know the name of
• 43:24
  Speaker 10: somebody I was smoking with.
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: Male or female? Male.
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: Christopher vaguely describes two mills he claims to have met
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: while walking down the street after he snuck out of
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: Will's house Wednesday night to go find drugs. According to him,
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: the men invited him to join them at the house
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: on Fuller Avenue the evening prior to Aliana's murder, and
• 43:43
  Speaker 3: Christopher claims he took them up on their offer. Then
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: on Thursday morning at around 4.30 a.m., he claims he
• 43:48
  Speaker 3: left on a stolen mountain bike to go retrieve $ 120
• 43:52
  Speaker 3: worth of drugs. Next, he says he returned to the
• 43:54
  Speaker 3: house on Fuller Avenue and got high. According to Christopher,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: Aliana was already there at that time without any clothes on.
• 44:01
  Speaker 10: No, as far as hurting her, no. I had nothing
• 44:04
  Speaker 10: to do with that. I'm going to be honest to God.
• 44:07
  Speaker 10: They told me that she was somebody that was getting
• 44:11
  Speaker 10: high or whatever. And now when I hear the news
• 44:15
  Speaker 10: and they say she was slow, I understand why she
• 44:19
  Speaker 10: was going along with what they were saying.
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: She was probably scared or whatever. I had no idea.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: I'm high. You get high, you know.
• 44:29
  Speaker 10: Thinking it's cool, I mean, there's women out there that
• 44:33
  Speaker 10: sell their body for dope.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: What room of the house did you have sex with
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: her in?
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: On the carpet, on the little bundle right there. Which room?
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: I think it was the little room closer to the door.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: And after that... I got on the bike and I left.
• 44:56
  Speaker 10: I was going to see somebody to get some more dope,
• 45:00
  Speaker 10: but they wasn't there. So I ended up going back
• 45:06
  Speaker 10: down toward 105 on the bike. And by that time,
• 45:09
  Speaker 10: it was time for me and Will to go do
• 45:11
  Speaker 10: some work. So I never returned to the house. And
• 45:14
  Speaker 10: then I saw this shit on the news and I
• 45:18
  Speaker 10: felt some kind of way that this shit actually happened.
• 45:21
  Speaker 12: To this guy.
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: I'm like, damn. When I saw the flyers, I'm like, wow,
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: she was that young.
• 45:27
  Speaker 10: I didn't know, because I'm high and I'm really not
• 45:31
  Speaker 10: thinking in my right mind. I mean, it's one thing
• 45:36
  Speaker 10: to try to lie to the situation, but then it's like, the.
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: Only way I can get myself completely out of it
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: is to.
• 45:44
  Speaker 10: Tell the truth about where I participated in this thing.
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: Do you recall what she was wearing?
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: No, she was naked when I got there.
• 45:54
  Speaker 6: Well, you were there on Wednesday night. She wasn't picked
• 45:57
  Speaker 6: up until Thursday morning.
• 45:58
  Speaker 10: When I went there Wednesday, we was just smoking.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: We was just getting high. I went and got some
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: more dope, came back, and she was already there naked.
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: I don't know how they got her naked, how they
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: got her in there. Okay. She was already naked. And
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: so I'm thinking this.
• 46:19
  Speaker 6: Is a party.
• 46:20
  Speaker 10: I'm high.
• 46:22
  Speaker 6: I don't... And she was already inside the house, naked,
• 46:30
  Speaker 6: in what room?
• 46:32
  Speaker 10: In the living room. She was just sitting there quiet.
• 46:41
  Speaker 10: She had like a black hat on.
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: Black hat?
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: The only thing she had on was like a black hat.
• 46:45
  Speaker 10: I don't know if it was one of theirs or
• 46:47
  Speaker 10: if it was hers that.
• 46:49
  Speaker 4: She had worn. so that I'm disgusted with myself.
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: How did the sexual encounter come about?
• 47:05
  Speaker 10: It was basically like, it was like, man, just look
• 47:08
  Speaker 10: out for me and she's going to look out for you.
• 47:10
  Speaker 15: Whatever, whatever.
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: Like, lay down and open your legs, go on ahead
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: and give my divorce, huh?
• 47:15
  Speaker 6: Oh, so they offered her up to you?
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: They basically did.
• 47:17
  Speaker 6: I'm just wondering if you had any conversation with her
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: and she talked to you at all?
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: No, I never talked to her.
• 47:22
  Speaker 6: Was she crying, emotional?
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: No, she wasn't crying, no.
• 47:27
  Speaker 6: It's surprising.
• 47:30
  Speaker 10: I mean, it's surprising to me now that I look
• 47:32
  Speaker 10: at this and I see what I saw on the
• 47:34
  Speaker 10: news and I saw the flyers.
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, well.
• 47:39
  Speaker 6: So it's just the three of you inside this house?
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: Basically, it's like....
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: Due to YouTube guidelines, I can't allow Christopher to recall
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: his alleged actions here, so I'm fast-forwarding so this video
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: doesn't get struck down. In summary, while Whitaker claims he
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: didn't actually, you know what, with Aliana, he gives a
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: graphic explanation involving intimate contact between the pair that he
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: claims would account for why his DNA was found on
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: the victim. Also, during this contact, he claims he opened
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: a contraceptive package, but instead of using the contents of
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: that package on himself, he gave it to one of
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: the other men. So, in Christopher's version of events, this
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: is his attempt to explain both the DNA evidence found
• 48:18
  Speaker 3: on the body and the DNA connected to the used
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: contraception found at the crime scene. If at this point
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: you have any questions regarding why authorities already had his
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: DNA profile archived, and just what was being referred to
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: when Whitaker's past case from 2004 was brought up, well,
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: don't worry, I'm going to address that soon. But right now,
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Detective Carlin is about to increase the applied pressure by
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: directly confronting her suspects. Up until this point, she has
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: allowed Christopher to believe he's been dictating the pace of
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: the interrogation by letting him talk through the glaring inconsistencies
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: in his story with little resistance. Sometimes this seems to
• 48:51
  Speaker 3: frustrate viewers with an untrained eye, but this is a
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: known investigative technique. Detectives don't always reveal everything they know
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: during an interrogation up front. Sometimes they allow a suspect
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: to commit to a version of events first, then introduce
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: evidence that counters it later. That's when an interview will
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: often shift and an investigator might suddenly appear more aggressively direct.
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: Once contradictions become impossible to explain away, the suspect isn't
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: simply answering questions anymore. They're trying to survive the haunting
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: ghosts of their previous ancestors. This technique, by the way,
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: is sometimes referred to as strategic use of evidence. Once
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: the suspect fully shows their hand, only then does the
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: detective reveal an ace hiding up their sleeve. Another technique
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: this falls right in line with is the account clarification
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: and challenge stage of the peace model of investigative interviewing.
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: With that technique, The interviewer first gathers the person's account,
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: clarifies the details, and then challenges the story where necessary.
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: Both of these techniques lend themselves to what Detective Carlin
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: appears to be doing here. Once again, Christopher may think
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: he's been controlling the conversation, but in reality, Carlin has
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: been dictating the pace and the structure of it. The
• 49:58
  Speaker 3: only thing Christopher Whitaker has controlled is the depth of
• 50:01
  Speaker 3: the hole he's dug for himself throughout this interview.
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: There's only one problem with your story, Chris. The footprints
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: in the house. There's only one set.
• 50:15
  Speaker 6: They're yours.
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: I don't know how there's only one set.
• 50:19
  Speaker 6: There's only one set.
• 50:21
  Speaker 10: Three people went in there scrapping and then the two
• 50:25
  Speaker 10: people was in the house with me.
• 50:27
  Speaker 6: I'm not lying to you. I can show you the pictures.
• 50:29
  Speaker 6: There's only one set of footprints in there. Or I
• 50:32
  Speaker 6: should say boot prints in there.
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: I don't understand.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: So... I believe the story up to a point. I
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: believe that you were high on drugs. I believe that
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: you were out of your mind. I can believe that point.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: But I don't believe that two unknown strangers that you've
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: never met before in your life bring you to this
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: house that you've already been to a couple of times,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: just decide to go to the same house.
• 51:00
  Speaker 6: That you've already been to, and then you leave, and.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Surprisingly, in a matter of 10 minutes, they find her,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: bring her into the house, get her naked, and then
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: you return.
• 51:15
  Speaker 6: It doesn't match up, Chris.
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: Notice Detective Carlin's current choice of name use. For most
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: of the interview, including the parts I fast-forwarded through, she
• 51:23
  Speaker 3: has referred to her suspect as Christopher. But now that
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: she's upped the level of applied pressure, she's opting to
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: call him Chris. In doing so, she makes the accusations
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: he's facing feel intimate. This helps soften the scenario. Chris
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: isn't his courtroom name, and it's not the name listed
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: on the paperwork. Detective Carlin is using it to try
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: and get under his armor. She isn't just accusing Christopher
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: on the record. She's confronting Chris, the person in the
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: room sitting right in front of her. And that subtle
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: change in name use makes the truth harder to hide from.
• 51:55
  Speaker 6: So, you're like halfway there? You're halfway to accepting responsibility,
• 52:00
  Speaker 6: but you're still trying to blame other people.
• 52:03
  Speaker 10: No, I'm not trying to blame other people. I'm trying
• 52:06
  Speaker 10: to tell you exactly what happened.
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: No, you're trying to lessen your responsibility for what happened.
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: Christopher, there were two people in the house. You and Aliana.
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: That's it. There weren't two other people in that house.
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: It was two other guys. It was just you two,
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: wasn't it?
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: No.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: I swear on my mom. I'm not going.
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: Don't do that. Please don't do that.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Because we were at the house. We know what the
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: scene looked like. We know that the prints that you
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: left behind were bloody prints.
• 52:41
  Speaker 6: They could only have gotten bloody if she was bloody.
• 52:46
  Speaker 6: Do you understand what I'm saying?
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: You couldn't have just dropped off on her and then
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: left and she was fine if you.
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: Had bloody prints left in the dining room. Do you understand?
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you need to complete the story. You need
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: to tell us exactly what happened because this story that
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: you're given right now is not the truth. All right?
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: Tell me how you met her. Tell me how you
• 53:17
  Speaker 6: got her to the house.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: As you know from listening to the news stories, this
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: girl was a quiet, naive girl waiting on a bus.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: So how did you approach her? This can help out
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: other little kids.
• 53:41
  Speaker 10: Like I said, as far as being with the other guys, yeah,
• 53:47
  Speaker 10: this is true.
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: They talked to her. We walked to the house.
• 53:56
  Speaker 6: All three of you?
• 53:58
  Speaker 10: We stood in the back for a second. She had
• 54:03
  Speaker 10: walked up the street. Well, this was before we got
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: to the house. She walked up the street and then
• 54:07
  Speaker 10: she came back.
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: She spoke to us.
• 54:11
  Speaker 10: She walked back up the street. She walked down to
• 54:13
  Speaker 10: the corner. Then she walked back up toward Fuller. And
• 54:22
  Speaker 10: it's basically like, how are you doing?
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: What's going on? You want to go with us? What
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: you all about to do? Whatever, whatever. What'd you tell her?
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: I think we've all seen Christopher stumble around enough inconsistencies
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: to fast forward through this part. No one really needs
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: another 20 minutes of his unrehearsed lies. At this point,
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: It should be fairly obvious that Christopher had something to
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: do with Aliana's murder. But to what extent was he
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: involved versus the other men he claims were also present
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: in the house? Well, we're going to find out as
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: Detective Carlin is about to cut right through his BS.
• 55:15
  Speaker 6: She went in the house to get high with you?
• 55:16
  Speaker 10: No, she did. I don't even know why she followed.
• 55:20
  Speaker 10: We didn't ask her to come. I told you, like
• 55:23
  Speaker 10: I said, I told her I'm about to get high.
• 55:24
  Speaker 4: She said, what's that? I mean, he said, you don't
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: want to know nothing about that. And she's like, you
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: don't know what I want to know.
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: So she went into the house on her own? I'm
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: asking you because you were there.
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: I was there. I just wish she would have never
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: came in here.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: So you and this friend, who is this friend now?
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: Because Fonzo and the other guy are made up.
• 55:47
  Speaker 6: Who is this guy? Who is this guy that you're
• 55:52
  Speaker 6: alleging was inside?
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: He didn't go in with me at the time.
• 55:57
  Speaker 6: So it was just you and her?
• 55:58
  Speaker 16: No.
• 56:01
  Speaker 6: Once you got inside to get high, what happened? Did
• 56:04
  Speaker 6: you get high?
• 56:07
  Speaker 10: Actually, I stood like in the little storm thing and
• 56:12
  Speaker 10: got high just so the wind wouldn't blow my lighter.
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: You're talking storm door? Is that what you're talking about?
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that leads to the basement. Okay. Where's she at?
• 56:23
  Speaker 10: She's like standing right there by the door, back door, if.
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: You mean it.
• 56:33
  Speaker 6: What happened then?
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: And I came through the house and we sat there.
• 56:46
  Speaker 10: She was like, she just looked at me crazy like,
• 56:48
  Speaker 10: what does that make you feel like?
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: And I.
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: Told her, I said, it made me horny. I said,
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: I asked.
• 56:57
  Speaker 10: Her if we could get naked and do something. She
• 57:02
  Speaker 10: was like, It's cold. But she took her backpack and
• 57:08
  Speaker 10: her jacket off anyway and I'm thinking it's okay.
• 57:16
  Speaker 6: When did it not become okay for her?
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: Truthfully, it's like I don't think because it's like.
• 57:29
  Speaker 10: I'm sitting here and I'm looking at her but I'm
• 57:33
  Speaker 10: not I'm rubbing up against her and she never told
• 57:37
  Speaker 10: me no.
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: She never said stop. She never said anything.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Okay. Is this really in the living room where you
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: were describing before?
• 57:50
  Speaker 6: Where this was happening?
• 57:52
  Speaker 10: I guess it's the living room or wherever.
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: It's right there with a little roll of a pad
• 57:58
  Speaker 4: and what's that?
• 57:59
  Speaker 6: You're talking about by the front door?
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess if that's how far it was.
• 58:03
  Speaker 14: Okay.
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: What happened after that?
• 58:07
  Speaker 10: After that, it's like she never said no or anything
• 58:26
  Speaker 10: or tried to stop what was going on. It's like
• 58:31
  Speaker 10: I didn't even undress her. She undressed herself.
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 58:35
  Speaker 6: Well, you said that she took off her jacket and
• 58:37
  Speaker 6: her backpack.
• 58:37
  Speaker 10: Yeah, she had already got this. She had already took
• 58:39
  Speaker 10: her jacket and backpack off. She undressed herself.
• 58:42
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: And things kind of got out of hand when it's like.
• 58:59
  Speaker 10: I went to go get high again and I put
• 59:07
  Speaker 10: my clothes back on and I'm standing here by the
• 59:09
  Speaker 10: back door and I'm getting ready to get high and
• 59:12
  Speaker 10: it's like I don't know if she I don't know
• 59:17
  Speaker 10: exactly what happened at that moment like she attacked me
• 59:20
  Speaker 10: or whatever like if she suddenly realized that was wrong
• 59:25
  Speaker 10: and I need to get away from here but.
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: I was high and it scared me.
• 59:34
  Speaker 6: She came up behind you while you were getting high?
• 59:36
  Speaker 6: Was she screaming?
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: No, never.
• 59:40
  Speaker 13: Never.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Did she push you, hit you when she came upon you?
• 59:45
  Speaker 10: She pushed me and hit me and it scared me.
• 59:50
  Speaker 10: I reacted and I just wished and prayed that I
• 59:55
  Speaker 10: was never high at that moment.
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: What was your reaction to being scared by her? What
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 6: did you do is what I'm asking, Chris.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: I turned around, and.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 10: It's like I punched her, but then it's like after that,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 10: it's like a blur.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: It's like I almost blacked out or something.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: Where'd you punch her? I really can't say.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 10: I don't know if it's in the left side or
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 10: the right side of her face.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 6: But in her face? Is it with a closed fist
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 6: or an open hand?
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 10: It might have been a close face, but after that
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 10: I just blacked out and I just was like, fuck.
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: What the fuck have I done?
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: When the blackout ended and you realized what you had done,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: what did you do next?
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: There's nothing I could do. I just left.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 6: Well, you did something before you left.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: Right? Right.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 10: I think everything was done by the time my mind
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 10: cleared back up.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 6: You don't remember trying to hide her?
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I did that out of fear.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so can you tell me when the blackout came,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: you became clear, you just realized what you've done?
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 4: I'm scared.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 6: Yeah, so what did you try and do and how
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 6: did you do it?
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 4: I dragged her to the closet.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 6: You dragged her to the closet?
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 6: Was that bedroom open? Or did you have to open it?
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 10: No, everything, the door was open. I just dragged her
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 10: to the closet because I'm like, what the fuck? What
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 10: the fuck did I do?
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 6: What did you do after you dragged her there?
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: I ran out the house.
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: Did you take anything with you? I'm asking, Chris, because
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: her backpack is missing. Her jacket's missing. What did you
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: take with you?
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: I put it in the garbage. Where at? In the
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 4: garbage can.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 10: And I'm actually the one that took the nervous can
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 10: up front.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: You brought the garbage can to the tree lawn?
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: Yes, because it was a garbage day. And I'm like,
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 4: what the fuck have I done?
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 10: And I'm so nervous and scared now because I'm not
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 10: high no more.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: It's sobered me up so quick.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: Sure.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: And it's like....
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: So you take what you could find inside the house,
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: you put it in a garbage can, you take the
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: garbage can to the tree lawn?
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 6: What time does the garbage pickup happen on?
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 4: I have no idea.
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 6: But it's Thursday morning?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 10: I just know it was garbage day because I heard
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 10: people say it was garbage day and the garbage needed.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: To go out. It's like I was... If I could
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: go back... Shit would never have happened. I swear to God.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 4: What else did you enter with? I mean, I.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 3: It's interesting that Christopher describes his actions on January 26th
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: of 2017 as out of character. He also has never
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 3: publicly admitted to using the bloody tools found in the
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 3: house to murder the child. During the remainder of his interviews,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 3: He goes on to claim that he feels like crying
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: for Aliana and that his drug problem turns him into
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 3: a monster. According to Christopher, the day he killed Aliana DeFreeze,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 3: he simply wasn't himself. He even expresses what looks like
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 3: regret for making a horrible mistake that he wishes he
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 3: could take back, which in my opinion is so out
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 3: of touch with reality. Christopher Whittaker didn't accidentally reverse into
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: someone's car. He lured, essayed, tortured, and murdered a young girl.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: Then mere hours later, he continued to work and do
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 3: odd jobs for money while covered in the child's blood.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: Make no mistake, Christopher only thinks about Chris. During the
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: final portion of his interview, he expresses concern about his
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: face being blasted around the news. He's also upset that
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 3: he'll likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: A place he knows all too well. And you'll find
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 3: out why in a minute. But directly after his confession
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 3: and expression of regret, Christopher is allowed to make a
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: phone call to his girlfriend. The detectives exit the room
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 3: at this time and he is left alone for the
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: duration of the conversation. It's jaw-dropping how quickly his guilty
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: remorse turns into a desperate and deceitful effort to save face.
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: Christopher Whitaker is clearly only sorry he got caught.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Hello?
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 4: Can you hear me?
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Yes. Um....
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 10: Do you know I was on footer at that time
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 10: when a girl came up missing, right? And we were
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 10: scrapping in the house, so they picked me up on
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 10: suspicion of that.
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: So I'm sitting in the county now under.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 10: Suspicion of that. No, I didn't do it, Dad. I
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 10: didn't do it, Deb. Deb, listen, I didn't do it.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 10: Do you hear me? This is why the detective is
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 10: letting me use the phone. I'm on the detective's phone
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 10: right now. They called you for me to explain this.
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 10: Because they said, is there anybody you want to talk
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 10: to to explain what's going on? Because the media is
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 10: going to make an ass out of you right now.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 10: I knew I was there.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: I knew it, Dad. I love you, Dad. I'm so sorry.
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 10: I had to give them permission to call you. I
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 10: gave them permission to call you. They're going to call Will.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 10: They're going to call Ray and everybody that I was with.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 10: Until they get to the bottom of it, I'm going
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 10: to be sitting here with no buns. And, I mean,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 10: when I get out of here, I can't even show
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 10: my face in Cleveland now because they done already convicted
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 10: me of this shit.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: Right, the media has already convicted me.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 10: That's why I wanted to talk to you so you
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 10: can let people know that you are.
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: No, they did not. No, they.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 4: No, listen. Listen, they did not.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 10: That is why the detective was allowing me to call
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 10: you to explain this thing. Because they know the media
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 10: is going to put it out of hand and they
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 10: want me to call you to let you know. They said,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 10: is it anybody that you want to call? And so
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 10: this is me calling you to let you know that
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 10: they picked me up for it because we were scrapping
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 10: in that house. My fingerprints was in the house. I
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 10: took out the furnace.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: It.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 3: It's stunning in the worst way to watch Chris try
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 3: and manipulate his girlfriend. He even goes on to tell
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 3: her that his DNA match flagged up in the system
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 3: because he's on file as an offender due to a
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 3: situation with his ex-wife. But as far as my research indicates,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 3: that's just another lie. The reason Chris is an SA
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: offender and what really landed him in prison the first
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 3: time completely negates his claim that what he did to
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 3: Aliana was out of character. His 2005 case file indicates
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 3: that he attacked his friend's wife while he was alone
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 3: with her while using the bathroom in her apartment. Christopher
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 3: stabbed her in the neck, strangled her until she passed out,
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 3: and then, believing she was dead, he forced himself on her. Luckily,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 3: she survived. Here is her interview with News 5 Cleveland.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 8: Then he grabbed me around my neck and was choking me.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 8: And I passed out.
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 12: And 12 years after she was strangled, brutally raped, and
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 12: left unconscious in her own home, emotional and physical scars remain.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 8: When they found her body, it was like something came
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 8: over me and said, Chris did that.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 12: Chris Whitaker, accused of murdering 14-year-old Aliana DeFreeze and dumping
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 12: her body in this vacant home, was convicted 12 years
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 12: ago of sexually assaulting this woman, whose identity we're not revealing.
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 12: But the original charge of attempted murder was pled down.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 8: It's like my life didn't matter to them.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 12: As a result, he served just four years in prison.
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 8: And a person can go out and sell drugs and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 8: get more time than they gave him. And now look
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 8: what he done came back and did. She couldn't even
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 8: defend herself. Look how big he was.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 12: Now, Whitaker's 2005 victim says the system has a second
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 12: chance to get it right.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 8: He took a kid's life. And to me, when you
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 8: take a kid's life, a life for a life.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: Christopher Whitaker clearly harbored a deep-rooted urgency. to harm women.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: The system had a chance to put him away for
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 3: a long time for what he did to his first victim,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 3: but they didn't. And now 14-year-old Aliana DeFries has been
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: dead for almost 10 years. But there is a woman
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 3: I mentioned earlier that I said we'd come back to.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 3: Her name is Liquida Williams, the wife of Terrence Rice,
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 3: Whitaker's scrapping buddy that lived across the street from the
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 3: crime scene house on Fuller. Liquida knew Chris as Big Dog,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 3: and she'd only known him for a couple of weeks.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 3: Christopher washed his bloody clothes in her house without her knowledge.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 3: She often made him food or gave him water at
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 3: his request while he worked on the house next to hers,
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: which was owned by Raymond Beckwith. Liquida is also the
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: one who drove him to the scrapyard on the day
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 3: of Aliana's murder. Let me be clear that she nor
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: Terrence had any clue what Christopher had done. When Laquita
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: was questioned by police, the information she gave shows just
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 3: how easily she could have suffered the same fate as Aliana.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 3: Just how close she was to the jaws of a lion.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 14: So you know him as Big Dog. And you saw
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 14: him Wednesday before the little girl was reported missing?
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, Wednesday. He was over there a week and a
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 6: half before all that happened. Over where? Next door. And
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 6: he came to your house?
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 14: Mm-hmm.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 6: Tell me about that.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 2: He would just come in, knock on the door, ask
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: me for something to eat or something to drink. A
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: couple times he asked me to take him to the scrapyard.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 6: Have you ever seen him before?
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: Mm-mm.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 15: All right.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: My first time since when he just came over there
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 2: to work.
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 15: On the house so two and a half weeks and
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 15: you never seen him over there before but everybody say
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 15: he's from around there I don't be all around there
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 15: I go to the store and I go back home
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 15: so I don't know who from.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 14: Where your daughter tell you she saw him that Thursday
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 14: she told.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 2: Me that he told her I'm going to watch you
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: walk to the bus stop but her bus was already
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: right there So she got straight.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: On the bus. And her bus stop is where?
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 6: On the corner of Fuller.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 14: So you only seen him. He came over to your house.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 14: He was playing with your kids?
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 10: Mm-hmm.
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: Playing with my nieces and nephews and my kids.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 14: Did you ever think anything was weird about him? You
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 14: ever seen him on drugs, drinking?
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: He was acting normal, like a regular normal person.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: It's just that Saturday, he was just panicking.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: Like, he was acting weird that Saturday. Which Saturday?
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: Saturday, that following week. That Saturday, he was just acting
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 2: real strange.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 6: Like, I got to go. I got to go. I
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 6: got to get from over here.
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 14: So, are you talking about the Saturday before they found
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 14: her body?
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 6: And he said what? He was acting real strange. Like,
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 6: I got to go.
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 2: I got to get from over here. Like, that's the
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 2: first time I seen him freak out like that. He
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: asked to use my phone and call the ride, and
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 2: he got picked up and left.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 6: Is that number still in your phone? He was asking me.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 2: If I can take him to Mayfield Heights, I think.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: And he was going to give.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 6: Me $ 20, $ 25 or whatever. And I'm like, uh-uh, I
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 6: ain't about to go there for it. No, I don't
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 6: do that.
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 14: Anything else you can tell me about Big Dog, what
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 14: he told you or what he said to you?
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 2: On the ride to the scrapyard, he was saying something
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: about he just got out of jail for murder and
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: he wasn't trying.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: To go back. Which day was that?
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 6: And that was on that Wednesday.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 2: He said, I just got out of jail for murder
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: and I ain't trying to go back. Then he was like,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: I've been in prison too long.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 6: I kept on unlocking the doors.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 14: Why would he say I just got out of jail?
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 6: Why would he tell you that? That's what he was like.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 2: I just got out for murder and I ain't trying
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: to go back.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 6: Did he tell you who he murdered or where?
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 14: Mm-hmm.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: On Friday the 27th, the day after Christopher murdered Aliana,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 3: he and Terrence Rice helped Laquita's sister move house. It
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: was during this journey that the group encountered someone passing
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: out missing person flyers that featured Aliana's picture. While Terrence
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 3: was in the process of taking one, Christopher instructed him
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: to get him one too. Once Christopher looked at the flyer,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 3: he said out loud, That's messed up that she's missing.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: I pray to God that she's okay. But she wasn't,
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 3: and he knew it. It's really frightening to witness something
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 3: so cold-blooded in action. Something so calculated, so malevolent, so
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 3: downright monstrous. This man continued to stalk the area of
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 3: the crime scene for days after he murdered and tortured
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: a little girl. He even attended the first vigil and
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 3: presented himself as a concerned citizen in the wake of
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 3: the evil acts he committed. I'm convinced that Christopher Whitaker
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 3: is a human entity without so much as a fragment
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 3: of a soul. And it will be tempting for some
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 3: to point the finger at his drug abuse as the culprit,
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 3: but I actually don't believe that's the case at all.
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 3: If you ask me, the drugs are the reason he
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: got caught. The reason he didn't scrub his fingerprints. The
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: reason he didn't cover up the evidence. The reason why
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: he left the crime scene so tainted. While these might
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 3: look like the careless mistakes of a first-time murderer, I
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: fully believe with all my heart that Christopher has committed more.
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: And so do the authorities. As they began to dive
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: deeper down the rabbit hole of the investigation, they found
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 3: Whitaker's alias Facebook page that had a coded name. When
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 3: read out loud, it says Black Lion... the last one
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: on 93rd. Shortly after his interrogation, he was brought in
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 3: again and interviewed about the unsolved murders of four local
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: women that occurred in a six-year window. For three of
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 3: these victims, Christopher simply could not have been the killer.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 3: He was in prison at the time when the crimes occurred.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: But one of these women was not only accessible to
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: Christopher at the time of her murder, he worked security
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 3: at a now burned-down studio that was about a block
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 3: from her home. Her name was Jamila Hassan. She was
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: 37 years old when she was found stabbed to death
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 3: in her home on Manor Avenue in Cleveland, about a
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 3: mile away from where Aliana was found just five years later.
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 3: Jamila's body was discovered with 15 to 17 blade-made injuries,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: a match in brutality for Christopher Whitaker's M.O., Good.
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 6: Evening to you.
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 16: Today, Chris Whitaker, that suspect, was charged with murder.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 3: That's according to police.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 16: Tomorrow, he appears in court, a place he certainly knows.
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 16: At this home in South Euclid today, we spoke with
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 16: the aunts of Chris Whitaker, who spoke on the condition
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 16: we didn't show their faces or use their names. They
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 16: described their 44-year-old nephew as a father and grandfather, not
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 16: as a predator.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 11: And God is going to come out and show the
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 11: right one. God is going to show the right one.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 11: I know it's not in his heart. It's not in
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 11: his heart because I raised him up. My heart go
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 11: out for the other family. My heart really go out
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 11: for the other family. I pray to God that they
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 11: get the right person.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 16: Today, we spoke with people who say they knew him
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 16: at Garfield High School as Chris Summers. And while some
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 16: described him as aggressive and even creepy, they were surprised
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 16: by the allegations, with one pointing us to his personal
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 16: Facebook page with a profile that phonetically reads Black Lion,
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 16: the last on 93rd. Several unsolved murders have occurred in
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 16: recent years near East 93rd Street. And tonight, police say
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 16: they are in the very early stages of determining whether
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 16: he could be linked to other crimes. They say they
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 16: are looking at his DNA and matching it up case
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 16: by case.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 7: Family told us there would be a vigil today for
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 7: a story that struck a chord here in Cleveland. But
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 7: I don't think anyone imagined what happened today actually would.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 7: Aliana DeFries went missing last week, as you recall. She
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 7: was found murdered in an abandoned house. The man police
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 7: think killed her has now been caught. Carly Flynn Morgan
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 7: was there, and that's part of why this vigil was
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 7: certainly a lot different, Carly.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: Hillary, originally today's event was supposed to be something much different.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 5: Organizers planned it before police made an arrest in this case.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: The group intended to put pressure on law enforcement to
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 5: catch Aliana's killer. Instead, it was a parade of thanks, handshakes,
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 5: and hugs. This community will never forget that name. They
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 5: lived in agony for nearly a week, wondering who among
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 5: them could have killed the 14-year-old girl.
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 10: The family is so relieved that they have a suspect.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 3: That has been charged.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 5: Thursday's arrest of 44-year-old Christopher Whitaker meant that instead of
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 5: marching to the 4th District Police Headquarters and demanding action.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 5: They dealt out applause.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 12: Everybody get a chance to say thank you.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 5: The group of dozens lined up to show police their
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 5: appreciation one by one, even handing police a cake.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 12: Y'all moved on this real fast.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: Y'all made some relief come to me.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 10: I have granddaughters out there going to school every day,
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 10: and I feel real good and positive about what you
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 10: guys did.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 13: When there's problems, they band together very well and You know,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 13: when I've asked for help, I've always gotten help.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 7: Too many of our kids are coming up.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 6: It's got to end today.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 5: But the rally wasn't without strong emotion.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: It could have been my daughter.
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 17: My other daughter.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: It could have been you.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 4: It could have been you.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 7: And I love every last one of y'all like your.
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 5: Mom parents still on edge telling children to go straight
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 5: home after school and walk in pairs the group left
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 5: the police station and walked a short distance to the
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 5: abandoned home where aliana's body was found an army of
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 5: balloons and bears now stands on guard Too late to
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 5: protect Aliana from this heartbreaking crime. Aliana's family telling us
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 5: they won't have anything even close to closure until there
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 5: is a conviction in this case. But the swift arrest
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 5: did lift some of their burden and the whole community
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 5: feeling a sense of relief tonight as well.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 17: The court's been advised that you've reached a verdict. Ladies
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 17: and gentlemen, juror number three, Mr. Foreperson, would you hand
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 17: the verdict forms to the bailiff, please? The aggravated murder,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 17: the verdict form reads as follows. We, the jury, in
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 17: this case being duly impaneled and sworn, do find the defendant,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 17: Christopher Whitaker, guilty of aggravated murder in violation of revised
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 17: Code Section 2903.01b of the revised Code as charged in
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 17: Count 1 of the indictment. It is signed by juror
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 17: number 3, the foreperson, as well as the 11 other
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 17: panel members. With respect to the felony murder specification, the
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 17: indication is that he did, in fact, commit the offense.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 17: It is signed in the affirmative.
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 4: Prepare a statement to read to the jury.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 10: Yes. From the beginning, I've accepted full responsibility for my actions.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 10: I assisted a detective as to where to find my
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 10: clothes and boots I was wearing that day. I never
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 10: wanted this to happen, and ever since that day, I've
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 10: been filled with regret and remorse. Through the year, I
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 10: made a lot of phone calls, and in those calls,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 10: I've said things and lied about things in order to
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 10: protect my family's feelings. I've admitted to my guilt to
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 10: the detectives and to my lawyers. I asked my lawyers
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 10: not to contest or challenge anything in this case because
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 10: I really wanted to defreeze family to have closure. I
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 10: will not try to hide behind drugs or alcohol. I
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 10: will not pretend or lie because it wouldn't be fair
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 10: to the families. I apologize to the family and the
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 10: community for my actions. There is no excuse for what
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 10: I've done. I can't imagine the pain the family feels,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 10: but I know the pain I felt when I.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 4: Had to look at what I've done.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 10: If I could go back to that day in January,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 10: I'd change everything, but I can't, so I have to
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 10: live each day with the shame, hurt, and guilt. And
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 10: although the trial is over, the regret and painful memories
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 10: will remain with me. That's sometimes just things I can't shake.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 10: I pray that the family can find peace and she
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 10: can find rest.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 4: And my apologies.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 6: Thank you. You may step in.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 18: I just ask that you please watch your children. There's
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 18: a lot of Christopher Whitakers out here. There's a lot
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 18: of Christopher Whitakers out here. They're watching as I speak.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 7: What do you think of the death penalty recommendation?
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 18: I wanted life without the possibility of parole, but I
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 18: respect whatever the jury and the judge has.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 4: Come up with.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 18: I prefer him to sit there forever. You can sit
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 18: on death row forever, but you're isolated. I want this
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 18: man to experience hell on earth before he experiences hell
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 18: in the afterlife.
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 17: In the matter of the state of Ohio versus Christopher Whitaker,
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 17: the verdict form reads as follows. We, the jury, being
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 17: duly impaneled and sworn... do hereby find that the aggravating
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 17: circumstances that the defendant was found guilty of committing do
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 17: outweigh the mitigating factors presented in this case by proof
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 17: beyond a reasonable doubt, and we therefore unanimously find that
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 17: the sentence of death should be imposed upon the defendant,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 17: Christopher Whitaker.
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: And just like that, Christopher Whitaker was sentenced to die
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 3: for his actions. It's finally fair justice. Even though justice
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: often fares beyond a happy ending, I'm just glad that
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 3: in this case, they got it right. At least they
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 3: did the second time around. As for the house on
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 3: Fuller Avenue, it no longer stands. The city finally tore
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: it down, for it only ever would have served as
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 3: a painful reminder of the real-life nightmare suffered by a
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 3: child of Cleveland. Rest in peace to Aliana DeFries and
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 3: Jamila Hassan, who I'd bet my last dollar was another
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: victim of Christopher Whitaker's, potentially one of many.