Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #418 Maggie Freleng with Nikki Zinger

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#418 Maggie Freleng with Nikki Zinger · Wrongful Conviction

0:05
Speaker 1: One Friday morning in nineteen ninety one, Nicki Zinger and
0:08
Speaker 1: her boyfriend Daniel Rischer decided to drive down to Shreveport, Louisiana,
0:12
Speaker 1: for the day. The couple were both in their twenties
0:15
Speaker 1: and they lived in Magnolia, Arkansas. Daniel was in a
0:19
Speaker 1: band and he needed to take his guitar amp to
0:21
Speaker 1: a repair shop in Shreveport, about an hour and a
0:24
Speaker 1: half away. They stopped off to pick up some magazines
0:27
Speaker 1: at the home of Nicki's mother, Linda Holly. Linda was
0:31
Speaker 1: already at work, so Nicki left her a note and
0:34
Speaker 1: the two set off. When they got back that night,
0:37
Speaker 1: they drove past Linda's trailer.
0:40
Speaker 2: They mean because it was a little light. I figured
0:43
Speaker 2: she was in the bed, because when we went by
0:46
Speaker 2: the house the house was dark, but I thought the
0:48
Speaker 2: car was in the front yard.
0:50
Speaker 1: The next day, Saturday, Nicki called her mother over and
0:54
Speaker 1: over but was unable to reach her. On Sunday, Nicki
0:59
Speaker 1: and Daniel drove over to Linda's house and when they
1:02
Speaker 1: got their cops were everywhere.
1:05
Speaker 2: So when we pulled up and I asked what was wrong,
1:08
Speaker 2: and when they tell me that my mom was dead,
1:10
Speaker 2: I didn't understand why, because it just seemed make can
1:13
Speaker 2: be sinned. She couldn't be dead because she wasn't dead
1:17
Speaker 2: when I left.
1:20
Speaker 1: Linda Holly had been viciously murdered, stabbed, and bludgeoned to death,
1:25
Speaker 1: and Nicki and Daniel were soon the primary suspects.
1:30
Speaker 2: My I mistaking danger and not being locked in for
1:32
Speaker 2: thirty one years for crome. I have not committed.
1:37
Speaker 1: From lov of for good. This is wrongful conviction with
1:39
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today, Nicki Zinger.
1:50
Speaker 2: To accept this free call breath one to refuse the
1:53
Speaker 2: thank you for using securis. We may start the conversation now, Hi, Nikki,
1:59
Speaker 2: are we ready?
2:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm here, It's Maggie.
2:03
Speaker 2: Hey, we're a really neat talking kid home something us?
2:07
Speaker 1: Nicki? Yeah, we do. But let's get this interview, okay,
2:09
Speaker 1: and then we'll catch up because we don't want to
2:11
Speaker 1: We don't want to miss this. Nicki Zinger has been
2:18
Speaker 1: incarcerated at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Arkansas since nineteen
2:22
Speaker 1: ninety two, and Nicki and I have been friends since
2:25
Speaker 1: I first covered her case in twenty twenty for my
2:29
Speaker 1: podcast on' Justin Unsolved. Nicki's story has haunted me since then,
2:35
Speaker 1: and after listening to this episode, I think you will
2:38
Speaker 1: hear why. All right, Niki, so let's start at the beginning.
2:48
Speaker 1: Can you tell me about growing up. I know you
2:51
Speaker 1: were born in Chicago, but you moved to Arkansas.
2:55
Speaker 2: My mom left my dad when I was just a baby.
2:58
Speaker 2: I mean, we went to live with my grandmother, who
3:01
Speaker 2: lived in Magnolia at the time.
3:04
Speaker 1: Nicki Zinger was born in nineteen sixty three. After they
3:08
Speaker 1: moved to Magnolia, her mother, Linda Holly, raised Niki on
3:12
Speaker 1: her own.
3:14
Speaker 2: My dad was never a part of my life because
3:17
Speaker 2: he was always drinking and drugging. He was mentally and
3:20
Speaker 2: physically abusive to both. As I got older, he tried
3:24
Speaker 2: to come see me a few but he was always drunk,
3:27
Speaker 2: and my mother asked him, can you not come see
3:29
Speaker 2: your only child sober? Because he was flushing me one
3:34
Speaker 2: day and he pushed me out of the swings and
3:38
Speaker 2: he just left me there.
3:40
Speaker 1: Linda was a nurse and worked as a director with
3:42
Speaker 1: the health department, but Nicki says she could have done
3:45
Speaker 1: more with her life.
3:47
Speaker 2: She was smart enough to be a doctor. She just didn't,
3:50
Speaker 2: I think because of me, because of my problem I
3:55
Speaker 2: was born with a club foot in a foot drawn
3:58
Speaker 2: and I was born paralyzed and a throw from the marine.
4:04
Speaker 1: And that meant that Nikki needed constant care.
4:08
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm in the hospital for like three four
4:11
Speaker 2: months with my foot. I'm almost upside down because I
4:15
Speaker 2: gotta have pins in my pans and all my toes
4:18
Speaker 2: and a cast, and I got an upside down so
4:20
Speaker 2: I won't get a food cloth. So you really can't
4:23
Speaker 2: do anything. I missed a lot of the child my
4:26
Speaker 2: childhood being in the hospital.
4:30
Speaker 1: Even when she was home in between operations, Nikki had
4:33
Speaker 1: to wear a cast day and night. She rarely went
4:36
Speaker 1: to school, so Linda homeschooled her.
4:40
Speaker 2: I had no friends because I had to go every
4:42
Speaker 2: o the year for so many years. If you're friends
4:45
Speaker 2: with me one year and I'm out the next year,
4:47
Speaker 2: you're not gonna keep you know, you're you're a child,
4:50
Speaker 2: so you're not gonna keep trying to be my friend.
4:53
Speaker 2: So I really never did get posted anybody because I
4:56
Speaker 2: was never in school.
4:57
Speaker 1: So tell me about growing up with your mom. You
4:59
Speaker 1: guys really were each other's people. She was kind of
5:03
Speaker 1: your best friend. She took care of you when you
5:04
Speaker 1: were having all your health problems to tell me about that.
5:07
Speaker 2: She was. She was my playmate, She was my everything.
5:10
Speaker 2: I didn't know any other way. I mean, I couldn't work,
5:16
Speaker 2: so you know, I stayed home and did the little things.
5:20
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. We just got to do
5:22
Speaker 2: and everything. If we went to the sonic or went
5:25
Speaker 2: to the drive whatever drive through, we sitd in the
5:28
Speaker 2: park a lot sometime and just have a big bas
5:30
Speaker 2: and just watch everybody. If me and my mother traveled,
5:33
Speaker 2: it was just me and my mother. She did it.
5:36
Speaker 2: Lay in the bend and play video games with me,
5:38
Speaker 2: or the TV or the movies, or just outside playing,
5:43
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying. And that was just happy
5:45
Speaker 2: with me.
5:46
Speaker 1: Nikki and her mom did everything together. They were happy
5:50
Speaker 1: in each other's company. But still Linda wanted more for
5:54
Speaker 1: her daughter, have.
5:56
Speaker 2: A good career, have a good lie, not to worry
5:59
Speaker 2: about things, you know what I'm saying. She didn't want
6:01
Speaker 2: me to have to work hard like she did. She
6:04
Speaker 2: didn't want me to have to worry about the things
6:06
Speaker 2: that she worried about, or the man that she had
6:09
Speaker 2: picked like my father.
6:11
Speaker 1: As a teenager, Nikki was interested in boys. She was
6:14
Speaker 1: curious about dating, but she wasn't quite ready to strike
6:18
Speaker 1: out on her own, to.
6:21
Speaker 2: Be honest with you, making my mother, making my mom
6:25
Speaker 2: go and dragon so we could look at boys. She
6:28
Speaker 2: would take me to Tonic. We would look just look,
6:32
Speaker 2: you know what I'm saying, Just drive around and I
6:36
Speaker 2: don't know.
6:38
Speaker 1: Wait, so you didn't. I actually never do that. So
6:40
Speaker 1: you and mom would go look for boys together.
6:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, just go look on my not. I didn't date
6:47
Speaker 2: a lot because I always lived was so shy because
6:52
Speaker 2: of the scars on my leg or because when leg
6:56
Speaker 2: was bigger than the other. So my mom said, well,
6:59
Speaker 2: let's just see this.
7:04
Speaker 1: Then in her early twenties, NICKI did meet someone. When
7:08
Speaker 1: they got married, she thought Larry would take care of her,
7:11
Speaker 1: but that's not how it turned out.
7:14
Speaker 2: I didn't know a lot of things about Larry until
7:16
Speaker 2: after I got married. And he drank a lot. I
7:18
Speaker 2: knew he drank some, I didn't know that he had
7:21
Speaker 2: drank that bad. And he wouldn't want to leave and
7:23
Speaker 2: come in late at two o'clock in the morning. I said,
7:25
Speaker 2: we can't do that, this is my mom found. So
7:28
Speaker 2: he when he did late, and he would try to
7:30
Speaker 2: bang on the door, and my mother wouldn't let me in,
7:34
Speaker 2: and he just got out of hand and he was
7:37
Speaker 2: getting real verbal abusive and stuff like that, and so
7:41
Speaker 2: I just just got a divorce. I don't ever regret it.
7:46
Speaker 1: How long were you married for?
7:49
Speaker 2: Not even six months?
7:51
Speaker 1: With Larry out of the picture, Nicki and her mom
7:54
Speaker 1: went back to their quiet life together. By now, they
7:57
Speaker 1: had sold her grandparents' house and moved into a new place,
8:00
Speaker 1: a brand new double wide trailer.
8:03
Speaker 2: He had two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a living room, a
8:07
Speaker 2: TV room, and then the master bedroom had his own bathroom,
8:12
Speaker 2: home TV room, like a little apartment.
8:15
Speaker 1: Linda continued with her job at the health center, and
8:18
Speaker 1: Nikki pitched in by babysitting and working at a nursery
8:21
Speaker 1: when she wasn't watching TV or listening to her favorite music. So, Nikki,
8:26
Speaker 1: I know that you in your past maybe still are
8:29
Speaker 1: a bit of a rocker. What kind of music did
8:31
Speaker 1: you used to like?
8:33
Speaker 2: Me? Yeah? You? Oh my god, I was like ACDCA
8:39
Speaker 2: or Van Highland or Journey. That was back when I
8:45
Speaker 2: was a little bit of a young person.
8:52
Speaker 1: And then when Linda was forty five, something happened that
8:56
Speaker 1: would upset the balance of their life together. Linda's struggle
9:00
Speaker 1: with how to tell her daughter the devastating news.
9:04
Speaker 2: And I happened to come home early, and I was like, well,
9:07
Speaker 2: why is the PaperWorks sitting on my bed? So I
9:10
Speaker 2: turned it on and it was her talking. That's when
9:14
Speaker 2: she told me that she had cancer. I was devastated
9:19
Speaker 2: because I had to know how to act and to
9:21
Speaker 2: deal with the feelings because cancer makes you so through
9:24
Speaker 2: so much.
9:26
Speaker 1: Their lifetime roles were reversed and Nikki became her mother's caretaker.
9:32
Speaker 1: What kinds of caretaking things did you have to do
9:35
Speaker 1: for her?
9:36
Speaker 2: I'd make the bed or cook. We went and got
9:39
Speaker 2: her a wig. We learned how to eat better because
9:42
Speaker 2: she had to change the way she ate to get
9:44
Speaker 2: the vitamin into that the chemotherapy and the radiation was
9:48
Speaker 2: taken out of her. So we had bought a steamer,
9:50
Speaker 2: so I learned to steam the vegetables that she liked.
9:53
Speaker 2: So I'll just cooked. And she still worked because she
9:57
Speaker 2: wanted to. Because she didn't she said she would drop
9:59
Speaker 2: her cray see. So when she come in, I would
10:02
Speaker 2: fix her bath, have her dinner ready and we would
10:05
Speaker 2: just watch Tippie or whatever. She if she wanted to
10:08
Speaker 2: go outside and walk some We would go out there
10:10
Speaker 2: and walk down the road because we lived in the country.
10:12
Speaker 1: Anyway, it was hard for NICKI to watch her mom
10:15
Speaker 1: going through chemotherapy.
10:17
Speaker 2: I don't know if the cure is worse than Kevin canthrope,
10:20
Speaker 2: because you know, I'd watched my mom go through so
10:23
Speaker 2: much final tab her hair coming out, losing one of
10:29
Speaker 2: her breaths, which really upset her is very, very hard.
10:33
Speaker 1: NICKI also had to process the fact that the worst
10:36
Speaker 1: might happen, that she might lose her mother, her best friend, because.
10:44
Speaker 2: By this time she had been through chemotherapy and radiation twice.
10:48
Speaker 2: Sometimes she would feel better and sometimes you wouldn't. I
10:52
Speaker 2: just couldn't think about this being the end of my
10:54
Speaker 2: mom because I don't have any family. This is only
10:58
Speaker 2: this has been my only mah long. I just didn't
11:01
Speaker 2: thinking my life just staying after by Masel, you know.
11:07
Speaker 1: And then when she was in her mid twenties, someone
11:10
Speaker 1: new came into Nicky's life. She had met a few
11:13
Speaker 1: people around the area and one day one of the
11:16
Speaker 1: girls invited her to a party.
11:19
Speaker 2: Held my mom a mad and she said, it was
11:20
Speaker 2: like a heart you might meet somebody you I'm play
11:23
Speaker 2: so I go and there was Daniel.
11:27
Speaker 1: Nicky was twenty six and Daniel Rischer was four years younger.
11:31
Speaker 1: She was attracted to him right away.
11:36
Speaker 2: His hair was it looked like a legal haircut when
11:39
Speaker 2: I first meet him. Dark brown is great. He had big,
11:43
Speaker 2: puppy dow brown eyes. He was kind of shy like me.
11:47
Speaker 2: He was just oh no, just different from everybody.
11:52
Speaker 1: One day, not long after that, to Nicky's surprise, Daniel
11:56
Speaker 1: showed up at their trailer. Linda was on her way
11:58
Speaker 1: to work, but.
12:00
Speaker 2: Who is this? And I introduced and everything she was
12:04
Speaker 2: talking about she didn't want to leave me, and he said, well,
12:06
Speaker 2: I bet if I just come up and keep recompany
12:08
Speaker 2: during the day while you're at work. And that's what
12:12
Speaker 2: he did, and that's where it started.
12:15
Speaker 1: What stood out to you about him, It wasn't.
12:17
Speaker 2: Like my ex husband, it was it was it was
12:22
Speaker 2: sweet because it was like a slow build that makes
12:27
Speaker 2: sense to you. It was this he helped with everything.
12:32
Speaker 2: It was just it was just so natural.
12:38
Speaker 1: Not only that Daniel was into rock music like Nikki.
12:41
Speaker 1: Music was one of the things they bonded over.
12:44
Speaker 2: You know. He played the guitar and he had his
12:47
Speaker 2: own little personal band and he was good at it,
12:50
Speaker 2: and I thought that was kind of neat to have
12:53
Speaker 2: my boyfriend that played the band. You know what I'm saying.
12:55
Speaker 2: It's kind of not necessarily a prestige or whatever you
12:59
Speaker 2: want to say, but it was kind of neat.
13:01
Speaker 1: Before long, Nicky and Daniel were inseparable. They went back
13:05
Speaker 1: and forth between their homes, staying some nights at Linda's
13:08
Speaker 1: place and others with Daniel's parents, Albert and Rachel. At first,
13:13
Speaker 1: Nicky says, Rachel wasn't sure how she felt about her
13:16
Speaker 1: son's new girlfriend.
13:18
Speaker 2: When she got to know me, things changed because, you know,
13:23
Speaker 2: she didn't think I was trying to take a betty
13:25
Speaker 2: to her soon or anything else. She was. I was
13:28
Speaker 2: really nice because I helped with the dishes, and I
13:30
Speaker 2: helped cook when we all lay down there, I helped
13:34
Speaker 2: everything that she did.
13:36
Speaker 1: Did your mom like him?
13:38
Speaker 2: I think so. Harry and Daniel really got along. She
13:41
Speaker 2: had asked that, you know what I thought about maybe
13:44
Speaker 2: was going on vacation one time, all of us together.
13:47
Speaker 1: Oh where would you have gone?
13:50
Speaker 2: Well, my mom, she was a very history buff and
13:52
Speaker 2: Glen went to Mississippi together and seeing no battlefields, and
13:58
Speaker 2: she wanted to go to Dalamo. They see all the
14:01
Speaker 2: stuff in Texas. As things progressed with me and him,
14:04
Speaker 2: we talked about maybe getting married one day, maybe starting
14:08
Speaker 2: a family.
14:11
Speaker 1: One Friday morning, about a year and a half into
14:13
Speaker 1: their relationship, Daniel needed to take his guitar AMP to
14:17
Speaker 1: a repair shop in Shreveport. It was about an hour
14:19
Speaker 1: and a half away, and Niki decided to go along
14:22
Speaker 1: for the ride and make a day of it. On
14:25
Speaker 1: their way out, they stopped by Linda's to pick up
14:27
Speaker 1: a few magazines for the drive, and Linda was already
14:30
Speaker 1: at work.
14:31
Speaker 2: I left her a note on the bar the Taylor
14:34
Speaker 2: and we were going to Strappart. It was still daytime
14:38
Speaker 2: when we got there, so we went to the amp
14:41
Speaker 2: place and the city was closed for lunch, so we
14:45
Speaker 2: went to the mall and he decided he was hungry,
14:48
Speaker 2: so we went night a sandwich place and he bought
14:52
Speaker 2: me some perfume a couple of balls apart few.
14:55
Speaker 1: They walked around the mall for a bit, then went
14:58
Speaker 1: back to the shop to drop off Daniel's AMP. As
15:00
Speaker 1: it was starting to get dark, they headed back to Magnolia,
15:04
Speaker 1: arriving in the late evening.
15:06
Speaker 2: I don't know what time. It was exactly. We stopped
15:09
Speaker 2: by Easy Mark, we had dinner at Sonic, and we
15:14
Speaker 2: went home.
15:17
Speaker 1: On the way, they drove past Linda's house.
15:21
Speaker 2: I didn't think of myself because it was a little late.
15:23
Speaker 2: I figured she was in the bed. I mean because
15:27
Speaker 2: when we went by the house, the house was dark,
15:29
Speaker 2: but I thought the car was in the front yard.
15:32
Speaker 1: The next day, Saturday, Nikki called her mom and left
15:35
Speaker 1: multiple messages.
15:37
Speaker 2: But that's when she usually goes to the store. This
15:40
Speaker 2: her day. She goes to the grocery store, to the
15:43
Speaker 2: farmer's market, Kmart. Is just her day to do all that.
15:47
Speaker 2: And now I didn't think of anything.
15:51
Speaker 1: So John, can you introduce yourself for listeners.
15:55
Speaker 3: Sure, my name is John Harden. I'm a private investigator
15:58
Speaker 3: and four ten years as i rend the nonprofit Proclaimed Justice.
16:03
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through what happens back on March eighth,
16:07
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. What do we know that happened? Basically,
16:11
Speaker 1: what we know.
16:11
Speaker 3: Happened is on Friday March eighth, at four thirty five
16:15
Speaker 3: o'clock something like that, Linda Holly was seen at her
16:18
Speaker 3: mailbox by her neighbor Kara Lee Davis. She was in
16:21
Speaker 3: her scrubs. She was checking her mail. They had a
16:24
Speaker 3: brief conversation about maybe we'll go to the store together tomorrow,
16:27
Speaker 3: do a little shopping tomorrow. And that's the last sighting
16:31
Speaker 3: that we know for sure of Linda Holly alive. That's
16:34
Speaker 3: on Friday afternoon. You fast forward to Sunday and Caro
16:39
Speaker 3: Lee Davis, the neighbor, was concerned because she had left
16:42
Speaker 3: a couple of messages for Linda that were not returned,
16:44
Speaker 3: but her car was still there, so she Kara becomes concerned.
16:48
Speaker 3: She calls her friend Jan Terrell, who is also Linda
16:52
Speaker 3: Holly's friend, and they call a police officer who they knew,
16:56
Speaker 3: named Buddy Height. The three of them go over. Buddy
16:59
Speaker 3: enters enough to see that there's a bad scene going
17:02
Speaker 3: on there, and he calls the police officers that who
17:06
Speaker 3: were on duty.
17:08
Speaker 1: So once the police arrive on the scene, what was
17:11
Speaker 1: the investigation?
17:12
Speaker 3: Like the first couple of officers, they don't know what
17:15
Speaker 3: they're walking into. So they go through the back utility
17:17
Speaker 3: room door of the trailer and they're walking through broken
17:21
Speaker 3: glass or walking through blood, and you can't blame them.
17:24
Speaker 3: They've got their weapons drawn. They don't know if somebody's
17:27
Speaker 3: still in that trailer or not. They go in, they
17:30
Speaker 3: find Linda dead. It was multiple stab wounds twelve stab wounds,
17:38
Speaker 3: as well as blunt force trauma, some evidence of some
17:41
Speaker 3: strangulation as well.
17:43
Speaker 1: John says that the investigation was a mess from the beginning.
17:48
Speaker 3: That crime scene was not secured at all. There were
17:51
Speaker 3: very quickly, multiple people, multiple officers, kind of all over
17:56
Speaker 3: the place there. Going in and out of the trailer
17:58
Speaker 3: was sort of the first thing that went wrong with
18:02
Speaker 3: this investigation.
18:05
Speaker 1: So you guys on Sunday are calling her. She's not answering.
18:08
Speaker 1: So at what point do you go over to the house.
18:10
Speaker 2: I guess about lunch, maybe maybe a little after lunch.
18:14
Speaker 2: I come around the corner and there was a whole
18:16
Speaker 2: bunch of cars in the yard and told them we
18:19
Speaker 2: pulled up. Everybody was coming out from behind my house,
18:22
Speaker 2: and I asked what was wrong, And when they told
18:24
Speaker 2: me that that my mom was dead, I just remember
18:29
Speaker 2: thinking that they're lying. So I run around behind the
18:31
Speaker 2: house and they caught me and told me that I
18:35
Speaker 2: told me that I couldn't. I couldn't go around there.
18:41
Speaker 2: And by this time I was crying and I didn't
18:43
Speaker 2: understand why because it just seemed making any sense that
18:47
Speaker 2: you're telling me that my mom was dead and she
18:49
Speaker 2: couldn't be dead because she wasn't dead when I left.
18:54
Speaker 2: I just know. That's when I just light on the
19:00
Speaker 2: grass and I can do nothing because it was just
19:03
Speaker 2: my whole life was gone. I have no life now
19:09
Speaker 2: that didn't have anything no more. Who would do something
19:16
Speaker 2: like this? I mean, I just didn't know anybody that
19:22
Speaker 2: didn't like my mom my d You don't say I
19:25
Speaker 2: still don't know. I know I didn't. Why would I
19:30
Speaker 2: tighten my life away from me?
19:46
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
19:49
Speaker 1: You can listen to this and all the LoVa for
19:52
Speaker 1: Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing
19:56
Speaker 1: to LoVa for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Within days
20:07
Speaker 1: of finding out her mother had been murdered, Nicky was
20:10
Speaker 1: told that she had to leave their home.
20:15
Speaker 2: Nobody was paying for it anymore. We had like ten
20:19
Speaker 2: fifteen days to get everything out of the house, so
20:23
Speaker 2: me and Daniel and my friend Davy went up there
20:27
Speaker 2: and we would try to plan it up some during
20:29
Speaker 2: the days and keep the things out that I wanted
20:32
Speaker 2: to keep. We would do to the day because I couldn't.
20:35
Speaker 2: I couldn't do in there at night time. It stretched
20:38
Speaker 2: me out too bad and I had not marriage from it.
20:43
Speaker 3: The day after Linda was found murdered, Daniel and Nicki
20:47
Speaker 3: were allowed to go into the home unsupervised. They're cleaning
20:51
Speaker 3: all this stuff up from the murder before the crime
20:55
Speaker 3: scene folks got there, before the State crime lab arrived,
20:58
Speaker 3: three days before the State crime labl.
21:01
Speaker 1: Nicky says that at one point officers asked her if
21:03
Speaker 1: there was anything missing from the house, mcdona, what was missing?
21:08
Speaker 2: Her gun was missing, hammer was missing, money was missing,
21:12
Speaker 2: jewelry was missing, and they did not one thing about
21:15
Speaker 2: any of that.
21:17
Speaker 1: As it turns out, the detectives were concerned about something
21:20
Speaker 1: else entirely.
21:22
Speaker 3: They weren't looking for valuables that were missing or anything
21:26
Speaker 3: like that. Officers testified at trial that immediately once they
21:32
Speaker 3: found Linda Holly murdered in her home, they immediately started
21:36
Speaker 3: looking for insurance and other important.
21:39
Speaker 1: Papers Linda's two life insurance policies, which added up to
21:44
Speaker 1: ninety thousand dollars.
21:47
Speaker 3: And they all four said that there were all these
21:50
Speaker 3: papers on the floor and scattered about and Nicky was
21:54
Speaker 3: gathering papers and putting them in this box. The day
21:57
Speaker 3: after Linda was murdered, they take them to daniel house.
22:01
Speaker 1: At this point, the investigation had already begun to turn
22:04
Speaker 1: towards Nikki and Daniel.
22:07
Speaker 3: I guess the old adage that you always looked at
22:09
Speaker 3: those you know, they look at those closest to you
22:12
Speaker 3: rings true to some degree here, and in that way,
22:16
Speaker 3: you sort of can't blame me either.
22:24
Speaker 1: So when did they start questioning you about what happens?
22:27
Speaker 1: Tell me what you remember about when you started realizing, like,
22:30
Speaker 1: oh shit, I think they might think I did this.
22:35
Speaker 2: They interviewed me and Daniel maybe I don't remember. Right
22:42
Speaker 2: after they let us go in the trailer the good things,
22:47
Speaker 2: and then I think that day or that next day
22:50
Speaker 2: they called SUP there they read Daniel's his rights, so
22:54
Speaker 2: they never read mine. Robert Boram talked to Daniel, and
22:58
Speaker 2: GM talked to me. He told me that they had
23:03
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of suspects, and then I'd ask him
23:05
Speaker 2: who he wouldn't tell me, And he asked where we'd been,
23:09
Speaker 2: and I told him where we'd been, and he said,
23:12
Speaker 2: did I have any receipts? And I showed him. He
23:16
Speaker 2: took my receipt from where he bought that perfume, and
23:20
Speaker 2: I've never seen it since. They pulled hair out of
23:23
Speaker 2: my head ten fifteen, maybe twenty friends of my hair,
23:28
Speaker 2: and I asked why are they doing that, and they
23:30
Speaker 2: said they had to. I don't know why. It's this
23:34
Speaker 2: very day. Did it match anything? Did not match anything?
23:38
Speaker 2: They cut her fingernails off because they said they said
23:40
Speaker 2: it was something under her finger nails. Did that match something?
23:44
Speaker 2: What was it? I tried to find out, and no
23:47
Speaker 2: one's told me.
23:49
Speaker 1: On March fourteenth, officers got a warrant to search Daniel's
23:53
Speaker 1: parents home for evidence.
23:56
Speaker 3: And they find this insurance box that, in my opinion,
23:59
Speaker 3: is so when they came to form this theory that
24:02
Speaker 3: it was done for insurance. And I honestly believe that
24:05
Speaker 3: there's a strong probability that these officers conspired to testify
24:11
Speaker 3: that they were immediately looking for insurance papers. So that's
24:15
Speaker 3: why the insurance papers became so significant at trial.
24:19
Speaker 1: In addition to the box with the insurance papers, they
24:22
Speaker 1: seized a hunting jacket and some boots belonging to Daniel.
24:25
Speaker 1: The investigators also zeroed in on Daniel's rock and roll lifestyle.
24:30
Speaker 3: This is nineteen ninety one, this is at the height
24:33
Speaker 3: of Satanic Panic era. It became a lot of this
24:36
Speaker 3: stuff of Daniel was this weird, aggressive guy that listened
24:40
Speaker 3: to all this heavy metal music, played heavy metal music,
24:42
Speaker 3: that kind of thing. So I think that those things
24:46
Speaker 3: are what sort of got the police's focus on them
24:51
Speaker 3: to start with.
24:53
Speaker 1: They also scrutinized things like Nikki's rock posters and an
24:57
Speaker 1: Iron Maiden T shirt of Daniel's, which to them seemed
25:01
Speaker 1: to suspect.
25:02
Speaker 3: And in fact, some of that stuff was ses as evidence.
25:05
Speaker 3: It wasn't used a trial, but shows you where their
25:07
Speaker 3: minds were at as they were investigating. So there was
25:10
Speaker 3: strong indication and even some comments made about this could
25:14
Speaker 3: be something to do with the occult. Ultimately, what the
25:17
Speaker 3: state decided on was that Daniel and Nicky murdered her
25:21
Speaker 3: mother for a ninety thousand dollars life insurance payout.
25:24
Speaker 1: About a month later, on April eighteenth, nineteen ninety one,
25:28
Speaker 1: Nicky and Daniel were both arrested and charged with first
25:32
Speaker 1: degree murder. What were you thinking when that happened.
25:43
Speaker 2: I don't remember. I don't think I was thinking because
25:49
Speaker 2: who does that? Who thinks that they would kill their mom?
25:55
Speaker 2: Who really thinks that they would kill their mom? I
25:59
Speaker 2: think that everybody was just putting out every all kinds
26:01
Speaker 2: of rumors, and I think a lot of them come
26:04
Speaker 2: from the sheriffs office. I do.
26:07
Speaker 1: So when they arrest you, when they actually put handcuffs
26:10
Speaker 1: on you, and you wind up in the jail and
26:12
Speaker 1: you're waiting for trial. The only person you have now
26:15
Speaker 1: at this point is Daniel, and were you even able
26:17
Speaker 1: to talk to him?
26:19
Speaker 2: They were letting me talk to Daniel, but they were
26:21
Speaker 2: listening to everything that we said, just in case I
26:25
Speaker 2: said something or he said something, or or they would
26:30
Speaker 2: take him outside and they wouldn't take me. They did
26:34
Speaker 2: a lot of horrible things to me in County jail,
26:37
Speaker 2: trying to make me say that I did. And I
26:39
Speaker 2: keep telling them, then, if I'm not going to say
26:41
Speaker 2: that I did now, why would I say I'm doing
26:43
Speaker 2: it now? Because I haven't done anything wrong. I got
26:46
Speaker 2: sick with walking pneumonia. They tell me it isn't take
26:51
Speaker 2: me to the hospital, and then they wouldn't take me,
26:53
Speaker 2: or they laugh at me, or they'd give me water
26:57
Speaker 2: with crashing, and I got the poisoned him because the
27:01
Speaker 2: food was rotten that they give me. They wouldn't take
27:04
Speaker 2: me outside. They would put people in there and tell
27:08
Speaker 2: me that I was going to die. They would make
27:10
Speaker 2: fine noises like they was going to find me in
27:12
Speaker 2: the letture chair that I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat.
27:19
Speaker 1: Sitting in jail awaiting trial, Nikki had nothing but time
27:23
Speaker 1: to think about her mother's life and what happened to her.
27:27
Speaker 2: First of all, I loved my mom very dearly, even
27:31
Speaker 2: as broken as she was. I would have never traded
27:33
Speaker 2: for nothing in the world when you don't have anything
27:38
Speaker 2: and you were raised up like me with the day
27:41
Speaker 2: that was so mean and hateful, and he's already destroying
27:46
Speaker 2: one life, my mom, and she was trying to put
27:53
Speaker 2: it all back together. And you have a child that
27:57
Speaker 2: was born with such a terrible disability. You know, she
28:03
Speaker 2: had to swallow her life because of mine, because she
28:07
Speaker 2: couldn't be what she ended up being in six veins
28:14
Speaker 2: all right, LEAs tried to where I could walk and
28:16
Speaker 2: have a decent life, and it's just very hard.
28:40
Speaker 1: In January of nineteen ninety two, Daniel and Nikki went
28:44
Speaker 1: to trial. They were tried together, but with separate attorneys.
28:48
Speaker 1: The trial lasted just three days. The most damaging testimony
28:53
Speaker 1: for the prosecution came from Arkansas state criminologist Don Smith.
28:58
Speaker 1: He had done lumino testing the camouflage, hunting jacket and
29:01
Speaker 1: boots that have been taken from Daniel's home.
29:05
Speaker 3: I'm sure your listeners know, but you know, luminol is
29:08
Speaker 3: a chemical that is an agent that reacts with bloods,
29:11
Speaker 3: but it reacts with a bunch of other materials too.
29:14
Speaker 3: So if there's blood on something, you can spray luminol
29:17
Speaker 3: on it, put a black light over it, and it
29:19
Speaker 3: will essentially glow. Right. It doesn't tell you even if
29:23
Speaker 3: it's blood number one, number two, it doesn't tell you
29:27
Speaker 3: what species of animal the blood comes from, much less
29:31
Speaker 3: whose blood it is if it's human's blood. So the
29:34
Speaker 3: prosecutor really led him into this about the strong implication
29:40
Speaker 3: without outright saying during his testimony that the blood that
29:45
Speaker 3: reacted to luminol on Daniel's shoe and jacket was Linda
29:49
Speaker 3: Hally's blood. That was the clear implication given to the jury.
29:55
Speaker 1: In fact, Daniel has always maintained that the blood on
29:59
Speaker 1: his hunting jacket came from a deer, but against the
30:02
Speaker 1: expert criminologist testimony, all but saying the blood was Linda's.
30:06
Speaker 1: It added up to a powerful argument for conviction.
30:11
Speaker 3: In fact, I've interviewed multiple jurors since then, and that's
30:15
Speaker 3: the first thing any of them ever brought up, was
30:18
Speaker 3: the blood on the jacket.
30:20
Speaker 1: Because besides that, I mean, what other evidence was there
30:23
Speaker 1: against them? It was the life insurance, the.
30:26
Speaker 3: Life insurance and the blood. I mean, that was it.
30:30
Speaker 3: That was truly it.
30:32
Speaker 1: The defense didn't seem to have much to present either,
30:35
Speaker 1: although they did try to introduce the possibility of alternate suspects.
30:40
Speaker 3: There was a man named Lewis Burris. He with regularity
30:46
Speaker 3: would see people at Linda's home that he thought were
30:51
Speaker 3: out of place. Let me put it that way. One
30:53
Speaker 3: of them was the same guy that he would see
30:57
Speaker 3: there very often, and he saw him there that morning,
31:01
Speaker 3: saw him outside Linda's place on that Friday morning.
31:04
Speaker 1: According to Nikki, Linda was dating a police officer at
31:07
Speaker 1: the time and he sometimes stayed overnight. Both Lewis Burris
31:11
Speaker 1: and Linda's neighbor Caro Leie Davis testified that they'd seen
31:15
Speaker 1: a police car parked in front of her house on
31:17
Speaker 1: a regular basis he would come at.
31:20
Speaker 2: Light at night, because should I always say, if the
31:23
Speaker 2: car's in the front yard, please yourself stop and come back.
31:26
Speaker 2: And there'd be a lot of times his car would
31:29
Speaker 2: be in the yard at that time.
31:31
Speaker 3: Another set of people that Lewis Burris saw with regularity,
31:35
Speaker 3: there were, as he described them, two black guys, the
31:39
Speaker 3: same black guys that were there almost every Saturday morning,
31:42
Speaker 3: is what he said. And I only really bring that
31:45
Speaker 3: up because there was a similar crime that happened in
31:50
Speaker 3: a town just thirty miles away, just a few days
31:54
Speaker 3: before Linda Holly's murder, that was very similar and the
31:58
Speaker 3: strongest suspects in that case were some African American males.
32:03
Speaker 1: That was the case of a woman named Bernice Rankin.
32:07
Speaker 3: She was found murdered in her home, stabbed, bludgeoned, so
32:11
Speaker 3: very similar crime, similar enough to the point where a
32:15
Speaker 3: detective named Jimmy Morgan felt strongly that these two crimes
32:21
Speaker 3: were similar enough that he wanted real work done in
32:23
Speaker 3: comparing notes, comparing potential suspects, that kind of thing.
32:29
Speaker 1: In fact, Jimmy Morgan came to the trial he was
32:33
Speaker 1: prepared to testify about the similarity between those two murders,
32:37
Speaker 1: but the prosecution objected.
32:39
Speaker 3: The jury left the room, and you know, there was
32:42
Speaker 3: an argument back and forth. Ultimately the judge decided that
32:45
Speaker 3: he should not be allowed to testify in front of
32:47
Speaker 3: the jury. The other thing that the defense did bring up,
32:52
Speaker 3: Nicky was the primary beneficiary of that ninety thousand dollars
32:55
Speaker 3: life insurance upon her mother's death. The secondary benefit, Sherry,
33:00
Speaker 3: was a lady named Jan Terrell who was Linda's friend.
33:05
Speaker 1: And Jen was one of the first people to go
33:08
Speaker 1: to the house on that Sunday morning along with Carol Lee,
33:12
Speaker 1: and later after Nicki was convicted, the ninety thousand dollars
33:17
Speaker 1: went to Jen Terrell.
33:20
Speaker 3: We don't know what she did with that money, we
33:24
Speaker 3: don't know anything like that, but we do know she
33:26
Speaker 3: was the beneficiary.
33:30
Speaker 1: So, in addition to Nicky and Daniel, John believes there
33:33
Speaker 1: were several people in Linda's life that police could have
33:36
Speaker 1: looked into, but they didn't.
33:39
Speaker 3: She's a nurse for the county. There's strong rumor that
33:43
Speaker 3: she would take prescription pads that were pre signed by
33:46
Speaker 3: doctors and fill prescriptions for people for money. That's not
33:52
Speaker 3: anything that we've ever been able to prove definitively, but
33:55
Speaker 3: there is very strong indication that that's the case. So
33:59
Speaker 3: you know that puts year around some shady people sometimes,
34:01
Speaker 3: especially in Southwest Arkansas in nineteen ninety one.
34:05
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, do you have any thoughts on who might
34:08
Speaker 1: have killed your mom?
34:10
Speaker 2: My mom didn't always know the best people in her life,
34:17
Speaker 2: or didn't always sometimes pick the best people in her
34:20
Speaker 2: life like me. I guess that's where I got it
34:22
Speaker 2: from a lot. I didn't always pick the best people
34:25
Speaker 2: in the world either. Before Daniel, you know what I'm saying.
34:30
Speaker 2: Sometimes there with people that would drive real, real slow
34:33
Speaker 2: by the house at not time, or they would call
34:36
Speaker 2: the house when's while we had to have her phone
34:38
Speaker 2: number changed.
34:39
Speaker 1: Who do you think that was? I mean, what kind
34:41
Speaker 1: of people did your mom know? Was she involved in anything?
34:44
Speaker 2: Well, she worked for the sheriff department when she wasn't
34:47
Speaker 2: working for the health department. After she passed away, I've
34:53
Speaker 2: had a few people tell me that, I guess just
34:56
Speaker 2: the people that you work with, You know what I'm saying,
34:59
Speaker 2: That she didn't necessarily hang with all the best people
35:01
Speaker 2: in the world. But I've never heard anybody's.
35:03
Speaker 1: Name on January thirteenth, nineteen ninety one, Nicky Singer and
35:09
Speaker 1: Daniel Richard were both convicted of first degree murder and
35:12
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison.
35:17
Speaker 2: When the realization comes in and I had a lot
35:19
Speaker 2: of sentence, it was just I just quit. I stayed
35:24
Speaker 2: into bed. I didn't know eat, I didn't shower because
35:28
Speaker 2: I didn't know how I was going to do this.
35:32
Speaker 2: The first five years of my prison stay was really
35:36
Speaker 2: bad because I had to learn how to survive. I
35:43
Speaker 2: learned that you couldn't be who you are. You don't
35:48
Speaker 2: be nice to everybody. You can't give your shoulder or
35:53
Speaker 2: try to say, you know, can I be here? You know,
35:57
Speaker 2: do you need somebody that's ought to because I've learned
35:59
Speaker 2: that they would sab people in the bag. I didn't
36:04
Speaker 2: think I would ever survive as long as I have
36:06
Speaker 2: because as the horrible things enough saying the people get
36:10
Speaker 2: beat up or stabbed or pay and its breaked my
36:17
Speaker 2: heart because I wasn't raced up that way.
36:31
Speaker 1: But Nicki turned out to be stronger than she ever knew.
36:34
Speaker 1: She did survive and even earned her ged while in prison,
36:38
Speaker 1: and eventually she found herself becoming a mentor, helping others
36:42
Speaker 1: to adjust the way she wished someone could have helped her.
36:46
Speaker 2: When I first came to prison, I didn't have anybody
36:48
Speaker 2: that was there for me, nobody to tell me that
36:52
Speaker 2: it was okay, the pad on the bag, or I'm
36:57
Speaker 2: very proud of you that you've survived another day. I
37:00
Speaker 2: try to be there and listen to him. I'll heel
37:03
Speaker 2: many and I do it for the simple mind and
37:06
Speaker 2: if we all need peace of mind, because there's none
37:09
Speaker 2: in here. And when we get something, we have to
37:13
Speaker 2: hold it very dear.
37:15
Speaker 1: Through the years, Nicky has tried to keep up on
37:17
Speaker 1: how Daniel's doing.
37:19
Speaker 2: I would ask Rachel with the okay because I wasn't okay,
37:25
Speaker 2: you know. I used to hear from Rachel all the
37:28
Speaker 2: time about Daniel.
37:30
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, Nicky and Daniel filed an appeal
37:33
Speaker 1: with the Arkansas Supreme Court, requesting a new trial, but
37:37
Speaker 1: the court upheld the conviction. Daniel and his family continued
37:44
Speaker 1: to pursue every avenue they could to prove their innocence,
37:48
Speaker 1: which is how John Harden learned about Nicky's case in
37:51
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen.
37:54
Speaker 3: So when we first launched Proclaimed Justice, I got a
37:57
Speaker 3: message from the cousin of Daniel Rischer, and she asked
38:01
Speaker 3: us to look into it, and so I started looking
38:04
Speaker 3: into it, really on Daniel's behalf, and that's what got
38:07
Speaker 3: me into the case to start with. But of course
38:09
Speaker 3: you can't investigate Daniel's case without investigating Nicky's.
38:15
Speaker 1: Daniel had already gotten the Innocence Project of New York involved,
38:18
Speaker 1: and they had agreed to have DNA testing done on
38:21
Speaker 1: the blood found on his jacket. The test results showed
38:24
Speaker 1: that it was not definitively human blood.
38:28
Speaker 3: And it's what Daniel's saying all along, it's my dearer
38:30
Speaker 3: hunting jacket is dear blood.
38:32
Speaker 1: And there's something else that John keeps thinking about the
38:35
Speaker 1: lack of a motive when she was killed. Remember, Linda
38:39
Speaker 1: was still battling cancer.
38:41
Speaker 3: She had gone into remission and then the cancer had
38:45
Speaker 3: come back. There was strong belief in indication that this
38:48
Speaker 3: could very well be terminal cancer this time around. And
38:52
Speaker 3: so if we're talking about the motive to murder her
38:57
Speaker 3: mother to get ninety thousand dollars of life insurance, and
39:01
Speaker 3: this sounds crasp, but if you want your mother dad
39:04
Speaker 3: to collect ninety thousand dollars and she's got almost certainly
39:08
Speaker 3: terminal cancer. Why not just wait it out and not
39:11
Speaker 3: take a risk of being convicted and sent away for life.
39:15
Speaker 3: So it's just illogical on its face.
39:19
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, based on the new DNA findings, Daniel
39:23
Speaker 1: and Niki were granted a parole hearing.
39:25
Speaker 3: The parole boarder unanimously recommended them for parole, which does
39:30
Speaker 3: not happen very often at all.
39:32
Speaker 1: No, and then they get denied by the governor.
39:35
Speaker 3: That's right, Governor Asa Hutcheson denied parole.
39:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
39:43
Speaker 1: Proclaimed Justice was started by John Harden and Jason Baldwin,
39:47
Speaker 1: one of the infamous West Memphis Three. John was a
39:51
Speaker 1: pivotal member in helping to exonerate the three wrongfully convicted
39:55
Speaker 1: men after eighteen years in prison. After Jason's release twenty eleven,
40:01
Speaker 1: the two decided to start an innocence organization together. They
40:04
Speaker 1: have worked on many wrongful conviction cases. One of the
40:08
Speaker 1: most well known what's their work exonerating Daniel Viegis. But
40:12
Speaker 1: after years of running a nonprofit, the pace was taking
40:15
Speaker 1: its toll on John. In twenty twenty three, he made
40:18
Speaker 1: the difficult decision to disband Proclaim Justice.
40:23
Speaker 3: It was just time. I mean, it's fucking hard starting
40:26
Speaker 3: an organization and keeping it, you know, a several hundred
40:29
Speaker 3: thousand dollars budget together every year, and I'm still active
40:32
Speaker 3: in the investigations in our current cases. I'll be able
40:36
Speaker 3: to keep some of my fundraising network in place to
40:38
Speaker 3: do this kind of good work.
40:42
Speaker 1: And he has no intention on giving up on Nicki's case.
40:46
Speaker 3: I promised Nikki. When I called her and explained what
40:50
Speaker 3: was going on with me and proclaimed justice, she was
40:52
Speaker 3: very supportive of me on a personal level, just because
40:56
Speaker 3: she's sweet like that. She's kind and caring and compassionate,
40:59
Speaker 3: and and she wants to make sure I'm okay, which
41:03
Speaker 3: is always strange to hear from somebody who's dealing with
41:06
Speaker 3: what she's dealing with on the inside.
41:08
Speaker 1: You know, you and I talk about that, John, Like,
41:11
Speaker 1: anytime Nikki calls, it's like, are you okay? Is her
41:14
Speaker 1: first question?
41:15
Speaker 3: Absolutely, how are you doing? And so I know to
41:18
Speaker 3: some degree she's mostly it's because she truly cares about me.
41:22
Speaker 3: To some degree, it probably helps her just be thinking
41:26
Speaker 3: about somebody else's life. So she's absolutely, one hundred percent
41:32
Speaker 3: completely innocent of this crime. And we just can't rest
41:37
Speaker 3: until we've got her out where we're at is we
41:45
Speaker 3: have to have a status hearing. We have this order
41:48
Speaker 3: for all these items to be tested DNA tested. We
41:52
Speaker 3: can't really proceed in the courts until we have a
41:55
Speaker 3: decision on whether or not we can forego testing on
41:59
Speaker 3: all those other ones ones. So now we're left with
42:03
Speaker 3: waiting on a judge's order telling us what we've got
42:06
Speaker 3: to do.
42:08
Speaker 1: Nikki has been behind bars since she was twenty eight.
42:11
Speaker 1: She's now sixty. Her health has never been great, but
42:15
Speaker 1: she admits that as she gets older, things are getting
42:19
Speaker 1: even harder.
42:23
Speaker 2: I have diabetes, real bands, I have high blood pressure,
42:28
Speaker 2: my headache to words crum sistress. I can't remember when
42:32
Speaker 2: the last time I feel good. Yeah, and it gets
42:35
Speaker 2: really pressing this time, and I try not to cry
42:38
Speaker 2: because I don't want anybody to boohoo or a baby thing.
42:42
Speaker 1: What do you want for your future when you get out?
42:44
Speaker 1: What do you think about?
42:46
Speaker 2: I don't want a perfect life, because there's no such
42:48
Speaker 2: thing as perfect. I just want to learn to be
42:51
Speaker 2: okay with me all over again, learn to be okay
42:55
Speaker 2: with the world, because I don't even know what the
42:58
Speaker 2: world looks like. I don't the world is so big now,
43:01
Speaker 2: I don't know maybe travel may be, tell my story,
43:05
Speaker 2: write a book. I just want people to get a
43:08
Speaker 2: chance to know who I am, to like who I am.
43:11
Speaker 2: I want know people to know that I'm capable of
43:15
Speaker 2: doing things more than that I've ever thought about. I
43:21
Speaker 2: don't even know what's out there to do exactly, but
43:23
Speaker 2: I just want people to know that I want to
43:24
Speaker 2: have that chance to do it.
43:26
Speaker 1: I got to know Nikki really well while covering her
43:29
Speaker 1: case for Unjustin and Unsolved, and after learning about her
43:32
Speaker 1: case in her life and speaking with her at length,
43:35
Speaker 1: I felt compelled to be a friend to Nikki rather
43:39
Speaker 1: than just a journalist using her as a source. What
43:46
Speaker 1: gives you hope? Nikki? You Maggie, Why did I know
43:51
Speaker 1: you were going to say that You've heard me get.
43:53
Speaker 2: This bad before, and you get over to me and
43:56
Speaker 2: tell me that you have obvious people out here just
43:59
Speaker 2: because you don't say I'm visitly or not there. Even
44:02
Speaker 2: if people in here, though, will tell me Dad it's okay. Nikki,
44:07
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say I'm a bad person. I would say
44:12
Speaker 2: I've learned to be better person than I was before.
44:15
Speaker 2: My heart always hours. Yeah.
44:26
Speaker 1: Since Proclaim justice has closed its doors, Nicki is in
44:29
Speaker 1: need of a new team to pick up where they
44:32
Speaker 1: left off. Please reach out if you can help or
44:35
Speaker 1: can connect her with someone who can. It's been over
44:38
Speaker 1: thirty years now and it is time to get her out.
44:42
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Nicki would love to have your support.
44:46
Speaker 1: A donation to help with prison expenses, or even just
44:48
Speaker 1: a letter or card to let her know you've heard
44:51
Speaker 1: her story would mean the world to her. There is
44:55
Speaker 1: also a fundraiser for Nicki. Since she doesn't have family
44:58
Speaker 1: or friends put money on her commissary, it's up to us,
45:02
Speaker 1: so we will put that link and how to write
45:05
Speaker 1: her in the episode description. Thank you for listening to
45:22
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freelink. Please support your local innocence
45:26
Speaker 1: organizations and go to the links in the episode description
45:29
Speaker 1: to see how you can help. I'd like to thank
45:31
Speaker 1: our executive producers Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, and Kevin Wortis,
45:35
Speaker 1: as well as senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Kathleen Fink,
45:39
Speaker 1: story editor Hannah Beal, and researcher Shelby Sorels. Mixing and
45:44
Speaker 1: sound design are by Jackie Pauley, with additional production by
45:48
Speaker 1: Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in this production
45:51
Speaker 1: is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be
45:55
Speaker 1: sure to follow us on all social media platforms at
45:59
Speaker 1: Lava for Good and at Wrongful Conviction. You can also
46:02
Speaker 1: follow me on all platforms at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction
46:06
Speaker 1: with Maggie Freeling is a production of Lava for Good
46:08
Speaker 1: Podcasts in association with Signal Company Number one