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Transcript

On the Side of Truth · The Knife: A True Crime Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: This story contains adult content and language. Listener discretion is advised.
0:06
Speaker 2: Who murders someone and go back to get them the help?
0:09
Speaker 2: Who does it in good conscience? I don't care if
0:12
Speaker 2: you will have the night before or not you go
0:14
Speaker 2: back to the scene of the crime.
0:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, not, Welcome to the knife. I'm Hannah Smith.
0:35
Speaker 1: I'm Patia Eton. This week we speak with Yolanda Thomas,
0:39
Speaker 1: who we met through the Healing Justice Project. Jennifer Thompson's
0:42
Speaker 1: interview two episodes ago brought us the perspective of a
0:45
Speaker 1: crime victim in the case of an exoneration. This week,
0:49
Speaker 1: Yolanda brings us a new perspective, that of a family member.
0:53
Speaker 3: Yolanda's sister, Jaquetta Thomas, was murdered in nineteen ninety one,
0:57
Speaker 3: and the search for justice in this case is ongoing.
1:00
Speaker 3: So let's get into the interview.
1:06
Speaker 2: Well, my name is Yolanda Thomas. I currently reside in Lyndale, Arizona.
1:13
Speaker 2: Growing up, it was initially just me and my sister.
1:17
Speaker 2: My sister Jackana and I were two years apart. Over
1:20
Speaker 2: time of five boys came.
1:24
Speaker 1: Yolana and her sister, Jaqueta grew up in newbern, North Carolina.
1:27
Speaker 1: It's a small riverfront city near the coast, maybe most
1:30
Speaker 1: known for being the birthplace of Pepsi Cola. When Yolanda
1:34
Speaker 1: was in sixth grade and Chaquetta was in seventh, the
1:36
Speaker 1: family moved to Raleigh, a much bigger city. Their first
1:39
Speaker 1: home there was actually a one bedroom apartment, as you
1:42
Speaker 1: can imagine, a very tight squeeze for the family of eight,
1:45
Speaker 1: but Yolanda said that living in a safe neighborhood was
1:48
Speaker 1: extremely important to her mother, who sometimes had to work
1:52
Speaker 1: two jobs to support them. Still, shortly after the move,
1:56
Speaker 1: it seems like Chaquetta was beginning to lose her way.
2:00
Speaker 2: That's when she started hanging kind of with the crowd
2:03
Speaker 2: who did the drinking and I would say drugs at
2:06
Speaker 2: that time, but during that time it was just marijuana,
2:10
Speaker 2: nothing really heavy. So skipping school and you know, hanging
2:15
Speaker 2: out during the day with questionable other teenagers. Then came
2:21
Speaker 2: just lots of running away from home just because she
2:25
Speaker 2: didn't want the discipline. My mom and stepdad would go
2:28
Speaker 2: find her, bringing back home every time.
2:31
Speaker 1: Checquetta was struggling. She eventually dropped out of high school.
2:34
Speaker 1: She was never able to obtain her ged or diploma
2:37
Speaker 1: and the distance between the two sisters was growing. Yolanda
2:41
Speaker 1: graduated and joined the military, which took her overseas to Germany.
2:45
Speaker 1: She got married and had a son of her own.
2:48
Speaker 1: She thought about her family and about Jequetta. She worried
2:51
Speaker 1: about her sister often, but life was really busy. Eventually
2:56
Speaker 1: she was able to plan a trip to visit. She
2:58
Speaker 1: knew Chequeta wasn't doing well. She was in the hospital,
3:02
Speaker 1: but she didn't know. So that's the last time she
3:05
Speaker 1: would ever see her sister alive.
3:08
Speaker 2: I remember going home. My son had been born and
3:13
Speaker 2: he was not quite a year, so I went home
3:15
Speaker 2: to visit and saw my mom. Jaqueta was in the hospital.
3:21
Speaker 2: So when I went to visit her in the hospital,
3:23
Speaker 2: I remember talking to the nurse and the doctor and
3:29
Speaker 2: they pretty much told me, you know, if she did
3:31
Speaker 2: a cocaine again, you know, she would die just from
3:35
Speaker 2: all the damage that already happened to her heart. And
3:39
Speaker 2: I remember our last conversation. I was just begging and
3:41
Speaker 2: pleading with her just to clean her act up, like
3:45
Speaker 2: you know, your nephew wants to get to know you,
3:48
Speaker 2: and it's funny. She just kind of looked at me
3:50
Speaker 2: and said I'm the older sibling here. You don't get
3:54
Speaker 2: to tell me what to do with a smile. And
3:56
Speaker 2: I said, well, I want to be able to come
3:57
Speaker 2: back and see you. So that was that was our
4:00
Speaker 2: last conversation.
4:02
Speaker 1: So tell me about the moment that you learned something
4:06
Speaker 1: has happened.
4:08
Speaker 2: I'm in Germany, so I get this phone call and
4:10
Speaker 2: it's for me the middle of the night, and you
4:13
Speaker 2: just know, being a soldier overseas, you get a phone call,
4:16
Speaker 2: you know something's wrong. And I answered the phone and
4:20
Speaker 2: all I could hear is my mom crying. In the background.
4:23
Speaker 2: A good friend of hers is just saying to me
4:27
Speaker 2: my sister's nickname was Jet, and her saying Jet is gone.
4:33
Speaker 2: Jet is gone. And I'm like, what do you mean
4:36
Speaker 2: she's gone? And instantly, for me, I thought, oh, she
4:40
Speaker 2: was in a bad car accident. She didn't have license,
4:43
Speaker 2: so I just knew she was with someone and they
4:45
Speaker 2: got an accident. At least that's what my mind wanted
4:47
Speaker 2: to believe anyway. And she said, no, they found her.
4:53
Speaker 2: And now I'm still questioning, what do you mean they
4:55
Speaker 2: found her? And she said, well, she was murdered. I
5:00
Speaker 2: can't even just ride the feeling. I just remember sinking
5:03
Speaker 2: to the floor, just crying, trying to understand, asking how
5:08
Speaker 2: my mom was, asking how my brothers were. My mom
5:11
Speaker 2: couldn't talk. It took me a few hours just to
5:15
Speaker 2: get my composure to reach out to my unit to
5:17
Speaker 2: say this thing has happened. Of course I need to
5:20
Speaker 2: go home on emergency lead.
5:23
Speaker 1: Yolanda described the hours and days that followed this phone
5:26
Speaker 1: call as a blur. She was shocked and heartbroken. For years,
5:31
Speaker 1: Yolanda had worried about Jehquetta. She knew jaquetta struggle with
5:34
Speaker 1: addiction might lead her into an unsafe situation, but nothing
5:39
Speaker 1: could have prepared her to learn that her sister was murdered.
5:42
Speaker 1: Yolanda and her husband, with their young son, flew from
5:45
Speaker 1: where she was stationed in Germany to Atlanta. Her mother
5:49
Speaker 1: had since moved to Atlanta from Raleigh and had planned
5:51
Speaker 1: Jacqutta's funeral close by.
5:54
Speaker 2: Her service was held at the funeral home. I remember
5:58
Speaker 2: where we sat. I remember her son, who's the oldest,
6:03
Speaker 2: saw me and he came to sit with me. All
6:07
Speaker 2: the girls were with who they had been placed with
6:10
Speaker 2: because they had been taken away from her, and my
6:13
Speaker 2: mom had requested a close casket. For some reason, at
6:18
Speaker 2: the end of this service, someone decided to open her
6:21
Speaker 2: casket and her son lost it. Like literally, I'm holding
6:29
Speaker 2: him to keep from going to his mom. And of
6:32
Speaker 2: course that caused me to start crying, and so we
6:35
Speaker 2: had to leave the area. So the service was held
6:38
Speaker 2: in Newburn, and that's where we both were born and raised.
6:42
Speaker 2: I remember a lot of people being there, a lot
6:44
Speaker 2: of classmates or people we used to play with growing up.
6:48
Speaker 2: But I just remember looking back at my mom and
6:52
Speaker 2: she just wasn't even crying. Like that was one of
6:54
Speaker 2: the things that I think stuck with me at the time.
6:58
Speaker 2: I vaguely remember going to the cemetery.
7:02
Speaker 1: At the time of her funeral. Had there yet been
7:05
Speaker 1: any further conversations about the cause of death beyond that
7:10
Speaker 1: it was, you know, I foul play or who had
7:13
Speaker 1: done it.
7:14
Speaker 2: We had no information. And after the funeral, you know,
7:19
Speaker 2: I still had friends in Raleigh, So I went to
7:22
Speaker 2: Raleigh and spent a few days, and so I went
7:25
Speaker 2: to the police department. Well, I requested to talk to
7:29
Speaker 2: the police about her case. I remember the detective he
7:34
Speaker 2: was consoling me, at least that's what he thought he
7:37
Speaker 2: was doing, and He just told me that I just
7:39
Speaker 2: need you to know we we have the individuals who
7:42
Speaker 2: did this. You don't have to worry. Justice will be served.
7:47
Speaker 2: But he wouldn't answer my questions. So my question was, well,
7:51
Speaker 2: how did this happen? Did they even talk to you
7:54
Speaker 2: and tell you, like, why did they take my sister's life?
7:57
Speaker 2: The answers I got was, we can't answer the questions
7:59
Speaker 2: that you have because they will interfere with the investigation.
8:04
Speaker 2: But if you have the individuals and you're assuring me
8:07
Speaker 2: that they're going to pay for this crime, then why
8:10
Speaker 2: can't you answer my questions.
8:13
Speaker 1: The two individuals that had been arrested were Gregory Taylor
8:16
Speaker 1: and Johnny Beck. There would be differing accounts of what
8:19
Speaker 1: happened that evening, but what is undisputed about the events
8:23
Speaker 1: of September twenty fifth, nineteen ninety one, is greg Taylor
8:28
Speaker 1: and Johnny Beck met up, they bought drugs, and then
8:31
Speaker 1: they used those drugs together until early the following morning.
8:35
Speaker 1: Later that morning, around six thirty am on September twenty sixth,
8:40
Speaker 1: the body of Jequeta Thomas is found in a cul
8:42
Speaker 1: de dezac by a Raleigh police officer. She's lying on
8:46
Speaker 1: her back facing the sky, and she's been badly beaten.
8:50
Speaker 1: Her cause of death is later determined to have been
8:52
Speaker 1: blunt force trauma. Jaqueta Thomas was only twenty six years old.
8:58
Speaker 1: As police are working the crime scene, twenty nine year
9:01
Speaker 1: old Greg Taylor shows up. By this time, it's about
9:05
Speaker 1: eight thirty am. Surrounding this could Dezac is an open field,
9:09
Speaker 1: and Greg says he's there to retrieve his vehicle, a
9:13
Speaker 1: Nissan Pathfinder. He says had gotten stuck out there the
9:16
Speaker 1: night before while he was off roading. Now his vehicle
9:20
Speaker 1: it happens to be just about one hundred and fifty
9:23
Speaker 1: yards from where Jaqueta's body had been discovered. From the
9:27
Speaker 1: moment Greg Taylor shows up at the crime scene, he
9:30
Speaker 1: becomes a suspect. The state quickly builds a case. They
9:33
Speaker 1: say there's a witness who can place him with Chequeta
9:36
Speaker 1: the night she died, and they also claim to have
9:39
Speaker 1: found blood on his car. Greg Taylor and Johnny Beck
9:42
Speaker 1: are arrested, all in less than twenty four hours after
9:46
Speaker 1: Jaquetta's body was discovered. But the police aren't really telling
9:51
Speaker 1: Yolanda or her family any of this.
9:54
Speaker 3: So this first conversation that you have with law enforcement.
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Speaker 3: You're getting a little bit of like something's not quite
10:02
Speaker 3: right here.
10:03
Speaker 1: Oh.
10:03
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I just didn't know what the secrecy was, and
10:07
Speaker 2: that's what it felt like, like it was secresy. And
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Speaker 2: I remember the detective grabbing my hands, kind of gently
10:14
Speaker 2: touching my hand and saying, we got this, we got this.
10:19
Speaker 2: Just ultra confident, right, don't worry, We're going to take
10:25
Speaker 2: care of this. And I think he thought a little
10:28
Speaker 2: sorry for me because he could see me standing out
10:30
Speaker 2: of control, and just let me know that this is
10:34
Speaker 2: going to be taken care of. You know, this case,
10:37
Speaker 2: we'll go to trial. It will be a success. We
10:40
Speaker 2: will get diverted we're looking for, and your family again
10:44
Speaker 2: will get the justice that they deserve.
10:46
Speaker 1: Yeah.
10:47
Speaker 3: How did you feel in that moment when he said
10:50
Speaker 3: that to you?
10:51
Speaker 2: Oh, in that moment, I was pissed.
10:53
Speaker 3: Okay, So that wasn't comforting to you at.
10:55
Speaker 2: All, No, ma'am. So you never answered my questions the
10:59
Speaker 2: first first time, which felt like a secret.
11:03
Speaker 1: So Greg Taylor was now we know arrested. He's arrested
11:06
Speaker 1: alongside a man named Johnny Beck. Yes, and you don't
11:11
Speaker 1: hear a word about it. Until how many months later,
11:14
Speaker 1: would you say?
11:16
Speaker 2: Not until it was put in a newspaper. I just
11:20
Speaker 2: knew that two people were arrested. That's all I knew.
11:24
Speaker 2: Not until the news article did I learned Greg Taylor.
11:29
Speaker 2: I saw the name Johnny Beck, but it never talked
11:32
Speaker 2: about him. So at that time I learned that Greg
11:36
Speaker 2: Taylor was a white man, and that he used Johnny
11:40
Speaker 2: Beck to go into this neighborhood to purchase drugs, and
11:46
Speaker 2: then they decided to do the drugs together. That was
11:50
Speaker 2: what I was told, but that they picked her up
11:54
Speaker 2: along the way because she wanted to do drugs too,
11:57
Speaker 2: and then something went wrong, but the something was never clear,
12:01
Speaker 2: but that something went well, and then she ended up murdered.
12:12
Speaker 1: At first, Greg Taylor was indicted for accessory after the
12:15
Speaker 1: fact for assisting Johnny Beck and the murder. The state
12:19
Speaker 1: was going after Johnny Beck. They wanted Greg to testify
12:22
Speaker 1: against him, but Greg refused. He maintained he was with
12:26
Speaker 1: Johnny all night and so he knows that neither of
12:29
Speaker 1: them murdered Jaqueta. Then a few months passed and the
12:33
Speaker 1: charges change. Now Greg Taylor and Johnny Beck are both
12:38
Speaker 1: charged with first degree murder after a four day trial
12:42
Speaker 1: in April of nineteen ninety three, Gregory Taylor is found
12:46
Speaker 1: guilty of first degree murder. The jury deliberated for only
12:51
Speaker 1: two hours.
12:53
Speaker 3: And were you or any of your family members, anyone
12:58
Speaker 3: you knew present at that trie.
13:00
Speaker 2: No, ma'am, we weren't told. We weren't told.
13:04
Speaker 1: No. What did it feel like to know that a
13:07
Speaker 1: trial had happened without being notified or having the opportunity
13:11
Speaker 1: to attend.
13:12
Speaker 2: I don't think it bothered me at that time. I
13:15
Speaker 2: went back to life as I knew it right. I
13:17
Speaker 2: was a soldier, went back to Germany. I was living
13:20
Speaker 2: my life. I remember getting the news article that told
13:24
Speaker 2: me he had been convicted. I felt the sense of relief.
13:29
Speaker 2: He happened to be sentenced on her birthday for the
13:32
Speaker 2: twentieth and I thought, oh my goodness, look how the
13:35
Speaker 2: stars have aligned, right, they got them. He even was
13:40
Speaker 2: sentenced on her birthday. She must be resting. Well, yeah,
13:45
Speaker 2: that was it for me.
13:46
Speaker 1: Yolanda tries her best to move forward with her life,
13:49
Speaker 1: but her sister's murder is never too far from her mind.
13:52
Speaker 1: She returns to Germany, she's busy working and being a mother.
13:57
Speaker 1: It isn't until years later that questions about Chaquetas does
14:01
Speaker 1: begin to a rise for Yolanda and reopen this whole
14:04
Speaker 1: chapter for her.
14:07
Speaker 2: So I moved back to North Carolina, and I remember
14:12
Speaker 2: immediately signing up to be notified if there was any
14:16
Speaker 2: movement of Greg Taylor in prison. Like I knew, there
14:19
Speaker 2: was a site you could go to so you can
14:22
Speaker 2: get notifications for anything. With hindsight is twenty twenty when
14:26
Speaker 2: I think about that, Why would I want to do that?
14:30
Speaker 2: If he was going to be in jail for life,
14:32
Speaker 2: it wouldn't have mattered, right, So that was one of
14:34
Speaker 2: the first things I did when I moved back to Raleigh.
14:37
Speaker 2: I just remember six years later, maybe getting a phone
14:41
Speaker 2: call at my job being told that this was an
14:45
Speaker 2: attorney that was representing Greg Taylor and that he had
14:49
Speaker 2: exhausted all of his appeals and that this organization that
14:54
Speaker 2: she worked for was his last hope and there seemed
14:58
Speaker 2: to be some discrepants es in the evidence that was
15:02
Speaker 2: presented at trial, and they were looking into it and
15:07
Speaker 2: there was a possibility that he could be released. And
15:11
Speaker 2: I let her get all of that out and I said,
15:14
Speaker 2: how did you find me? How did you find my number,
15:19
Speaker 2: and I don't remember her answer. I went on to
15:23
Speaker 2: curse her out. I did, and told her to forget
15:27
Speaker 2: that she ever knew my name and to never call
15:30
Speaker 2: me on my job again. It didn't matter. She kept talking.
15:35
Speaker 2: She basically said, in so many words, well this is
15:39
Speaker 2: going to happen whether you like it or not, and
15:42
Speaker 2: I just felt the need to call you to let
15:44
Speaker 2: you know. I was kind of taken aback when she
15:47
Speaker 2: said that, and in that moment I said to her, well,
15:51
Speaker 2: I've asked you not to call me again, but let
15:55
Speaker 2: me tell you this. I never believed he did it anyway,
15:59
Speaker 2: and I hung up the phone.
16:01
Speaker 1: We will get into why Yolanda did not believe that
16:04
Speaker 1: Greg Taylor killed her sister, but this moment, it's important.
16:09
Speaker 1: This call from an attorney to Yolanda at work shook her.
16:13
Speaker 1: At this point, it's been more than ten years since
16:15
Speaker 1: her sister's murder, but this call brings everything back. Her
16:19
Speaker 1: profound grief. The fact that neither Yolanda nor her family
16:24
Speaker 1: had been notified of anything related to Jaquetta's case. They
16:28
Speaker 1: weren't told about the trial, they weren't asked to speak nothing,
16:32
Speaker 1: and here was this person calling her unexpectedly, with little
16:36
Speaker 1: care about what it might feel like to be going
16:39
Speaker 1: about your day and then answer a call and be
16:42
Speaker 1: reminded of your sister's murder.
16:46
Speaker 2: And I just felt, right, that's just not how you
16:48
Speaker 2: notify someone. Literally, I had to go home. That was
16:52
Speaker 2: like opening up a won for me, important SALTI in.
16:56
Speaker 2: I was done for the day. No matter what I
17:00
Speaker 2: initially thought, whether Greg Taylor did it or not, my
17:03
Speaker 2: sister was still gone. And now you're rehashing all this
17:08
Speaker 2: stuff that I was never even a part of. So
17:11
Speaker 2: that is why I started doing my research because now
17:15
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I need to read some transcripts. I
17:17
Speaker 2: need to see what really happened at Trout because if
17:20
Speaker 2: you have a question and it's good enough that practically
17:23
Speaker 2: he could get out, we need to know why. Had
17:26
Speaker 2: no one else called me and told me this, right?
17:30
Speaker 2: No one offered anything.
17:32
Speaker 1: Did you tell your family, the rest of your family
17:35
Speaker 1: about that phone call?
17:36
Speaker 2: I told my mother, And it was funny because I
17:39
Speaker 2: didn't know how to approach this conversation with her. My
17:42
Speaker 2: mom struggled with my sister's death for years, and now
17:46
Speaker 2: that I'm a mom, I get that I've never lost
17:49
Speaker 2: a child, so I can't even imagine. So I think
17:52
Speaker 2: as the siblings, we just respected how she deals with
17:55
Speaker 2: it is how she's going to deal with it. But
17:57
Speaker 2: my mom had never even said my sister's name anymore
18:02
Speaker 2: since she had passed, so I was not sure how
18:06
Speaker 2: to do this. And I remember calling her and I
18:09
Speaker 2: told her about the phone call, and I said, and
18:12
Speaker 2: since the phone call, I've been home and I've been digging,
18:15
Speaker 2: and do you know there's a chance that he may
18:18
Speaker 2: not have even done this? And she listened and she
18:22
Speaker 2: said I never believed he did it. And I was like, oh,
18:26
Speaker 2: you never told me, so I said, well, why didn't
18:30
Speaker 2: you believe it? And she said because it was a
18:33
Speaker 2: white man.
18:34
Speaker 4: Wow.
18:35
Speaker 1: So you both have seem instinct. Yes, And what did
18:38
Speaker 1: Greg Taylor being white mean to you in this context?
18:43
Speaker 2: Oh? Greg Taylor did not murder my sister. Let me
18:47
Speaker 2: tell you. First off, if he was with the black
18:50
Speaker 2: man to go by drugs, Johnny Beck or anyone else
18:54
Speaker 2: in the neighborhood would not have allowed him to murder
18:58
Speaker 2: my sister. You call it the code of African Americans.
19:01
Speaker 2: I don't know, but there is nowhere you're gonna let
19:03
Speaker 2: an outsider, and a white man was considered an outsider.
19:07
Speaker 2: That was why he had to have Johnny Pick to
19:09
Speaker 2: go buy the drugs in this area.
19:18
Speaker 1: For years, Yolanda and her mother had had this same
19:21
Speaker 1: unspoken doubt around Greg Taylor's guilt. But who would they
19:25
Speaker 1: have told and would it have mattered. They weren't invited
19:28
Speaker 1: to the trial, they didn't even know it was happening.
19:31
Speaker 1: And Greg Taylor had been convicted by a jury, so
19:34
Speaker 1: maybe he was guilty. It brought some peace to believe
19:37
Speaker 1: that Chaquetta's murderer had been caught. But the more Yolanda
19:41
Speaker 1: learned about what happened at Greg Taylor's trial, the more
19:44
Speaker 1: she wondered if he might be innocent.
19:48
Speaker 2: I have always been a researcher. I have always been
19:51
Speaker 2: someone who would dig define answers. And I don't know
19:55
Speaker 2: if I just went to the court. I don't know
19:58
Speaker 2: if I just did a search. But lo and behold,
20:01
Speaker 2: I found them. I did, and I was reading and
20:06
Speaker 2: I was done. I was so disgusted when I found
20:10
Speaker 2: those documents. I saw his appeals first, and so his
20:14
Speaker 2: first appeal was because he felt he didn't have proper representation.
20:18
Speaker 2: Of course, that the appeal God denied, and then some
20:22
Speaker 2: of the things that he was appealing like, it didn't
20:25
Speaker 2: make sense to me, you know, reading it. I'm no lawyer.
20:28
Speaker 2: I just know they were denied. But I can tell you,
20:31
Speaker 2: in reading the documents, for life of me can't understand
20:35
Speaker 2: how he was convicted.
20:37
Speaker 1: As Yolanda looked over court documents, she learned the prosecutions
20:42
Speaker 1: version of what happened the night of her sister's murder.
20:45
Speaker 1: The prosecution said that Greg Taylor and Johnny Beck met
20:48
Speaker 1: Chequetta during this drug fueled night out. They'd invited her
20:51
Speaker 1: into Gregg's vehicle, that Nissan Pathfinder. They'd done more drugs together,
20:55
Speaker 1: but then for some unknown reason, Greg attacked Jaqueta kill her.
21:01
Speaker 1: At the same time that Yolanda is learning the prosecution's
21:04
Speaker 1: version of events, she's also learning Greg Taylor's version of events,
21:08
Speaker 1: which importantly had not changed in the fifteen years since
21:13
Speaker 1: his conviction.
21:15
Speaker 2: He said he got off work, he was out drug seeking.
21:18
Speaker 2: He knew word about the drugs, but he knew he
21:20
Speaker 2: couldn't go into that neighborhood. He would be suspected of
21:25
Speaker 2: being a police officer undercover carp Now, I don't know
21:29
Speaker 2: if he knew Johnny back or if he just met
21:32
Speaker 2: him that night, but he knew he needed a black
21:34
Speaker 2: person to go into the neighborhood. And the agreement was,
21:37
Speaker 2: if you can get these drugs, we'll do them together.
21:41
Speaker 2: And so they purchased the drugs. They rode from the
21:45
Speaker 2: neighborhood to this Call de Sack. They got high in
21:50
Speaker 2: the Call de Sack and then decided, because Greg had
21:53
Speaker 2: a four by four, to go muddy for reeling. There
21:57
Speaker 2: you go, yes, yes, and their vehicle got stuck. His
22:01
Speaker 2: vehicle got stuck. They decided not to call the police
22:04
Speaker 2: because they were high. They had been doing drugs, and
22:07
Speaker 2: they decided to walk out of the area. And when
22:11
Speaker 2: they walked out into the cul de Sacs where they
22:14
Speaker 2: noticed what they said looked like a rug, That's what
22:17
Speaker 2: they said. But they both were scared and high, according
22:20
Speaker 2: to Greg, and they wasn't sure what it was. And
22:23
Speaker 2: they were like, oh, we're really not going to call
22:24
Speaker 2: any help now to get my vehicle and stuck, they
22:27
Speaker 2: talked amongst themselves wondering if it was a body, but
22:31
Speaker 2: they continued to go out until they met someone and
22:35
Speaker 2: caught a ride and both went to their perspective.
22:38
Speaker 1: Homes and that's Johnny Beck's version of events as well, Yes, ma'am.
22:43
Speaker 3: And then I think it's interesting too because Greg came
22:46
Speaker 3: back the next day. Can you tell us what you
22:47
Speaker 3: learned about that?
22:48
Speaker 2: So I think that was maybe the second thing that
22:51
Speaker 2: just baffled me. Who murdered someone and go back to
22:54
Speaker 2: get their vehicle? Who does that in good conscience? I
22:57
Speaker 2: don't care if you will hide the night before or
22:59
Speaker 2: not go back to the scene of the crime. Yeah,
23:02
Speaker 2: not now. I did learn that from the detective. The
23:07
Speaker 2: person were arrested came back to the scene of the crime,
23:10
Speaker 2: and he was arrested there, and then later the person
23:13
Speaker 2: he was with was picked up.
23:16
Speaker 1: What are you feeling reading through these documents having had
23:19
Speaker 1: this lingering doubt since your sister's murder?
23:23
Speaker 2: You know, I think my biggest question was why weren't
23:26
Speaker 2: we invited to the trial? And how could this jury
23:32
Speaker 2: convict this man on what I was reading?
23:35
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Creig Taylor is incarcerated. How did it feel to
23:40
Speaker 1: know that was his reality while you were sort of
23:43
Speaker 1: unraveling the doubts you had in his conviction.
23:48
Speaker 2: So I think what was hard for me was how
23:51
Speaker 2: dare you give this person life. On what I'm reading,
23:55
Speaker 2: it's still a lot of holes here. Yes, he may
23:58
Speaker 2: have been guilty of something, but he certainly was not
24:00
Speaker 2: guilty of killing a sister. And now he had been
24:04
Speaker 2: taken away from his family.
24:07
Speaker 1: Yolanda started contemplating everything Greg Taylor had lost, and he
24:11
Speaker 1: had lost a lot. Greg Taylor was a father. Sometimes
24:14
Speaker 1: he had been the only parent present at his daughter's
24:17
Speaker 1: pta meetings, and now his daughter was growing up without him.
24:22
Speaker 1: He had been married to his wife, Becky, his high
24:24
Speaker 1: school sweetheart, but just a few months after his sentence began,
24:28
Speaker 1: Becky Taylor filed for divorce. Greg Taylor was also a
24:31
Speaker 1: beloved son, and his elderly parents were desperately advocating for
24:35
Speaker 1: his freedom.
24:38
Speaker 2: I think one of the things that bothered me the
24:41
Speaker 2: most was I am not an advocate of the death penalty.
24:45
Speaker 2: I'm not, And had things looked different or been different,
24:50
Speaker 2: this man could be gone. So then another life has
24:53
Speaker 2: been taken. And what was hard for me to wrap
24:57
Speaker 2: my brain around was what if he had been executed
25:01
Speaker 2: and someone was just now looking into his case. You're
25:04
Speaker 2: not going to bring my sister back, but you certainly
25:07
Speaker 2: couldn't bring back this man who didn't even commit the crime.
25:12
Speaker 2: So for me, it was a lot going on mentally
25:16
Speaker 2: with the watercouta shutters and how do we now fix
25:20
Speaker 2: this for him?
25:21
Speaker 1: And how do you now fix this? You have this
25:24
Speaker 1: attorney who's reached out saying they're trying to exonerate Greg Taylor.
25:28
Speaker 2: The next phone call I got was from the people
25:32
Speaker 2: at the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, and I was
25:35
Speaker 2: being told that his case was getting ready to be heard.
25:39
Speaker 1: The North Carolina Innocents Inquiry Commission was established back in
25:43
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. They're separate from the appeals process.
25:46
Speaker 1: The Commission investigates and evaluates credible post conviction claims of innocence. First,
25:51
Speaker 1: there's an initial review of the case, then a commission hearing,
25:54
Speaker 1: and finally a three judge panel hearing. The judges at
25:58
Speaker 1: that final hearing have the power to dismissed someone's charges
26:01
Speaker 1: and that person can never then be retried for those crimes.
26:06
Speaker 1: It's a big deal if they're hearing your case.
26:10
Speaker 2: When I took that phone call, the young lady immediately
26:14
Speaker 2: told me who she was. She told me about what
26:17
Speaker 2: they were investigating or trying to get some answers to
26:21
Speaker 2: and she said, we're not on Greg Taylor's side. We're
26:26
Speaker 2: on the side of truth, and we just want to
26:28
Speaker 2: know what happened to your sister, and I'm gonna tell you. Immediately,
26:33
Speaker 2: all my guards came down because here's someone who's telling
26:37
Speaker 2: me they're gonna help me find out what happened, and
26:41
Speaker 2: if that includes finding out that Greg didn't do it,
26:44
Speaker 2: then that's even better. So I was invited to attend.
26:50
Speaker 2: I worked it out to get off work so that
26:53
Speaker 2: I could go and be a part of that hearing.
26:56
Speaker 1: So during this panel of eight and the presentation is
26:59
Speaker 1: to why Greg should not be in jail for this?
27:03
Speaker 1: What do you learn during that presentation?
27:06
Speaker 2: Girl? So much? Thank goodness I had a friend that
27:09
Speaker 2: could join me because she could take notes and remember
27:13
Speaker 2: these things. But I remember the first thing I heard
27:17
Speaker 2: was the blood splatter that was supposed to be on
27:20
Speaker 2: his fender was indeed an insect. That was the first thing.
27:25
Speaker 2: So that was the first thing.
27:28
Speaker 1: Remember the blood spatter on the fender of Greg Taylor's
27:31
Speaker 1: Nissan Pathfinder. At his trial back in April of nineteen
27:34
Speaker 1: ninety three, the jury who had gone on to find
27:37
Speaker 1: him guilty they were told it was human blood. This
27:41
Speaker 1: was damning evidence against him, But new tests revealed that
27:45
Speaker 1: the blood sample wasn't blood at all, it was an insect.
27:49
Speaker 1: The attorneys who were present on the state's behalf arguing
27:53
Speaker 1: to keep Greg Taylor behind bars, they said, the positive
27:57
Speaker 1: test for blood that had been presented at Greg's trial, well,
28:01
Speaker 1: they got that result from the SBI, the North Carolina
28:04
Speaker 1: State Bureau of Investigations. So present at this hearing to
28:09
Speaker 1: talk about it was SBI analyst Dwayne Deaver, and during
28:13
Speaker 1: his cross examination, Deaver made a shocking admission. The sample
28:19
Speaker 1: had been tested a total of three times, and two
28:23
Speaker 1: of those times it came back negative for the presence
28:26
Speaker 1: of blood. Only one of those tests came back positive,
28:31
Speaker 1: and that was the test presented to the jury at
28:33
Speaker 1: Gregg's trial. This was a bombshell moment. The injustice of
28:38
Speaker 1: what had occurred was palpable. It was reported that all
28:42
Speaker 1: three judges covered their mouths with their hands, and that
28:46
Speaker 1: the attorneys on both sides looked shaken by what Deaver
28:49
Speaker 1: had said.
28:51
Speaker 2: The second thing I think for me was nothing, no hair,
28:57
Speaker 2: no clothing, no fiber, nothing placed my sister inside that vehicle.
29:04
Speaker 2: So if the state has spawned the story that she
29:07
Speaker 2: was getting high with them, then why was there no
29:10
Speaker 2: evidence of her being in the vehicle. And then I think,
29:15
Speaker 2: listening to bus and pieces of the investigation that happened
29:20
Speaker 2: around my sister's murder, it just placed too many questions
29:23
Speaker 2: there that you had three or four different scenarios of
29:28
Speaker 2: how this could have happened. Just listening to these people.
29:31
Speaker 1: Did you feel like Chakuda as a person was given
29:34
Speaker 1: a lot of thought through this investigation?
29:37
Speaker 2: Oh no, ma'am. Oh, she wasn't given any thought and
29:40
Speaker 2: she wasn't even a human being. Her name was listed
29:43
Speaker 2: in the newspaper from the articles I received in germany
29:46
Speaker 2: Burg Taylor. You see his name the trial, he's convicted.
29:49
Speaker 2: Her name is listed when all of this happened. She
29:53
Speaker 2: was local prostitute found dead.
29:58
Speaker 4: Period.
29:59
Speaker 2: In every art article, every news media outlet that talked
30:03
Speaker 2: about it said the local prostitute. Everything that was written
30:08
Speaker 2: could be a magazine article, newspaper article, whatever, it was,
30:12
Speaker 2: the local prostitute. And I was like, no, I don't
30:15
Speaker 2: remember which news outlet I called, but I remember I
30:19
Speaker 2: was very upset and I called and I said, I'm
30:21
Speaker 2: ana for you to call every other news station that's
30:23
Speaker 2: in this local area, but you will not refer to
30:26
Speaker 2: her as a local prostitute. If you can find me
30:29
Speaker 2: proof that she was ever arrested for prostitution, then you
30:32
Speaker 2: can say that. But I already knew she had never
30:35
Speaker 2: been arrested for that. And so one news station that
30:39
Speaker 2: I called, he did it was a story. They went
30:43
Speaker 2: and they looked up her arrest record and law and behold,
30:47
Speaker 2: she had never been arrested for that. And he apologized
30:50
Speaker 2: on TV. And I'm taking that. Every other news media
30:54
Speaker 2: outleok just decided to follow suit because from that coin on,
30:59
Speaker 2: it was her name that was being said.
31:02
Speaker 4: Wow, that's so important, and you were really the driver
31:05
Speaker 4: of that.
31:06
Speaker 2: So I did speak at the end of the eight panel.
31:10
Speaker 2: I was asked if I wanted to say anything based
31:13
Speaker 2: on everything I heard, and I did, and so it
31:16
Speaker 2: was closed. The media couldn't be in the room, and
31:20
Speaker 2: I expressed all my doubts and my concerns and pretty
31:24
Speaker 2: much pleaded was please take everything that you have heard
31:28
Speaker 2: and do what's right, because I think this young man
31:32
Speaker 2: is innocent.
31:33
Speaker 4: Was Greg Taylor present?
31:35
Speaker 2: He didn't come before that.
31:37
Speaker 1: Now, what did your willingness to speak to that panel
31:42
Speaker 1: mean for his case.
31:44
Speaker 2: You know what, I'm just gonna say, I would like
31:46
Speaker 2: to believe that it meant a lot. And they all
31:51
Speaker 2: listened and they took their notes, and I remember leaving
31:57
Speaker 2: out and one of the members on the panel just
32:02
Speaker 2: stopped me and he said, powerful statement. And that was it,
32:08
Speaker 2: and that made me feel good. Now I did ask
32:11
Speaker 2: before I left. I said, before the media talked about
32:15
Speaker 2: it on the news, could someone please call me and
32:17
Speaker 2: tell me what they decide. I just because again I knew,
32:22
Speaker 2: like you said, this is it, this is his last chance,
32:27
Speaker 2: and I wanted to know first well, aside from his attorney.
32:32
Speaker 2: And so someone did call me and tell me before
32:36
Speaker 2: that it truly all Ate had agreed that it would
32:39
Speaker 2: go before the three judge panel.
32:42
Speaker 1: At the center of this case was the brutal murder
32:45
Speaker 1: of Jequetta Thomas and to have Jaqueta's own sister, Yolanda
32:49
Speaker 1: there to speak out in support of Greg Taylor's innocence,
32:52
Speaker 1: it was huge. When Jaqueta was murdered, Yolanda and her
32:56
Speaker 1: family weren't even an afterthought. They weren't thought of it all.
33:00
Speaker 1: They weren't told when investigators believed happen that night. They
33:03
Speaker 1: weren't made aware of the trial, and they weren't asked
33:06
Speaker 1: any questions. Yolanda was now certain of Greg Taylor's innocence,
33:11
Speaker 1: but speaking out in support of him came with mixed emotions.
33:15
Speaker 1: The police had conducted an investigation and felt confident that
33:18
Speaker 1: Taylor was responsible. He was convicted by a jury, Yet
33:22
Speaker 1: here Yolanda was trying to free him.
33:26
Speaker 2: There was first a sense of betrayal. I really felt
33:30
Speaker 2: like as much as I wanted to believe in help,
33:33
Speaker 2: I still felt a sense of betrayal, Like how could
33:36
Speaker 2: I first off believe that he didn't do it? How
33:39
Speaker 2: could I even attempt to help in any way, because
33:43
Speaker 2: then I was betraying my sister. Lots of prayer, just
33:48
Speaker 2: praying that I was doing the right thing. I went
33:51
Speaker 2: with my heart. I went with what I believed in
33:53
Speaker 2: my gut. You know, I can tell you there was
33:56
Speaker 2: no question in that time as to who killed her.
34:00
Speaker 2: I was focused on getting him out. It never dawned
34:04
Speaker 2: on me, well, if he didn't do it, who did not?
34:07
Speaker 1: At that time, not in that that came. You were
34:10
Speaker 1: on a mission, right at that point, Yes, that was
34:14
Speaker 1: so this panel that you speak to where you know.
34:19
Speaker 1: One of these judges even go so far as to
34:21
Speaker 1: stop you and say that was such a powerful statement.
34:25
Speaker 1: You're notified how many days later that this is going
34:28
Speaker 1: to move forward?
34:29
Speaker 2: Oh, that evening before it hit the news. I got
34:32
Speaker 2: the phone call.
34:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay.
34:33
Speaker 1: And eventually this all comes to ahead in February of
34:39
Speaker 1: twenty ten, and Greg his conviction is brought before three
34:45
Speaker 1: Superior Court judges for a review.
34:47
Speaker 2: I sat right there in the room. I sat amongst
34:51
Speaker 2: his family. I had met his mom and his dad,
34:54
Speaker 2: his stepdad. Wow. I had met his daughter and her husband.
34:59
Speaker 2: I had met the family.
35:01
Speaker 1: Greg Taylor's family understood that for Yolanda to be there
35:04
Speaker 1: to support him also meant having to relive some of
35:08
Speaker 1: the most difficult moments of her sister's tragic murder. The
35:12
Speaker 1: way she'd struggled with addiction, the way her body had
35:15
Speaker 1: been discarded on concrete, the way she was talked about
35:19
Speaker 1: by local news who had continued referring to her as
35:22
Speaker 1: a prostitute.
35:24
Speaker 2: I remember meeting them, and his mom just came up
35:29
Speaker 2: to me and hugged me. She was crying, and I said,
35:33
Speaker 2: why are you crying? She said, because you've lost so much,
35:38
Speaker 2: and I said, but so have you, and she just
35:42
Speaker 2: hugged me tighter. I just told them if their family
35:46
Speaker 2: member did not do this, he deserves to go home,
35:48
Speaker 2: and that everything in me was going to do what
35:51
Speaker 2: I could, and then I was going to be there
35:52
Speaker 2: to support them to find out the truth. I remember
35:58
Speaker 2: during this judge panel, there was a time when they
36:03
Speaker 2: did alert me that her autopsy pictures would be shown
36:07
Speaker 2: and I was sitting next to his mom and she said,
36:10
Speaker 2: do you need to leave? And I was like, no,
36:12
Speaker 2: I'm okay. And when they started placing those photos up,
36:18
Speaker 2: she grabbed my hand and she was in tears and
36:21
Speaker 2: she looked at me and she said, are you okay?
36:24
Speaker 2: And I whispered and I said, that's just a shell.
36:28
Speaker 2: She's gone, that I'm okay. She hugged me again. When
36:32
Speaker 2: we took a resist, it felt good. I think I
36:36
Speaker 2: felt I would say as close as possible to what
36:40
Speaker 2: they were feeling with the then a family member to
36:43
Speaker 2: this being what happens if he doesn't get out right now?
36:49
Speaker 2: I know I had a lot of stake. I felt
36:52
Speaker 2: like because of my drive and determination that this man
36:57
Speaker 2: is in it said that he needs to get out
36:59
Speaker 2: I can't even begin to imagine what that felt out
37:01
Speaker 2: for them. It was a lot at stage, I think
37:04
Speaker 2: for both of us, well for all of us sitting there.
37:09
Speaker 2: And then you said, or what did I think with
37:13
Speaker 2: all this happening about who possibly did it? I don't
37:17
Speaker 2: think it was until in that moment, when we're in
37:20
Speaker 2: those final hours waiting, did it dawn on me Grant
37:26
Speaker 2: didn't do this. If he goes home today, then I
37:29
Speaker 2: don't know who murdered my sister. Let me tell you,
37:39
Speaker 2: there was only one time that I got up and
37:43
Speaker 2: I had to leave that room. And it had nothing
37:47
Speaker 2: to do with anything that was being said about my sister.
37:50
Speaker 2: It had nothing to do with the pictures that were
37:52
Speaker 2: being shown. It had to do with the lie, the
37:57
Speaker 2: lie that was told to this jury that convicted this man.
38:04
Speaker 2: I was physically ill.
38:06
Speaker 1: All the way back in nineteen ninety.
38:08
Speaker 2: Three, all the way back the DA swore to this
38:12
Speaker 2: jury that that was Jeqetta's blood on that fender. I
38:17
Speaker 2: still get the sick feeling right now. I was so
38:20
Speaker 2: angry I had to leave.
38:23
Speaker 4: I mean to know that.
38:24
Speaker 1: I guess I best someone's ability to discern whose blood
38:29
Speaker 1: that was lazy or incompetent, and at worst they knew
38:33
Speaker 1: that they were telling the lie.
38:35
Speaker 2: They knew, yes, And I know I got up abruptly
38:39
Speaker 2: because when I got up to go, it caused kind
38:41
Speaker 2: of a commotion, and they knew. The people in the
38:44
Speaker 2: room knew that I was there, that I was her sister.
38:47
Speaker 2: And I do remember when I came back in and
38:52
Speaker 2: I'm listening very intently and constantly looking at the faces
38:57
Speaker 2: of these three judges. I felt that one of them
39:01
Speaker 2: even acknowledged my presence when I came back, and it
39:04
Speaker 2: just was very calming for.
39:06
Speaker 1: Me, like you had the sort of innate sense that
39:10
Speaker 1: they understood that you knew what was going.
39:13
Speaker 2: On, absolutely absolutely.
39:17
Speaker 4: So what happens next.
39:20
Speaker 2: Well, next we get the unanimous decision.
39:24
Speaker 4: Does it happen right away?
39:26
Speaker 2: It happens right away?
39:27
Speaker 4: WHOA.
39:28
Speaker 2: We did not go home. We left for them to convene.
39:33
Speaker 2: I remember hearing it was time to go back into
39:37
Speaker 2: the room. They had made a decision, and we're all
39:40
Speaker 2: holding hands. They read them off one by one and
39:44
Speaker 2: they say the judge's name, and that that judge believes,
39:48
Speaker 2: and when the second judge name was said, and that
39:50
Speaker 2: he believed it or she believed it. Everybody just kind
39:53
Speaker 2: of got hopeful, like like we're making noises. And when
39:58
Speaker 2: that final judge his name was read and said that
40:02
Speaker 2: they believe without a shadow of a doubt. Oh yeah,
40:06
Speaker 2: I still get the filling. Now that room erupted.
40:11
Speaker 1: All three judges agreed. Greg Taylor had been wrongly convicted
40:14
Speaker 1: of the murder of Jaqueta Thomas, and after seventeen years
40:18
Speaker 1: behind bars, he was finally free.
40:22
Speaker 2: It was amazing. He immediately looked to eyes with his
40:29
Speaker 2: daughter and she just couldn't wait to get to her dad.
40:32
Speaker 2: His parents were crying. It was a beautiful moment.
40:37
Speaker 1: It was, I mean, in just so intense. Greg Taylor
40:41
Speaker 1: had at this point spent seventeen years, seventeen and a
40:44
Speaker 1: half years, seventeen and a half years of his life,
40:47
Speaker 1: missed so much of his daughter's life.
40:49
Speaker 2: He missed a lot.
40:51
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, who from your family was present?
40:55
Speaker 2: Just me. I was the spokesperson for us all.
40:59
Speaker 1: And so all of this has gone on, but your
41:03
Speaker 1: sister she's gone. You know, you've had all these years
41:06
Speaker 1: to process this loss. But Greg gets his life back
41:09
Speaker 1: as he should. And when does this moment creep up
41:13
Speaker 1: for you? Of like, Okay, well now the person who
41:17
Speaker 1: is responsible is still out there.
41:20
Speaker 2: Let me tell you. It was a long ride home.
41:23
Speaker 2: It was a long ride home. Him and his family
41:27
Speaker 2: invited me to come out and celebrate, and I said, no,
41:32
Speaker 2: this is your moment, and no, no, we want you.
41:35
Speaker 2: And I was like, no, I need to go be
41:37
Speaker 2: with my kids. You know, I've been here for the
41:40
Speaker 2: past few days, been a part of this, and now
41:42
Speaker 2: I need to go. Hugged everyone and I got in
41:45
Speaker 2: my car and I cried all the way home. And
41:50
Speaker 2: that was tears of joy thinking about that his family
41:54
Speaker 2: gets him back, but then my tears of the hurt.
42:00
Speaker 2: I think the wound being back open. I cried so
42:04
Speaker 2: much that night, probably more than I do at a funeral,
42:07
Speaker 2: because it felt like I was burying her all over again,
42:10
Speaker 2: and it crept up in fear set in and I said,
42:15
Speaker 2: I have no clue who murdered my sister. And because
42:19
Speaker 2: I've been in the news and I've been in the
42:22
Speaker 2: spotlight right alongside Greg, what now if that person comes
42:27
Speaker 2: for me and my family?
42:30
Speaker 1: And you know, also just now that you've been in
42:33
Speaker 1: such a public facing role with his exoneration, Yes, who's
42:37
Speaker 1: going to talk to you?
42:39
Speaker 2: Well, no one no one. Because when I went to
42:43
Speaker 2: talk to the police after all of this and they
42:46
Speaker 2: didn't want to talk to me.
42:48
Speaker 1: Did they feel betrayed by you?
42:51
Speaker 2: Absolutely? And you know what the DA told me. He said,
42:54
Speaker 2: we got it right, you let him out.
42:58
Speaker 1: That is such a flammatory, inaccurate statement. Because the three
43:04
Speaker 1: judges they had to unanimously agree, right, it didn't matter.
43:09
Speaker 2: I learned what tunnel vision was with this case. They
43:13
Speaker 2: did shake Greg's hand and congratulate him. But I was
43:17
Speaker 2: told over and over again, even by police detectives after
43:21
Speaker 2: he was exonerated, what do you want us to do?
43:24
Speaker 2: We got it right, you let him out. As if
43:28
Speaker 2: I was able to make a decision about this man
43:32
Speaker 2: spending the rest of his life in jail. Wasn't me, sir.
43:35
Speaker 1: It was the evidence that is so disappointing and just
43:39
Speaker 1: unjust there much so, what became of Jaquetta's murder case?
43:43
Speaker 1: If anything, once Greg Taylor was exonerated.
43:47
Speaker 2: Nothing. It is a cold case. The detectives who were
43:51
Speaker 2: put on her case, they were in touch with me
43:54
Speaker 2: probably for six months, because I was constantly what is
43:59
Speaker 2: the status? What's going on? Pluk? I was trying to
44:02
Speaker 2: get her things back never could get her things back
44:05
Speaker 2: where to dead end And this was our last conversation.
44:09
Speaker 2: One said all roads lead to Greg Taylor, and I said,
44:17
Speaker 2: this will be the last time you will call me
44:19
Speaker 2: with an update. Now I am done because clearly you're
44:23
Speaker 2: not going to do anything to find out who murdered
44:26
Speaker 2: my sister.
44:28
Speaker 1: How has this whole experience, I mean, I imagine this will
44:31
Speaker 1: be a difficult answer to even try to sum up.
44:35
Speaker 1: But how has it changed you and your family to
44:38
Speaker 1: have been through this?
44:41
Speaker 2: You know, I can't really speak for them, and I
44:44
Speaker 2: say that because they trusted me to get the answers.
44:48
Speaker 2: They believed if I was fighting that it was it
44:51
Speaker 2: was a good fight, and they were supportive. I can
44:55
Speaker 2: tell you that when Greg was awarded whatever the money is,
45:00
Speaker 2: when they realized he was wrongfully convicted, they came from
45:03
Speaker 2: the state. The state needed something from every one of
45:08
Speaker 2: us before they would pay him. So every one of
45:12
Speaker 2: my family members had to say that we believed the
45:15
Speaker 2: decision was correct and that they got it right. Now.
45:20
Speaker 2: He did get an undisclosed them out from the SBI,
45:23
Speaker 2: but they didn't need us for that. That was a
45:25
Speaker 2: separate thing. But whatever came initially from the state for
45:29
Speaker 2: the wrongful conviction. You know, we all had to sign
45:31
Speaker 2: something in and say yes.
45:37
Speaker 3: Yolanda's story was so powerful and it really hits home
45:42
Speaker 3: for me the thing that we talk about so much,
45:44
Speaker 3: which is the ripple effect of crime.
45:47
Speaker 1: I think there's no better representation of that in the
45:51
Speaker 1: story that Greg Taylor's exonerated. But now Yolanda knows that
45:55
Speaker 1: law enforcement has, in her eyes, turned against her and
45:58
Speaker 1: is unwilling to continue looking at into the case and
46:01
Speaker 1: to look for the person who actually committed this murder.
46:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's such a heartbreaking part of Yanda's story that
46:09
Speaker 3: she's sort of like punished by law enforcement who when
46:13
Speaker 3: she asked them about her sister's case, they keep saying
46:16
Speaker 3: everything goes back to Greg Taylor, which is ridiculous because
46:20
Speaker 3: he's been exonerated.
46:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not like Yolanda decided to exonerate him, right.
46:25
Speaker 1: He went through this incredible process with the North Carolina
46:28
Speaker 1: Innocents Inquiry Commission and sat in front of those three
46:31
Speaker 1: judges who heard all about his first trial and what
46:35
Speaker 1: his attorneys have uncovered since. And you know, one of
46:38
Speaker 1: those really powerful moments during his hearing was to talk
46:42
Speaker 1: about the blood evidence that was used against him, which
46:45
Speaker 1: ended up not being blood, ended up being an insect. Right,
46:48
Speaker 1: And we learned the SBI analyst Dwayne Deaver that testifies
46:51
Speaker 1: at this three day hearing. He admits that the evidence
46:56
Speaker 1: was faulty and he didn't give them all the facts.
46:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so whid When we were talking about this
47:02
Speaker 3: and his name came up, I knew that I had
47:06
Speaker 3: heard it somewhere else. And it's because I had recently
47:10
Speaker 3: watched the Staircase documentary, which everybody watched years ago, and
47:15
Speaker 3: somehow I never watched it, but I told you too,
47:17
Speaker 3: and then you were like, you have to watch this.
47:19
Speaker 3: What are you doing? And you were right, it's really good.
47:22
Speaker 3: But because I had just watched it, his name stuck
47:25
Speaker 3: in my mind because he's in that documentary.
47:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know now that Dwayne Deaver was actually fired
47:30
Speaker 1: by the SBI in January of twenty eleven. There was
47:32
Speaker 1: a major investigation after this three day hearing where he
47:35
Speaker 1: admitted to a really shady policy that they had about
47:40
Speaker 1: the way that they communicated lab results.
47:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, we talked about it in this episode that with
47:44
Speaker 3: this case, there were three tests, right, two of them
47:47
Speaker 3: came back negative. Only one came back positive for human blood.
47:51
Speaker 3: But then I also read that that test was not
47:54
Speaker 3: one hundred percent correct all the time.
47:57
Speaker 1: It was not, and so that was why what he
47:59
Speaker 1: should have done, in what the agency should of making
48:02
Speaker 1: sure was being done, is we tested it three times,
48:05
Speaker 1: here are the results, and given that information to both
48:08
Speaker 1: the prosecution and the defense. But instead, the only information
48:11
Speaker 1: was given to the prosecution that yes, it came back positive.
48:14
Speaker 1: The defense was not told we tested it three times.
48:17
Speaker 1: Two of those tests, which is the majority, came back negative.
48:21
Speaker 1: And the jury heard this information that Greg Taylor had
48:24
Speaker 1: human blood on the fender of his vehicle that was
48:26
Speaker 1: located right by where Jaquetta's body was found, and he
48:30
Speaker 1: was convicted. And who knows if he would have been
48:32
Speaker 1: if they hadn't heard that evidence that we now know
48:35
Speaker 1: to have been really faulty. Yeah. Dwayne Deaver, whose name
48:38
Speaker 1: you recognized from the staircase. He testifies in this trial,
48:42
Speaker 1: the murder trial where Michael Peterson is accused of killing
48:46
Speaker 1: his wife, Kathleen Peterson, and Dwayne Deaver testifies at the
48:50
Speaker 1: trial is later found to have committed perjury. He basically
48:54
Speaker 1: overstated his training and overstated the work done on this case.
49:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, if I recall, he testified that like the way
49:04
Speaker 3: that the blood spatter was on the staircase, it could
49:07
Speaker 3: only come from one angle. That then sort of led
49:10
Speaker 3: into this argument that Michael Peterson could have been the
49:13
Speaker 3: only one to have, you know, caused that trauma to
49:16
Speaker 3: her head.
49:17
Speaker 1: Dwayne Deaver was fired in January twenty eleven. Well, Michael
49:20
Speaker 1: Peterson's defense when it was coming out that the SBI
49:23
Speaker 1: was under investigation for these faulty tests, they were able
49:27
Speaker 1: to get him a new trial and he ended up
49:30
Speaker 1: actually just taking an Alfred plea, which is I'm maintaining
49:33
Speaker 1: that I was innocent, but that you have evidence that
49:35
Speaker 1: could convict me. And so he is a free man.
49:39
Speaker 1: He lives in Durham. Again, I think said he just
49:42
Speaker 1: lives a quiet life in a one bedroom apartment writing books.
49:45
Speaker 1: And would he have ever been convicted if not for
49:47
Speaker 1: Dwayne Deaver's testimony.
49:49
Speaker 3: It's a good question. It makes me think of something
49:52
Speaker 3: that Jennifer Thompson said to us in our episode that
49:54
Speaker 3: came out a couple of weeks ago, talking about wrongful convictions.
49:58
Speaker 3: She talked about that moment with Ronald Cotton's conviction of
50:01
Speaker 3: the woman who called and said to have seen him,
50:03
Speaker 3: and it was this big revelation that that woman had
50:05
Speaker 3: made that up. Right, So she said though in a
50:09
Speaker 3: lot of her work dealing with wrongful convictions, there is
50:12
Speaker 3: often times a bad actor, she said, you wouldn't believe
50:16
Speaker 3: how many times that happens. And we kind of see
50:19
Speaker 3: it here too with Dwayne Deaver. He was giving incredibly
50:23
Speaker 3: misleading information that ended up causing the jury to feel
50:26
Speaker 3: convinced that there was evidence to convict Greg Taylor when
50:29
Speaker 3: there was not.
50:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like the SBI and Dwyane Deaver were acting
50:33
Speaker 1: on behalf of the prosecution instead of just processing these
50:37
Speaker 1: results in their lab. Yeah, in an impartial way. The
50:41
Speaker 1: investigation that ends up happening into the SBI over this
50:44
Speaker 1: policy that Duane Diaver mentioned came back to about two
50:48
Speaker 1: hundred convictions. Those people were convicted based on evidence provided
50:53
Speaker 1: by the SBI, who had these policies in place that
50:56
Speaker 1: were always going to be favorable to the prosecution. Three
51:00
Speaker 1: of those convictions had resulted in the death penalty.
51:04
Speaker 3: Oh, that's horrible, horrible.
51:06
Speaker 1: That's why it's so important that we have organizations like
51:10
Speaker 1: the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission in place.
51:13
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, which brings us to something that we
51:15
Speaker 3: really want to talk about today, which is that the
51:17
Speaker 3: North Carolina Innocence Inquery Commission, which we've been talking about.
51:21
Speaker 3: We talked about this episode. It's the whole reason that
51:24
Speaker 3: Greg Taylor ended up getting exonerated. He had gone through
51:27
Speaker 3: the appeals process, he had been denied, he was at
51:31
Speaker 3: the end of any available way forward with his case,
51:36
Speaker 3: and then the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission took a
51:38
Speaker 3: look at it. It's the only reason that we ever
51:40
Speaker 3: got justice in that case. Well, the Commission is actually
51:43
Speaker 3: at risk of being eliminated right now. This is a
51:47
Speaker 3: really current thing. The North Carolina Senate actually has already
51:50
Speaker 3: voted to eliminate it from the budget. So before we
51:54
Speaker 3: talk about that, I just want to kind of talk
51:55
Speaker 3: about the reason that it was ever created. You know,
51:57
Speaker 3: the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, it's completely separate from
52:02
Speaker 3: the appeals process. It's a state funded, state run, but
52:06
Speaker 3: independent agency, and because of that, they are able to
52:11
Speaker 3: take an unbiased approach to cases. They've reviewed three thy
52:14
Speaker 3: eight hundred cases. There have been sixteen exonerations as a result.
52:18
Speaker 1: Which I think really speaks to how seriously they take
52:21
Speaker 1: this work. Like this is not some get out a
52:23
Speaker 1: jail free card. Thirty hundred cases and sixteen exonerations, they
52:29
Speaker 1: are really scrutinizing the evidence that's presented to them. These
52:32
Speaker 1: have to be very, very credible inquiries into someone's innocence
52:36
Speaker 1: for them to even hear the case.
52:38
Speaker 2: Yeah.
52:39
Speaker 3: One of the things that they also do is that
52:41
Speaker 3: as they're investigating a case, if they find more evidence
52:45
Speaker 3: that supports the guilty verdict, that also goes into the files,
52:48
Speaker 3: so they're actually able to confirm convictions as well. When
52:51
Speaker 3: this commission was formed, it had bipartisan support at the time.
52:55
Speaker 3: It was actually a Republican Chief Justice I Beverly Lake
52:59
Speaker 3: who pushed for the formation of this commission, and it
53:03
Speaker 3: was popular on both sides of the aisle. Another conservative representative,
53:07
Speaker 3: Paul stam He stated when it was created, quote, the
53:11
Speaker 3: one thing you won't get out of this commission is
53:13
Speaker 3: a lot of guilty people being set free. It's just
53:16
Speaker 3: too hard. That goes to show you their process. One
53:20
Speaker 3: of the arguments that's happening right now, this is a
53:23
Speaker 3: Republican led push in the Senate North Carolina Senate. We
53:28
Speaker 3: should note that prosecutors have been lobbying for this basically
53:31
Speaker 3: ever since the North Carolina Innocence incret Commission was formed
53:34
Speaker 3: to defund it, probably because they're overturning some of their cases, right.
53:39
Speaker 3: But the argument that's happening right now in support of
53:42
Speaker 3: defunding it is that, well, there are other non state
53:46
Speaker 3: funded organizations that are essentially doing the same thing, which
53:49
Speaker 3: is not true. Yes, there are nonprofits that work toward,
53:54
Speaker 3: you know, supporting people and researching potential wrongful convictions. But
53:58
Speaker 3: the thing is is they don't have act actual power.
54:01
Speaker 3: The North Carolina Innocen's Inquiry Commission has the power to
54:05
Speaker 3: subpoena witnesses to order DNA testing to discover new evidence.
54:10
Speaker 3: They also have access to investigation files. You know, nonprofits
54:15
Speaker 3: don't have any of that power. If they wanted to
54:18
Speaker 3: order a new DNA test, they would have to submit
54:20
Speaker 3: a court order and that could just be denied. So
54:23
Speaker 3: actually it's not the same thing at all.
54:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, they wouldn't have Jennifer Thompson's organization, for example, Healing Justice.
54:30
Speaker 1: She can't say, hey, SBI analysts that I think did
54:32
Speaker 1: a bad job. Come in, we want to talk to you.
54:35
Speaker 1: And in the case of Greg Taylor, for example, like
54:38
Speaker 1: bringing him in really showcased not just for those judges,
54:43
Speaker 1: but for everyone in the room, like all of these
54:46
Speaker 1: other cases that had been impacted. And a nonprofit doesn't
54:49
Speaker 1: have the power to do that.
54:52
Speaker 3: So what this does is instead of having support for
54:54
Speaker 3: this sort of independent commission, it just puts all the
54:58
Speaker 3: power back into the DA's office.
55:00
Speaker 4: Yeah.
55:00
Speaker 1: I was reading about an attorney named Mark Rabel I
55:04
Speaker 1: think I'm pronouncing his name correctly, and he's the director
55:07
Speaker 1: of the Innocence and Justice Clinic at Wake Forest University,
55:11
Speaker 1: and he just put it really in a way that
55:14
Speaker 1: made so much sense to me, where he's advocating that
55:17
Speaker 1: we do not cut funding to the North Carolina Innocence
55:20
Speaker 1: Increy Commission, and he said, nobody can dispute the fact
55:23
Speaker 1: that people are wrongfully convicted. We have a human system.
55:26
Speaker 1: Humans make errors, so we need to correct them.
55:29
Speaker 3: Yeah. I was pretty horrified to hear that this is
55:31
Speaker 3: at risk of being eliminated because I think it is
55:35
Speaker 3: a really cool and important program. North Carolina was the
55:39
Speaker 3: first in the country to create a program like this,
55:42
Speaker 3: and you know, I was hoping that other states would
55:45
Speaker 3: start forming them as well, because we are seeing that
55:47
Speaker 3: it's a success. Currently, it's been voted on the Senate
55:50
Speaker 3: and we're waiting to see what happens in the North
55:51
Speaker 3: Carolina House.
55:53
Speaker 1: And I just can't help but wonder thinking about like
55:55
Speaker 1: the settlements that exoneries you know, rightfully obtain when they're
55:59
Speaker 1: extas honerated, Like, well, are people just trying to protect
56:03
Speaker 1: themselves from having to pay those Maybe?
56:04
Speaker 4: I don't know.
56:05
Speaker 3: It's a good point. So if you want to learn
56:08
Speaker 3: more about Greg Taylor's case, there is a documentary in
56:11
Speaker 3: Pursuit of Justice that chronicles his seventeen year search for justice,
56:16
Speaker 3: which I enjoyed. And I also wanted to note that
56:19
Speaker 3: Greg and Yulanda are now friends and on good term,
56:23
Speaker 3: similar to what we heard with Jennifer and Ronald Cotton.
56:26
Speaker 3: And we love the work that Healing Justice Project is doing.
56:29
Speaker 3: You can visit them at Healing Justice Project dot org.
56:33
Speaker 3: That's it for our episode. We'll see you next week.
56:38
Speaker 3: If you have a story for us, we would love
56:40
Speaker 3: to hear it. Our email is The Knife at exactly
56:43
Speaker 3: Rightmedia dot com, or you can follow us on Instagram
56:46
Speaker 3: at the Knife podcast or Blue Sky at the Knife podcast.
56:49
Speaker 3: This has been an exactly right production. Hosted and produced
56:52
Speaker 3: by me Hannah Smith and.
56:54
Speaker 1: Me Paytia Eaton. Our producers are Tom Brifogel and Alexis Amorosi.
56:58
Speaker 3: This episode was mixed by Tom bry Fogel.
57:00
Speaker 4: Our associate producer is Christina Chamberlain.
57:03
Speaker 3: Our theme music is by Birds in the Airport.
57:05
Speaker 4: Artwork by Vanessa Lilac.
57:07
Speaker 3: Executive produced by Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia Hardstark and Danielle Kramer.