Latest / NO FILTER / True Crime Stories For Sleep With Rain Sound _ Vol 119 _ Black Screen(MP3_160K)

Transcript

True Crime Stories For Sleep With Rain Sound _ Vol 119 _ Black Screen(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 2: Story one. Earl J.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Richmond Junior was born on November sixth, nineteen sixty one.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: He was born in the United States. His family was
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: from Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was a black male. Earle
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: grew up in a difficult home. His father drank alcohol heavily.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: His father was often angry. Earle's father would yell at
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: him and hid him. Earle's mother was also in the home,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: but the father was the main source of fear and punishment.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: One of Earl's sisters later said she thought Earle might
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: have been sexually abused by their father, but Earle never
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: confirmed this himself. Earl had sisters. One sister was named Erica.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Another sister was named Levaugh. There was also a sister
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: named Sheila Jordan and another named Andrea Knight. The family
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: was close in some ways, but the home was not peaceful.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: The children saw their father drink and become violent. This
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: was normal for them. As a child. Earl did not
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: show special warning signs to people outside the family. He
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: went a school, he had friends. He grew up in Fayetteville.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: When he became a teenager, he started to drink alcohol himself.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: He also started using drugs. He drank beer regularly. Sometimes
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: he drank hard liquor. He also used crack cocaine. When
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Earle finished high school, he decided to join the United
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: States Army. The army gave him structure. He became a soldier.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: He worked hard and rose in rank. Eventually he became
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: a drill sergeant. A drill sergeant is the person who
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: trains new soldiers. The job requires discipline and control. Earl
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: was stationed at different Army bases. One base was Fort
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Dix in New Jersey. Another base was near Fort Bragg
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in North Carolina. He lived near Fayetteville, where his family
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: still lived. In his personal life, Earl had friends. One
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: of his closest friends was a man named Waine Hayes.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Wain and Earl grew close. They trusted each other. Waine
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: was married to a woman named Helisa Stuart Hayes. Helisa
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: and Waine had two children. The son was named Philip.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The daughter was named Darien. Earl also knew Hellysa's family.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: He had dated one of Helisa's sisters. That sister was
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: named Trenda Boston. Earl and Trenda went to high school together.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: They dated for a while, so Earl knew the Hayes
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: family very well. He was not a stranger. He was
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: a family friend. Earl also served in the army with
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: other soldiers. One soldier was a woman named Lisa and Natto.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: She worked as a pear old clerk at Fort Dick's.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Earl knew her from the base, but she was not
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: a close friend. They were just co workers on the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: same military post. By nineteen ninety and early nineteen ninety one,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Earl was still in the Army, but he had problems.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: He was removed from his job as a drill sergeant.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: The army said it was from misconduct that meant he
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: broke rules. He was not thrown out of the army completely,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: but he lost his special position. Earle continued to drink
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and used drugs. He went to parties. He stayed out
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: late at night. His sisters saw him drink large amounts.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: One time, his sister Sheila, saw him drink two or
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: three forty ounce beers before a party. Then at the party,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: he drank a lot of hard liquor. He also bought
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: crack cocaine. He and his sister each took one hit
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: of the cocaine. After that, Earle became very obnoxious. His
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: sister had never seen him act that way before. Earle's
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: life in early nineteen ninety one had two sides. On
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: one side, he was a former drill sergeant with military training.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: He had friends and family who cared about him. On
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the other side, he had a violent childhood, a problem
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: with alcohol and crack cocaine, and a temper that could
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: surface when he was drunk or high. He had lost
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: his drill sergeant job. He was still living near Fayetteville.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: He was still friends with Wayne Hayes. He still knew
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Helisa and her children. In April nineteen ninety one, something
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: happened at Fort Dix in New Jersey. A soldier named
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Lisa and Natto was found dead in her home on
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: the base. She was twenty four years old. She had
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: been killed, but at that time no one suspected Earl.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Richmond police looked for the killer. They did not connect
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Earle to the crime. Earle remained free. He stayed in
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. He continued to see his friends and family.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: By November nineteen ninety one, Earle was still living his
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: normal life.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: He went to.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Parties, he drank, he used drugs. He stayed close to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Wayne Hayes. He also stayed close to Wayne's ex wife, Helsa.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Even though Wain and Helisa were divorced, Earle remained friendly
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: with her. He would visit her home. He knew her children.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: He was a familiar face in their lives. Earl's childhood
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and young adult life had many problems. He grew up
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: with an alcoholic and abusive father. He started drinking and
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: using drugs at a young age. He joined the Army
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and became a drill sergeant, but then lost that job
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: from his conduct. He had friends and family who loved him,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: but he also had a hidden pattern of violence and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: anger that had not yet been discovered by the police.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: His life was about to change forever. On April fourth,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one, Earl Richmond was at Fort Dix in
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: New Jersey. He was still serving in the Army, even
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: though he had been removed as a drill sergeant. On
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that day, he went to the home of a soldier
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: named Lisa and Natto. She was twenty four years old.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: She worked as a peril clerk on the base. She
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: lived in a town home on the military post. She
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: had two young children. One child was three years old,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the other was six months old, Earle entered Lisa's home.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: He brought a hammer with him. He also brought a knife.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: He attacked Lisa. First, he hit her in the head
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: with the hammer, then he stabbed her in the leg
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: with the knife. He tied her up. The police later
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: called this hog tide, which means her hands and feet
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: were bound together behind her back. After tying her up,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he raped her, then he strangled her to death. Lisa's
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: two children were in the home during the attack. Earle
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: did not hurt the children. He left them alive. Then
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: he left the home. After killing Lisa, Earle went back
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: to his normal life. He returned to North Carolina. He
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: continued to see his friends. No one suspected him. The
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: police in New Jersey investigated the murder, but they did
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: not connect Earle to the crime at that time. Seven
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: months passed. On November first, nineteen ninety one, Earle went
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: to a house party in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: with his sister, Sheila Jordan, and other people. At the party,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Earl drank large amounts of alcohol. He drank beer. He
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: also drank hard liquor. He left the party at one
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: point to buy crack cocaine. He and his sister each
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: smoked one hit of the cocaine. Then they returned to
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the party. Earle kept drinking for several more hours. He
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: became very intoxicated. He was loud and obnoxious. His sister
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: had never seen him act that way before. At around
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: three forty five in the morning on November second, nineteen
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: ninety one, Earl left the party. His sister, Andrea Knight,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: drove him in a car. She dropped him off about
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: one mile or one and a half miles from the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: home of Helisa Hays. Helisa lived in a mobile home
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: at the Sunshine Mobile Home Park in Fayetteville. She lived
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: there with her two children. Her son, Philip was eight
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: years old, her daughter Darien was seven years old. Helsa
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: was divorced from Wayne Hayes, but Earle remained friends with
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: both Waine and Helisa. Earle walked from where his sister
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: dropped him to Hellysa's mobile home. He arrived at the home,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Helsa led him inside. At first, Earl and Helisa had sex.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Earl later said the sex was consensual at the beginning.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: After they finished having sex, they started to argue. The
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: argument was about Helisa seeing other men. Earle was angry
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: because Helisa was dating other men in front of her
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: ex husband Wayne, who was Earl's best friend. During the argument,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Helsa picked up an object. She struck Earle with it.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: She then called out for her son, Philip to come
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: into the room. Philip was in the hallway. He came
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: to his mother's room. Earle became very angry. He grabbed
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Helisa and carried her into her bedroom. Once in the bedroom,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Earle punched Helsa in the face with his fist. He
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: then had sex with her again, but this time it
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: was not consensual. He forced her he raped her. After
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: raping Helisa, Earl strangled her to death. He used his
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: hands to choke her until she stopped breathing. Then he
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: poured rubbing alcohol over her vaginal area. He did this
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: to try to destroy evidence of the rape. After killing Helsa,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Earl went back to the hallway. Philip was lying down
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: in the hallway outside his mother's bedroom. The boy had
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: seen some of what happened. Earl grabbed Philip. He carried
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the eight year old boy into the bathroom. Inside the bathroom,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Earle picked up a pair of scissors. He stabbed Philip
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: many times. The exact number was forty times or more.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: One report said forty times, another report said sixty two times.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: All reports agreed. Earl stabbed the boy repeatedly in the
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: head and body. Then Earle took an electrical cord. The
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: cord came from a curling iron or a hair curler.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: He wrapped the cord around Philip's neck five times.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: He pulled it tight.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: He strangled the boy until he was dead. After killing Philip,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Earle left the bathroom. He walked to the bedroom where
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Diarienne was sleeping. The girl was seven years old. She
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: was in her bed. Earle took the same type of
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: cord from a curling iron. He sat Dienne up on
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: her bed. Then he wrapped the cord around her neck.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: He strangled her until she stopped breathing. Earle had now
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: killed three people, Helisa, Philip, and Darien. He left their
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: bodies in the mobile home. He did not clean up
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the scene, except for pouring alcohol on Hellys's body. He
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: left the scissors and the electrical cords at the scene.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Then he left the home. He went back to his
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: normal activities. Two days passed. No one found the bodies.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Helisa's father, William Stewart, became worried. He had not heard
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: from his daughter for two days. On November fourth, nineteen
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: ninety one, he went to her mobile home. He could
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: not get in because the door was locked, so he
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: broke into the home. Inside he found the bodies of
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: his daughter and his two grandchildren. He called the police.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: The police arrived. They saw Hellysa's body in the bedroom.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: She had bruises on her face. She had been strangled.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: They found seamen inside her body. They found Philip's body
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: in the bathroom. He had stab wounds and the cord
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: around his neck. They found Darien's body in her bedroom.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: She had the.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Cord around her neck. The police collected evidence. They took
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the scissors, they took the electrical cords. They took samples
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: from Hellysa's body. Earl Richmond heard that the bodies had
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: been found. He knew the family. He was a close
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: friend of Wayne Hayes, the children's father. He offered to
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: help with the funeral. A few days after the murders,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Earle served as a pall bearer at the funerals for Helisa, Philip,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and Darien. He helped carry the coffins. He rode in
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a limousine with Wayne Hayes to the funeral services. No
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: one at the funeral knew that Earle was the killer.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: The police began interviewing people who knew the family. They
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: talked to Earle. In that first interview, Earle ied. He
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: told the police that he had not been to Hellysa's
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: home during the week end of the murders. He also
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: tried to blame some one else. He told the police
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: that he thought Wayne hays had visited Helsa's home that weekend.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: The police believed Earle at first. They focused their investigation
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: on Wayne Hayes, on a boyfriend Helisa had been seeing,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and on Helisa's father. Earle was not considered a suspect,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: but one thing was wrong. The police had found seamen
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: inside Helyysa's body. They did not yet know whose seamen
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it was. They needed to compare it to samples from
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: possible suspects. Earle had not yet given a sample. For now,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the case remained open. The killer was still free. For
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: about three months after the murders, the police continued to investigate.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: They still did not suspect Earl Richmond. They had interviewed
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: him once and he had lied to them. He told
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: them he was not at Hellysa's home that weekend. They
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: believed him at that time. Then something changed. In early
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Earle's sister, Andrea Knight, went to the police.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: She told them that she had driven Earle to the
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: area near Hellysa's home on the morning of November tewond,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety one. She dropped him off around three forty
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: five a m. She said Earl had been drinking and
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: using drugs that night. This was new information. The police
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: had not known that Earle was near the crime scene
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: that morning. Based on what Andrea Knight told them, the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: police decided to take a closer look at Earle. They
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: requested a DNA sample from him. Specifically, they asked for
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: a rape kit sample. This meant they wanted to compare
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: his genetic material to the seamen found inside Hellysa's body.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Earle agreed to provide the sample. He may have thought
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the police would not find anything, or he may have
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: thought he could still avoid being caught. The police sent
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the samples to a lab for DNA testing. The results
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: came back the seamen found inside Hellysa's body matched Earl
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Richmond's DNA. The lab confirmed that Earle had been the
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: one who had sex with Helisa shortly before she died.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Because Helisa had been raped and murdered, this was strong
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: evidence that Earle was the killer. On April third, nineteen
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: ninety two, the police brought Earl in for another interview.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: At the start of the interview, Earl Can continued to
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: deny that he had anything to do with the murders.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: He said he was not involved. Then the police told
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: him about the DNA evidence. They explained that his seamen
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: was found inside Hellysa's body. They told him the science
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: proved he had been there. When Earle heard this, he
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: stopped denying. He confessed to the murders. He told the
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: police what happened. He described the argument with Helisa. He
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: described how she hit him. He described how he punched her,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: raped her, and strangled her. He described taking Philip into
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the bathroom and stabbing him with scissors. He described Stranglingdrienne
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: with the cord from a curling iron. He gave a
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: full confession. Two days later, on April fifth, nineteen ninety two,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: the police interviewed Earl again. He gave another confession. This time,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: he changed some details about the order of events. But
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: he still admitted to killing all three victims. The police
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: now had both the DNA evidence and confessions. After Earle
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: confessed to the Hayes murders, the police in New Jersey
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: learned about his arrest. They started to look at him
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: for the murder of Lisa and Nato, which had happened
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in April nineteen ninety one. They compared evidence from that case,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: they found that Earle was also responsible for Lisa's death.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: He was charged in federal court for that murder. On
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: July sixth, nineteen ninety two, Earle was indicted in Cumberland County,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. The charges were three counts of first degree
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: murder and one count of first degree rape. He was
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: held in jail while awaiting trial. First, Earle was tried
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: in New Jersey for the murder of Lisa and Nato.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: On May twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three, he was convicted
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of first degree murder in federal court. He was sentenced
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: was a federal sentence because the crime happened on a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: military base, the federal government had jurisdiction. After that conviction,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Earle was brought back to North Carolina to stand trial
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: for the Hayes murders. His trial began on May first,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, in Cumberland County Superior Court. The trial
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: lasted only two days. The prosecution presented the DNA evidence
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in Earl's confessions. They also presented evidence from the crime scene,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: including the scissors and the electrical cords. The prosecution called witnesses,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: including police officers and forensic experts. Earl's defense lawyers argued
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that he was too intoxicated to form the intent to kill.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: They called his sisters as witnesses. His sisters testified that
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: he had drunk a large amount of alcohol and used
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: crack cocaine on the night of the murders. They said
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: he was very drunk and high, but the judge ruled
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: that the evidence did not show that Earl was so
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: intoxicated that he could not form intent.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: The judge pointed.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Out that Earle was able to drive a car, find
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: his way to Hellysa's home, remember details of the crimes,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: and later hide what he had done. These actions showed
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: he was aware of what he was doing. The jury
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: found Earl guilty of all three counts of first degree
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: murder and one count of first degree rape. Then the
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: same jury heard evidence during a sentencing phase. The prosecution
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: presented the fact that Earle had also killed Lisa and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Nato in New Jersey. This was an aggravating factor, which
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: meant it was a reason to give the death penalty.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: The defense asked for life in prison. The jury recommended
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the death penalty for each of the three murders. On
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: June first, nineteen ninety five, the judge sentenced Earle to
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: death for the murders of Hellisa, Philip and darry and Hayes.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: He also received a consecutive sentence of life in prison
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: for the first degree rape. Earl appealed his case. The
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: North Carolina Supreme Court reviewed the case on February sixth,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. That court affirmed the convictions and the
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: death sentences. The court found no errors that would change
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the outcome. Earl then filed appeals in federal court. He
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: asked for a writ of habeas corpus, which is a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: way for prisoners to challenge their convictions. On February twenty eighth,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: two thousand and five, the United States Supreme Court denied
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: his petition for review. On March seventeenth, two thousand and five,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the North Carolina Secretary of Correction set an execution date
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: for May sixth, two thousand and five. On May fifth,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: two thousand and five, Governor Mike Easily denied Earl's request
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: for clemency. The governor said there was no compelling reason
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to change the sentence. Also on that day, the U. S.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court denied a request to stay the execution. There
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: were no more legal options left. On the day of
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: his execution, Earle did not request a final meal. He
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: told prison officials that his victims did not get a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: last meal, so he would not take one either. He
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: wrote a letter apologizing to the families. He said his
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: actions had crushed their dreams and hearts. At one fifty
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: a m. On May sixth, two thousand and five, Earle
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: was brought into the execution chamber at Central Prison in Raleigh,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: North Carolina. He was strapped to a gurney. He smiled
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and winked at his two sisters, who watched through a window.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: He mouthed the words I Love you to them. At
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: two a m. The execution began. Chemicals were injected into
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: his body. At two nineteen a m. He was pronounced dead.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Wayne Hayes, the father of Philip and Darien, witnessed the execution,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: so did Tera Clarke and Trend of Boston Elisa sisters.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Also present was Teresa Natocollins, the sister of Lisa and Nato.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: After the execution, Earl's lawyers released his final spoken words.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: He said, at this time, I'd like to extend my
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: deepest apologies to all the victim's families and their loved ones.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I'd like to say that I'm not a man that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: shies away from his responsibilities. I'd like to say that
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I hope that now, through my death, that y'all can
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: move forward with your lives. Thank you, and God bless you.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: The victim's families were left to rebuild their lives. Helisa Hayes,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Philip Hays, and Darien Hayes were buried. Lisa and Nato
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: had already been buried years earlier. Earl Richmond was executed
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: and buried as well. The case was closed. The man
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: who killed four people received the punishment the state of
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: North Carolina and the federal government decided was just.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Earl J.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Richmond, Junior was execuscuted by lethal injection on May sixth,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: two thousand five, at two nineteen a m. And the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: story of his crimes and punishment ended that morning.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: Story two.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: George James Miller Junior was born on September ninth, nineteen
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: sixty seven. He was born in the United States. His
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: race was black. He grew up in a family that
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: lived in different places. His mother was a woman who
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: loved him. When George was young, his family moved around.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: They lived in.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Texas for some time. George spent part of his childhood
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: in Sherman, Texas. Sherman is a city near the border
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: between Texas and Oklahoma. George went to school like other children.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: He learned to read and write. He grew up with
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: other kids in his neighborhood. As he became a teenager,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: he started to make choices that were not good. When
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: George became a young man, he broke the law. In
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty eight, he was found guilty of first degree burglary.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: First degree burglary means he entered a building with the
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: intent to commit a crime inside. This crime involved force
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: or the threat of force against a person. In nineteen
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: ninety two, George committed another crime. He pointed a firearm
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: at someone. Pointing a gun at a person is a
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: violent act. He was found guilty of that crime as well.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: These were two felony convictions. A felony is a serious
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: crime that can send a person to prison. George did
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: not stay out of trouble. He also committed other crimes later,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: but those came after the events of this story. In
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: the early nineteen nineties, George got married. He had a wife.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: They lived together in an apartment. His wife worked and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: took care of their home. George tried to find jobs,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: but he did not always work around them. The middle
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of nineteen ninety four, George needed money. He did not
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: have a job at that time.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: He was broke.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Broke means he had almost no money at all. He
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: tried to borrow money from his friends. He asked several
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: friends for cash, but they said no. One of George's
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: friends lived in a hotel. That hotel was called the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Central Plaza Hotel. It was located in Oklahoma City. The
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: hotel was at the intersection of I forty and Martin
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Luther King Drive. George had worked at that same hotel before.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: He was a maintenance man there. He worked for two
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: weeks about one month before the events that would later happen.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: While he worked there, he did not use his real name.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: He told people his name was j Elkins. George knew
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: a man who worked at the hotel. That man was
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: named Kent Dodd. Kent was twenty five years old. He
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was a white male. Kent worked as the night auditor.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: A night auditor works late at night and early in
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: the morning. He handles money and checks and guests. George
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: and Kent knew each other from the hotel, but Kent
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: knew George as Jay Elkins, not as George Miller. George
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: continued to live with his wife. He had no steady income.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: He asked friends for money, but they refused. He had
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a habit of lying about money. He would tell people
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: he had a paycheck when he did not have a job.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: This behavior would continue later. George's wife kept her car
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: keys hidden. She put them under the mattress of their bed.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: She did this because she did not want George to
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: take the car without asking. She knew George sometimes took
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: things without permission. On the night of September sixteenth, nineteen
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: ninety four, George was still broke. He went with two
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: friends to the Central Plaza Hotel. One friend was Chris Carriger,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: the other was Jeremy Coleman. George wanted to cash a check.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: The check was written by Chris Carriger and made out
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: to George. The visit to the hotel was short. It
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: lasted about five minutes. Then George went back to his apartment.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: He stayed there until the next morning. That was the
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: night before something terrible would happen, But at that time
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: George did not know what was coming.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Kent Dodd did.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Not know either. The night was ordinary. George went home.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: He went to sleep. His wife was there. The next morning.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: George gave his wife one hundred and twenty dollars. She
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: was surprised because he had no job. He told her
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: he had cashed a paycheck, but he was not working
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: at that time. This was a lie. Shortly after that,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: George and his wife separated. They stopped living together. George
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: went to live with his mother in Sherman, Texas. Their
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: marriage later ended in divorce. That is where George James
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Miller Junior was in his life. At that time. He
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: was twenty seven years old. He had a criminal passed,
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: he had no job, he had no money.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: He was separated from his wife.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: He had lied about money, and he had a connection
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: to the Central Plaza Hotel, where a man named Kent
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Dodd worked the night shift. On September seventeenth, nineteen ninety four,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Kent Dodd went to work at the Central Plaza Hotel
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: in Oklahoma City. He was twenty five years old. His
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: job was night auditor. He worked the late night shift.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: That morning, he started his shift at the usual time.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: The hotel had a policy for money. Each shift began
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: with two hundred and fifty dollars in the cash drawer.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: At the end of the shift, the desk clerk took
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: any money over two hundred and fifty dollars and put
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: it in an envelope. That envelope was dropped into the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: hotel safe. Only the desk clerks knew how much cash
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: was in the drawer. Kent Dodd was a good worker.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: He followed all the rules. His money counts were always
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: He did not make mistakes with cash. At about three
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: fifteen in the morning, Kent Dodd registered a hotel guest.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: That means he checked someone into a room. The guests
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: came to the front desk, Kent filled out the paperwork.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: The guest went to their room. Shortly after that guest
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: left the desk, someone attacked Kent Dodd. That someone was
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: George James Miller Junior. George had come to the hotel.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: He knew the hotel because he had worked there before.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: He knew Kent Dodd, but Kent knew George by his
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: fake name Jay Elkins. George attacked Kent with great violence.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: He had brought tools or found them at the scene. First,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: he stabbed Kent Dodd many times. The stabbing happened repeatedly,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: not just once. Kent's body was hurt by the blade.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Then George beat Kent Dodd with head shears. Head shears
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: are a gardening tool with two sharp blades used to
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: cut bushes. George used the tool as a weapon. He
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: swung it and hit Kent's body and head. Then George
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: beat Kent with a paint can. A paint can is
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a metal container filled with paint.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: It is heavy.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: George hit Kent with the can. Each blow caused more injury.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Then George poured muriatic acid on Kent DoD. Muriatic acid
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: is a strong chemical. It burns skin and flesh. George
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: poured it on Kent's face. Then he poured it down
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Kent's throat. The acid burned Kent's mouth, throat, and inside
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: his body. This caused terrible pain. After the attack, George
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: went to the front desk. The cash drawer was open.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: George took money from the drawer. The hotel manager later
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: counted what was missing. One hundred twenty two dollars was
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: gone from that cash drawer, but the manager also found
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: a deposit envelope hidden behind registration forms in a different drawer.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: That envelope had one hundred dollars inside, so the total
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: taken was one hundred twenty two dollars. Kent Dodd was
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: still alive after George left. He was badly hurt. He
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: could not stand up, He could not call for help easily.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: He had been stabbed, beaten with two heavy objects, and
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: burned with acid. But he was breathing. He was in
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: great pain. Two and a half hours passed. That is
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: a long time to be alone while badly injured. Kent
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: was lying in the unused restaurant area of the hotel.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: That area was not being used for customers. It was
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: dark and quiet. At about five forty five in the morning,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: a housekeeper arrived for her shift. Housekeepers cleaned the hotel
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: rooms in the morning. She went to the front desk
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: to start her work, but Kent Dodd was not at
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the desk. That was strange. She called out his name.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: No one answered. Then she heard a sound. It was
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: not words. It was like an animal moaning came from
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: the unused restaurant. The housekeeper was scared. She ran to
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: a nearby restaurant that was open for business. She told
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the people there to call the police. They called for help.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Police officers arrived at the hotel. They went to the
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: unused restaurant. They found Kent DoD on the floor. He
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: was still alive.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: He was moaning.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: There was blood everywhere. There were trails of blood. There
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: were signs that a struggle had happened in different parts
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of the hotel. The police saw blood on the floor
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and on the walls. The police tried to ask Kent questions.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: He tried to answer, but most of his words were
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: not clear. The ascid had burned his mouth and throat.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Speaking was very hard for him, but the police did
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: understand some words. Kent said his attacker was a black man.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: He said that man wore gray pants, Kent Dodd did
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: not say the name Jay were j Elkins. He did
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: not write anything in blood at that time. The police
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: did not see him write anything. He was too weak
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: to move much. Later that day, Kent DoD died at
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: the hospital. The cause of death was blunt forced trauma
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: to his head. That means the beating with the head
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: shears and paint can caused his skull to be damaged.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: His brain was hurt.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: The acid and stabbing caused pain, but the head injuries
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: killed him. After the murder, George Miller went home. He
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: had given his wife one hundred twenty dollars that morning.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: That money matched the amount missing from the hotel drawer,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: but George told the police later that he cashed a
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: paycheck he had no job. George's wife noticed things after
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: the murder. She did the family laundry. She looked for
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: George's clothes. A pair of his khaki shorts was missing.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: A silk shirt was also missing. She never saw those
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: clothes again. Later, at the crime scene, police found two buttons.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: The wife said those buttons looked like the buttons on
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: the missing silk shirt. George's wife also found sand in
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: her car. She did not know how sand got there.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: George had taken her car keys from under the mattress.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: He had taken the car without her knowing. The police
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: photographed the crime scene. They took pictures of the blood
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: on the floor and walls. In some pictures, there appeared
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: to be finger writing in the blood. Someone had used
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: a finger to make marks in the wet blood. The
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: marks looked like the letter J. Other marks looked like
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the word jay, but no one saw Kent DoD make
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: those marks. No blood was found on Kent's fingers or
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: under his fingernails, so it was not proven that he
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: wrote anything. The police also found bloody footprints at the scene.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: George Miller owned sandals. A forensic scientist looked at the sandals.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: She said the sandals could have made the footprints, but
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: she could not say for sure that only those sandals
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: made the prince. Other shoes might have made the same marks.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: On one of George's sandals, there was a microscopic drop
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: of blood. That means the drop was very small, almost
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: invisible without a microscope. The scientist tested the blood. It
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: was consistent with Kent Dodd's blood. That means the blood
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: matched Kent's blood type. But it could also have come
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: from many other people. The scientists said one in nineteen
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: white people, one in sixteen black people, and one in
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: fifty five Hispanic people could have that same blood type,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: so the drop did not prove it was Kent's blood.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: George Miller told the police a different story. He said
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: he was home with his wife at the time of
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the murder, but his wife later said that was not true.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: She said George took her car keys and left.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: He was not home. The day after the murder.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: George told a friend that robbery could not be the
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: reason for the killing. He said the hotel only kept
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: one hundred fifty dollars in the cash drawer. George knew
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: that number, but how did he know. He did not
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: work there anymore. The hotel's policy was that only desk
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: clerks knew the amount. George had never been a desk clerk.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: He had been a maintenance man. George and his wife
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: split up shortly after the murder. He went to live
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: with his mother in Sherman, Texas. That is where he
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: went when the police started asking questions. Later, when police
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: questioned George about Kent Dodd's death, George cried, but he
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: did not cry for Kent. He cried for himself. He
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: made it clear he was not grieving the victim. George
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: was later sent to federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas for
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: other crimes. While he was there, the state of Oklahoma
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: filed charges against him for the murder of Kent Dodd.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: The case was ready to go to trial. The police
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: had collected evidence from the Central Plaza hotel on the
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: morning of September seventeenth, nineteen ninety four. They took photographs
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: of the blood, the footprints, and the buttons. They collected
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the head shears and the paint can. They took the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: sandals from George Miller. They documented everything, but the case
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: was not solved quickly. The police had to build their
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: case piece by piece. All the evidence was circumstantial. That
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: means there was no witness who saw George commit the murder.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: There was no confession. There was no finger print or
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: DNA test that matched George perfectly. The police had to
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: connect many small facts together. The first step was to
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: identify a suspect. The police knew that Kent Dodd had
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: set his attacker was a black.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: Man in gray pants.
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: That description fit many men, but the police also learned
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: that Kent Dodd knew a man named j Elkins from
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: the hotel. That man had worked as a maintenance man.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: The police traced Jay Elkins and found out that his
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: real name was George James Miller Junior. The police then
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: looked into George Miller. They learned he had no job
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: he needed money. He had tried to borrow money from
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: friends the night before the murder. One of those friends
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: lived at the Central Plaza Hotel. The police also learned
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: that George had given his wife one hundred twenty dollars.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: The morning after the murder, the hotel was missing one
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: hundred twenty two dollars. That number was very close. The
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: police questioned George Miller. He told them he was home
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: with his wife at the time of the murder. He
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: said he cashed a paycheck to get the money, but
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: the police checked and found he was not working at
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: that time. When they pointed this out, George changed his story.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: He said he did not give his wife any money
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: at all. He denied what he had said before. The
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: police also talked to George's wife. At first, she may
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: have tried to protect him, but the couple separated after
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the murder. By the time the case went to trial,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: they were divorced. She no longer had a reason to
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: lie for him. She told the police the truth. George
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: was not home on the night of the murder. He
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: had taken her car keys from under the mattress. He
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: left and came back later the next day. She found
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: sand in the car. She also noticed that a pair
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: of George's khaki shorts and a silk shirt were missing.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Those clothes never came back. The police looked at the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: two buttons found at the crime scene. The ex wife
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: said those buttons looked like the buttons on the missing
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: silk shirt. She could not say for certain they were
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: the exact buttons, but she said they were consistent.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: With that shirt.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: The police also looked at the bloody footprints. A forensic
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: scientist compared the footprints to George's sandals. She said the
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: sandals could have made the prints, but she could not
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: say that only those sandals could have made them. This
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: was not a perfect match. The microscopic drop of blood
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: on George's sandal was tested. The blood was consistent with
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: Kent Dodd's blood type, but it could have come from
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: many other people. The scientists said, one in nineteen white people,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: one in sixteen black people, and one in fifty five
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Hispanic people have that same blood type. This was also
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: not a perfect match. Despite these limits, the police had
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: enough to arrest George Miller, but he was not easy
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: to reach. He had left Oklahoma. He went to his
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: mother's house in Sherman, Texas. Then he was sent to
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas for other crimes.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: The state of.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma filed murder charges against him. While he was in
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: federal custody, he was brought to Oklahoma to stand trial.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: The trial took place in Oklahoma County District Court. The
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: judge was Charles l Owens. The trial began and the
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: jury was selected. The prosecutor presented all the evidence. The
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: defense argued that the evidence was weak and circumstantial. During
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the trial, George's ex wife testified against him. She said
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: he was not home that night. She said he took
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: her car. She said he gave her one hundred twenty dollars.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: She said the two buttons found at the scene matched
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: his missing shirt. She said the khaki shorts and silk
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: shirt were gone after the murder. Her testimony was very
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: important for the prosecution. The prosecutor also showed the jury
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: the photographs of the blood at the crime scene. In
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: the photographs, there were smears on the floor and wall.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: The prosecutor said that Kent Dodd had used his own
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: blood to write the word Jay before he died. The
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: prosecutor used a clear plastic sheet with the word Jay
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: written on it. He placed that sheet over the photograph
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: to show how the blood smears matched the letters. The
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: defense did not get a chance to respond to this
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: argument because it was made aid during the prosecutor's final
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: closing argument. The defense had already finished speaking. The jury
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: saw the overlay and heard the prosecutor say that the
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: victim named his killer. The defense later argued that this
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: was not fair. Kent Dodd never said the name Jay
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: to the police. No blood was found on his fingers
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: or under his finger nails. The blood smears were half
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: way up a door. A man who was badly hurt
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and lying on the floor could not have reached that
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: height or right. But the jury had already seen the overlay.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: The jury also heard that George Miller had been convicted
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: of violent crimes before the prosecutor presented the nineteen eighty
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: eight burglary conviction and the nineteen ninety two pointing of
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: firearm conviction. This was used to show that George was
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: a continuing threat to society. The jury found George James
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Miller Junior guilty of first degree murder. Then the same
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: jury had to decide the punishment. The prosecutor asked for
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: the death penalty, the defense asked for life in prison.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: The jury found four reasons called aggravating circumstances to give
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the death penalty. First, George had been convicted of a
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: violent felony before. Second, the murder was especially heinous, atrocious,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: or cruel because George poured acid on a living person
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: and beat him badly. Third, George killed Kent DoD to
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: avoid being arrested for the robbery. Fourth, George was a
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: continuing threat to society based on his past crimes. The
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: jury sentenced George Miller to death. The judge agreed with
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: the sentence. George Miller appealed his case. He asked the
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to look at the trial
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: and fine mistakes. He argued that the prosecutor should not
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: have used the overlay. In closing argument, he argued that
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the evidence was too weak. The Court of Criminal Appeals
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: reviewed the case in nineteen ninety eight. They affirmed the
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: conviction and sentence. That means they agreed that the trial
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: was fair and the death penalty was correct. George Miller
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: then filed a federal habeas corpus petition. This is a
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: way for a prisoner to ask a federal court to
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: review a state conviction. The United States District Court for
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: the Western District of Oklahoma denied relief. George appealed to
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in two thousand four.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: The Tenth Circuit also denied relief. They said the Oklahoma
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Court's decision was reasonable and the errors in the trial
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: were harmless. George Miller then asked the United States Supreme
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: Court to hear his case. The Supreme Court denied his
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: final appeal. All of his legal options were exhausted. The
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: state of Oklahoma set an execution date. George Miller was
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: scheduled to die by lethal injection on May twelfth, two
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: thousand five. Lethal injection means the person has given drugs
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: that stopped the heart and lungs. The execution would happen
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in mc allister, Oklahoma, on
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: the day of the execution. George Miller was thirty seven
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: years old. He had spent years on death row. Before
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the execution, he was offered a final meal. He chose
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: sliced beef, brisket, pork sperrebs, and a coke. At six
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: p m Central Standard time, the execution process began. George
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Miller was strapped to a gurney. He looked at his
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: mother and other family members who were watching through a window.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: He nodded to them. His final words were I love you.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: The lethal drugs entered his body. His breath hitched once
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: he exhaled deeply. His breathing slowed. After several minutes, his
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: breathing stopped. At six twenty four p m. George James Miller,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: Junior was pronounced dead. His mother watched. She said softly,
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: he's resting now. Her eyes were full of tears. George
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: Miller's attorney was also there. Both the attorney and Miller's
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: family had maintained that he was innocent, but the state
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: of Oklahoma said justice was done. After the execution, the
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: case was closed. Kent Dodd's family had waited more than
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: ten years for this moment. Kent Dodd was twenty five
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: years old when he died. He was a good worker
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: who followed the rules. He did nothing wrong. He simply
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: checked in a hotel guest at three fifteen in the morning,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: and a man who needed money took his life in
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: a brutal way. George Miller's ex wife moved on with
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: her life. His mother buried her son. The Central Plaza
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: hotel continued to operate, but the unused restaurant area where
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Kent Dodd was found would never be the same. The
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: state of Oklahoma had executed its seventy seventh murderer since
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. George Miller was the second person executed
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: in Oklahoma in two thousand and five, and the twenty
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: first person executed in the United States that year. He
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: was the nine hundred sixty fifth person executed in America
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: since the death penalty was brought back in nineteen seventy six.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: The story of George James Miller, Junior ends with his death,
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: but the loss of Kent Dodd remains a fact that
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: cannot be Undone Story three. Michael Bruce Ross was born
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: on July twenty sixth nineteen fifty nine in Putnam, Connecticut.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: He was the first of four children born to Dan
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Graham Ross and Patricia hilde Lane Ross. The family lived
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: on a chicken farm in Brooklyn, Connecticut. Michael's parents did
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: not have a happy marriage. His mother, Patricia, became pregnant
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: while she was still in high school. This forced the
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: couple to get married. Patricia did not want to be married.
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: She also did not want to be the wife of
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: a chicken farmer. She hated farm life. Patricia Ross had
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: serious mental health problems. She was admitted to a psychiatric
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: hospital at least two times. At the hospital, doctors wrote
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: that she talked about suicide. They also wrote that she
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: beat and struck her children. Patricia would later run away
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: to North Carolina to be with another man, but she
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: eventually came back home. Michael's mother beat all four of
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: her children, but Michael received the worst of her anger.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: His sisters and brothers saw this happen. The beatings were
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: both physical and mental. The family home was very troubled
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: and unstable. When Michael was six years old, something else
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: bad happened. A teenage uncle used to babysit Michael. This
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: uncle formed a close bond with the boy. Family members
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: and friends later suggested that this uncle sexually molested Michael. Then,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: when the uncle was only fourteen years old, he killed himself.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Michael was just six when his uncle died. After his
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: uncle's suicide, Michael was given a new job on the farm.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: He had to kill sick in malformed chickens. He did
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: this by strangling them with his hands. He was only
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: eight years old when this became his responsibility. Despite all
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: the pain and trouble at home, Michael did very well
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: in school. He was a bright boy with a high
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: IQ of one hundred twenty two. He worked hard on
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: the farm and also.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: Kept up with his school work.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: By the time he was in high school, his father
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: depended on him a lot for help with the farm.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Michael loved farm life. He dreamed of one day owning
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: his own farm. He had a special interest in animal science.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy seven, he graduated from Killingly High School.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: After that he went to Cornell University. He studied agricultural
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: economics at Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. At Cornell,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: Michael was socially active. He joined several organizations, including a
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: fraternity called Alpha Zeta. He also joined the Future Farmers
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: of America. He had relationships with young women at school.
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: He even became engaged to one woman, but those relationships
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: did not last. His dream of having a perfect family.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: Started to slip away.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: During his second year at college, Michael began to have
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: violent sexual fantasies. These fantasies troubled him, and he started
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: to stalk women on campus. This behavior was a secret.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: No one at school knew what he was doing. In
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one, Michael graduated from Cornell University with a
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: degree in economics. He was twenty two years old. After graduation,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: he took a job as a management trainee for a
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: company called Cargill Incorporated in North Carolina. He also worked
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: as an insurance salesman. Later on, Michael's parents divorced. At
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: some point after he finished college, the family sold the
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: chicken farm. Michael moved to Jewett City, Connecticut, and lived
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: on his own. After graduating from Cornell in nineteen eighty one,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: Michael Ross moved to North Carolina for his job, but
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: his violent fantasies did not stop. He had already committed
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: his first rape while still in college. Now his actions
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: became more extreme. The first known murder happened on May twelfth,
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one. The victim was zung knocked Tuesday. She
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: was twenty five years old and a graduate student at
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: Cornell University. Ross raped her, then he strangled her to death.
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: He dumped her body in Fall Creek, at the bottom
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: of a gorge.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: In Ithaca, New York.
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Police first thought she he had committed suicide, but later
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: they learned it was a rape and murder. Ross did
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: not stop after this killing. In September nineteen eighty one,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: he was working as a management trainee for Cargill Incorporated.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: He went on a business trip to Illinois. During that trip,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: he kidnapped a sixteen year old girl. He dragged her
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: into the woods and put a gag in her mouth.
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: Before he could do more, the police arrived and interrupted him.
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: He was arrested for unlawfully restraining the girl. He paid
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: a five hundred dollar fine and was put on probation.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: The police had no idea he was already a murderer.
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: On January fifth, nineteen eighty two, Ross killed again. The
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: victim was Tammy Williams. She was seventeen years old and
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: from Brooklyn, Connecticut. Ross abducted her and strangled her to death.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: In March nineteen eighty two, Ross killed Paula Pereira. She
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: was sixteen years old and lived in Wall I'll kill,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: New York. He raped her and strangled her. At the time,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: no one connected these deaths to each other or to Ross.
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: On June fifteenth, nineteen eighty two, Ross found Deborah Smith Taylor.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: She was twenty three years old and from Griswold, Connecticut.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: She was walking alone on a rural road looking for
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: a gas station. Ross picked her up he killed her.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Her remains were found later that October. They were skeletal
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: by then. That same spring of nineteen eighty two, Ross
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: attacked a woman who was an off duty police officer.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: The attack failed. He spent some time in a mental
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: institution after this incident, but it did not change his behavior.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Ross was serving a four month jail term for assault
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: charges from a separate incident. After he got out, he
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: returned to killing. On November nineteenth, nineteen eighty three, Ross
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: attacked Robin Don Stavinski. She was nineteen years old and
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: from Norwich, Connecticut. The attack happened on Thanksgiving Day. The
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: location was the grounds of Uncas on Thames State Hospital
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: in Norwich. Ross grabbed Robin and forcefully pulled her into
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a wooded area. He ordered her to remove her clothing.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: She was unwilling, but Ross was bigger and stronger. He
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: intimidated her. He sexually assaulted her. Then he ordered her
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: to turn over on to her stomach. While she was
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: on her stomach, he strangled her. His hands cramped during
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: the strangulation, so he had to stop and then reapply
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: his grip. Robin was strong and kept moving, but Ross
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: kept going until she was dead. Before leaving, he covered
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: her body with leaves. Her body was found about a
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: week later. On April twenty second, nineteen eighty four, which
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: was Easter Sunday, Ross killed two fourteen year old girls.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Their names were April Brunei's and Leslie Shelley. Both were
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: from Griswold, Connecticut. The girls were hitch hiking on Route
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: one thirty eight. They wanted to go to Jewett City.
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Ross picked them up in his car. He drove past
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: their destination even though they protested. April pulled out a
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: steak knife from her pocket. She threatened to stab Ross
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: if he did not stop the car. Ross yelled at
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: her and nearly drove off the road. April panicked and
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: gave him the knife. Ross then drove to Beach Pond,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: which is in Rhode Island.
• 54:30
  Speaker 2: He parked the car.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: He tied both girls hands and feet. He used an
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: elastic belt from Leslie to tie her. He used strips
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: cut from April's jeans to tie her. He put Leslie
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: in the trunk of the car. Then he took April
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: out of the car and forced her to walk a
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: short distance away. He sexually assaulted her. Then he ordered
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: her to turn over on to her stomach and strangled her.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: After she was dead, he put her body in the
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: front seat of the car. Ross then turned to the
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: car and took Leslie out of the trunk. He did
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: not sexually assault her, but she had been bound hand
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and foot in the trunk. She had heard April's cries
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: and struggles. She knew her friend was being hurt. Ross
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: placed Leslie on the ground, He knelt on her back
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and strangled her before killing her. He apologized to her,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: then he killed her anyway. He put both bodies in
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: his car and drove back to Preston, Connecticut. He deposited
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: their bodies in a culvert. The bodies were found two
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: months later. On June thirteenth, nineteen eighty four. Ross killed
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: his last known victim. Her name was Wendy Bererebault. She
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: was seventeen years old and from Griswold, Connecticut. She was
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: walking along Route twelve in Lisbon. Ross approached her. They
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: had a short conversation, then he pulled her over a
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: stone wall. He forced her to go with him into
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: a wooded area that led to an open field. Wendy
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: screamed and fought. Ross threatened to hurt her if she
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: did not stop. She complied and pleaded with him not
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: to hurt her. He sexually assaulted her, then he forced
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: her to turn over on to her stomach. He strangled her.
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: His hands cramped again and he had to reapply his grip.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Wendy kept moving and writhing as he killed her. After
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: she was dead, he left her body there. Ross's method
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: was always the same. He would attack young women and girls.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: He would force them into a secluded area. He would
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: sexually assault most of them, then he would order them
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: to turn on to their stomachs and strangle them by hand.
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: He later told police that strangulation gave him a feeling
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: of power and control. He said that shooting or stabbing
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: would be too quick. He wanted the act to last longer.
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: He admitted that all of his victims suffered. Ross did
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: not kill every woman he attacked. In nineteen eighty three,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: he raped a twenty one year old woman named Vivian Dobson.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: He did not kill her. Police in Plainfield, Connecticut, looked
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: into this case, but they rejected the idea that Ross
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: was the rapist. No charges were filed. Ross never confessed
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: to that attack. At the time of these murders, no
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: one knew that one person was responsible for all of them.
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: The killings happened in different towns and different states. The
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: police were not connecting the cases. Witnesses had seen a
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: blue car near some of the crime scenes, but they
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: did not know who owned the car. Ross was living
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: a normal life as an insurance salesman in Jewett City.
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: He went to work, he talked to people. No one
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: suspected him. After Wendy Bearebault was murdered on June thirteenth,
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, the police began their investigation. Witnesses came forward.
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: They had seen a blue car near the place where
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Wendy was taken. They also described the person who was
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: driving that car. The police took this information seriously. A
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: detective named Michael Malchik was a sign to lead the investigation.
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: He started by making a list of all blue Toyota
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: cars owned by people in the area. He then began
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: interviewing each owner. One of the names on his list
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: was Michael Ross. Ross lived in Jewett City and worked
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: as an insurance salesman. Detective Malchik went to speak with Ross.
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: During their first meeting, Ross acted calm and helpful, but
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: he also dropped small hints that he knew more than
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: he should. These hints made Malchik one ask more questions.
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: Ross also told Malchik about his past arrests for sex offenses.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: This was information that a normal innocent person might not
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: offer so freely. Malchik decided to bring Ross to the
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: police station for further questioning. At the station, the two
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: men talked for a long time. They discussed family, girl friends,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: and life in general. Malchik did not act aggressive. He
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: talked to Ross like a friend. This approach worked. During
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: the interrogation, Ross confessed to killing eight young women. He
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: admitted to the murders of Zung Knak two, Tammy Williams,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: Paula Pereira, Deborah Smith, Taylor, Robin Stavinski, April Bruney's, Leslie Shelley,
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: and Wendy Bererebault. He also confessed to the rapes. He
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: told the police how he had picked up the girls,
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: forced them into secluded areas, sexually assaulted them, and strangled them.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: He described the methods he used. He also led the
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: police to the bodies that had not yet been found,
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: including the bodies of April Brunei's and Leslie Shelley. Ross
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: was arrested on June twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: He was charged with.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: Multiple counts of murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. The case
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: went to trial in nineteen eighty seven. The true ysle
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: was held in Bridgeport, Connecticut, because the local publicity in
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: eastern Connecticut made it hard to find an impartial jury.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Ross did not deny that he had committed the crimes.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: He admitted to the kidnappings, the rapes, and the murders.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: His defense was insanity. He argued that he suffered from
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: a mental illness that made him unable to control his actions.
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: The prosecution argued that Ross knew exactly what he was doing.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: They said he planned his attacks carefully. They pointed out
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: that he chose remote locations. He threatened his victims to
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: make them obey. He only stopped when the police interrupted him.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: The jury listened to all the evidence. The jury took
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: only eighty six minutes to reach a verdict. They found
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: Ross guilty of six counts of capital felony for the
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: murders of Robin Stavinski, Wendy Bearebauldt, April Bruneis, and Leslie Shelley.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: Some counts were dismissed due to jurisdiction issues, as the
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: murders of April and Leslie partly occurred in Rhode Island,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: but Connecticut retained jurisdiction because the kidnappings began in Connecticut.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: After the guilty verdict, the same jury held a separate
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: hearing to decide Ross's punishment. The state asked for the
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: death penalty. Ross's lawyers asked for life in prison. The
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: jury took only four hours to decide. On July sixth,
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven, the judge sentenced Michael Ross to death
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: on each of the six counts. Ross spent the next
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: eighteen years on death row at the Osborne Correctional Institution
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: in somers Connecticut. During that time, he filed appeals. In
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned his death sentences.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: The court said that the trial judge had improperly excluded
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: a letter from a state psychiatrist, doctor Robert Miller. Doctor
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: Miller had written that he believed Ross suffered from a
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: mental disorder called sexual sadism. The court said the jury
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: should have been allowed to consider this evidence as a
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: possible reason to show mercy. Ross was given a new
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: penalty hearing. In two thousand, a new jury heard the
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: penalty phase again. This jury also found that Ross deserved
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: the death penalty. He was again sentenced to death. The
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Connecticut Supreme Court upheld this sentence in two thousand four.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: After that, Ross made a decision. He said he would
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: no longer fight his execution. He fired his public defenders.
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: He hired a new lawyer, T. R. Paulding, to help
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 1: him speed up his death. Ross said he wanted to
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: spare the victim's families for more years of appeals and pain.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: He said, I owe these people I killed their daughters.
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: If I could stop the pain, I have to do that.
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: Ross's family and some anti death penalty groups tried to
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: stop the execution. They argued that Ross was not mentally
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: competent to waive his appeal. Psychiatrists gave different opinions. Some
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: said Ross was trying to commit state assisted suicide. Others
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: said he was sincerely, remorseful and competent. A judge held
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: hearings and found Ross competent to make his own decision.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: An execution date was set for January twenty sixth two
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: thousand five, but it was postponed at the last minute
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: because of legal issues involving Ross's lawyer. After more hearings,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: a new execution date was set for May thirteenth, two
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: thousand five. On May twelfth, two thousand five, Ross spent
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: his last day on death row. He woke at five
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: forty five a m. He ate oatmeal for breakfast. He
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: read newspapers and watched television. At eight ten a m.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: He was moved to a holding cell next to the
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: execution chamber. He took a Bible, a book of Bible verses,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: some candy, and a coffee cup. At nine a m.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: He received communion from a priest. For lunch, he ate
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: a cheeseburger and hash browns. He chose not to ask
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: for a special last meal. Instead, he ate the same
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: dinner served to all inmates that night, turkey Ala king
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: with rice, mixed vegetables, white bread, fruit, and a beverage.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: That evening, about three hundred protesters gathered outside the prison.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: They held candles and prayed. They asked the state to
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: stop the execution. Some family members of the victims also gathered.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: They wanted the execution to go forward. Around two a m.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: On May thirteenth, two thousand five, Ross was led into
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the execution chamber. He was strapped to a padded table
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: with velcro straps. His arms were extended. A spotlight shone
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: down on him. His eyes were closed. The warden asked
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: him if he wanted to make a final statement. Ross
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: replied no, thank you. The executioner began admitting ministering three
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: drugs through an intravenous tube in Ross's arm. The first
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: drug was a sedative to relax his body. The second
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: drug paralyzed his muscles. The third drug stopped his heart.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: Witnesses saw Ross shudder and gasp for air. Then he
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: stopped moving, his face turned pale. At two twenty five
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: a m Michael Bruce Ross was pronounced dead. After the execution,
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: the victim's family spoke to the press. Edwin Shelley, father
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: of Leslie Shelley, said we have waited twenty one years
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: for justice. Debbie Dupuy, sister of Robin Stavinski, said she
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: felt anger watching Ross lie there and sleep after what
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: he did, but she also said that justice had been served.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: Ross's body was taken for an autopsy. He was later
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: buried at the Benedictine Grange Cemetery in Reading, Connecticut. Ross's
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: execution was the first in Connecticut since nineteen sixty and
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: the first in all of New England in forty five years.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: The families of the eight young women continued to grieve,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: but the legal case was finally closed, and Michael Ross's
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: name became a part of Connecticut's criminal history rather than
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: its daily news story.
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: Four.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: Brian Erick Wolfe was born on June seventh, nineteen sixty.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: He was a Black American. He grew up in Homa, Louisiana.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: His parents in early childhood are not well documented in
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: public records. He attended local schools in Homa, but it
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: is not known exactly how far he went in his education.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: When Brian became a young man, he joined the United
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: States Army. He was stationed at a military base in Louisiana.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: While he was in the Army, he started using drugs.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: He used marijuana in cocaine. His drug use use became
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: a habit that stayed with him. In nineteen eighty three,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: while still serving in the army, Brian confessed to committing
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: an armed robbery in Louisiana. This was his first known
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: serious crime. The Army did not keep him in service
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: after that, but specific details of his discharge are not
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: recorded in public files. After leaving the army, Brian continued
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: to commit robberies. In nineteen eighty five, he was convicted
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: of robbery in the state of Kansas. He was sent
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: to prison for that crime. He was released on parole
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty six. Brian did not stop. In nineteen
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: eighty nine, he robbed a convenience store in Homa, Louisiana.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: He was caught and convicted of that robbery as well.
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety he was sentenced to three years in
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: a Louisiana prison for this crime. He served only one
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: year of that sentence. He was released in nineteen ninety one.
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: While he was in prison, Bryan was placed in a
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: work release program. This program allowed him to leave prison
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: during the day to work, but he ran away from
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: the work release center. He left without permission. He was
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: now a fugitive from that program. After his release from
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: prison in nineteen ninety one, Brian moved to Beaumont, Texas.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: He lived in a neighborhood there, he got married. His
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: wife's name is not given in the public records. Brian
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: and his wife had two children together. In Beaumont, Brian's
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: wife became close friends with an elderly woman who lived
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: near by. That woman's name was Bertha Lemmel. Bertha was
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: eighty four years old. She often helped Brian's family by
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: watching their two children while Brian's wife went to work.
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: Brian knew Bertha because she lived in the same neighborhood
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: and because she helped care for his children. Brian had
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: met her before he saw her regularly. Brian did not
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: have a steady job after moving to Tech. He had
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: a criminal record from Kansas and Louisiana. He still used drugs.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: He owed money to the state because he had run
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: away from the work release program in Louisiana. He did
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: not have much money. His family lived with little income.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: By early nineteen ninety two, Brian was living in Beaumont
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: with his wife and two children. He was on parole
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: from Louisiana, but he had broken the rules of that
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: parole by leaving the work release center. He was not
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 1: supposed to be free, but no one had caught him yet.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: He stayed in his neighborhood, close to his children's babysitter,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Bertha Lemmel. On the morning of February fifteenth, nineteen ninety two,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: Bertha Lemmel was at her home in Beaumont, Texas.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: She was eighty four years old.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: She lived alone in the same neighborhood as Brian Wolfe.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: And his family.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: Earlier that day, a friend of Bertha's came to her home.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: The friend's name was Brenda Valian. Brenda took Bertha shopping.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: While they were shopping, Brenda watched Bertha pay for groceries.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Bertha took out her coin purse. She pulled sixty dollars
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: in cash from the purse. She paid less than twenty
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: dollars for the food. Then she put the remaining money
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: back into the coin purse. Brenda saw this happen. Bertha
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: then put the coin purse back into her bag. Bertha
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: also kept black eyed peas in her purse. She carried
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: them for good luck. Brenda drove Bertha back to her home.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: Then Brenda left. Bertha was alone in her house. Later
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: that same day, Brian Wolfe was in the neighborhood. He
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: was seen within a few blocks of Bertha's house shortly
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: before the murder. He knew Bertha because she baby sat
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: his children. He knew she was often alone. He also
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: knew she carried cash in her coin purse because his
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: wife was friends with Bertha and may have mentioned it.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: Brian decided to go to Bertha's house. He did not
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: horse's way inside. There were no signs that anyone broke in.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: This means Bertha likely opened the door for him or
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the door was unlocked. Brian entered the house. Once inside,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: Brian attacked Bertha. He used a knife. He stabbed her
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: many times. The medical examiner later counted twenty six stab
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: wounds on her head, her trunk, and her abdomen. The
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: attack was violent. During the stabbing, Brian cut his own
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: right hand. The knife slipped or his hand came down
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: on the blade. The cut was deep. His blood began
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: to drip from his hand. After Bertha was on the floor,
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: Brian looked for money. He found her coin purse. It
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: was unlatched. He opened it. He took the cash that
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: was inside. He left only one coin in the purse.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: He also looked inside other places. Blood was later found
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: on top of a locked armoire, which meant he had
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: touched or searched that high piece of furniture while he
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: was searching. Bertha's coin purse fell or was dropped on
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: the floor. The black eyed peas and some coins scattered
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: on the floor. Bertha's home was usually tidy, so the
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: scattered items showed that a struggle had happened. Brian then
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: tried to clean up. He went to Bertha's bathroom. He
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: used two towels from the bathroom to wipe his bleeding hand.
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: The towels got blood on them. He also touched the
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: front door knob as he left, leaving more of his
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: blood there. He walked out of the house. His blood
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: dripped from his hand on to the floor inside and
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: onto the driveway outside. He left the knife somewhere at
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: the scene. He then went back to his own home,
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: which was near by. He got into his wife's car
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: and drove somewhere, leaving blood inside the car as well.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: Bertha's body stayed on the floor of her home. Her
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: coin purse lay near her, unlatched, with only one coin
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: left inside. The black eyed peas and coins were scattered
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: around her. The towels with blood were in the bathroom.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: The blood on the floor, dresser, door, knob, coin purse,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: and knife remained where they were. Later that day, someone
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: noticed something wrong. A friend or neighbor may have tried
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: to reach Bertha, but no one called the police yet
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: the blood and the body were still inside the house.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: Brian Wolf was back in his own home with a
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: cut on his right hand. He told people he had
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: cut his hand on a broken beer bottle.
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: That was his lie.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 1: Two days passed then someone found Bertha's body. On February seventeenth,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, someone found Bertha Lemmel's body inside her home.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: The exact person who found her is not named in
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: the records. That person called the police. Officers arrived at
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: Bertha's house, they saw a body on the floor.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: They saw the.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: Coin purse unlatched with only one coin inside. They saw
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: black eyed peas and coins scattered on the floor. They
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: saw blood on the floor, on a dresser, on two
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: bathroom towels, on the front door knob, on a coin purse,
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: and on a knife that was left at the scene.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: There were no signs of forced entry. The police began
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: asking questions. They learned that Bertha lived in the same
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: neighborhood as Brian Wolf. They learned that Bertha babysat Brian's children.
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: They learned that Brian was seen near Bertha's house shortly
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: before and shortly after the murder. The police went to
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: talk to Brian. They saw that he had deep cuts
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: on his right hand. He told them he cut his
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: hand on a broken beer bottle. The police did not
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: believe him. Two days after the body was found, on
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: February nineteenth, nineteen ninety two, the police arrested Brian Wolf.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: They took him to jail. The police also collected all
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: the blood samples from Bertha's home. They sent the samples
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: to the FBI and to a private laboratory for testing.
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: The tests looked at two things. First, a sorologist tested
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: the blood type and other physical characteristics. The soroologist found
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: that the blood from Bertha's floor, dresser, and towels matched
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 1: Brian's blood. Those same blood characteristics appear in only zero
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: point two percent of the African American population. Second, the
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: FBI and the lab did DNA testing. The DNA from
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: the blood on the towels, the floor, and the dresser
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: matched Brian's DNA completely. The odds of that DNA pattern
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: belonging to someone else were about one in one point
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: seven million for African Americans. The police also found out
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: that Brian had a criminal past. He had a robbery
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: conviction in Kansas from nineteen eighty five. He had a
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: robbery conviction in Louisiana from nineteen eighty nine. He had
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: confessed to an armed robbery in nineteen eighty three while
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: in the Army. He had run away from a work
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: release program in Louisiana. The police included this information in
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: their report. On March twelfth, nineteen ninety two, a grand
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: jury in Jefferson County, Texas indicted Brian Wolf for capital murder.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: Capital murder meant he killed someone during a robbery. The
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: case went to trial. The trial started in October nineteen
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: ninety three. The judge was Leonard J.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: Giblin.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: Brian's court appointed lawyer was Harold Lane. The prosecutor was
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Ed Schettl. During the trial, the prosecution presented the DNA evidence.
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: They brought witnesses who saw Brian near Bertha's house. They
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: showed that Brian had cuts on his hand. They showed
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: that Bertha had money in her coin purse before the
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: murder and that the money was gone after. The prosecution
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: also showed that Brian had prior robberies. The defense called
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: a psychologist. The psychologists said Brian's actions were caused by
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: being drunk or high. The defense also called a correctional
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: officer who said Brian had been beaten in jail. The
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: defense did not call any other witnesses. On October twenty first,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, the jury found Brian Wolf guilty of
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: capital murder. On October twenty fifth, nineteen ninety three, the
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: same jury decided the punishment. They answered two questions. First,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: did Brian pose a continuing threat to society? The jury
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: said yes. Second, were there enough reasons to give him
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: life in prison instead of death? The jury said no.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: The judge sentenced Brian to death. Brian appealed his case.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: On March sixth, nineteen ninety six, the Texas Court of
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. He filed a
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: habeas corpus petition in state court on May twentieth, nineteen
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: ninety eight. That petition was denied. He filed a federal
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: habeasa petition on September twenty third, two thousand three. A
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: federal district court denied it. He appealed to the Fifth
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: Circuit Court of Appeals. On November tenth, two thousand four.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: The Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial. On March ninth, two
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: thousand and five, he filed a petition with the U.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: S Supreme Court. The Supreme Court refused to review his case.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: On May eighteenth, two thousand and five, Brian Eric Wolfe
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. His final
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: meal was fried chicken legs, fried pork chops, barbecue ribs,
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: French fries, peach cobbler, and a banana. His final words were,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: I will be okay. I am at peace with all
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: of this, and I won't have to wake up in
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: prison any more. I love you all, I totally surrender
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: to the Lord. I am ready warden. He was pronounced
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: dead at six thirty one p m. Bertha Lemmel's cousin
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: Leo Lemmel, said the years since the murder had been
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: hard and he wanted it over with. After the execution,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: the case was closed. Story five. Richard Michael Cartwright was
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 1: born on February eleventh, nineteen seventy four. He was born
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: in Chicago, Illinois. His mother's name was Irene Riekitska. He
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: had a sister. The family lived in Chicago for most
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: of his childhood. As a young boy, Richard went to
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: school in Chicago. He was not a top student, but
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: he finished his basic education. He did not go to college. Instead,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: he learned to work with his hands. He became an
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: automobile technician. He knew how to fix cars. He liked
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: working on muscle cars in his free time. This was
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: a skill he used to earn money. Richard also liked sports.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: He played hockey. He played for a team called the
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: Huskies between nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty eight. His
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: team was invited to play in a friendship tournament in Kitchener,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: Canada in nineteen eighty eight, He played for a triple
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: A hockey team. That team made it to the Silver
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: Stick Tournament in Ottawa, Canada. He enjoyed skating on frozen rivers.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: He remembered the ice sculptures along the river banks. Hockey
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: was a big part of his life as a teenager
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: and young adult. When Richard was not playing hockey or
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: working on cars, he had other hobbies. He liked riding motorcycles.
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: He liked fishing. He liked walking on the beach at night.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: He listened to rock and roll music. He had friends
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: in Chicago. He spent time with them doing normal activities.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: When Richard was sixteen years old, he did something illegal.
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: In February nineteen ninety, he was arrested in Cook.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: County, Illinois.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: He was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: This was a felony offense. He went to court. The
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: judge did not send him to prison. Instead, the judge
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: gave him two years of probation. That meant Richard had
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: to follow rules and stay out of trouble. If he
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: broke the rules, he could go to jail. This was
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: his first serious problem with the law. After finishing his probation,
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Richard continued to live in Chicago. He worked as a mechanic.
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: He kept his hobbies, but at some point he decided
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: to leave Chicago. He moved to Texas. He went to
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: Corpus Christie, a city on the Gulf Coast. He was
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: looking for work and a change of life. He did
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: not know many people there at first. He was a
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: young man in a new place. In Corpus Christie, Richard
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: met new people. He started to spend time with younger men.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: He was twenty two years old in the summer of
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six. He did not have a steady girl
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: friend at that time. He did not have children yet.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: He lived a simple life. He worked on cars. He
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: looked for fun at night. He also used drugs. He
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: wanted to buy marijuana. This was a regular habit for him.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: He did not think it was a big problem, but
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: his desire to buy drugs would soon lead him into
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: a much bigger trouble. That summer, he met two men
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: who would become important in his life. Their names were
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: Dennis Hagod and Kelly over Street. Dennis was nineteen years old,
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: Kelly was eighteen years old. They were younger than Richard.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: They had known each other for many years. They were
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: close friends. Richard had only known them for about one
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: week before the events that changed everything. He did not
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: know them well, but he started to hang out with them.
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: They all wanted to get money in drugs. Richard did
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: not have a criminal record for violence. His only past
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: crime was the drug possession when he was sixteen. He
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: had never been accused of hurting another person. He worked
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: as a mechanic, He played hockey. He liked the beach.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: That was his life before August first, nineteen ninety six,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: he was a normal young man with bad habits, but
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: no history of serious violence. On August first, nineteen ninety six,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: Richard Cartwright was with his two friends, Dennis Hagod and
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: Kelly over Street in Corpus Christi, Texas. The three men
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: were together during the day. They talked about what they
• 1:23:31
  Speaker 1: wanted to do. They wanted money. They wanted to buy
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol. None of them had enough cash, so
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: they came up with a plan to get money quickly.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: The plan was to rob a gay man. They believed
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: a gay man would be an easy target. They thought
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: he would not call the police after being robbed. They
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: thought he would be too ashamed or scared to report
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: the crime, so they decided to pretend to be male prostitutes.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: They would act like they were offering sex or company,
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: then they would take the man's money and belongings. That evening,
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: the three men went to an area in Corpus Christie
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: where gay men were known to spend time. They went
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: near the downtown barge dock, close to what later became
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: the American Bank Center. They stood outside they waited for
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: someone to approach or drive by. At some point, a
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: small black sports car pulled up. The driver was a
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: thirty seven year.
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 2: Old man named Nick Morida.
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 1: He was Hispanic. He was a father, He had children.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: He was driving alone. When he saw the three men,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: he winked at Dennis Hagod. Hagod later said this happened.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 1: The men then asked Nick if he wanted to go
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: to a park and drink beer with them.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: Nick agreed. The group split up.
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: Nick Morida gave Dennis Hagod a ride in the black
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: sports car. Richard Cartwright and Kelly Overstreet followed in a
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: different car. They all drove to a place called Ocean Way.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: This was a cul de sac off Ocean Drive. It
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: was a remote area near the water. It was a
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: seaside park and fishing spot. It was secluded. There were
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: not many people around. When they arrived. All four men
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 1: parked their cars.
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 2: They got out. They walked down a hill to a
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 2: sea wall area.
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: This was a concrete wall near the water. It was
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: a quiet spot hidden from the road above. The men
• 1:25:28
  Speaker 1: were alone there. Then Richard Cartwright pulled out a hand gun.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: The gun was a point three eight caliber pistol. The
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: gun belonged to either Dennis Hagod or Kelly over Street,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: but at that moment Cartwright was holding it. He pointed
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: the gun at Nick Morida. He said, this is a robbery.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 1: Put your hands on the cement. He was telling Nick
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: to put his hands on the concrete sea wall. At
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: the same time, Kelly over Street pulled out a knife.
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: He held the knife to Nick's neck.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: Nick was trapped.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: He had a gun pointed at him and a knife
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: at his throat. He could not run right away. The
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: three men then took Nick's belongings. They took his watch,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: They took his car keys, They took his wallet. Inside
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: the wallet there was cash. They also took an envelope
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: that contained money. In total, they got between sixty and
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: two hundred dollars. That was all they took. They wanted
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: the money to buy drugs. After they took his things,
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: something went wrong. Nick Morida decided to fight back. He
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: refused to stay still. He tried to run away. He
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: tried to escape from the men. Kelly over Street tried
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: to stab Nick with the knife. He cut Nick's throat.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: He also stabbed him in the back or neck area,
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: but the knife wounds were not enough to kill Nick
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: right away. Nick was still moving. He was still trying
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: to get away. Then Richard Cartwright raised the gun. He
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: shot Nick Morida in the back. The bullet hit Nick's lung,
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: his heart, and a large blood vessel that carries blood
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: away from the heart. The gunshot wound was fatal. It
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: caused Nick to die. Dennis Hagod was not at the
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: sea wall when the stabbing and shooting happened. He had
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: run back up the hill. He was trying to unlock
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: Nick's car with the stolen keys. He wanted to search
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: the car for more valuables, so he did not see
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: exactly what happened at the wall, but he heard the
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: gun shot. After Nick was shot, he fell. The three
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: men did not call for help. They did not try
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: to save him. They left his body near the sea wall.
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: The body was in the grass by the water. The
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: men took the stolen money and belongings. They left the scene.
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: Later that night, the three men used the stolen money
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 1: to buy drugs and alcohol. They spent what they had
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: taken from Nick Morida. They did not seem to feel
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: bad about what they had done. They went on with
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 1: their night. The next morning, a man and his grandson
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 1: went to the sea wall area. They wanted to go fishing.
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: That is when they found Nick Marada's body. He was
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: lying in the sea grass near the water. They called
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: the police. The police arrived and started to investigate. The
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: medical examiner later looked at Nick's body. The examiner said
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: the knife wounds were not the.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: Cause of death.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: The cause of death was the gunshot wound to the back.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: Nick Morida died because Richard Cartwright shot him. That was
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: the crime. Three men planned a robbery. They pretended to
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: be gait a trap a victim. They took a man
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: to a remote place, They robbed him. They stabbed him,
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: then Cartwright shot him in the back. The victim died
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: alone by the water. After the fisherman and his grandson
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: found Nick Marada's body on the morning of August second,
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety six, the police began their investigation. They went
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: to the Sea Wall area on Ocean Way. They took photographs,
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: they collected any evidence they could find. They also asked
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: people in the area if they had seen anything unusual
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 1: the night before. The police identified Nick Morida from his belongings.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: They learned he was thirty seven years old.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 2: He was a father.
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: He lived in Corpus Christie. They also learned that his
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: car was missing. Later they found the black sports car.
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: It had been left somewhere else. The keys were gone.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: The police started looking for suspects. They did not have
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: witnesses to the actual crime, but they talked to people
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: who knew Nick. They also talked to people who were in.
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 2: The area that night.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: Over time, they learned about three young men who had
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: been seen with Nick before he died. The three men
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: were Richard Cartwright, Dennis Hagod and Kelly over Street. The
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: police identified them through tips and interviews. They also found
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 1: out that the three men had spent money on drugs
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: and out alcohol right after Nick was killed. That made
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: the police suspicious. The police arrested all three men. They
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: were taken to the Nuaces County Jail. They were held
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: there while the investigation continued. At first, none of them
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk, but the police kept asking questions. While
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: in jail, Richard Cartwright wrote letters to Dennis Hagd. In
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: these letters, Cartwright tried to get Hagod to agree on
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: a single story about what happened. Cartwright wrote that his
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: own statement was vague and did not put the gun
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: in Hagud's hand. He also wrote that Hagod's statement did
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: not hurt Cartwright because Hagod said he saw nothing. These
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: letters were intercepted by jail officials. They were given to
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: the prosecutors. The letters became important evidence against Cartwright. Kelly
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: Overstreet also wrote a letter while in jail, he wrote
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 1: to his girlfriend. In that letter, over Street said, I
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: have always hated faggots, but I didn't mean to kill
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: the little queen. I was pretty high that night, and
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: I guess my rage overcame my ass. I guess that
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: is what being a skinhead is all about. This letter
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: suggested that Overstreet was the one who killed Nick Moreda,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: but Overstreet later changed his story. The prosecutors made deals
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: with Dennis Hagod and Kelly Overstreet. Both men agreed to
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: plead guilty to lesser charges. In exchange, they agreed to
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: testify against Richard Cartwright at his trial. Hagod pleaded guilty
• 1:31:34
  Speaker 1: to robbery. He received a sentence of twenty years in prison.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 1: Overstreet pleaded guilty to murder. He received a sentence of
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: fifty years in prison. Both men were sent to prison.
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: Their sentences were much shorter than death. Richard Cartwright was
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: offered a plead deal as well. The prosecutors offered him
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: forty years in prison. If he took the deal, he
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: would not face the death penalty. Cartwright refused. He said
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: he would rather die than spend forty years in prison.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: He also said he was innocent. He believed the truth
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: would come out at trial. The trial for Richard Cartwright
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: took place in March nineteen ninety seven in Nuaces County, Texas.
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: The prosecutors argued that Cartwright was the one who shot
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: Nick Morida in the back. They presented the testimony of
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: Dennis Hagud and Kelly Overstreet. Both men pointed at Cartwright
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: as the shooter. They said Cartwright pulled the gun, said
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: this is a robbery, and later fired the fatal shot.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: The prosecutors also presented the letters Cartwright wrote from jail.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: Those letters showed that Cartwright was trying to coordinate stories
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: with Hagod. The prosecutors said this proved Cartwright was guilty
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: and was trying to cover it up. They also presented
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: the medical examiner's testimony. The examiner said the gunshot wound
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: killed Nick Morida, not the knife wounds. Cartwright's defense lawyer
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: argued that Cartwright was not the leader. He argued that
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: Overstreet and Hagod were lying to save themselves. He pointed
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: to Overstreet's letter where Overstreet admitted to killing the little Queen.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: He also called a former medical examiner named doctor Rupp.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: Doctor Rupp said that when two weapons are used, the
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: two people who know each other are usually the attackers.
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: He said over Street and Hagod had known each other
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: for years, while Cartwright had only known them for one week.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: The jury did not believe Cartwright. They found him guilty
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: of capital murder. Then the same jury had to decide
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: if he would get life in prison or the death penalty.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: The jury chose the death penalty. On March twenty first,
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven, the judge sentenced Richard Cartwright to death
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: by lethal injection. After the trial, Cartwright was sent to
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: death row in Texas. He was held at the Polunsky
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: Unit in Livingston, Texas. His prisoner number was nine nine
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: nine two two four. He began filing appeals. He argued
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: that his lawyer was ineffective. He argued that the prosecutor
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: made improper comments. He argued that he was innocent. He
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: asked for a new trial. The Texas Court of Criminal
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence in May nineteen ninety nine.
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: He then asked the U. S. Supreme Court to hear
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: his case. The Supreme Court refused in November nineteen ninety nine.
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: He filed a state habeas corpus petition in July nineteen
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: ninety eight. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied it. In
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: October two thousand one, he filed a federal habeas petition.
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: In September two thousand two, the Federal District Court denied it.
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: In July two thousand three, he appealed to the Fifth U. S.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: Circuit Court of Appeals. That court denied him as well.
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: He asked the U. S. Supreme Court again on January
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, two thousand five. The Supreme Court refused to
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 1: review his case. In early two thousand five, the state
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: of Texas set an execution date.
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 2: For Richard Cartwright.
• 1:35:16
  Speaker 1: He was scheduled to die on May nineteenth, two thousand five.
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: His lawyers filed one more appeal. They said that Kelly
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: over Street had recanted his trial testimony. Overstreet now said
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: he had lied. Overstreet wrote a new statement saying I
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: intentionally made Cartwright out to be the bad guy out
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: of spite, when in fact I am the one who
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: was at the forefront of all events. Cartwright's lawyers argued
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: that he had acted under duress because he was afraid
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 1: of Overstreet. The state attorneys argued that Overstreet's new statement
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: was unreliable. They also said that Cartwright was armed with
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: a gun, so it was not believable that he was
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 1: afraid of Overstreet, who only had a knife.
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: The U. S.
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: Supreme Court rejected this final appeal less than an hour
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: before the execution was scheduled to begin. On May nineteenth,
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: two thousand five, at six p m. Richard Cartwright was
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: led into the death chamber at the Huntsville unit in Texas.
• 1:36:16
  Speaker 1: He was strapped to a gurney. He was given a
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 1: chance to make a final statement. He said, I want
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: to apologize to the victim's family for any pain and
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: suffering I caused them. He then told his fellow death
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: row inmates to just keep your heads up and stay strong.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: The lethal injection was started at six sixteen p m.
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: He was pronounced dead. He was thirty one years old.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 1: Nick Marada's family did not attend the execution. His sister,
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 1: Angela Morida said she had forgiven Cartwright. She said the
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: execution would bring relief because she knew he could never
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: hurt any one else. She said the family had been
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: hurt every time they received letters about another appeal. She
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: wanted closure. Dennis Hagud served his twenty year sentence. Kelly
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: over Street served his fifty year sentence. Both men remained
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: in prison. They had testified against Cartwright to save themselves.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: Richard Cartwright was buried or cremated. His mother, Irene Riekitzka,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: witnessed his execution and wept. She said the state had
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: killed a good man, but the courts had decided otherwise.
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: The case ended with Nick morid a dead, his family
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 1: left to grieve, and Richard Cartwright executed by the State
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: of Texas.
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 2: Story six.
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: Gregory Scott Johnson was born on February eighteenth, nineteen sixty five,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: in Anderson, Indiana. Anderson is a small city. Gregory was
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 1: a white male. His mother's name was Alice Newman. He
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: had at least one sister named Deborah Otis, and the
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 1: family called her Debbie. Gregory did not have a calm
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 1: or easy childhood. His parents were not always present in
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 1: a stable way. When Gregory was young, his mother had
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: to go to his school two times because he was
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: acting too wild and disruptive. This was an early sign
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: that he had trouble controlling his behavior. Growing up, Gregory
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: did not have a strong father figure. A man named
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: Frank Newman lived with the family. Gregory thought Frank was
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 1: his stepfather. Later, Gregory learned that Frank Newman was actually
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: his biological father. The relationship with Frank was violent. Gregory's
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: sister later said that Gregory suffered abuse from Frank and
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: also from his grandfather. This abuse happened when Gregory was
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 1: a child. It caused him emotional pain that he carried
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: with him When Gregory was twelve years old, he started
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: drinking alcohol. He became addicted very quickly. Alcohol became the
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: most important thing in his life. He drank heavily almost
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: every day. This addiction shaped almost everything he did from
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: that age forward. As a teenager, Gregory continued to have
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: problems with rules and authority. He was placed under court
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: supervision as a juvenile because of his bad behavior. He
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: was sent to a center for mental health counseling for
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: eight months. This did not stop his downward path. He
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 1: was later sent to cross Roads Children's Home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 1: He spent twelve months there. At cross Roads, he met
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: another boy named Mark Wisehart. Mark became Gregory's best friend.
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 1: Gregory also spent time at the Indiana Boys School. This
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: was a correctional facility for young people who broke the law.
• 1:39:50
  Speaker 1: While he was at the Indiana Boys School, Gregory managed
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: to earn his high school diploma, so even though he
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: was in trouble, he did finish school. After he left
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 1: the the Indiana Boys' School, Gregory tried to join the military.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: He served nine months in the National Guard, then he
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: joined the regular Army, but he only served two months
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: in the Army before he was discharged. The reason for
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: his discharge was that he had not told the Army
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: about his full juvenile record. He had hidden his past
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: arrests and his time at the Indiana Boys School. When
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: the Army found out, they let him go back in Anderson.
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 1: Gregory had a hard time keeping a job. He worked
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: at a car wash for a while. He also worked
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: at a restaurant, but his drinking got in the way.
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: Eventually he was out of work. He spent his days
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 1: drinking and getting into small troubles with the law. As
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: an adult, he was arrested six times for a legal
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: consumption of alcohol. He also had a pending charge for
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: attempted burglary. At the time of later events, he did
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 1: not have a steady life. He moved from one small
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: problem to the next. Gregory's best friend, Mark Wisehart, also
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: stayed in trouble. Mark was later charged with killing a
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: woman named Marjorie Johnson. Gregory went to the police voluntarily
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: and told them that Mark had committed that murder. Then
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: Gregory testified as a witness for the prosecution at Mark's trial.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: Mark Wisehart was convicted and received a death sentence. Gregory
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: felt very bad about what he had done to his
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: best friend. He was remorseful that feeling of guilt stayed
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 1: inside him. In the months before a certain day in
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: June nineteen eighty five, Gregory was drinking more heavily than ever.
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: He was also setting fires. He set one house on fire.
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: He also set three garages on fire. He did this
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: for reasons he did not fully explain. He was living
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: day to day, looking for money and for his next drink.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: He was twenty years old. He had no job, no
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: stable home, and no control over his drinking. He spent
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: his nights walking around his neighborhood in Anderson, often drunk
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 1: or high. His mother lived on one street. Across from
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: his mother's house lived an elderly woman. The elderly woman
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: who lived across from Gregory Johnson's mother was named Ruby Hutslaer.
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: She was eighty two years old.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 2: She was white.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: She weighed only ninety pounds. She was small and frail.
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: Ruby had been widowed twice. She had lost her only
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: child as well. She lived alone in her house in Anderson.
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: On June twenty third, nineteen eighty five, Gregory Johnson had
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: been drinking heavily. He had also taken drugs. He was
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: not thinking clearly. He wanted money. He wanted to steal
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: things he could sell or use. He decided to break
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: into Ruby Hutzler's house. Gregory did not go alone. He
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 1: met up with another man. Gregory later refused to name
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: this man. The two of them walked to Ruby Hutzler's house.
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: They stood outside on the porch. Gregory did not have
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: a gun or a knife when he started, but he
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: found a broom. He used the broom as a tool.
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: Gregory broke a front window of the house using the broom.
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: The glass shattered. He reached inside and unlocked the door
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: or climbed through. He does not remember exactly how he entered,
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: but he got inside. Once he was inside, he immediately
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: saw Ruby Hutsler. She was wearing her night clothes. She
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: was awake and in her living room. She saw Gregory.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: She became scared. She tried to move away, but she
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: was old and weak. She slumped down to the floor.
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: She was lying on the floor, breathing heavily. She could
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: not fight back. Gregory did not try.
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 2: To help her.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 1: He stepped over her and walked around the house. As
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: he moved, his feet came down on her. He stepped
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: on her face. He stepped on her cheek, He stepped
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: on her neck. He did this at least twice while
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: moving through the rooms. He did not stop to see
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 1: if she was hurt. Gregory then started searching the house.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: He pulled open drawers. He dumped out small boxes and containers.
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: He took things that looked valuable. He found a watch,
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: He found some silver dollars. He put these items in
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: his pockets. He did not take prescription drugs, though that
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: was one of his reasons for breaking in. While he
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: was inside, he heard noises outside. He became nervous. He
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: decided to leave, but before he left, he found some
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: matches in the house. He decided to set the house
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: on fire. He started the fire in the center of
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: the house. The fire climbed up the stairway. It spread
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: to the attic. The fire burned part of the first floor,
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: including a closet and the stairway. Smoke and heat filled
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: the rest of the house. Gregory ran out the back door.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: He he left Ruby Huts laugh lying on the floor inside.
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: She was still alive, but badly hurt. She could not
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 1: get up. She could not escape the fire, and smoke
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 1: grew around her. She was found later about five feet
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: from the front door. She had tried to get out,
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: but she could not make it. Ruby Hutslaer did not
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: die from the fire or from breathing smoke. She died
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: from the injuries Gregory caused with his feet and with
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: the broom handle. An autopsy later showed that her nose
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 1: was broken, her cheek was broken, She had twenty fractured ribs.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: Her larynx, which is the voice box in the throat,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: was fractured. Her spine was fractured. These injuries were caused
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: by stomping and beating. After he left the house, Gregory
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: threw away the watch and the silver dollars.
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 2: He did not keep them.
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: He walked to where people were gathering. Fire had been spotted.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: A newspaper delivery boy had seen smoke coming from under
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 1: the roof of Ruby Hutzler's house. That was around six
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning. The boy woke up a neighbor.
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: The neighbor called the police. Two passers by also tried
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: to help. They tried to break open the front door,
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: but the heat was too strong. They found the back
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: door open, but they could not go inside because of
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 1: the smoke and heat. Gregory Johnson stood on the street.
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: He watched the fireman fight the fire. He stood very
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: close behind another man who was watching. When that man
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: moved sideways, Gregory moved too. He stayed close. He was sweating,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: His eyes were red, His breath smelled of alcohol. He
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 1: looked dirty and messy. He stood there watching the house burn,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 1: the house that he had just set on fire, the
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: house where Ruby Hutsler lay dead or dying on the floor.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 1: While the firemen were still putting out the fire at
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: Ruby Hutzler's house, the police received a radio broadcast. The
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: broad caste told officers to look for Gregory Scott Johnson.
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: The police suspected Johnson had set several fires in the
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: area in recent weeks. A police detective named Miller saw
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: Johnson standing on the street. Johnson was watching the fireman work.
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: The detective knew Johnson from before. He walked up to Johnson.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: He saw that Johnson's eyes were bloodshot, his breath smelled
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: like alcohol. He was unsteady on his feet. He was
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 1: nervous and anxious. The detective arrested Johnson for public intoxication.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: That was around six forty in the morning. Johnson was
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: placed in a police car. He was handcuffed. He started
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: kicking the inside of the car hard. Another officer, Officer Adams,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: came to the car. Adams asked Johnson what was wrong.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: Johnson said something about not having a chance and about
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 1: his upbringing. Then Johnson said, wise, heart did not kill
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: the bitch, I did. Officer Adams asked, did you, Scott?
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: Johnson replied no, but if that's the way you fuckers
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: want to play. Johnson was taken to the police station.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: At eight twenty in the morning. A captain named Hanlon
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: read Johnson his Miranda rights again. Johnson signed a paper
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 1: saying he understood his rights and was willing to talk.
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: At first, he said he did not set the fire
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: at Hutzler's house, but he did give four written statements.
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 1: In those statements, he admitted setting or trying to set
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: four other fires in the area. During the morning, Johnson
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 1: was told that Ruby Hutslah had died. At noon, he vomited.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: He was given food, drinks, and cigarettes. He slept a
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: little when left alone. As the day went on, he
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: became more sober. At three point thirty in the afternoon,
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: Captain Hanlon started questioning Johnson about the Hutslar fire. Hanlan
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 1: asked Johnson a question, asked if Johnson had set the
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: fire to join his friend Mark Wisehart, who was already
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: on death row because of Johnson's testimony against him. This
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: question made Johnson emotional. He put his head in his hands.
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: He then gave a full confession. Johnson described how he
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 1: broke the front window with a broom, entered the house,
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: saw Ruby Hutslaer collapse on the floor, stepped on her
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: as he moved around, took a watch in silver dollars,
• 1:49:27
  Speaker 1: found matches, started the fire, and ran out. He finished
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: his statement at five forty five that evening, Johnson was
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 1: charged with felony murder and arson. A jury found him
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 1: guilty on both charges. The trial then moved to the
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: penalty phase, where the jury would decide if Johnson should
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 1: receive the death penalty. The prosecution said the aggravating circumstance
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 1: was that Johnson intentionally killed Ruby Hutslaugh while committing burglary
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: and arson. The defense said Johnson was on only twenty
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: years old, he was intoxicated, and he had a difficult childhood.
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: The jury recommended the death sentence. The trial judge agreed
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 1: in sentenced Johnson to death on June nineteenth, nineteen eighty six.
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: He also received a ten yure sentence for arson. Johnson
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 1: appealed his case many times. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 1: his conviction and death sentence in nineteen ninety two. He
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: filed a petition for post conviction relief, but it was
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: denied in nineteen ninety five. The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: that denial in nineteen ninety eight. He then filed the
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: federal habeas corpus petition in nineteen ninety nine, but his
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: lawyer filed the petition one day late. A federal district
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 1: court dismissed it as untimely in two thousand three. The
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that dismissal in two
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: thousand four. Johnson's final appeals to the Indiana Supreme Court
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: and the un US Supreme Court were both denied. In
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: May two thousand and five, as his execution date approached,
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: Johnson asked for a delay. He wanted to donate part
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: of his liver to his sister, Deborah Otis, who was
• 1:51:13
  Speaker 1: sick with non alcoholic cirrhosis. The Indiana Parole board voted
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: for to zero against clemency. The board said Johnson was
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 1: guilty of a brutal murder and should be executed as scheduled.
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 1: Governor Mitch Daniels reviewed the request. He said medical experts,
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: including his sister's own doctor, advised that Johnson was not
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: a suitable donor because of hepatitis be exposure, his obesity.
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 2: And other factors.
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: The governor denied clemency on May twenty fourth, two thousand five.
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 1: Gregory Scott Johnson was executed by lethal injection at the
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: Indiana State Prison in Michigan City at twelve twenty eight
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: a m. On May twenty fifth, two thousand five. He
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: was forty years old. His final words were, every one
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: has been professional. In a handwritten statement released after his death,
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 1: he said he hoped his sister would still get a
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 1: new liver. Ruby Hutzler's great niece, Julie Woodard, set after
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 1: the execution that her great aunt could now rest in peace.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: Johnson's sister, Deborah Otis, remained alive but in poor health.
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: The case was closed. That was the final end of
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: Gregory Scott Johnson's story.