Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #272 Maggie Freleng with Alisha Burns

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#272 Maggie Freleng with Alisha Burns · Wrongful Conviction

0:00
Speaker 1: So dealing with children who get wrongfully convicted for something
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Speaker 1: like I think about all the things that I did
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Speaker 1: as a kid, you know, not knowing believing the adults.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to be part of the cool crowd,
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Speaker 2: so to speak, right, I think we all want to
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Speaker 2: teach our kids, and I know I've tried to teach
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Speaker 2: my kids the best I could to stay out of
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Speaker 2: those situations and call me and no matter where you are,
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Speaker 2: what you did to get yourself in that situation or
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Speaker 2: what's happening, I come, I get you, no questions, ask
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Speaker 2: and that.
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Speaker 1: But that, actually, you know, is a great point because
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Speaker 1: your children, they come from a place of privilege where
0:36
Speaker 1: they have a family. I mean, in certain cases, we're
0:39
Speaker 1: talking about somebody who didn't have a family and was
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Speaker 1: just seeking affection and love from the first person they found.
0:49
Speaker 3: And I said, no, I'm not going to testify against him.
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Speaker 4: I love him. He's my boyfriend, he loves me.
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Speaker 3: And so the DA basically said, well, if you don't
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Speaker 3: want to be as victim, you could be as co defended.
1:02
Speaker 3: And they charged him and meet both with.
1:05
Speaker 5: Murder from lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with
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Speaker 5: Maggie Freeling today Alicia Burns. In August of two thousand
1:27
Speaker 5: and two, fifteen year old Alicia Burns was swimming at
1:30
Speaker 5: a lake in Ohio when a man named Stephen Kasmeric
1:33
Speaker 5: approached her. He told her he was twenty one, and
1:37
Speaker 5: the duo quickly formed an intimate relationship. They decided to
1:40
Speaker 5: steal Alicia's foster mother's car and run off together to
1:43
Speaker 5: Las Vegas. However, this whirlwind romance was anything but Alicia
1:51
Speaker 5: didn't know that Kasmeric was actually thirty two and a
1:54
Speaker 5: convicted sex offender. Very quickly during their trip, Kasmeric began
1:59
Speaker 5: to force Alicia into selling her body for money, and
2:02
Speaker 5: he was getting increasingly violent with Alicia if she refused.
2:06
Speaker 5: This continued once they got to Vegas. One day in
2:08
Speaker 5: September two thousand and two, Kasmeric made one of these
2:11
Speaker 5: deals with a man named Pedro via Real. Alicia expected
2:17
Speaker 5: this time to be like all the others. She was
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Speaker 5: to have sexual contact with this man and he would
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Speaker 5: pay Chasmeric, But unbeknownst to Alicia, Kasmeric had a plan
2:26
Speaker 5: to forcibly rob the man. When the robbery went horribly wrong,
2:31
Speaker 5: the man, Pedro vile Real, wound of dead. Kasmeric and
2:35
Speaker 5: Alicia were eventually charged with his murder, but Alicia says
2:39
Speaker 5: she did not kill mister Viorel and that she too
2:43
Speaker 5: was a victim.
2:46
Speaker 3: I was a foster child and I was trafficked when
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Speaker 3: I was fifteen. My trafficker forced me to participate in
2:53
Speaker 3: a robbery that resulted in a death, and as a
2:56
Speaker 3: result of that, they made me his co defendant charge.
3:01
Speaker 3: My name is Alicia Burns. They gave me tend to
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Speaker 3: life in prison. I served a total of sixteen years.
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Speaker 5: Alicia Burns was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on March sixth,
3:22
Speaker 5: nineteen eighty seven. From a young age, her life with
3:25
Speaker 5: her birth family was difficult.
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Speaker 3: My biological mother was a drug addict in abusive relationships,
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Speaker 3: and the state took me and my siblings from my mother,
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Speaker 3: and at three, I got adopted by a family who
3:39
Speaker 3: couldn't have children.
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Speaker 5: But Alicia struggled in her new family. She wanted to
3:43
Speaker 5: find her biological mother and ended up running away from home.
3:46
Speaker 5: Her adoptive parents eventually put her up for adoption again,
3:50
Speaker 5: and at age eleven, Alicia wound up in the foster
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Speaker 5: care system. Her experience was not great.
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Speaker 3: Most people who are preen and teenage in foster care
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Speaker 3: in Durre abuse in all kinds of forms, whether it's
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Speaker 3: sexual or physical, or emotional or mental, and that's something
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Speaker 3: that's very prominent in the foster care system Sadly, I
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Speaker 3: spent a lot of time running away.
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Speaker 4: From foster homes.
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Speaker 3: I went through thirty six different placements between the ages
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Speaker 3: of eleven and fifteen, so I was booted around a
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Speaker 3: lot and just kind of did the foster care system
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Speaker 3: thing before I ended up in prison.
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Speaker 5: In two thousand and two, Alicia, now a teenager, was
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Speaker 5: longing for something more. One day in August, she was
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Speaker 5: at a lake with one of her foster parents when
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Speaker 5: a man approached her.
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Speaker 3: He came up to me and started talking to me,
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Speaker 3: and I liked the attention. I told him I was eighteen,
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Speaker 3: and he told me he was twenty one.
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Speaker 5: They were both lying. Alicia was just fifteen and the man,
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Speaker 5: Stephen kas Mehrick, was actually thirty two, but Alicia didn't
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Speaker 5: know or really care.
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Speaker 3: I think, you know, above and beyond all logic, I
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Speaker 3: yearned for attention and love so much that nothing else mattered.
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Speaker 4: I guess.
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Speaker 5: She quickly started to build a relationship with Kasmeric and
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Speaker 5: eventually he convinced her to leave Ohio and run away
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Speaker 5: with him to Las Vegas to get married.
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Speaker 3: I fully believed this man was my boyfriend and that
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Speaker 3: he loved me, that he was the only person in
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Speaker 3: the world that loved me and cared about me, because
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Speaker 3: that's that's what he convinced me of. That's what he
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Speaker 3: made me believe. We're gonna spend our lives together and
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Speaker 3: now I'm going to take care of you and you
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Speaker 3: never have to be in a foster home again. And
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Speaker 3: of course that was a fantastical notion to a fifteen
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Speaker 3: year old foster child with you know, obvious trust issues
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Speaker 3: and abandonment issues.
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Speaker 5: It felt like a whirlwind romance to Alicia. But then
6:07
Speaker 5: things took a turn.
6:09
Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: It started on the way to Vegas.
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Speaker 3: So we had stolen my foster brother's car and some
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Speaker 3: money from her, and.
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Speaker 4: I don't think we even like made it out of
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Speaker 4: the Midwest.
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Speaker 3: We had stopped at a motel and he was like, Hey,
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Speaker 3: we're kind of getting low on cash. You know, there's
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Speaker 3: this guy. He's you know, a couple of doors down
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Speaker 3: and he just wants to touch you. He's not going
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Speaker 3: to touch you under your clothes. He just wants to
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Speaker 3: touch you, like above your clothes, and he's going to
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Speaker 3: give us some money for it. And I'm going to
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Speaker 3: be right there the whole time, and I'm going to
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Speaker 3: make sure nothing happens. And you know, you can help
6:44
Speaker 3: us right now, because.
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Speaker 5: Mark convinced Alicia that she had to do this to
6:49
Speaker 5: financially contribute to their relationship.
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Speaker 4: And so I let it happen.
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Speaker 3: And then the next time we were at another hotel
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Speaker 3: and it was you know, this person just wants to
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Speaker 3: touch you under your clothes, but just for a second.
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Speaker 3: And then the next time it was a blow job,
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Speaker 3: and then it just it just really progressed from there.
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Speaker 4: And by the time that.
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Speaker 3: I told him no that I didn't want to, he
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Speaker 3: hit me hard on the side of my face. He
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Speaker 3: hit me hard enough that my ear was ringing, and
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Speaker 3: hard enough that it scared me to not want to
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Speaker 3: tell him no again.
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Speaker 5: Wow, what were you thinking when that happened.
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Speaker 3: I was thinking how much I had messed up because
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Speaker 3: he was yelling at me and he was telling me,
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Speaker 3: you know, by then, we were in Las Vegas, and
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Speaker 3: so he was telling me, like, you know, you're out here,
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Speaker 3: you don't know anybody out here, if you know, if
7:54
Speaker 3: I leave you, you know, these other people are going to
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Speaker 3: get you, and they're going to treat you a lot
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Speaker 3: worse than I do, you know, And I.
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Speaker 4: Was scared.
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Speaker 5: Alicia was trapped.
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Speaker 3: It seemed like a way to receive his praise, to
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Speaker 3: make him happy, because he was happy that I did
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Speaker 3: what he wanted me to do, and I was happy
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Speaker 3: that now I could get a burger from McDonald's or.
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Speaker 6: A hotel room for the night so that I wasn't
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Speaker 6: sleeping outside.
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Speaker 5: She didn't realize what was really happening, that Cosmeric was
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Speaker 5: trafficking her for sex.
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Speaker 3: I guess it's like similar to any like abusive or
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Speaker 3: domestic violence type of situation. It flip flops, you know,
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Speaker 3: there's those really bad times and then it's like made
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Speaker 3: up for with this over abundance of I appreciate you,
9:02
Speaker 3: I adore you, I love you, you know, and so
9:05
Speaker 3: it's it's really it's a it's a manipulative tactic, you know,
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Speaker 3: And that's that's what I went through with my trafficker.
9:16
Speaker 5: But she was also still just a kid, and she
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Speaker 5: believed Casmeric loved her, and so they eventually reached their destination,
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Speaker 5: Las Vegas. Let's go to September twenty fifth, two thousand
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Speaker 5: and two. Okay, so tell me about the day. How
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Speaker 5: did it start.
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Speaker 3: We were walking around on Fremont Street, and my trafficker
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Speaker 3: had met like some guy out there that was also
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Speaker 3: from Chicago, where my trafficker was from, and so they
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Speaker 3: were talking and hanging out and laughing, and Alicia.
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Speaker 5: Says, she wandered away and a man approached her, asking
10:00
Speaker 5: if he could buy her a drink. She said, all
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Speaker 5: she wanted was a soda from McDonald's.
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Speaker 3: And so we, uh, we walked into the McDonald so
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Speaker 3: he could buy me a sprite, and he offered me
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Speaker 3: money for sex.
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Speaker 5: Alicia told Kasmerik, who saw an opportunity. He and the
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Speaker 5: man agreed on a price, and they decided to go
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Speaker 5: back to his apartment. Kas Marek brought along a friend
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Speaker 5: who to this day is only known as Tommy.
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Speaker 3: When we got there, they turned on some music and
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Speaker 3: they were drinking beers and we were sitting there and
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Speaker 3: the gentleman was sitting next to me on the bed
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Speaker 3: and he kept like rubbing on my legs and things
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Speaker 3: like that, and touching my back, and I was getting uncomfortable,
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Speaker 3: so I, you know, said I had to use the restroom.
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Speaker 3: So I got up and I went to the restroom
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Speaker 3: and I came back out and back down, and then
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Speaker 3: my trafficker said that he had to use the restroom
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Speaker 3: as well. And when he got to the bathroom door,
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Speaker 3: he was like, whoa dude, your your mirror is broken
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Speaker 3: in the bathroom.
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Speaker 4: And the gentleman was like, what.
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Speaker 3: What do you what do you mean my mirror is broken?
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Speaker 3: And so he got up to go look into the
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Speaker 3: bathroom and when he peeked his head like around the
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Speaker 3: corner to the bathroom, my trafficker grabbed him from behind
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Speaker 3: and started choking him. So I was standing there scared
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Speaker 3: and shocked, and.
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Speaker 4: I didn't try to stop it. I didn't.
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Speaker 3: I didn't, I don't, but I remember just standing there
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Speaker 3: like what the hell is going on?
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Speaker 5: Alicia had no idea that Kasmeric planned to hurt anyone,
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Speaker 5: but a long struggle ensued and then the man lost consciousness.
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Speaker 5: Kazmik told Alicia and taught me to go grab extension
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Speaker 5: cords to tie him up. By now, Alicia knew better
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Speaker 5: than to disobey Kasmeric.
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Speaker 4: So I did.
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Speaker 3: I cut the cord off the back of this small
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Speaker 3: like box fan and I handed it to him and
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Speaker 3: then he was like, okay, we need to look around
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Speaker 3: for any valuables.
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Speaker 5: Kazmerk told them to bag up the valuables so they
12:30
Speaker 5: could pawn them. And then the man started to wake up,
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Speaker 5: so kas Merek quickly shifted orders.
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Speaker 3: And he was like, well, just do what I did,
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Speaker 3: Just you know, put your arm around his neck like
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Speaker 3: I did, until he passes out again.
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Speaker 4: And I weighed eighty.
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Speaker 3: Nine pounds at the time, so that thing I did
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Speaker 3: physically was going to make a difference for this this
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Speaker 3: adult man who's closer, you know, around two hundred pounds.
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Speaker 3: And that's when my trafficker came over and choked him
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Speaker 3: unconscious himself, you know, and he was like, just just
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Speaker 3: forget it, just forget it. Just start wiping things down,
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Speaker 3: you know, wipe all of our fingerprints, wipe everything. And
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Speaker 3: he said that the friend had to help him carry
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Speaker 3: him into the bathroom and put him in the bathtub.
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Speaker 4: And I remember at one point.
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Speaker 3: I heard noises in the bathroom and my trafficker was saying,
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Speaker 3: you know, shut the fuck up, shut the fuck up.
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Speaker 3: And I looked in there and he was punching him
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Speaker 3: like inside the bathtub and telling him to shut up,
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Speaker 3: and he looked over and saw me, and he said, Alicia,
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Speaker 3: don't look.
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Speaker 4: Don't look, and he pushed the door closed.
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Speaker 5: Causmeric then ordered Alicia and Tommy to clean up the
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Speaker 5: apartment and continue to wipe everything down to not leave
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Speaker 5: any fingerprints.
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Speaker 3: Because when we leave, I'm going to open the window
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Speaker 3: here so that people not the window itself, but like
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Speaker 3: the blinds or curtains or whatever it was.
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Speaker 4: He says, I'm going to open.
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Speaker 3: This so in case people walk by, it looks normal
14:21
Speaker 3: in here.
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Speaker 5: After they left, Casmeric pawned the items they stole. Alicia
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Speaker 5: says that when they left, the man in the bathtub
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Speaker 5: was still alive. About a week later, she says, Kasmeric
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Speaker 5: was back to trying to solicit Alicia's body for money,
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Speaker 5: this time at the Stardust Casino.
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Speaker 3: I got stopped by security because I was very clearly underage,
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Speaker 3: and he came over while security was talking to me
14:53
Speaker 3: to kind of try to, I guess, try to talk
14:56
Speaker 3: us out of it or something, and security's took his
15:00
Speaker 3: idea as well, and they took us into the back.
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Speaker 3: Apparently the security guard got a fishy feeling about the
15:08
Speaker 3: whole scenario, and the security guard started asking me questions.
15:12
Speaker 3: He wanted to know how old I was, and he
15:14
Speaker 3: wanted to know where I was from, and how I
15:16
Speaker 3: knew the gentleman that I or the man that I
15:21
Speaker 3: was with, and you know, I told him, oh, he's
15:23
Speaker 3: my boyfriend, and we came out here from Ohio and
15:27
Speaker 3: we came out here, we're going to get married. And
15:32
Speaker 3: then the security guard called the police, and the police
15:37
Speaker 3: came and they were asking me all the same questions,
15:40
Speaker 3: but they were wanting to know if we had ever
15:42
Speaker 3: had sex, and how many times and in what fashion,
15:45
Speaker 3: and you know, things of that sort. So ultimately they
15:51
Speaker 3: arrested him for kidnapping, fifteen counts of sexual assault of
15:58
Speaker 3: a minor statue, tory sexual seduction, and I was his victim,
16:04
Speaker 3: and they took him to jail for.
16:06
Speaker 5: That, and because police saw that Alicia was listed as
16:12
Speaker 5: a runaway, she was sent back to Ohio. Meanwhile, they
16:15
Speaker 5: had discovered that Kasmeric was a convicted sex offender on
16:18
Speaker 5: parole at the time, so in addition to the new charges,
16:21
Speaker 5: the police had another reason to hold him in the
16:24
Speaker 5: county jail while he was there, other incarcerated people learned
16:27
Speaker 5: what he was in for, and in jails and prisons,
16:31
Speaker 5: child molestation is considered by other prisoners one of the
16:34
Speaker 5: most heinous charges someone could have, and often child molesters
16:39
Speaker 5: are quickly hurt or killed while inside. Kasmeric knew this, and, allegedly,
16:46
Speaker 5: to avoid being targeted, he was telling people he was
16:49
Speaker 5: actually there for a robbery. To our knowledge, Kasmeric wasn't
16:53
Speaker 5: aware that his victim, Pedro Virial, was dead. He was
16:56
Speaker 5: left tied up but alive, but by now police had
17:00
Speaker 5: found his body, and so.
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Speaker 3: I guess he was like kind of trying to save
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Speaker 3: his ass. Instead of like being known as a child molester,
17:10
Speaker 3: he'd rather be known as someone who was like robbing
17:13
Speaker 3: someone and you know, and did.
17:15
Speaker 4: This and that.
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Speaker 3: So he had told other inmates about that, and they
17:19
Speaker 3: called the homicide detectives.
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Speaker 5: It's not clear whether police connected the pond items to
17:25
Speaker 5: Kasmeric before or after he bragged to other prisoners, but
17:29
Speaker 5: the admission nevertheless peaked their interest in him, and now
17:33
Speaker 5: the police and prosecution needed Alicia to testify against Kasmeric,
17:37
Speaker 5: both as a witness of the murder and as a
17:39
Speaker 5: victim to the child's molestation. But she was still caught
17:43
Speaker 5: up in their love.
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Speaker 3: Story, and I said, no, I'm not going to testify
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Speaker 3: against him.
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Speaker 4: I love him. He's my boyfriend. He loves me.
18:00
Speaker 5: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
18:05
Speaker 5: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
18:09
Speaker 5: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
18:12
Speaker 5: in the communities where we work and live. In light
18:15
Speaker 5: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
18:19
Speaker 5: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
18:24
Speaker 5: the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
18:28
Speaker 5: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. So, after all
18:37
Speaker 5: Chasmeric had put her through, why was Alicious still loyal
18:40
Speaker 5: to him? Well, it's because of something called Stockholm syndrome.
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Speaker 7: So Stockholm syndrome is a type of a drama bond.
18:47
Speaker 5: This is Kelly Diane Gallowat. She's the president and founder
18:50
Speaker 5: of Project Mona's House, an organization that helps women who
18:54
Speaker 5: come in as victims to be transformed into survivors.
18:59
Speaker 7: So the reason why we bring that up, and we
19:02
Speaker 7: bring up trauma bonds in Stockholm syndrome is because a
19:04
Speaker 7: lot of people say, well, obviously they weren't held against
19:07
Speaker 7: their will, they weren't chained, they weren't tied, nobody had
19:10
Speaker 7: a gun to their head. But human trafficking happens through force, fraud,
19:14
Speaker 7: and coercion. And what ends up happening is you can
19:17
Speaker 7: have a victim who, for some reason believes the words
19:21
Speaker 7: that the traffickers are saying. Nobody's going to help you.
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Speaker 7: If you run, I'll find you. If you run, I'll
19:27
Speaker 7: kill your family members. There's no place to go. Nobody
19:30
Speaker 7: else loves you, nobody else will take care of you.
19:32
Speaker 7: I treat you so good, and then they start to
19:34
Speaker 7: develop this morphed view of love, this morphed view of companionship,
19:40
Speaker 7: and this morphed view of support. Which is why even
19:42
Speaker 7: when you go into the restoration process of a lot
19:45
Speaker 7: of people who've gone through these forms of trauma, it's
19:48
Speaker 7: hard to convince them that their abuser is not their lover,
19:52
Speaker 7: their abuse or is not their friend, their abus or
19:54
Speaker 7: is not their romantic partner, but in fact that they
19:56
Speaker 7: are an abuser.
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Speaker 5: At this point, Alicia didn't realize how manipulated she had been.
20:02
Speaker 3: And so when my public defender told the DA that
20:06
Speaker 3: I was refusing to testify. The DA basically said, well,
20:10
Speaker 3: if you don't want to be as victim, you can
20:12
Speaker 3: be as co defended. They dropped the charges against him
20:15
Speaker 3: where I was his victim, and they charged him and
20:19
Speaker 3: me both with murder. And I was held for thirteen
20:24
Speaker 3: days in the adult jail, and during the course of
20:28
Speaker 3: that thirteen days, I was in solitary confinement. I wasn't
20:31
Speaker 3: allowed to talk to anybody, but I was receiving letters
20:35
Speaker 3: from my trafficker, and he was basically telling me how
20:39
Speaker 3: much he loved me and how I had the power
20:42
Speaker 3: to save both of us, and because I was young,
20:45
Speaker 3: if I took the blame, they would only give me
20:49
Speaker 3: a little bit of time, and then they would only
20:50
Speaker 3: give him a little bit of time, and then we
20:52
Speaker 3: would get out around the same time and we could
20:54
Speaker 3: still get married and be together. So he was still
20:56
Speaker 3: very much grooming me and manipulating me in these letters.
21:02
Speaker 5: And for the record, prisoners are not typically allowed to
21:05
Speaker 5: communicate with one another via letter or phone, let alone
21:08
Speaker 5: be in consistent communication with each other, but for whatever reason,
21:13
Speaker 5: this rule was disregarded, and then, as if the letters
21:16
Speaker 5: were not bad enough, Alicia and Kasmeric were allowed an
21:20
Speaker 5: in person contact visit.
21:22
Speaker 3: A week or two after the preliminary hearing, the DA
21:28
Speaker 3: my trafficker's attorney and my public defender got together and
21:37
Speaker 3: had the judge sign off on a contact visit between
21:42
Speaker 3: me and my trafficker inside the county jail.
21:45
Speaker 5: It makes no sense why this would happen except the
21:48
Speaker 5: district attorney had offered Alicia a deal tend to life
21:52
Speaker 5: in exchange for a guilty plea, and Cosmeric wanted her
21:55
Speaker 5: to take it.
21:57
Speaker 3: I can only speculate as to the reasons why he
22:01
Speaker 3: would agree to talk me into taking their deal. We
22:06
Speaker 3: have presumed that there was a possibility that he was
22:10
Speaker 3: being promised not receiving the death penalty because he had
22:15
Speaker 3: already been found guilty. So we think that he was
22:19
Speaker 3: told if he got me to sign the deal, he
22:21
Speaker 3: would not receive the death penalty.
22:24
Speaker 5: What was the visit like?
22:26
Speaker 4: I don't remember.
22:27
Speaker 3: I don't remember, and there are no transcripts, there's no recording, audio,
22:33
Speaker 3: or video of that visit.
22:35
Speaker 4: There's nothing.
22:36
Speaker 5: Was there anyone there with you in there?
22:38
Speaker 3: I don't remember. I remember him. I remember him sitting
22:44
Speaker 3: in front of me and telling me how much he
22:46
Speaker 3: loved me, and how taking their deal was the best
22:49
Speaker 3: thing for me. Shortly after that visit is when I
22:54
Speaker 3: signed their deal.
23:05
Speaker 5: Alicia pleaded guilty to second degree murder on April twenty first,
23:09
Speaker 5: two thousand and three. She had only just turned sixteen.
23:12
Speaker 5: Her sentence was handed down in June, and on July first,
23:16
Speaker 5: she was sent to the women's prison.
23:18
Speaker 3: July first, two thousand and three, is the day that
23:21
Speaker 3: it became real to me. Up to that day, I
23:26
Speaker 3: kind of thought that it was a scared straight program,
23:29
Speaker 3: or that they were gonna release me like they did
23:32
Speaker 3: the first time. I didn't understand the severity. But I
23:38
Speaker 3: remember that day when we pulled up to the prison
23:42
Speaker 3: and the van pulls in through one gate. The gate
23:45
Speaker 3: closes behind the van, and then the gate in front
23:47
Speaker 3: opens so the van can pull through. When that first
23:50
Speaker 3: gate was closed behind us, I just.
23:57
Speaker 6: I broke. I started crying because literally it was so weird.
24:06
Speaker 3: Because through signing the deal, and through all the court
24:09
Speaker 3: hearings and through sentencing and.
24:12
Speaker 4: Through transport to the prison, it didn't seem real to me.
24:16
Speaker 6: But when when that gate closed, I was like, oh
24:22
Speaker 6: my god, this is real.
24:29
Speaker 5: Alicia's first years in prison were rough.
24:32
Speaker 4: I gave up. I gave up for a long time.
24:36
Speaker 5: What was giving up? Like, what does that mean?
24:39
Speaker 4: Giving up?
24:40
Speaker 8: Was accepting that that was my life and that was
24:50
Speaker 8: all I was ever going to be.
24:51
Speaker 3: I was going to be an inmate forever. I had nobody,
24:55
Speaker 3: and I was by myself, and I had guards and
24:59
Speaker 3: I had other inmates telling me that I wasn't.
25:04
Speaker 6: Shit, that I was never going to be anything else
25:07
Speaker 6: then that that's what my life was forever.
25:20
Speaker 5: After the initial ten years she was sentenced to Alicia
25:23
Speaker 5: was released on parole in November of twenty thirteen, but
25:27
Speaker 5: she says even though she was now twenty five, she
25:30
Speaker 5: still felt like a fifteen year old trying to navigate
25:33
Speaker 5: the world. Within eight months, Alicia found herself back in prison.
25:41
Speaker 3: Simply because I had no life skills.
25:43
Speaker 4: I didn't know anything about life, you know.
25:45
Speaker 3: And so of course I found myself in bad situations immediately.
25:49
Speaker 3: During that eight months, I had gotten pregnant with my daughter.
25:52
Speaker 3: I ended up having her in prison. I did two
25:57
Speaker 3: years on that first violation. I got out again, and
26:01
Speaker 3: I was only out nine months before I was violated
26:05
Speaker 3: again and sent back.
26:07
Speaker 4: During that nine months, I got pregnant with my son.
26:09
Speaker 3: And ended up having him in prison as well.
26:15
Speaker 5: Because Alicia was in state custody when she gave birth
26:17
Speaker 5: to her children, they were taken from her, and because
26:20
Speaker 5: she had no family to take them, the state put
26:23
Speaker 5: them up for adoption.
26:27
Speaker 9: When I lost my kids, I was at a fork.
26:35
Speaker 6: I could either give up on life, on everything, or
26:42
Speaker 6: I could fight.
26:45
Speaker 3: And I decided to fight.
26:49
Speaker 4: So I called an attorney. I called a lawyer.
26:52
Speaker 9: I called Tony Abatangelo, and I told him my situation.
27:00
Speaker 10: And I had the honor of meeting Alicia Burns five
27:05
Speaker 10: or six years ago, and we've been fighting for her
27:08
Speaker 10: case ever since then.
27:10
Speaker 5: This is Tony Abotangelo. He's an attorney in Las Vegas,
27:14
Speaker 5: and while working on Alicia's case, he's found a few
27:16
Speaker 5: things that stand out. Starting with the crime scene. Remember
27:23
Speaker 5: when Alicia, Kasmeric and Tommy left the apartment. Alicia said
27:27
Speaker 5: they wiped down the room for fingerprints and made it
27:29
Speaker 5: look as normal as possible. Alicia also says that vi
27:33
Speaker 5: Real was alive.
27:35
Speaker 10: Two days later, approximately the maintenance man Thomas Riddle. He
27:40
Speaker 10: said that there was a call from another unit saying, hey,
27:44
Speaker 10: there's a flyad here. So Riddle goes to the unit
27:48
Speaker 10: that the victim was eventually found in and there.
27:51
Speaker 5: Was a chain on the door, the chain locking the
27:54
Speaker 5: door from the inside.
27:56
Speaker 10: This is an agreed upon fact. There's a chain on
27:59
Speaker 10: the door, and we all know you can't put a
28:02
Speaker 10: chain on the door from the outside. You got to
28:05
Speaker 10: be inside, right.
28:07
Speaker 5: So without a way to get in, Riddle left. When
28:09
Speaker 5: he came back less than an hour later to try again,
28:12
Speaker 5: he found the chain off. So Riddle went in the room.
28:16
Speaker 10: And that's when he finds victim Bill, a real and
28:20
Speaker 10: like about two inches of battob Ward. So once again,
28:23
Speaker 10: these are not facts. The defense is just making up.
28:26
Speaker 10: These are facts that I've been given and we're fighting
28:28
Speaker 10: and arguing about.
28:30
Speaker 5: Tony says, this shows that someone else went into the
28:32
Speaker 5: room after Alicia, Kasmerk and Tommy left. According to Riddle,
28:37
Speaker 5: the room was also in disarray.
28:40
Speaker 10: Also, when the police did come to the scene of
28:43
Speaker 10: a crime, they does it for fingerprints.
28:46
Speaker 5: They found fingerprints, but remember Alicia says that they left
28:50
Speaker 5: without a trace. So who's prince were these Well, they
28:56
Speaker 5: ran them and couldn't find a match, not to Alicia, Kazmeric,
29:00
Speaker 5: Tommy or anyone else.
29:02
Speaker 10: Our position is run them. Maybe those people's names will
29:06
Speaker 10: pop up, or a somebody will be identified, or a
29:10
Speaker 10: hit is what it's called, will be associated with the fingerprint,
29:15
Speaker 10: and that will reflect who was in there, and that
29:18
Speaker 10: could help Alicia's claim that he was still alive.
29:23
Speaker 5: It was at this time that Alicia started to realize
29:25
Speaker 5: the truth about her time with Cosmeric.
29:29
Speaker 6: You know, there were.
29:30
Speaker 3: Lots of things on TV about human trafficking and sex
29:33
Speaker 3: trafficking and what it looks like, and there was more
29:36
Speaker 3: awareness about it, and I thought, oh my gosh.
29:42
Speaker 6: That's what happens to me.
29:47
Speaker 3: I should have been treated as a victim, because victims
29:52
Speaker 3: should be treated as victims. They should not be criminalized
29:55
Speaker 3: for being victims.
30:00
Speaker 7: I believe that Alicia is a textbook definition of what
30:04
Speaker 7: a child's sex trafficking victim is.
30:06
Speaker 5: This is Kelly Dane Galloway. Again. Kelly has been helping
30:10
Speaker 5: Alicia understand exactly what happened to her.
30:14
Speaker 7: One of the initiatives of Project Wanna's House is to
30:17
Speaker 7: help raise awareness about victims of human trafficking who are
30:22
Speaker 7: who have experienced what we call double victimization, victimized by
30:25
Speaker 7: both a a trafficker or Jane or John, and then
30:29
Speaker 7: by the criminal justice systems, And it's so incredibly hard
30:33
Speaker 7: for me to understand, believe, and even conceive the mindset
30:37
Speaker 7: of the prosecutors who brought charges against her, knowing her situation.
30:44
Speaker 7: It is incredibly difficult for me to understand why she's
30:48
Speaker 7: on lifetime parole when she literally was bought and sold
30:51
Speaker 7: for sex at fifteen years old.
31:00
Speaker 5: Do you think back sometimes and like are like, I
31:03
Speaker 5: can't believe this happened to me, and how did this happen?
31:10
Speaker 3: I don't wonder how, because I know how I was.
31:14
Speaker 3: I was neglected. I was I felt unloved, and I
31:19
Speaker 3: felt forgotten about. And to have somebody even pretend.
31:28
Speaker 6: To notice me and love me.
31:31
Speaker 4: Meant the world, and it meant.
31:34
Speaker 3: That I would have done anything for him, and clearly
31:38
Speaker 3: I did.
31:40
Speaker 5: Do you feel loved today?
31:41
Speaker 3: I do.
31:43
Speaker 5: Today.
31:44
Speaker 3: I have friends and family who love me and care
31:49
Speaker 3: about me.
32:02
Speaker 10: Our position is, hey, two thousand and two, sex trafficking
32:06
Speaker 10: really wasn't much of a thing at that time. Since then,
32:10
Speaker 10: we have laws, whether it's in the federal court system
32:13
Speaker 10: or in the state court system, that view this type
32:17
Speaker 10: of behavior completely different.
32:20
Speaker 5: Tony and Alicia are currently appealing a decision by the
32:23
Speaker 5: Nevada Supreme Court denying Alicia in evidentiary hearing.
32:28
Speaker 10: I wish, of course, that we can get the conviction
32:31
Speaker 10: overturned or at least at minimum get her off of
32:34
Speaker 10: lifetime supervision for parole. But I'm so proud of her
32:38
Speaker 10: in a wait, the progress she's made in her life.
32:41
Speaker 10: She is a very intelligent young woman who you know,
32:46
Speaker 10: she's doing great. I mean, I'm very proud of her.
32:50
Speaker 5: While she was in prison, Alicia started training in cosmetology.
32:54
Speaker 5: Her most recent parole in July of twenty twenty cut
32:57
Speaker 5: that training short, so she never got to complete it,
33:00
Speaker 5: but that didn't deter her goals. Even though she hadn't
33:03
Speaker 5: completed her training, Alicia was able to start a successful
33:07
Speaker 5: beauty business Intocoma, Washington. Within six months, she sold it
33:11
Speaker 5: to a medical spa and moved back to Las Vegas.
33:14
Speaker 4: The plan was to open up the business down here.
33:17
Speaker 3: I was just about to do that when I found
33:20
Speaker 3: out I was growing a human.
33:24
Speaker 5: Alicia is thrilled to be expecting her third child. While
33:28
Speaker 5: her son's adoptive parents do allow her to have a
33:30
Speaker 5: relationship with him, her daughter's adoption was closed, so she
33:34
Speaker 5: can't get in touch with her, But with this child
33:36
Speaker 5: on the way, Alicia plans to fully enjoy being a
33:40
Speaker 5: mother at last.
33:41
Speaker 3: This baby is coming and I have to create a world,
33:46
Speaker 3: you know, for it to come into.
33:49
Speaker 5: What do you hope for your child? You know you
33:50
Speaker 5: have two others, but it was not an ideal less
33:53
Speaker 5: than ideal parenting situation. You know, now you have a
33:56
Speaker 5: chance to do it over.
33:58
Speaker 3: I want my child happy and healthy and safe and secure.
34:04
Speaker 3: And I want my child to know that he or
34:07
Speaker 3: she is loved. It has people that love them.
34:16
Speaker 5: Alicia is currently looking for work. If you want to
34:19
Speaker 5: help her with basic living expenses while she builds her
34:22
Speaker 5: new life, go to GoFundMe dot com slash support Alicia Burns.
34:32
Speaker 5: Hey y'all. Next week, the Wrongful Conviction Team is taking
34:35
Speaker 5: a break, but don't worry, we have something very special
34:38
Speaker 5: planned for you in our regular slot. Next Monday, we
34:42
Speaker 5: are featuring episode one of the Pulitzer Prize winning podcast Suave,
34:46
Speaker 5: which I hosted and produced along with the Futuro Media Group.
34:51
Speaker 5: Suave goes inside the juvenile justice system to tell a
34:54
Speaker 5: story of incarceration, redemption, and the unusual relationship between a
34:59
Speaker 5: journalist and source. I know you'll want to hear it.
35:02
Speaker 5: I have spent years on this project and we'll be
35:05
Speaker 5: back just the week after with another episode of Wrongful
35:08
Speaker 5: Conviction with Maggie Freeling. But in the meantime, please enjoy suave.
35:17
Speaker 5: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling.
35:20
Speaker 5: Please support your local innocence organizations and go to the
35:23
Speaker 5: links in our bio to see how you can help.
35:26
Speaker 5: I'd like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and
35:29
Speaker 5: Kevin Wortis, as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea,
35:32
Speaker 5: researcher Lila Robinson, story editor Sonia Paul, with additional production
35:38
Speaker 5: by Jeff Cleiburn and Connor Hall. The music in this
35:41
Speaker 5: production is by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph.
35:45
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36:02
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