Latest / Wrongful Conviction / #339 Maggie Freleng with Garland Leon “Butch” Martin

Transcript

#339 Maggie Freleng with Garland Leon “Butch” Martin · Wrongful Conviction

0:00
Speaker 1: A quick note, this episode contains mention of suicide. Please
0:04
Speaker 1: listen with caution and care. On the night of February
0:17
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, a mother and her two
0:20
Speaker 1: children were asleep in their home outside of Midland, Texas.
0:24
Speaker 1: While they slept, a fire broke out in the house.
0:27
Speaker 1: Driving home from work, Butch Martin saw the flames from
0:30
Speaker 1: the road as they approached.
0:33
Speaker 2: We get up on the top of the hill and
0:35
Speaker 2: I see a big black cloud of smokes. That's man
0:40
Speaker 2: that looks like my house man. And then when we
0:45
Speaker 2: got closer, I saw that it was my house.
0:49
Speaker 1: Butch's girlfriend, Marsha Pool, and their two children, Brady and Kristen,
0:53
Speaker 1: died in the fire, and the subsequent investigation led an
0:57
Speaker 1: innocent man to be condemned to prison for life.
1:03
Speaker 2: You know, part of me says, I don't care what
1:06
Speaker 2: no way he thinks. But I do care. You know,
1:10
Speaker 2: all is the truth should be not the truth. I
1:15
Speaker 2: am Booch Martin. I've been in cars for him since
1:19
Speaker 2: August ninety nine.
1:24
Speaker 1: From Love of for Good This is wrongful conviction with
1:27
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling today Butch Martin Garland Leon Martin, who goes
1:47
Speaker 1: by Butch was born in Odessa, Texas, on September fifteenth,
1:50
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, to Buddy and Nancy Martin. Butch was
1:57
Speaker 1: one of five children. When he was young, family moved
2:00
Speaker 1: to nearby Midland, Texas, where he and his siblings were raised.
2:05
Speaker 2: That's right. We lived out on a farm off seventeen
2:08
Speaker 2: eighty eight head every top animal you can think of,
2:11
Speaker 2: you know, pigs, goats, sheep, turkeys, geese, peacock. That's great.
2:22
Speaker 1: Butch rode horses and motorcycles and loved to drag race.
2:26
Speaker 3: He's the wildest of a bunch, that's for sure.
2:28
Speaker 1: This is Butch's little sister, Heather.
2:31
Speaker 3: Everybody loved him, everybody. I mean, he was very outgoing.
2:36
Speaker 3: He was the type to give his shirt off his
2:39
Speaker 3: back for anybody. He would help anybody in need.
2:43
Speaker 1: And not only that.
2:44
Speaker 3: He's funny. He's hilarious, definitely. I mean, he has his
2:51
Speaker 3: moments and he can be serious, but for the most part,
2:55
Speaker 3: he's pretty funny and he likes to make people laugh.
2:59
Speaker 1: In fact, his offbeat sense of humor is the source
3:01
Speaker 1: of one of Heather's favorite memories of Butch.
3:05
Speaker 3: He was in a motorcocle accident and he broke both
3:09
Speaker 3: of his legs, so he was in a wheelchair for
3:11
Speaker 3: a while. So his thing was, you know, he was
3:13
Speaker 3: going to learn to ride wheelies in his wheelchair. Well,
3:17
Speaker 3: you know, he's cruising along showing off, you know, doing
3:19
Speaker 3: his little wheelies and stuff. He ended up tipping over
3:22
Speaker 3: backwards and he couldn't get up because his legs weren't broke.
3:29
Speaker 3: And I was laughing at him because he was trying
3:32
Speaker 3: to show off, and then we both started laughing, and
3:34
Speaker 3: I couldn't get him up because we're both laughing so hard.
3:39
Speaker 4: He makes light of every situation.
3:46
Speaker 1: After Butch graduated high school, he took a job in
3:49
Speaker 1: the oil field. He had taken vocational welding classes in
3:52
Speaker 1: school and made a good living as a welder. But
3:54
Speaker 1: then the oil industry lost traction.
4:00
Speaker 2: I took off and a friend of mine had a
4:02
Speaker 2: recovery company that he repossessed vehicles and everything, everything from canning, copiers,
4:11
Speaker 2: a baby grand piano, We reported everything.
4:15
Speaker 1: Butch was mobile, traveling all over Texas doing the repossession
4:18
Speaker 1: work and making good money on it. He says he
4:21
Speaker 1: was living the life. It was during this time that
4:24
Speaker 1: Butch also got married and had a son, Parker Chase.
4:28
Speaker 2: We were all married like three years. I really didn't
4:31
Speaker 2: even want to marry or I told my homeway the way,
4:35
Speaker 2: you know, we need to just keep driving, you know,
4:39
Speaker 2: and he's going, I'm stupid, you're going back.
4:43
Speaker 1: Needless to say that marriage didn't work out. Butch continued
4:47
Speaker 1: working and he would also go out partying. He says
4:49
Speaker 1: he was a ladies man and eventually he met the one.
4:54
Speaker 1: So how did you meet Marcia?
4:57
Speaker 2: Well, actually, my buddies took me to a derby where,
5:04
Speaker 2: you know, five gangcocks roosters, and it was a little
5:10
Speaker 2: get together. There After it got dark and she was
5:15
Speaker 2: sitting on a store in the kitchen.
5:18
Speaker 1: Marcia Pool was twenty years old. She had just had
5:21
Speaker 1: her son, Brady, who was with her at the gathering.
5:25
Speaker 2: And I saw that she was drinking tequila.
5:29
Speaker 1: Butch asked Marcia for a tequila shot, but instead she
5:32
Speaker 1: handed him her baby son to Holt, and Butch was smitten.
5:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. I knew right there, and I said in love
5:39
Speaker 2: with her. Man. She was cool man, totally cool.
5:45
Speaker 1: After that, Butch and Marsha were inseparable. Despite the fact
5:49
Speaker 1: that Butch was twelve years older, it didn't matter to them.
5:52
Speaker 1: They wanted to have a life together and they did.
5:56
Speaker 2: We did everything together with I took her to a
5:58
Speaker 2: bunch of concerts and she was like a grooby, little
6:02
Speaker 2: hippie chick. We were so great together.
6:08
Speaker 1: Eventually, Butch and Marsha moved in together. Butch was over
6:11
Speaker 1: the moon happy when he found out they were going
6:14
Speaker 1: to have a kid. By that point, Butch was also
6:17
Speaker 1: a father figure to Marcia's son, Brady, whom he adored,
6:21
Speaker 1: and Brady worshiped him too.
6:24
Speaker 2: Bady would be on the front porch every day waiting
6:27
Speaker 2: on me. I I'll go with you. I'm go on,
6:29
Speaker 2: go on go, And if I wasn't paying attention, he
6:32
Speaker 2: would try to climb the fence to get to me.
6:34
Speaker 2: You know, I looked over every one time and he
6:37
Speaker 2: was hanging upside down by his boodhist booty got caught
6:40
Speaker 2: and he's looking at me. But he ain't screaming or nothing.
6:42
Speaker 2: I'm like.
6:45
Speaker 1: In June of nineteen ninety six, Butch and Marcia's daughter,
6:49
Speaker 1: Kristin Ray was born, and Butch really wanted to make
6:52
Speaker 1: the family official with Marcia.
6:55
Speaker 2: I kept begging her to marryment. She said no, I'm
6:57
Speaker 2: just done things so we never got married. That was
7:02
Speaker 2: all my only love that I've ever been here. I
7:04
Speaker 2: loved him more than anything or ever ever will again ever.
7:22
Speaker 1: On February twenty fifth, nineteen ninety eight, Butch and Marsha
7:25
Speaker 1: were at home when he got a call from his
7:27
Speaker 1: friend Stacy, who had a construction business. He said he
7:30
Speaker 1: knew a guy who wanted a fence put up and
7:32
Speaker 1: asked Butch to come along and help measure for it.
7:36
Speaker 2: And about twenty minutes later our horn home. He lived
7:40
Speaker 2: right down the street. I said, Hey, I'm leaving. I'll
7:44
Speaker 2: be back in a couple hours. She said, oh, I
7:46
Speaker 2: love you. I love you too, and that that's where
7:49
Speaker 2: I live. And we went stopped.
7:51
Speaker 1: Bought beard from there, they drove to the job site.
7:55
Speaker 2: Of course, we had some beer in the truck and everything.
7:57
Speaker 2: But we went in back yard and measured where he
8:01
Speaker 2: was putting fences.
8:03
Speaker 1: It was a normal relaxing evening. Butch out with a
8:06
Speaker 1: friend and Marsha and the kids asleep at home. But
8:09
Speaker 1: as Butch and his friend were headed back to his house,
8:11
Speaker 1: he saw a highway patrol car pass them at top speed,
8:15
Speaker 1: its lights flashing.
8:19
Speaker 2: We get up on the top of the Shiel and
8:21
Speaker 2: I see a big black cloud of smoke, and you
8:25
Speaker 2: can tell that it's like a plastic like tires something
8:30
Speaker 2: like that. Mainly, you know, it's just so dark, you know,
8:33
Speaker 2: a grass fire. It is dark like that. That's man,
8:37
Speaker 2: that looks like my house man. And then when we
8:42
Speaker 2: got closer, I saw that it was my.
8:44
Speaker 1: House and the house was engulfed in flames.
8:48
Speaker 2: And before we got to the house, a bell and
8:53
Speaker 2: I jumped out of the dror and started yelling, oh
8:59
Speaker 2: where marshalled the kids? And I ran right up in there, Uh,
9:06
Speaker 2: solid wall smoked. I tried to up open the front door.
9:11
Speaker 2: I couldn't get the door. Pushed boots from the fucking door.
9:18
Speaker 1: Butch couldn't get in the house and he couldn't breathe.
9:21
Speaker 1: But he was desperate to save his family.
9:24
Speaker 2: So I ran back out of smoke. I got some
9:28
Speaker 2: married I ran right back in and I couldn't get
9:33
Speaker 2: in the fuck out. Uh you know, it was fully
9:37
Speaker 2: engulfed anyway, but you know I ran the third time
9:41
Speaker 2: I came out and they tackled me and I han't
9:45
Speaker 2: copy to it. Both both top cars.
9:51
Speaker 1: Butch was frantic and the police had handcuffed him to
9:54
Speaker 1: a car to keep him from running into the burning
9:56
Speaker 1: house to save his family. They eventually got him in
9:59
Speaker 1: a car and him down the street to a friend's
10:01
Speaker 1: house to keep him out of danger, but determined to
10:04
Speaker 1: get to Marsha and the kids. Butch knocked his friend
10:06
Speaker 1: down and took off, running two miles back to his house.
10:11
Speaker 2: And I ran the whole way back, and when I
10:14
Speaker 2: came around the corner, Uh, there was people ever where
10:17
Speaker 2: my mom and dad were there. Oh, there's people ever
10:21
Speaker 2: were man.
10:24
Speaker 1: Butch was instantly tackled again by the sheriff so he
10:27
Speaker 1: wouldn't run into the fire.
10:29
Speaker 2: He got on top of me. I was knee and
10:33
Speaker 2: my neck, you know, the typical police hold, and I
10:38
Speaker 2: couldn't breathe. My dad came up and he told me
10:44
Speaker 2: it's gonna be all right. I said, it's not gonna
10:47
Speaker 2: be right. I'll never see her again.
11:00
Speaker 1: This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
11:05
Speaker 1: AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
11:09
Speaker 1: a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
11:12
Speaker 1: in the communities where they work and live. In light
11:15
Speaker 1: of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance and
11:18
Speaker 1: in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform.
11:23
Speaker 1: The AIG pro Bono program provides free legal services and
11:27
Speaker 1: other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Busch was taken
11:47
Speaker 1: to a hospital in nearby San Angelo, his hands severely burned.
11:51
Speaker 1: By this point, it was clear his entire world, twenty
11:55
Speaker 1: four year old Marsha, three year old Brady, and eighteen
11:58
Speaker 1: month old Kristen, had died in the fire. He was
12:02
Speaker 1: the only one in their family left. Deeply depressed, Butch
12:09
Speaker 1: was transferred to a psychiatric hospital while he recovered from
12:11
Speaker 1: his burns. About a week into his stay, the police
12:15
Speaker 1: came to visit him.
12:17
Speaker 2: I had lost everything. Well. They came into where I
12:22
Speaker 2: had left. I had the clothes I had on. I
12:25
Speaker 2: was like, what and I have washed lot. Have you
12:30
Speaker 2: watched the season? I said, yeah, what is wrong at you know?
12:34
Speaker 1: Butch didn't know why the police needed the clothes he
12:36
Speaker 1: had worn that day, but he gave them to the
12:38
Speaker 1: officers anyway. The last of everything Butch owned and loved
12:44
Speaker 1: was gone. Finally, when Butch was well enough, he was
12:50
Speaker 1: taken to the remains of his house to look for
12:52
Speaker 1: anything unusual. Sergeant Terry Lowe from the Sheriff's department walked
12:56
Speaker 1: him through the wreckage.
12:59
Speaker 2: So we'll go through all the rooms. And I noticed
13:03
Speaker 2: there's some like fluorescent orange spray paint by Christian's crib.
13:11
Speaker 2: And I asked him, is that where Christin was? That's
13:16
Speaker 2: where her crib was, right there in that corner right there,
13:20
Speaker 2: I say, is that where you found her body? And
13:22
Speaker 2: he said is.
13:25
Speaker 1: Marcia's body had been found lying against the door that
13:27
Speaker 1: Butch had been trying to get into that night. Little
13:30
Speaker 1: Brady was found on the floor nearby, and.
13:34
Speaker 2: They say that Brady had got off the couch and
13:37
Speaker 2: went to the love seat to I guess probably a
13:41
Speaker 2: wake as my mom and she she she stood up
13:49
Speaker 2: into a thermal layer or something like that and sends
13:54
Speaker 2: her runs. Uh.
13:56
Speaker 1: They imagining how they're deaths played out was horrific for Butch.
14:03
Speaker 1: During the initial investigation, pathologist doctor David Hobblett said they
14:07
Speaker 1: died of smoke inhalation and that they were alive when
14:10
Speaker 1: the fire started. But then, in an unusual turn of events,
14:17
Speaker 1: the state, wanting to argue that this was actually a homicide,
14:21
Speaker 1: had all three bodies exhumed. Forensic anthropologists doctor Harold gil
14:26
Speaker 1: King examined them. Gil King came to a different conclusion
14:31
Speaker 1: than the pathologist had. He said that three year old
14:34
Speaker 1: Brady had blunt forced injuries to his head and that
14:37
Speaker 1: the injuries were inflicted prior to his death, further bolstering
14:42
Speaker 1: the state's theory. The fire investigator also said he found
14:45
Speaker 1: evidence of intentionally poured accelerants, suggesting someone started the fire
14:50
Speaker 1: on purpose. Almost two months after the fire, Butch was
14:55
Speaker 1: arrested for arson and the murder of his family. He
14:58
Speaker 1: was indicted on April fifteenth, nineteen ninety eight. Not only
15:06
Speaker 1: was Butch devastated by the charges, but also by the
15:09
Speaker 1: fact that the sheriff who arrested him, Terry Lowe, with
15:12
Speaker 1: someone Butch had known for years.
15:15
Speaker 2: My sister played ball, softball and with his daughter, So
15:19
Speaker 2: everybody knew the sheriff. You know, and you'll have to
15:26
Speaker 2: as the town knows me and knows. There's no way
15:28
Speaker 2: I would ever, and the other half think I'm so
15:32
Speaker 2: crazy that I might have.
15:37
Speaker 1: Naturally. This put Butch in a dark place. While awaiting trial,
15:41
Speaker 1: he tried to kill himself.
15:44
Speaker 2: I took two bottles of the ambience and sleeping pills
15:52
Speaker 2: and valians of roaches. I took several bottles of pills
15:55
Speaker 2: and that's when he found me of pump stomach. I'll
16:06
Speaker 2: be there with him dead than Roger Rod now.
16:21
Speaker 1: Butch went to trial on April fourteenth, nineteen ninety nine.
16:24
Speaker 1: District Attorney Al Shari was the prosecutor. His theory was
16:28
Speaker 1: that Butch knocked out Marcia and Brady, put Kristin in
16:31
Speaker 1: her crib, and then set the fire before leaving with
16:34
Speaker 1: his friend for the evening. He said Butch was angry
16:37
Speaker 1: with Marcia because she was going to leave him with
16:40
Speaker 1: no life or homeowner's insurance. To claim this would have
16:43
Speaker 1: been Butch's only motive. Da Shore called Marcia's mother to
16:48
Speaker 1: testify and support of this theory. She told the court
16:51
Speaker 1: that Butch and Marcia had a tumultuous relationship, and Butch's
16:56
Speaker 1: friend Stacy, who was with him the night of the fire,
16:58
Speaker 1: also testified that Butch had been acting suspiciously. Something Butch
17:02
Speaker 1: had said as the patrol car flew by them that
17:05
Speaker 1: night along the lines of I hope they're not going
17:08
Speaker 1: to my house was brought up and used as evidence
17:11
Speaker 1: of guilt. Shari said that meant that Butch already knew
17:14
Speaker 1: it was his house.
17:18
Speaker 5: The entire case is proof of how when you're looking
17:24
Speaker 5: to paint a bull's eye around somebody, you can do
17:27
Speaker 5: it right. If you think that this guy is guilty,
17:30
Speaker 5: then something like I hope that fire truck's not going
17:33
Speaker 5: to my house suddenly takes on a.
17:35
Speaker 1: Whole new meaning. This is Alison Clayton.
17:38
Speaker 5: I am the deputy director of the Innosonce Project of
17:41
Speaker 5: Texas and the adjunct professor of the Innocence Clinic at
17:44
Speaker 5: Texas Tech University School of Law.
17:47
Speaker 1: Allison says, then when Shari called the original pathologist, doctor
17:50
Speaker 1: David Hobblett, to testify, well.
17:52
Speaker 5: The pathologist gets on the stand and he says, yeah,
17:55
Speaker 5: I found swelling in both the brains of marsh and
18:00
Speaker 5: of Brady. And to me, this swelling indicates blunt force
18:04
Speaker 5: trauma inflicted prior to the time of death. That was
18:08
Speaker 5: out of nowhere for the defense because that's not what
18:11
Speaker 5: the report said.
18:12
Speaker 1: Remember, in the original report, doctor Hoblett said that he
18:16
Speaker 1: believed they died from smoke inhalation, But now at trial
18:19
Speaker 1: he said something totally different.
18:22
Speaker 5: At some point in there, the pathologist changed his mind.
18:26
Speaker 5: He changed his opinion his testimony changed to match what
18:30
Speaker 5: the anthropologist was going to say.
18:32
Speaker 1: The forensic anthropologist, doctor Gil King, testified to finding blunt
18:36
Speaker 1: force trauma after the exhumation.
18:39
Speaker 5: The anthropologist says, you know, this is the kind of
18:41
Speaker 5: trauma that you could expect to be inflicted from a
18:45
Speaker 5: closed fist at a full arm swing. I mean, just
18:49
Speaker 5: terrible testimony.
18:51
Speaker 1: And the States fire experts Dale Little and John Corn
18:55
Speaker 1: testified that they believed the fire started in the bedroom
18:58
Speaker 1: from intentionally poured accelerant. This was based on samples from
19:02
Speaker 1: the home that came back positive for two chemicals, norpar
19:05
Speaker 1: and hydroparaferated kerosene. These chemicals were believed at the time
19:09
Speaker 1: to only be present in accelerants used for setting fires.
19:15
Speaker 1: They also said they found what they called poor patterns
19:18
Speaker 1: where the accelerant would have theoretically been I mean.
19:21
Speaker 5: Back in the nineties and early two thousands, fire investigators
19:25
Speaker 5: would go through a crime scene and they would say, hey,
19:27
Speaker 5: it looks like there was something poured on this floor
19:31
Speaker 5: right here, and then everything burned down to the concrete.
19:33
Speaker 5: So they thought that they could go through and recognize
19:36
Speaker 5: these patterns and concrete of burned structures and say, ah,
19:40
Speaker 5: that's where they had poured accelerant.
19:43
Speaker 1: But Butch had hired private attorneys Clifford Hardwick and John Cook,
19:47
Speaker 1: and they put on a rigorous defense. Their fire experts
19:51
Speaker 1: refuted the findings of the prosecution. Forensic scientist Doug Byron
19:56
Speaker 1: said it wasn't surprising that those chemicals were found in
19:58
Speaker 1: the home because common ingredients in numerous household products. Their
20:03
Speaker 1: presence does not mean a fire was intentionally set. Carter Roberts,
20:09
Speaker 1: a certified fire investigator, disputed the so called poor patterns.
20:14
Speaker 1: He maintained that the fire started on the back porch,
20:17
Speaker 1: not in the bedroom, and that a faulty extension cord
20:21
Speaker 1: might have been to blame.
20:23
Speaker 5: They had a deep freeze out on their back porch
20:27
Speaker 5: and they had plugged in this old time deep freezer
20:30
Speaker 5: with an indoor extension cord that they had run from
20:33
Speaker 5: the back porch through the back bedroom into the kitchen
20:36
Speaker 5: to plug in above the stove, and that was their
20:39
Speaker 5: theory is that that's probably a start of the fire.
20:42
Speaker 1: Roberts said he believed States expert Dale Little was looking
20:46
Speaker 1: for evidence of arson and disregarded potential fire hazards like
20:50
Speaker 1: the extension cord Butch's defense team also called witnesses who
20:56
Speaker 1: had been with Butch that night. They said they did
20:58
Speaker 1: not smell any un usual odors like lighter fluid or
21:01
Speaker 1: accelerant on Butch or on his clothes. And finally, they
21:06
Speaker 1: had forensic pathologists and medical examiner doctor Lloyd White review
21:10
Speaker 1: the autopsies and photographs. Doctor White testified that not only
21:14
Speaker 1: was there no indication of blunt force trauma, but that
21:17
Speaker 1: brain swelling was actually common for deaths associated with fire
21:22
Speaker 1: because of carbon monoxide poisoning. Despite all this, it was
21:26
Speaker 1: not enough to convince a jury of reasonable doubt.
21:30
Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, you have got
21:32
Speaker 5: horrific pictures of burned babies and their mama laying right
21:36
Speaker 5: there at the front door. A terrible case, I mean
21:40
Speaker 5: just a terrible case. And you've got scientific evidence from
21:43
Speaker 5: a pathologist, from a forensic anthropologist, from arson scientists, and
21:47
Speaker 5: of course you know it's very difficult to overcome that.
21:53
Speaker 1: On April thirtieth, nineteen ninety nine, thirty six year old
21:56
Speaker 1: Butch Martin was convicted of three counts of capital mare.
22:00
Speaker 1: He was sentenced to three concurrent life sentences.
22:16
Speaker 3: The media made my brother to out to be a
22:19
Speaker 3: monster basically. You know, he's He's done a lot of
22:24
Speaker 3: dumb stuff in his life, but he's not a murderer.
22:31
Speaker 6: It's definitely one of the hardest things I've ever been through.
22:35
Speaker 6: My brother has missed everything, you know, my I mean everything,
22:42
Speaker 6: and it's just it's not fair.
22:44
Speaker 2: It is not fair.
22:46
Speaker 4: They didn't even give him the opportunity.
22:48
Speaker 2: You know.
22:48
Speaker 3: It's like it's like they they wanted him guilty right
22:52
Speaker 3: from the from the get go, you know what I mean.
22:55
Speaker 4: And then before I knew it, he was gone.
23:08
Speaker 1: After his conviction, Butch was sent to a men's maximum
23:12
Speaker 1: security prison in Texas to spend the rest of his life.
23:17
Speaker 1: It was a tough place with tough prisoners. Butcher remembers
23:21
Speaker 1: a time he got in a bad fight with some guys.
23:24
Speaker 2: One of them made a comment about, oh, yeah, yeah,
23:27
Speaker 2: the guy had a little barbecue, right. I don't see
23:30
Speaker 2: him in the mountain. I didn't know at the time
23:32
Speaker 2: that he was there, his brotherhood. I'm missing a bunch
23:36
Speaker 2: of tea and you know, and they weren't pools.
23:42
Speaker 3: It's hard for me to talk to him without crying.
23:44
Speaker 3: And the whole time's going Heather stop, Heather Stop. I
23:47
Speaker 3: can't cry. I can't cry, you know, And it's really sad,
23:49
Speaker 3: you know that he just has to put on this
23:51
Speaker 3: front and be a tough guy all the time. Twenty
23:54
Speaker 3: four to seven. I'm just ready for him to be
23:56
Speaker 3: able to be himself again, you know, because that's not him,
24:01
Speaker 3: That is.
24:01
Speaker 2: Not him at all.
24:03
Speaker 3: He is a good, tender hearted man and he deserves
24:07
Speaker 3: to be able to be that man.
24:11
Speaker 1: While in prison, Butch also lost access to his son,
24:14
Speaker 1: Parker Chase. His ex wife had him sign papers giving
24:18
Speaker 1: up his parental rights.
24:22
Speaker 2: You know, I haven't talked to him since he was
24:25
Speaker 2: a little kid.
24:26
Speaker 1: So you don't have a relationship with him.
24:28
Speaker 2: No, I don't. But I get pictures of him all
24:30
Speaker 2: the time. My sister has him on Facebook.
24:36
Speaker 1: Butch has never stopped thinking about the life and family
24:39
Speaker 1: he lost in the fire. He says he has nightmares
24:42
Speaker 1: about it all the time.
24:44
Speaker 2: Every day, every day when I wake up, I go
24:46
Speaker 2: rocky running in the house. Time, let me get the house,
24:51
Speaker 2: you know, every day you when I wake up.
25:11
Speaker 1: For years, Butch filed appeal after appeal to try to
25:15
Speaker 1: overturn his conviction.
25:17
Speaker 3: As I would say, we play the waiting game.
25:19
Speaker 1: This is Butcher's sister, Heather.
25:21
Speaker 2: Again, we would.
25:22
Speaker 3: Wait and wait and wait, and then this would get
25:24
Speaker 3: denied or you know, they wouldn't even you know, take
25:27
Speaker 3: years just to read something, just to shut him down,
25:30
Speaker 3: you know, and it was hard, you know, you get
25:32
Speaker 3: your hopes up just to get basically your feet kicked
25:36
Speaker 3: out from underneath you. Especially especially for my brother of course,
25:41
Speaker 3: getting his hopes up thinking he's going to get to
25:43
Speaker 3: come home, and then you know, something else happens.
25:47
Speaker 1: Eventually, something else did happen, something Butch had been waiting for.
25:52
Speaker 1: Alison Clayton and the Innocent Project of Texas wound up
25:55
Speaker 1: taking on Butch's case in twenty seventeen. Did anything stand
26:00
Speaker 1: out to you about the case immediately?
26:03
Speaker 5: The use of arson science in the fire debris analysis
26:08
Speaker 5: and the reliance on poor pattern science. I know from
26:13
Speaker 5: studies that were done in the early two thousands and
26:16
Speaker 5: mid two thousands that our understanding of analyzing fire debris
26:21
Speaker 5: has evolved.
26:25
Speaker 1: First, Allison says that updated fire science affirms what the
26:29
Speaker 1: defense's experts said at trial, that the chemicals found in
26:32
Speaker 1: fire accelerants are also commonly found in homes.
26:37
Speaker 5: They are in carpet, they're in building adhesive, they're in
26:41
Speaker 5: receipt paper, they're in some clothing, we'll have it on them.
26:46
Speaker 1: They are just everywhere. And also, of course the poor patterns.
26:51
Speaker 5: And I knew that poor pattern science had been entirely discredited,
26:57
Speaker 5: especially for these big house fires, and that anytime you
27:00
Speaker 5: see poor pattern, gigantic red flag.
27:03
Speaker 1: Alison points to the many examples in this case of
27:06
Speaker 1: so called evidence shape shifting to fit the state's narrative,
27:10
Speaker 1: including doctor Hobblett revising his original assessment from death by
27:14
Speaker 1: smoke inhalation to blunt force trauma.
27:17
Speaker 5: If you think that he's guilty, then all of a sudden,
27:20
Speaker 5: this fire debri analysis intentionally looking for something like everything
27:24
Speaker 5: takes a different cast.
27:25
Speaker 1: Right back in two thousand and two, before Alison came on,
27:29
Speaker 1: Butch had another legal team working on his case. They
27:32
Speaker 1: had already brought it to the state fire Marshal and
27:35
Speaker 1: a scientific advisory committee for review.
27:37
Speaker 5: Forensic pathologists, fire experts, fire chemists, all these different people,
27:42
Speaker 5: and they look at the evidence in Butch's cases, and
27:44
Speaker 5: these people understand the advancements that have been made by
27:46
Speaker 5: that time. And the fire marshal comes out and writes
27:50
Speaker 5: an opinion saying that you cannot say that this was
27:54
Speaker 5: an intentionally set fire. He says that the cause of
27:57
Speaker 5: the fire is undetermined, which is a big, big deal.
28:01
Speaker 1: So when Alison came on the case, she already had
28:04
Speaker 1: this information to work with, and in May of twenty
28:07
Speaker 1: twenty two, she lined up her own experts for a
28:10
Speaker 1: new hearing on the case in front of Judge David
28:12
Speaker 1: g Rogers. Not only that new information had come to
28:16
Speaker 1: light about the original pathologist, doctor Hoblett.
28:20
Speaker 5: He's doing all kinds of stuff that as a doctor,
28:22
Speaker 5: you're not supposed to be doing. He's running a pain
28:24
Speaker 5: pill mill, right, He's just like doing scripts for all
28:27
Speaker 5: kinds of things for people who don't need them. So
28:29
Speaker 5: then the Feds come in and the FEDS arrest him.
28:32
Speaker 5: All of that eventually ended up in him completely losing
28:36
Speaker 5: his license to practice medicine.
28:39
Speaker 1: One of the main witnesses to testify against him was
28:42
Speaker 1: now completely discredited. This was huge for Butch's case. In fact,
28:47
Speaker 1: every piece of evidence the state had used against him
28:50
Speaker 1: had been discredited. Allison says that when all the new
28:55
Speaker 1: evidence was presented.
28:57
Speaker 5: You could fill the shift in the courtroom when the
29:03
Speaker 5: judge and the prosecutor. I think really started to realize,
29:06
Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, we got an innocent man.
29:20
Speaker 1: Butch's father died while he was in prison. But his
29:22
Speaker 1: mom got to sit in the courtroom and hear all
29:25
Speaker 1: the evidence that will likely get her son out of prison.
29:28
Speaker 1: She died just a month later. In the meantime, Butch
29:33
Speaker 1: waits and thinks about what he'll do with his freedom,
29:36
Speaker 1: if and when it comes. He says he liked to
29:39
Speaker 1: drag race again and build some rental homes. He's excited
29:42
Speaker 1: to finally bond with his nieces nephews. And now they're kids,
29:46
Speaker 1: and there's a lot of them.
29:48
Speaker 7: Let's see, I have three daughters. My oldest daughter has
29:54
Speaker 7: three daughters, and my middle daughter has a son and
29:58
Speaker 7: a daughter. So he has one great nephew and four
30:01
Speaker 7: great nieces.
30:04
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do with them when you're out?
30:08
Speaker 2: Kidnap them and keep them.
30:13
Speaker 1: But most of all, Butch just wants justice for the
30:15
Speaker 1: family he lost.
30:19
Speaker 2: I miss him so bad. You know, if there is
30:27
Speaker 2: ever real I'm gonna to watch Marshall kids as she will.
30:44
Speaker 1: If you want to help Butch, go to Innocence Texas
30:46
Speaker 1: dot org and click on Take action next time on
30:58
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling Nancy Smith.
31:03
Speaker 2: They said that you didn't take her daughter to school.
31:06
Speaker 4: You took her daughter to a birthday party where you molested.
31:09
Speaker 3: Her, and I'm like, what what are you talking about?
31:17
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
31:20
Speaker 1: support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
31:23
Speaker 1: in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
31:25
Speaker 1: like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
31:29
Speaker 1: as well as our senior producer, Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
31:33
Speaker 1: and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
31:36
Speaker 1: mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
31:40
Speaker 1: and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
31:43
Speaker 1: three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
31:47
Speaker 1: follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
31:50
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
31:54
Speaker 1: well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
31:57
Speaker 1: you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
32:00
Speaker 1: at Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a
32:04
Speaker 1: production of Lava for Good. Podcasts in association with signal
32:07
Speaker 1: company Number one