Latest / NO FILTER / No One Believed His Story_ The Strange Case of Ashley Fallis(MP3_160K)

Transcript

No One Believed His Story_ The Strange Case of Ashley Fallis(MP3_160K) · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: When twenty eight year old Ashley Fallis was rushed to
0:03
Speaker 1: the hospital in the early morning hours of New Year's
0:06
Speaker 1: Day twenty twelve, her family had no doubts as to
0:10
Speaker 1: who had put her there. Only Ashley's husband, Tom had
0:14
Speaker 1: been in the room with her when she was struck
0:16
Speaker 1: by a single gunshot. Only Tom, with his temper and
0:20
Speaker 1: controlling nature, would have pulled the trigger. But where Ashley's
0:25
Speaker 1: family saw no doubt, law enforcement found plenty. A victim
0:30
Speaker 1: with a complicated history, a crime scene analysis that told
0:34
Speaker 1: two stories at the same time, witnesses with changing recollections,
0:40
Speaker 1: and years later new evidence coming to light. Hi everyone,
0:46
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case
0:50
Speaker 1: seems at first to follow a pattern that our viewers
0:53
Speaker 1: will be familiar with. The accused has an unlikely story.
0:58
Speaker 1: There are investigative errors in AI and even accusations of
1:01
Speaker 1: a police cover up, but not all cases lead to
1:05
Speaker 1: the same conclusion, and this one offers some surprises along
1:09
Speaker 1: the way. Let's take a look in the Grapevine Hollow
1:25
Speaker 1: neighborhood of Evans, Colorado. Each street is named after a
1:30
Speaker 1: type of wine. On Zinfandel Street, Tom and Ashley Fallis
1:34
Speaker 1: were hosting a family friendly party to celebrate New Year's
1:37
Speaker 1: Eve on December thirty one, twenty eleven. Jenna Fox and
1:43
Speaker 1: Joe Ragdin left their daughter's home on Zinfandel at just
1:46
Speaker 1: past twelve thirty am. It had been a fun night
1:51
Speaker 1: full of drinks, games and dancing, but just after ringing
1:56
Speaker 1: in the new year, the mood at the party turned sour.
2:01
Speaker 1: Ashley had told her husband that she was stepping outside
2:04
Speaker 1: with her family for a smoke, although Ashley didn't plan
2:07
Speaker 1: to smoke a cigarette. An argument ensued between the young couple,
2:12
Speaker 1: taking place in front of Ashley's family, who were the
2:15
Speaker 1: only guests that remained at the house. Only an hour earlier,
2:19
Speaker 1: watched adoringly by their guests, the two had danced affectionately
2:24
Speaker 1: to their favorite song, but now it was the frustrations
2:27
Speaker 1: of their marriage that were on full display. Ashley's family
2:32
Speaker 1: members chimed in. They did not see what the big
2:34
Speaker 1: deal was and appealed to Tom on Ashley's behalf. In response,
2:39
Speaker 1: Tom yelled at them as well. Jenna and Joe were
2:41
Speaker 1: told to get out. The thirty two year old husband
2:45
Speaker 1: and father then retreated to the master bedroom. Reportedly slamming
2:49
Speaker 1: the door behind him, and what Joe would later describe
2:51
Speaker 1: as a bit of a rage. Then Jenna and Joe
2:55
Speaker 1: did as they were told and left the house. Less
3:00
Speaker 1: than ten minutes after leaving the party, Joe and Jenna
3:03
Speaker 1: turned their car around and returned to the house. They
3:06
Speaker 1: were drawn back by a stream of emergency vehicles and
3:10
Speaker 1: police cruisers, all rushing past them to the very house
3:13
Speaker 1: they had just left. When they arrived back on Zimfandel Street,
3:18
Speaker 1: their daughter had already been hurried into an ambulance. Ashley
3:23
Speaker 1: had sustained a single gunshot wound to the head. To
3:32
Speaker 1: her parents, shocked and heartbroken by the scene, it was
3:35
Speaker 1: clear what had occurred in the few minutes after they
3:37
Speaker 1: had left the house. Their son in law, Tom Fallis,
3:41
Speaker 1: had shot their daughter in an angry rage. To law
3:45
Speaker 1: enforcement at the scene, however, the situation was not quite
3:49
Speaker 1: so clear cut. Tom Fallis had been angry with his
3:54
Speaker 1: in laws when he figuratively threw them from the house
3:56
Speaker 1: that night. He did not think that after a night
3:59
Speaker 1: of drinking, Ashley should step outside with them to partake
4:02
Speaker 1: in further activities. They believed that he was being controlling. Conversely,
4:08
Speaker 1: Tom thought that his in laws were overstepping. Tom asserted
4:12
Speaker 1: that Ashley's family did not have the full picture. It
4:16
Speaker 1: had been an emotionally trying day for Ashley and Tom
4:18
Speaker 1: before their guests had arrived. When everyone had left the house,
4:22
Speaker 1: the couple's argument picked back up in the bedroom. What
4:26
Speaker 1: had started as a small disagreement then spilled over to
4:29
Speaker 1: bigger issues. According to Tom, Ashley cursed at him. She
4:33
Speaker 1: told him that she would do whatever she wanted to do.
4:37
Speaker 1: Tom responded back, fine, just don't do it because your
4:40
Speaker 1: family told you to. Still in mid argument, Tom was
4:44
Speaker 1: in the closet, he said, ready to change into his
4:46
Speaker 1: pajamas when he heard Ashley chamber around. She kept her handgun,
4:52
Speaker 1: a Taurus nine millimeter, under the mattress on the far
4:55
Speaker 1: side of the bed. He started stating, what are you
4:59
Speaker 1: but could not complete his question because just then he
5:03
Speaker 1: heard the shot. The gun had gone off.
5:10
Speaker 2: What's the address of your emergency?
5:12
Speaker 3: Okay, sir, listen, I've got somebody else getting hung on
5:21
Speaker 3: the way okay.
5:30
Speaker 1: Inside the bedroom, responders rushed in to provide medical assistance.
5:35
Speaker 1: The Evans Police Department called in the Colorado Bureau of
5:38
Speaker 1: Investigation the CBI. Within a few hours of the emergency call.
5:43
Speaker 1: They did so in part because of Ashley's family's allegations
5:47
Speaker 1: about Tom Fallas. They told responding officers that Tom had
5:52
Speaker 1: a volatile temper and that when they left the house
5:54
Speaker 1: only minutes before, he had been in a rage. From
5:58
Speaker 1: the physical evidence alone, it appeared that Ashley's wound had
6:02
Speaker 1: been itself inflicted, But upon closer investigation, there were elements
6:07
Speaker 1: that could be deemed counter to this scenario. Photos on
6:11
Speaker 1: the walls were crooked, others knocked to the ground. Could
6:15
Speaker 1: this be a sign that there was a struggle before
6:18
Speaker 1: the gun went off. Then, sitting on top of the
6:22
Speaker 1: chest of drawers, law enforcement found divorce papers. These papers
6:26
Speaker 1: had not been filed, but their existence supported what Ashley's
6:30
Speaker 1: family had insisted. All had not been well in the
6:34
Speaker 1: Fallis household. Tom and Ashley Fallis had met through the
6:45
Speaker 1: dating website match dot com in the spring of two
6:49
Speaker 1: thousand and seven. Ashley was a big personality, energetic and talkative.
6:54
Speaker 1: Tom fell for her immediately. By the age of twenty four,
6:58
Speaker 1: Ashley was already a single mother to two girls. Her
7:02
Speaker 1: first marriage to her high school sweetheart had quickly ended
7:05
Speaker 1: in divorce, but when she met Tom, who was just
7:08
Speaker 1: a few years older. Family life clicked into place. A
7:13
Speaker 1: year into their relationship, they welcomed a son two weeks
7:16
Speaker 1: after his birth. The couple were married a few years
7:20
Speaker 1: later on in twenty ten, Tom adopted Ashley's two girls
7:24
Speaker 1: as well. By New Year's Eve twenty twelve, the girls
7:28
Speaker 1: were nine and six and their son was three. Life
7:34
Speaker 1: in the Falla's household. Leading up to the New Year's Eve,
7:36
Speaker 1: bash had been in turmoil. Their young son had been
7:40
Speaker 1: diagnosed with hydrocephalus, a build up of cerebrospinal fluid in
7:44
Speaker 1: the brain that can cause developmental delays. He required multiple surgeries.
7:50
Speaker 1: The stress of her son's illness spilled over to other
7:52
Speaker 1: areas of the young mother's life. In twenty ten, Ashley
7:56
Speaker 1: was dismissed from her job as a respiratory therapist at
8:00
Speaker 1: the Northern Colorado Medical Center. The cited reason for her
8:04
Speaker 1: dismissal was insubordination. The details are unknown, but her behavior
8:09
Speaker 1: was reported as aggressive. Ashley eventually won a wrongful termination
8:14
Speaker 1: suit and received a settlement, but other issues in her
8:18
Speaker 1: life continued. The following year, Ashley began a short lived
8:22
Speaker 1: affair with an old high school boyfriend. She also sought
8:26
Speaker 1: mental health treatment. Ashley was prescribed a regimen of anti
8:30
Speaker 1: anxiety medication and mood stabilizers after she reported having four
8:35
Speaker 1: or five panic attacks each week. Perhaps it was not
8:38
Speaker 1: surprising under these circumstances that the marriage had been on
8:42
Speaker 1: the brink of collapse. Tom, who was aware of his
8:45
Speaker 1: wife's affair, had nonetheless not proceeded with a divorce. It
8:49
Speaker 1: seems the papers found by investigators in the bedroom had
8:53
Speaker 1: in fact been drawn up by Ashley, and they were
8:56
Speaker 1: not recent. Years before, in two thousand nine, the couple
9:01
Speaker 1: had discussed separating due to the stresses of their conflicting
9:04
Speaker 1: work schedules, but they decided instead to stick it out.
9:10
Speaker 1: According to Tom Follis, more recently, things between the couple
9:13
Speaker 1: had been looking up. Tom had a new stable job,
9:17
Speaker 1: having joined the Weld County Sheriff's Office as a corrections officer.
9:22
Speaker 1: Ashley had conducted a speaking tour to share her experience
9:25
Speaker 1: as a mother with a child diagnosed with hydrocephalus. She
9:29
Speaker 1: offered helpful words and support to other parents experiencing similar struggles.
9:36
Speaker 1: But as the marriage was taking a positive turn, Ashley
9:39
Speaker 1: was hit with yet another personal disaster. Weeks before the
9:43
Speaker 1: New Year's party, she had received a positive result on
9:45
Speaker 1: an at home pregnancy test. Despite having undergone a tubal
9:50
Speaker 1: ligation after giving birth to their son three years earlier,
9:54
Speaker 1: which should have made another baby an impossibility, Ashley believed
9:58
Speaker 1: she was pregnant. As a precaution, she stopped taking her
10:02
Speaker 1: prescribed medications for anxiety and mood swings. Then, on the
10:07
Speaker 1: afternoon of December thirty one, twenty eleven, only hours before
10:11
Speaker 1: their guests arrived to ring in the New Year, Ashley
10:14
Speaker 1: experienced some bleeding. Another at home test was taken, it
10:19
Speaker 1: no longer read as positive. Both she and Tom were devastated.
10:25
Speaker 1: They spent that afternoon exploring options to fully reverse the
10:29
Speaker 1: tubal ligation. Originally, the procedure had been her mother's idea.
10:34
Speaker 1: Tom said, now they were making the decisions, and they
10:38
Speaker 1: both knew they wanted more children. After a rough afternoon,
10:43
Speaker 1: Ashley put on a good face for the party. She
10:46
Speaker 1: drank and danced and embraced her family. According to her parents,
10:51
Speaker 1: Joe and Jenna, Ashley had been in genuinely good spirits.
10:55
Speaker 1: She was resilient, a fighter. Most significantly, she was not
11:00
Speaker 1: a mother who would choose to leave her children. However,
11:04
Speaker 1: from Tom's perspective, there was more going on with Ashley
11:07
Speaker 1: under the surface, much more than her family knew or understood.
11:12
Speaker 1: Was Tom's version of events accurate or was he simply
11:16
Speaker 1: creating a story and spinning the facts to cover the
11:20
Speaker 1: truth of what happened in their bedroom that night the
11:24
Speaker 1: fact that Tom had murdered his wife. Tom Fallis was
11:30
Speaker 1: brought in for questioning by the Evans Police Department. Detectives
11:34
Speaker 1: noted scratches on his neck and chest, perhaps further evidence
11:38
Speaker 1: of the struggle that took place before the alleged murder.
11:42
Speaker 1: Tom explained that these marks were a result of his
11:44
Speaker 1: own scratches. He had shaved his entire chest for the
11:48
Speaker 1: first time very recently. He had been complaining and itching
11:52
Speaker 1: for days. The red marks on his neck were likely
11:56
Speaker 1: from his own straining from the stress.
11:58
Speaker 2: He said, that's on your chest?
12:02
Speaker 4: What is that.
12:04
Speaker 5: You have it?
12:05
Speaker 2: You have like a long.
12:06
Speaker 6: Rids because I've been doing this all.
12:10
Speaker 1: Tom detailed his version of events from that night. He
12:14
Speaker 1: began by explaining what had transpired that afternoon with the
12:17
Speaker 1: failed pregnancy test, then how their argument that night turned
12:21
Speaker 1: from a spat over Ashley's decision to step outside with
12:24
Speaker 1: her family to her routinely following her mother's advice regardless
12:29
Speaker 1: of what may be best for her.
12:32
Speaker 7: When you've cloned out. When the other positive tested was like,
12:36
Speaker 7: all right, it's like we finally like got over everything.
12:46
Speaker 7: I was like if whatever happened today with the miscarriage,
12:51
Speaker 7: I was like, you happen?
12:52
Speaker 6: I was like, you know what, your mom? Everybody let
12:57
Speaker 6: it go.
12:59
Speaker 1: After Tom told his story, the detective asked him again
13:02
Speaker 1: to explain what really happened. His explanation of how rapidly
13:07
Speaker 1: the shooting unfolded, as well as his excuses for the
13:10
Speaker 1: scratches all over his chest, were not accepted by the
13:13
Speaker 1: Evans PD at face value. At this point, the interview
13:18
Speaker 1: very quickly became heated.
13:23
Speaker 2: Right, tell me what happened? Then tell me what scratches
13:28
Speaker 2: on your body? I just told that is not from you.
13:32
Speaker 5: You know what?
13:32
Speaker 6: Yeah, it is when you shame your chest. You sit
13:35
Speaker 6: there and I do.
13:36
Speaker 1: This all while Tom sat in the police station, investigators
13:43
Speaker 1: at his house were busy canvassing the neighborhood. What they
13:47
Speaker 1: uncovered were witnesses that claimed to have overheard the argument
13:51
Speaker 1: between Tom and Ashley before the gun went off. One witness,
13:55
Speaker 1: a sixteen year old girl, Chelsea Erigo, reported hearing Ashley
14:00
Speaker 1: scream get off me repeatedly.
14:03
Speaker 2: There was somebody awake and they actually heard your argument
14:07
Speaker 2: and your conversation between you and your wife.
14:09
Speaker 6: Really what the conversation was that she's.
14:11
Speaker 2: Telling you to get off of me, get off of me,
14:14
Speaker 2: and you're saying, don't leave me, don't leave me. Explain that.
14:19
Speaker 2: Why do you think that a neighbor that has nothing
14:21
Speaker 2: to do this is going to say.
14:22
Speaker 6: That which one the one next door?
14:26
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter which one. You have to explain that.
14:31
Speaker 6: It never happened. She never said that. Yeah, and you
14:34
Speaker 6: know what I did, And I've told you. I've told
14:36
Speaker 6: her to her mom them you don't need to get high.
14:40
Speaker 6: You don't need to go get high because your mom,
14:42
Speaker 6: you don't need to.
14:43
Speaker 2: You were mad at the fact that she was listening
14:46
Speaker 2: to her mom.
14:46
Speaker 6: I've already told you, yes.
14:48
Speaker 8: And so when you went upstairs you were arguing with her,
14:51
Speaker 8: and you know you were arguing with her. That wound
14:54
Speaker 8: on the back of her head isn't where she could
14:56
Speaker 8: do it herself, Tom, it is not.
15:00
Speaker 9: It is.
15:04
Speaker 6: Okay, where's the GSR on my hands.
15:07
Speaker 2: We're going to do them. We're going to find that out.
15:09
Speaker 6: Okay, find it out, because you know what, I would.
15:12
Speaker 7: Like to know where the GSR is on my hands,
15:15
Speaker 7: and you better be testing her hands to you.
15:17
Speaker 6: Guys are sitting here fricking milk and trying to find something.
15:20
Speaker 1: This is when Tom Fallis entered the interview. His wife
15:26
Speaker 1: was still undergoing emergency treatment. Ashley would pass away only
15:30
Speaker 1: hours later while Tom was still being questioned.
15:36
Speaker 2: And I have let you know your wife did not
15:38
Speaker 2: make it. Your wife did not make it.
15:51
Speaker 6: She was, she was, she is brilliant. Would you let home?
16:01
Speaker 6: I didn't shoot my one. I wasn't even fire.
16:06
Speaker 1: After three hours, it was clear that the detectives were
16:09
Speaker 1: not likely to uncover any further clues nor force a
16:13
Speaker 1: confession from Tom Fallis. Tom had grown progressively more frustrated,
16:18
Speaker 1: with emotions running to extremes. He repeatedly insisted, upon his innocence, you're.
16:25
Speaker 6: Accusing me of killing my wife. I'm not supposed to
16:27
Speaker 6: get upset for this. Yeah, because I've been here the
16:31
Speaker 6: whole time.
16:32
Speaker 2: Man, show me blow off the handle, is what they're saying.
16:35
Speaker 5: Nobody.
16:37
Speaker 6: I did not shoot Ashley, I didn't shoot my wife.
16:41
Speaker 6: I didn't shoot the mother of my kid.
16:46
Speaker 1: Four days following the shooting, Ashley Fallis's death was ruled
16:50
Speaker 1: a suicide. Lab results for items collected by the CBI
16:53
Speaker 1: investigation were still pending, yet the medical examiner had nonetheless
16:58
Speaker 1: signed off on the manner of death. Two months after that,
17:01
Speaker 1: the case was formally closed. Ashley's family was devastated. They
17:06
Speaker 1: were also confused and angry. They believed that investigators were
17:10
Speaker 1: too quick in reaching their decision. They pointed to Tom's
17:13
Speaker 1: position as a corrections officer for the county Sheriff's office
17:17
Speaker 1: as the reason that he received special treatment. Buys towards
17:21
Speaker 1: a fellow officer is certainly possible, though it ignored the
17:25
Speaker 1: fact that as a corrections officer, Tom worked for a
17:28
Speaker 1: different law enforcement entity than the one conducting the investigation.
17:32
Speaker 1: He did not know the deputies or detectives involved, and
17:36
Speaker 1: the CBI had been called in swiftly regardless mistakes had
17:41
Speaker 1: been made. Tom was not immediately separated from potential witnesses
17:45
Speaker 1: at the scene. His hands were not bagged to protect
17:47
Speaker 1: forensic evidence such as the GSR, the gunshot residue that
17:52
Speaker 1: was potentially on them. Ashley's family also took issue with
17:55
Speaker 1: the police interrogation, which, at only three hours, they argued,
17:59
Speaker 1: was maybe appropriate in length for some cases, but certainly
18:02
Speaker 1: not when questioning the prime suspect in a murder investigation.
18:06
Speaker 1: In many ways, Tom Fallis was not treated as a
18:09
Speaker 1: suspect until after Jenna and Joe's insistence at the scene
18:13
Speaker 1: forced the Weld County Sheriffs to make a change in approach,
18:18
Speaker 1: and then after they did so, there was a little
18:20
Speaker 1: follow through. Tom Fallis was free to go. Tom packed
18:28
Speaker 1: up the house, his three children and moved out of state.
18:32
Speaker 1: He relocated to Indiana, where he could be closer to
18:34
Speaker 1: his sister and attend university to earn a bachelor's degree.
18:39
Speaker 1: Tom appeared to be seeking a fresh start. Meanwhile, his
18:44
Speaker 1: former in laws were not giving up their fight for justice.
18:47
Speaker 1: Jenna and Joe went to the media. They did interviews
18:51
Speaker 1: on local and national outlets, speaking openly about Tom Fallis's temper.
18:56
Speaker 1: They spoke of Ashley's love of life. They also admitted
19:00
Speaker 1: that she was on mood stabilizers, but they claim this
19:03
Speaker 1: was as a result of the stresses in her marriage.
19:07
Speaker 1: Any emotional instability was largely the fault of her rage
19:10
Speaker 1: filled husband. Eventually, one investigative reporter with Fox thirty one News,
19:18
Speaker 1: Justin Joseph, took up the case.
19:21
Speaker 6: Do you ever see those detectives change or alter evidence?
19:24
Speaker 1: Yes, and Justin quickly uncovered a new, very significant witness.
19:32
Speaker 1: On January first, twenty twelve, seventeen year old Nick Glover
19:36
Speaker 1: lived next door to the Fallis family on Zimfantel's Street.
19:40
Speaker 1: He was with friends that night, watching on with interest
19:43
Speaker 1: as emergency vehicles in law enforcement responded to his neighbour's home.
19:48
Speaker 1: From inside his house, Nick told Justin Joseph that he
19:51
Speaker 1: overheard Tom Follis speaking with his parents and confessing to
19:56
Speaker 1: shooting his wife. Upset and believing that no one else
20:00
Speaker 1: was within earshot, Nick says he distinctly heard Tom speak
20:04
Speaker 1: the words I shot my wife. Furthermore, Nick insisted that
20:09
Speaker 1: he had reported what he heard to a detective when
20:12
Speaker 1: interviewed on January first by Evans Police Department. The detective
20:16
Speaker 1: that interviewed the teenager, Michael Yates, however, had no record
20:20
Speaker 1: at all of these statements. With this new information coming
20:24
Speaker 1: to light, the Evans Police were met with further accusations
20:28
Speaker 1: of bias in corruption. The obvious explanation to many was
20:32
Speaker 1: that Detective Yates was part of a cover up to
20:35
Speaker 1: keep a fellow sheriff's employee out of prison. In early
20:41
Speaker 1: April twenty fourteen, two years after her death, the Evans
20:45
Speaker 1: PD made the decision to reopen the investigation into Ashley
20:49
Speaker 1: Fallis's potential murder.
20:52
Speaker 9: Specifically, the allegations say that the officer omitted material statements
20:56
Speaker 9: from witnesses and that he changed at least one state
21:00
Speaker 9: of a key witness in the case to support a
21:02
Speaker 9: conclusion of suicide. I can tell you that no person
21:06
Speaker 9: was handled with any kind of differential treatment, regardless of
21:09
Speaker 9: their position in the community. Are and we're also were
21:11
Speaker 9: conducting the investigation.
21:12
Speaker 1: On November eighteenth, twenty fourteen, Tom Fallis was arrested outside
21:17
Speaker 1: his home in Indiana. He maintained his innocence and planned
21:21
Speaker 1: to go to trial to fight the second degree murder charge.
21:27
Speaker 1: By this time, aided by the investigative breakthroughs made by
21:30
Speaker 1: Fox thirty one reporter Justin Joseph, the media coverage of
21:34
Speaker 1: the case had reached new heights. A Forty eight Hours
21:38
Speaker 1: episode that aired before Tom Fallis's trial posited that the
21:42
Speaker 1: bruises found on Ashley's legs could have been made by
21:45
Speaker 1: the large flashlight found at the scene. An animation that
21:50
Speaker 1: sought to recreate the crime showed Tom wielding the flashlight
21:53
Speaker 1: as a blunt weapon and using it to force Ashley
21:57
Speaker 1: onto her knees by the side of the bed, the
21:59
Speaker 1: same position that she was thought to have been in
22:02
Speaker 1: when the gun was fired. It was later revealed that
22:06
Speaker 1: the flashlight was left behind by one of the first
22:09
Speaker 1: responding officers, who had dropped it while attempting to render
22:12
Speaker 1: medical aid on scene. It was not a weapon nor
22:16
Speaker 1: part of the alleged murder. Even without the flashlight as
22:20
Speaker 1: part of the scenario, however, the state held to a
22:23
Speaker 1: similar theory of the crime. Tom Fallis had obtained the
22:27
Speaker 1: Taurus nine millimeters pistol owned by his wife and kept
22:30
Speaker 1: under the mattress on her side of the bed. During
22:33
Speaker 1: a struggle, he held the gun to the side of
22:36
Speaker 1: her head. After firing, he lowered her to the ground
22:40
Speaker 1: and called nine one one. The prosecution opened their case
22:46
Speaker 1: with testimony from jennaf Fox about how her son in
22:49
Speaker 1: law's behavior at the New Year's party was angry and threatening.
22:53
Speaker 1: She testified to an argument that she had with him
22:55
Speaker 1: earlier in the night about his cursing in front of
22:58
Speaker 1: the children, claim that this exchange never.
23:01
Speaker 10: Happened the very end of the night.
23:04
Speaker 11: I think that his behavior towards her was very threatening
23:07
Speaker 11: and very volatile and.
23:09
Speaker 2: Very scary, using it as a very loud, booming.
23:16
Speaker 6: Word.
23:17
Speaker 10: I just went up to him and I said, can
23:19
Speaker 10: you kind of cool it with the F word?
23:22
Speaker 12: And he blew up at me and he said, I said,
23:27
Speaker 12: those kids in the house.
23:28
Speaker 1: Jenna was then questioned about her family's history of mental illness.
23:32
Speaker 1: Both her mother, Ashley's grandmother, as well as her brother,
23:36
Speaker 1: Ashley's uncle, had died from self inflicted gunshot wounds to
23:40
Speaker 1: the head.
23:41
Speaker 12: And there's a family history of mental illness on your
23:44
Speaker 12: side of the family.
23:47
Speaker 10: I couldn't answer that as a yes.
23:50
Speaker 1: Ashley psychiatrist took the stand and told jurors that, in
23:54
Speaker 1: his professional opinion, Ashley Fallis had not been depressed when.
23:59
Speaker 10: You met with her in the summer of twenty eleven.
24:01
Speaker 10: Did she seem depressed to you?
24:03
Speaker 6: Though she did not.
24:05
Speaker 1: However, during cross examination, the doctor was presented with new information.
24:10
Speaker 1: It had since been revealed that Ashley had been seeing
24:12
Speaker 1: not one but two psychiatrists, in addition to a primary
24:17
Speaker 1: care doctor, effectively doubling up on her prescriptions, unbeknownst to
24:21
Speaker 1: the professionals or to her husband. Tom was, however, very
24:28
Speaker 1: aware of Ashley's miscarriages, or rather that that is how
24:32
Speaker 1: she perceived them. Ashley's autopsy revealed that her tubul ligation
24:36
Speaker 1: had failed on one side, she had been capable of
24:40
Speaker 1: getting pregnant even after the surgery, as she had believed,
24:44
Speaker 1: but the autopsy also revealed that she had not been
24:47
Speaker 1: pregnant for at least a week prior to her death.
24:50
Speaker 1: What was not in dispute was that Ashley believed she
24:53
Speaker 1: had been pregnant three times over a period of nine
24:57
Speaker 1: months leading up to her death.
25:00
Speaker 12: She called herself reported herself as a failure as a
25:03
Speaker 12: result of her second miscarriage.
25:05
Speaker 10: Correct.
25:06
Speaker 12: And if you had known that she thought she was
25:08
Speaker 12: pregnant twice and miscarried twice when you saw her on
25:11
Speaker 12: December twenty eleven, you might have thought of that as
25:15
Speaker 12: being a red flag.
25:16
Speaker 10: Is that true? I certainly would have. What all these.
25:19
Speaker 12: Things change your thinking about miss Fallis's state of mind?
25:23
Speaker 6: Yes?
25:28
Speaker 1: Two forensic investigators took the stand to present opinions based
25:32
Speaker 1: on an analysis of the crime scene. Dan Gillium had
25:35
Speaker 1: been first called to Zimfantel Street in the early morning
25:38
Speaker 1: hours of January first. Since that time, he had logged
25:42
Speaker 1: approximately four hundred hours analyzing and testing evidence. Gilliam's professional
25:48
Speaker 1: opinion was that Tom Fallis did not shoot Ashley. Bizarrely,
25:53
Speaker 1: he was called by the state as a witness for
25:55
Speaker 1: the prosecution. Nonetheless, he stated, in the thirty five years
26:01
Speaker 1: I've been in law enforcement, in twenty five years in
26:03
Speaker 1: the lab, most people that shoot someone in an act
26:06
Speaker 1: of rage, they don't stop with one shot. The second
26:13
Speaker 1: state's expert, however, disagreed. Forensic analyst Jonathan Priest, testified that
26:19
Speaker 1: he spent about twenty five to thirty five hours working
26:23
Speaker 1: on and reviewing the case. To assist him. He looked
26:27
Speaker 1: at about three thousand pages of documents, photographs, and other
26:31
Speaker 1: case material, and he visited the scene. Priests believed that
26:35
Speaker 1: Tom was right next to Ashley, or perhaps even in
26:38
Speaker 1: contact with her when the gun went off. He believed
26:41
Speaker 1: that if Tom had been all the way across the
26:43
Speaker 1: room when the gun fired, as he claimed he was,
26:46
Speaker 1: there would have been far more blood present at the scene.
26:50
Speaker 1: This assessment was based on the amount of time it
26:52
Speaker 1: would have taken for Tom to reach Ashley and then
26:55
Speaker 1: to apply pressure on the wound, as he was doing
26:59
Speaker 1: when responders. Much of the physical evidence collected did not
27:05
Speaker 1: help bolster the state's homicide theory. Tom Fallis's hands were
27:09
Speaker 1: eventually tested for gunshot residue, but none was found. There
27:14
Speaker 1: was GSR on both of Ashley Fallis's hands. Furthermore, despite
27:18
Speaker 1: the many scratches all over Tom's chest, none of his
27:21
Speaker 1: wife's DNA was on him. Scraping from under her fingernails
27:25
Speaker 1: likewise did not return any of Tom's DNA. These results
27:30
Speaker 1: certainly through the theory of a struggle into question. The prosecution's
27:38
Speaker 1: case would rely heavily on the new witness testimony, namely
27:42
Speaker 1: the neighbor Nick Glover, who claimed to have overheard a confession.
27:47
Speaker 1: Nick Glover's testimony would be even more integral after his friend,
27:51
Speaker 1: sixteen year old Chelsea Erigo, took the stand and testified
27:55
Speaker 1: that she couldn't recall hearing the argument between Tom and
27:58
Speaker 1: Ashley that night. After all, according to Nick's mother, Kathy,
28:02
Speaker 1: Chelsea had stated to her that night that she had
28:05
Speaker 1: overheard Ashley screaming, get off me, Get off me. But
28:09
Speaker 1: when placed under oath, Chelsea said that she had been
28:11
Speaker 1: drinking quite a bit that night and did not recall
28:14
Speaker 1: hearing any argument or saying anything to Kathy at all.
28:19
Speaker 6: Said to her, please tell me you called the cops.
28:21
Speaker 10: I do not can you call? She asked you why?
28:26
Speaker 1: And you said to Kathy Glover and that phone call
28:29
Speaker 1: because your neighbor just shot his wife. I do not friend.
28:33
Speaker 1: Nick Glover, however, testified that he remembered the night clearly
28:38
Speaker 1: you proceived to say I.
28:39
Speaker 10: Shot my wife. How certain are you or are you not?
28:44
Speaker 11: That the voice you're hearing is Tom Fallas's voice that
28:47
Speaker 11: you're seeing standing in that.
28:48
Speaker 6: Quarter of your driveway.
28:50
Speaker 10: But I want her or sach you can't hear something
28:53
Speaker 10: like that and forget about it. I mean, that's going
28:55
Speaker 10: to be embedded in your mind for years to come.
29:00
Speaker 1: Detective Yates, who had interviewed Nick the day of the shooting,
29:03
Speaker 1: had been subject to an internal investigation for his failure
29:07
Speaker 1: to record the confession that Nick insisted he reported that day.
29:11
Speaker 1: The detective was found to not be at fault. Yates
29:15
Speaker 1: told the jury under oath that the then seventeen year
29:18
Speaker 1: old had never reported the confession to him. Indeed, in
29:22
Speaker 1: the days following Ashley's death, Nick made a different statement
29:26
Speaker 1: about the shooting to a friend named Ben Brunswick. That statement,
29:30
Speaker 1: Detective Yates did record.
29:32
Speaker 11: I don't recall telling Officer Yates that you told Ben
29:36
Speaker 11: Brunswick quote, my neighbor just shot herself.
29:42
Speaker 10: How do you not recall?
29:44
Speaker 1: During his cross examination, Nick Glover was asked about his
29:47
Speaker 1: interactions with Tom following the alleged murder. He went on
29:51
Speaker 1: a camping trip with him and joined the family for
29:53
Speaker 1: Christmas caroling. Wasn't it odd to have taken part in
29:57
Speaker 1: all of these activities? After he claim aim to have
30:00
Speaker 1: hurt Tom admit to murdering his wife. During this cross
30:05
Speaker 1: examination by the defense team, Nick Glover responded with the statement,
30:09
Speaker 1: I do not recall over ninety times. Nick was subsequently
30:16
Speaker 1: supported by a second witness who had also been uncovered
30:19
Speaker 1: when the investigation reopened three years after the fact. Former
30:23
Speaker 1: Weld County Sheriff's deputy Chris Graves also claimed to have
30:27
Speaker 1: overheart Tom Fallis openly admit to the murder. In the
30:30
Speaker 1: minutes following the emergency response to the house.
30:34
Speaker 12: And at that point you said, that's when you heard
30:37
Speaker 12: him screaming something.
30:38
Speaker 10: What did you hear? I heard him screaming, Uh, I
30:44
Speaker 10: can't believe I shot her, and I can't believe she's dead.
30:48
Speaker 12: When you say screaming, how loud are we talking low?
30:54
Speaker 1: Tom's defense team were quick to point out that the
30:56
Speaker 1: scene of the shooting was full of potential witnesses, law
30:59
Speaker 1: enforce from six other agencies, family, and neighbors, Yet no
31:03
Speaker 1: one else seemed to have heard the confession made by
31:06
Speaker 1: Tom Fallas, despite him allegedly screaming the statement allowed. The
31:11
Speaker 1: team further questioned how the former deputy could have ignored
31:14
Speaker 1: the confession at that time and waited three years to
31:18
Speaker 1: report it.
31:19
Speaker 11: You claim that you heard the man say I can't
31:22
Speaker 11: believe I shod her. Okay, but you didn't handcuff him
31:27
Speaker 11: right then and there. No, because it wasn't your scene, correct.
31:36
Speaker 11: That was your testimony yesterday. Yes, and you have never
31:41
Speaker 11: to date written a report about what you claim you heard.
31:46
Speaker 10: No, talk about that for a minute.
31:49
Speaker 11: You said that you were employed in the Sheriff's office
31:51
Speaker 11: until April or many of twenty fifteen.
31:53
Speaker 6: Why is it that you're.
31:53
Speaker 10: No longer employed? There I was fired. Why were you
31:57
Speaker 10: fired for this case? What specif with respect to this case?
32:02
Speaker 10: I was terminated for lack of candor and honesty.
32:09
Speaker 1: Tom Fallis opted not to take the stand in his
32:12
Speaker 1: own defense. It was a lengthy trial, lasting several weeks
32:16
Speaker 1: in encompassing the testimony of over forty witnesses. When the
32:20
Speaker 1: defense made its closing arguments, they focused on Ashley Fallis's
32:23
Speaker 1: state of mind. They pointed to expert testimony that highlighted
32:28
Speaker 1: red flags in her behavior, coupled with issues in her
32:31
Speaker 1: life in the months leading up to the night of
32:33
Speaker 1: her death that included her pregnancy tests, her son's illness,
32:37
Speaker 1: her medications, her dismissal at work, and her affair. It
32:42
Speaker 1: also included not one, but two final notes that Ashley
32:46
Speaker 1: had written to Tom apologizing for all that I have caused.
32:51
Speaker 1: She called herself a failure and stated that she could
32:54
Speaker 1: no longer take it. Ashley's family questioned how these notes
32:58
Speaker 1: they knew nothing about, came to light, much like the
33:01
Speaker 1: state's witnesses, only years after the shooting. Convenient for Tom's defense,
33:07
Speaker 1: they said.
33:09
Speaker 12: As she said on July twenty four, twenty eleven, Dear Tom,
33:15
Speaker 12: I'm sorry with all that I've paused.
33:17
Speaker 6: I'm not happy about it. I'm sorry for your paint.
33:22
Speaker 1: The jury returned with a verdict in roughly three and
33:25
Speaker 1: a half hours, over which time they also took an
33:29
Speaker 1: hour lunch.
33:31
Speaker 5: Hey, mister Fallis, if you and council will stand and
33:33
Speaker 5: face the jury dispensing with the caption, we the jury
33:38
Speaker 5: find the defendant Thomas Fallis not guilty of murdering the
33:41
Speaker 5: second degree and all lesser included offenses signed by the jury.
33:45
Speaker 5: Four person.
33:49
Speaker 1: Jennaf Fox and Joe Ragudin filed several lawsuits against the
33:52
Speaker 1: Evans Police Department and named investigators, claiming that evidence in
33:56
Speaker 1: the case was falsified and omitted. They are argued that
34:00
Speaker 1: not only had Detective Yates omitted the statements made by
34:03
Speaker 1: Nick Glover on New Year's Day twenty twelve, but that
34:07
Speaker 1: other deputies within earshot of Tom Fallis must have hurt
34:10
Speaker 1: the same statements as Deputy Chris Graves, but these other
34:14
Speaker 1: officers failed to report it. Their case was ultimately dismissed.
34:20
Speaker 1: The family remains convinced of Tom Fallis's guilt and devastated
34:24
Speaker 1: by the jury's verdict. They have obtained visitation rights for
34:29
Speaker 1: the three children and remain part of their lives. Tom
34:35
Speaker 1: Fallis has spent the years since his acquittal struggling to
34:38
Speaker 1: pay down the hundreds of thousands of dollars he accumulated
34:42
Speaker 1: in illegal fees for his defense. He also returned to
34:46
Speaker 1: his studies. Tom revealed that he told his children that
34:49
Speaker 1: their mother had an accident. He plans to tell them
34:53
Speaker 1: more about what happened when they are much older. That
35:02
Speaker 1: was the tragic case of Ashley and Tom Fallis. Thank
35:05
Speaker 1: you again to everyone who watches and supports the channel,
35:08
Speaker 1: and a special thank you to our newest members Katina,
35:12
Speaker 1: Grumpy Bunny, DJ Larson, o Y and Kimbo. Lastly, today
35:17
Speaker 1: I want to share with you a short music video
35:20
Speaker 1: about JTL. It is the creation of the talented Frank Mizzy.
35:24
Speaker 1: His YouTube channel is called The Second Story, where he
35:27
Speaker 1: combines his songwriting with chilling true events. We'll leave a
35:31
Speaker 1: link it to his channel in the description below.
35:34
Speaker 3: Enjoy When the scene plays, tell me who the screen saves.
36:06
Speaker 6: I can hear the crimes repeat. Gotta take my.
36:08
Speaker 4: Time because these crimes get deep, but these stories can't hide.
36:11
Speaker 4: Let me find my seat, Kevin, go ahead and settle
36:13
Speaker 4: in gotta be selective doing all the research. Keeping it
36:16
Speaker 4: objective always been effective.
36:18
Speaker 6: Cause say he got a neck pick of the litter.
36:20
Speaker 6: You see how Newton got his back.
36:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, the content that you need is to be a
36:23
Speaker 4: new sign. Talking in the comments they got in the
36:26
Speaker 4: few lines.
36:26
Speaker 6: Tune in and like love that.
36:28
Speaker 4: It's to con It was like the whole.
36:29
Speaker 6: World is online for you.
36:30
Speaker 4: Crimes.
36:31
Speaker 6: Watch him on the run, but it's not a race.
36:33
Speaker 4: Really hard to disappear proof without a brace, sherd lock
36:36
Speaker 4: Holmes with it.
36:36
Speaker 6: I'll put you in your place. Got my smoking pipe
36:38
Speaker 6: only right or cracking another case, like like.
36:42
Speaker 10: I need that feeling. Got you boy?
36:47
Speaker 4: Learn the lesson that you talk to kidding is what
36:53
Speaker 4: they saw found out just what you thought. Found out
37:01
Speaker 4: the house. Just watch your thort.
37:03
Speaker 6: Case really bigg thing found.
37:05
Speaker 10: Out the house.
37:06
Speaker 4: Just watching thorny Dicky found out the house. Just watch
37:11
Speaker 4: your thort gase.
37:13
Speaker 6: The really bigger thing. James and