WEBVTT - Anybody Will Do 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.400 Last time on ear witness. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.759 You are in a position now to be one of 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:18.400 two things. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:22.600 Okay, you can either be a witness or you can 0:00:22.640 --> 0:00:23.560 be a defendant. 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.360 Ar Dregus was in his wheelchair sitting there, and he 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.720 looked at me and he said, listen, I'm not gonna 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:32.760 lie for anybody. 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:34.199 I would. 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.720 Happy to give to Forrest up in a heartbeat, except 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:40.560 it would be a lie, and I'm not gonna lie. 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:42.760 I said, all right, well, they're going to wheel you 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.240 to jail and they're gonna charge you with capital murder, 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.120 which is definitely offense. And he goes, I wasn't there, 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.720 tell him to take me to jail, and they did. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.480 Charged with capital murder of a law enforcement officer. Our 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.720 twenty two year old toward Forrest Johnson, twenty one year 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.480 old Our dragons Ford, twenty three year old oh Man Berrier, 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.440 and twenty one year old Quinn tes Wilson. They are 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:07.480 held without bond. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:14.880 Evidence wise, well, we had visually no evidence. We had 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:20.280 the word of a fifteen year old who told lies, 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:21.560 a lot of. 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.360 Lies atlie outline a flat. 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:28.800 We had this table empty, wasn't nothing on it, and 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:31.120 we were still trying to try the case, and we 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.320 were like, man, what we gonna do, How We're gonna 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:33.600 win this. 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:55.120 It's nineteen ninety seven, two years after Deputy Bill Hardy 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.840 was killed to Forrest Johnson and Ardregis Ford are headed 0:01:59.840 --> 0:02:03.520 to trial for the murder, and so far, the only 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.760 evidence the state has presented connecting them to the crime 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:12.000 is the changing story of Yolanda Chambers. But there was 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:18.000 something else, something detectives had known about for two years, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.680 something they kept quiet until now. 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.600 This is sorry to Tom Salter, Jefson County Sheriff's Deparma, 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.080 President of the Room, or sorry to Tony Richson and 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:35.119 missus Violet Ellison and her daughter, Katrina Ellison. 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:39.840 Violet Ellison, a fifty three year old black woman, and 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:43.840 her sixteen year old daughter Katrina, met with detectives Tony 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:48.799 Richardson and Tom Salter at the Sheriff's office. Violet Ellison, 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:53.440 who knew Deputy Hardy, came forward a few weeks after 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:58.440 Hardy's murder. She called investigators seven days after the governor 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.960 announced an additional ten moth one thousand dollars for information, 0:03:02.760 --> 0:03:06.480 bringing the total reward offered in the case to twenty 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:11.359 thousand dollars. Her recorded interview with detectives is less than 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:12.440 seven minutes long. 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:16.880 This Ellison, would you tell us about the information that 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:18.200 you have for us. 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:22.800 You got a name Fred, I'm not sure of his 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.840 last name. Call my daughter Katrina Ellison. 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.880 Violet Ellison says some guys in the jail were asking 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.000 Katrina to make three way calls for them so they'd 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.000 only have to pay for the original call to Katrina. 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:41.160 They didn't want to keep feeding quarters into the payphone. 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.600 One of those guys was named Fred, and. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:49.120 He asked my daughter to use her three way to 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.320 call for his homeboy, and he named his fellow's name 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:53.760 is Tamars Johnson. 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:58.000 Violet Ellison says her daughter dialed the number of a 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:02.240 girl named Daisy to create a three way call. In 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:05.960 the jail, Fred handed the phone to to Forest so 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:10.160 that he could talk to Daisy back in the Ellison house. 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:14.080 Once Katrina heard the three way call go through, she 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.400 put the phone down and walked away, but her mom, 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.800 Violet Ellison, picked it up and listened in. 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.320 He said that on the night of the. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:26.320 Ancident. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.680 Violet Ellison tells detectives that she heard to Forest Johnson 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.960 telling Daisy what happened the night of Deputy Bill Hardy's murder. 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.000 I've listened to this recording over a dozen times and 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:46.279 it's not easy to follow, but in summary, Violet says 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:50.560 that to Forest described following a man. They planned to 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.080 rob a man. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.640 And they had been following this man. 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:58.520 This man had a girl with him, and the girl 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.400 had a gun gone a shot was fired. 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.040 It was one shot that was fired. 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:10.360 And Deputy Hardy heard the commotion and came out to investigate, investigate. 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:18.640 And that's when uh Tavars Johnson shot one time and 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:19.720 he named. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:20.880 Another guy, which was. 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:28.880 C who qu quin to your tass both. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:33.960 Of them shot, She says she overheard to Forrest Johnson 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:38.240 say that he and quint Has Wilson each fired one 0:05:38.360 --> 0:05:42.920 shot at Deputy Hardy. At this point, quint Has Wilson 0:05:43.040 --> 0:05:47.560 was also in jail, charged with Hardy's murder. The story 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:51.880 Violet Ellison tells police is disjointed. There are a lot 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.880 of details that are similar to the facts about the 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.720 case that were reported in the news, but others that 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.800 don't fit the evidence at the crime scene, and after 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:06.719 less than seven minutes, detectives say they have no further 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.359 questions for Violet Ellison and her daughter. 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:10.760 That makes a lot of sense. 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.640 Do you think they say that you agreed? 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:15.640 Okay? 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.680 Two years after Violet Ellison first comes to police, the 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:32.000 state is preparing to put ardregas Ford and to Forrest 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:37.480 Johnson on trial. But Yolanda Chambers is falling apart. She's 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.480 recanted her testimony under oath, and she doesn't always show 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:45.400 up to court when she's supposed to be there. It's then, 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:51.040 in their time of need two years later, that detectives 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.120 suddenly remember Violet Ellison's statements. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:57.839 BALI, that was k marking that door. You stand up 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.719 on this day, Lin and say what she said. We 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:04.240 got a full table. Now we got all the evidence 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.960 we need. Well, not that we need. We'd like to 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:10.080 have a lot more, but we got evenence. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.280 Violet Ellison would become the state's star witness in the 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:21.080 trial against Forrest Johnson, and her ear witness testimony would 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:25.239 be the key evidence linking him to Deputy Hardy's murder. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.800 But there wouldn't be just one trial for the murder 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:34.440 of Deputy Hardy, or two or even three. The state 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:39.560 will pursue four capital murder trials, and at each of 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.680 these four trials, the state will present separate, mutually exclusive 0:07:44.720 --> 0:08:09.920 theories about who pulled the trigger and fired the fatal shots. 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:29.160 Do you hear my man laugher had my feet sorrows 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:30.520 dep b. 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:32.440 Re list. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:35.800 In this bad. 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.840 Tears. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.400 I want to see. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:54.160 Revelation. I want to know who you. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:08:59.520 Ah read. 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:04.760 Desperation. 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:30.640 I'm Beth Shelburne. This is ear witness, Chapter five. Anybody 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:38.440 will do if Tony Richardson was initially enthusiastic about Violet 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:43.680 Ellison's revelations. I can't tell by the investigative file. He 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.120 wrote a report about the meeting he had with her. 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:53.000 It's just seven sentences long, concluding the conversation concerned the crime. 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:59.720 That's it. Detectives and prosecutors do not publicly mention Violet 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:04.120 la or her claims for the next two years. It's 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:09.160 like they just forgot about her. The most glaring example 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:15.240 of this, Detective Richardson testifies at a grand jury hearing 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.959 five months after his conversation with Violet Ellison. He says 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.080 under oath that all four men charged with capital murder 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.760 were in the back parking lot of the Crown Sterling 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:31.440 Suites when Hardy was killed. But he says Omar Berry 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:40.440 and Ardregis Ford were the shooters. This story is based 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.840 on one of his conversations with Yolanda Chambers, and Detective 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.480 Richardson tells the grand jury there is no doubt that 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:55.160 Yolanda Chambers is telling us the truth. There is no 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:59.040 mention of Violet Ellison and til To Forest is on trial, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.360 but the state puts ardregas Ford on trial. 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:20.960 First, my grandmother spent everything she had, everything that a 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.280 poor woman had. She spent our money to defend him, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.400 you know, to get him the you know, best. 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:28.360 Representation she could. 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.680 Ardregas's cousin, Nicole Blunt Kerksey, comes to my house to 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.960 talk to me about the case. She's wearing a patterned 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:40.720 dress and cowboy boots. Her hair is pulled back into 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:44.680 a high bun. For many years, she grew up in 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.600 the same house as ar Dregas. Their mothers are sisters. 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:50.480 It was a lot of money for. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.960 A poor family. It really was a lot of My 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.600 grandmother had a lot of money saved back then. Even 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:58.760 poor people like she didn't spend everything she had. She 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.040 always put money back. She worked for a Union Envelope, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:06.520 which was like a factory over in Prett City for years, 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:11.480 and then she used to wash clothes and clean houses 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.560 for people, and so she just tucked a lot of 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.000 that money. She just tucked it away, and she exhausted 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.000 just about everything to try to get him the representation 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.800 that he needed for that trial, other than my grandmother's money. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.319 I mean, we had barbecues and just you know, things 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.040 to raise money so that we could pay the attorney. 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.320 Ardregus's mom, Joyce, tells me the same thing. So you 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.479 had to raise some of the money, some of it. Yeah, 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:44.240 do you remember how much you ended up paying. 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:52.079 Looks like I don't know, might have been over forty 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:57.520 thousand or something. It's a lot of money. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:58.360 It was. 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:04.800 Ar Dregus's family hires Richard Jaffey, a renowned defense attorney 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:09.240 who had represented dozens of people facing the death penalty, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:14.200 to Forrest. Johnson's cousin, Antonio Green remembers trying to figure 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.240 out what his family could do to get to Forrest 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.439 the best legal defense available. 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.520 One of the prominent attorneys during that time. Me and 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.120 my uncle went and talked to him about taking this 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.320 case for the fares during that time, and he told 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.280 us it's right, that's in his office. He said, bring 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.960 him a ten thousand dollars retainer and he'll bring our 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:41.760 love one home. Of course, ten thousand dollars, he might 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.880 well say ten million at that time to me, you know, 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.079 and you know, we just we just didn't have it, 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:50.360 couldn't do it. Everybody scratching to make it and feed 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.439 the family. And we all understood that because I'm thinking, Okay, 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.520 I got to get a loan, I got to do, 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:59.040 you know something. But that was what was amazing too 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.480 Bill to fire is he understood that. He was like, 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.520 because don't worry about that. I'm gonna be all right. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.480 I didn't do this loo That was his old thing. 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.880 They're not gonna lock me up because I didn't do this. 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:21.480 Judge Alfred Bayhackle appoints two attorneys to represent to forrest 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.320 a sharply dressed, thirty two year old black man named 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:30.360 Darryl Bender and Erskine mathis a white, middle aged former 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:35.640 police officer with a thick mustache. In nineteen ninety seven, 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:40.240 Alabama paid appointed defense attorneys just twenty dollars an hour 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:43.920 for work outside the courtroom, with a cap of one 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:49.120 thousand dollars. Most appointed lawyers can't afford to work for free, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.040 so this very low cap limited how well they could 0:14:53.040 --> 0:15:04.080 prepare for trial. Our Dregis Ford is first to go 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:08.040 to trial in November of nineteen ninety seven. There's a 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.120 photo of him in the newspaper. He's sitting in his 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:16.160 wheelchair in court wearing a starched collared shirt and dark blazer. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.200 The junior prosecutor on the case is a thirty four 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:25.080 year old black man named Theo Lawson. Jeff Wallace is 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:30.280 the lead prosecutor. He's tall, white, a commanding figure in 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:34.440 the court room, forty three years old, twelve years into 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:35.040 his career. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:40.000 I think my reputation was of being a tough prosecutor, 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:42.600 meaning if I had the case, I pushed it to 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.360 his limits. And I think my reputation might be that 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.760 I was maybe a little too tough. Sometimes I hope 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:51.880 that's not true, but I'm afraid it might be true. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:57.360 Jeff Wallace was assigned to major cases and aggressively sought 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.080 to please his boss, DA David Barr, who was a 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.520 tough on crime leader focused on getting convictions, and this 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.200 case was personal for Jeff Wallace. He knew the victim. 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:17.200 Every prosecutor who is diligent, works closely with the police, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.840 and when something happens to one of them, you're not 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.520 one of the boys in blue, as they say, but 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:28.400 they're your friends. So when this happened to Deputy Hardy, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:29.760 he got my attention. 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:34.640 The trial against ar dregas Ford starts at one fifty 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:39.120 pm on November fifth. In a short opening statement, the 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:43.160 prosecution summarizes the crime for the jury, arguing that our 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:47.320 dragas Ford is guilty of capital murder. They don't mention 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:52.480 a motive. Afterwards, Jeff Wallace calls the county's chief medical 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:57.080 examiner to the stand. He explains that Hardy's wounds were 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:01.720 at an upward angle through his head. Jeff Wallace argues 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:06.639 this would be consistent with Ardregas firing the shots from 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:12.200 his wheelchair. Prosecutors also call Yolanda Chambers as a witness, 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:16.639 even though she recanted her story in court a year ago. 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.520 Since then, she's gone back to saying that she was 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:24.679 there when Hardy was killed. She now says she saw 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:30.919 ardregas Ford fire at least one shot. Richard Jaffey. Ardregas's 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:35.720 lawyer argues that if the hotel witnesses had seen ardregas 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.680 Ford commit the crime. They would have seen this. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:45.040 Ardregas Ford wheeling up about thirty feet of an incline 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:51.880 in his wheelchair, somehow finding an ability to shoot two 0:17:51.920 --> 0:18:00.160 shots into Deputy Hardy, then be wheeled down by someone 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.040 all the way back to their car. The wheelchair would 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:06.040 have had to been put in there. Ardregas would have 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.800 had to been physically put into the driver's seat. De 0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:12.159 Forrest would have had to have gotten back into the 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:14.560 passenger seat, and then they would have driven off, and 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.160 that would have taken at least a minute or two minimum. 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:22.520 Of course, no one at the hotel saw anything like that. 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:29.000 The only thing they had on ardregas Ford was Yolanda Chambers. 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:34.240 Jaffe calls witnesses to the stand who saw Ardregis at 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.560 Tea's Place at the same time that Deputy Hardy was shot. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:43.240 We didn't call any witnesses other than alibi witnesses. 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:47.840 The key decision the jury has to make. Do they 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:53.000 believe Yolanda chambers testimony that ardregas killed Deputy Hardy behind 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:57.200 the Crown Sterling suites, or do they believe the three 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.680 alibi witnesses who say he was at Teaspace place at 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:13.560 the same time that Deputy Hardy was murdered. The jury 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:17.840 votes ten to two to acquit ardregas Ford, but that's 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:23.240 not enough. Murder trials require a unanimous verdict. Since this 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:29.720 decision was split, Judge Bayhackle declares a mistrial, but ardregas 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.840 Ford is not set free. The state plans to try 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:59.639 him a second time. Two weeks later, the first trial, 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:04.920 again to Forrest Johnson, begins. Here's to Forrest's cousin, Antonio Green. 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:10.479 I remember me personally myself. I was very optimistic. I 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:15.359 was very optimistic simply because I knew what they had, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:19.640 which was nothing as far as evidence goes. I'm like, okay, well, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.520 it's just a part of the process. They'll hear the 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.800 evidence or like thereof, and we'll be going home, you know, 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.880 and this is all over. But as the days went on, 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:32.159 from the first couple of days of the trial, you 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:37.760 could see a really different environment in the courtroom. 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.159 The only video from the trial I've seen is a 0:20:41.200 --> 0:20:44.840 short TV news clip. It's filmed through a window on 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:49.600 the courtroom door, and to Forrest looks so young, much 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:54.719 younger than twenty four. He's clean shaven, baby faced, dressed 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.720 for court in a striped button down shirt and tie 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:02.320 with a gray blazer. He looks around the courtroom. Maybe 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.080 he's nervous, but then he lights up with a huge 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.720 smile when he sees a family member who comes over 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.720 to speak with him. The state's lead prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.160 gets up in front of the jury. Just two weeks earlier, 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:22.040 he argued that our Dregis Ford shot Deputy Hardy, but 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.879 now he tells a completely different story. He says that 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:29.959 to Forrest Johnson shot Hardy. The theory that the shooter 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.840 was seated in a wheelchair is never mentioned, and Yolanda 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:39.439 Chambers never sets foot in the courtroom. Instead, the prosecution 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.520 tells the jury in opening statements that they will hear 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.560 evidence that will convince them beyond a reasonable doubt that 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:51.960 to Forrest shot and killed Deputy Hardy. Then Jeff Wallace 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:58.440 introduces the state's new star witness, Violet Ellison. She tells 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.639 the jury she eavestrong on several three way calls because 0:22:02.680 --> 0:22:05.440 she was concerned about her daughter talking to people at 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:10.159 the jail, and because she's naturally nosy. She says she 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:14.280 contacted detectives six days after she listened in on the 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.920 first call because she couldn't sleep after hearing information about 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.959 the murder of Deputy Bill Hardy. On the stand, Violet 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.480 Ellison tells the jury that she overheard to Forrest say 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:31.919 these words, I shot the fucker in the head, and 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:35.560 I saw his head go back and he fell, and 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:46.480 he shouldn't have got in my business messing up my shit. 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.159 There was no mention of I shot the fucker in 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:56.440 the head or anything like that. And Violet Ellison's original 0:22:56.520 --> 0:23:01.639 recorded statement to police, she did write the statement down 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.600 in notes on the back of an envelope that she 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:08.800 submitted to police, but she gave them these notes six 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:16.320 weeks after her first recorded statement On the stand, She 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.800 says she jotted down the notes while she listened in 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:23.200 on the call between to Forest and Daisy, and then 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:27.880 copied the notes onto a sheet of paper. But it's 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.560 hard for me to believe that these notes were written 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:35.440 during the phone call she claims she overheard. For example, 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:39.440 Violet Ellison is adamant in her testimony that she heard 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:44.040 to Forest only use his first name, but her notes 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:47.760 refer to him as Johnson. If she was just writing 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:51.520 down what she heard while she heard it. Why wouldn't 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.920 she have written to Forest? How would she have known 0:23:55.000 --> 0:24:03.439 his last name? To Forrest's attorneys also say that what 0:24:03.600 --> 0:24:07.200 Violet Ellison heard was just one side of a conversation. 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.439 They say to Forrest was telling Daisy what he was 0:24:11.480 --> 0:24:15.520 accused of doing, not what he did. He was responding 0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:19.680 to her question, why are you in jail? But when 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:24.520 Darryl Bender questions Violet Ellison, she tells him she's positive 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.439 that Daisy never asked to Forrest why he was in jail. 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:31.840 But then she also says that she didn't pay any 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:35.639 attention to Daisy's side of the conversation because she was 0:24:35.760 --> 0:24:40.960 only interested in what to Forest had to say. If 0:24:40.960 --> 0:24:44.840 this feels confusing to you, welcome, I've been trying to 0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:49.040 make this make sense for two years. How can Violet 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:53.680 Ellison insist that she knows what Daisy did or did 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:57.760 not say, while also admitting that she only listened to 0:24:57.880 --> 0:25:03.040 one side of the conversation. Antonio Green, to Forrest's cousin, 0:25:03.400 --> 0:25:06.159 remembers watching Violet Ellison on the stand. 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:11.240 The only evidence supposedly they had against was this ear witness, 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.879 who had never heard him speak before, who had no 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.360 idea who he was, but to sit in there and 0:25:18.400 --> 0:25:23.320 see how the system from you know, the judge, the 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:28.600 prosecutors and all that pushed that case towards him. I 0:25:28.640 --> 0:25:31.240 mean constantly it was he did it. We got the 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:33.920 right one. He did it, and forget the evidence, don't 0:25:33.920 --> 0:25:36.640 worry about that. We're just telling you he did it. 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:39.240 It's pretty much, it's all they had. 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:45.080 When Violet Ellison finishes testifying, Daisy Williams takes the stand. 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:49.480 She says to Forrest did not admit to the murder 0:25:49.480 --> 0:25:52.840 on that phone call, and she never heard him say 0:25:52.920 --> 0:26:00.520 the things Violet Ellison claimed to overhear. So Violet Ellison, 0:26:00.720 --> 0:26:03.440 a friend of the victim, says she heard one thing. 0:26:04.520 --> 0:26:08.320 Daisy Williams, a friend of the accused, says she heard another. 0:26:09.640 --> 0:26:13.399 The case comes down to who the jury will believe. 0:26:24.640 --> 0:26:29.560 After five days of testimony to Forrest's supporters nervously wait 0:26:29.720 --> 0:26:33.879 as the jury begins to deliberate, and once again, the 0:26:34.000 --> 0:26:40.200 jury cannot reach a unanimous decision. Nine jurors vote to convict, 0:26:40.640 --> 0:26:45.280 but three others are not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. 0:26:45.359 --> 0:26:47.720 The judge declares a mistrial. 0:26:50.880 --> 0:26:54.680 They deliberated and they couldn't come to a verdict, so 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:57.720 they took him back to kept him locked up and 0:26:58.280 --> 0:27:02.160 immediately pretty much gave had another date for a second trial. 0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:04.760 So there wasn't really any time to celebrate. 0:27:05.000 --> 0:27:08.000 No, no, no, no, it wasn't any of that. And 0:27:08.040 --> 0:27:10.560 then even then I didn't think. I didn't look at 0:27:10.600 --> 0:27:16.000 it as any type of victory, because an innocent man 0:27:16.040 --> 0:27:17.280 should be found innocent. 0:27:41.760 --> 0:27:44.800 Yeah, nice to see you, Jeff. 0:27:44.840 --> 0:27:45.760 I'm at Shelburn. 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:48.199 You can call me back. Can I call you? 0:27:48.280 --> 0:27:48.560 Jeff? 0:27:49.040 --> 0:27:49.680 Okay? Great. 0:27:50.119 --> 0:27:54.800 Jeff Wallace prosecuted both to Forrest and Ardregis. When I 0:27:54.840 --> 0:27:57.399 emailed him to set up an interview, he asked me 0:27:57.600 --> 0:28:00.560 to meet him at the large Methodist church attends in 0:28:00.600 --> 0:28:04.680 a Birmingham suburb. He's now retired, but spent twenty five 0:28:04.800 --> 0:28:07.119 years as a prosecutor in Jefferson County. 0:28:07.200 --> 0:28:07.680 Beautiful. 0:28:07.760 --> 0:28:11.880 Sure, we record the interview in the church's empty sanctuary. 0:28:12.480 --> 0:28:15.480 He tells me he prefers to do interviews standing up 0:28:15.680 --> 0:28:20.000 because of all of his courtroom experience. So we're standing 0:28:20.119 --> 0:28:25.080 in this sanctuary at the altar, facing each other, having 0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:29.040 this conversation in front of a giant pipe organ. The 0:28:29.080 --> 0:28:31.800 way we're set up, it feels like We're either here 0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:37.159 to debate or get married anyway. This is why the 0:28:37.240 --> 0:28:38.800 recording sounds a little echoey. 0:28:39.800 --> 0:28:42.160 We had a weak case. It's placed on testimony. 0:28:42.160 --> 0:28:46.760 In one witness, Jeff Wallace remembers that the case against 0:28:46.960 --> 0:28:50.560 to Forrest Johnson hinged on the testimony of Violet Ellison. 0:28:51.520 --> 0:28:54.440 That is extremely strong evidence if it's believed. Of course, 0:28:54.480 --> 0:28:57.600 the question becomes, so you believe that evidence? Well, to 0:28:57.600 --> 0:29:00.680 believe that evidence, you have to pleaves Allison. To believe 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:03.800 miss Ellison, you have to look at the facts how 0:29:03.840 --> 0:29:04.760 she said it happened. 0:29:06.320 --> 0:29:10.280 To Forest's second trial begins eight months after the first 0:29:10.320 --> 0:29:15.680 one ends in a mistrial. Jeff Wallace is the lead prosecutor. Again. 0:29:16.040 --> 0:29:19.680 He calls Violet Ellison to the stand, where she testifies 0:29:19.880 --> 0:29:23.320 that she overheard to Forrest admit to Hardy's murder on 0:29:23.400 --> 0:29:27.840 a three way phone call. Jeff Wallace says Violet Ellison 0:29:28.040 --> 0:29:31.640 listened in on the calls because she was concerned about 0:29:31.640 --> 0:29:37.440 her daughter, and once again, to Forrest's attorneys call Daisy Williams, 0:29:37.640 --> 0:29:41.440 who maintains that to Forest never confessed to the murder. 0:29:42.760 --> 0:29:47.280 To Forest's lawyer, Darryl Bender asks Daisy did he describe 0:29:47.280 --> 0:29:51.240 to you the series of events that he said had occurred. Daisy, 0:29:51.600 --> 0:29:57.200 no bender. Did he tell you where this happened again, Daisy, 0:29:57.560 --> 0:30:01.880