WEBVTT - #470 Jason Flom with Chris Vaughn 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.160 Just before sunrise on June fourteenth, two thousand and seven, 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:10.360 Kimberly and Christopher Vaughan packed their three kids into the 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:13.960 car and headed to a water park in Springfield, Illinois, 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.680 but the road trips soon turned deadly. Kimberly Vaughan was 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.960 fatally shot under the chin in the front passenger seat, 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.560 and gunfire from that direction also killed their three children. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:30.320 Christopher Vaughan was discovered limping alongside the road, suffering. 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:31.280 From two gunshot wounds. 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.519 His first words were, I think my wife shot me. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.159 Could a mother possibly have done this to her own family? 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.200 Police theorized that Christopher Vaughan must have staged the scene 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:47.479 to appear like a murder suicide, sending him away for the. 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:48.760 Rest of his natural life. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:59.440 But this is wrongful conviction. Wrongful conviction has always given 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:01.639 voice to him and people in prison, and now we're 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.640 expanding that voice to you. Call us at eight three 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:08.720 three two O seven four six sixty six and tell 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.319 us how these stories make you feel and what you've 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.640 done to help the cause, even if it's something as 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.120 simple as telling a friend or sharing on social media, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.360 and you might just hear yourself in a future episode. 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.720 Call us eight three, three, two oh seven, four six 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:36.840 sixty six. Welcome back to Ronful Conviction and joining us 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.440 from a correctional facility in Illinois. We have a man 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.600 that should have but never was able to grieve the 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.120 loss of his wife, Kimberly and their three beloved children, 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.120 but instead was snatched away from their funeral and blamed 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.480 for their deaths. Christopher Vaughan. I can't none of us 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:58.360 can begin to understand your pain or your resilience, but 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:00.600 we're very honored to have you here with us today. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.880 Well, I appreciate you guys taking the time and interest, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:04.880 I really do. 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:08.360 You're very welcome and joining us today, as well as 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:13.200 Chris's attorney, Keith Altman, who's expertise in pharmaceutical side effects 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:18.280 will help shed light on this unspeakable tragedy. And Keith, 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:19.200 thanks so much. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:19.600 For being here. 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:20.160 You're welcome. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:20.760 You're welcome. 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:22.960 Later on, we're going to speak with one of our 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.880 Wrongful Conviction hosts, Lauren Bright Pacheco, whose podcast Murder in 0:02:26.919 --> 0:02:30.960 Illinois was the first time that almost anyone heard Chris's 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:34.280 side of the story. But before he ever needed, or 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.679 ever thought he would need, any sort of advocacy, he 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:38.760 grew up pretty much like anybody else. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.919 I was born in Indiana, we moved to Missouri. I've 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.519 got two younger brothers. We spent a lot of time 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.440 on sports, cub scouts. I did reasonably well in high school, 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:54.400 graduated in ninety three. Went to the University of Missouri Raala, 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:59.200 focused on an electrical engineering degree, and I had met 0:02:59.320 --> 0:03:03.920 Kimberly the summer before college. To be frank, I mean, 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.200 dating was one thing, but we didn't have consistent pictures 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.600 of what the future looked like. At the end of 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:13.800 that first year of college, we found out she was pregnant, 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.640 and when I had got married, Abby was born in December. 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:21.400 Providing for Kimberly and the baby was my number one focus, 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.320 so I went ahead and dropped out of college and 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.520 was focusing on getting a local job. I had started 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.680 down a technology career path as the Internet was really 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:35.920 growing in the mid to late nineties. Information risk management 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.800 that's where my focus was, so I worked for a 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:44.800 variety of different consulting companies. There was significantly more work 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.160 out there for consultants in my niche market, so I 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:50.920 started my own consulting company. 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.440 Chris's successful private cybersecurity firm eventually got him hired by 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.720 a large international firm out of Chicago, and this success 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.760 allowed the family to grow from Abbey to Cassandra just 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.720 a year later, and then Blake three years later. 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:05.920 On. 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:09.760 Meanwhile, the stress of parenthood on this young couple, who 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.600 were seemingly more chosen by fate than by each other, well, 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:16.040 that stress began to take a toll. 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:21.360 Living together was rocky. We both early on we're really 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.760 trying to make it work, and we had pretty much 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.359 come into the understanding that we were both happy being 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.840 part of the family and for the kids, we'd stay 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:37.520 together and we provide the happiest and most nurturing home 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.720 possible for them, but as soon as they were out 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:43.440 of the house, we would find our own past. And 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.320 it was fully my intention to continue to help her 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.839 out in any way form or fashion I could. I 0:04:49.080 --> 0:04:51.920 sent her to school and tried to incorporate her into 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.760 the work I was doing, but it was still fully 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.640 my intention to pursue other avenues personally, and I believe 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:03.360 wasn't something that she was looking forward to. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.960 So Kim is very unhappy and having mental health details 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.160 and she's being treated and one of the medications that 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.120 she's been given as a drug called topiramate. The trade 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.840 name is topomax, which is really an anti convulsant. It's 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.960 normally given to people with epilepsy, but people have been 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.720 using it for mental health treatment as well. But what 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.719 neither she nor her doctor knew at the time is 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:31.240 that topomax had an increased risk of suicidal and self 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:35.640 injurious behavior. Now Johnson and Johnson knew this, and they 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:40.680 didn't tell the FDA, but nevertheless, shortly before the incident, 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:43.480 her dosage was changed of this drug. And one of 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.360 the things that these drugs are notorious for is that 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.719 when you change the dosage, that can lead to increased 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.880 negative mood and behavioral disturbances, the kind of things that 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.479 could cause you to take actions that you might not 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:57.560 have normally taken. 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:02.159 Which brings us up to June fourteenth, two thousand and seven, 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:05.240 when the couple woke up before sunrise and packed the kids, 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.480 half asleep into the car for the about three hour 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.080 drive to a water park in Springfield, Illinois. 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.320 The night before was one of Kimberla and I's many 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:20.440 disagreements and turned more into a spiteful argument of well 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:23.320 I don't spend enough time at home with the kids, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:27.239 she doesn't spend enough time helping out and partic dating 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:30.400 with the family, And then back and forth and eventually 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.000 led to well, let's just do something together as a 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.480 family tomorrow. And in the morning got the kids up 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.960 and out to the truck, and we sat in the 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:41.520 truck and waited for her to come out. I remember, 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:43.919 particularly that morning, I had to go back up to 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.800 the front door and holler up the stairs. Eventually she 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.839 did come down through her stuff in the truck. We 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:52.279 left the house. It was after the point we got 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.359 on the highway. She said she wasn't feeling well, so 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:57.760 I found a place off the side of the road. 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:00.320 After I parked the truck, I asked her, you know, 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.360 is still feeling bad? She needed a few minutes, And 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.040 she really just didn't say much of anything, So I 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.000 opted to give her a few minutes. When ahead and 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:13.280 jumped out. Kids were asleep in the back, and I 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.520 went around and just did miscellaneous things, checked the luggage rack, 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:19.840 looked at the tires, and that's when I'd heard just 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.080 a horrendous racket, and I was heading for my door 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:26.040 to get in and find out what was going on. 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.080 I pulled the door open, and I was looking at 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.960 Kim holding the gun. She looked at me and she said, 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.400 you won't take my kids away from me. She says, 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.200 you killed them, and then she starts firing a gun 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.080 at me. And I was tumbling backward and trying to 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:47.440 come forward and not making much progress doing anything, And 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:49.520 that's when she turned the gun on herself. 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:53.080 In the backseat of the vehicle. The three children were 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:58.200 all shot twice. The ballistics show that all six shots 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:03.040 of the children converge over the passenger seats left shoulder, 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:06.880 as if somebody had turned around from the passenger seat 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:10.640 and fired the gun and the passenger seat of the vehicle. 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.480 Kim was shot under the chin straight up. The driver 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.400 of the vehicle, Chris, was shot in the hand and 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.480 through the leg. The shots are not fatal, but he 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:23.080 is seriously injured. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.120 So there you are on the side of the road. 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.080 Had you actually looked in the car and seen what 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:31.400 she had done. 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.160 No more than a quick glance, probably I was just 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:38.720 too horrified to do anything. The vehicle had an eerie 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:44.440 stillness to it, the stillness when you're in a place 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.760 by yourself and the only thing I could think jop 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.960 was that I need to get help. Knowing that I 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.720 wasn't walking distance from anywhere closed, I thought, well, I'll 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.360 just drive the vehicle. And the way she was slumped, 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:02.160 I needed to not unbuckle her, but to buckle her. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.760 But I was just shaking so uncontrollably trying to buckle 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.640 her and failing on the seatbelt. 0:09:09.720 --> 0:09:13.560 Blood was found. Now one would think that if she 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:18.360 had been shot by Chris, as what was alleged, that 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:21.880 her blood would have been on the seatbelt, But it 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.000 turns out that it is not her blood that's on 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:25.680 the seatbelt. It's Chris's blood. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:29.880 However, before the blood test, police theorized that Chris, who 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.000 had run a private security firm, never mind that it 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.960 was cybersecurity, but ignoring that, they came up with this 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:42.240 theory that he must have somehow been an expert in 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:43.600 staging crime scenes. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:48.280 According to prosecutor, Chris is such a criminal mastermind that 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.240 he was able to make the scene look like she 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.200 had committed the crime he did. That, down to blood 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.000 spatter and all of these things. It is just simply prepossible. 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.480 But what it is is an admission from the prosecution 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:07.440 that the physical evidence does not support that Chris committed 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.800 the crime. It supports that she committed the crime. 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.240 Nevertheless, they alleged that Chris, who's by the way, just 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.520 under five foot nine, somehow reached into the passenger side 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.240 of a large SUV, shot Kim from under her chin, 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.720 then reached over her left shoulder, shooting each child twice, 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.800 then proceeded to unbuckle the seat belt stained with what 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:35.120 they believe was Kim's blood, to make it appear that 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:39.120 Kim had been free to make the shots. The theory 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:46.400 continued that Chris somehow inflicted two survivable gunshot wounds, one 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.560 to his left hand and one to his thigh. But 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.760 since the blood on the seat belt actually belonged to Chris, 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:56.720 it meant two things. One, the belt was not buckled 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.439 when Kim was shot, and the belt was stained after 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.839 Chris had been shot. Like he said, when he reached 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.679 across her, his left hand bloody pulled the belt, leaving 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.640 a stain, and then it retracted when he was unable 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:12.240 to buckle it. 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:16.360 And then I focused on the driving, but I was 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.840 just shaking so uncontrollably and just not thinking clearly enough 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:24.800 that driving wasn't going to be an option either, So 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.760 at that point I decided, okay, I just need to 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.960 find somebody that can make a phone call for me. 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.800 Chris then stumbled down the side of the highway, obviously 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:37.000 the state of shock with the two gunshot wounds, both 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.480 by the way without stippling a burn injury associated with 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.600 close range gunshots, so the shots had to have been 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.120 fired from at least eighteen inches away, if not thirty, 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:51.960 and the one in his thigh almost castrated him, so 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:54.920 we'd have to believe that he risked taking a distant 0:11:54.960 --> 0:12:00.800 shot to stage a near miss with his testicles. Luckily 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:02.880 someone stopped to help him. 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.640 There was a man in a pickup truck and he 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.360 pulled up aside and asked something to the effect of 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.680 have you been in an accident? And, without thinking, the 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.840 first thing that came out of my mouth was I 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.800 think my wife shot me. It wasn't that much longer 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:19.840 that ambulances and police cars showed up, took me to 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:23.160 the hospital, released me back to the police station, and 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.560 that was the multi day interrogation. The stress of the 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:30.720 situation kept me in an imploded state, unable to think 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.600 and still horrified, confused because I don't think anyone in 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:38.480 their right mind could do anything like that. If I 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:42.760 had suspected that she was violent at all, I would 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.560 have taken steps years before that. But that was not 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:49.440 the Kim that I knew. And I remember saying that 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.280 in the interrogation, Kim could not have done this. That 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.800 doesn't make any sense. And the missing piece that I 0:12:56.840 --> 0:12:59.960 didn't have at that point right after the tragedy was 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:00.880 the medication. 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.400 Well, it wasn't obvious to him, aha, It must have 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.160 been the topomax. He just knew he had a wife 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:08.440 who was in pain, she was still the mother of 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.760 his three children, who had done these terrible things. And 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:12.800 I think when you combined all of that together, he 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.319 just decided to say nothing. 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.080 Which is his right. But as we so often see 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.400 in cases like these, there are judgments about what is 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.640 the right way to react. Here, they already suspected Chris, 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.760 and when he was only expressing his bewilderment over what 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.520 Kim had done. The next question is then who did it, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:37.440 at which point one might expect that he'd vehemently defend himself. 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:40.240 I can only sum it up in the word implosure. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.640 Quite frankly, I was a shame that I had failed 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.199 my children and not seeing things ahead of time, been 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:53.760 better prepared or reacted in a better fashion. The physical 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.960 and the emotional pain was overwhelming, to the point where 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.000 I just couldn't string words together to make a sense, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.840 let alone draw conclusions or be of any type of 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:05.840 productive help to my own defense. 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.800 You're listening to wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.520 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.040 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:32.880 on Apple Podcasts. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:39.960 After I lost my kids, I lost my identity. I 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.480 saw myself as a dad, working and paying for a 0:14:44.560 --> 0:14:48.000 house and taking care of the kids. At that point, 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:52.480 I lost meaning and purpose. The part that hurt even 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:57.720 more was that I was still here. I thought that 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.960 there had to have been a reason for that, because 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.440 I shouldn't be Had she completed what she had started, 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.440 I wouldn't have left that truck either. But the fact 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.800 that I did must mean that there's more meaning that 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.840 I'm supposed to be here. I've got a purpose. I 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:17.120 think that's what provided me with that little bit of 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:20.360 strength I needed to kind of start picking myself back up. 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:26.360 So with no confession, and the crime scene indicating Kim's guilt. 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.720 Chris was released into a cab wearing nothing but a 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.760 hospital gown. Meanwhile, there was even more at the scene 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:39.120 that supported Chris's innocence. For instance, d Vaughan's usually stored 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:41.760 their gun, a Taurus nine milimeter, in a closet in 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:43.280 a terrycloth towel. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:49.040 There were crime scene pictures that showed a small white 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:54.000 towel covered in blood on Kim's leg, and when the 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:58.200 crime scene was processed, it was taken and washed and 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.920 sanitized and essentially destroyed as evidence. 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:06.200 Also, Kim's hands tested positive for gunshot residue, and while 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:09.960 a positive gunshot residence test has limited value, a negative 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.280 test can be used to exclude a suspect, but Chris's 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.640 hands were never tested. At least the crime seat investigator 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.560 Bob Deal was actively challenging the state's theory, citing the 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.360 bullet trajectory, the issue of Chris's smaller stature, the fact 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.640 that there were no signs of a struggle with Kim, 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:28.880 as well as the way the blood had hit her hand, 0:16:29.600 --> 0:16:32.800 all of it serving as clear indications that she and 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:36.800 she alone had shot that gun. But Bob Deal the 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.520 investigator was ignored, and they continued to seek death penalty 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:44.280 even after the DNA testing revealed that the blood on 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.760 the seat belt indeed belonged to Chris. 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:51.640 Before the grand jury wasnt panel, they knew the blood 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.680 on the seat belt was Chris's. We know this because 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.880 there's a phone lock where the forensic examiner detailed that 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:04.040 she told the state's attorney that the blood was not Kims. 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.640 When the grand jury was to decide whether Chris would 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.920 be indicted or not, the question over the blood was 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:16.840 presented very craftily. The officer is never asked whose blood 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.360 was on the seat belt, But when you look at 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.480 the transcript, it is clear that the way the questions 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.840 were asked it was meant so that the jury would 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:32.359 infer reasonably infer that the blood on the seat belt 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:34.520 was Kim's and not Chris's. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.919 The following is a quote from the exchange between state's 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:42.399 attorney Leah Norbit and the lead investigator, Sergeant Gary Lawson. 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:43.120 Quote. 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.320 They looked at the seat belt, right, Yes, as if 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.560 the seat belt were pulled to be seat belting. Someone 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:52.720 in correct, and there was blood on that seat belt? 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:53.919 Was there not? Yes? 0:17:53.960 --> 0:17:56.520 And when Kimberly Vaughan was found by the paramedics and 0:17:56.560 --> 0:17:58.560 by the police. She was not wearing a seat belt. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:17:59.240 Correct. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.840 Is significant because she was wearing that seat belt when 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:07.119 she was shot. That's correct end quote. If she had 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.639 been wearing the seat belt when she was shot, it 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.680 would have had to have been her blood, but it 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:14.159 wasn't Kim's blood. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:20.000 It completely refutes the prosecution's allegations as to what happened 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.960 in this case. It's all documented. The other thing that 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.840 was interesting is that before the grand jury, the forensic 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:32.119 report was mark draft, and then the day after the 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:36.240 grand jury comes out with its finding, the forensic report 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:41.280 it's changed from draft to final, and that examiner was 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.240 asked why did she do that? And her response was 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.760 I was told to do it, and she wouldn't answer 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:47.320 any further. 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.600 It appears that marking the report final the day after 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:55.280 the grand jury indictment offered an appearance of plausible deniability 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:59.000 to the assistant state's attorney and Sergeant Gary Lawson. But 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.560 now they had their indictment and they had chosen to 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:06.160 arrest Chris while he was at the funeral of his 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:09.119 wife and children. The cruelty of the whole thing be 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.639 damned and effectively preparing for a capital trial, well, we 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:15.520 know that can take quite some time. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.800 I didn't go to trial until twenty twelve, so I 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.919 was in the will County jail from two thousand and 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:24.320 seven to twenty twelve. 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.800 He was treated very poorly because of what it was 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.840 alleged that he had done, but he was under the 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.120 death penalty at the time, and there were funds provided 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.639 by the state to get the best attorneys, get the 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.560 best experts. And when I first became exposed to the case, 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.080 which is actually I had just been sworn in as 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.920 an attorney, but I had been doing the farmer covigilance 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.679 safety surveillance of drugs. That's how I got involved in 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.159 the case in the first place. And I remember sitting 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.600 in a room in Clayton, near Saint Louis with what 0:19:56.680 --> 0:20:00.240 I considered to be the dream team of criminal defense lawyers, 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:05.040 and the ballistics expert had shown how it just was 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:09.560 totally inconsistent with Chris having shot the gun. And then 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:12.320 when you combine that with the topamax and at the 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:17.440 time I had seen a document from Johnson and Johnson 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.199 where they had concluded that Topermax increased the risk of 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.920 suicidal itself and Juri's behavior, but they never told the FDA. 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.000 So it was only after I petitioned the FDA for 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.679 action that things started to happen. And I remember sitting 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:34.720 there and saying, there's just no way this happening. 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.520 Chris's dream team continued to develop their defense, even deposing 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.040 the crime scene investigator Robert Dial in January twenty eleven 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:45.840 about the investigation, and deal said, quote, every time that 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.200 I offered up something that was contrary to what they said, 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:50.439 they had some reason why I didn't know what I 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.119 was talking about, or they would change their theory of 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:55.800 what happened to try to match the evidence, rather than 0:20:55.880 --> 0:21:00.000 letting the evidence dictate the events that occurred. 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:01.480 Quote, I know he. 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:04.280 Was taken off the case. And you know, once again, 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.119 the confirmation bias get rid of anybody that may have 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:09.479 an alternate explanation as to what happened. 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.879 It's this horribly flawed human element that makes abolishing the 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:17.280 death penalty and absolute moral imperative. And then that's exactly 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.760 what happened. Illinois abolished the death penalty in March twenty eleven, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:26.719 but this had paradoxically an unintended and ultimately tragic consequence 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:27.400 for Chris. 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.800 When the death penalty got taken off the table, the 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:34.400 funds for his defense also evaporated. 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:37.639 It was going to continue to be so expensive to 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.840 finish out what needed to be done. In my attorney 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:44.280 there in Illinois, he showed up and he just apologized. 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:45.560 It just wasn't possible. 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.920 And the case was assigned to a public defender, and 0:21:49.440 --> 0:21:54.320 they're overloaded, overworked, they don't have the resources. I remember 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.080 the public defender spending about five minutes with me on 0:21:57.119 --> 0:21:58.720 the phone, and that was the last time I ever 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:01.680 heard from the public defender. I think he did ask 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:04.560 me if I would appear pro bono that there were 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:06.639 no funds, and I wasn't on my own, I was 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:09.040 working for somebody and I had just been told to 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.840 stop what I was doing. We hadn't done a report yet, 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:16.600 and so it is clear that the substantial evidence that 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:20.480 was being developed of Chris's innocence was not going to 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:21.440 be available to him. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.879 The Public Defender team had to become fully steeped in 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.960 everything that had been developed over five years to combat 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.840 the States team, which had been working together for just 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:31.399 as long. 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:34.440 It's like going to the World Series and removing one 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.119 of the teams, getting them from a little league park 0:22:37.240 --> 0:22:38.919 and throwing them in and say, oh, go ahead and 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:39.480 do your best. 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.680 You were also facing a situation where I have to 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.760 believe you were one of the most hated people in 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:45.760 the state of Illinois. 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:49.080 I know. The state's attorney was very vocal, and they 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.840 used the media to the nth degree to make sure 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.720 that the stage was set for their advantage. 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.119 So the scales of justice were certainly tipped all the 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:01.480 way to one side as the trial was set to 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.399