WEBVTT - #474 Maggie Freleng with Andre Causey 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:04.520 On a hot day in June, I drove to a 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:09.039 quiet residential neighborhood just outside of Austin, Texas to visit 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:20.599 Andre Causey. Although the house is large and spacious, Andrea 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:23.760 doesn't need much to be happy. He enjoys the little 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:25.880 things in life, like his fish aquarium. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:27.720 As a matter of fact, I got that fish aquaria 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:28.720 off side road. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:32.240 The aquarium sits right at the entrance of his house. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:36.559 You'll probably hear it bubbling throughout our interview. It's adorned 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:40.199 with artificial plants and a little sign that says no fishing. 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.920 The big one in that goldfish is the first one 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.000 that I got there my wife. When it got they 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.600 didn't want to set it to her because she said 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.120 I was going to try to see if they were 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:50.879 going to live. And they say, oh, we can't see you, 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.960 no fish if you can't kill them. But yeah, but 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:56.080 I got damn And when we ended up going back 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:00.240 and buying some more, I got some more. Allergy's my 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:02.560 first fish to quid. So I think I'm doing pretty 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:04.120 good today. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.040 Andre is doing pretty good. He takes pride in raising 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.360 his fish. He's nicknamed them his grand babies. Since he 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:12.920 doesn't have any of his own yet. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:19.759 Because a solid grand kids we have, yeah, you all 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.080 the grand kids we have our tears and doesn't have 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:23.040 any kids. 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:27.000 Andre spent decades in prison for murder. He told me 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.840 on beautiful days like today, he'd look outside and daydream 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:34.000 about a life like this, one simple with the people 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:36.280 and fish he loves. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.160 Yeah. My name is Alan Andre Causey, and I was 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.680 convicted of fifty years for this crime. I end up 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.640 doing thirty one years and four months before I released on. 0:01:46.640 --> 0:01:50.440 Parole from love of for Good. This is wrongful conviction 0:01:50.520 --> 0:02:01.320 with Maggie Freeling today, Andre Causey and Andre Cousey, who 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:05.240 goes by Andre was born on March twenty sixth, nineteen 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:06.040 sixty five. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:13.200 I got four brothers and a sister. I'm the third 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.079 oldest out of six kids as five boys and one girl. 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.280 At an early age, Andre's parents divorced and his mom 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:23.840 moved the kids to Austin, Texas. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:26.920 We come up here in seventy three, so seventy three 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:28.560 out by eight years old. Because I was born in 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.600 sixty five, I used to go back home and stay 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.639 a year six months and spend time down there with 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.120 I was still one of my mama's sisters and spend 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.560 time with my daddy and all them on that end 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:41.520 down there. But you know, me and my dad and 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.120 that we got along good. I don't actually know what 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:46.200 happened between him and my mom because we were young, 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:48.760 but we moved here and my mama moved us up 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:50.880 here to give us a better life, get us out 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:52.200 of the country because we country boy. 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.239 You know, Austin was very different from his home in Louisiana. 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.320 Not better or worse, just more to do well. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.880 I mean, if we were young, so you know, it 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.000 was just it was all new, but you know, if 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.960 we had a more wide and broad space to move around, 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:07.639 you know, and we met friends and you. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.560 Know, Andre's mom was a beautician and worked hard to 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:14.280 support five kids. Eventually she opened up her own shop, 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.680 leaving Andre and his siblings exploring the new city on 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.160 their own. Andre says they eventually made friends and met 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.639 a particularly influential older lady. 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.000 We met this old lady. Her name was missus Johnna, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:28.560 but we called a honey, but she told us a lot. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.840 Honey was sort of a stand in mom. What were 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:33.280 some things that you remember her teaching you. 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.240 Well, you know, she taught us to always work for 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.800 what we want. You know, don't expect nobody to just 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:39.680 give you in and you know, give you something, you 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.960 know always, you know, work. You know, people gonna people 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.119 gonna help you if you try to help yourself. 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.720 Andre says that Honey initially hired him and his siblings 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:50.600 to help her out with things like yardwork. 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.520 She had a garage were she do garage sales, and 0:03:53.560 --> 0:03:56.480 she go around to other garage and buy stuff, and 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.200 Brian to hers, and she taught us how to get 0:03:58.200 --> 0:03:59.640 around also and all that. 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.640 And Honey treated the kids as her own. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:04.800 We would ever wear at her favorite place that heat 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.440 was long John silbl So that's why I'm not crazy 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:12.320 about lawn John Sila, because that's all she fed us. Wow. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.480 Andre was a hard worker from an early age. It 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.800 was really all he knew. When Andre was in tenth grade, 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.479 he dropped out of high school and started working a 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.039 variety of jobs, he says, including at ut Austin in 0:04:25.040 --> 0:04:28.960 the kitchen as a dishwasher. He also did some construction work. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.080 Andres's life was simple, just how we liked it. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.839 You know, because I was just I having fun. 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:37.400 What was having fun? 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:39.839 I just like to go out and just enjoy people 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.200 and have fun. You know people that I knew. You know, 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.520 we sit around, drank beer and just have fun. 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.080 No, were you getting in any kind of trouble, No, ma'am, 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.080 No run into the law. Andre says, around eighteen or nineteen, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.200 he got a girl pregnant. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.279 At that time that we were doing our thing. It 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.720 was just a lust thing on both our behalves, you know, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:03.120 So it wasn't any. 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:07.640 Feelings, Andre says, because the relationship wasn't serious, you know, 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.880 no feelings. He wasn't allowed in his son's life. 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:14.040 Last time I seen him was like maybe two days 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.160 before I got arrested, and he was like three or 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:17.120 four years old. Then. 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.200 Andre never had a relationship with his own son. 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:22.279 I don't know if he knows me. I don't know 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:23.800 what his mama told me about him. 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.280 But a few years later he became a step dad 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:32.039 to a baby girl with a woman he'd love for 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.839 decades to come. How would you describe him? 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.920 Sexy? 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:40.560 He was sexy. 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.200 This is DeLanda, DeLanda Harold Consey, and I'm the wife 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:46.440 of Alan Andre Consey. 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:48.159 How do y'all meet? 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.520 We met in some apartment compact on the East Side 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.520 I used to go be to Miami in the summertime 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.680 and I met Andrew. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.560 Anna stayed next door to my mother, and that's how 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.839 we met. As matter of fact, my little brother bandon 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.040 Me is married to her first cousin, oh way Man. 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:07.000 They used to come visit her. That's how we met. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:10.320 What stood out to you, like did you just see 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:11.320 him across the college? 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:11.799 Was cute. 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.760 He was cute and he knew and I always told him, 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.400 I know, you know, you're cute. He was just an 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:23.599 outgoing person. He had some little bow legs, he was fine, 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.480 had Woch's wet shorts, and he played basketball at the 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.720 basketball court. So I would sit up there and watch him. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:29.159 On the steps. 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:31.960 DeLanda watched Andre for years. 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:36.000 When I first met him, I was like fifteen sixteen, 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:38.960 Oh wow, Yeah, I was still in high school, you know, 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:40.800 during the summer time, like when I would come home 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:42.720 or go over to him see my aunt and visit her. 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.320 I would always see him. But then I left him, 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.400 went to college, and then I came back. And then 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:50.800 when I actually graduated from college, I think that's when 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:52.440 we really got seriously. I came out of the beauty 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:52.920 shop one. 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.840 Day Andre's mom was actually DeLanda's beautician. So she comes 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.240 out of the beauty shop one day to Andrea and 0:06:59.360 --> 0:06:59.719 he's like. 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.400 My wife, I'm not your wife. And then we just 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.840 connected and been together ever since. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.000 DeLanda had just given birth to her daughter, Rhonesha, when 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:11.400 they got serious, and. 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.920 He came in and stepped in and was a father 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:15.800 figure to my daughter. I say, he had my daughter 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.640 more than I had her. And he just came in 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:20.080 and it became a help meet to me. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.480 That's amazing. So he was a good dad. 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:24.360 He's very good with kids. 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.480 I always been a family type of person. I love 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.760 being with family. I love spending time with my family. 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.760 Unfortunately, DeLanda and Andrea would never be able to have 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:36.720 their own kid together. Just about a year after they 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:50.600 officially started dating, Andrea would be arrested for murder. On 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.800 Monday evening, August twelfth, nineteen ninety one, Andre was at 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.720 home with his nine month old daughter and DeLanda was 0:07:57.760 --> 0:07:58.360 cooking dinner. 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.240 She feel to fixed some talk I never we'll forget it. 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:05.360 She fixed some tacos. That was my last meal. And 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:07.400 I was sitting outside talking to some of the guys 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.640 that stay while in the same apartments, and we were 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.720 just talking and listening to music and two guys walk 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.240 up in suits and we looking and they said, well 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.000 they walk up, they look at the back of the 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:19.840 car and we just looked at them. They said, well, 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:21.560 whore driving this car? I said, I am sir. 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:24.520 It was a maroon Oldsmobile Toronado. 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.920 And he said, well, we need to talk to you. 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.160 I said, okay, Well let me take my daughter in 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:29.560 the house. 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:31.280 DeLanda asked what was going on? 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:33.400 She asked, he said, who is that? I say, it's 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.120 the police. They wanted to talk to me, so they said, well, 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.600 can you go down to the police station. I say yes. 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:44.199 Officers Mike Huckabay and Bruce Boardman took Andre to the station. 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.600 He was taken in for questioning and endured a seven 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:54.800 hour coercive interrogation by a Huctor Polonko led Austin Police 0:08:54.840 --> 0:08:56.000 Department Homicide Unit. 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.640 This is Jesse Freud, senior staff attorney at the Innocence 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:00.720 Project of Texas. 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.440 Forty five minutes into what they initially call an interview, 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:09.280 two officers tell him that they don't believe this story 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:11.400 he gives about why he's driving this car. 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.120 Remember when the police showed up at Andre's house. They 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:19.400 asked him about a car parked outside a maroon Oldsmobile Toronado. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.720 That's because at a taped up murder scene in Andre's 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.160 apartment complex the day before, a bystander had told the 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:30.000 police they'd seen the exact car rubbernecking or driving past 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:34.880 the crime scene, apparently acting suspiciously. So the police tracked 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.840 the car down and it led them to Andre. 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.160 And pretty quickly they are asking him to retell the 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:44.920 story over and over and over again. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.120 Over and over. Andre told the police he'd borrowed the 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.800 car from a friend. He went out that night and 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.880 on the drive home, he slowed down at the crime 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.439 scene because he was curious. There were cops and bystanders, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:01.120 so he just looked and drove away. The police weren't 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.520 having it, and every time he gives a version, they 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:07.680 tell him, we don't like that version. We think you're lying. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.560 Tell it to us again, and were you You've never 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.040 been in trouble with the law. I feel like that's 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:15.040 like the Twilight Zone. 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:16.000 It was. 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:20.079 I could tell me I didn't do nothing, Andre insisted. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.240 The night they were asking about, he'd been with DeLanda's brother, 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:28.679 Bobby Harold junior partying at a nearby apartment, but that 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:34.000 same night someone had been brutally killed nearby. Twenty one 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:38.040 year old Anita Buyington. So she was a college student. 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.880 She lived in I believe San Marcus, which is just 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.920 south of Austin, and she was in town with two 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:46.520 of her girlfriends, one of whom was her cousin, and 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.160 they met up with a group of three guys that 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.679 they had recently met to go out on Sixth Street 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.360 and go drinking, and she had called it a night 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.240 a little bit earlier than the rest of the group, leaves. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:10:59.839 The bar, goes to her car, and from there we 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.240 don't know for sure what happened, but in the early 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:07.520 morning hours of Sunday, August eleventh, nineteen ninety one, Anita 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:11.360 was found beaten to death with a heavy slab of concrete. 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.120 Her car, a nineteen eighty nine brown Honda, was found 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:20.040 parked five miles away. A day later, Andre was taken 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.640 in for what was initially billed as a police interview. 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:27.760 And then from there the interview when I'm using quotes, 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.439 I don't nobody can see me, but I'm using quotes 0:11:29.679 --> 0:11:35.280 quickly transitions to an interrogation and that becomes a very extended, 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.360 about six to six and a half hour overnight process 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:42.720 of going in and having two officers eventually one officer 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:47.079 interrogate him back and forth, then leave him alone for 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.400 a long period of time, not letting him really sleep, 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.520 though having somebody come back in and out. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:57.120 Often these are common tactics meant to break people down. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.240 They also brought in to Landa's brother who'd been hanging 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.160 out with Andrea the day of the murder, and questioned 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:03.560 him to. 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.040 Their interviewing him in another room, coming back in and 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.520 telling him, hey, your brother in law is saying the 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.559 alibi that you're giving us isn't true. Your mom's denying it. 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.760 We call that he wouldn't have known this at the time, 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:22.560 but we call that in this field false evidence ploise. 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.640 So that's making a suspect think that something is true 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:29.599 when it's not, to gauge the reaction, and then of 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.520 course to try and get them to confess to what 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:32.439 they think is going on. 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:36.360 But Andre kept saying he had no idea what was 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:36.800 going on. 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.719 And then as Andre testified to a trial, there was 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.120 a really critical part of the interrogation where he is 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:49.000 alone with one of the main officers who threatens him 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.040 with the death penalty. Was that Polanco or that was Polanco? 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:58.439 Hector Polanco. Hector Polanco was an Austin Police Department patrolman 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.640 and homicide detective with a reputation for getting a confession. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:07.160 After more than six hours of interrogation at the hands 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:11.400 of Hukkabe, Boardman and Polanco, they typed up a statement 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.520 and handed it to Andre at the time. Did you 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:15.319 know what that was? 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:15.880 No? 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.640 I didn't. They told me. They said, well, this is 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:20.880 your alibi. You signed this, you can go on leave 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.079 and go home. That's what I was, and that's what 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:23.600 I did. 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.640 He signed the document what he thought was his ticket home. 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.679 He had been partying over the weekend, so he's exhausted 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:35.000 and he just wanted to end the madness and get 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:35.439 it over with. 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:40.160 But the statement wasn't Andrea's alibi, as police had told him. 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:44.040 What it actually said was that Andrea and DeLanda's brother 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.960 had beaten Anita to death after a drug deal gone wrong. 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:50.199 Did you ask them to read it to you? 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.360 I didn't even think about it. No, I didn't. 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.520 You just trusted them. So he signed without reading the document. 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:03.400 Because my reason was poor at the time. There poor. 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:09.200 I had to take special classes and reason was my worst. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.400 So you signed it and then you can't go home, 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:12.880 and I. 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:16.480 Can't go home. They locked me up tried me with 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:16.920 a murder. 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.720 Andre went to trial on July fourteenth, nineteen ninety two. 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.680 There were two prosecutors. One was Terry Keel and the 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.040 second was a gentleman by the name of Reuben Young, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:34.800 and their trial theory was that the victim had approached 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.840 Andrea's brother in law for drugs and that they were 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.920 about to trade drugs for sex before the victim quote 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:49.280 unquote cheats him out of drugs and proceeds to get away, 0:14:49.640 --> 0:14:53.040 at which point, the statement says, Andre's brother in law 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.400 tells him, Hey, she just tried to beat me for drugs, 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.800 Let's go get her, and that Andrea subdues her, and 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:02.400 that his brother law assaults her with the rain diverter 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:04.040 to the point where it causes her death. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:10.800 Was there any evidence of this? There also wasn't any 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:15.440 evidence that Anita Byington had any history of drug use. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.760 At trial, Andre testified that he'd been tricked into signing 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.920 a false confession, but the prosecutor said he was a 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:25.600 liar and a criminal, and they put law enforcement on 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:29.880 the stand to back their theory up, cops who Andre 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.160 says he'd never met before Anita's murder. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.080 It was crazy. It was really crazy. The picture they 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.480 pleasure of me was really crazy. What was that picture? 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.160 We had a police sauce center uniform that took the 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.960 stands and so he stated my full name, and he'd asked, well, 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.080 how did you know him? And he said, well, I 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.440 know him from drug gang banging and all type of things. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:53.760 And I'm like, nah my, you look at me and 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.400 said that's not true. I said, that's not true. I 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:58.480 ain't never had no run in with the cops. No. 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.640 The other witnesses for the prosecution were people who said 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:08.840 they'd seen Andre at the crime scene, driving the oldsmobile suspiciously, rubbernecking. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.680 Driving by slowly looking interested. 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.160 As a normal person probably would when there's police around. 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:17.480 But literally every single person does in traffic when they 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.360 see a car accident that causes you know, miles of 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.760 backup for no reason, literally human nature. So he has 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:26.880 a human reaction to seeing law enforcement and a big 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:29.800 crowd of folks at a place that doesn't seem like 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:32.600 that would be happening for any reason he's aware of, so. 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:36.560 He looks that along with Andre's signature on a confession 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.560 written by police. Sealed his conviction. Andre was sentenced to 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.280 fifty years in prison for the murder of Anita Byington. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:48.480 He was shocked. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.720 Yeah, I wouldn't do that. I'm the type of person 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:57.840 that I don't believe and nobody hurt nobody, especially women. 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.600 I'm not if i'm I'm not gonna let you. I'm 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.760 not just gonna let you hurt no one. I'm not 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.200 gonna do that. That's not right. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:13.399 His family and friends were too. DeLanda couldn't believe her 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.080 Andre had been convicted of murder. 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:18.879 Cause he didn't have an angry bone in his body. 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.080 That couldn't be possible. I was like, how could that 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.600 possibly happen? So, yeah, it was hard. 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:30.160 Now, prosecutors didn't just charge Andre. Remember, they'd accused him 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:35.600 and DeLanda's brother, Bobby Harold, of killing Anita Byington. But 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:40.600 almost nine months after Andre's conviction, prosecutors dropped the chargers 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.920 against Bobby because they didn't have the evidence to take 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.960 him to trial. Yet there was Andre convicted of being 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:52.560 Bobby's accomplice, staring down a natural life sentence for a 0:17:52.680 --> 0:18:06.040 crime he said from day one he didn't commit. When 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:07.280 did it feel real? 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.080 When I got the prison, When I got the prison, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:14.120 when I got off that bus in Midway, Texas? 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.000 Yeah, what was that like? 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.240 It was like, Man, I'm in I'm in a world 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:26.680 that I know nothing about. I'm dying here for something 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.520 I didn't do. I don't know what the outcome or 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.440 what I'm faced with right now because I don't even 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:37.000 know what I'm walking into. Most people, you got to 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.200 be down with a gang. You gotta be down with this, 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:41.040 you gotta be down with that, you gotta do this. 0:18:41.200 --> 0:18:44.160 But but Andre says he was lucky. He got sent 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.560 to a unit with a lot of young people. At 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.560 twenty seven, he was one of the oldest there. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.119 It was a relief because they looked they when they 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:56.960 found out how old I was, they all respected me. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.040 They all start calling me on and all this said 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:03.440 in that day, I'll respect me. I don't worry about that. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:03.800 Man. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:05.760 We got you. You ain't got you, Just do you. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.560 Andre kept to himself and passed the time working and 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.000 talking to DeLanda. How come you chose to stay with him? 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:15.280 After the conviction. I mean, you could have moved on 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.159 with your life and not dealt with any of this. 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.920 Well, I know he was innocent, and I know he 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:24.320 needed a support system, and I know I could give 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:26.560 him that support. So I just stayed in that fight 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:27.000 with him. 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:28.880 I know he was innocent. 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.119 In the years Andre was in prison, DeLanda had a 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.840 child with another man, but her heart was always with Andrea, 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.400 and just like he'd done with her daughter, Andre would 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:41.720 go on to love her little boy as his own. 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.160 In two thousand Andrea and DeLanda got married, and Andre 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.680 eventually got his ge D. After teaching himself how to 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:51.600 read and write. 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:55.280 I would go to the to the library and get 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.960 a palm books and stuff like that. 0:19:58.640 --> 0:20:01.480 He would copy love poem and send them to DeLanda, 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:02.240 but I. 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.000 Wouldn't cop them identical. I would try to make it 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.880 my own. I would try it best I could. 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:10.920 Andre also tried the best he could to be a 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:12.040 dad to his kids. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:15.480 Every Christmas, we had this thing called Angil Tree down 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:19.520 in prison, and as long as your kids was under sixteen, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.920 you can always you put the application in and a 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:27.560 local church work supplme Christmas presents and stuff, and that's 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:28.640 what I would do every year. 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.840 As the years went on, Andre fought to get back 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.040 home to his family, but he was denied parole at 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:41.120 least fifteen times. And every time he'd think of DeLanda. 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:44.160 Yeah, I just had to be strong for her. Every 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:45.800 time I got to set off, I'd tell her, it's 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:47.720 gonna be alright. It's gonna be alright. You know, we 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.359 just got to keep moving forward. You know, we're not 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:57.280 in control. You know, eventually we're gonna get what we deserve. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:02.040 You know, we just got to keep going. No, but 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:04.920 you know, it was rough. I wanted to be home, 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:06.920