WEBVTT - #490 Maggie Freleng with Tom Rhodes 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:02.960 Tom Rhodes loves sports. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:06.080 I wrestled. I just wrestled year round. 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:09.119 I get on the I have a freestyle team and 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.840 wrestled the Olympic style and a thousand years ago won 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.280 the state freestyle championship and second Greco Roman. 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:19.800 What way class were you were you wrestled? 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.159 I was one seventy five for that tournament and I 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:24.480 didn't cut any weight at all. 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:27.360 Tom didn't have to work out. He worked on a farm. 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:29.960 I just decided I'm going to go in there farm 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:32.200 strong and farm strong. 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:37.599 I like that. I met Tom at the Annual Innocence 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.680 Network Conference in April twenty twenty four. You look like 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:45.200 you could be a sportscaster. I was like someone cut 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.360 of prison was such a nice st No, he does, Yeah, okay. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.199 I had one viable tooth in my head when I 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:53.680 when I left prison, and the rest of them needed 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:56.800 a lot of work, and so I had no choice. 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.760 But I had a lot of work done. 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:01.960 Well, now you have your sportscaster. 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.880 Looks I'm hoping to land something after talking to you. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.480 My name is Tom Rhodes, and. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:20.119 I was wrongly incarcerated for eight nine hundred and thirty 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.920 two days about twenty four and a half years. 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.200 From Love of for Good This is Wrongful Conviction with 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:43.039 Maggie Freeling today Tom Rhodes. Tom Rhodes was born in 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.520 June nineteen fifty nine to Lois and Daniel Rhodes. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.120 My parents farmed and my mom worked for the bank 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:54.360 in the little town of Dunk, Iowa. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.200 Tom is the oldest of four kids. He was twelve 0:01:58.240 --> 0:01:59.440 when his sister was born. 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:01.920 Kind of kind of grew up in a work hard, 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:03.240 play hard environment. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:05.680 There was always work to be done on the farm. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.160 Tom's brother Ron says, they were constantly on the go. 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.440 You know, Dad would holler up in the morning, boys, 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.079 time to get up, and you know we were expected 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:20.160 to be downstairs and you know, ten or fifteen minutes. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.800 So we were moving equipment from farm to farm or 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:26.720 out fixing. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.960 Equipment between livestock and raising cattle. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.120 And harvesting or planting. 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.840 But really wonderful life. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.720 Actually, Tom probably had the hardest of everyone because it 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:42.239 was less automated when he was younger, so it was 0:02:42.280 --> 0:02:48.160 a lot more physical labor. And he was he was, 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:54.040 like I'd say, probably my dad's right hand man. 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.680 So are you getting emotional right now? 0:02:58.280 --> 0:02:58.480 Yeah? 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:04.720 I just I guess just thinking back to the way 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:11.000 our lives were, Just thinking back about, you know, how 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:16.400 we all kind of worked together, and how good my 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:20.560 parents were, you know, to of us all. 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:30.320 Where did life take you? 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:30.680 Yeah? 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:35.560 I graduated from Webster City High School in nineteen seventy seven, 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:42.000 and I graduated from westmar University with the sociology, psychology, 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:43.240 and a business minor. 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.760 Tom wanted to be a wrestling coach and teacher. That 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:49.880 was my plan, but his plans changed. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.680 And I ended up going into agrisales in the seed 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.880 and fertiliz in industry. 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.480 Still Tom thrived. He was good at sales. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:05.760 He's just got a really charismatic personality. He's very outgoing, 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:10.920 he's fun he's funny. He just has a way like 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.880 of just you know, making you feel at ease. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.080 But before his success as a big time sales VP, 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:21.120 Tom was just a college kid who one day saw 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:22.000 a pretty girl. 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.000 I met Jane at college my junior year. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.120 It was nineteen seventy nine. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:31.839 And she was a farm girl from Northwest Aisle and 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.240 five seven, blue eyes. 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.760 With long blonde hair, just really pretty. Tom was smitten. 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:44.880 She had a kind of a down home country girl flavor. 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.760 Not even a year after they met, Tom and Jane 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.880 were married in nineteen eighty So you met Jane and 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.880 you guys were like had over heels. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:53.920 Yeah, it was. 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:57.560 It was kind of a quick romance and we loved 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:59.359 each other and each other's families. 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:00.400 It was a good bit. 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:04.520 I think that we had so much in common from 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.520 like a work ethic and you know, be good to 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.400 family and love one another. It was just we were 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:13.640 raised the same way. I really think that was the 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:14.560 essence of it. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.480 They were always like joking around with one another, like 0:05:17.520 --> 0:05:18.480 he would tease. 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:19.760 Her Tom's brother Ron. 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:27.719 Again, she was just probably the sweetest huh person. You 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.880 just sense that she loved you and she cared about you. 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:36.200 It sounds like she was more than just your brother's wife. 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.640 You really felt like she was part of your family. 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.599 Oh yeah, she was just an amazing person. She had 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.479 such a great spirit about her when you were around her. 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:49.680 That's what I would say about Jane. 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.440 In nineteen eighty two, they had their first son, Eric, 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.960 and their second son, Jason. In nineteen eighty seven. Tom 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.960 and Jane and the boys moved all around for Tom's 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:05.440 work in agricultural sales, but Eventually they landed in Mankato, 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:07.479 Minnesota in the early nineties. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.840 The kids really flourished in the school district there, and 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.040 Jason and Eric were both in sports football, did a 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.200 little wrestling and basketball, and so I tried to coach 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.360 and be a part of things, whether it be assistant 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.360 coach or whatever I could do to step up. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:27.760 To be there. 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.560 For a couple of years in the early nineties, Tom 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:32.960 and Jane landed on hard times. 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.120 We went through a little bit of a rough patch 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:40.120 communication wise. I don't think things were as good as 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:41.000 they could. 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.279 They were also struggling financially. 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.719 People go through difficult times and marriages. I've been married 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:53.000 for eighteen years, and I'm sure that they had difficult times, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.840 But it wasn't like I ever felt like they if 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.040 they felt like they didn't love one another or whatever. 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:03.920 I feel like they were both the type of people 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:06.600 that would come together and say, hey, well, what are 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.520 we going to do about this? What's best for the boys, 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:11.520 I think is what they would be thinking in that 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.360 scenario if they had or went through trouble. It was 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.000 never in front of us or the family and anything 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.160 like that. And I just never felt that Tom knowing 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.440 his love for Jane and for the boys, I never 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.160 felt that he would have intentionally hurt her or done 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:30.720 anything harmful. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:46.480 By nineteen ninety six, things were on the up. Jane 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:48.840 got a job with good pay and benefits. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:54.200 I was doing well my job and getting bigger bonus checks. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:08:01.560 And we sold our first house and bought a house 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.720 that was completely redone with a great room build on 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.760 a new basement underneath of it that had had a fire, 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.400 and it was kind of our dream place. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.800 Tom was VP at the seed company. I mentioned earlier. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.000 We were doing better than we had and. 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:21.480 Our life was and. 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:28.800 We were happy and felt like we were also enjoying 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:30.680 the success of our careers. 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.320 They had finally made it. I mean, y'all had a boat, 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:35.280 you must have been doing well. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.880 We we had had a couple of different boats, but 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:44.360 we mainly had had jet skis and done that and 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:51.560 tubed and wakeboarded behind the bigger jet skis and stuff 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.640 we we did. We did a lot of stuff on 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.480 the water. Ever since we moved to Minnesota, we kind 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:58.440 of lived on the water. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.680 I went up to vacation with them in northern Minnesota 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:08.800 and the family basically my parents and Tom's family had 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.720 rented a house on a lake, and I went up 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.920 there for two or three days and spent time with 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.559 them boating and fishing, and they just had a good time. 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:22.920 You know, they just were down to earth but like 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:27.480 to have fun. And you know, we were growing up, 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.679 we didn't do a lot of vacationing and stuff like that. 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:35.000 But you know, one summer I remember vividly kind of 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:37.840 going and just just having a blast, Tom teaching me 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.120 how to ski, and just everybody having fun together and 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:45.920 being a family doing doing the family stuff. 0:09:46.679 --> 0:09:49.760 Tom and Jane loved being out on the water, and 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:51.400 when the boys were asleep. 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.719 Jane and I would have a drink or two and 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:54.400 go out. 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.480 On the night of August second, the family was on 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:58.319 another vacation. 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.720 We had let the boys always play in the pool 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:07.360 at the end, and that night they just were out 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.199 from all the you know, vacationing and stuff. 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:11.040 Just tired out. 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:13.640 So Tom and Jane left the boys in their hotel 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:15.920 and took the boat out on Green Lake for a 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:16.760 moonlight ride. 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.920 We were just relaxing and talking. It was so peaceful, 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:25.560 and we were discussing about you know, getting back and 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:32.400 getting the boys started in school, and you know, the 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.199 sports season was going to be kicking off for football, 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.880 so it was a lot of fun things to look 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:41.400 forward to. 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:46.640 It was getting late, so they decided to call it 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:47.240 a night. 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:52.839 And we went north and that's when she fell out. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.840 Tom says he saw Jane lean forward. She seemed to 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:57.080 have dropped something. 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:01.560 Later we found out was an ear ring, and she 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:04.400 went to pick something up. I thought she was just 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.360 turning to set down beside me. The moon was to 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.200 the right. I looked, glanced the right to navigate, look back, 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:13.560 and saw her shoes going over. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:16.800 Tom says he was frantic. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:20.720 I was in emergency mode trying to save Jane and 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.920 was looking. I looked so hard, I swear I thought 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:28.600 I saw her, and and so I jumped out and 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:32.760 didn't find anything, and quickly learned that I had jumped 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.880 off the back of the boat with the point facing 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:39.840 south and pushed the boat away from me. And I 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:45.840 had almost I was so exhausted from what had. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.920 Happened and searching in the water. 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.040 I almost did make it back to the boat myself, 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:57.000 but he did and then I I know I did circles. 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:58.040 I don't know if. 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.600 I zigzag too but I tried to cover the area 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:02.559 because I thought she had to be there and if 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.800 she was unconscious, I could maybe find her floater. 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:14.880 I need CPR, so I thought I could savor but 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:16.400 I didn't find her. 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.520 Tom eventually beached the boat and ran into a restaurant 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:21.079 for help. 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.440 The night clerk let me in and I was drans 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:30.040 from head to toe, exhausted, trying to talk and almost 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:31.600 throwing up all at the same time. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:34.760 Soon law enforcement showed up and helped in the search. 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.640 They also questioned Tom about the night, but he had 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:39.920 other things on his mind. 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.199 I kept telling him, I want to go back out 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:43.960 and search for my wife. I want to go back 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.040 out on my boat. You guys have got my boat 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.000 in the other boat. I want to go be back 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:48.680 and be part. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:49.920 Of a search. And they wouldn't let me. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.839 So that was probably the most difficult thing, other than 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:57.160 telling the boys obviously they're boys. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:58.559 Still talked in bed. 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:00.240 That was the hardest thing. 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:06.000 I mean to, you know, look into my son's beautiful blue. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:11.720 Eyes and I have to see that kind of pain. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.880 The next morning, some fishermen came across a body in 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.319 the water. It was Jane. 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:20.600 I'd have done anything. 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:23.560 Did not have to don't have to tell them that 0:13:23.800 --> 0:13:31.040 about their losing their mom. 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.720 Tavas is my partner Dan dan Her telling hey, Todd, Dan. 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:35.600 How good are you. 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.559 Almost two weeks after Jane's body was found, police brought 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.760 Tom into the Candy O High Share station for questioning. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.199 This has been the hardest thing in while life, be 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.760 losing my wife for sixteen years. 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.000 And police had questioned Tom the night Jane fell into 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.640 the water, and now, following a few days of investigation, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.079 they wanted to go over that night again. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.360 He said, you're not under arrest anything like. We asked 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:03.160 you to come down here to talk to us about 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.640 the accident because that night it was confusing. There's a 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:07.640 lot of things going on. 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:11.079 And they also had a report from the medical examiner. 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.120 The body's brought down to doctor McGee. Do you ever 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:20.240 hear of him? Okay, he's a forensic pathologist in Ramsey County. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:21.000 All right. 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:21.280 Right. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:23.240 At the beginning of the case, at the beginning of 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.200 the investigation, the medical examiner didn't really have any medical 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.400 evidence to support the idea that Tom was guilty of 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:31.600 premeditated murder. 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.960 This is Jim Mayer, legal director at the Great North Innocence. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.280 Project, but he had suspicions. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.200 Suspicions influenced by the theories of the police. 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.280 When you when you went out there that evening with 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:48.080 your wife, did you have any intentions to harm her? 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:48.640 No? 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:57.320 Absolutely, no way. Okay, how did those And I'm hoping 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:58.920 you can help me out here if you could really 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.000 think how that marked gotten on her face? 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.000 The first doctor to look at Jane's body found bruising 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.600 on her face, head, and a cut to the right 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.640 side of her mouth. Then the forensic pathologist who performed 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:15.520 the autopsy, doctor Michael McGee, found hemorrhaging beneath the facial injuries. 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:21.480 Her death was initially ruled undetermined, so the police kept digging. 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:23.520 Was there trouble in the marriage? 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.160 Did you guys ever talk about a divorce? Was there 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.480 an ever period in your marriage caught? 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:33.160 Did the family have debts? Was there life insurance involved? 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.320 Did you have any type of insurance like on your 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:42.240 morgine if somebody passes away that helps. 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.320 Pay the war each Remember Tom and Jane had struggled 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.240 financially for a few years right before this, so they 0:15:48.280 --> 0:15:49.160 found that, you. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.480 Know, these are all totally commonplace things, but they just 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.880 they weaved all of that stuff together into a story 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.800 of a man who is desperate and wanted to get 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.040 out of his marriage but couldn't afford it and wanted 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:02.280 the life insurance money. 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.800 Police had also found out about the rocky years in 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:06.760 their relationship. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:07.840 Just funny. 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:08.360 You know what we. 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:12.840 Learned, Tom, is that there were some rough spots in 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:19.600 your marriage. Okay, and there were, but those rules were 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:20.680 long behind us. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:26.160 I haven't haven't had any problems recently. 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.360 On top of everything, police also said Tom was quote 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:32.840 not grieving properly. 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:38.680 Yeah, imagine that. That's quite a bold statement. How do 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.240 you tell if someone's had a loss how they should grieve. 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:48.000 I think that's a personal thing. And I totally a 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.360 grieved with my family, with my sons and took care 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:58.080 of them and and did my best. And I kept 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:02.280 a relationship with Deane's family inform them. As things were 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.879 unfolding with the legal system as well. 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:08.040 As the months passed with all these new suspicions being 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.720 brought up by the police, the pathologist, doctor Michael McGee, 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.320 decided to give his initial report on Jane's death a 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.960 second look to see if he could figure out what 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:18.880 had happened to. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:21.920 Jane becoming his own version of a detective. 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.200 Marriage troubles, debts, alleged suspicious grieving behavior. 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.160 What you end up having is a medical examiner who, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.960 in his initial review concludes that the medical findings don't 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:37.800 support homicide, looking into what the detectives are looking at, 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.119 and then reverse himself and decide, yes, now the medical 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.240 findings support homicide. 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:48.320 Doctor Michael McGee changed his findings from undetermined to homicide. 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.800 After more than a year of investigation, police had their 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:55.760 prime suspect in sight, and on December ninth, nineteen ninety seven, 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.159 a grand jury indicted Thomas Rhodes for murder. 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.560 We didn't know how to respond. We didn't know, you know, 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:10.360 how to help him. 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:12.679 This is Tom's brother Ron again. 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:15.600 And it was I think it was so hard that 0:18:15.720 --> 0:18:20.320 time in our life, thinking back to the way it 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.480 affected us as a family, the way it affected Tom 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:28.080 and his family, his young family, the way it affected 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:32.000 my mom and dad. They were very scared. One Tom 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.720 was indicted just because you know, he had always tried 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.840 to cooperate and we just never thought that, you know, 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:43.560 my brother would do anything to hurt Jane intentionally. 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.399 Tom went to trial the following year, in July nineteen 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:50.199 ninety eight. He had the support of Ron and his 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.680 parents and many family and friends who believed Tom wouldn't 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.600 have committed such a crime, but the trial prosecutor, John 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:06.080 Doherty said otherwise. He said Tom and Jane had a 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.119 lot of recent debt from their new lifestyle, the house, 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.040 the boat, in a new car. Docerty also brought up 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.920 their previous marriage troubles. He said Tom wanted a divorce 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:19.879 but didn't want to pay child support, so he planned 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.240 to get rid of Jane and make it look accidental. 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.360 That way, he could cash in on her life insurance 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:30.320 policy and have his boys a win win. But these 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:34.359 were all theories, so the prosecution needed an expert to 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.600 make their whole case legitimate. 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.040 The prosecution's case was largely built around the testimony of 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.560 doctor Michael McGee. That was really the lynchpin of the 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:48.879 state's case. What doctor McGee testified to was that he 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.400 could tell from the condition of Jane's body that there 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.200 had been a struggle on the boat. 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:58.240 Remember, there was bruising, hemorrhaging, and a cut on Jane's face. 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:02.040 Doctor McGee the injuries were the results of a fight 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:03.320 between Tom and. 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.359 Jane, and he also testified that he knew he could 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.199 tell from the condition of Jane's body that she had 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.679 been struck multiple times by the boat after she had 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.119 fallen into the water. That was very powerful evidence for 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:17.040 the jury to hear. 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.320 And doctor McGhee wasn't done. 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.919 He brought out a clay model and displayed it on 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:23.960 a table for the jury to look at, and this 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:31.119 clay model showed awful discoloration all over Jane's face and head. 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.960 Doctor McGee used a life size clay model of Jane's 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.160 head depicting a severely bruised face to show that her 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.479 injuries couldn't have been accidental. 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.280 And anyone who would look at this model would be 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.920 horrified to think about what must have happened to this person. 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:50.720 Tom couldn't believe the things he was being accused of 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:54.359 doing to Jane, grabbing her by the neck, pushing her over, 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.240 and running her over multiple times with the boat. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:05.359 I knew it was a lie, but my attorney wasn't 0:21:05.400 --> 0:21:07.360 prepared to handle doctor McGee. 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:12.159 Tom's defense attorney was Michael College. Although Tom says that 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.000 College did a poor job on Cross, he did have 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:19.160 a qualified expert he called doctor Lindsay Thomas to refute 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:20.040 doctor McGee. 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:26.040 Doctor Lindsay Thomas pretty much went against McGee one hundred 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:27.000 percent and. 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.800 Refuted everything that they had said. 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.880 Doctor Lindsay Thomas testified that Jane's face indeed had internal 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.520 hemorrhaging on both sides, but not because of multiple intentional 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.879 blows with the boat. She said, it was because the 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:45.399 blood from the forehead injury dreamed into her face and 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:46.240 settled there. 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.080 Anyone who knows about drowning victims and forensic pathology will 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:52.800 tell you where you have a drowning victim who has 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.640 been floating face down for thirteen hours or however long 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.719 it was, you're going to have the pooling of blood 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:02.960 and certain areas. And so this doesn't reflect that she 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.239 was beaten all over her face and head. What it 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.639 reflects was that blood, by virtue of gravity, will pool 0:22:08.640 --> 0:22:10.959 in a certain area when a body that is no 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:14.040 longer circulating blood stays in a certain position for a 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:14.760 period of time. 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.439 And that's not new science. In nineteen ninety six, that 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:18.760 should have been known. 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.160 Absolutely, absolutely should have been known. 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.000 After two weeks of trial, the jury was sent to deliberate. 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.760 I was really, really concerned, but I also believe that 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:34.960 you couldn't be convicted if you're innocent. I thought that 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:39.720 there was enough that they could see through doctor McGhee 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:43.960 and hopefully believe, you know, doctor Thomas, what was wrong. 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:53.560 On July twenty ninth, nineteen ninety eight, Thomas Rhodes was 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:58.400 convicted a first degree premeditated murder and sentenced to mandatory 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:04.000 life in prison. How did Tom's conviction affect you all? 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:13.760 Just heartbreaking, you know, first of all to lose my 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:21.800