WEBVTT - #359 Guest Host Susan Simpson with Jeff Titus 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.400 November seventeenth, nineteen ninety, was the first Saturday of deer 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:10.520 season in Michigan. Eager hunters took to the woods, including 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:14.800 at the Fulton Game Area near Calabazoo. Around four point 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:18.600 thirty that afternoon. Not long before sunset, two gunshots rang out, 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.040 and not long after that two hunters, Augustus and Jim Bennett, 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.040 were found dead. A couple of days later, Jeff Titus, 0:00:27.120 --> 0:00:29.480 whose farm was directly adjacent to the State Game Area, 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.480 found a shotgun near his property and turned it over 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.360 to the sheriff. Jeff was investigated, but he said he'd 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.240 been out hunting himself that day, nearly thirty miles away, 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:43.559 and witnesses attested being with him. Jeff was cleared, but 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:45.960 no other leads than the case panned out either, and 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.760 the case went cold. Ten years later, the case was 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.120 revived and reinvestigated by the recently formned cold case unit. 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:56.880 They immediately fixated on Jeff as a suspect, based mainly 0:00:56.920 --> 0:00:59.360 on his finding the shotgun and the fact that since 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.600 the murders had hand happened, he'd often brought the case 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:03.120 up and talked about it with his co workers the 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.479 VA where he worked as security officer. The witnesses who 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.080 had supported his alibi were now either unable to testify 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:15.880 or appeared unreliable a trial. Instead, the jury heard the 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:19.920 prosecution's argument that many people had found Jeff's obsession with 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.920 the killings disturbing and alleged the people who came near 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.200 his property were met with threats, and in the end 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:44.240 their verdict was unanimous. But this is wrongful conviction. Welcome 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.080 back to wrongful Conviction. I'm Susan Simpson, host of the 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.600 Proof and Undisclosed podcast, filling in for Jason Flohm. We're 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:52.520 here today with a case that's close to my heart. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.600 I began investigating it in twenty twenty along with Decenda 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.440 Davis and Kevin Fitzpatrick of Red Marble Media when they 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:00.320 were covering it for their TV show Killer and Question. 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:03.240 I also covered the case in my podcast un Disclosed. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.120 There have been a few updates since then, so I'm 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.400 really excited to share the story with you and for 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.320 you to meet our guest, Jeff Titus. Welcome, Jeff, Hi, 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.079 and we also have with us Jeff's attorney and co 0:02:14.120 --> 0:02:17.480 director of the Michigan Innocence Clinic, Dave Moran. Listeners might 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:20.840 remember Dave from the Terry Caesar episode that Jason covered recently. 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:22.320 Thanks for being here again, Dave. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.600 Thanks nice to be here, Jeff. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.720 Before we talk about what happened in November of nineteen ninety, 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:29.600 why don't you tell listeners about yourself. 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.760 Well, I come from a family of nine kids. I'm 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.160 the second oldest. There was four boys, a girl and 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.280 four boys. I started working at a dairy fireman at twelve. 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.720 While I went to Penfield High School, I played football. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:46.399 I worked on the farm after school, none as summers, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.320 and then I went to the Marine Corps. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.440 And as a result of that, you had the honor 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:52.560 of serving under the president. 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.720 Yes, I was a military policeman in the Marine Corps. 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.880 I was a white House security guard for a President Nickson. 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:04.440 Then I come home. I went to college and met 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.680 my wife when my future wife and got married in 0:03:07.720 --> 0:03:09.120 August of seventy nine. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.280 And then you had your two daughters and ended up 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.000 buying a beautiful old farmhouse on eighty acres in Fulton, Michigan. 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.679 The house built in eighteen seventy three, and we went 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.040 through and totally restored it, and we went through and 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.600 brass ceilings and ten ceilings. The original window still had 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:28.240 wooden plugs in them. I mean it was old and. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.960 It was directly adjacent to the Fulton Game Area state 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:33.560 land where people can go and hunt. So, Jeff, let's 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.200 go back to November seventeenth, nineteen ninety, the opening Saturday 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.800 of deer season. You were thirty eight at the time, 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.480 and I know you're an avid hunter. So where were 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:43.360 you hunting that weekend? 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:46.960 I owned the first two days at my house. The 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.480 third day I left and went hunting at the northern 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.680 part of Calhoun County, north of Battle Creek, twenty seven 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:54.720 miles away. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.400 And your friends Dan Dreschool was with you as well. 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:00.280 The two of you hunted on two adjacent farms owned 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.400 by family friends of yours, the Crandalls and the Shepherds. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.360 Yes, they're next to each other. Crandalls have like fifteen 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.400 hundred acres. Shepherds have five to seven hundred acres. I 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:11.560 think something like that. 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.800 So on that Saturday, the day of the murders, you 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.440 were nearly thirty miles north of your place, around forty 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.560 five minute drive by car. That was a pretty typical 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:21.960 weekend for you in deer season, right. 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.080 Well, stand and me would hunt crandalls. He would go 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.800 to his spot. I would go to Minke and usually 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:32.479 we're separated aways and Stan would get deer some year, 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:36.000 some years he wouldn't. I always seemed to get him. 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.719 I mean, I can shoot. And that night at four thirty, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.080 I thought I was shooting in the buck, but I 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.360 hit a dough and went up to the farm, got 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.440 my truck, come back, loaded it up with sand, and 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.520 then we left and waved to the farmer and went 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:53.440 to burger King to eat, and then went home. 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.000 And what did you and stand fine when you got 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:56.640 back to your farm. 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.120 That night we got back home, I talked to my 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.680 wife and said we were going out back to take 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.320 care of a deer. And where my woods was there 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:07.720 was all kinds of lights. So I drove over there 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.320 and I introduced myself and said I was a police officer, 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:16.119 which I was for the Veterans Administration, and I said, 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.360 you know what happened? And they didn't really say much. 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.000 Later I learned that two people had been shot. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:26.120 In the Fulton Game area. 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:31.320 Several hunters heard some shots fired, very loud, shots fired 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:36.080 in short succession, and when other hunters went to investigate, 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:39.280 they discovered two bodies in the woods and both had 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.520 been shot in the back, fatally by shotgun. The wounds 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.000 were different because there were different types of shotgun ammunition 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.960 used on the two men. So it was within the 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.560 game area, but it was less than one hundred yards 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:56.760 from the property line of the back of Jeff Titus's farm. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:05:59.720 I offered for them to go on my farm to 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.200 dry back to the scene, and that's what the ambulance 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.800 did later that night when they went back to get 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.280 to bodies. Then I went down to my neighbors and 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:13.200 told her what had happened, and that was between eight 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:14.240 and nine. 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.920 And both their neighbor, Bonnie Huffman and her mother later 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:19.640 told police that you'd stop by around eight pm that 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.120 night and visited with them for about twenty minutes. The 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.760 police later confirmed that the two victims in the case 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:28.960 wereked Doug Gustus from Kalamazoo and Jim Bennett, who lived 0:06:28.960 --> 0:06:31.680 near Fulton and Leonidas. They had both gone to the 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.200 Fulton game area that day separately to go deer hunting, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.960 and they did not know each other. Their bodies had 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.760 been found about one hundred feet behind your property line, Jeff. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.120 Both been shot in the back, one of them with 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.480 buckshot and the other with a slug. Not long before sunset, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.960 Doug Estes's eighteen year old stepson, who'd been hunting with him, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:53.240 had heard two shots ring out. He thought maybe a 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.360 stepdad Doug had shot a deer, so after a bit 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:59.320 he went up looking for him to hopefully help him 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.520 carry a deer back. Instead, he found the two bodies 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.200 lying on the forest floor. The next day, the police 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:07.320 did a grid search that went out about seventy feet 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:09.640 in every direction from where the bodies were found. Jeff, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:10.760 what were they looking for? 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:14.800 They were searching for a missing gun, and they said 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.800 that they were never more than two feet apart walking 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.920 that whole wood area. Now, the day after that, I 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.280 walked back. I was checking my traps. I walked over 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.880 to that area and found the shotgun. I went up, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.480 never touched it, went up, called the Sheriff's department. I said, 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.120 I just found the shotgun back on State Land and 0:07:37.320 --> 0:07:40.080 I don't know if it's related to what happened or whatever. 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.440 Then I say, I called the press and let them know, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.200 and then the police come out. I showed them where 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.760 it was at, and you know, it made me a 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:55.880 suspect because I found it, and that's when things started. 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.560 That shotgun turned out to have belonged to Augustus and 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.440 had been moved away from the box bodies fairly close 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:03.680 to your property line, actually not on your property, but 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.880 much closer than the bodies were. And at first the 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.600 police said, well, we would have found it if it 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.560 was there, but as later it was determined their actual 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:15.360 notes suggest they didn't search the area where you did 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.200 find the shotgun, but for obvious reasons. You were a 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.240 suspect at least one of the suspects in the case, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.200 and there were two detectives who were working on it, 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:28.480 Bruce Rosima and Roy Ballot. What did they do to 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:28.960 look into you? 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.720 They went to Shepherd's Dairy Farming Crandles and talk to them. 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.160 They did this statement they took from Shepherd's. Shepherds signed 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.000 it and both detectives signed it saying that I was 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:41.480 there and never left that night. 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.040 So at this point the police knew that they had 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:45.600 the owners of the farm where you were at the 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.400 Shepherds saying that you'd been there hunting at their farm 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.560 until a little after sunset when you and Stan packed 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:54.400 up and left. They also know that the two victims 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.880 in the case were killed a little before sunset, around 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.840 four thirty pm. So at the time that they were killed, 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.280 you had these alibi witnesses saying that you were there 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.719 at this farm north of Battle Creek, a forty five 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:06.000 minute plus drive away. 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:10.199 And my vehicle was sparked right behind their house, and 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.360 you cannot leave that house without making noise because they 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.120 had a crush stone driveway, they would have heard me leave. 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.240 Yeah, So on the strength of this alibi, the original 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.559 detectives where Seema and Dallatt had excluded you as a suspect. Now, 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.560 there were other suspects in the investigation, including a man 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.319 who'd run his car into a ditch off the side 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:30.640 of the road near the Fulton Game area and the 0:09:30.679 --> 0:09:34.079 aftermath of the murder, but that lead, along with others, 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.480 fizzled out and the case pretty soon went cold. Now, 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.400 even though you've been cleared as a suspect, there were 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.079 still people in the community who either thought you might 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.720 have done it, or at least would spread rumors about 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.400 you to that effect, right, And you also had a 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:52.040 habit of talking about the case. You'd mentioned it in 0:09:52.080 --> 0:09:54.880 conversation and it was something that came up a few 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:56.240 times at your workplace as well. 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.959 People would ask me questions about the case where I worked, 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:02.720 and I would say this or I would say that, 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:05.600 and they would hear it in a way that they 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.520 wanted to hear it, like I say, And I told them, 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.000 I said, I didn't do nothing. I was another place 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:16.679 hunting and I'm innocent. But these people turned around start 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:33.880 calling you better to look at Jeff Titus. 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:38.760 So eight years go by, and then in nineteen ninety eight, 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.319 the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department forms a new cold case unit. 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.200 They're tasked with looking into some of the area's cold cases, 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:47.640 of which there were quite a few. 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:48.199 At that time. 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.760 They had had some initial successes. I think they'd solved 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.679 around eight cases, and they were very proud of their 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.600 one hundred percent success rate, as they called it. But Dave, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.920 as you and I have talked about, cold case unit 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.080 often feature in local convictions, and there are broader problems 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:05.120 with how they operate. Can you take a minute to 0:11:05.120 --> 0:11:05.679 explain that. 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.640 I do think that the problem with some cold case units, 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.440 and particularly this one, is to justify their existence, that 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:14.120 they have to not only go back and look at 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:16.360 old cases, but they have to purport to solve them. 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.880 If they go back and say, yep, that one's a toughie, 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.320 there's really nowhere to go with it, and they do 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.439 that in case after case, Well, people are going to 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.280 wonder why are we funding this exercise and futility in 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.520 the first place. And so there's a real problem of 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:33.680 pressure internal or possibly external for a cold case team 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:36.280 to come up with a solution. And then you've got 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.640 a team like this that claims one hundred percent hit rate, 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.440 and so now they've got to solve every case that 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:43.600 they look at. They've got to fit round pegs and 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.360 square holes and square pegs. 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:47.719 And round holes in order to keep that record up. 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.480 And we'll talk later on about how that tunnel visionality 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.520 came into play in Jeff's case. But in nineteen ninety 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:55.880 nine or so, they decided to reopen the case of 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.040 the Fulton Game Area deer hunters, and then in two 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:02.040 thousand Jeff he received a subpoena. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:06.400 And then I went to Kalamazoo talked to them, and 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:08.200 then when I got done, they said, well, we got 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.640 a search one for your house. So they followed me 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:13.240 back to my house when I got back there, the 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.319 bomb squad was there, the FBI was there, the sheriff's 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.400 department was there, the different police departments were all there, 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.040 and then each took a section of my barns and 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.320 houses and rooms and started searching. 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.000 And what was some of the evidence, as they put it, 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:29.840 that they found on your property. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:32.880 Had the newspaper articles of when I found the gun, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:37.240 and then my videos of being a marine corpse sniper, 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.960 my thing on a gilly suit, the movie Sniper. 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.160 Yeah, the movie based on that Tom Clancy. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.840 Novel, right, right, But they know they had that. 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.480 As evidence that you were inclined to commit murder, right, Yeah. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.880 The cold case team, well, they did a very thorough 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.079 in some way as investigation. They talked to a lot 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.520 of people, and I know from following their footsteps and 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.320 trying to retrace all their interviews just how much ground 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:02.840 they covered. And what they managed to find was a 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.240 lot of people who told them didn't like me, A 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:07.680 lot of people who didn't like you, yeah, and who 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:09.719 said that you had said things that they thought could 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:10.640 make you look guilty. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.200 See. I had a house that was out in the country. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.840 I had no neighbors for a quarter mile each way, 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:19.920 and one of the things I said is if you 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:22.680 come to my house and break in, I'll be picking 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.400 up your body parts when I come home because my 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.400 house was wired, and that was demolitions expert. Well, that 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:31.640 didn't go over with people, but I'd never had a 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:32.040 break in. 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.520 But to clarify, your house was not actually wired, No, no, 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.840 it was not. When Jacinta and I were investigating your case, 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:42.559 we interviewed one of the detectives from the cold case team, 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.680 Detective Workima, as well as one of the prosecutors, Stu Fitten, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.920 and I remember Detective Workima describes something about his investigative 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.640 technique that he called waking a memory. That's his process 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.040 of going to a witness, talking to them once, and 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:58.199 then going back to them as many as six or 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.880 seven more times. Each time I am with a little 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.120 more information and feedback mother witnesses, giving the witness a 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.520 chance to basically tell a better story. And according to Werkima, 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:11.559 this was an effective technique because it managed to get 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:14.240 witnesses to say things that they would not have originally remembered. 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:17.079 On the other hand, though this could certainly have the 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.840 effect of getting witnesses to change their statements to come 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.800 up with things that match the detective's version of events, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:27.560 even if it contradicted what the witnesses originally remembered happening. 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.400 And that brings us to Bonnie Huffman and her mother. 0:14:31.040 --> 0:14:33.000 Those were your neighbors that you'd gone to see that 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.960 night to tell them about the murders. During the original investigation, 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.720 Bonnie told Detective Worsima that you'd come by around eight 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:41.280 pm that. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.040 Night, right Monnie Hoffman and her mother both said I 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.960 was there between eight and nine that night, because it 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.160 was after the ambulance come to my house that I 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.720 went down there and I told them what was going on. 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.480 However, when the cold case team did their investigation and 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.800 went back to talk to Bonnie Huffman again and again, 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:03.320 they and to awaken a memory, a new one where 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.840 she said first that she saw you at six fifteen 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:07.800 and then that she saw you at five point thirty 0:15:07.960 --> 0:15:11.040 that afternoon, so very shortly after, within a half hour 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:13.120 to an hour of when the murders had happened. 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:16.320 She said, it was just getting dark when I pulled 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.360 in the yard. Now, if I would have been there 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.320 at that time, and she said, I stayed like twenty minutes. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.320 Then it would have been totally dark. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:24.920 Right. 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.120 The deer haunt ends at dusk, when it's too dark 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:29.680 to haunt me longer. And that's when the shepherd said 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.000 you and Stan took off from their place. But the 0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:33.960 cold case team came up with a theory of their 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.600 own to account for that. What did they say happened? 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.680 Well, they decided that I had this feeling that there 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.720 was guy's trespassing on my property. I went down there 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.640 in front of them, shot him, stole their deer, and 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.760 drove back to Shepherd's and then left with that deer. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.640 But now we stopped at Burger King. We had a 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.800 receipt at six forty five. We left. We called Stan's 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.040 wife and there is a receipt showing that if it 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.600 takes me forty minutes to get back there, and then 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.640 it's another time limit to get down to the Burger King. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:07.040 It don't make sense. 0:16:07.360 --> 0:16:10.040 Yeah, the cold case team believed that the original investigators 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:14.080 had not adequately vetted your alibi. Their crucial realization was 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:15.880 that although you had people who could vouch for the 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.480 fact you were hunting at the Shepherd's farm, those people 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.280 couldn't vouch for the fact that they had seen you 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.800 at the exact moment when the murders happened. Because when 0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.800 you're hunting, you're going into the blind, you're out alone. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:27.840 So at the time the shots were fired, the time 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:31.000 Estas and Bennett were killed around four thirty pm, you 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.480 weren't standing next to Stan. You weren't out in the 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.720 woods in a blind waiting for deer. So to the 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:39.000 Cold Case team, your alibi was not actually an alibi 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.800 in their version of events. You had time to sneak 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.240 away from the shepherd farm, drive back to your property, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.160 find and shoot the two men at around four thirty pm, 0:16:47.440 --> 0:16:49.640 steal the deer, one of them at Jot, drive back 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.320 to the Shepherd's farm, meet up with Stan, stop at 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.040 burger king, and then drive back to your place. Oh 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.400 in between all of that, after shooting the men and 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:00.000 stealing their deer, you had time to stop by your 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:02.200 neighbor's place for a casual twenty minute chat. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.200 Yep, that's what they say, ludicris. 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.920 So having done that drive, I would have to agree, 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.280 But the Cold Case team didn't see it that way. 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.520 So on December twelfth, two thousand and one, you were 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.200 arrested and take him to jail where you remain until 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.480 the trial started the following June. You had an attorney, 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:22.920 Bill Fetti. What did he do to help a pair 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:23.560 for your case? 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:29.840 He hired a detective whose name was Swabash, and he 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.680 was supposed to get would the original detectives and have 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:38.720 them testify. Well, then you never did that. Then they 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:42.200 had asked about other things, and he would make phone 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.600 calls questioning different things, and that's all I knew. 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:49.520 So the trial began on June twenty sixth, two thousand 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.920 and two. The prosecutor at trial was Scott Brower. Dave, 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.120 can you tell us about the trial? How did things 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:55.760 go for Jeff? 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:59.359 First of all, he had a lawyer who, charitably I 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:01.600 can say is was not very good. By the time 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:03.359 that we got involved in the case years later, that 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:07.800 lawyer had been disbarred and wasn't particularly cooperative with us. 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.359 But the biggest problem in the trial was that the 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:16.040 lawyer had never contacted detectives Weirsima and Ballot who had 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.120 cleared Jeff way back in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety one, 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.639 and so because he hadn't talked to them, he didn't 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.120 have their evidence. He didn't do the obvious thing, which 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.800 is detective you thoroughly investigated this case with your partner, 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.720 what conclusions did you reach about Jeff Titus? And because 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.520 he didn't contact him, he also wasn't able to use 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.359 a workaround for the Shepherds, both of whom were supposedly 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.800 unavailable to testify because of their mental state. 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.919 They said that the Shepherds had dementia, but it was 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.200 only him, not her. She was sharp as a whip 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.720 and she could have testified, but she was never called. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.840 But both Shepherds had written out and signed a statement 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:59.760 just a few weeks after the killings confirming that Jeff 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:03.040 was there, and that statement should have been able to 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.879 come in through the testimony of the detectives who took it. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:11.560 But again, because Jeff's very poor defense attorney didn't even 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.040 interview the detectives who had cleared his client in the 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:16.200 first place, the jury never heard about any of that. 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.560 But not only had they not been interviewed by Jeff's 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:20.720 defense layer, they hadn't even been interviewed by the. 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:21.560 Cold case team. 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.040 So the two guys who had done the initial investigation 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.640 clearing Jeff were just left out in the wilderness while 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:30.600 this train went through the station and in our opinion, 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:31.359 went off the rails. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.440 So the only alibi witness the jury heard from and 0:19:35.480 --> 0:19:40.119 Jeff's defense was Stan, and Stan, unfortunately was not the 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.320 best of witnesses. 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:43.200 Made it worse. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.480 Stan was a very problematic witness. And from the transcript 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.960 it sounds like, you know, he doesn't want to cooperate, 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:53.200 he wants to nitpick questions. And I met Stan on 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:55.679 a couple of occasions, and that's just the way he was, 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.639 That's the way he talked. But I think to the 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.760 jurors who were there, it comes across like you hiding something. 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.880 And so it was just a memorably bad alibi witness. 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.600 And then of course Jeff's alibi was under mind by 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.400 Bonnie Huffman's testimony or as Detective Workma would say, her 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.000 awakened memory that Jeff had been by to see her 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:15.600