WEBVTT - Lori | Betrayal Weekly 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:08.000 If he's telling you he's innocent, he's not. Let me 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:13.200 assure you he's not. I probably had no business testifying 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.960 so he wouldn't get the death penalty. I only knew 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.560 what I knew at the time, and I felt really 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:34.280 guilty for doing that and sparing his life. 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.680 I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, A show about 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.080 the people we trust the most and the deceptions that 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:48.360 change everything. Loriie Oxford grew up in Eagle Rock, a 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:49.960 neighborhood in Los Angeles. 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.880 I was the second daughter of Jody and John Orr, 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.440 and my sister is two years older than me. 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.040 When Laurie was just a year old, her parents separated. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.600 She and her sister lived with their mom and saw 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:07.080 their dad every other weekend. 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.640 Shortly after my parents divorced, my mom met my stepdad. 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.760 His name was Jerry, and he moved in right away. 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:20.280 Things were rough at home. Jerry was very abusive and 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.680 an angry person, so when we would go to my 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.640 dad's house, that would be vacation or reprieve from what 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:29.280 was going on at home with mom. 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.000 Laurie and her sister looked forward to spending time with 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.280 their dad. With him they could relax and just be kids. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.520 It was the seventies and eighties in Los Angeles. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.160 We would do the fun things. We would go places, 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:45.840 go to movies, go to plays. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.600 Her dad, John loved being outdoors. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:55.480 Going camping, fishing, hiking, things like that with dad and 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.080 his dad, which is my grandfather, they were very much outdoorsmen. 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:03.240 John always had fun with the kids, but he wasn't 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:04.680 the most expressive father. 0:02:05.640 --> 0:02:09.600 He was somewhat of a mystery. He didn't say a 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.079 whole lot. He didn't talk about his feelings a whole lot. 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.919 From a young age, Lourie and her sister knew that 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.359 their dad had a very important job. 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:23.679 The time that he didn't spend with us, he would 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:27.320 be at work, and that was okay with us because 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:28.359 he was saving people. 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:30.560 John was a firefighter. 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.359 We would go with him to the fire station and 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.239 everybody would talk to him. Everybody would stop to talk 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:39.520 to my sister and I. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.959 He was a respected leader and experienced firefighter, and to 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.880 Lourie and her sister, he was a hero. 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:50.440 We would see him on TV and he would be 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:55.680 saving a dog or saving someone's life. My sister and 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.120 I would always be tickled when we would see him 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.160 on the news. We'd go to school and tell our friends, 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.280 did you see the news last night? My dad was 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:04.720 on there. 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.080 John rose through the ranks of the fire department. He 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.560 was promoted to fire captain. Then he was promoted to 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:18.200 the role of arson investigator. There were only a few 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.400 in La County. Arson investigators determined the cause of a 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:27.240 fire by collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and examining the scene 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.240 of the fire for any clues as to what started it. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:32.680 The role was kind of like a cross between a 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:37.560 firefighter and a police detective. It was John's dream job. 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:42.640 Being an arson investigator also meant John had the ability 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:43.880 to arrest people. 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.960 One time, my sister and I were going with him 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.160 for the weekend and we were driving back to his house, 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.160 and in the old days, they would have the light 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.960 to pull people over with, and all of a sudden, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.040 he put that on his roof of his car to 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:07.720 pull somebody over. He was very serious and stern, and 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.880 he told us to get underneath the dash onto the 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.760 floor and don't get up until I come back. And 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.359 he reached in the glove compartment, took out his gun, 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.400 and then went outside onto the side of the freeway. 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.560 Laurie and her sister hid in the car, not sure 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:25.440 what was happening. 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.760 Then he came back into the car, told us we 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:31.280 could get up, put the gun away, drove off, and 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:32.880 we never heard another word about it. 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.880 John's job scared LORII and her sister sometimes they didn't 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:41.479 want their dad to get hurt, but they knew he 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.640 was doing noble work. In a region like southern California, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:50.600 where fires caused devastating losses every year, local fire departments 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:54.520 are especially vital to the safety of the community. When 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.520 major fires in the area happened, John was called to 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:02.280 the scene. He developed a reputation as highly respected arson investigator. 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.400 He had to make sense of countless scenes of destruction. 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.719 One of the most heartbreaking cases he handled was a 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.640 fire that broke out in a hardware store in Pasadena 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:14.839 in nineteen eighty four. 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:20.280 Four people died. Two were employees, and then a grandmother 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:25.000 and her grandson. They were being escorted out of the 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:28.640 fire by an employee and they ended up getting separated 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.599 from that employee. The employee barely made it out with 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.000 lots of burns, but the grandmother and her grandson, they 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.400 were about twenty feet from the exit when they did 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.120 find them deceased in the fire. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.599 The Sheriff's department found the cause of the fire to 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:48.239 be accidental, a case of faulty electrical wiring. But John 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:49.840 saw it differently. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.200 He knew that it was arson, and he was vocal 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:57.120 about that to a number of different people. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:02.239 He saw clues nobody else's did. He kept the community safe, 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.400 and Laurie always felt safe with him too. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.599 I didn't even tell Dad that Jerry, my stepdad, was abusive, 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.200 so Dad didn't know what was going on at mom's house. 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:17.880 I was never scared of my dad. He never was 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:24.040 a disciplinarian in our life at all. With Dad, it 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.440 was just about having fun and I didn't see anything 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:32.560 even close to anger with him. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.520 In high school, Laurie and her sister lived full time 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.760 with their mom and Jerry and saw their dad less often, 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.520 but John continued to support the girls as best he could. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:47.360 He provided my first car, so I got my grandmother's 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:52.480 old car, VW. Rabbit and it was orange, but I 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:53.000 loved it. 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.760 Laurie had a boyfriend, played softball and worked two jobs. 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.360 Part of that was being able to be away from 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.400 home as much as possible. Also I wanted my own 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:07.600 money because I didn't want to have to rely on 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.120 my parents to give me anything. 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:12.400 During this time, their dad, John got remarried. 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.960 It was his fourth marriage. Wanda and I got along 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.440 really well, and I think that she was his best 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:21.760 wife of all four of them. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.000 Lorie treasured time with her dad. He never stopped prioritizing fun. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.280 He would always take us to Baskin Robins for ice cream. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.680 That was a dad thing. We did it every time 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.800 we were with him. I couldn't even eat ice cream 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.840 because I was lactose intolerant, so I had to get 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:45.000 Sherbert every single time. But I still valued the times 0:07:45.040 --> 0:07:47.280 that we would go to Baskin Robins because that was 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:48.120 time with dad. 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.960 Returning home to her mom in Jerry's house was always challenging. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:56.960 Jerry's abuse continued as the girls got older. 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.800 My sister left the house before she graduated high school. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.920 At some point, her and Jerry got in a huge 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:10.760 fight and she basically ran away and left. My sister 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.880 ended up staying at her friend's house and never coming 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.720 back home. I have had a challenging relationship with my 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:21.160 mom over the years because of her turning the blind 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.120 eye knowing how Jerry was treating us and still allowing 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:26.080 it to happen. 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:28.960 Laurie began to plan what she wanted for her own 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.680 life and what she would do after graduating from high school. 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.520 When I would think about my future in my teen years, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.600 I didn't have a lot of hopes and dreams. But 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.800 what I did know was that I wanted to be 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.760 in human resources. That is what I wanted to do 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.320 for a job. And I got that from going to 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:55.240 my first real life interview. When I left that interview, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:56.720 I said, I want to be on the other side 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.840 of that. That's what I want to do for my life. 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.559 One day, Laurie was hanging out with her high school boyfriend. 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.560 We had gone to his parents' house and came in 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:09.959 the door and were walking by them. They were watching 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:17.160 TV and they said, Laurie, your dad's on TV. I said, oh, yeah, 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.520 he's on the news a lot, and they said, no, 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.319 you probably want to see this. I'm like, okay, So 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.320 I came in. I sat down on their couch and looked. 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.720 The first thing that I saw was my dad handcuffed 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:38.160 and police officers putting him into the police car. He 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:39.880 was being arrested for arsin. 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:45.440 Laurie stared at the TV in shock. 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:51.199 I was completely confused. What, No, he's an arson investigator. 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.679 He's not doing arsin? How ludicris? What are they doing? 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:56.960 They got all their facts wrong. 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.120 She called her mom immediately. 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.000 I said, Mom, what's going on? She said, I have 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.360 no idea. I'm seeing what you're seeing. 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.199 Next, she called her dad's wife, Wanda. 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:13.600 And I said, please, what's going on? And she said, 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.160 this is all a mistake. There is a fireman who 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:20.080 is lighting fires. Your dad knows who it is, but 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.600 it's not him. He just needs to explain that to 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.480 them and he'll clear it up and everything's going to 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:26.960 be fine. 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:28.920 Laurie exhaled a bit. 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:31.959 I'm like, oh, okay, Well, they've got a copboard. They 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.480 know it's a mistake. It's going to work itself up. 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:38.880 John was placed on house arrest while he awaited trial. 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:41.959 Lurie and her sister went to go see him. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.959 My sister and I went in. He was very quiet. 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.720 He wasn't the dad that we knew. He was quiet, 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:50.719 didn't talk a lot. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.839 It was hard to see him struggling like this. Laurie 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.600 hoped they would find the real person behind the fire 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:03.080 soon her dad was at so many crime scenes. Surely 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.960 he had just gotten mixed up in the evidence. He 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.400 dedicated his career to stopping fires. This had to be 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:10.000 a mistake. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.000 I had no reason to doubt my dad. He had 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.840 never lied to me ever that I knew of, and 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.720 I had no reason to not trust what he was saying. 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.920 Everything I knew about him supported the fact that he 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:24.400 wouldn't do something like that. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.560 John prepared for his trial and Laurie and her sister 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.160 went back to their daily lives. 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.199 It really wasn't a big issue for us. We were 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:37.080 just so confident that it was going to be worked 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.520 out that it really was not that intrusive in our 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.120 lives at that point. 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.360 But the whole incident started causing problems. John was the 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:48.120 one that was supposed to pay for Lori to attend college. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:51.400 Now that he was arrested, all his money was going 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:56.120 towards his legal battle, and I just understood that I 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:58.680 was on my own. So I worked full time and 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.720 went to college a little bit, but it was too difficult, 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.719 so I ended up quitting community college. 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.320 While her dad waited for his trial, Lurie and her 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:10.560 high school boyfriend got married, had a child together and 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.400 moved to Oregon. Then they separated and Laurie moved back 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.680 to California to be closer to her family. She was 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.560 in her early twenties and now a single mother to 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.679 her one year old son. When she got settled back 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:29.960 in California, her dad's trial finally began. John was confident 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:32.400 he would be acquitted, and he told Laurie it would 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:34.160 be a waste of her time to sit through the 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:34.920 whole trial. 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:38.160 My sister and I both wanted to attend the trial 0:12:38.520 --> 0:12:41.400 and show that we were in support of him. He 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:42.880 did not allow us to do. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.559 That, but there were a couple days where he said 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:47.760 it would be all right for them to come and 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:48.520 show support. 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.000 We went to two days of the trial, super boring days, 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.760 Nothing really happened, and that was it. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.720 The trial went on for weeks, and for most of 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:05.840 it Laurie was busy parenting and working full time. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.480 We didn't know what was going on. We didn't know 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.880 what the evidence was against him. We didn't know pretty 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:15.040 much anything at that point. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:19.200 This was nineteen ninety two, so she couldn't just search 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:20.880 the internet for more information. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.120 There was no way to really know what was going on. 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:26.960 Except the news, of course, when they would do their 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.120 news updates and the drawings of Dad while he was 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:30.880 in the courtroom. 0:13:31.480 --> 0:13:35.760 Whatever anyone asked Laurie about her dad's trial, she was confident. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.000 My dad's innocent, He's been wrongfully accused, and hopefully he'll 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:40.360 get out. 0:13:41.880 --> 0:13:44.680 Laurie knew the verdict would be announced on the radio 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:46.079 on her Friday in July. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.080 I was at work and the only way I could 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:53.680 find out what was going on was on an AM 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.960 news radio station, a little tiny radio on my desk 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.599 at work. I was listening all afternoon so that I 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:03.360 could hear hear it. Finally, close to five o'clock they 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.800 came on and said that they had found him guilty. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.719 But they said they found him guilty of murder. 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:12.320 Murder. 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:14.920 I thought he was being tried for Arson. 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.960 When Laurie's dad, John was arrested for Arson, he downplayed 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.720 the charges against him. He was so confident he told 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.360 his daughters not to bother coming to his trial. But 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:49.920 when Laurie tuned in to hear the verdict. 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.480 They said they found him guilty of murder. I thought 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:58.240 he was being tried for arson. It was completely shocking 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.760 that it was a murder charge on top of everything else. 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:05.960 Laurie learned on the radio that her dad had been 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.680 found guilty not only of arson, but of four counts 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.280 of first degree murder for four people that died in 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:19.040 an arson fire. Then the radio report moved on to 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:24.360 other topics like the weather and politics. But Laurie's world 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:25.920 had just come crashing down. 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.120 My brain just could not handle what that all meant. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.120 At that very moment, I put my head down on 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.760 the desk and cried, my dad was gone forever. That 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:39.040 was it, right there, just in that moment, he was 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:41.360 just taken away like he had died. 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:47.160 But she wasn't given much time to grieve. 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:52.760 Within an hour, his attorneys were on the phone calling, saying, 0:15:52.800 --> 0:15:55.400 you need to get to our office tomorrow so that 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:59.360 we could participate in the sentencing phase and testify for 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:04.040 him to not get the death penalty, the death penalty. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.920 As Laurie drove to the attorney's office, her mind spun. 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.880 She was convinced of her dad's innocence with every fiber 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.800 of her being her stepdad Jerry, that's what a bad 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:21.000 guy was like. Her dad was the complete opposite. He 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.840 was a hero, a good guy. She didn't just believe 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.080 that she knew that. 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.640 He's innocent, Like, how can this happen? He was wrongfully accused? 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.680 How dare you? It was shocking, but it was more 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.640 shocking that they could put an innocent man behind bars 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:41.360 right away. 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.480 Luria and her sister agreed to testify in support of 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.800 their dad at his sentencing hearing. With the death penalty 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.760 on the table, the stakes could not be higher. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.040 We were on the same page, and I kind of 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.600 went into I need to save my dad mode. He 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.080 can't get the death penalty. I need to save his life. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.480 The weight of the sentence hung heavy on Laurie's shoulders. 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.200 She lay awake at night, her mind racing what if 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.240 she couldn't save his life? 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.680 Would I want to be there when they carried out 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.119 the death penalty? Would it be my fault if he 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.280 gets the death penalty? Does that mean I didn't do 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.040 enough or I didn't say the right things? 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:30.720 Then the day of the sentencing hearing arrived, Laurie, her sister, 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.560 her mom, and her grandparents all stood anxiously in the 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:37.920 halls of the courthouse, waiting to be called in one 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.440 by one. 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.800 I saw a couple of firemen out there as well, 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:47.240 and I introduced myself and I asked if they were 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:52.040 there in support of my dad, and they kind of 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.440 had an elusive answer. I thanked them for being there 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.720 and thought that they were supporting the fact that he 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:00.000 doesn't get the death penalty. 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.200 Then Laurie was called in to testify. 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.320 I can't even describe how nervous I was and shaking. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:11.200 I saw Dad off to the side and he didn't 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:16.199 look at me. He didn't say anything, mouth anything, acted 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:18.480 like I was a complete stranger. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.680 Laurie took the stand, his. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.680 Attorneys asked some questions. I was so nervous that it 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:27.200 was almost like a blackout. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.040 A few days later, Wanda called her with the ruling. 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.639 Four people said death penalty and eight people said no. 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:42.560 He got life in prison without the possibility of pearl. 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:47.040 I felt relieved that he didn't get the death penalty 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.160 because I could still have a relationship with him. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.000 She tried to hold on to the closeness she felt 0:18:53.000 --> 0:18:53.600 with her dad. 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.800 We would go visit him in prison, which was just 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:02.960 horrific to suddenly be visiting your father in prison and 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.040 bringing my one year old two year old son to 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:07.000 see him. 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.520 John eventually got transferred to a prison further away from 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.800 Laurie when visiting became too difficult. She continued to write 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:16.760 letters and he called her often. 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:22.080 We didn't talk about anything in depth. He always said 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:26.159 that everything was recorded in jail and that he couldn't 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.480 talk about his case because he was trying to appeal 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:34.080 it and they would hear everything, so it was very surface. 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:36.480 You know, what are you doing these days? How's your job? 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:37.200 How's your mom. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.720 Part of Laurie's identity was being the child of a 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:45.719 wrongfully convicted man. It was a tragedy, a miscarriage of justice, 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.639 and one she was powerless to fix. In the first 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.440 year or two of a sentence, she thought about him 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:56.159 every day, even from a distance. He was still the 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:59.800 thoughtful father she knew and loved. But as the years 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:04.119 asked her dad became resigned. When they were on the phone, 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.959 he wouldn't ask about Laurie's life or her kids. He 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:10.160 mainly called to ask for favors. 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.840 He would ask, can you do this for me? Can 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.280 you do that for me? Can you send me money? 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.720 Contact this person, or write a letter to this person, 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.920 or go in the boxes and try to find this page. 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:26.120 And it's like we didn't have time to do all 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:26.359 of that. 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.119 Laurie started avoiding his calls. 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:34.119 I knew it was going to be another request to 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.760 do something for him. It wasn't about how are you doing? 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:39.399 It was about what he needed. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.720 The man on the other end of the phone started 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:45.720 to sound different from the father Laurie had grown up with. 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:50.200 Her father was selfless and spent his days saving others. 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:54.960 This man now was selfish and seemed to care only 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.320 about saving himself. It was only then that Laurie began 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.639 to wonder what if she didn't really know her dad. 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:07.119 I started to feel manipulated by him and feel like 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.000 there was more to him. That's when I really said, Okay, 0:21:11.040 --> 0:21:12.200 I'm going to read this book. 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.880 The book it was a novel that her father, John 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.679 wrote before he was arrested, a fictional story about an 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:25.160 arson investigator who moon lies as a prolific arsonist. Once 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.520 John was arrested, the book became a key piece of 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:29.800 evidence in his trial. 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.679 Is supposed to be fiction, and they used it in 0:21:33.720 --> 0:21:36.520 his trial, saying it was more like a diary. 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:39.919 Laurie decided it was time to finally read it. 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:46.320 I got through the first chapter and I had to 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:50.240 put it down because every single thing in that chapter 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:54.240 that I read about, the pictures he had on his walls, 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.240 who he lived with, where we would go visit him 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:04.399 as kids, everything I could remember as real life. That 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.040 was scary. I thought, if I continue reading this book, 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:10.879 everything I think about my dad can change. 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.639 She put the book down. Reading any further felt like 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.440 opening Pandora's box, and for one more year she kept 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:24.600 the lid tightly shut. But then eventually she picked up 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:30.439 the book again. The main character sets a fire in 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.800 a hardware store. Before he does, he walks through the 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.560 store pretending to be a customer. He overhears a conversation 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.359 between grandparents running errands with their grandson. 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:46.600 The grandmother and grandfather were telling their grandson that if 0:22:46.600 --> 0:22:48.919 he was good while he was in the store that 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.360 they would take him next door to Baskin Robbin's and 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:55.480 get ice cream. It was said in his book that 0:22:55.800 --> 0:23:01.440 the child said, I want midchip ice cream. 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.439 The fire in the hardware store that John wrote about 0:23:04.480 --> 0:23:07.800 in his book was hauntingly similar to the nineteen eighty 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:11.399 four fire that killed four people in a hardware store 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:16.440 in Pasadena, the one John investigated. But when the police 0:23:16.480 --> 0:23:20.160 Department started investigating his connection to a string of fires 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:24.760 throughout California. They returned to interviews with the survivors of 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:28.399 the fire, looking for any details that might show John 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.040 was at the scene before the fire broke out. 0:23:33.119 --> 0:23:36.920 When they talked to the grandfather after the fire, they 0:23:37.040 --> 0:23:41.000 asked him about that scenario, and he said, we promised 0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.840 we would go next door to Baskin Robbins to get 0:23:43.840 --> 0:24:10.399 his favorite mintschip ice cream. 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.679 When Laurie's father, John was arrested for arson, she was 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.560 sure it was a mistake. He was an arson investigator 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:23.000