WEBVTT - #427 Jason Flom with Lamont Hunter 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:05.960 In two thousand and six, Lamont Hunter lived with his 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:10.360 girlfriend los Milda, along with their blended family in Cincinnati, Ohio. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:15.200 Luzmilda's three year old son, Trustin, had been previously hospitalized 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:19.560 for what was believed to be injuries resulting from child abuse. However, 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:26.040 no charges ever materialized. Then, on January nineteenth, two thousand 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.840 and six, Trustin was in Lamont's care when paramedics were 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:33.600 called to take Trustin again to the hospital, where he 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:38.120 passed away. Lamont told police that Trustin took a tumble 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.839 down the stairs, but the state's experts believed that the 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.200 medical evidence told a different story, that Trustin's injuries could 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.239 not have resulted from a fall down the stairs, but 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:53.920 rather from violent shaking coupled with forceful impact, in addition, 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.400 that the three year old boy may have been sexually assaulted. 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.600 With evidence like this, didn't take long for a three 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.520 judge panel to sentence Lamont Hunter to death. But this 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:21.600 is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful conviction. Today we 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.680 have a story of a crime that never happened, that 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:29.800 resulted in a death sentence for a man who should 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:33.640 have been given time to grieve. Laman Hunter a sentenced 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.280 to death in the state of Ohio for a crime 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.720 that never happened, and here to help him tell his story. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.320 I'm going to introduce I actually asked how she would 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:44.399 like to be introduced, and Lamon jumped right in and said, 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.040 just call her the amazing Aaron Barnhardt. But for context, 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:52.640 she is assistant public Defender at the Southern Ohio Federal 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.880 Public Defender Capital Habeas Unit. So, Aarin, thank you for 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.520 being here, thank you for having me, and here to 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.200 tell his own story with this assist from Aaron and 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.880 myself is the man himself who survived this incredible ordeal, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.560 the Mont Hunter, the Mont I'm so happy you're here. 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:11.680 I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me. 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.760 It's kind of a miracle that you're here, and you know, 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.680 and Aaron, you are a big part of that miracle. 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.079 So let's go back to your upbringing. The place that 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.480 you were born and where you lived has a lot 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.960 to do with your wrongful conviction. But did you actually 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.119 grow up there in Hamilton County. 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.480 Ohio, Cincinnati. Yes, I did Hamilton County. 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.799 I was born in the late sixties, so I grew 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.880 up through the seventies and eighties, and nineties. My mother, 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.400 my father, hit my heroes work their fingers to the 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.559 bone to provide a good life for me and my siblings. 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:45.160 My childhood was amazing. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.120 Like I always say, I was fortunate to be born 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.120 in a family that I was born in school. I 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:54.800 mean cousins, aunts, uncles. We are all very close knit family. 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:57.679 You know, I understand eventually you became a father as well. 0:02:57.760 --> 0:02:58.320 Absolutely. 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.640 I got four biological children and two children that I raised, 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.000 and I have an honorary daughter, Aisha. 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.320 What are the kids' names, Ashley. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:11.359 Mariah Lamont Junior, Velita, Eric, Aish and Trinity. I've been 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.800 instrumental in very hands on and raising all my children, 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:16.239 all six of them. 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.360 To support his family, Lamont worked as a roofer, but 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:22.880 also he had a side hustle sending drugs through Federal Express, 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.880 which landed him in federal prison. Now, drug trafficking is 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:29.200 in no way related to how Lamont ended up on 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.760 Ohio's death row, but his prior conviction comes up later 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.000 in the story. So after his stint in prison, he 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.680 went back to roofing and met a woman named les Milde, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.400 and together they had Lamont's youngest child, Trinity, Los Milda 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:46.720 also had three boys from a previous relationship, Tyree, Tyrell, 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:48.120 and Trustin. 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.680 So Lamont actually didn't spend much time with trust In. 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.720 The little boy who died in this case, Trustan, was 0:03:55.800 --> 0:04:00.280 Louis Milda's son, and because of complications with her health 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.560 when he was born, he was basically raised by other 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.320 people family friends and relatives. 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.200 Right Wilma Forte and Amber White. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:12.440 Yes, after she delivered Trusting, she had kidney stalls, so 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.280 she had immediately go back in for kidney surgery and 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.640 she couldn't care for Trusting. So they were loving enough 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.000 to take Trusting And for some reason I don't agree 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.320 with Luz mild on this, she just chose to let 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:28.039 him stay there. That's where Trustin lived. 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.200 Now Loismilda Lamont rarely took care of Trusting, and prior 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.400 to the two thousand and sixth incident that resulted in 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:36.599 Trustin's death, there had been some suspected abuse back in 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:37.480 two thousand and four. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.400 In January of two thousand and four, Lamont had been 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.080 carrying trust In up a flight of stairs and tripped 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.800 and fell on trust In and ended up breaking his 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:49.920 leg bone his tibia. At the time, his two older 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.760 half siblings were there, saw what happened. It was obviously 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.640 an accident. No one even suspected it wasn't an accident. 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.279 He was treated and let go. Then in June of 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:05.880 or Trustin had sort of a constellation of injuries, some swelling, scratches, rashes, 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.960 some other abrasions like by his lips and his ears. 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.839 When luiz Milda goes to change trust In's diaper, she 0:05:12.880 --> 0:05:15.640 sees that it's really raw and red and irritated, luiz 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.240 Milda wondered if his genital swelling was a bug bite 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.359 or diaper rash, so she takes him to a local 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.720 urgent care. When they see these conditions, they end up 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:27.920 sending him to the hospital and it's treated as a 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:28.880 case of abuse. 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:29.279 Now. 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:32.880 I don't think we'll ever know what happened to Trustan. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.159 I think it's probably a combination of things we found 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.080 in medical records that Trustin had a lot of skin 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.200 conditions exzema, other sort of conditions where his hair was 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:47.440 falling out, environmental stressors and things like that, and then 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:52.520 he was playing with two older, rambunctious kids. And I 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.280 think probably what happened was there was some combination of 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.640 maybe a little rough housing, maybe some irritation that trusted 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.919 himself elf could have scratched or irritated that resulted in 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:07.480 these conditions. No matter what happened, everyone agrees Lamont wasn't involved, 0:06:07.720 --> 0:06:11.520 but these circumstances were treated as abuse, and at the 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.719 hospital when they did a skeletal survey an X ray, 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.240 they discovered that Trusten had a number of older healing 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.680 fractures in his hands and feet. Now, Trustin was hardly 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:24.760 ever taken care of by his mother and therefore Lamont 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:28.120 so at the time that these injuries would have been 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.520 dated when he sustained them. Trustin was not around either 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.440 Lamont or his mother. He was in the care of 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.120 other people, so he had lived with them right, So 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.159 even if these older injuries were the result of abuse, 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.120 it was not from Lamont or his mother. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.400 No one was charged in this two thousand and four incident, 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.000 but child protective services were made aware and even though 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.240 Lamont was never even considered a suspect in two thousand 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.279 and four, the Hamilton County prosecutors raised the specter of 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.080 ongoing abuse while seeking the death penalty for Lamont. In 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:00.200 two thousand and six. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.599 The death penalty information Center has a report called the 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.800 two Percent Report. If you look statistically, Hamilton County and 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.480 Kyga County in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati are part of 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.200 the two percent of counties in the entire nation that 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:16.720 account for more than half of people on death row 0:07:16.880 --> 0:07:19.040 and more than half of people who've been executed in 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:19.720 this country. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.160 We've covered a lot of Ohio wrongful convictions, too many 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.760 to list, but we're going to link Elwood Jones and 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.960 Keith Lamar, both death penalty cases handled by Hamilton County 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.960 prosecutors in which they hid or ignored exculpatory evidence at trial, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:38.880 and Lamont's story is no different. So let's get to that. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:43.000 On January nineteenth, two thousand and six, tragedy struck when 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.560 Trustin was staying with Liz, Milda and Lamont. 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:46.640 Lois Milton. 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:49.000 Well, she get up and go to work, and about 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.120 a hour or two later, I get the boys up 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:54.119 to get ready for school themselves. So I get Jordan 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:56.120 and Tiree out the door on their way to school. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.960 Now I got trust In in Trinity, and I get 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:02.400 trust In waited for breakfast in our living room that 0:08:02.480 --> 0:08:05.280 I made him French toes, sticks and little sausage links. 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.200 He wanted to watch the new Jurassic Park movie, so 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:10.360 set him in a chair, put it on for him, 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:13.920 and decided to start my daily chores. I grabbed Trinity, 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.200 my nine month old, and I went downstairs in the 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.840 basement to finish doing the laundry. That's when I first 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.840 heard him running across the floor above me. Next thing, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.800 I hear, he's coming tumbling down the stairs and hit 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:25.880 his head, so. 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:26.920 I immediately run over. 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.600 His head was back and his eyes were fluttering, and 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:33.400 I'm scared. I just scooped him up and run up 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.800 the stairs. So I figured I throw some water on 0:08:35.800 --> 0:08:38.480 his face to try to jug him awake, and his 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.440 eyes were still fluttering, so I seeing that he was 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.360 struggling to take a breath. I don't know how to 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:46.720 do CPR, but I attempted it, so I had to 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.600 open his mouth. I noticed a piece of sausage lodged 0:08:49.640 --> 0:08:52.160 in the back of his mouth, blocking his airway, so 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:54.320 I got that out on my finger. I held his 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:56.640 nose and I blew in his mouth like I see 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.600 people do on TV. I don't know, I don't know 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.360 how to do it. I'm not certified nothing, so I 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.079 probably blew too much in his mouth because his stomach 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.560 was getting bloated. I got scared, so I called his 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:09.880 mother and she immediately came home. They made a big 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.840 deal of this, by the way, at my trial that 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.480 I didn't immediately call the paramedics instead of calling his mother. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:17.960 They thought it was something the farious, but it wasn't. 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.920 It was just I panicked, and so paramedics got there 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:24.920 very quick and started tending to him. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:26.200 I was just a mess. 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:28.000 The dog is running around parking. 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.520 Absolutely, I could never prove this, but I know my dog, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.280 when I left the room, tried to take his food 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.400 from him while he was sitting in that chair. I 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:39.319 believe that's what prompted Trusting to run across that. 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:41.360 Floor, and that might explain why he ended up with 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:43.240 a piece of food lodge in his throat. 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.000 Absolutely, the sausage, and I know my dog was harassing 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.440 for it. But they get Trusting in the ambulance and 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.880 Lumilda gets in the ambulance with him, and me and 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.920 Trinity we followed them to the emergency room at Children's. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.400 That's how my day started. January nineteenth, two thousand and six. 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.720 Trustin had head injuries that were fatal. He had blood 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.199 trapped between the layers of his brain, which they call 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:24.120 subdural hematoma. And then his brain also swelled, which is 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:27.080 what happens anytime there's any sort of injury or trauma 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.440 to the brain, they call it cerebral edema. And anytime 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.800 your brain swells, that also puts pressure on your optic 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.400 nerve and results in rental hemorrhages, so bleeding on the 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:38.520 back of your eye. 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.880 And by now our listeners are familiar with these findings 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.760 as what are commonly associated with the grotesque junk science 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.480 prosecution theory known as shaken baby syndrome. We're going to 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.320 have our shaken baby syndrome episode of wraeful conviction junk 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.880 science length as well. For years, the theory was widely 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.680 accepted across the medical establishment that the presentation of these 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.640 three things could mean only one thing, that the infant 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.200 or toddler had been shaken to death by their most 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:11.800 recent caretaker, denying any other potential or even probable causes. 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.240 But over time this theory has gradually fallen apart. 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:20.120 And this field has been very nimble because anytime someone shows, well, 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:24.600 guess what this person, we know it was an accident, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.959 and they show these injuries, and then they say like, oh, okay, well, 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.000 first of all, we're not going to call it shaking baby, 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.200 because they did experiments. They had big beefy football players 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.800 shake a crash test dummy baby, and they could not 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:42.559 generate the type of force needed to cause the brain 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:47.079 injuries without breaking the child's neck. And so they said, okay, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.280 so maybe shaking alone can't cause it, So shaking with impact, 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:52.520 that's what we'll say, shaking with impact. So we won't 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.920 call it shaken baby. We'll call it abusive head trauma. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.720 And they just keep morphing and adapting to whatever fits. 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:01.760 No matter what has been revealed through biomechanical studies and 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:04.800 a confluence of medical histories that proved that in addition 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.880 to accidental causes like a fall down the stairs, there 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:12.800 are eighty one pre existing medical conditions and counting that 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.160 can cause the presentation of those findings. And yet there 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.480 are still proponents of this theory that refused to admit 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.240 that limiting the cause to shaking alone is an unscientific 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.880 leap in logic. And so in two thousand and six, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.560 even though some of the medical establishment had begun to 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.960 realize the problem with this theory, including the neuroscientists who 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.959 had developed it. The state's witnesses attributed Trustin's triad of 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:40.880 findings to shaking and any other injuries, including a sheared 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.720 vertebrae and what appeared to be an impact injury, to 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.800 further violence. Lamount was arrested on January twenty second, two 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:51.600 thousand and six, three days after Trusten's death, and he 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:54.160 has taken a trial in June two thousand and seven. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:58.920 The prosecutor, through their child abuse pedatrician witnesses, said these 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.320 kinds of injuries could not have come from a fall 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.559 down the stairs. It had to have been abuse. 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:03.880 You know. 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.440 We only see these kinds of injuries from forces like 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.320 in a car accident or maybe LaMotte swung trusting around 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.599 like a base ball bag. You know, that's what have 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:16.000 caused it, but not from falling down the stairs. And 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.640 then in addition, Trusten had some injuries in his anal 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:24.480 rectal era. He had three puncture wounds in his rectal mucosa, 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.240 so kind of up in his rectum. There were three 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.920 wounds I think they were about two millimeters in diameter, 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.000 and then kind of on the outside lip of his anus. 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.520 It's not entirely clear if it's a tear or a cut. 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.600 It wasn't that accurately described, and so those injuries were 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:42.520 used to support a charge of rape. 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.040 As we'll explain later, there was a completely innocent explanation 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.080 for those anal and rectal injuries, yet the child abuse 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.880 pediatrician painted a completely different picture. 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.719 The child abuse pediatrician did say that the injuries were 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:00.760 consistent with an adult penis. Now that's the magic word, right, consistent, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.440 which I think a lot of fact finders here and 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.680 think that means a match, but it doesn't at all. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.560 It just means we can't exclude it as the cause. 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:14.000 I mean, what adult penis is two millimeters in diameter. 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.839 So macrof is only talking about the external injury kind 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.640 of along the edge of the anus. She never saw 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.680 the internal injuries, the puncture wounds. 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:25.840 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.240 So the child abuse pediatrician did not have a full 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.520 understanding of the injuries, which may explain why the coroner, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.560 doctor Gretel Stevens, true different conclusions. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:38.160 What the coroner said was that it looked like the 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.960 interior wounds were like poked with something sharp like maybe 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:43.800 a pencil, and the prosecutors argued at trial that this 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.480 wasn't penile rape, but this was rape with some sort 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:47.479 of object. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.960 While that explanation is still incorrect, at least doctor Stevens's 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:56.760 assumptions were more grounded in reality. However, the investigation failed 0:14:56.800 --> 0:14:59.920 to find any such object or any efforts to cover 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:03.040 up that kind of crime. Doctor Stevens also acknowledged the 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:06.680 evolving science on shaking baby syndrome, saying that a rotational 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.440 fall would be consistent with the shearing of the neck 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:13.760 that trust And experienced, and that stairfalls are responsible for 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.240 the kinds of findings that were present in trust and situation. 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.160 And that's the thing, like doctor Stevens pretty much was 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.240 a straight shooter at trial, and it was just the 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.960 fact that she hadn't seen the photographs of the actual 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.720 staircase to know that there was a ledge abutting one 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:33.120 side of the stairs that kind of mashed up with 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:35.960 some injuries that she saw. There was also a throw 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.320 rug if he had slipped on, that may have contributed. 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.320 She didn't know that Lamont had reported hearing trust and running. 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:45.200 In addition, the coroner was unaware of the innocent explanation 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.600 for these anal and rectal injuries. So since neither one 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.680 of the state's experts had a full picture of the incident, this, 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:56.400 along with Lamont's ineffective council, allowed the state's erroneous narrative 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:57.080 to take hold. 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.760 Lamont's child counsel, Clyde Bennett is the attorney's is not 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.760 a bad criminal defense attorney. He's actually pretty well known 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.040 as a good criminal defense attorney. But there are a 0:16:07.080 --> 0:16:10.560 couple things that just weren't going to work in Lamont's case. 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.760 Number One, a death penalty case is different, a dead 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:20.320 kid is different, and you can't just kind of rely 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.600 on your old tricks and techniques in this kind of case. 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.720 Number two, this is a case where the evidence is 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:33.560 all based on medical expert testimony. The evidence is the 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.120 state expert coming in and saying you can only get 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:41.720 these injuries from abuse, period, And his trial council did 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.680 not hire an expert, not only not to testify or 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.440 just even to consult with an expert to explain the 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:52.640 medical records to him, to explain the flaws in the 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:57.200 state experts testimony and reasoning. He said he thought that 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:00.760 he could just rely on cross examination, and his theory 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:04.359 was that this chadabe'see pediatrician. She's not qualified to be 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.199 talking about retinal hemorrhages. She's not an ophthalmologist, she's not 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:11.199 qualified to be talking about the mechanism of injury. She 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:15.240 doesn't have a degree in biomechanics or anything. Now, this 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:19.000 is all true. The problem was when he made that objection, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.600 the court overruled it, and he had no plan B. 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:25.919 So when that didn't work, he was left to just 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:29.000 kind of on his own try to cross examine, and 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:32.280 he knew enough to be dangerous, and so he's asking 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.639 questions about stuff that's not relevant. Like he's trying to say, 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:39.000 isn't it true that you could have a delayed onset 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.359 of injury? And that is true sometimes, except for that's 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.120 not what happened in Tresten's case. We know what happened. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:49.399 He fell down the stairs and was immediately unresponsive, so 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:53.280 that line of questioning was completely irrelevant. Also, he didn't 0:17:53.320 --> 0:17:55.480 hire an expert to look through the medical records, and 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.719 he didn't look through the records himself. 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:59.840 I mean, Lamont would have been better off with his 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.840 original court appointed attorney, not I mean much better off 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.679 because it turns out that mister Bennett was more than 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.520 a little bit distracted at the time. 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:12.800 That's true, he was a little distracted with his own 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:18.119 legal troubles. Mister Bennett himself was being investigated for some 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:23.120 pretty serious federal crimes, and in fact, shortly after Lamont 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.240 was sentenced to death, he signed his own plea agreement 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:30.960 and turned himself into federal custody and went away to 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:36.320 federal prison. He pled to structured deposits, so depositing money 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:38.240 just under the reporting limit. 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.320 Unbeknownst to Lamont, Clyde Bennett was connected to a major 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:44.840 drug dealer out of Dayton, Ohio, both of whom were 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.199 subjects of a federal investigation that ended in cooperation and 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.280 a plea deal for Clyde. Meanwhile, in Lamont's trial, Clyde 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.880 neglected to prepare the vital medical expert testimony, as well 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:57.600 as advised Lamont to take a bench trial in front 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.320 of a three judge panel, reasoning that a jury might 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.119 be susceptible to the emotion surrounding a dead child. 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.040 Turns out, so are three judge panels. 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:11.080 Exactly, especially when we know for sure that this judge 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:15.240 who's now passed on. Norbert Natl told Clyde Bennett and 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:18.000 his chambers it wouldn't be wise for him to bring 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.719 me in front of him on a bench trial because 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:24.199 I lose, and he still advised me not to have 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:25.119 a jury. 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.359 Now, the advantage of not having a jury is that 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:30.920 you can save a lot of time because you don't 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.520 have to go through vaidir and get a death qualified jury. 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.200 So you know, Clyde took a flat fee from Lamont's family, 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.000 so it's just economical to make the trial go as 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:44.360 fast as possible, and so great way to cut down 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:45.960 on time is to wave jury. 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.960 It sounds to me like the judge actually was telling 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.119 him if you do this, you're going to lose, and 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:57.199 he was like great. I mean, I'm glad you're laughing 0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.520 a lot, because you know, sometimes I feel like I'm 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.120 laughing from crying. Where you lived through this, I say, what. 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:05.760 I'm doing I've been doing in society. Oh my god, 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:09.040 I've been laughing to keep from crying. Man, it's just 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.159 so much trauma on this journey, man, It's just a 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:12.919 lot of trauma. 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.560 So this bench troul played out exactly as this judge 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:18.560 told Lamont's attorney, it would. 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.240 It was pretty easy for them to convict because all 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:27.400 of the state's expert testimony was entirely unrebutted. So they 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.639 have these experts from the state saying this had to 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:33.520 be abuse, There is no way this could have come 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:36.200 from a fall down the stairs. And then on top 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.159 of that, they had the state saying, and look at 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.160 all this other suspicious stuff, injuries in his anal rectal era, 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.359 these injuries in the past when Lamont was around trust In. 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.520 After conviction, Clyde Bennett pops up in the jail on 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.480 a Sunday, and I'm pissed at this point. I'm like, 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.760 what are you doing here? And he just said, man, 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:58.159 you know, I just wanted to come and ask you 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.040 how our federal prisons, how are they ran, what it's 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:04.960 like in federal prison. I'm looking at him, like, what 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.640 does that have to do with my case? He said, well, 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.080 he's well, I know you've been in federal prison before, 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.840 and I'm going there. I'm fighting for my own life, Lamont, 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.320 so I just wanted to know how these federal prisons. 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:17.640 I walked off on him and went back to my sale. Man, 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.600 I was done with him. At the time, so all 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.760 hope was lost at that point. I was convicted and 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.399 then mitigation where you have to get the most closest 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.800 loving person in your life. They had to literally beg 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.560 the courts to save my life. It was humiliating for 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:37.560 me and my family, and it didn't work, so they 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:40.600 were dug in. So I still got sentenced to death. 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.040 And my father, who I have a lot of love 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:48.040 and respect for, he's actually my hero. I after getting 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.880 on a standing testifying and asking the course to save 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.600 my life and telling the story that he did about 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.240