Speaker 1: This is quite a wall here.
Speaker 2: Oh, these are some great photos.
Speaker 3: That's Jimmy Carter enough me.
Speaker 4: Uh huh, yes, me and Lorena Lynn. How did this
Speaker 4: come about?
Speaker 3: She was given a concert in Burninghalla. Uh huh, carry
Speaker 3: me backstage, leader.
Speaker 1: Look at this suit that you have on.
Speaker 2: Maybe you've never heard of Bill Baxley, but here in
Speaker 2: Alabama he's a big deal.
Speaker 4: That Johnny Cash. Oh wow.
Speaker 2: Baxley is eighty two, slightly balding, with silver hair and eyebrows.
Speaker 2: In the pictures he's showing me on the wall of
Speaker 2: his office, I see him looking younger, his hair is dark,
Speaker 2: and he's standing with famous musicians and politicians.
Speaker 3: That's my daddy swearing me in for my first term.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: Baxley was elected as Alabama's attorney General when he was
Speaker 2: just twenty eight years old. He later served as lieutenant governor,
Speaker 2: and he's still practicing law today. During his career, Baxley
Speaker 2: prosecuted hundreds of cases and sent three people to Alabama's
Speaker 2: death row.
Speaker 3: There are some crimes that are so wrong and so
Speaker 3: horrible that they only deserve one punishment.
Speaker 2: He's a lifelong defender of the death penalty, a true believer,
Speaker 2: Like when the US Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty
Speaker 2: in the nineteen seventies, Baxley worked hard to bring executions
Speaker 2: back to Alabama. He's that kind of true believer, so
Speaker 2: it's not surprising that Baxley was skeptical when his son,
Speaker 2: who's also an attorney, asked his dad to look over
Speaker 2: a case because he believed an innocent man was on
Speaker 2: death row.
Speaker 3: Over the course of my long career, I've had dozens
Speaker 3: and dozens of instances where these I'll call them do gooders,
Speaker 3: but they're good people. They take up there's causes of
Speaker 3: people that have been sentenced to death, and they get
Speaker 3: interested in trying to help them, and they all think
Speaker 3: they're always innocent.
Speaker 2: Baxley didn't even glance at the case file until weeks later.
Speaker 2: On an icy winter morning, it was too slippery to
Speaker 2: walk down the driveway and grab the newspaper, so he
Speaker 2: picked up the file that his son sent him and
Speaker 2: began reading about a black man named to Forrest Johnson,
Speaker 2: who was sentenced to death for killing a Shaff's deputy.
Speaker 3: I mean, mid morning, I couldn't believe what I was reading.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have believed that something like this could have happened.
Speaker 2: What was so unbelievable about it?
Speaker 3: Everything? Everything. I don't know how the guy got indicted,
Speaker 3: how they got I didn't see how the jury convicted him.
Speaker 3: I would have never believed that that could have happened
Speaker 3: in Alabama. Quest question in my mind. This guy was
Speaker 3: not guilty of this crime, and I couldn't comprehend how
Speaker 3: this could happen.
Speaker 2: There's only one other case where Basley thought the defendants
Speaker 2: were innocent, and that case is almost one hundred years old.
Speaker 2: So what is it about this case to Forrest's case
Speaker 2: that convinced Backsley that Alabama is trying to execute an
Speaker 2: innocent man.
Speaker 3: It's a unique absurdity that I've never seen before. It's
Speaker 3: too late to give him back all those years he's
Speaker 3: been on death road, but it's not too late to
Speaker 3: correct it today and get him out for the future.
Speaker 3: It's wrong, it's gone this long, but it's still not
Speaker 3: too late to correct.
Speaker 2: My name is Beth Shelburne. Like Bill Baxley, I was
Speaker 2: born in raised in Alabama. I grew up about a
Speaker 2: mile away from where the crime at the center of
Speaker 2: this story took place. I'm a journalist and writer and
Speaker 2: for the last three years, I've been investigating the case
Speaker 2: that rocked Bill Baxley's world. The story begins on a
Speaker 2: hot July night in nineteen ninety five. It unfolds in
Speaker 2: two places at once, the Crown Sterling Sweet's Hotel and
Speaker 2: a nightclub that's almost four miles away called Tea's Place.
Speaker 2: By the end of the night, one man will be
Speaker 2: shot dead and two others will encounter someone who will
Speaker 2: put them at the center of the murder investigation to
Speaker 2: Forrest Johnson is still on death row and he's running
Speaker 2: out of time.
Speaker 6: M hm, do you hear my maness?
Speaker 7: Laughter?
Speaker 6: Had my feet? Sorrows dep re list in this bad tears.
Speaker 6: I want to see revelation. I want to know you.
Speaker 6: I'm reason Oh, it's precious.
Speaker 1: To I'm Beth Shelburne.
Speaker 2: This is ear witness, Chapter one Behind the Crown.
Speaker 8: Yes, ma'am, this is very calling from Crowns Drilling Sweet
Speaker 8: Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm calling because I've had several
Speaker 8: guests report what appears on the windows. There have been
Speaker 8: two gunshots and people running in the parking lot.
Speaker 2: It's twelve fifty five am on July nineteenth, nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 8: It's twenty three plain, that is correct. I have security
Speaker 8: on the premisist, which is typically County Police, but I'm
Speaker 8: calling you because I want to make sure that the
Speaker 8: Birmingham Police arrive. Please, all right, look at the one out.
Speaker 8: Thank you very much, all right.
Speaker 2: The Crown Sterling Suites Hotel was a nine story building
Speaker 2: in Birmingham. Today the hotel is an embassy suites. Inside
Speaker 2: the main entrance of the hotel, there's a pale tiled
Speaker 2: walkway that leads through the lobby.
Speaker 1: The front desk.
Speaker 2: Is to the left, but keep walking past it and
Speaker 2: you enter a huge atrium, an open space surrounded by
Speaker 2: windows with an indoor garden of leafy green plants and trees.
Speaker 2: The tiled walkway leads to a coy pond with a
Speaker 2: fountain at the center. It's lush and humid inside, but
Speaker 2: despite all the windows, the field is dim and moody.
Speaker 2: Keep walking past the cooy pond and there's a short
Speaker 2: hallway that leads to the hotel's back parking lot. It
Speaker 2: was here outside the double doors of the Crown Sterling
Speaker 2: Suite's Hotel where a deputy sheriff was killed. No one
Speaker 2: saw the murder, but a few people heard gunshots.
Speaker 9: I remember hearing popping noises from the distance.
Speaker 2: Barry Rushikov was working at the front desk when he
Speaker 2: made that nine to one to one call.
Speaker 9: When I heard it, I believe that's when I tried
Speaker 9: to call Officer Hardy on the radio with no response.
Speaker 2: Officer William Hardy, who went by Bill, had been a
Speaker 2: deputy with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office for twenty three years.
Speaker 2: He was also a security guard at the hotel, where
Speaker 2: he worked the night shift to make extra money. Hardy
Speaker 2: was five foot ten, had a thin mustache, and wore
Speaker 2: his hair in a Jerry curl. He was known to
Speaker 2: be easy going and friendly. When Deputy Hardy wasn't making
Speaker 2: hotel security rounds, Barry usually saw him wearing his brown
Speaker 2: and tan deputy uniform, sitting at one of the tables
Speaker 2: in the hotel's atrium, smoking more brand menthol cigarettes and
Speaker 2: drinking coffee.
Speaker 4: You know, when I.
Speaker 9: Worked there, and when I was working nights, it was me,
Speaker 9: you know, Officer Hardy or whatever officer on duty, and
Speaker 9: or we would sometime have a houseman who is cleaning
Speaker 9: floors or something.
Speaker 4: But very minimal group, and I never felt unsafe.
Speaker 2: Barry wasn't the only person to hear the popping noises.
Speaker 2: A few guests at the hotel also heard gunshots, including
Speaker 2: Marshal Kelly Cummings, a guest in a fourth floor room
Speaker 2: directly above the hotel's back exit.
Speaker 10: I can remember like it was yesterday, ma as far
Speaker 10: as the details.
Speaker 2: As I worked on this project, I started referring to
Speaker 2: Cummings as the Keebler cookie guy, because in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: five he worked for Keebler as a truck driver.
Speaker 10: When I was with Keebler driving one of the step
Speaker 10: vans delivering cookies and crackers and stuff, and.
Speaker 2: We had a Cummings was staying at the Crown Sterling
Speaker 2: for a company training. After the workday was over, he
Speaker 2: drank a few beers at the hotel bar with some coworkers,
Speaker 2: and then he and the other Keepler employee he was
Speaker 2: rooming with turned in between ten and eleven PM. But
Speaker 2: Cummings was not asleep for long.
Speaker 10: But he just I woke up and it was I
Speaker 10: kept hearing somebody talk kind of talk.
Speaker 2: So you heard some voices and it sounded like they
Speaker 2: were arguing or.
Speaker 10: Not really bad. But they were.
Speaker 11: Having a conversation.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was male voices.
Speaker 10: Yeah, well they quit arguing and then I didn't hear anything.
Speaker 10: So I laid back down and it probably wasn't seconds,
Speaker 10: thirty seconds, forty five.
Speaker 4: I'm out.
Speaker 10: I didn't count boom, small caliber gun. He won a
Speaker 10: big caliber and all of a sudden, the few sects
Speaker 10: are a boom. About the second time I say it, Ben,
Speaker 10: that was.
Speaker 2: A gun, he remembers, turning to the coworker he was
Speaker 2: sharing a room with.
Speaker 10: I said, you hear that? He says, yeah. So I
Speaker 10: stood up and opened the blind to get my eyes
Speaker 10: fixed because it was dark. Then it had the lights
Speaker 10: in the.
Speaker 2: Last one directly beneath his window, Cummings sees a four
Speaker 2: door car. It's dark copper or light brown with the
Speaker 2: vinyl top, parked facing the hotel's back double doors. He
Speaker 2: sees a tall person get into the driver's side of
Speaker 2: the car, close the door, and slowly pull away with
Speaker 2: the headlights off.
Speaker 10: And so I called down to the front desk. I said, hey,
Speaker 10: there's been shots fired.
Speaker 8: I heard.
Speaker 10: Did you hear that?
Speaker 9: I believe I got a phone call from someone in
Speaker 9: the room saying they heard.
Speaker 2: Gunshots, So Barry makes that initial nine to one one call,
Speaker 2: hangs up and decides to investigate it.
Speaker 9: Jumped over the counter to walk back, and I was
Speaker 9: walked back.
Speaker 4: I saw Offsta Hardy's radio.
Speaker 2: Barry sees Deputy Hardy's radio on a table in the
Speaker 2: hotel's atrium, and right next to it his cigarette still
Speaker 2: burning in an ash tray. Meanwhile, back on the fourth floor,
Speaker 2: Marshall Kelly Cummings hangs up the phone with Barry and
Speaker 2: goes back to the window.
Speaker 10: And I kept looking, and I kept looking. Finally my
Speaker 10: eyes got where I could see, and I looked down.
Speaker 10: I could see him laying on the ground. I went, oh, no,
Speaker 10: this ain't good.
Speaker 2: Cummings spots a body on the ground and realizes someone
Speaker 2: has been badly hurt. It's right around this time Barry
Speaker 2: makes the same tearable discovery.
Speaker 9: There's a hallway that went to the door that went
Speaker 9: back out to the back parking lot. As I turned
Speaker 9: the corner to go down that hallway and I looked
Speaker 9: out the door in the distance, I saw Offsta Hardy.
Speaker 4: On the ground. That's when I ran back to the front.
Speaker 9: Desk made an emergency phone call to the police.
Speaker 12: Just man the Supirital crowds to phys.
Speaker 8: Colia and I have a pit. What appears to be a.
Speaker 12: Jumped the county police officer shot.
Speaker 8: In the back of our building.
Speaker 12: She ends not moving. People in a car drove away
Speaker 12: and he's lying on the on the pavement. I'm a
Speaker 12: little fraid to go up. Yes, he is a Birmingham
Speaker 12: Police out Jefferson County.
Speaker 8: He is a hired night time security for us.
Speaker 12: Hi, do you know if you can sign anything?
Speaker 8: Like if it's breeze? I K and how much blood?
Speaker 12: I'm trying, man, my, my, my promise.
Speaker 8: I don't know if the people are still out there.
Speaker 12: Okay, we we should be that Charlotte you I'm gonna
Speaker 12: go back.
Speaker 8: Okay, thank you.
Speaker 12: Got Jess Ketty deputy has been shot on the back
Speaker 12: entrance of the hotel Crown Show the suite and is.
Speaker 5: One of us and we are they have got one
Speaker 5: down who has been shot.
Speaker 12: And they said it looks gad, it looks too bad.
Speaker 12: Three three two Do we have any information? Do we
Speaker 12: have anything on a suspect to know anything?
Speaker 2: After he makes the second nine to one one call,
Speaker 2: Barry walks down the hallway to the back parking lot.
Speaker 9: And then I went back out the office. Already he
Speaker 9: was not a good condition. He did have a wound
Speaker 9: to his face. He was making a gurgling, gasping noise.
Speaker 9: You know, he was not conscious. I believe I took
Speaker 9: my jacket off, my uniform jacket off, to try to
Speaker 9: cover him, or put under his head, or try to
Speaker 9: comfort him. But fortunately officers arrived so quickly, and I
Speaker 9: was removed from that area immediately.
Speaker 2: More than a dozen officers from four different agencies arrive
Speaker 2: at the hotel. One of them is Detective Tony Richardson,
Speaker 2: who says he'd known Deputy Hardy since he first started
Speaker 2: working for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in nineteen seventy eight.
Speaker 5: Being black and bo being black, naturally I noticed him.
Speaker 5: I was told more than once to get a haircut.
Speaker 5: That you know, to be a deputy shaff you got
Speaker 5: to have your haircut. So the reason I mentioned that
Speaker 5: is because from the first day that I ever saw him,
Speaker 5: his hair was out.
Speaker 1: To hear big afro, big afro.
Speaker 11: And he would put on his hat.
Speaker 5: He wore that hat religiously. Everybody else as the Sheriff's
Speaker 5: office hated those hats. They didn't want to wear him,
Speaker 5: you know, But he always wore his hat.
Speaker 2: Deputy Hardy often wore his traditional broad brimmed tan smoky
Speaker 2: the bear style sheriff's hat. It was later entered as
Speaker 2: evidence from the crime scene with a bullet hole through
Speaker 2: the brim.
Speaker 5: And he would have it on his head and all
Speaker 5: that hair would be on the side would be out here,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, who is this guy? How can he
Speaker 5: get away with that? And not only that, he is
Speaker 5: in the sheriff's office. How can he get away with that?
Speaker 5: So I was in treat by him, fascinated by him,
Speaker 5: but I was scared of him. I was scared to
Speaker 5: meet him because I thought, of my mind, this guy's
Speaker 5: got to be crazy, you know who to do that
Speaker 5: and get away with it.
Speaker 13: He's got to be greaty.
Speaker 11: I would scatter of him.
Speaker 5: But anyway, when I first met him, I met him
Speaker 5: and talked to him. He started to feel better about well.
Speaker 5: I started to feel better about him.
Speaker 4: We were never.
Speaker 5: Just busom buddies real close, but we were close and
Speaker 5: we knew each other.
Speaker 2: Tony Richardson and Bill Hardy had been colleagues at the
Speaker 2: Jefferson County Sheriff's office for seventeen years. Richardson remembers the
Speaker 2: last time he saw Hardy alive.
Speaker 5: The last day I saw Bill, my brother and I.
Speaker 5: My brother would put a sheriff's office offso and we
Speaker 5: were standing there smoking and Bill drove out the alley
Speaker 5: and he was pulling up twenty second and he stopped
Speaker 5: in the road and he started to talk to us,
Speaker 5: and he said, hey, guys, hang out doing loan with
Speaker 5: some money. It's just you know, stuff like that. And
Speaker 5: we laughed and talked for a minute. And that was
Speaker 5: the last time I saw him. And the next time
Speaker 5: I heard Bill's name was about two o'clock in the
Speaker 5: morning when I got the call saying that he had
Speaker 5: been shot. At that time, I was what was considered
Speaker 5: a Crimes against Persons detective, which meant that I worked homicides.
Speaker 5: The lieutenant felt like because it involved a deputy sheriff,
Speaker 5: and you know that we needed all the help that
Speaker 5: we could get. So I got called out.
Speaker 2: Did you go to the actual scene?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What did you encounter when you got there?
Speaker 5: Well, by the time I got there, Bill's body was gone.
Speaker 2: Paramedics had already lifted Bill Hardy into an ambulance and
Speaker 2: rushed him to the emergency room of Birmingham's largest hospital.
Speaker 2: He is gravely injured with two gunshot wounds to.
Speaker 1: His head and jaw.
Speaker 2: A medical examiner notes a bullet wound to Hardy's finger
Speaker 2: likely means he raised his hand in a defensive posture
Speaker 2: when he was shot. Police go to his house to
Speaker 2: tell his wife, Patricia Diane Hardy, and bring her to
Speaker 2: the hospital. Jim Woodward, the chief deputy in Jefferson County,
Speaker 2: also rushes over when he hears that Hardy was shot.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about the incident?
Speaker 14: I got the call that Hardy had been shot, and
Speaker 14: they told me said looked very serious. So I got
Speaker 14: in my car and went down to the hospital. I
Speaker 14: stood there while they were operating on him, and then
Speaker 14: I just heard one say that's it. It's over. We
Speaker 14: can't do anymore.
Speaker 4: It's over.
Speaker 14: We can't save him. He's gone.
Speaker 2: What does that feel like when you are a career
Speaker 2: law enforcement officer in.
Speaker 14: Well, it's kind of devastating to you. You know, you
Speaker 14: get to know these guys and I knew Hardy. Well,
Speaker 14: that's a very devastating thing that happen to you.
Speaker 2: Deputy Bill Hardy is pronounced dead seven hours after he
Speaker 2: was shot. The cause of death is two gunshot wounds
Speaker 2: fired at close range. I wanted to know more about
Speaker 2: Deputy Hardy, so I wrote to several family members inviting
Speaker 2: them to talk. They never responded, and I can only
Speaker 2: imagine his murder must be one of the hardest things
Speaker 2: they've ever experienced. But I have learned a few things
Speaker 2: about Deputy Hardy. He was married to Patricia Diane Hardy.
Speaker 2: He had two children and four adult step children. Hardy
Speaker 2: started working as a deputy in nineteen seventy two. His
Speaker 2: duties included delivering subpoenas and directing traffic outside the courthouse.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 3: It was rough. It was rough. It's rough right now.
Speaker 5: It's a rough right This many well working homicide I
Speaker 5: worked at bunch, but none of them affected me like
Speaker 5: the killing of a deputy Shaff. You know, you have
Speaker 5: a bond with the guys you work with in the uniform.
Speaker 5: Whether you know 'em or not, you have a bond.
Speaker 5: So when I was a deputy Share working another deputy
Speaker 5: Share it's murdered, do you think that was emotional? Yes?
Speaker 13: It was mm very and had it been my decision
Speaker 13: the day we caught the people that did it. Let's
Speaker 13: let's put 'em on death throat.
Speaker 2: Lead Detective Tony Richardson and his team of investigators have
Speaker 2: no eyewitnesses to the shooting, and there's no known motive.
Speaker 2: A fellow officer has just been shot, and they have
Speaker 2: almost no evidence to go on. At the exact time
Speaker 2: that Deputy Bill Hardy was shot to Forrest Johnson and
Speaker 2: his friend Ardregis Ford were four miles away from the
Speaker 2: crime scene at a downtown Birmingham nightclub called Tea's Place,
Speaker 2: but they would soon become the focus of Tony Richardson's investigation.
Speaker 2: Just a few hours before Deputy Hardy is shot ar
Speaker 2: dragas Ford gets into the passenger side of his nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy one black Monte Carlo. It's an old car and
Speaker 2: the driver's side door doesn't open, so he slides over
Speaker 2: into the driver's seat, starts the ignition, and heads out
Speaker 2: to pick up his friend to Forrest Johnson to go
Speaker 2: to a club called Teas Place. I wasn't able to
Speaker 2: interview to Forest or Ardregas for this podcast. The Alabama
Speaker 2: Department of Corrections doesn't allow people on death road to
Speaker 2: do interviews with reporters like me. So I was unable
Speaker 2: to talk to Forrest directly. And ar Dragas died in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one, I didn't get a chance to interview
Speaker 2: him before then. I was able to speak to Ardregas's mother,
Speaker 2: Joyce Ford.
Speaker 15: That particular night said they was going to teas and
Speaker 15: see he would go to Tease every Tuesday and he
Speaker 15: have his particular same parking space and everything because he
Speaker 15: would give them good tips.
Speaker 2: Ardregas was willing to pay for a good parking space
Speaker 2: because he was in a wheelchair. When Ardregas was a teenager,
Speaker 2: a group of men began shooting outside an apartment building
Speaker 2: he was visiting. He was shot trying to shield his
Speaker 2: cousin and her baby from gunfire.
Speaker 15: My son when he got shot when he was fifteen,
Speaker 15: I had just gotten off from work. I was tied
Speaker 15: in the phone, rang Rang Rang. I didn't answer the phone,
Speaker 15: you know, and I finally answered it and they stated
Speaker 15: that he had gotten shot. I need to rush to
Speaker 15: the murgency room. That was like a dream, you know.
Speaker 15: You hear about things happening to other people, but when
Speaker 15: it hit home, you know, and then he got spinal
Speaker 15: cord injury. He got shot in the back. Yeah, and
Speaker 15: he was paralyzed realize from chest down T four they
Speaker 15: called it. So that was like a nightmare.
Speaker 2: In his early twenties, ar Dragus outfitted his Monte Carlo
Speaker 2: with the makeshift system so he could throw his wheelchair
Speaker 2: in the back and drive the car using just his
Speaker 2: upper body.
Speaker 15: He would cut a broom you know, the broomsticks. He
Speaker 15: would put have one to the brakes, one to the salator,
Speaker 15: and he would tape it to the car. He would
Speaker 15: tape it to it.
Speaker 6: So he like retro fitted his Yeah.
Speaker 5: He did. Did.
Speaker 15: He didn't buy the regular equipment that he should have used.
Speaker 2: Ar Dragas and to Forest actually came up with this
Speaker 2: idea together. Here's to Forrest's cousin, Antonio.
Speaker 16: Green Draga's was. I guess that was a prime thing.
Speaker 16: He didn't want that handicap accessible pedals and stuff in
Speaker 16: his car. But as far as coming up with this great,
Speaker 16: this genius idea where they're gonna well some metal rods
Speaker 16: to the break and accelerator pedal so he could use
Speaker 16: his hands and dry, well, he get to thinking about
Speaker 16: this thing and metal rods well, did from the brake
Speaker 16: pedal or the accelerator. That's not too good of an
Speaker 16: idea in case you get in the accident. He hate
Speaker 16: to see Draga's impaled through the seat right here. So
Speaker 16: he goes and buys two brooms out of the little
Speaker 16: dollar store wherever, And no measurements, no, just nothing precise
Speaker 16: about it. He just gets the broom and breaks them
Speaker 16: and duct tape the sticks, one to the accelerated pedal
Speaker 16: and one to the brake pedal so Dragus could drive
Speaker 16: his car.
Speaker 6: Could he get around? Well, I mean did he drive real?
Speaker 15: Well?
Speaker 2: It's been a while since to Forest and Ardregas have
Speaker 2: hung out because to Forest had recently gotten out of prison.
Speaker 2: He was arrested for driving with a suspended license, and
Speaker 2: as officers padded him down at the city jail, he
Speaker 2: tossed something into a nearby trash can. Officers reached into
Speaker 2: the can and found a plastic bag of cocaine. To
Speaker 2: Forest ended up pleading guilty to drug possession. To Forest
Speaker 2: served about a year in prison, and by the night
Speaker 2: of Hardy's murder, he'd been out about three months. To
Speaker 2: Forest puts on jean shorts and a Tommy Hill figure
Speaker 2: blue and white shirt, then gets into the passenger side
Speaker 2: of Ardregas's car and they head downtown. They pull up
Speaker 2: and park outside Tea's Place, but it's too early to
Speaker 2: go inside, so they hang out in the parking lot
Speaker 2: flirting with some girls who work at the car dealership
Speaker 2: across the street. To Forrest buys a hot dog from
Speaker 2: a cart on the sidewalk. Regulars start trickling into the club, drinking,
Speaker 2: dancing and catching up inside. There's something music low lighting.
Speaker 2: It's Tasty Tuesday at Teas Place, which means women get
Speaker 2: in free.
Speaker 7: I used to go to Teas Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Speaker 2: Barbetta Hunt was one of the regulars who was there
Speaker 2: that night.
Speaker 1: What was your nickname back then?
Speaker 11: Mama Cat.
Speaker 2: That's like in the world of nicknames, that's the best n.
Speaker 7: My mother, it's the purpose and my father, Fred Perkins.
Speaker 7: They gave me that name when I was born. But
Speaker 7: that's Monday. My name is Mama Cat.
Speaker 2: When she was in her early twenties, Mama Cat spent
Speaker 2: a lot of nights hanging out at Teas Place.
Speaker 7: When you walk into the door, that's my spot right there.
Speaker 7: It's on the right hand side. Every time I got
Speaker 7: that was my spot. I don't move from this spot.
Speaker 7: I don't walk to the bag. I don't walk there.
Speaker 7: I say right there. Me and my friend Velinici Aqui Sanders,
Speaker 7: we were together.
Speaker 17: We got there before eleven because the club was always
Speaker 17: free on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday before eleven for women.
Speaker 2: This is Belanique Sanders nicknamed Queisi.
Speaker 17: Anything after eleven it was five dollars and me and
Speaker 17: Barbetta was very cheap, so we tried to make sure
Speaker 17: we got there in free because the little money we
Speaker 17: had said we wanted to buy something to eat, and
Speaker 17: I love to get a chicken plate from there, a
Speaker 17: chicken breast with some French fries.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, did you know Trafforst Johnson?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 15: I did.
Speaker 17: I knew him from hanging out in the neighborhood in
Speaker 17: Nsley and I, oh my god, I had a crush
Speaker 17: on him.
Speaker 11: He was the finest. Yeah.
Speaker 2: What do you remember about what he looked like?
Speaker 17: He was short, hmm, a nice body, Oh my god. Anyway,
Speaker 17: he was a ladies man. I will say that, sweet,
Speaker 17: always kind. He was just a nice gentleman like his
Speaker 17: mama had raised him really well.
Speaker 2: Did you guys ever go out or did he know
Speaker 2: that you had a crush on him?
Speaker 17: He knew I had a crush on him, but we
Speaker 17: never went out. No, we would just see each other.
Speaker 17: I smiled, be like, Oh that he is, I'm gonna
Speaker 17: get him.
Speaker 11: Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: To Forest mostly grew up in Birmingham's Pratt City neighborhood,
Speaker 2: or Pratt for short.
Speaker 16: We grew up together, I mean closer than just cousins.
Speaker 16: We were like brothers because we were all pretty much
Speaker 16: raised right in the same little local community.
Speaker 2: While to Forest was growing up, most of his extended
Speaker 2: family also lived in or near Pratt, including his cousin
Speaker 2: Antonio Green.
Speaker 16: And Uh, since we were todd I mean babies, we
Speaker 16: were kind of together, took out in this thing, and
Speaker 16: he was a couple of years younger than I am,
Speaker 16: so he always kind of held on to my shirt
Speaker 16: tail and you know, so I've been closely connected with
Speaker 16: him for our entire life.
Speaker 4: Pretty much.
Speaker 2: To Forest's mom, Donna, was seventeen when she had him,
Speaker 2: and when to Forest was young, she was more like
Speaker 2: a sister to him than a mother. Donna leaned on
Speaker 2: her parents and siblings to help take care of to Forest,
Speaker 2: and as to Forrest got older, she leaned on him
Speaker 2: to help take care of his little brother.
Speaker 16: He started at a very young age, much too young
Speaker 16: to really be faced with the type of responsibility that
Speaker 16: he took on. He was at an age where he
Speaker 16: was still a kid. I'm talking about eleven twelve, you know,
Speaker 16: just in their teen years, and had to take on
Speaker 16: the responsibility of taking care of his little brother. You know,
Speaker 16: he had a little brother that he got ready for
Speaker 16: school and his clothes he did. You know, He's always
Speaker 16: been that caring little dude, you know, and he did that.
Speaker 16: So he had to take on some things during that time.
Speaker 16: You know, his mom and dad was dead, but his
Speaker 16: dad was a very very heavy drinker.
Speaker 2: To Forest's father, Ronald, was an alcoholic and would get
Speaker 2: violent when he drank, which was every day. This made
Speaker 2: home life extremely volatile for to Forrest, his younger brother,
Speaker 2: little ron and especially his mother, Donna. She eventually left
Speaker 2: Ronald when to Forest was a teenager and moved in
Speaker 2: with another man who had an apartment in the Tuxedo
Speaker 2: Projects in Birmingham's Insley community, also known as the Brickyard.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 11: It was called the Brickyard.
Speaker 2: Velinique aka Queasi, the one who had a crush on
Speaker 2: to Forest, also grew up there.
Speaker 11: It was rough. I did you know My mom had
Speaker 11: three girls.
Speaker 17: My had three and we lived in a five bedroom
Speaker 17: project with our grandparents, So it was just a bunch
Speaker 17: of girls in the house. But I mean, you know,
Speaker 17: I had just seen people get killed right in front
Speaker 17: of me. My cousin got shot in the stummy. You know,
Speaker 17: a lot of.
Speaker 11: It was rough.
Speaker 17: You had family's daddy couldn't afford to eat. You know,
Speaker 17: kids come to school, you know, wearing the same clothes
Speaker 17: over and over.
Speaker 11: It was rough. It was rough growing up in the projects.
Speaker 2: To Forest and his little brother moved there when to
Speaker 2: Forest was sixteen. When he was seventeen, to Forrest was
Speaker 2: shot and a drive by shooting and spent three months
Speaker 2: in the hospital. To Forest's mom told me the bullet
Speaker 2: is still lodged in his chest. During this period, seven
Speaker 2: of to Forest's friends would be shot and killed. No
Speaker 2: one was ever prosecuted for any of these crimes, and
Speaker 2: it was around this time that.
Speaker 1: To Forest dropped out of school.
Speaker 2: Several family members tell me that at twenty two, to
Speaker 2: Forest was somewhat adrift. He spent his time working on
Speaker 2: old cars and playing video games. He was having a
Speaker 2: good time dating different women. He had five children who
Speaker 2: he loved, but he was also unsettled. He hadn't yet
Speaker 2: figured out his purpose, and he didn't know he was
Speaker 2: running out of time. As to Forrest and Ardregas wait
Speaker 2: outside of Teas, Ardregas's beeper goes off a few times.
Speaker 2: The beeps are from a girl he met a few
Speaker 2: nights before, but he ignores her, hoping to meet someone
Speaker 2: else inside. Tees to Forrest walks toward the club's entrance
Speaker 2: behind Ardregas and his wheelchair. They're focused on meeting girls
Speaker 2: and having a good time. They don't know that this
Speaker 2: night will change their lives, and the people they run
Speaker 2: into don't know they're about to become alibi witnesses.
Speaker 18: There was a love before eleven, and we were standing
Speaker 18: outside and they came up as far as its pushing
Speaker 18: to Draga's.
Speaker 2: One of the first people they run into is Kenyara Pickett,
Speaker 2: who was standing near the entrance.
Speaker 18: I remember exactly where I was standing, right in front
Speaker 18: of the club when he walked up, because I thought
Speaker 18: I was shouting night out, you know, back in the days.
Speaker 11: It was TSC wearing big clothes back then, and.
Speaker 18: I had on some black, some black big jeans but shorts,
Speaker 18: and I had on some black and white rebox and
Speaker 18: then I think I had on the button down shut
Speaker 18: my sister she had just got out of the hospital.
Speaker 18: She had a blood clot and I when she got
Speaker 18: out to the hospital, we just went down and you know,
Speaker 18: to celebrate that.
Speaker 2: She came home to Forrest and Ardregas make their way
Speaker 2: past Kenara and go into Tea's. Mama Cat and Belanik
Speaker 2: are already inside, perched at their table right by the
Speaker 2: front door.
Speaker 7: Tavarras Johnson, I remember he was pushing a Dreka's four
Speaker 7: in the wheelchair.
Speaker 11: They came together.
Speaker 17: I had saw Toofar was pushing a Draca's in the
Speaker 17: club because we always standing at the front by the
Speaker 17: door so we can be nosy and see everything.
Speaker 2: You wanted to see who was coming in and who
Speaker 2: was leaving with who?
Speaker 11: Yes, yes, ma'am a boy.
Speaker 19: Eleven o'clock I saw Tafarest come and pushing Anddraga's in
Speaker 19: and I was excited to see him because I hadn't
Speaker 19: seen him in a year, because I had just got
Speaker 19: out the military.
Speaker 2: Stanley Chandler is also at Tease that night to catch
Speaker 2: up with friends. He and to Forrest knew each other
Speaker 2: as kids and Pratt.
Speaker 19: So we stood there and we start we talked, you
Speaker 19: know about old times, you know, and I mean we joked,
Speaker 19: laying and.
Speaker 2: Laugh to Forrest and Ardregas settle in at a table
Speaker 2: chatting with people who stopped by watching the dance floor.
Speaker 20: I was sitting on the balcony because when you go around,
Speaker 20: it's like a little balcony part that you could sit at.
Speaker 20: And so I seen Draca's in too far ast when
Speaker 20: they came in the door, because he was pushing them
Speaker 20: in a wheelchair.
Speaker 2: This is Dedra Carter, who was celebrating getting released from
Speaker 2: the hospital with her sister Kenyara. Dedra was also at
Speaker 2: Tease that night.
Speaker 20: And him and my cousin Mona and my sister, all
Speaker 20: of us was just there talking. And you know, I
Speaker 20: think Toofars liked at Mona, so you know, he was
Speaker 20: trying to hook up with him, but she wouldn't.
Speaker 11: No, she wouldn't never hook up with him.
Speaker 20: We used to laugh, talk joking, like even we at
Speaker 20: the club music playing, We're still cracking up, you know,
Speaker 20: you know, just talking and stuff.
Speaker 2: To Forrest SIPs along island iced tea and orders our
Speaker 2: Dragas a brandy and coke. At one point, to Forrest
Speaker 2: goes back to the bar because Dragas says his drink
Speaker 2: is too weak, and the bartender makes him a new one.
Speaker 2: They linger at the club into the early hours of
Speaker 2: Wednesday morning.
Speaker 20: When I said we would probably ship the club now
Speaker 20: we was there, I know, to probably like they used
Speaker 20: to close about maybe one two o'clock, so we would
Speaker 20: leave right right before that, so I know it was
Speaker 20: like maybe one.
Speaker 19: I ain't up leaving a club roughly about I'm gonna
Speaker 19: say around about right at one. And like I said,
Speaker 19: he was standing across the club, you know, you could
Speaker 19: see him because it wasn't a big, big club, you know,
Speaker 19: And I just started to do signs up and I.
Speaker 15: Left and he was still there.
Speaker 19: Yeah, you stayed there when I left.
Speaker 2: There are at least ten people who say they saw
Speaker 2: to Forrest and Ardregas at Tea's place between eleven PM
Speaker 2: and one thirty am. Deputy Bill Hardy was shot right
Speaker 2: in the middle of that time frame, around twelve fifty am,
Speaker 2: four miles away at the Crown Sterling Suites Hotel. People
Speaker 2: like Kenyara, Dedra Stanley, Queisi, Mama Cat all remember that night.
Speaker 2: Their corroborated statements weave together a shield. That shield should
Speaker 2: protect to Forest and Ardregas from the accusations about to
Speaker 2: head their way. But it doesn't. The state would arrest
Speaker 2: to Forest and Ardregis, try them and seek the death
Speaker 2: penalty against both of them for Deputy Hardy's murder. For
Speaker 2: the last three years, I've been trying to figure out.
Speaker 1: How this happened.
Speaker 2: I've read through thousands of pages of court transcripts and
Speaker 2: investigative documents. I've done a full audit of all the
Speaker 2: media coverage and interviewed more than eighty people, including several
Speaker 2: who were directly involved in this investigation and prosecution, and
Speaker 2: many who have never spoken publicly about the case. I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to find the real killer of Deputy Hardy.
Speaker 2: I'm investigating why that person was never found. One of
Speaker 2: the first things I tried to unwind, how did to
Speaker 2: Forrest Johnson and ardregus Ford end up at the center
Speaker 2: of the investigation when they were somewhere else at the time.
Speaker 2: Deputy Hardy was killed. Here's one thing everyone agrees on.
Speaker 2: After they leave Tea's place to Forrest and Ardregas pick
Speaker 2: up two girls and the Monte Carlo.
Speaker 1: One sits in the.
Speaker 2: Back by Ardregas's wheelchair, the other one sits between Ardregas
Speaker 2: and to Forest in the front. And that girl the
Speaker 2: one in the front seat. What she tells police will
Speaker 2: land to Forest and Ardregas right at the center of
Speaker 2: the investigation.
Speaker 5: I'm at the Shriff's office headquarters along with Yolanda Michelle Chambers.
Speaker 5: Yolanda is a black female.
Speaker 18: She's fifteen years of age.
Speaker 1: That's next time.
Speaker 2: Ear Witness is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts
Speaker 2: in association with Signal Company Number One. Executive producers are
Speaker 2: Jason Flom, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis, and me Beth Shelburn.
Speaker 2: The investigative reporting for this series was done by Me
Speaker 2: and Mara McNamara. Producers are MARAA. McNamara, Hannah Beal, and
Speaker 2: Jackie Pauley. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Britt Spangler
Speaker 2: is our sound designer. Additional story editing from Marie Sutton,
Speaker 2: fact check help from Katherine Newhan, and special thanks to
Speaker 2: to Forrest Johnson's legal defense team. You can follow the
Speaker 2: show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter at Lava for Good.
Speaker 2: To see behind the scenes content from our investigation, visit
Speaker 2: Lava for Good dot com. Slash earwitness
Speaker 4: To the