WEBVTT - #488 Maggie Freleng with Belynda Goff 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.000 For a woman who spent over two decades in prison, 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:06.560 Belinda Goff is full of life and humor. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.879 I do laugh. I have to say I never stopped laughing. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.480 It just became less frequent, but it was still there. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.040 But one day the laughter was totally gone, and she 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.840 considered ending her life. But then Belinda thought about her kids. 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.759 So you feel, looking back, you're glad you made the decision. 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:27.120 To live and fight. 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.360 Yes, yes, I bet your kids are too. 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:34.240 They see them might be all right. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.879 Belinda knows her situation is no laughing matter, particularly what 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:45.600 her conviction did to her three. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:54.960 Kidsful incarceration impacts the children of those wrongfully convicted. It 0:00:55.000 --> 0:01:03.720 is I mean, it's monstrous that their entire world was shattered, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:10.280 and nobody in authority took consideration for that whatsoever. I mean, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.440 the truly innocent babies are being scarred. 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:17.200 Belinda's son Mark says growing up with his mother in 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.440 prison indeed scarred him. 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:23.840 I had to grow up really fast, and so I 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.400 was cooking and cleaning and taking care of things by ten. 0:01:27.040 --> 0:01:30.360 But he wouldn't let those circumstances define him. 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:32.600 The system didn't decide what I was going to do 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:35.720 with my future. The system had no bearing on what 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.199 I decided I wanted to be, how hard I could work, 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:39.480 what I could put in. 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.000 So Mark joined the Marines and says boot camp was 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.280 the first time he felt like he understood what his 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:47.120 mom was going through in prison. 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:52.160 Opened my eyes a little bit to what maybe she 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.200 was experiencing a little bit, and so there was connection there. 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.160 Mark remembers talking on the phone with his mom all 0:01:59.240 --> 0:01:59.720 the time. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.320 I prayed with her on the phone so many times. 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:04.960 Our letters meant a lot. 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:09.640 But Belinda says, there's nothing that can take the place 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:16.880 of being impresent with them. Nobody give me my children, Maggie, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:24.839 I don't mean my girl and children. Nobody can bring 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:29.880 my six year old boy back to me. But the 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:37.320 goal is this stops happening to people. I am Belinda Goff, 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:40.720 and I was wrong to be incarcerated for twenty three 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.880 almost to the day calendar years for Rome. I did not. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.480 Commit from LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction with 0:02:47.560 --> 0:03:00.040 Maggie Freeling today. Belinda Goff. Belinda Goff was born in 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.960 August twenty seventh, nineteen sixty one, in Streeter, Illinois, about 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.720 two hours away from Chicago, and mom and I. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:14.320 Had dad use and Lyle and I had three siblings. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.280 So there were a total of four of us, one 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.880 boy and three girls, and we lived in the Midwest. 0:03:21.240 --> 0:03:23.680 Belinda was the middle child, and she says, out of 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:26.960 all of her sisters, she's proud to be the tallest. 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.040 I'm the tall one of the girls, so and I'm 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.040 like maybe five four. I just thinking of myself as 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:36.200 the average kind of girl, you know. I mean as 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.800 far as my looks and how I am, I I'm 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:40.360 like medium average everything. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.920 Belinda says, like her size, her life was also modest. 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:47.760 We didn't have a lot of money. Originally my mother 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.200 was in nursing, but I think after four children she 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.760 had to stay home and be mom. My dad was 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.680 in a militourney. He was in the army, and when 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.720 he got out of the army, he took up the career. 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:01.680 Where As a meat cutter. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.880 To be clear, she says, a meat cutter is not 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:05.800 a butcher. 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:07.800 There is a very big difference. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:10.880 A butcher deals with the whole animal, while a meat 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.760 cutter works with the pieces for customers. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:15.600 I did not know that difference. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:17.320 It is, it is, it is a difference. 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.359 Belinda's parents were also spiritual people, and they brought the 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:23.359 family to church. 0:04:23.600 --> 0:04:26.640 It was a little small Baptist church there or close 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.280 just to whatever, a few blocks from where a house was, 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.040 and you know, we did the regular Sunday service, and 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.040 you know, I was very involved with the church. 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:38.240 And then in the summers, Belinda got to leave Northern Illinois. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.520 I was also raised in the cotton fields of Mississippi. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.000 When school was released for the summer break, we went 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:46.560 to see Grandma in Mississippi. 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.400 Belinda's mom was born and raised in Mississippi, and her 0:04:49.440 --> 0:04:51.039 family still lived there. 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:55.560 Some of my fondest memories are during the time that 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:57.880 we stayed there. We had water from a water pump. 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.200 You wanted water, you went outside and you pumped. Well, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:07.120 my great grandfather, my grandmother's father, uh was was still alive. 0:05:07.360 --> 0:05:09.760 He liked to pick on us, you know. He just 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.680 would do things copy with a rubber band or you know, 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.360 little things like that, and it would be so irritating 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:17.440 at that But I look back at them and I think, 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:19.720 how fun that was, How fun that was to just 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.880 live and be with family, and not a lot of 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.920 people get to know their great grandfather, you know, or grandmother. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.000 Life was good for kid Belinda golf. But as she 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:34.120 got older. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:38.480 You know, like most teenage young girls, there's there's a 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:42.159 lot of confusion. I think there's rebellion, There's there's a 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.520 part of you that is just growing because you're you're 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:49.920 you're stepping into young adulthood. And so teenage Belinda, young 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:56.839 teenage Belinda was very home oriented, but at the same 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:59.080 time trying to explore her young womanhood. 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.480 So Blinda was going out and meeting other teens. 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.359 I met a lot of friends that are still my 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:05.320 friends to this day. 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:07.760 And at sixteen she met a boy. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:11.440 I met my daughter's father, the first love, if you would, 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:16.080 you know, And that's how that began. 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.159 They weren't dating for long and then I think. 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.120 My mom knew instantanancy almost and I still don't know 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.719 how she did, because she kept asking me if I 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.240 was pregnant and I kept saying no, But she wound 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.720 up taking me, forcing me to go to a doctor 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.159 and you know, doing examining her pregnancy test, and that's 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.560 how she factually found out, you know, that I was pregnant. 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:43.640 Was she was your family supportive of you. 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.600 You have to under understand the history with this as 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.080 my mother, and that's a scenario she was born into, 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.600 so she had to She was born out of wedlock 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.760 with my grandmother. So for her, it was much more 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.600 than just her daughter. Getting pregnant was like gay day, 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.279 the repeat of a nightmare that she remembered as a nightmare. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.200 What the instant knee jerk response by both families was 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:11.880 to just keep us away from each other. 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:15.320 So Belinda and the boy were split up and he 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.600 was to have nothing to do with the baby. Belinda 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.960 was on her own. But over time, she says, her 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.240 family came around to her being pregnant. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:27.840 You know, reality is what it is, and we're going 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:32.040 to have this baby, meaning we as a family, the 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.560 family unit, my dad, my siblings. You know, my siblings 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.480 were very supportive. Had I not had their support and 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.200 during that time, I'm not sure how that would have gone. 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:48.760 In August of nineteen seventy eight, Belinda gave birth to 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.440 a baby girl she named Bridget. 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.440 I was sixteen, a week from a week away from 0:07:54.560 --> 0:07:57.040 being seventeen years old when she was born. Literally, it's 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:01.520 our birthdays are one week apart seven days. To me, 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.520 she is just truly a gift from God. But I 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.880 feel that way about all my children, just in different ways. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.280 I have three children, and every one of those three children, 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:13.040 oh one hundred percent in my heart. And I know 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.000 the math doesn't hand what it's effect. 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.840 But before she had her other kids to share her 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:23.000 heart with, nearly a decade later, it was just Belinda 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:23.600 and Bridget. 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:26.040 Well, you know, the reality is is a kid having 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.880 a kid, a child having a child. Sixteen is not grown, 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.720 seventeen is not grown. And I don't know if you 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.920 can relect, most of us can reflect back at that 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.160 age where we think we're grown, but we're not. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.240 Blinda struggled for a bit. She had to drop out 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.679 of school, and she took multiple jobs in factories and 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:49.559 retail to support herself and Bridget. Then a few years later, 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.000 Belinda was working at a convenience store when a man 0:08:53.040 --> 0:08:54.960 came in and caught her attention. 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.000 Just one day he came in to get a cup 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.160 of coffee, and I felt he was a very and 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:04.120 some good looking man. He was a very German Man. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.880 He could just talk to anybody, I think, and we 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:09.959 just had a way of being able to wait to 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.160 people and connect with people individually. 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.200 His name was Steven goff Head. 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.280 One of the best viewers of anybody yet still to 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.040 meet in my life, and those cups of coffee just 0:09:24.120 --> 0:09:24.959 kind of extended. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.280 Belinda says she was happy around Steven. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:32.920 He'd like to laugh, and we did that. We could 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.040 laugh at ourselves. He was he had a really good humor. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.840 But he was also a man of God and he 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.600 loved the Lord and a big part of what he 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.640 did and focused on, what was the passion in his 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:48.480 life was Christian music. He could sing, he could play, 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:52.080 and he could write, and he was just very gifted musically. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:57.200 Belinda was smitten. Do I have correct that y'all were 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:00.240 only together for three months before you got married, as. 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.760 You can't remember them the time frame, but it was 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.800 very short. It was very short. I think both of 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.280 our families were free shocked. 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:12.400 Belinda and Steven got married on June twenty second, nineteen 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:13.160 eighty six. 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.040 We got married. Then we had two sons. So in 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:17.800 Togalo I had three children. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.439 Mark was born in nineteen eighty seven and Stephen Lee 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.080 came in nineteen ninety one. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:24.560 We had fun in the home. 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:25.520 This is Mark again. 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:30.840 My dad was a goofball. He loved to laugh and 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:32.720 make games out of nothing. 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:36.280 Mark remembers a really bad thunderstorm one day. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.240 There was one that was shake in the apartment, the 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.480 windows rattling. Both me and my brother were you know, 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:43.480 we were scared. 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:48.520 So Steven started a farting contest, and he. 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.520 Had a unique skill of basically being able to do 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:55.720 that on command. So we went from being scared of 0:10:55.720 --> 0:10:57.880 a thunderstorm to busting out in laughter. 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.000 Stephen and Belinda have been described as Yin and yang. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.240 I think her humor's a different kind of goofy, but 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.520 she's I think like your typical mom. She wants everything 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.280 in order and making sure everything is going how it should. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.800 You know, both of them worked really hard, so the 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.120 time we got was little, so I think we just 0:11:20.200 --> 0:11:21.480 made the most of that time. 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:23.880 Mark remembers that time fondly. 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.800 We would go, you know, rent movies back when they 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.880 had VHS tapes, you know, and we'd go and get 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:34.319 like four or five movies for the weekend, and it 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.800 wasn't uncommon for us to just get a pizza and 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.960 hang out, watch a movie and just enjoy the time 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.200 at home. It was a simple life, but a good life. 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.120 Mark says his parents were also people of faith and 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:48.960 tried to live those values. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.760 It was a love and acceptance of just grace and 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:56.920 understanding that we're broken human beings and we're all in 0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.120 the same you know, we're all in the same broken 0:11:59.160 --> 0:11:59.720 world together. 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.120 Do you think your parents enjoyed each other's company and 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:04.120 enjoyed being together? 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:09.400 Oh, they absolutely did. I mean, you know, no marriage 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:13.360 is perfect, but I never I never witnessed any real 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:18.360 fighting or arguing. I can't look at my childhood and 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.520 say that anything was a red flag or alarming. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.359 But Mark is right, despite his and Belinda's happy memories, 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:35.000 no marriage is perfect, and those imperfections would end up 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:48.200 playing a devastating role in Belinda's fate. In nineteen ninety four, 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:51.640 the Goths were living in Green Forest, Arkansas, a town 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.319 of about three thousand people. The family had moved there 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.520 a few years earlier because of Stephen. 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:00.719 We came to Arkansas because that's what he wanted to do, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.600 because he had he felt he had some connections down 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:08.800 here well in the Brandson area, and at the time 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:11.120 he had a band, a Christian band. 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.720 His dream was, you know, being a musician, and he 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:16.120 chased that as hard as he could. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.880 Legal was to hopefully break into maybe the brandsoon area 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:23.280 or whatever. The music area never. 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.280 Really came to fruition, but you know, of course I 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.800 viewed him as the musical hero. Anyway. 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.120 Steven's band was made up of a bunch of friends 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:41.400 and it was called Friends. And although the name wasn't unique. 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:43.320 They had a unique show. They had a guy who 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.360 kind of had was like almost like a clown. Basically 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.080 they put on these little skits in between things, but 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:56.360 vocally and how he performed honestly remind me of Elvis 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.320 a lot, I think, and Elvis was his like that 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:01.920 was his hero. 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.439 Do you remember listening to a lot of. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:11.600 Elvish I do. Elvis was around for sure, and I'm 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.480 sure I got I mean, I loved Elvis too, but 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.839 I'm sure that absolutely was by Osmosis. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:19.760 Yeah. 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.960 Belinda worked at a Tyson Chicken plant at this time, 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.760 though she had to take leave for a bit to 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:31.160 recover from a hysterectomy having her uterus removed. Belinda says 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:35.200 it was a painful recovery. The incision went from hip 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.800 to hip like a big smiley face on her abdomen. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:41.640 I've never had a c section. I've never had my 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:46.240 abdomen ripped open. I mean, were you able to could 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.280 you physically lift your arms over your head? 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.640 No, there was no when how you progress is just 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.000 being able to stand up on your legs, but you 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:59.800 cannot stand up straight because you know, so the the process, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:03.840 in the initial process of probably at least a couple 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:07.400 of weeks, is just trying to stand up straight. That's 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.840 not kind of walking, or that's putting it bet on 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.360 the floor your week, I guess is you know how 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:15.560 else do you say it? Like what you take for granted, 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.160 like going in here to the kids room and grabbing 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.720 a launder basket of dirty laundry just to run over 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.640 the washingroom, you know whatever, you know, those simple things. 0:15:24.000 --> 0:15:26.400 I could not do those simple things because it required 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:30.520 everything to be healed, that you know what. 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:34.840 On the evening of Saturday, June eleventh, Belinda was having 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:39.120 dinner with her husband and youngest son. It was supposed 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.120 to be an anniversary dinner at first, until Belinda and 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.600 Stephen realized she'd been off by almost ten days. 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.840 I had the wrong day for our anniversary. And then 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:53.120 he was very amused by the fact that I was not, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.160 that he was not the one that messed up the 0:15:55.200 --> 0:16:00.480 anniversary that I did. So we were just having a 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:07.160 nice dinner at home and nothing per se out of 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:13.720 the ordinary, and he got a phone call and and 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.240 that's where everything begins that nobody knows what he is 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:17.800 or was. 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.040 After the phone call, Stephen left. 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.920 I do not know what he was going to do. 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.600 I know what he told me. He told me he 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:28.800 was going to go on to get some smoke, some cigarettes, 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:32.400 which I felt was a ruse. 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.640 Did he normally not really tell you the truth of 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.120 where he was going? Like, why did you think cigarettes was? 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:41.840 I thought it was off because I knew he had some, 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:48.400 But yeah, I don't know what to have. There was 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.920 nothing else I can elaborate on that. I don't know 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.480 who was on the phone. I don't know what their 0:16:53.560 --> 0:17:01.240 conversation was, so I can't. It's a hard one for me. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:06.520 I had honored it for a very long time, decades. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:11.640 I've hondered that, and there's something to come to a point. 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:13.560 You have to stop, you have to let go because 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:14.960 you will drive yourself insane. 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.399 After Stephen left, Belinda got her youngest son ready for bed, 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.560 Bridgette was away, and Mark was staying at a friend's 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:25.639 house for the second night in a row. 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:30.000 I wanted to stay another night and asked could I 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.520 do that? And they had. You know, my mom told 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.800 me that the we're going to have steak dinner. You know, 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.359 are you sure you're going to be missing out? We 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:43.760 were always into steak. The steak was a very popular meal, 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:47.880 and so I elected to miss out on steak dinner 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:53.840 and stay with my friend that night. And yeah, of 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.679 course the story played out as it did. I of 0:17:57.720 --> 0:17:59.399 course had no idea that was the last time I 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:00.000 was going to see him. 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:04.359 Belinda says she put her youngest son in bed and 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:06.000 then fell asleep on the couch. 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.600 The next thing I remember was I woke up and 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:11.080 went to bed. 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:14.040 On her way to the bedroom, she noticed Steven still 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.920 wasn't home. Then she got into bed and fell asleep 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.480 again until her alarm went off. 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:25.159 I hait snoos my first thing with the Hits news. 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.240 Sometime around four point thirty am, her alarm went off again, 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.480 and Belinda realized Stephen still wasn't in bed, so she 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:37.720 got up, thinking maybe he'd passed out in the living room. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:41.360 I was just thinking I was going to go out 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.560 and find him on the couch to tell him to 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:49.320 get up, and I found him in our doorway, not 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:50.040 on the couch. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.360 She found Stephen by the front door, bludgeoned and bloody. 0:18:55.240 --> 0:19:03.240 My first reaction with a lot of hysteria, screaming and 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:06.320 running for the phone. 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.240 She called first responders. 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:19.640 I was, I was, I was so freaked, so out 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.800 of control. This is not something that I would normally be, 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.480 but I mean leaning out of control of my emotions. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.480 I was crying and scared and screaming, and my son's 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.560 in here and I'm trying to, you know. And there 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.080 was no rhyme or reason. There was just panic. It 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:41.440 was just panic, and that's all I could say. I 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.800 was shocked. I was total I was a. 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.359 Shock, and that state of shock would almost immediately be 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:52.520 used against her. Here's Jane Puture, senior staff attorney at 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:53.560 the Innocence Project. 0:19:54.440 --> 0:20:01.880 The response from investigators coming to the scene and seeing 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:06.320 her and seeing her state of shock, and the fact 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.439 that she was in a really stunned position, as you know, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.480 one I think understandably would be. They're just sort of 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.600 were assumptions and arrest to judgment that it had to 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.720 be her, that she somehow had to be involved. 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:23.520 Jane says, the police described her behavior as suspicious. 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.640 And you know, that initial taint, that sort of initial 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.040 focus kind of clouded everything out from there on out. 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:35.280 When did you realize you were a suspect? 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.320 By that afternoon was pretty clear that I was a suspect, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.439 because they were, you know, I mean it went on 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:43.800 for hours and hours hours, you know, I went down 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.879 to the police station, questioning and all those things, and 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:51.080 it just, you know, it became really clear, you know, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.440 because they were just relentless, relentless, and I just confess, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:01.600 you confess, And they weren't looking were facts and then 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.280 building a case. They were trying to find anything they 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:07.600 could mold around and create a scenario to fit what 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:09.040 they had decided was the case. 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.199 Police were also quick to focus on another sign they 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:14.560 thought pointed to Belinda. 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:20.880 Because her husband's body was leaned up against the front door. 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:26.400 It would have been quote unquote impossible for a person 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:30.200 to have killed him, left his body inside and gotten 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.199 out because of how his body was positioned. 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.320 They didn't think someone could have gotten out of the 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:41.680 apartment because Stephen's body was allegedly blocking the door from opening, 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.919 so the killer had to still be inside and the 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.960 only people inside were Belinda and her three year old son. 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:01.320 Belinda was released after questioning a police station that day, 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.920 and Mark remembers when she picked him up from his sleepover. 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.919 She came to pick me up early, and it was 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:12.120 with a friend who was driving. It wasn't our car, 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:16.520 and I got in the back seat and my mom 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.439 was bawling in the front seat, and I knew something 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:19.919 was wrong. 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:23.440 They rode in the car in total silence. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.040 I think she had to collect herself, as I can't 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:29.439 even imagine as a parent, trying to explain something like 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:30.280 that to your kids. 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:34.160 Mark says. When they got to Belinda's friend's house, Belinda 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:35.199 let him know. 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:43.920 She said Dad's in heaven, and I, yeah, processing that 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:51.080 was impossible. She let me know that he had been 0:22:51.160 --> 0:22:53.320 hurt by other people. He was killed by other people. 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.119 I had remembered that. You know, my dad was in 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.960 a martial arts and in a karate I remember thinking like, well, 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:05.840 that can't be because he would he would totally be 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:08.359 able to whoop whoever came at him. You know, like 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.080 there was the thoughts as a kid I was having. 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:20.000 I remember them, and uh it, I can't even I 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:22.320 can't tell you how I processed it. I can't tell 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.280 you what it really did. I think it was just 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:31.600 a nuclear explosion that I've probably been catching up with since. 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:36.840 Over the next year, police built their case against Belinda. 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:39.520 So what was that year like? 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.240 It was a very difficult bit or sweet year, because 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.359