Speaker 1: Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I
Speaker 1: writer and I'm Steve Drisan. Today we're going to tell
Speaker 1: you about a California man named Ricky Davis. In Ricky
Speaker 1: and his girlfriend Connie found their roommate brutally stabbed to death.
Speaker 1: Without any leads, the case went cold for fourteen years.
Speaker 1: That's when detectives convinced Connie that she had repressed memories
Speaker 1: of Ricky committing the crime. Based on Connie's false statement,
Speaker 1: Ricky spent twelve years in prison until very recently when
Speaker 1: he and his mother Maureen, finally had something to be
Speaker 1: thankful for. I think it's important to realize that on
Speaker 1: the road to a wrongful conviction there's a lot of
Speaker 1: road kill. There's the defendant who gets wrongfully convicted. There's
Speaker 1: the defendant's family who has to live with the fact
Speaker 1: that their loved one is going away for a long
Speaker 1: period of time or sentenced to death. Yeah. In this case,
Speaker 1: it was Ricky's mom, Maureen, who had to bear the
Speaker 1: brunt of that pain. And then there are witnesses sometimes
Speaker 1: who are pressured to lie to save their own skin.
Speaker 1: Witnesses like Connie Doll and they have to live with
Speaker 1: the guilt that accompanies that lie. Yeah, it's interesting. I
Speaker 1: mean when you think about Connie and Maureene in that courtroom,
Speaker 1: one woman is being forced to talk and one woman
Speaker 1: is being prevented from talking, and of course the two
Speaker 1: of them have two very different stories to tell about
Speaker 1: who Ricky Davis is and what Ricky Davis did. And
Speaker 1: so the notion of powerlessness that Maurene experienced in this
Speaker 1: case is something that we see all the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: while the trial is happening, there's nothing more can do
Speaker 1: to stop the training from running over her son, and
Speaker 1: Connie's being forced to drive that train. She's a victim
Speaker 1: here too. Today's story starts in El Dorado Hills, California,
Speaker 1: an upper class suburb about twenty miles east of Sacramento.
Speaker 1: In so many ways, El Dorado Hills epitomizes the American dream.
Speaker 1: It's filled with expensive homes that back up onto lush
Speaker 1: golf courses. Its shopping centers are filled with luxury stores
Speaker 1: and fancy restaurants. It's families, by and large live lives
Speaker 1: of privilege and peace. Ricky Davis's story is still unfolding today,
Speaker 1: but it began back in Ricky was twenty years old.
Speaker 1: He lived in El Dorado Hills in a large home
Speaker 1: on Stanford Lane, along with his mom, Maureen. Now Ricky
Speaker 1: and Maureen were pretty different from their wealthy neighbors. Maureen
Speaker 1: had been a teenage mom. By the time she turned twenties.
Speaker 1: She was raising Ricky and his three sisters in southern
Speaker 1: California without much support from their dad. Maureen worked to
Speaker 1: pay the bills by waitressing. She and Ricky had come
Speaker 1: to El Dorado Hills just a few years before our
Speaker 1: story begins. Ricky's grandmother, a successful businesswoman, had recently moved
Speaker 1: the area, and she bought the house on Stanford Lane
Speaker 1: for them. This family might not have been classic El
Speaker 1: Dorado Hills, but they were close knit and loving. No secrets,
Speaker 1: no drama, no lies. Ricky had a nineteen year old girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Connie Doll, who spent plenty of nights at the Stanford
Speaker 1: Lane house. Now Ricky's mom, Maureen wasn't thrilled with Ricky
Speaker 1: and Connie's relationship because Connie had a pretty serious meth habit.
Speaker 1: Ricky smoked pot, It's true, but he wasn't into harder stuff,
Speaker 1: and Maureen worried that Connie would drag Ricky into trouble.
Speaker 1: But unlike Ricky, Connie didn't have a stable home. Sometimes
Speaker 1: she had no home at all and slept in her car.
Speaker 1: Once she and Ricky started dating, Connie often spent the
Speaker 1: night at Ricky's house, climbing in his bedroom window after
Speaker 1: Maureen was asleep. One Friday, July five, the Stanford Lane
Speaker 1: house gained two more residents. Rickie's grandmother was in the
Speaker 1: real estate business, and she had recently learned that one
Speaker 1: of her employees needed a temporary place to stay. Fifty
Speaker 1: four year old Jane Hilton had been fighting with her
Speaker 1: husband over money, and those fights had apparently turned violent.
Speaker 1: When Ricky's grandmother found out about this, she offered Jane
Speaker 1: and her thirteen year old daughter Autumn a spare bedroom
Speaker 1: on Stanford Lane as a safe harbor. They moved in
Speaker 1: on Friday July five, but that harbor wasn't quite as
Speaker 1: safe as it seemed. The next day, Saturday, July six,
Speaker 1: the house emptied out, at least for the most part.
Speaker 1: Ricky's mom, Maureen, took off in the middle of the
Speaker 1: day to go camping with her boyfriend. In the evening,
Speaker 1: Ricky and his girlfriend Connie headed out to a party.
Speaker 1: Even thirteen year old Autumn left the house to meet
Speaker 1: up with some new friends, three teenage boys she had
Speaker 1: met earlier that day. For her part, Autumn's mom, Jane,
Speaker 1: stayed home. Ricky and Connie got back at around three
Speaker 1: thirty Sunday morning. When they arrived at the house, they
Speaker 1: found Autumn outside standing alone in the front yard. Autumn
Speaker 1: told them she'd been home for an hour, but she
Speaker 1: hadn't gone inside yet. She was worried about getting in
Speaker 1: trouble with her mom for being out too late, she said,
Speaker 1: and she was hoping Ricky and Connie would go inside
Speaker 1: with her. The three going together upstairs, there's no sign
Speaker 1: of Autumn's mom, Jane, so Ricky and Connie leave Autumn
Speaker 1: in her room and had for bed themselves. But as
Speaker 1: they walked down the hall, Ricky spots blood on the
Speaker 1: carpet outside the master bedroom, whereas mom Maureen usually sleeps.
Speaker 1: She's on a camping trip, he reminds himself. He pushes
Speaker 1: the door open and finds a nightmare. It's not his mom,
Speaker 1: but Autumn's mom, Jane Hilton. She's lying on the bed
Speaker 1: wearing only a nightgown, and she's clear really dead. Jane's
Speaker 1: been stabbed thirty nine times and is covered in blood.
Speaker 1: She's got defensive wounds up and down her arms. One
Speaker 1: of her fingernails is missing, and her hand is clutching
Speaker 1: a tuft of someone's hair. There's even a bite mark
Speaker 1: on the back of her left shoulder. Ricky and Connie
Speaker 1: were horrified. They called the police, who arrived and interviewed
Speaker 1: both of them on the spot. Ricky and Connie told
Speaker 1: the police they'd been at a party all night and
Speaker 1: it was pretty easy to corroborate their story. The hood
Speaker 1: of Ricky's car was still warm, suggesting he and Connie
Speaker 1: were being honest about only recently getting back to the house,
Speaker 1: and thirteen year old Autumn told police she'd seen Ricky
Speaker 1: and Connie arrive home and gone in with them. To
Speaker 1: these officers at the scene, it seemed pretty clear that
Speaker 1: Ricky and Connie were innocent, so clear that the police
Speaker 1: didn't bother to interview the other people who had been
Speaker 1: with them at the party. Of course, those people would
Speaker 1: have been alibi witnesses. Instead, police moved on to check
Speaker 1: out the obvious suspect, Jane's husband the guy with whom
Speaker 1: she had been fighting, but he seemed to have an
Speaker 1: alibi too. He'd apparently spent the evening at a local restaurant.
Speaker 1: So next the police tried to find the three teenage
Speaker 1: boys Autumn had been hanging out with earlier that night.
Speaker 1: The problem was Autumn only knew first names for two
Speaker 1: of them, Michael and Calvin. After scanning through a few
Speaker 1: yearbooks from local high schools, the detectives came up with nothing. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: that was it for the investigation. Without any suspects or
Speaker 1: solid leads, the case went cold for fourteen years. Fast
Speaker 1: forward from July to November. Ricky and Connie had broken
Speaker 1: up long ago. Their relationship ended up lasting less than
Speaker 1: a year. Since then, Connie had continued using meth off
Speaker 1: and on. For his part, Rickie had spent those years
Speaker 1: in and out of prison for a series of relatively
Speaker 1: minor offenses, mostly drug related crimes and robbery, but neither
Speaker 1: of them had ever been involved in anything close to murder.
Speaker 1: In nine nine, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office decided
Speaker 1: to reinvestigate Jane Hilton's killing. Two detectives were assigned to
Speaker 1: this cold case, and they started by reviewing old news coverage.
Speaker 1: Their attention was caught by a story that had run
Speaker 1: in a local newspaper just a few days after the murder.
Speaker 1: A reporter from the paper had shown up at the
Speaker 1: Stanford Lane house. Connie had let her in and shown
Speaker 1: her the room where Jane had been killed. The reporter
Speaker 1: asked a bunch of questions about finding the body, and
Speaker 1: that's when Connie had said something that struck these new
Speaker 1: detectives as suspicious. Connie had told the reporter that Jane's
Speaker 1: body had been positioned on the bed as though she
Speaker 1: were sleeping. Whoever had killed Jane, Connie speculated, must have
Speaker 1: moved her body onto the bed afterwards. Connie's comment was
Speaker 1: pretty obviously a guess, but the police began wondering if
Speaker 1: she actually might know something about the body being moved.
Speaker 1: So over the next fifteen months, between November and February
Speaker 1: two one, the police decided to interrogate Connie on three
Speaker 1: separate occasions. It was all caught on videotape, every last word,
Speaker 1: and that videotape makes it clear the police weren't aiming
Speaker 1: only for Connie. They wanted her to confess to being
Speaker 1: present when Jane died, and they wanted her to name
Speaker 1: her ex boyfriend, Ricky Davis as the killer. The theory
Speaker 1: was that Jane was brutally beaten and stabbed to death
Speaker 1: by a man, and demand that the police officers had
Speaker 1: in mind was Ricky Davis. Police officers often go after
Speaker 1: ex girlfriends or ex wives on the assumption that there
Speaker 1: was a bad breakup, that there's some animous there that
Speaker 1: may motivate the aggrieved party into revealing information that they
Speaker 1: had been unwilling to reveal at the time of the investigation.
Speaker 1: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned is the
Speaker 1: thinking here. Connie is first brought in for questioning only
Speaker 1: days after the new cops take over the case. At first,
Speaker 1: she insists repeatedly that she had nothing to do with
Speaker 1: Jane's murder, that all she remembers is coming home and
Speaker 1: finding the body. But right away Connie is hit with
Speaker 1: a barrage of lies. Police tell her that a witness
Speaker 1: had placed her in Ricky at the homicide scene, although
Speaker 1: no one had. Police tell Connie the d n A
Speaker 1: established her presence in Jane's bedroom even though it didn't,
Speaker 1: and they tell Connie that the hairs found clenched in
Speaker 1: Jane's hand belonged to Ricky. Another lie. Police had actually
Speaker 1: lost those hairs. They were never tested at all. Were
Speaker 1: present in the house when this happened. I was not.
Speaker 1: What do you mean? Like I said, you know, we've
Speaker 1: got all kinds of physical evidence there happened. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: there's no way. Over time, though, the police's cascading lies
Speaker 1: begin to break Connie down. Like most of us, Connie
Speaker 1: has no idea that police are allowed to lie during interrogations,
Speaker 1: So after hearing all this apparent evidence of her own involvement,
Speaker 1: Connie starts questioning her memory of what happened all those
Speaker 1: years ago. Okay, if I was there, I had no
Speaker 1: memory of that. She's desperately trying to make sense of
Speaker 1: what they're saying, and eventually tells the investigators that maybe
Speaker 1: she was there and just couldn't remember it. The investigators
Speaker 1: suggest that Ricky had programmed her memory so that Connie
Speaker 1: would blank out her recollections of the crime. She agrees,
Speaker 1: maybe I have amnesia. I couldn't watch that happen. That
Speaker 1: would have been if I've written happening. At least she
Speaker 1: wouldn't hive pointed at they are absolutely confusing the hell
Speaker 1: out of her. They are causing a crisis of confidence
Speaker 1: where she begins not only to doubt her memory, but
Speaker 1: she can't really distinguish between what she actually remembers and
Speaker 1: what she thinks she might remember. Investigators Warren Connie that
Speaker 1: if she doesn't somehow recover her memories, they might have
Speaker 1: to interrogate her again, and they say that could lead
Speaker 1: to her arrest. On the other hand, they imply that
Speaker 1: Connie will receive leniency, even immunity from prosecution, if she
Speaker 1: provides them with a statement, right now, we're first one
Speaker 1: to jump on the brandwagon. I always get the easiest ride.
Speaker 1: And so what happens here is that the police provide
Speaker 1: incentives to adopt their preconcy theory, promises of leniency or
Speaker 1: threats of harm, suggestions that the first person to jump
Speaker 1: on the bandwagon is going to get the best deal,
Speaker 1: and that if she doesn't jump on first, someone else
Speaker 1: is going to take your spot and she's going to
Speaker 1: get punished more severely. These tactics work. Connie breaks and
Speaker 1: agrees to confess, to say that she helped Ricky killed Jane,
Speaker 1: but she has no idea what to say about the crime. Remember,
Speaker 1: Connie wasn't actually there to help her out. Investigators feed
Speaker 1: Connie everything they know about Jane Hilton's murder and everything
Speaker 1: they think happened to Here's the story that Connie ultimately
Speaker 1: agreed to repeat. She said she was there while Ricky
Speaker 1: and Jane were arguing about whether Jane's daughter Autumn could
Speaker 1: go out that night. During the argument, Connie said, Ricky
Speaker 1: punched Jane in the face. The altercation escalated. Eventually, Connie
Speaker 1: went downstairs and acted as a lookout while Ricky stabbed Jane. Then,
Speaker 1: Connie said she came back to the room and helped
Speaker 1: Ricky move Jane's body onto the bad So to me,
Speaker 1: what makes this case different is that we have a
Speaker 1: sort of recipe, if you will, for a persuaded false confession.
Speaker 1: What's unique about a persuaded false confession is that the
Speaker 1: suspect comes to doubt their own memory. They get to
Speaker 1: a place where they think the police officers are telling
Speaker 1: me I committed this crime. They're telling me they have
Speaker 1: evidence that proves that I committed this crime, but why
Speaker 1: can't I remember it? And when a suspect gets to
Speaker 1: that place of uncertainty, the police officers provide an answer,
Speaker 1: the events that you saw were so traumatic that they
Speaker 1: caused you to repress these memories, and so the interrogation
Speaker 1: becomes an exercise in pulling these memories out of the
Speaker 1: suspect's mind. But they're not real memories. They don't exist.
Speaker 1: At times, Connie's language reveals her own uncertainty. Even while
Speaker 1: she's confessing I think I did that, I probably did that.
Speaker 1: I seem to remember that. There's a tentativeness that you
Speaker 1: wouldn't have if they were real memories, and we see
Speaker 1: that throughout Connie's interrogation telling Lee. When Connie's not fed information,
Speaker 1: she can't get anything about the story right. She's not
Speaker 1: able to tell the police what the murder weapon looked like,
Speaker 1: where Ricky got it, or how he disposed of it.
Speaker 1: The detectives are shaping her memories, they are feeding her facts,
Speaker 1: and the final story here is really their story. It's
Speaker 1: their preconceived theory of the crime come to life through
Speaker 1: the words of Connie Doll. Strangely enough, the police don't
Speaker 1: arrest anyone right away. Instead, they leave Connie alone for
Speaker 1: a while and interview Ricky himself. He vehemently denies any
Speaker 1: involvement whatsoever. So the police come back to Connie in
Speaker 1: January two thousand to see if she can give them
Speaker 1: any more information, and they remind her that the more
Speaker 1: details she can provide, the better off she'll be. During
Speaker 1: this interrogation, officers play Connie the crime scene video that
Speaker 1: was recorded the night Jane died to see if they
Speaker 1: can quote refresh her memory. Now. I've seen this video myself,
Speaker 1: and it's horrifying. It's almost totally silent as the videographer
Speaker 1: walks from room to room, ending up in the bedroom
Speaker 1: where Jane died. The camera documents every wound, every injury,
Speaker 1: from her missing fingernail to her eyes which were still open.
Speaker 1: It's the kind of crime scene that makes even people
Speaker 1: who see this all the time sick to their stomachs.
Speaker 1: Connie watches the video and agrees to add more detail
Speaker 1: to her story. She says she heard Jane plead for
Speaker 1: her life, but Ricky didn't listen. She says she heard
Speaker 1: Jane make gurgling noises as Rickie stabbed her, and after
Speaker 1: the attack, Connie says she saw Rickie covered in blood.
Speaker 1: The police still don't arrest Connie, but they also don't
Speaker 1: leave her alone. Instead, they come back a third time
Speaker 1: in two thousand one to try to get even more details.
Speaker 1: This time, detectives tell her that she'll either be charged
Speaker 1: with a misdemeanor accessory type of thing, or she'll go
Speaker 1: down as a full blooded half partner in the murder.
Speaker 1: It all depends on her credibility. Now, Connie's got two
Speaker 1: young children. The police tell her that if she continues
Speaker 1: to cooperate, she'll be able to go home to her kids.
Speaker 1: But they warn her saying I don't know isn't going
Speaker 1: to help you at all. They bring up the subject
Speaker 1: of her children repeatedly throughout the interrogation, and the message
Speaker 1: to Connie is crystal clear. If I don't tell them
Speaker 1: what they want to hear, I'm gonna lose my children.
Speaker 1: So they play on her emotions as a mother. These
Speaker 1: kinds of tactics are very common when a woman is
Speaker 1: a suspect to her witness, because police officers know that
Speaker 1: most women would walk across a field of glass in
Speaker 1: order to protect their children. To satisfy her interrogators, Connie
Speaker 1: adds another detail to her story, and it's a big one.
Speaker 1: She wasn't just a lookout. She says she was in
Speaker 1: the room during the murder and tried to intervene. And
Speaker 1: remember that bite mark on the back of Jane's shoulder.
Speaker 1: Connie ends up saying she was responsible for it, that
Speaker 1: she accidentally bit Jane during the struggle. Finally, Connie's story
Speaker 1: was good enough one two thousand two, paced only on
Speaker 1: Connie's confession, the El Dorado County District Attorney's office filed
Speaker 1: murder charges against Ricky Davis. And here's the thing. When
Speaker 1: the cops told Connie she wouldn't be charged, turns out
Speaker 1: they were lying again. Connie was charged with murder two
Speaker 1: as an accomplice. A few months later, prosecutors told Connie
Speaker 1: that if she agreed to testify against Rickie at trial,
Speaker 1: she could plead guilty to manslaughter and get a huge
Speaker 1: reduction in her sentence. They decide exactly how much of
Speaker 1: a reduction. After she testified. With no good options left,
Speaker 1: Connie pled guilty and agreed to take the stand. I
Speaker 1: didn't like her to start with. That's Maureen Kleine, Ricky
Speaker 1: Davis's mother. Remember, she's always had an opinion about Ricky's
Speaker 1: ex girlfriend, Connie. Ricky and I have always been very close.
Speaker 1: He had a horrible father, so I think the closeness
Speaker 1: was because I was all Ricky really had. Even as
Speaker 1: a teenager, he would call me his best friend. So
Speaker 1: this situation was extremely devastating. In two thousand two, Maureen
Speaker 1: learned that Ricky was being charged with murdering Jane Hilton,
Speaker 1: based on the testimony of a girl he dated fourteen
Speaker 1: years ago. Marine couldn't believe it. She knew her son
Speaker 1: was no killer, and the police had seemed to acknowledge
Speaker 1: his and Connie's innocence years ago. As she processed the news,
Speaker 1: Maureen struggled to understand why Connie would falsely confess. Connie
Speaker 1: had problems obviously, and she let the detectives talk her
Speaker 1: into believing that she had something to do with the murder.
Speaker 1: I was very angry at Connie, and I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: that she was lying this out and out lying. I
Speaker 1: don't understand how somebody could convince you that you participated
Speaker 1: in a murder that you didn't. The idea that Connie
Speaker 1: would confess to a murder she didn't commit, it was
Speaker 1: impossible for Maureen to believe. I understand and sympathize with
Speaker 1: Maureen about her anger towards Connie, But Connie's a tragic
Speaker 1: victim in this too. She didn't start out by naming
Speaker 1: Ricky Davis as a murderer, and it was only the
Speaker 1: lies and the manipulation by the detectives in that cold
Speaker 1: case squad that gave her really no choice but to
Speaker 1: change her story in ways that pleased them, or else
Speaker 1: she was going to lose her kids. After Rickie was charged,
Speaker 1: Maureen sat down and watched Connie's interrogation videos. As Maureen watched,
Speaker 1: she began to see how police manipulated Connie. She started
Speaker 1: realizing that the problem was much bigger than her son's
Speaker 1: ex girlfriend. Connie did stay in the starting of one
Speaker 1: of the interviews that she had been up on mess
Speaker 1: for twenty four hours prior, so that in itself, I
Speaker 1: would think they wouldn't have interviewed her at that time,
Speaker 1: but they did. Anyway, she would say exactly what the
Speaker 1: scold it to. You could tell that they would turn
Speaker 1: up the recording and get her back on track. They
Speaker 1: kept did tell Connie that once Ricky was convicted that
Speaker 1: she would go free, And I guess they threatened her
Speaker 1: with her children and stuff. I didn't believe anything would
Speaker 1: come of it, because I knew Ricky had no part
Speaker 1: of it. I knew he was innocent. Maureen was right
Speaker 1: that Ricky was innocent, but she was wrong that nothing
Speaker 1: would come of Connie's story. In June two thousand five,
Speaker 1: Ricky went on trial for Jane Hilton's murder. Prosecutors called
Speaker 1: Connie doll as their star witness. From his seat at
Speaker 1: the defense table, Ricky watched Connie testify. He hadn't seen
Speaker 1: her in almost twenty years, and he couldn't believe what
Speaker 1: he was hearing. Connie knew he was innocent. The two
Speaker 1: of them had discovered Jane's body together somehow, though the
Speaker 1: system had put them on opposite sides. For her part,
Speaker 1: Maureen sat in the front row of the courtroom, right
Speaker 1: behind Ricky as prosecutors told the jury an unthinkable story
Speaker 1: about her son. The way they portrayed him, like he
Speaker 1: was some vicious animal, that was hard to take. I
Speaker 1: was surprised that the jurors believed Connie. To me, she
Speaker 1: didn't sound very incredible. The way she answered was what
Speaker 1: she was told to say, but they did believe her. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I couldn't say anything. At times, I wanted to yell
Speaker 1: out and react, but I knew that if I did,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be allowed in the courtroom, So it was
Speaker 1: a helpless stealing. In exchange for Connie's testimony, prosecutors agreed
Speaker 1: that her sentence should be reduced to time served. The
Speaker 1: next day, she walked free, but Ricky Ricky wasn't as lucky.
Speaker 1: Based on Connie's false testimony, Ricky was convicted of murdering
Speaker 1: Jane Hilton. He was given a sentence of sixteen years
Speaker 1: to life. It was like a bad movie. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know, no systems perfect, but there was just no
Speaker 1: way I thought it could be convicted under the circumstances.
Speaker 1: But he was. Everything about my life changed in the
Speaker 1: moment that he was convicted. It seemed to me my
Speaker 1: whole personality changed. I became angry at everything I We
Speaker 1: should be kept each a horrible things in their life.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sorry that that's the way I feel.
Speaker 1: After his two thousand five conviction, Ricky Davis was sent
Speaker 1: to a California prison hours away from El Dorado Hills.
Speaker 1: His ex girlfriend Connie was free, but she never shook
Speaker 1: her myth habit. In two thousand and fourteen, Connie died
Speaker 1: of an overdose. For her part, Maureen moved out of
Speaker 1: the Stanford Lane house she couldn't be there alone and
Speaker 1: started living with her mom. Every month, Maureen drove to
Speaker 1: visit Rickey in prison year after year after year. Said
Speaker 1: there's a lot of bad people whom they deserved to
Speaker 1: be in there, but there's seems to be a lot
Speaker 1: that they shouldn't be in there. With no money, you're
Speaker 1: going to do time period that was just cut and try,
Speaker 1: and it pretty much is the way it is. This
Speaker 1: is the same with different nationalities. They don't get the
Speaker 1: same justice that a rich white person does, and that's wrong.
Speaker 1: Shortly before Connie's death, the Northern California Innocence Project agreed
Speaker 1: to take on Ricky Davis's case, and in two thousand fourteen,
Speaker 1: attorneys from the project sought DNA testing on a host
Speaker 1: of items from Jane Hilton's murder scene. The crime lab
Speaker 1: started with that bite mark on the back of Jane's shoulder,
Speaker 1: the mark that Connie told police had been left by
Speaker 1: her teeth. Whoever left that mark bit through Jane's nightgown.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, the lab found saliva on the nightgown. And
Speaker 1: developed a full DNA profile of an unknown male. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the biter was not Connie Doll, and it wasn't Ricky
Speaker 1: Davis either. Next, the lab tested DNA from skin cells
Speaker 1: that were left underneath Jane's fingernails from when she'd scratched
Speaker 1: her attacker whose DNA was it the same unknown man
Speaker 1: who had left his saliva on Jane's nightgown. The profile
Speaker 1: was run through the local and national DNA databases with
Speaker 1: no luck. The attacker couldn't be identified, but it was
Speaker 1: crystal clear that whoever had killed Jane Hilton was not
Speaker 1: Connie or Ricky. Ricky's attorneys filed a post conviction petition
Speaker 1: based on this new evidence. In two thousand nineteen, the
Speaker 1: court throughout Ricky's conviction. That was great news, but Ricky's
Speaker 1: fight wasn't over. Even though the DNA excluded Ricky, prosecutors
Speaker 1: weren't ready to drop charges until they knew whose DNA
Speaker 1: it was, so they began preparing to retry Ricky for
Speaker 1: Jane's murder, and Ricky had to stay behind bars. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, prosecutors tried a brand new method to
Speaker 1: identify the DNA genetic genealogy, and it led investigators back
Speaker 1: to someone whose name they hadn't heard in twenty five years.
Speaker 1: Genetic genealogy searches public databases like ancestry, dot com and
Speaker 1: twenty three and me to look for matches to evidence
Speaker 1: that's found at a crime scene. Police officers start examining
Speaker 1: the family trees and look for people who have a
Speaker 1: connection to the crime scene. In Ricky's case, the process
Speaker 1: led the d a's office to fifty one year old
Speaker 1: Michael Green, who is Michael Green. Turns out he was
Speaker 1: one of the three teenagers that Jane's daughter Autumn had
Speaker 1: been with the night her mother was killed at Long Last.
Speaker 1: Twenty five years after Jane's death, the authorities had found
Speaker 1: her killer. In February, Michael Green was charged with Jane's
Speaker 1: murder and was booked into the Eldorado County Jail. He
Speaker 1: entered a plea of not guilty and is awaiting trial
Speaker 1: today now. Because Green's case is still unfolding, we don't
Speaker 1: have clear answers yet about why he attacked Jane or
Speaker 1: how he did it. We just know the d n
Speaker 1: A was his. That's pretty close to case closed on
Speaker 1: February a judge declared Ricky Davis factually innocent and dismissed
Speaker 1: the case against him after serving twelve years for a
Speaker 1: murder he did not commit. Ricky walked out of prison
Speaker 1: right into the arms of his mom. The judge exonerate him,
Speaker 1: which he said, that was the first time he had
Speaker 1: ever done it. That was such a great feeling. And
Speaker 1: didn't see him walk out of the jail was It's
Speaker 1: the craziest thing. Everybody was there to care him coming
Speaker 1: down and hugging him and stuff. To see him smiling
Speaker 1: because he was happy instead of having to go back
Speaker 1: into the sales as I was leading him. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was fantastic feeling. Unfortunately, the same couldn't happen for Connie.
Speaker 1: She remains in death a convicted participant in Jane Hilton's murder.
Speaker 1: There were two wrongful convictions here, and this DNA evidence
Speaker 1: proved that Connie's story was false. It also proved that
Speaker 1: she didn't bite Jane Hilton, so she deserves to be
Speaker 1: exonerated posthumously. This year, Ricky Davis will be spending its
Speaker 1: first Thanksgiving in nearly twelve years with his mom Maureen. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll make dinner that Thanksgiving Turkey. That's the only time
Speaker 1: of a year I can afford it. But his sister's
Speaker 1: and nephew will be here, and that'll be nice. I'm
Speaker 1: not the best cook today, but it's more having everybody
Speaker 1: together and happy. That's the best part of it. He's
Speaker 1: a very affectionate person. When he comes in and helps me,
Speaker 1: it's best stealing in the world. I feel lucky, blessed
Speaker 1: every time I look at him. Hello, Hey, Ricky, how
Speaker 1: are you. I'm doing good? How do you see goody? Laura,
Speaker 1: tell me about those first moments of freedom, what it
Speaker 1: felt like to walk out those doors. Long time come. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've seen the video a lot of people there. I
Speaker 1: saw you eating some pizza. You went right for the
Speaker 1: comfort food. You know, what are your toppings of choice?
Speaker 1: All the good stuff. Do you see your mom much
Speaker 1: these days? Yes? I do. Yeah, I love her very much.
Speaker 1: And her since we're talking about food and pizza and
Speaker 1: everything else, is there's something your mom makes for you.
Speaker 1: It's something she used to cook that you missed and
Speaker 1: that she can make for you again. Not that you're out.
Speaker 1: I have a funny story for that, you know. A
Speaker 1: few days after it was out. Tell her you know
Speaker 1: my vision waking up in the I you couldn't be
Speaker 1: breakfast and she says, well, you were visioning vision a
Speaker 1: different mom. Oh my god, that's amazing. Strong to the end.
Speaker 1: I love it. And that's the story of Ricky Davis.
Speaker 1: Next week we'll tell you about Michael Hash and his
Speaker 1: childhood friend Eric Weekly. When Eric was accused of killing
Speaker 1: an elderly woman, the pressure of the interrogation room caused
Speaker 1: him to falsely implicate Michael. Michael's parents never stopped fighting
Speaker 1: for their son's innocence, and now that he's been exonerated,
Speaker 1: they're fighting to clear Eric's name. Too. Wrongful Conviction, False
Speaker 1: Confessions is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number one Special thanks to our
Speaker 1: executive producers Jason Flom and Kevin Wardis. Our production team
Speaker 1: is headed by senior producer and Pope, along with producers
Speaker 1: Hammer and Jess Shane. Our show is mixed by Jeanie Montalvo.
Speaker 1: John Colbert is our intrepid intern. Our music was composed
Speaker 1: by j Ralph. You can follow me on Instagram or
Speaker 1: Twitter at Laura ni Writer, and you can follow me
Speaker 1: on Twitter at s Driven for more information on the show,
Speaker 1: visit Wrongful Conviction podcast dot com. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: the show on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
Speaker 1: Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction