WEBVTT - #173 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Ricky Davis 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.680 Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.560 writer and I'm Steve Drisen. Today we're going to tell 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.040 you about a California man named Ricky Davis. In nineteen 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:16.320 eighty five, Ricky and his girlfriend Connie found their roommate 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.040 brutally stabbed to death. Without any leads, the case went 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.680 cold for fourteen years. That's when detectives convinced Connie that 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.480 she had repressed memories of Ricky committing the crime. Based 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.240 on Connie's false statement, Ricky spent twelve years in prison 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:36.479 until very recently when he and his mother Maureen, finally 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.040 had something to be thankful for. 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:52.280 I think it's important to realize that on the road 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.120 to a wrongful conviction, there's a lot of road killed. 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:01.720 There's the defendant who gets wrongfully convicted. There's the defendant's 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.000 family who has to live with the fact that their 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.680 loved one is going away for a long period of 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:10.160 time or sentenced to death. 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:10.520 Yeah. 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.920 In this case, it was Ricky's mom, Maureene, who had 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:14.119 to bear the brunt of that pain. 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:20.680 And then there are witnesses sometimes who are pressured to 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:22.880 lie to save their own skin. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.720 Witnesses like Connie Dahl, and they have. 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.480 To live with the guilt that accompanies that lie. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.360 Yeah, it's interesting. I mean when you think about Connie 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.480 and Maureene in that courtroom, one woman is being forced 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.959 to talk and one woman is being prevented from talking, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:40.399 and of course the two of them have two very 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:44.040 different stories to tell about who Ricky Davis is and 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:45.160 what Ricky Davis did. 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:51.520 And so the notion of powerlessness that Maureen experienced in 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.440 this case is something that we see all the time. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.880 I mean, while the trial is happening, there's nothing more 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:05.000 can do to stop the train from running over her son. 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.800 And Connie's being forced to drive that train. She's a 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:15.839 victim here too. Today's story starts in El Dorado Hills, California, 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:18.880 an upper class suburb about twenty miles east of Sacramento. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.360 In so many ways, El Dorado Hills epitomizes the American dream. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:26.760 It's filled with expensive homes that back up onto lush 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.400 golf courses. Its shopping centers are filled with luxury stores 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.360 and fancy restaurants. Its families, by and large live lives 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:39.280 of privilege and peace. Ricky Davis's story is still unfolding today, 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.480 but it began back in nineteen eighty five. Ricky was 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.079 twenty years old. He lived in El Dorado Hills and 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:51.160 a large home on Stanford Lane along with his mom, Maureen. Now, 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:54.000 Ricky and Maureen were pretty different from their wealthy neighbors. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.080 Maureen had been a teenage mom by the time she 0:02:57.120 --> 0:02:59.840 turned twenty. She was raising Ricky and his three sisters 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:03.920 in southern California without much support from their dad. Maureen 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.120 worked to pay the bills by waitressing. She and Ricky 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:09.600 had come to El Dorado Hills just a few years 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:14.000 before our story begins. Ricky's grandmother, a successful business woman, 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.840 had recently moved to the area, and she bought the 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.120 house on Stanford Lane for them. This family might not 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.800 have been classic El Dorado Hills, but they were close 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:28.520 knit and loving. No secrets, no drama, no lies. Ricky 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.520 had a nineteen year old girlfriend, Connie Dahl, who spent 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.400 plenty of nights at the Stanford Lane house. Now, Ricky's mom, Maureene, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:39.040 wasn't thrilled with Ricky and Connie's relationship because Connie had 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.960 a pretty serious meth habit. Ricky smoked pot. It's true 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.320 but he wasn't into harder stuff, and Maureen worried that 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.600 Connie would drag Ricky into trouble. But unlike Ricky, Connie 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.480 didn't have a stable home. Sometimes she had no home 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.240 at all and slept in her car. Once she and 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.640 Ricky started dating, Connie often spent the night at Rickey's house, 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.280 climbing in his bedroom window after Maureen was asleep. One 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.120 Friday in nineteen eighty five, July fifth, the Stanford Lane 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.800 house gained two more residents. Ricky's grandmother was in the 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.400 real estate business, and she'd recently learned that one of 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:18.279 her employees needed a temporary place to stay. Fifty four 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:21.159 year old Jane Hilton had been fighting with her husband 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:25.120 over money, and those fights had apparently turned violent. When 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.039 Ricky's grandmother found out about this, she offered Jane and 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:31.880 her thirteen year old daughter Autumn a spare bedroom on 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:35.440 Stanford Lane as a safe harbor. They moved in on Friday, 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.440 July fifth, but that harbor wasn't quite as safe as 0:04:38.480 --> 0:04:42.560 it seemed. The next day, Saturday, July sixth, the house 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.279 emptied out. At least for the most part. Ricky's mom, Maureen, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.040 took off in the middle of the day to go 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.080 camping with her boyfriend. In the evening, Ricky and his 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.640 girlfriend Connie headed out to a party. Even thirteen year 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:56.600 old Autumn left the house to meet up with some 0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.560 new friends, three teenage boys she'd met earlier that day. 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.359 For her part, Autumn's mom, Jane, stayed home. Ricky and 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.760 Connie got back at around three thirty Sunday morning. When 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.039 they arrived at the house, they found Autumn outside standing 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:15.200 alone in the front yard. Autumn told them she'd been 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.320 home for an hour, but she hadn't gone inside yet. 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.839 She was worried about getting in trouble with her mom 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:23.680 for being out too late, she said, and she was 0:05:23.760 --> 0:05:26.919 hoping Ricky and Connie would go inside with her. The 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:31.479 three go in together. Upstairs, there's no sign of Autumn's mom, Jane, 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.880 so Ricky and Connie leave Autumn in her room and 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.239 head for bed themselves. But as they walked down the hall, 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.200 Ricky spots blood on the carpet outside the master bedroom, 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:46.520 where his mom, Maureen usually sleeps. She's on a camping trip, 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.719 he reminds himself. He pushes the door open and finds 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:55.719 a nightmare. It's not his mom, but Autumn's mom, Jane Hilton. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:59.400 She's lying on the bed wearing only a nightgown, and 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:04.040 she's clear really dead. Jane's been stabbed thirty nine times 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.960 and is covered in blood. She's got defensive wounds up 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.920 and down her arms. One of her fingernails is missing, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.120 and her hand is clutching a tuft of someone's hair. 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:16.520 There's even a bite mark on the back of her 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:21.360 left shoulder. Ricky and Connie were horrified. They called the police, 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:23.800 who arrived and interviewed both of them on the spot. 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.680 Ricky and Connie told the police they'd been at a 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.080 party all night and it was pretty easy to corroborate 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.400 their story. The hood of Ricky's car was still warm, 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.040 suggesting he and Connie were being honest about only recently 0:06:37.080 --> 0:06:40.360 getting back to the house, and thirteen year old Autumn 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:43.640 told police she'd seen Ricky and Connie arrive home and 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.679 gone in with them. To these officers at the scene, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.400 it seemed pretty clear that Ricky and Connie were innocent, 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:52.680 so clear that the police didn't bother to interview the 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.720 other people who'd been with them at the party. Of course, 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.800 those people would have been alibi witnesses. Instead, police moved 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.240 on to check out the obvious suspect, Jane's husband, the 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.800 guy with whom she'd been fighting, but he seemed to 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.680 have an alibi two he'd apparently spent the evening at 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.080 a local restaurant. So next the police tried to find 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.640 the three teenage boys Autumn had been hanging out with 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.920 earlier that night. Problem was, Autumn only knew first names 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:23.000 for two of them, Michael and Calvin. After scanning through 0:07:23.040 --> 0:07:26.080 a few yearbooks from local high schools, the detectives came 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:30.280 up with nothing. Unfortunately, that was it for the investigation. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.680 Without any suspects or solid leads, the case went cold 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:40.200 for fourteen years. Fast forward from July nineteen eighty five 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.840 to November nineteen ninety nine. Ricky and Connie had broken 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.200 up long ago, their relationship ended up lasting less than 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.240 a year. Since then, Connie had continued using meth off 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.239 and on. For his part, Ricky had spent those years 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.680 in and out of prison for a series of relatively 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.840 minor offenses, mostly drug related crimes and robbery, but neither 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:03.960 of them had ever been involved in anything close to murder. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.280 In nineteen ninety nine, the el Dorado County Sheriff's office 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:12.720 decided to reinvestigate Jane Hilton's killing. Two detectives were assigned 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.080 to this cold case, and they started by reviewing old 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.440 news coverage. Their attention was caught by a story that 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:21.880 had run in a local newspaper just a few days 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.920 after the murder. A reporter from the paper had shown 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.760 up at the Stanford Lane house. Connie had let her 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:30.280 in and shown her the room where Jane had been killed. 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.560 The reporter asked a bunch of questions about finding the body, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.040 and that's when Connie had said something that struck these 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.120 new detectives as suspicious. Connie had told the reporter that 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.760 Jane's body had been positioned on the bed as though 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:48.040 she were sleeping. Whoever had killed Jane, Connie speculated, must 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:52.520 have moved her body onto the bed afterwards. Connie's comment 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:55.840 was pretty obviously a guess, but the police began wondering 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.760 if she actually might know something about the body being moved. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:03.280 So over the next fifteen months, between November nineteen ninety 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.800 nine and February two thousand and one, the police decided 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.200 to interrogate Connie on three separate occasions. It was all 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.400 caught on videotape, every last word, and that videotape makes 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.040 it clear the police weren't aiming only for Connie. They 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.679 wanted her to confess to being present when Jane died, 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:25.440 and they wanted her to name her ex boyfriend, Ricky Davis, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:26.480 as the killer. 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:40.200 The theory was that Jane was brutally beaten and stabbed to 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:44.000 death by a man, and the man that the police 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.920 officers had in mind was Ricky Davis. Police officers often 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:53.720 go after ex girlfriends or ex wives on the assumption 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.319 that there was a bad breakup, that there's some animists 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:03.880 there that may motivate the aggrieved party into revealing information 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.920 that they had been unwilling to reveal at the time 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.240 of the investigation. Hell hath no fury like a woman 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.640 scorned is the thinking here. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:16.320 Connie is first brought in for questioning only days after 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.080 the new cops take over the case. At first, she 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.400 insists repeatedly that she had nothing to do with Jane's murder, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.600 that all she remembers is coming home and finding the body. 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.320 But right away Connie is hit with a barrage of lies. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:32.120 Police tell her that a witness had placed her in 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.000 Ricky at the homicide scene, although no one had. Police 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.840 tell Connie that DNA established her presence in Jane's bedroom 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.160 even though it didn't, and they tell Connie that the 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:48.040 hares found clenched in Jane's hand belonged to Ricky. Another lie. 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:51.600 Police had actually lost those hairs. They were never tested 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:52.000 at all. 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:54.720 We know that you were present in the house when 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:55.160 this happened. 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:56.559 I know I was not. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.920 We already know that. What do you mean, Well, like 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.680 I said, you know, we've got all kinds of physical 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.640 evidence I may happened. Yes, Oh my god, there's no way. 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.160 Over time, though, the police's cascading lies begin to break 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.680 Connie down. Like most of us, Connie has no idea 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.400 that police are allowed to lie during interrogations, So after 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:24.280 hearing all this apparent evidence of her own involvement, Connie 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.560 starts questioning her memory of what happened all those years ago. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.320 Okay, if I was there, I had no memory of that. 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.480 She's desperately trying to make sense of what they're saying, 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:38.120 and eventually tells the investigators that maybe she was there 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.240 and just couldn't remember it. The investigator suggests that Ricky 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.840 had programmed her memory so that Connie would blank out 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.760 her recollections of the crime. She agrees, maybe I have amnesia. 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:52.400 I couldn't have watched that happen. 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:53.679 That would have been. 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:58.920 If I've writteness for that happening, that. 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.520 At very least you would I blinted out. They are 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.840 absolutely confusing the hell out of her. They are causing 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:11.560 a crisis of confidence where she begins not only to 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.520 doubt her memory, but she can't really distinguish between what 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:21.040 she actually remembers and what she thinks she might remember. 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:25.520 Investigators warn Connie that if she doesn't somehow recover her memories, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.760 they might have to interrogate her again, and they say 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.920 that could lead to her arrest. On the other hand, 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.680 they imply that Connie will receive leniency, even immunity from 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.160 prosecution if she provides them with a statement right. 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.880 Now, well, first one to jump on the bandwagon, I always. 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:42.960 Sisus ride right. 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:47.840 And so what happens here is that the police provide 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:54.040 incentives to adopt their preconceived theory, promises of leniency or 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.280 threats of harm, suggestions that the first person to jump 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.800 on the bandwagon is going to get the best deal, 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.600 and that If she doesn't jump on first, someone else 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.520 is going to take your spot, and she's going to 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.599 get punished more severely. 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:17.800 These tactics work, Connie breaks and agrees to confess, to 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.280 say that she helped Ricky kill Jane, but she has 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.319 no idea what to say about the crime. Remember, Connie 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:28.720 wasn't actually there to help her out. Investigators feed Connie 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.360 everything they know about Jane Hilton's murder and everything they 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.480 think happened too. Here's the story that Connie ultimately agreed 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.160 to repeat. She said she was there while Ricky and 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:42.240 Jane were arguing about whether Jane's daughter Autumn could go 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.320 out that night. During the argument, Connie said, Ricky punched 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.880 Jane in the face. The altercation escalated. Eventually, Connie went 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:54.320 downstairs and acted as a lookout while Ricky stabbed Jane. 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:57.720 Then Connie said she came back to the room and 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:00.160 helped Ricky move Jane's body onto the bed. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.440 So, to me, what makes this case different is that 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:07.920 we have a sort of recipe, if you will, for 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:13.280 a persuaded false confession. What's unique about a persuaded false 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:20.680 confession is that the suspect comes to doubt their own memory, 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.800 they get to a place where they think the police 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.400 officers are telling me I committed this crime. They're telling 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:31.000 me they have evidence that proves that I committed this crime, 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.400 but why can't I remember it? And when a suspect 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.800 gets to that place of uncertainty, the police officers provide 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:44.720 an answer. The events that you saw were so traumatic 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:49.640 that they caused you to repress these memories, and so 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:57.520 the interrogation becomes an exercise in pulling these memories out 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:02.400 of the suspect's mind. But they're not real memories. They 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:03.640 don't exist. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.840 At times, Connie's language reveals her own uncertainty. Even while 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.080 she's confessing. 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:13.160 I think I did that, I probably did that. I 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:17.840 seem to remember that. There's a tentativeness that you wouldn't 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:22.120 have if they were real memories, and we see that 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:24.840 throughout Connie's interrogation. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.920 Telling LYE. When Connie's not fed information, she can't get 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.080 anything about the story right. She's not able to tell 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.000 the police what the murder weapon looked like, where Ricky 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:37.000 got it, or how he disposed of it. 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:44.160 The detectives are shaping her memories, they are feeding her facts, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:49.040 and their final story here is really their story. It's 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:54.240 their preconceived theory of the crime come to life through 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:56.160 the words of Connie Doll. 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.640 Strangely enough, the police don't arrest anyone right away. Instead, 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.320 they leave Connie alone for a while and interview Ricky himself. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.000 He vehemently denies any involvement whatsoever. So the police come 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:12.080 back to Connie in January two thousand to see if 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.920 she can give them any more information, and they remind 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.800 her that the more details she can provide, the better 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.320 off she'll be. During this interrogation, officers play Connie the 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.720 crime scene video that was recorded the night Jane died 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:29.440 to see if they can quote refresh her memory. Now. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:33.440 I've seen this video myself, and it's horrifying. It's almost 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.120 totally silent. As the videographer walks from room to room, 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:40.520 ending up in the bedroom where Jane died. The camera 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:45.400 documents every wound, every injury, from her missing fingernail to 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.640 her eyes which were still open. It's the kind of 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:51.200 crime scene that makes even people who see this all 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.880 the time sick to their stomachs. Connie watches the video 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.000 and agrees to add more detail to her story. She 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.240 says she heard Jane plead for her life, but Ricky 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:05.760 didn't listen. She says she heard Jane make gurgling noises 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.560 as Ricky stabbed her, and after the attack, Connie says 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.760 she saw Ricky covered in blood. The police still don't 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.480 arrest Connie, but they also don't leave her alone. Instead, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:19.840 they come back a third time in two thousand and 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.360 one to try to get even more details. This time, 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.159 detectives tell her that she'll either be charged with a 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.760 misdemeanor accessory type thing, or she'll go down as a 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.440 full blooded half partner in the murder. It all depends 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:38.800 on her credibility. Now, Connie's got two young children. The 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:41.760 police tell her that if she continues to cooperate, she'll 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.760 be able to go home to her kids. But they 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.120 warn her saying, I don't know isn't going to help 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:48.640 you at all. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:53.280 They bring up the subject of her children repeatedly throughout 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:58.040 the interrogation, and the message to Connie is crystal clear. 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.639 If I don't tell them what they want to hear, 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.160 I'm going to lose my children. So they play on 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:09.120 her emotions as a mother. These kinds of tactics are 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.400 very common when a woman is a suspect to her witness, 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:18.040 because police officers know that most women would walk across 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.640 a field of glass in order to protect their children. 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.160 To satisfy her interrogators, Connie adds another detail to her story, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.199 and it's a big one. She wasn't just a lookout. 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.200 She says she was in the room during the murder 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:35.359 and tried to intervene. And remember that bite mark on 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.199 the back of Jane's shoulder. Connie ends up saying she 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.280 was responsible for it, that she accidentally bit Jane during 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:48.480 the struggle. Finally, Connie's story was good enough. On May 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.040 twenty first, two thousand and two, based only on Connie's confession, 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:56.680 the El Dorado County District Attorney's office filed murder charges 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.480 against Ricky Davis. And here's the thing. When those cops 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.520 told Connie she wouldn't be charged, turns out they were 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:08.359 lying again. Connie was charged with murder II as an accomplice. 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.679 A few months later, prosecutors told Connie that if she 0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:15.320 agreed to testify against Ricky a trial, she could plead 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.960 guilty to manslaughter and get a huge reduction in her sentence. 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:23.040 They decide exactly how much of her reduction. After she testified. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:27.720 With no good options left, Connie pled guilty and agreed 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:28.719 to take the stand. 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:40.439 I didn't like her to start with. 0:19:41.160 --> 0:19:45.280 That's Maureen Klein, Ricky Davis's mother. Remember she's always had 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.040 an opinion about Ricky's ex girlfriend, Connie. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:52.679 Ricky and I have always been very close. He had 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.960 a horrible father, so I think the closeness was because 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.680 I was all Ricky really had. Even as a teenager, 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:04.119 he would call me his best friend. So this situation 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:06.000 was extremely devastating. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.119 In two thousand and two, Maureen learned that Ricky was 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.640 being charged with murdering Jane Hilton, based on the testimony 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.439 of a girl he dated fourteen years ago. Mariene couldn't 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.719 believe it. She knew her son was no killer, and 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:22.640 the police had seemed to acknowledge his and Connie's innocence 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.560 years ago. As she processed the news, Maureen struggled to 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.000 understand why Connie would falsely confess. 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:35.280 Connie had problems obviously, and she let the detectives talk 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:37.919 her into believing that she had something to do with 0:20:37.920 --> 0:20:40.720 the murder. I was very angry at Connie, and I 0:20:40.920 --> 0:20:44.639 couldn't believe that she was lying this out, not lying. 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:49.480 I don't understand how somebody could convince you that you 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.600 participated in a murder that you didn't. 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.840 The idea that Connie would confess to a murder she 0:20:55.960 --> 0:21:01.239 didn't commit, it was impossible for Maureen to believe. I 0:21:01.359 --> 0:21:06.080 understand and sympathize with Maureen about her anger towards Connie, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:10.399 But Connie's a tragic victim in this too. She didn't 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:14.440 start out by naming Ricky Davis as a murderer, and 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.159 it was only the lies and the manipulation by the 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:21.479 detectives in that cold case squad that gave her really 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.359 no choice but to change her story in ways that 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.480 pleased them, or else she was going to lose her kids. 0:21:29.240 --> 0:21:32.960 After Ricky was charged, Maureen sat down and watched Connie's 0:21:33.000 --> 0:21:37.000 interrogation videos. As Maureen watched, she began to see how 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:41.080 police manipulated Connie. She started realizing that the problem was 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:43.639 much bigger than her son's ex girlfriend. 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.000 Connie did stay in the starting of one of the 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.159 interviews that she had been up on mess for twenty 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:54.240 four hours prior, so that in itself, I would think 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.440 they wouldn't have interviewed her at that time, but they 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.800 did anyway, she would say exactly what they sold it to. 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:05.840 You could tell that they would turn off the recording 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:08.920 and get her back on track. The captives did tell 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:12.800 Connie that once Ricky was convicted that she would go free, 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.600 and I guess they threatened her with her children and stuff. 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:21.119 I didn't believe anything would come of it because I 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.840 knew Ricky had no part of it. I knew he 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:24.440 was innocent. 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.520 Maureen was right that Ricky was innocent, but she was 0:22:27.560 --> 0:22:30.600 wrong that nothing would come of Connie's story. In June 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.560 two thousand and five, Ricky went on trial for Jane 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:38.160 Hilton's murder. Prosecutors called Connie Dahl as their star witness. 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:42.280 From his seat at the defence table, Ricky watched Connie testify. 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.560 He hadn't seen her in almost twenty years, and he 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:48.880 couldn't believe what he was hearing. Connie knew he was innocent. 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.960 The two of them had discovered Jane's body together somehow, 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.840 though the system had put them on opposite sides. For 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.520 her part, Maureen sat in the front row of the courtroom, 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:04.160 right behind Ricky as prosecutors told the jury an unthinkable 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:05.640 story about her son. 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:09.040 The way they portrayed him, like he was some vicious animal. 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.960 That was hard to take. I was surprised that the 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.920 jurors believed Connie. To me, she didn't sound very credible. 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.000 The way she answered was what she was told to say, 0:23:20.960 --> 0:23:24.880 but they did believe her. Obviously, I couldn't say anything. 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.919 At times, I wanted to yell out or react, but 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:31.320 I knew that if I did, I wouldn't be allowed 0:23:31.320 --> 0:23:34.640 in the courtroom. So it was a helpless feelings. 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:38.679 In exchange for Connie's testimony, prosecutors agreed that her sentence 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:42.479 should be reduced to times served. The next day, she 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:47.000 walked free, but Ricky Ricky wasn't as lucky. Based on 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.960 Connie's false testimony, Ricky was convicted of murdering Jane Hilton. 0:23:51.400 --> 0:23:54.600 He was given a sentence of sixteen years to life. 0:23:58.280 --> 0:24:05.200 It was like a bad movie. I mean, no systems perfect, 0:24:05.720 --> 0:24:08.120 but there was just no way I thought it could 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:14.440 be convicted under the circumstances. But he was. Everything about 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:17.679 my life changed in the moment that he was convicted. 0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:22.080 It seemed to me my whole personality changed. I became 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:27.040 angry at everything I wish I was detecting nothing but 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:29.480 horrible things in their life. 0:24:29.640 --> 0:24:30.200 I mean, I'm. 0:24:30.080 --> 0:24:31.520 Sorry that that's the way I feel. 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:37.840 After his two thousand and five conviction, Ricky Davis was 0:24:37.880 --> 0:24:41.679 sent to a California prison hours away from Eldorado Hills. 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:45.639 His ex girlfriend, Connie was free, but she never shook 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:50.000