WEBVTT - #363 Guest Host Susan Simpson with Daryl "Lee" Clark 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:06.120 On the evening of October eighteenth, nineteen ninety six, seventeen 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.400 year old Cain's story came over to see his friend 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.440 Brian Bowling, who lived with his family in a trailer 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.320 near Rome, Georgia. Cain had brought along his father's revolver, 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.120 and the two boys sat in Brian's bed and passed 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:21.160 it back and forth, pretending to play Russian Roulette while 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:25.160 Brian talked to his girlfriend Caprice on the phone. Suddenly, 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:28.840 Caprice heard screaming, and then a few moments later she 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.880 heard someone hang up the phone. Brian had been shot 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.160 in the head and was rushed to the hospital, where 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.920 he died the next day. Initially, Cain told police that 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:41.080 his friend had accidentally shot himself, but during a second 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.000 interrogation two days later, Cain made a statement that the 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.960 gun had been in his hand when it went off, 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:49.600 though he insisted it had been an accident. Then a 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.720 witness came forward, claiming that Brian, kan and their friendly 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.520 Clark had all been members of a vicious gang called 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:58.880 the Free Birds, and that Brian's death had been retaliation 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:01.760 for him snitching by the theft that they'd committed. So 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:05.360 police began investigating the incident as a homicide, ultimately charging 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:09.400 Cain and Lee with Brian's murder. At trial, a witness 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.959 testified that Cain and Lee had bragged to her about 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.120 exacting their revenge on Brian, and a handwritten note found 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:19.120 talking to Brian's coffin corroborated the gang killing narrative. It 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.440 was right there in black and white. But this is 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:39.160 wrongful conviction. Welcome back to wrongful Conviction. I'm Susan Simpson, 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:42.520 host of the podcast Proof and Undisclosed, filling in for 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.520 Jason Flohm. Today's case is one that Justinna Davis and 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.520 I covered in season one of Proof. In nineteen ninety six, 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.280 fifteen year old Brian Bowling died of a gunshot wound 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.880 to the head, and eventually his seventeen year old friends 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.120 Lee Clark and Kane's Story were wrongfully convicted of his death, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.840 and a confluence of fabrications, coercion, and misconduct led to 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:04.080 their arrest and conviction. And we're about to get to 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.800 all of that. But first here today to share his 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.959 incredible story is Lee Clark. Lee. It's great to see 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.160 you again, and see you too, Susan. Now, Lee, before 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.520 we get into everything that happened. Can you tell the 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:16.799 audience a little bit about you? 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.280 I was born in Rowing, Georgia, Floyd County. Most of 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.880 my childhood, my early childhood. I grew up in our 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.160 Murchy but went to Glenwood Elementary School. I've only got 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.120 one blood brother, my brother Jamie. And I've got step 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:31.640 sister or stepbrother Candy and Mark. 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:33.680 And then the lead up to all of this, to 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:35.800 what happened in K and A six, you were seventeen 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.680 years old and living in a small community south of Rome, 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:40.240 Georgia called Silver Creek. 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.760 At that point in my life, I was young. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.120 It's all one you at all. I was really dumber 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:47.720 on a box of rocks, is what my daddy used 0:02:47.760 --> 0:02:49.520 to tell me. He's probably right too. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:50.120 I mean, I was. 0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:52.320 Getting into a lot of trouble back in nineteen ninety 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:55.000 six doing stuff I wasn't supposed to be doing, and 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.600 breaking into people's homes and stuff like that. I wasn't 0:02:57.600 --> 0:02:59.440 knowl enough to do it. But we drank a little 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.080 bit if we'd get alcohol. If not that, we'd be 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.079 smoking marijuana or something. Just hanging out as kids doing. 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:07.480 Doing crazy stupid junk kids do. Teenagers do. 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.120 And one of your oldest friends was Cain. Tell me 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:10.720 about him. 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:13.480 I came we were coming up, coming through high school 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:14.919 and stuff, and he would be involved in some of 0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:16.760 the stuff I was doing. But Kane, he was more 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.400 of a kind of goodie two shoes. He hung out 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.919 with the preppy crowd a lot that they all time 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:23.799 questioned him a lot about why he was hanging out 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:25.640 with me. And that's just because of the way I 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.160 was back then. I was just a young, stupid teenage kid. 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:30.560 I mean, I wasn't bad as I made out to be. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:32.640 I mean, I just wanted people to think that, so 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:34.079 a lot of people would stay away from me. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.560 And one of the boys that you guys hung out 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:39.560 with with a guy named Brian Bowling. How did you 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:40.080 know Brian. 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.800 I originally met Brian through Kane. When Kane moved out 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.280 to Silver Creek, he introduced me to Brian, and me 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:48.520 and Brian we became friends. Me and Brian were as 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.000 closest Kine and Brian were. I mean, I lot Brian, 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.000 I mean I love Brian. He was a good friend 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.160 of mine, and just as I got a little bit older, 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.680 me being down there at his house became less frequent. 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:03.080 So were of ninety six. There was an incident that 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.960 happened when you were over at Cane's house. Tell me 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:06.400 about that. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.680 It was on October third, nineteen ninety six. Day haunts 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.760 me still to this day. Is something a regret of 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.640 mine that I lived with. It's today that I went 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.599 to Cayne's house and all of us teenage boys over me, Caine, 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:23.080 his buddy Joseph Wilkins, and a buddy of mine named 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.680 Pete Jordan. We all decided we was going to steal 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:27.080 Cayne's diaddy safe from him. 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.920 So the four of you stole the safe from Cane's dad, 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.320 took down the woods, busted it up, got some cash 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:36.159 out of it. How long did y'all get away with 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:36.560 a crime? 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.599 I was arrested four days after we stole this safe. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.040 Caine and his buddy Joseph Wilkins, they were arrested today 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:46.560 we stole it, and then my friend Pete Jordan was 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.880 arrested three days later on October the tenth. 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.680 Yeah, so it was not the crime of the century. 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.880 Y'all did not get away with it first more than a. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.320 Few weeks, of course. No, it was straight stupid. It 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:57.760 is what it was Yeah. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.520 Now, so Brian lived just down the hill for I'm Kane, 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.239 but he had nothing to do with this safe thas. 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:05.800 Right, No, no, he didn't have anything to do with it. 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:09.320 But as we'll see, that incident, along with Brian's close 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.800 friendship with Cain, became important the prosecution's case. But for now, 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.480 let's go back to just after the safeist. The night 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.120 this happened, both Kane and his friend Joseph Fulkins were 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:22.560 both arrested, and since shortly after you and your friend 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:26.040 Pete Jordan were also arrested, well, logically it made sense 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.880 that either Kin or Joseph Fulkins had been the ones 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.039 to give you up. Again, though this was not the 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.840 crime of the century, the stakes were pretty low, and 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.840 that brings us to what happened October eighteenth, nineteen ninety six. 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:40.159 On October eighteenth, so I went to make Caine that 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.320 day because I know I'd been arrested in CHRS. I 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:44.240 just wanted to find out for him if it had 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.440 been his buddy Joseph did it told on us? Or 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:47.960 if it was had been Kane did it did it? 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:49.560 I knew it had to be one of them, I 0:05:49.600 --> 0:05:51.479 just was sure which one and I made him. He 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:53.440 sat there each tell him me. He swording up down 0:05:53.440 --> 0:05:55.200 and may it wasn't him. He didn't do it. He 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:57.080 don't know who did it. And he played that on 0:05:57.200 --> 0:05:59.679 and on. So it's made to believe his friend Joseph 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.120 was one told on us. What come to find out 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.440 a trial it was both Kane and Joseph they had 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:05.159 told on us. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.320 Yeah, so but that night you talked to Caine, He's like, no, man, 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.040 wasn't me. I didn't telling y'all. And your little brother 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:11.640 was there too. 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:13.800 Right, Yes, he was there. You have my little brother, Jamie. 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:15.839 The three of you ended up just kind of hanging out. 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.520 For a while. Yeah. Yeah, we just rolled around when 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.320 shoot some pool and stuff like that, what kind of stuff. 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.839 That's all in the motion, though, was that night before 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:25.640 Cain went out to meet with you and Jamie he 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.279 decided to grab a revolver from his dad's bedside table. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.279 He was gonna go target cheoting. It was not the 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.000 smartest idea since he was already in trouble with his dad. 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.000 But well, while you're hanging out, he pulls the gun 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.320 out and he shows it to you and even fires 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:41.240 it out of a car window. While you're driving around, 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.839 just playing around. Eventually you decided to take him home. 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:46.680 I wasn't going back to his house, cousin. 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:48.760 I wasn't gonna take no chance of his parents being home, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.520 his mom or anything, or his dad. I don't want 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:52.640 either one tore saving me back to his house. So 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.440 I dropped him all the same place. I picked him 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:56.839 up at Silver Creetman in the market. You know, I 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.480 think about something now that I told Kane back then 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.120 that uh me telling him this. I could still hear 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:04.920 it so clearly in my head that wakes me up 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:06.960 sometimes the middle of the night still to this day. 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.560 I told him when was pulling up I was getting out, 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:11.920 I told him, I said, look, we've done stole yourdaddy 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.240 safe and now here it is. You've got your daddy's 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.520 gun on you. I said, if your diddy comes in 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:18.760 says that gun gone, he's gonna swer up down that 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.200 we stole that too. So I don't need this hanging 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.080 over me, like, just take that gun back home where 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.000 you got it from. Well, hey, sister and tells me, yeah, man, 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:28.920 I'm gonna do it. I said, Okay, I'm serious, man, 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:30.600 Just get out the car, go straight home. 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:31.560 Put that gun back. 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:33.800 He swears up and down to me he's gonna do it, 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.080 And that's the complete opposite of what he just told 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:37.840 me he was feeling to do. 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.440 Yeah, after you dropped him off with the mini, mart 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.720 Kin did not go directly home. Instead, he stopped at 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.520 Brian's trailer on the way. They are now Brian's parents, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:48.720 his sister, and her boyfriend. They were all in the 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:52.040 living room watching TV with some neighbors, Waining and Charlie Childers. 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.960 When King got there, came knocking the door, said hi 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:56.600 to everyone. They told him that Brian's back in the 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.520 bedroom talking to his girlfriend Caprice. So he goes back 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.080 there and finds Brian sos high and you know they 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:04.160 they're two teenage boys on the phone with the girlfriends. 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:05.960 So they start passing the phone back and forth talking 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.360 to her. Then at some point Kane puts out his 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:10.800 gun and shows it to Brian and he's like, came in, 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.040 look what I got. So what happened then? 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.560 Well, the way Kane explains it to me, he's in 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:19.160 there and him and Brian put the bullet in the 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.560 gun and he says they started playing Russian rou lit 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:23.280 and he said there was cheating. They was putting it 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.760 in there, and they was taking the chamber of a revolver. 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:28.200 Anybody who knows anything about the revolver knows if you're 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:29.680 looking down at it from the back of it, you 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.720 can see where the bullets were at. And that's what 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:33.480 they were doing. They were taking the revolver and they 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.640 were spinning it to the bottom and making sure the 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:37.480 bullets wouldn't know where around down there. And then they 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.559 were cocking it, sticking it to her head and pulling 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.640 the trigger. And Kane says they had went back a 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:43.960 couple of rounds like he is, back and forth and 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.640 the whole time, Brian is the phone with his girlfriend, 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.720 Caprice Hoyt, and he tells Kane to tell her what 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:53.040 I'm doing. So Kane tells her He's playing Russian rou lit. Now, 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:54.760 first she didn't know what it was. I mean, she 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:56.080 was a little alarm by, but she didn't know what 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.280 Russan roulett was. I mean, she was telling him, tell 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.200 him to stop, but she she didn't understand fully what 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:02.680 he was in there doing, sticking it to his head, 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.559 pulling the trigger until her mom came in later after 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.960 the fact, and she asked her mom what rushing Roulette was, 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.000 and her mom told her what it was. Well, Kane, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.560 he plays it and then Brian just he says, let 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.920 me see that gun. What Kane says, he snatched it 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.800 from him, opened it up, spun the cylinder, slapped it 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.679 back in, caught the hammer back. When Brian stuck it 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.520 to his head, Kane says, he looked at him and 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:25.440 told him and said, don't do it, bro He said 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:25.960 it's to one. 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:26.720 Now. 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.440 Kane says that Brian looked at him and said you 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.120 think so and pulled the trigger. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:33.960 Now, that's what Kine has told me. 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:36.160 Every time I've talked to him about this stuff, every 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.040 time I've confronted him body, He's always told me the 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:39.199 same thing and the. 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:40.199 Truth he told right now. 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.840 I mean, I can't tell you one hundred percent positive 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.080 what went downe in there, but that's like I've told 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.240 you before, Susan. Look, I've struggled with that stuff for 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:51.160 many and many years. If he may have accidentally did 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:53.600 it and didn't want to tell me, but there's too 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.400 much stuff too support it, and that's why I choose 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:55.959 to believe it. 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.360 And a lot of what was observed immediately after the 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.440 shooting supports what can say. The folks in the living 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:03.920 room who had heard the gunshot rushed into Brian's room 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.640 and found him there on the floor with blood pulled 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.880 around his head and critically the gun was underneath Brian 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:12.719 where he was lying on the floor, and Caprice was 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:14.240 still in the phone. She was yelling trying to figure 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.520 it what was happening she could kill the screaming, heard 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.679 someone say they got to call her back, and the 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.400 line going dead as the family then calls nine one 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.560 one very quickly after that, the police and paramedics arrive 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.280 and Brian was transported to the hospital as he fought 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.440 for his life. Meanwhile, though, Lee, you had no idea 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.480 that any of this was happening. After you dropped can off, 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:34.679 what did you do the rest. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:36.680 Of the night, Me and my brother turned around with 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.960 my apartment in Lyndale where my girlfriend Shelley at a time, 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:41.880 and a bunch of my other buddies were showing up 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:43.640 over there. I was having a party at my apartment 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.400 that night and we got over went to party and dranking, 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:48.800 smoking while you doing stupid teenager stuff. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.840 And at around eight thirty that night, two of your 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.400 friends Doug and Dawn were dropped out by their mom, 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.160 and she testified later at trial that while she was 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.520 there to drop her sons off, you were standing out 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.840 by her car and you were talking, and she told 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.000 you that something was happening down at Brian Bowling's place. 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:05.360 I asked her what she meant, and she told me 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:07.760 that there's a bunch of cop cars down in their driveways. 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:09.600 We were making all kinds of sumptions to what we 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:11.720 thought it may have been, but we were fall off face. 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.160 The next morning, the doctors told Brian's family that there 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:19.080 was no hope of recovery, and his parents agreed to 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:23.600 donate his organs, and around noon the day after he 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:25.240 was shot, he was declared dead. 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.880 Yeah, the next morning I got up and I found 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:31.320 out that two different people that Brian had shot herself 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.320 the night before. My mom had called me and told me, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.640 and also Doug and Don's grandmother had told us about 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:39.480 it when she come by to pick Doug. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:39.800 And down up. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.959 Now, during the initial investigation, the police took photos of 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:45.120 the scene and talked to some of the family and 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.520 other witnesses at the hospital, and of course they talked 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.559 to Kane, who was taken down to the police station 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.959 and had his hand swap for gunshot residue. When the 0:11:52.000 --> 0:11:55.400 police spoke to Caprice, she corroborated Cane's story that Brian 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:57.200 and Kan told her on the phone that they had 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.640 a gun and they were playing Russian Roulette. The last 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.160 thing she heard was Brian saying I'm playing with the gun, 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.800 followed by screaming and someone hanging up. After talking to 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:08.920 Kane at Caprice, the police initially declared it next andal death. 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.400 An autopsy, if it was done, would have shown conclusively 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:14.560 that Brian had been holding the gun up to his 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:18.319 head when it was fired, except one was never done, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.080 or at least there's no record of it. Unfortunately, without 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:23.800 an autopsy, and after talking to Brian's family as well, 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:27.720 investigators were free to get imaginative. So later that weekend, 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.160 Detective Dallas Battle and Sergeant Mike Wallace brought Caanan for 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.480 a second interview. This time they recorded it. At first, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:37.200 Cain insist again and again that Brian shot himself and 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.079 they've been playing Russian Roulette and it was something more 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.320 than that. But detectives keep telling him, we know you 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:43.800 had the gun. Just tell us you had the gun. 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:45.320 If you tell us that you had the gun when 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.320 it went off, nothing will happen to you. You won't 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:49.320 be in trouble to tell us that. And after this 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.120 goes on for half an hour or so, Kane eventually 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:54.640 gives in and says that, yeah, the gun was in 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:57.080 my hand when it went off. Lee, what has Kane 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.280 told you about this interview? 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.280 Well, he said they kept coming at him, but during 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.400 the interview they were making him singing like that it 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:06.640 was no big deal that he just say what they 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:08.720 wanted him to say. They won't gonna be in any trouble. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.360 Just go ahead and bit to you did this wild? 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:11.760 You say what was then accident? That's gonna be it 0:13:11.840 --> 0:13:14.120 and we can now all go home. And Kane, being 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:16.680 young like he was, battles tricked him. He just deceived 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.599 him into it. I mean, Kane, he's easily misled. I 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.280 mean he's always been that way. He's a full grown 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:22.600 man now and I hate to say it, but he's 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:23.959 still easily misled today. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.360 So when Cain admitted to this, to having the gun 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.920 in his hand when it accidentally goes off, he's arrested 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.280 charges manslaughter and at least a bond and then a few 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.080 months later, that gunshot residue test comes back and it's negative. 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.520 There was no jess horn Kan's hands. Now, these tests 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.520 are often junk science because the false positives and false 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.880 negatives they can generate. You can hear all about that 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.960 on Wrong Fiction Junk Science. We'll have that episode linked 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:52.480 in this episode's bio. But Dallas Battle believed in these tests, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.839 and since Kane tested negative for gunshot residue, this gave 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.480 Dallas Battle a problem because if this was a murder, 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:00.960 that meant Kin couldn't have done it, and he now 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.120 needed a second shooter, which is what made leads wrongful 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.960 conviction even possible. So Lee, how do you think you 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:08.480 got drawn to this whole investigation? 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.120 Well, shortly after Brian had shot herself and everything, I 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.640 was hearing all these rumors, these lies going around that 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.800 I was there, that I was hit outside, all this 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.000 and that, and I wasn't sure where all that was 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.080 coming from at the time, But later down the line, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.400 after I was all said and done, I started pacing 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:28.880 together had been coming from a guy that I knew 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.840 when I was younger and had a little bad blove 0:14:31.880 --> 0:14:33.840 with him, And his name was Tommy Hyde, Me and 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:36.120 Tommy were never on good terms and stuff, and no 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.720 doubt Dallas Battles was using him to spread stuff. 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.400 Now, you and battle had a bit of history. 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.000 Right, Yeah, we had pretty deep history, man, Dallas Battles. 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.560 Did do you think your previous run ends with the law, 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.480 including that recent safe theft, had anything to do with 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:52.080 Battles zeroing in on you? 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:54.040 Well, I'll tell you straight up. 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.440 Dallas Battles was a corrupt cop, crooked as they come. 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.640 This man took an oath when he with that badge 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.560 owned uphold the law. And even though I was a young, 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:06.800 stupid teenage boy and stuff, Dallas Battles knew what he 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.200 was doing. He was a full grown man. And what 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.680 he did to me he broke every law did he 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.600 know all of them? And wanted to make stuff seem 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.720 like it was a certain way, and that's what he did. 0:15:17.760 --> 0:15:19.400 He spun it that way, made it look like it. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:21.560 That's no doubt my mind. He knew the truth about it. 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:23.520 He just didn't want to put it out there as 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:25.080 he was dead set on setting me up. 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.760 Now, around this time, another Fwood County officer, David Stewart, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:32.440 joined the investigation, and he and battle developed this theory 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.360 that Brian had not been shot accidentally, there had been 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.360 no Russian roulette, but rather this was all a gang 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:42.080 related revenge hit killing. Now, remember this is late nineteen 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.280 nineties and there's kind of the massesteria going on about 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.880 quote unquote gang buns in America, which, although was not 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:52.360 prominent in Rome, Georgia at the time, was nevertheless sort 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.760 of in the public ze guist and affecting how people 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:57.840 interpreted this evidence, which is why bone Thugs in Harmony 0:15:57.880 --> 0:15:59.720 and the fact that Brian and his friends listened to 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.280 that came an important part of the case. Anyway, there 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.680 was a woman named Debor Kelly, who Kan's mother once 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:07.200 hired to clean her house, and she told the police 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:09.320 that while she was cleaning the house, she'd found this 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:13.120 what she called a devilish notebook because it had skulls 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.560 and crossbones on it, and when she snooped through the notebook, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.000 that's how she says she discovered that you Can and 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.200 Brian were all members of this gang called the Freebirds. Now, 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:24.280 Debora Kelly also said that this notebook had the gang's 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.080 rules written out inside of it. Now, Lee, what were 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.000 some of the alleged rules that this gang had, so. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:32.200 I wanted to try to say he was in there 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.440 and never do drugs. Yeah right, Yeah, that really went 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.440 well with us. Back in every time you turn around, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:38.240 we spoke in pot. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.160 The gang's other rules were always stand by your brother, 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.680 never talked to the police, and if a brother does 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:46.360 talk to police, you have to kill him. If you 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:47.760 don't kill them, you get killed yourself. 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:49.160 That's what they say it. 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:55.640 So the police decided that Brian had narked quote unquote 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.400 on the other gang members by turning them in for 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.520 the safe theft, and therefore Lee and Kane had been 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.719 obligated to kill him because of their gang of rules. 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:08.040 Don't forget that. Another influence on this murder was Bone 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:12.800 Thugs and Harmony and they're nineteen what ninety six hit single, 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:17.800 yeah Lacrossroad, gross Roads. Yeah. Now, Crossroads was a favorite 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.520 song of Brian's. It was playing at the time he 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.040 was shot, and the investigators tracked down the lyrics and 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:29.399