WEBVTT - #582 Guest Host Conor Hall with Brian Pippitt 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:07.760 Hello again. It's Connor Hall, the senior producer for Wrongful 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.400 Conviction with another update and more behind the scenes insights. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:15.720 And today we're talking about Brian Pippott, an episode that 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.120 I had the privilege of hosting. And that's not why 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.119 we're listening to this today, that's just a coincidence. There's 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.200 an actual update to be had. Now, this case came 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.440 to me from another innocent man's advocate. If you remember 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.400 John Juca, his mother Doreen, she is the total badass 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.600 that is known as Mother Justice. She had sent me 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.920 an article and introduced me to the journalist who wrote it, 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:42.520 a guy named Ted Ham, and it was all about, 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:46.040 you know, Brian's case and how Minnesota's Conviction Review Unit 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:49.800 under Attorney General Keith Ellison had done a two year 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:54.840 investigation and they concluded that Brian was factually innocent. But 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.040 the local district attorney in Aiken County, a guy named 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:01.279 James Rats can't make that shit it up, had welched 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.440 on his agreement to go along with the CRU's ruling. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:08.399 So the media started getting involved, including us. Now, this 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.520 was all in the late summer fall of twenty twenty four, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:14.839 when Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz was running for vice president, 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.320 which likely made his team and maybe the entire team, 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.240 wary of weighing in on anything that could be controversial, 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:27.600 like dispensing justice. In Brian's case shouldn't be controversial anyway. Now, 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.360 had they won that election, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, who's 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:36.320 half Ojibwe, same tribe as Brian, she would have become governor, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.720 and who knows, maybe she'd take an interest. But that's 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.200 not how the cookie crumbled. So after the election, Brian's 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.640 team filed for clemency with the Waltz admin and in 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.680 April twenty twenty five, Minnesota's Clemency Review Commission, on the 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:53.120 basis of Brian's credible evidence of innocence, voted six to 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:57.600 one in favor of commutation to time served. Next step 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.640 was a hearing with the Pardon Board, which has three members, 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.560 the Governor, the Attorney General, and the Chief Justice of 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:06.640 the Minnesota Supreme Court. Now we already knew that Keith 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.760 Ellison was convinced of Brian's innocence, so this came down 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:14.080 to the Chief Justice and Tim Waltz. Now, after years 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:18.000 of watching Jason at work, the guy is a master advocate. 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.560 I mean, he basically took all the skills from his 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.880 actual profession advocating for artists, and he uses those skills 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.040 for the innocent. It's amazing to watch, like, I mean, 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.040 even being around him. He's like this like vortex of 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.880 like connections in this world. And I am not that. 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.320 But it made me think, you know, what could I? 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:40.679 What could little old me do? 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:41.040 Right? 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:44.240 So I started thinking about how I could reach either 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.919 one of them, the Chief Justice or Tim Waltz. Right, 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.280 who the hell am I? Anyway? We had just covered 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:55.480 Leonard Peltier, whose advocate Holly Maccaro was very effective, and 0:02:55.560 --> 0:03:00.000 she is also ojaboy like Brian and the Lieutenant Governor. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.520 Funny enough, Holly had just taken a consulting job with 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:08.280 Peggy flannagainst senatorial campaign. That primary is August eleventh, twenty 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.480 twenty six. But I digress. So I sent Holly the 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.440 podcast and filled her in on everything and begged her 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:17.680 to speak with Peggy, who maybe she could convince to 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.760 lobby Governor Waltz on Brian's behalf, or maybe even Holly, 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.799 could you know, cross paths with him and corner him 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.880 and give him the elevator pitch. Now, I'm not sure 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:30.320 what she was able to do, what effect any of 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.840 this had. But on September twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.840 the Pardon Board held a hearing and Governor Waltz chose 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.480 to commute brian sentence. Now, the Clemency Reviewed Commission's recommendation 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:46.560 was time served, but Governor Waltz, who had reelection on 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:50.080 his mind, well, he chose to just make him parole eligible. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.400 It's a shame how electoral politics can cause so much 0:03:54.800 --> 0:04:00.240 caution and compromise when it comes to justice, probably because us, 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.200 you know, the enemies of justice are so happy to 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:07.400 manipulate low information voters. But I digress again. At this hearing, 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.440 Waltz made a comment that I'm going to paraphrase. It's 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.960 something like, moments ago, mister Pippott was serving a life sentence. 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:18.039 Now he'll be home by the new year. Interesting that 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.839 he was so confident in what the Parole Board was 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:23.760 still yet to do that December, and then Brian was 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:28.560 finally released on January eighth, twenty twenty six. Around that time, 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.359 Minnesota was really going through it and still is. The 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:37.960 current DOJ has made misleading and racially charged allegations about 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:42.480 childcare fraud schemes while withholding federal funding. And I guess 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:46.000 we'll find out how much water any of these cases hold. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:49.160 But it's been so disruptive that Tim Waltz dropped out 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.279 of the governor's race. And perhaps even more consequential, the 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.440 same DOJ has refused to renew the federal grant that 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:01.800 helped fund Minnesota's Conviction Review Unit. Attorney General Keith Ellison 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.039 had to shut it down. There is no more Minnesota 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.800 Conviction Review Unit. Luckily, Keith Allison was able to reunite 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.279 Brian Pippot with his family and his tribe, while so 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.000 many more will just continue to face an even steeper 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:25.760 uphill battle. On February twenty fourth, nineteen ninety eight, eighty 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:29.800 four year old Minnesotan Evelyn Mallin was discovered in her 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:35.200 ransacked bedroom, strangled and beaten to death. Her small apartment 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.200 was attached to her convenience store, but the store was undisturbed, 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:42.640 including any signs of forced entry. There was a broken 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.839 basement window, but it appeared to have been broken from 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:50.039 the inside out. Yet, instead of focusing on personal or 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.760 business relations with access to keys, the investigation targeted an 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.760 Indigenous man named Brian Pippott and four of his male relatives, 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:04.400 despite no evidence connecting them to the scene, credible alibis, 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.320 and an equally incredible theory of guilt. One of them 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:13.039 made a statement. Two more pled. One was acquitted, but 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:28.719 Brian wasn't so lucky. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.440 to wrongful conviction, where we have a story about a 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.320 group of indigenous men about an hour's drive north of 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:40.080 Minneapolis Saint Paul, the Malas Band of Vojabwee to be exact, 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.599 but the theory of their involvement in the murder was 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:47.240 so lazy and full of holes that authorities must have 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.320 known it was also full of something else. And joining 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.919 us to tell his story, still in a Minnesota prison 0:06:55.560 --> 0:07:01.520 is Brian Pippott. Welcome. Brian helped tell this story an 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:06.920 attorney and investigator from probably the original innocence organization in 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:11.760 this country, Centurion Ministries Jim Cousins Welcome, well, thank you, 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.760 And before we even begin with Brian's personal history, I'd 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.480 like to recognize the history of the Malax Band of Ojibwe, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.760 as well as their relations throughout the area, whose roots 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.840 are on the East Coast. But as Europeans began their 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:31.800 continental conquest about five hundred years ago, the Ojibwe were 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:36.920 forced into a nomadic lifestyle. They eventually allied themselves with 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.600 the French in the Seven Years War, a relationship evidenced 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.040 even by the name Malaks It's French for a Thousand Lakes, 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:46.360 a reference to the Great Lakes area in which the 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.960 Ojibwe eventually settled a little over two hundred years ago 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.880 and where they were later recognized by the US government 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:57.000 as a sovereign nation. Spread among various reservations, some of 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.560 which were in Aiken County, Minnesota. 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.960 Well, Aikin County includes the town or city of Acn itself, 0:08:04.520 --> 0:08:07.800 and about twenty miles from there is a town called McGregor. 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.840 That's where there's a small Native American reservation called the 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:17.800 Sandy Lake Reservation. I understand that there's a fair degree 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.640 of tension between the white community, law enforcement authorities from 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.040 the Acon County Sheriff's office, and the Native American community. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.840 That tension has made headlines in recent years as the 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.360 current sheriff, Daniel Geida, it appears, has accepted financial support 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:37.320 from an oil conglomerate called Enbridge, and then it just 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:42.079 so happens that protesters were treated pretty roughly for seeking 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.040 to protect clean drinking water in the area where Brian 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:46.720 was raised. 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:52.040 Yes McGregor, mistrict, IWO of Malacc's Sandy Lake Indian Reservation. 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:56.040 We moved up from the late eighties to Sandy Lake 0:08:56.600 --> 0:09:00.480 and my mother she rented a carcel I end up 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:04.320 there for a dollar for fifty years and had a 0:09:04.600 --> 0:09:08.320 house built. She kept adding on to the house. She 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.040 wanted a place for everyone, and we all lived in 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.760 the households around the Sandy Lake area. Had some brothers 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:20.400 and they have all passed and rest. Some good times 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.920 going swimming in the lakes, calling fish and going hunt 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:28.960 trapping with my uncles in the wintertime, harvesting deer, using 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.360 everything of the tier, and giving finish for the deer 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.120 and afer into Mexico. 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:38.679 Despite ugly efforts to the contrary, the Ojuboy and other 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.160 indigenous nations have been able to maintain their culture and 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:46.439 self governance well. Folks like Ojiboy Elder Marge Anderson were 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:50.040 able to make strides for their nations with the US government, 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.760 like the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of nineteen eighty eight, 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:58.079 which brought much needed economic opportunities to their nation. In fact, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.760 on February twenty third, ninety eight, Brian had accompanied his nephew, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:06.400 Michael Mus Squattis to an interview at one of those casinos. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:11.199 Yeah, Mike Squattus, my sister Anita's son. He had a 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:15.080 job interview that day and ponded radio for I don't know, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.320 thirty dollars or something for some extra money to go 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.760 to a casino. I didn't drive at that time that 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:27.480 I had arrived with him and my other nephew, Brandon. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.000 By all accounts, the trio returned to the area around 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:33.640 eight thirty PM, and Brian was home for the night 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:38.560 by ten. Then the following morning, February twenty fourth, nineteen 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.640 ninety eight, eighty four year old Evelyn Mallin's body was 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:45.920 discovered in her bedroom in nearby tiny Shamrock Township. 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:51.679 The building is very small and houses not only her bedroom, 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.760 but also a little convenience store that has so three 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.439 point two beer and cigarettes and other sundry items and 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.320 piecing together so some of the witness testimony, she's probably 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.200 murdered the night before, sometime between ten and ten thirty 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.480 in the morning. Her daughter, Norma Horner, went to the 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.200 store with her boyfriend, Gerald Horsemen, and they knocked on 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:15.440 the door, They knocked on the windows, they didn't get 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.959 a response. They went around to the back door. There 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.720 was a skeleton key broken off from the inside of 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.720 the back door, so they couldn't open it, so they 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.440 called nine to one one Aken County Sheriff's department. Kick 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.560 in the back door. They find Evelyn Male and the 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.160 victim in her bedroom. That she was strangled and beaten 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.400 rather savagely, and there was fecal matter on her too. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.200 Now that may have been that she evacuated as a 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:44.000 result of being strangled and beaten, but there's some other 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.680 theories that who theever the assailant was took some fecal 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.120 matter from a little there's a bowl. I mean, there 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.360 was no indoor plumbing in the store and through that 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:55.200 on her. I don't know whether that's true or not. 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:59.480 But they didn't see her immediately because her bedroom was ransacked. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.480 Were thrown all over the place and she was tossed 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.440 off her ben There was a mattress on top of her, 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.600 and then they went around throughout the building. They noted 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.040 that the front end door locks were locked. They noted 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.560 that a basement window was broken and the store portion 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:17.240 is utterly untouched. 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.760 The back room was ripped apart, like whoever did that 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.280 was looking for something particular. 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:30.360 Thereafter, they interviewed Gerald Horseman and Norma Horner. Gerald Horseman 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.920 was responsible for some of the inventory in the little store, 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.560 and he told them at the time that there was 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:41.800 no beer, no cigarettes missing. Subsequently, Merle Maylin, the victim's son, 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.200 came up from his home in New Mexico several days 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.160 after the murder. Theoretically there was some cash in a 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.480 white envelope that she used to keep that he thought 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:53.160 was missing. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.720 Initially, Gerald Horseman thought so too, as well as a checkbook, 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:02.040 but both turned up. Merle Mallin continued to allege that 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:03.240 other items were missing. 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:09.320 There is a mention of guns missing, biers, televisions, all 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.559 kinds of stuff, and they were flying over the reservation 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.080 looking in the swamps for the stuff. And then oh no, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.280 this wasn't missing. This was a missing messing was missing 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:22.320 at at trial and he said, oh, we've fold them money. 0:13:22.720 --> 0:13:26.440 But Merle Maelan has always maintained that beer, cigarettes, and 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.640 a gun were stolen, which propped up the state's theory 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:34.800 a robbery turned homicide, despite what Horsemen, who actually kept 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.400 the store's inventory, has maintained all along that the store 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:43.600 was undisturbed and no store items were missing. Interestingly, one 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:47.920 of the alternative suspects was Merle's son, Mark Mallin. 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:54.920 The mourning of the murder, relatives actually pointed toward her grandson, 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.839 Mark Maelan, and he would help her at the store too, 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:00.760 so he had access to the store, and that he 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.040 could be violent, particularly he was on something, and that 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:07.840 Evelyn Malan used to give him money, and a couple 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.120 of weeks before this incident, Mark Maelan asked her for 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.360 four or five hundred dollars and it was one of 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.200 the first times when she had refused him money. Others 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.920 subsequently had said, we know that he's been rough with 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.600 his grandmother before, and he knows where she hides money 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.200 in the store, but law enforcement didn't really follow up 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.080 on that thread. Another alternative suspect was a man by 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:29.920 the name of Terry Pete. He evidently was somebody that 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:32.560 Evelyn Maylan was afraid of, and she expressed that fear 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.760 to some others that bad news is back in town. 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.400 He had been released from being incarcerated, and he had 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.520 asked her to buy some propane on credit and she 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.440 had refused. He subsequently perished when his trailer caught fire. 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:47.680 Several months later. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.720 But before the death of Terry Pete, as well as 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:54.000 the specter of missing cash had dissipated, the rumor mill 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.200 in Aiken County was quite active. 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:01.600 There were rampant rumors, some of which are clearly untrue, 0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.520 that the assailants cut off her finger to take her 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:08.920 ring off her, the assailants sexually assaulted her. I heard 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.120 it was the miss Squades. I heard it was this person. 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.840 I heard it was that person. And so mister Bijurga 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:18.040 from the BCA, which is the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.560 the equivalent of an FBI for the state, and Bruce 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.880 Beck from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office went over to 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:28.440 interview Michael Mus Squads, Keith MS Squades, and Brandon Ms 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:31.120 Squaddies as well. They're all the nephews of Brian Pippott. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.160 This is within I think a week of the murder. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.520 And they looked at Keith and checked his body for 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.520 scrapes and marks. He didn't have any, and they asked 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.440 him where he was. He said he was at home, 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.400 and they asked Mike where he was. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:51.040 Michael Musquades says, what day is this now? Oh, that 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.480 was the day I had my interview down at the 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.880 Grand Casino. Brandon and my uncle Brian Pippott went with 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.840 me as well. The authorities knew this now. They later 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.200 interrogated Brandon Misquatis, who was fifteen at the time, in 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:07.600 a very coercive interview where they kept saying to him, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.040 we know you were there. Your relatives have said you 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.640 were there. Come clean, and he said, no, I wasn't there. 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.960 I wasn't there. I was at the casino. They later 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.680 acknowledged that his alibi was correct. So that's the same 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:22.280 alibi that Brian Pippott has. So the alibi was established 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:23.080 quite early on. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.480 Nevertheless, after a year had gone by, Terry Pete had passed, 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.720 while Merle Mallin kept the specter of a robbery alive, 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.200 and the rumor mill led investigators to Brian Pippott, his 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.960 nephews Raymond and Keith Musquattis, as well as his cousins 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:39.840 Neil King and Don Hill. 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.800 Right after an award had been offered, Don Hill started 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.760 a rumor that Brian Pippott said something along the lines 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.240 of oh, she was already dead when I went in there. 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:52.920 And then eventually Don Hill starts naming a few of 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.880 these people that ultimately are selected as the assailants. And 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.680 as they started to narrow down some of these rumors, 0:17:00.760 --> 0:17:04.760 they used tactics of saying to one so and so 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.360 said you were there. Now you need to help yourself 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.520 by saying you were there and admitting to things, and 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.639 the first person to the trough gets the best meal 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:16.360 or something. That was the line they used. 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:22.359 Yes they live, threatening all your younger kids with long 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:23.560 term prison sends. 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.879 And so there was a carousel of interrogations of various 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.000 people until they got somebody to say, okay, I was there, 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.560 and that was Raymond Misquades. He had a couple of 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.760 felonies pending, and there had been some rumors about him 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.680 being there and not being there, and he is recanted 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:47.119 completely and fully, genuinely, in detail and with specificity, and 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:50.960 if you look at his various statements, I actually have 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.719 a chart as to how they changed over time, you 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:55.920 can tell he wasn't there. 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.479 Raymond first said that around seven pm they arrived at 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.800 the Dollar Lie door and Brian had kicked in the 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.400 front door. Both elements not true, so his story had 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.680 to change alongside the state's narrative until they were the same. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.080 The state's theory is that these five men were driving 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.840 around drunk and decided that they were going to go 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:20.879 to the Dollar Lake store. The store was closed with 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.880 The allegation is that Keith Musquades was able to get 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.399 through a basement window, which, by the way, would have 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:30.240 entailed removing panes of glass the little pieces of wood 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.040 that separate the panes, reaching in and removing two wooden 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:38.359 slats that were nailed across the window, Squeeze down through 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:42.600 the window, walk across a sandy basement floor, come up 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.919 through a trap door, which, as far as we know, 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:47.600 he would have no idea existed. 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.840 Everybody forgets to mention that there was a chair on 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.359 top of that trap door and it was webbed up 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.280 against the window sill. It was in the police report 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.720 that the police removed the chair from a trap door 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:02.240 to get down to the basement. 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.440 So the back door was inoperable, the front door was 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.080 dead bolted shut, and their suspects didn't have access to keys. 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:16.040 Yet this basement entry theory was still chosen despite its impossibility, 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:18.240 and I guess since the front door was definitely not 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.000 kicked in, Raymond changed his story from Brian kicking in 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.080 the front door to an intoxicated Keith Musquattis wiggling through 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.359 a jagged basement window. And remember they examined him just 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:33.320 days after the crime, and he didn't have a scratch. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:38.240 He said that Keith Musquades cut himself going through the window, 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:40.719 but Keith Msquaddes had no cuts on him. There's no 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:44.240 evidence anywhere that anyone went through that window, no fabric, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.119 no blood, no skin. There is some cat blood, so 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:49.840 I guess a cat couldn't get through there without cutting itself, 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:53.080 so he theoretically comes up opens up the trap door. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.720 Raymond says that they all came in and out through 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:57.720 the front door, But we now know that the front 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.720 door was locked with a dead bolt, that you needed 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:00.880 a CA to operate. 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:05.800 Even with the alleged gymnastics, the theory still doesn't work 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.680 without a front door key, but not according to BCA 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:10.600 investigator David Bjurga. 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.760 Mister Bjurga was questioned about that lock at the grand jury. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.760 He was asked, you can't get in and out of 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:18.960 that door without locking the dead bolt. Is that right? 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.320 He said, well, that's right, we don't believe it was locked. 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:23.879 Why do you think that, Well, because Raymonds, Squades and 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:25.760 Don Hill said they went through the door, so it 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.800 couldn't have been locked. Well, that's completely circular logic. That's 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.320 not saying anything about the forensics or the physics of 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:31.720 the scene. 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.879 Again with the door, prosecutor on it around and evaded 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:40.800 the question, said, well, I can't go into that because 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:43.080 it's from the investigation. 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.520 The theory on the door was that the dead bolt 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.960 lock wasn't really locked. That was just the lock on 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.320 the door handle that you could lock by pulling it shut. 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:56.000 There's no merit to that whatsoever. The first responders all 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.720 reported that door locked. The crime scene photograph shows that 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.400 the dead bolt door locked. I had a forensic locksmith 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:05.800 examined that photograph. He said, that's clearly a dead bolt 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:09.440 and it's clearly locked. And when they took photographs of 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:11.800 the lock when they disassembled it, they didn't show the 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.280 actual bolt portion of it because that would show you 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.639 that what you see in that photograph a dead bolt 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:22.000 clearly locked. There's no real getting around that now they've 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:22.680 lost the lock. 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.720 However, Raymond was not aware of those damning specifics in 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:30.320 real life or in the statements he was making. 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.639 He said that he stayed in the car but he 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.960 heard a crash. They come out with beer and cigarettes, 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.840 and Brian comes out with some kind of bag with 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:42.440 what they thought was a weapon in it, and the 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:45.400 theory is that they then went back to Raymond's father's 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.479 house and Keith Musquades and Brian Pippott confessed that they 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:51.919 had killed Evelyn maelon Or when she came out of 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:53.600 her bedroom, but she didn't come out of her. 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:59.280 Bedroom, according to other interviewees, BCA investigator David Bijerga routinely 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:03.400 inserted the unfounded element into his questioning that the victim 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.040 had discovered the assailants in the store and so they 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:09.040 had to put her down, but the store was undisturbed, 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.639 no signs of a struggle, according to both police reports 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.120 and Gerald Horseman, who also maintained that no store items 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:19.560 were missing. But instead Raymond conformed his statement to include 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.520 unsubstantiated claims from Merle Mallin, the father of the only 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:28.760 alternative suspect, about a stolen gun, cigarettes, and beer. Mallin 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:32.120 also testified that his mother wasn't able to lock the door, 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:34.920 something that it appears he forgot, he had said when 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:38.680 interviewed years later by a post conviction investigator, and again 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:41.040 at a two thousand and six PCR hearing, when he 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.040 said that she could in fact lock the door. And 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:46.680 there's even more nonsense to unravel. 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.639 Ramus Squade said they went to an abandoned house that 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:52.960 used to be his father's on the Sandy Lake Reservation, 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:55.800 which was probably abandoned the last time he had been 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.600 there years ago, but had since been remodeled, and had 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.760 resident said it. He said that they were all driving 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:06.240 a gold Tornado, but no such car existed, so almost 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:23.359 nothing he said matched with reality. 0:23:24.280 --> 0:23:27.520 It was arrested. I was a year later or something, 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.040 and it wasn't really a significant time for me to 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:35.960 remember anything. So I told him, well, I don't know 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:39.200 where I was. And it wasn't until I had to 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:42.680 report and my mother came to visit me, and she said, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:46.280 oh yeah, that's that they had loaned event for the 0:23:46.400 --> 0:23:49.520 job interview, and then he wrote along and they said, 0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:53.320 oh yeah, okay, Well I would have a Tom's ticket 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.679 for that data, and I called my investigator and he 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:00.600 went over there and he's sure enough there was a pontic. 0:24:00.960 --> 0:24:04.879