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Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of September nineteenth, nineteen eighty eight,

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Speaker 1: Richard Valdez and Sharon Condon were murdered in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: Scrolled in engine grease on the floor of their home.

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Speaker 1: The letters JFF and BPE. Investigators sought out local man

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Speaker 1: Jeff Boubrey, who returned from a road trip to dispel suspicion,

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Speaker 1: but soon the two friends who were with him gave

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Speaker 1: statements to the contrary. Jeff faced a potential death sentence,

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Speaker 1: yet according to the first witness on scene, the message

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Speaker 1: in engine grease that tilted the investigation toward Jeff was

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Speaker 1: not there when he discovered the bodies. This is Wrongful Conviction.

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Speaker 1: You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this

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Speaker 1: and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week or

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Speaker 1: ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where this week

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Speaker 1: we're going for the first time to Scott's Bluff, Nebraska,

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Speaker 1: where we came across a double murder scene that appears

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Speaker 1: to have been in part staged, possibly driven in part

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Speaker 1: by incestuous urges or a cocaine operation involving law enforcement

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Speaker 1: and calling in from a Nebraska state penitentiary. The man

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Speaker 1: who had the terrible misfortune of being one of the

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Speaker 1: last to buy some of that cocaine, Jeff Beauprix. Jeff,

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Speaker 1: thanks for calling.

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Speaker 2: In, well, thank you for what you guys are doing

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Speaker 2: for the innocent and.

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Speaker 1: Joining him to help make sense of this a crazy ordeal.

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Speaker 1: His attorney, Tom Freericks, Tom, thanks for joining us.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely my pleasure.

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Speaker 1: So let's do what we do and start at the

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Speaker 1: very beginning.

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Speaker 2: I was born in Mayville, North Dakota, to Clarence Baupriy

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Speaker 2: and Delores beaupri My parents were actually from a little

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Speaker 2: town about seven miles from the Canadian border called Rala,

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Speaker 2: North Dakota, and I got an older sister and two

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Speaker 2: younger brothers. We've always been a really close family. My

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Speaker 2: dad was an alcoholic, my mom was the peace maker

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Speaker 2: of everything. We did move around a lot. My dad

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Speaker 2: was a mechanic and was a little hot headed if

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Speaker 2: he was working a job and somebody pissed him off

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Speaker 2: and we were up and moving around. So we wind

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Speaker 2: up moving to Grand Forks, North Dakota, Petersburg, North Dakota

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Speaker 2: and then Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then we wind up

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Speaker 2: moving to Nebraska. So it was a lot of adjustment,

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Speaker 2: but I dealt with it. And then when I graduated,

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Speaker 2: I wind up going into a roofing business until nineteen

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Speaker 2: eighty four eighty five. Then I went back to college

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Speaker 2: and stuff for auto body and stuff. So I'm actually

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Speaker 2: an auto bout body technician painting cars and stuff. But

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Speaker 2: I was in a bad accident in nineteen eighty seven

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Speaker 2: where I rolled the truck working for Weathercraft Roofing, and

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Speaker 2: I laid in it for an hour and a half

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Speaker 2: before they cut me out of it. There is pictures

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Speaker 2: of the accident, and it's probably pretty amazing that I

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Speaker 2: even lived.

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Speaker 1: Through that, And having seen those pictures, I can attest

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Speaker 1: that it is an absolute miracle that he survived. And

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Speaker 1: during his time on the Men, Jeff came into contact

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Speaker 1: with a number of people involved in this case. He

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Speaker 1: hired an attorney named Lenn Tabor to handle his personal

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Speaker 1: injury and workers' compensation proceedings, and he began to dabble

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Speaker 1: in some drugs, which brought him into contact with some

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Speaker 1: other drug users, like a queen of his younger brother,

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Speaker 1: Alan Neeman and Kennard Waspmer, as well as one of

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Speaker 1: the victims in this case, a local drug dealer named

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Speaker 1: Richard Valdez.

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Speaker 2: Richard was a quiet person. He had to really get

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Speaker 2: to know you before you were able to go in

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Speaker 2: and buy drugs from him.

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Speaker 4: And Jeff broke through that and was able to get served.

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Speaker 2: But the only relationship we had was he was in

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Speaker 2: the business to sell drugs when I was in this

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Speaker 2: accident and trying to release some pain.

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Speaker 4: Waspmer and Nieman did not know Valdez well enough, so

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Speaker 4: when Wasper and Neieman wanted to get some cocaine, they

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Speaker 4: would enlist Jeff's help.

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Speaker 1: And then there was the other victim, Valdez's girlfriend, Sharon Condon,

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Speaker 1: who had a concerning relationship to say the least, with

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Speaker 1: her first cousin, a guy named John Yellowboy. Now some

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Speaker 1: said Yellow Boy had an unnatural attraction to Sharon. In fact,

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Speaker 1: there had been some high drama in the weeks leading

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Speaker 1: up to her death.

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Speaker 4: She apparently went to the hospital because she had gotten

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Speaker 4: hit with the butt of a gun during his dispute

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Speaker 4: with John. We pulled all of the criminal cases that

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Speaker 4: existed on Yellowboy Prior to the murder, Yellow Boy was

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Speaker 4: incarcerated at about fifteen for a pretty violent rape of

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Speaker 4: a middle aged woman that occurred, according to the police reports,

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Speaker 4: right in front of the woman's daughter. He left a

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Speaker 4: code at the scene that coat belonged to a relative.

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Speaker 4: It's almost like he was setting him up or something.

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Speaker 4: I don't know, but there are a string of just

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Speaker 4: incredibly strange assault of behavior. When I met John's sister

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Speaker 4: and this stuck with me, probably because of the age

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Speaker 4: I grew up in, and I asked her, just give

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Speaker 4: me an idea who John Yellowboy is. She paused for

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Speaker 4: a moment, and then she looked at me, very directly,

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Speaker 4: matter of factly, and said, have you ever seen the

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Speaker 4: movie Halloween? That's basically my brother.

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Speaker 1: John, and that's his sister saying that. So this is

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Speaker 1: the backdrop for what happened on September eighteenth into the

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Speaker 1: nineteenth of nineteen eighty eight, when Nieman Wassmer and another

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Speaker 1: man Chris Ruff had asked Jeff for help. Was Richard Valdez.

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Speaker 2: They asked me if I could get them some weed

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Speaker 2: and some coke, and this is around ten o'clock at night.

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Speaker 2: So I proceeded to go out to Valdeza's house by myself.

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Speaker 2: There was no lights or nothing on at the Valdez's residence,

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Speaker 2: so if you visualize, it's like on a rural road.

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Speaker 2: I mean it's dark, so it's kind of spooky in

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Speaker 2: a way. And I went up and I knocked on

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Speaker 2: the door. Nobody was there, so then I left, and

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Speaker 2: then I went to meet those guys at their trailer,

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Speaker 2: and then I told him, I said, hey, I think

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Speaker 2: I know where Valdez might be at. And I went

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Speaker 2: to what's called Tiptop Trailer Court, and this is where

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Speaker 2: John yellow Boy he asked. He came out at one

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Speaker 2: of the apartments and he said that Valdez he'd be

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Speaker 2: back in a little while.

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Speaker 1: Jeff eventually caught up with Richard Valdez in town and

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Speaker 1: bought some coke for Wasner and Nieman then traveled back

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Speaker 1: and forth to Valdez's place for more cocaine that evening.

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Speaker 1: The last time was around eleven thirty PM.

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Speaker 2: And then that was the last time I seen Richard Valdez.

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Speaker 2: And then once we were back to Kenner, Wisemuth and

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Speaker 2: Allen Nemans trailer at about twelve o'clock Chris Ruff. He

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Speaker 2: said he was leaving Kennard and Allen. They were pretty

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Speaker 2: high that night, and so during this time, Allen and

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Speaker 2: Kennard said, Hey, why don't we take a road trip.

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Speaker 2: Let's go to Arizona.

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Speaker 1: Jeff had a friend named Cassie who lived out in Arizona.

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Speaker 1: So the three of them got some things together and

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Speaker 1: got on the road. After all, cocaine is a hell

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Speaker 1: of a drug. But I digress here. In the following hours,

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Speaker 1: while these three were on the road, Sharon, Condon and

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Speaker 1: Richard were killed. The state's narrative was that they were

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Speaker 1: fatally shot around the same time inside the house, and

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Speaker 1: that Richard partially wrote Jeff's name on the ground in Engine,

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Speaker 1: Greece as a sort of dying declaration, and that's the theory.

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Speaker 4: I don't think that's what occurred. I don't think Richard

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Speaker 4: Valdez was killed inside the house. I think he was

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Speaker 4: brought back in the house and staged. The stab wounds

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Speaker 4: and the blood loss don't equal that he lost all

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Speaker 4: of his blood in the position where his body was found.

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Speaker 4: And we've now got a pathologist who says that these

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Speaker 4: wounds across his neck and one of the bullet shots

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Speaker 4: were post mortem, and two thousand and eighteen we went

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Speaker 4: and went through all of the evidence still at the

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Speaker 4: Scott's Bluff County Sheriff's department.

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Speaker 3: And there we found a.

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Speaker 4: Package that had negatives, not photographs, and a memorandum from

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Speaker 4: a former deputy sheriff that said these were found in

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Speaker 4: Alex Marino's desk in twenty twelve fourteen, I don't remember

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Speaker 4: the actual date.

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Speaker 3: And there's a picture of a knife.

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Speaker 4: You have no idea where that knife's at, but it

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Speaker 4: looks like it's in a cornfield, which this house was

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Speaker 4: surrounded by cornfield. A black and white photograph of a

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Speaker 4: knife that doesn't match any of the other crime scene photos.

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Speaker 3: It's just insane.

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Speaker 1: And that's just the beginning. And then there's Sharon's death,

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Speaker 1: which was overheard by the sixteen year old girl who

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Speaker 1: was with her at the time, a girl named Melissa Martinez.

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Speaker 4: According to her, she's in the back bedroom and they

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Speaker 4: hear people enter the house and she recognizes John Yellow

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Speaker 4: Boy's voice. Sharon tells her to hide, which she does

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Speaker 4: partially under the bed. The lights go out, she hears

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Speaker 4: the commotion, and then she waits and waits and eventually

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Speaker 4: runs out of the house, and if you look at

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Speaker 4: the crime scene photos, she has to flip the mattress

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Speaker 4: to get Sharon off of her. And if you look

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Speaker 4: at the crime scene photos, you can see where Sharon

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Speaker 4: bled out, and then you could see that her body

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Speaker 4: was moved and she continued to bleed. That's never explained.

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Speaker 1: Now, Melissa Martinez claims that she didn't hear Richard's death

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Speaker 1: or see his body on her way out the door,

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Speaker 1: which might be why this account was never included in

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Speaker 1: the state's narrative. It just didn't fit. But Melissa accounts

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Speaker 1: for the two spots where Sharon bled without having seen

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Speaker 1: the crime scene photographs, which certainly bolsters her credibility.

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Speaker 2: Right.

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Speaker 1: So, okay, back to her memory.

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Speaker 4: She runs through the same doorway where Richard Valdez's body

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Speaker 4: is supposedly right in the doorway. I mean she would

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Speaker 4: have tripped over him. She then runs to a neighbor

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Speaker 4: and is pounding on the door at two three in

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Speaker 4: the morning. The neighbors confirmed that there was somebody pounding

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Speaker 4: on the door that morning, and then she makes her

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Speaker 4: way into town. That was about three am.

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Speaker 1: So both the crime scene photos of Sharon and the

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Speaker 1: neighbor's account. Robberate Melissa's version of events, and we'll explain

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Speaker 1: what happens to her in a bit. So, then both

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Speaker 1: bodies were discovered in the house Sharon where Melissa left her,

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Speaker 1: and then Richard's was in the doorway.

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Speaker 4: There's a gentleman by the name of Eddie Johnson who

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Speaker 4: claims that he came there, saw the door slightly Ajar

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Speaker 4: pushed the door and it pushed it into Valdez. He

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Speaker 4: then kneeled down by the body, checked the body, realized

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Speaker 4: he was dead. And this is before cell phones. So

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Speaker 4: he then goes into Scott's Bluff and calls the police.

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Speaker 4: And as he's on the phone with the police, he

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Speaker 4: sees a cop driving by and flags him down. An

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Speaker 4: officer by the name of Terry Hall says, look, there's

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Speaker 4: a Duti's dead out here. They go to the scene,

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Speaker 4: Eddie stays outside. Eddie's later shown crime scene photos twenty

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Speaker 4: plus years later and says, that's not how the body

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Speaker 4: was laid out. There was no grease next to the body.

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Speaker 4: I would have stepped right in it. Because next to

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Speaker 4: Valdez's body in crime scene.

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Speaker 3: Photos are two words.

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Speaker 4: In Greece, partial words j Ff and bope. According to

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Speaker 4: the autopsy doctor at the time, he would have been

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Speaker 4: bleeding profusely where he would have bled out very quickly

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Speaker 4: within a matter of minutes, and that's from the state's

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Speaker 4: own guy. But apparently in those minutes he still would

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Speaker 4: have been able to grab a tube of engine grease

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Speaker 4: right out Jeff and then maybe write Jeff on the

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Speaker 4: wall and blood and then ironically put the tuber grease

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Speaker 4: underneath him before he died. I figured that they find

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Speaker 4: the two degrees. You can see it in the crime

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Speaker 4: scene video. They lift his body up and go, oh,

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Speaker 4: there's the two degrees. But there was a question at

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Speaker 4: that time of trial whether he would have been able

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Speaker 4: to do that given the wounds he had suffered. But

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Speaker 4: the forensic pathologists today's in no way, not a chance

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Speaker 4: is he doing that.

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Speaker 1: According to the autopsy, Jeff's injuries included eight gunshot wounds

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Speaker 1: and two stab wounds, one of each type happening post mortem.

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Speaker 1: Either way, he was losing blood at an estimated rate

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Speaker 1: of about a half a leader per minute, leaving only

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty seconds two and a half minutes

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Speaker 1: until he'd experienced significant loss of his motor skills as

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Speaker 1: blood flow concentrated around maintaining his vital organs, which is

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Speaker 1: why the pathologists is saying, no way to the dying declaration.

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Speaker 1: But if that doesn't feel definitive enough, then you have

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Speaker 1: the two post mortem wounds. So not only does that,

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Speaker 1: along with on accounted for blood at the scene, suggests

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Speaker 1: staging of the body, but also whoever inflicted these post

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Speaker 1: mortem injuries was not going to allow him to make

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Speaker 1: a dying declaration, let alone apparently a second.

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Speaker 4: One along the doorstop there is Jeff written in blood.

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Speaker 4: After they've surrendered the crime scene back to the family,

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Speaker 4: Valdez's family says, you got to get back out here.

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Speaker 4: It says Jeff and blood on here, And they went, oh,

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Speaker 4: but geez, we must have missed that.

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Speaker 1: So maybe whoever had killed Sharon Richard or both of

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Speaker 1: them was still lurking around after Eddie had discovered the

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Speaker 1: bodies and then wrote Jeff's name at the crime scene,

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Speaker 1: trying to send the police in Jeff's direction. So the

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Speaker 1: police went straight to Jeff's and his father told them

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Speaker 1: about Jeff's thirty two caliber handgun while the police searched

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Speaker 1: for that. The next time Jeff called home. His dad

250
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Speaker 1: told him what was happening.

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Speaker 2: I had a passport to leave the country, and he said,

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Speaker 2: you want me to send this. I said no, I said,

253
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Speaker 2: I'm coming back. I'm innocent. I didn't do this when

254
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Speaker 2: I made this trip back and I got arrested. And

255
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Speaker 2: Leonard Taylor was my attorney. All he really worked on

256
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Speaker 2: was workman's comp cases and dwi's. This was actually his

257
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Speaker 2: first murder trial that he ever participated in.

258
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Speaker 1: Already, this is a bad sign. And then things get

259
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Speaker 1: worse when they questioned Waspmer and Neemen.

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Speaker 3: During the recorded interview.

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Speaker 4: Neemen is denying any knowledge about Anythingniemen's there with a

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Speaker 4: public defender. The public defender tells Neeman, look, you're gonna

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Speaker 4: be in just fan shape with these fan gentlemen, and leaves.

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Speaker 4: That's one the Atturneyniemen was specifically told that if he

265
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Speaker 4: didn't give a story blaming bou Prix, he was going

266
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Speaker 4: to be charged with the murder. Neiman then comes up

267
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Speaker 4: with a story that you know, bou pri went in

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Speaker 4: and then he heard a gunshot, and then beaupre grabbed

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Speaker 4: a few things inside the house and brought him out,

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Speaker 4: and Neiman then goes in and supposedly steals in camera,

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Speaker 4: and that's ultimately what he pleads guilty to.

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Speaker 1: So he pleads guilty to theft. The problem is that

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Speaker 1: Sharon's camera was a really nice one, while the one

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Speaker 1: that Nieman pled guilty to stealing was cheap piece of junk. Additionally,

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Speaker 1: not only were there tens of thousands of dollars worth

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Speaker 1: of cash and drugs in the house, but Richard had

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Speaker 1: three thousand dollars worth of cocaine in his pocket, which

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Speaker 1: makes this deaf motive totally unbelievable, not to mention that

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Speaker 1: this statement was made under the threat of a potential

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Speaker 1: death sentence, and then Wassmer got similar treatment. So he

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Speaker 1: said that he overheard Jeff and Allen talking about the

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Speaker 1: murder and then he helped to get rid of Jeff's

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Speaker 1: thirty two caliber handgun.

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Speaker 4: On the way to Arizona, they obtained the record of

285
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,920
Speaker 4: the firearm that Jeff had bought before they ever found

286
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Speaker 4: the firearm to know what kind of firearm it was,

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Speaker 4: and then changed that so, I don't know, we didn't

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00:16:54,040 --> 00:16:57,480
Speaker 4: get those records. Then we got him months later, Wasmer says.

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Speaker 4: Then he disassembles the gun and throws it out in

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Speaker 4: different parts along the way, but they found a gun

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Speaker 4: not disassembled.

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Speaker 1: Which would have ruled out Wassmer's statement. It just didn't match.

293
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Speaker 2: They say that we jumped over a fence and threw

294
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Speaker 2: it in a mud hole. I'm like, where are they

295
00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:17,880
Speaker 2: getting this?

296
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Speaker 1: So a thirty two caliber handgun was presented as Jeff's gun,

297
00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:25,479
Speaker 1: allegedly found somewhere outside of Gallup, New Mexico, and it

298
00:17:25,520 --> 00:17:28,119
Speaker 1: was missing the thumb safety, which would have held in

299
00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:31,320
Speaker 1: the cartridge in this gun. Then the disconnector as well

300
00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:33,320
Speaker 1: as the hammer pin, which could have been used to

301
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:38,080
Speaker 1: most accurately identify this weapon as Jeff's or not. Nevertheless,

302
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:42,639
Speaker 1: the narrative had congealed around this weapon and the two statements.

303
00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,840
Speaker 1: But then they got wind of sixteen year old Melissa

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Speaker 1: Martinez talking about the murder with her classmates.

305
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Speaker 2: We found out about her in nineteen ninety two a

306
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,880
Speaker 2: lady named Mellie Estada. Melly was a dispatch for the

307
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Speaker 2: Sheriff's Department. I think her daughter, Patty, told her that

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Speaker 2: Melissa had told this story at school. So she went

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Speaker 2: to State Patrol and they took a statement from Patty

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Speaker 2: and they said that they didn't believe her.

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Speaker 1: So by September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, police had

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00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:17,440
Speaker 1: spoken with Melissa. According to her affidavits many years later,

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Speaker 1: she told them about her experience that night. She knew

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Speaker 1: John Yello boy, don't forget. She told them that she

315
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Speaker 1: heard his voice in the trailer right before Sharon was killed.

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Speaker 1: And then there's the rest of her memory about running out,

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Speaker 1: not seeing Richard's body, and banging on the neighbor's door.

318
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Speaker 1: Of course, this all ran counter to the narrative from

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Speaker 1: Neemon and wasper They.

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Speaker 4: Take Melissa and scuttle her around in different juvenile placements

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Speaker 4: and get her out of.

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Speaker 1: Town along with her brand new living arrangements. A state

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Speaker 1: police report was submitted into evidence alleging that Melissa admitted

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Speaker 1: to fabricating the story. So that's all that the defense

325
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,840
Speaker 1: was privy to a trial, and again things continued to

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Speaker 1: get worse.

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Speaker 2: The whole process was kind of shady from the beginning,

328
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Speaker 2: because if you look at the rules of the courts,

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Speaker 2: now that I understand it, you pick a jury one

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Speaker 2: day two days before you actually go to trial. They

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Speaker 2: had picked my jury like seventeen days out. There was

332
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Speaker 2: no sub question of the jury or nothing like that,

333
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Speaker 2: so they got to see all the evidence that was

334
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Speaker 2: playing out in the media.

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Speaker 1: Which all potentially biased the jury going into trial. In

336
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Speaker 1: early March nineteen eighty nine, when Alan Neeman testified that

337
00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:40,240
Speaker 1: Jeff suggested robbing and killing Richard on their multiple trips

338
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Speaker 1: to buy cocaine, Nieman claimed that Jeff had stopped at

339
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Speaker 1: his house, perhaps to get his gun before their final

340
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Speaker 1: trip to Richards, at which point he said that Jeff

341
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Speaker 1: shot Richard when he came to the door, suggesting a

342
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:57,959
Speaker 1: forensically very improbable angle. Then said that they both stole

343
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Speaker 1: things from the house, including a ca and drug scales,

344
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Speaker 1: before Jeff went back inside, and Neeman said he heard

345
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Speaker 1: a woman's voice followed by gunshots.

346
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Speaker 2: Alan Neman, he testifies, he can't motion to me. You

347
00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,520
Speaker 2: could read his lips where he was saying he was

348
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Speaker 2: sorry of what he was saying.

349
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Speaker 1: Despite whatever little good that did. Another state's witness named

350
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Speaker 1: rich Zog, claimed that Jeff had suggested robbing Richard on

351
00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,280
Speaker 1: multiple occasions, but again, there were tens of thousands of

352
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:31,280
Speaker 1: dollars in drugs and cash left behind that made this

353
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:36,200
Speaker 1: whole robbery story sound ludicrous. So moving on, they presented

354
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Speaker 1: wasmer with his bit about disassembling the gun and tossing

355
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Speaker 1: it away.

356
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Speaker 4: Then there's a fun guy named Mike Knu, a jailhouse snitch,

357
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Speaker 4: who testifies that Jeff confessed.

358
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Speaker 2: I think he said that I told him that you

359
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 2: should have heard the bit compleet for life and some

360
00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,400
Speaker 2: other stuff about val Daz kind of wrote nothing because

361
00:20:57,520 --> 00:20:58,919
Speaker 2: he was bleeding too much.

362
00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 1: So the state it's own witness dispels the idea that

363
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 1: this was a dying declaration, while also assigning a consciousness

364
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:07,919
Speaker 1: of guilt to Jeff.

365
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:13,119
Speaker 4: Now, Jeff lawyer Taber also represented the jail house snitch,

366
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:17,040
Speaker 4: but he never disclosed that he actually represented him. He

367
00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:20,520
Speaker 4: was serving time on a drunk driving case. It's unclear

368
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:24,640
Speaker 4: what he got, although I mean he obviously was let

369
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Speaker 4: out of jail.

370
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Speaker 2: Well, I was being held at in jail. I was

371
00:21:28,359 --> 00:21:33,200
Speaker 2: like segregated from everybody else. So he apparently got out,

372
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:37,240
Speaker 2: and then he came back in January, and he was

373
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Speaker 2: a trustee, so he started saying, Hey, I'm going to

374
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Speaker 2: a with your father. You want anything to say. I said, yeah,

375
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Speaker 2: tell my dad I love him and stuff like that.

376
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Speaker 2: And that was probably the extent of any of our conversations.

377
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:53,320
Speaker 2: But when he got on the stand and started saying

378
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,480
Speaker 2: that he sept by my cell and I told him

379
00:21:56,480 --> 00:21:58,960
Speaker 2: the whole story, I'm like, this has to be a

380
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:00,960
Speaker 2: plant from Silverman.

381
00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:05,320
Speaker 1: Or perhaps indirectly Leonard Tabor. Maybe he was told to

382
00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 1: approach the head DA Silverman to offer his testimony for

383
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:11,920
Speaker 1: leniency in the charges for which Tabor was representing him.

384
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 1: We can't know the specifics, but one thing I do

385
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: know is that this shit freaking stinks.

386
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Speaker 2: The jailers even got on the stand that testified said

387
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,960
Speaker 2: that there was canvas pointing at my cell. They could

388
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,040
Speaker 2: have seen all that stuff if somebody sit in front

389
00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:28,240
Speaker 2: of my cell and I told him for an hour

390
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:30,760
Speaker 2: or so to tell them my story. So two of

391
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 2: the jailers got up on a stand and testified to

392
00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 2: the fact that this never happened.

393
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:39,440
Speaker 1: In addition to the jailers, Tabor had prepared expert witnesses

394
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,280
Speaker 1: to battle both the States pathologists who claimed that Valdez

395
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 1: could have mustered the strength to write two dying declarations,

396
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,159
Speaker 1: as well as the ballistics expert who called the gun

397
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 1: allegedly found in the desert a match.

398
00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,399
Speaker 2: The guy that they had was Mark Bahadi. His story

399
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,880
Speaker 2: has changed now too. But our expert Kwood said that

400
00:23:00,200 --> 00:23:03,240
Speaker 2: he couldn't even test fire the gun and that there

401
00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,600
Speaker 2: was no way that this was the weapon. And then

402
00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,480
Speaker 2: our pathologist, he said there's no way. He was losing

403
00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,520
Speaker 2: too much blood in all this sudden stuff. And they

404
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:17,639
Speaker 2: believed the state's pathologists that didn't have a quarter of

405
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 2: the experience that the pathologists that we hired out of Omaha.

406
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:25,359
Speaker 1: And maybe with the battle of experts and shaky witnesses,

407
00:23:25,440 --> 00:23:27,960
Speaker 1: there was a nudge in the wrong direction from one

408
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 1: of the defense's own witnesses, John Yellowboy.

409
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 4: He's called as a defense witness. Why, I have no idea,

410
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 4: but he does end up throwing dirt on Jeff.

411
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,439
Speaker 1: He said that he was president at the scene that

412
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: night and saw Jeff Beaupriy there, But at what time?

413
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: After all, Jeff had gone out to Richards several times

414
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:49,879
Speaker 1: that night, plus yellow Boy appears to have had his

415
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:54,440
Speaker 1: own motivations as a potential suspect. Either way, this couldn't

416
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:55,359
Speaker 1: have helped Jeff.

417
00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 2: The jury went in to deliberate, and they came back

418
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 2: nine and half hours or so later with the guilty verdict.

419
00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,639
Speaker 2: They were seeking the death penalty on me, and the

420
00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:10,320
Speaker 2: report from the judges said that one thing that saved

421
00:24:10,320 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 2: me from the death penalty is that I actually come

422
00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 2: back to be questioned because I knew I was innocent.

423
00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:17,880
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't have nothing to hide.

424
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 4: Yeah, he faced the death penalty, but I think the

425
00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:24,680
Speaker 4: recommendation was made by the jury life without the possibility

426
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 4: a probe.

427
00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:28,560
Speaker 2: So I was thankful that I didn't get the death penalty,

428
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 2: but I still got two licences running consecutively, and then

429
00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 2: six and two thirds to twenty two times for the

430
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:40,880
Speaker 2: firearm charges, and then two eight to fifteen that were

431
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:43,480
Speaker 2: running concurrent that was for the robberies.

432
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:47,640
Speaker 1: So just in case you're immortal enough to live out

433
00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 1: two entire life sentences, they could still hold you.

434
00:24:51,680 --> 00:25:10,320
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. I thought that the justice system would work

435
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 2: itself out. Maybe it's going to take five years to

436
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 2: get this undone. I never ever dreamt that I'd still

437
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 2: be fighting it after thirty seven years. I was always

438
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:26,920
Speaker 2: told from older inmates, don't gamble, don't borrow anything, just

439
00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 2: the simple things. Keep busy, don't get in other people's

440
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 2: business and stuff like that. So I kind of did

441
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 2: that my whole incarceration and I've done enough time where

442
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,040
Speaker 2: people kind of respect you. Now. Some of them call

443
00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:43,479
Speaker 2: me old timer because I am a little older than

444
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 2: I was when I came in. But I made myself

445
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 2: busy right away. I got into hobby. I'm I legal

446
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 2: aid here. I'd had to learn how to type, I

447
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,840
Speaker 2: had to learn how to run the computers. I had

448
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,199
Speaker 2: to do all that on my own. I didn't know

449
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:00,719
Speaker 2: none of that when I first came to him. So

450
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 2: I mean, I just keep tugging away and never thought

451
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,720
Speaker 2: that I would still be imprisoned after thirty seven years.

452
00:26:08,920 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: Especially since he got some great support from a private

453
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 1: investigator named Denny Whalen. Soon after his conviction.

454
00:26:15,080 --> 00:26:18,120
Speaker 2: Denny Whalen, a lady sent him a letter saying, hey,

455
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 2: you need to check this case out, and he talked

456
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 2: to her for several hours. Then he came in and

457
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 2: I went through the story with him, and then he left,

458
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,360
Speaker 2: and then he came back a couple days later. And

459
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 2: it had me answer almost the same question to see

460
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:36,240
Speaker 2: if I was lying or not. You know what I mean.

461
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 2: And one thing I will never forget Denny Whalen. He says,

462
00:26:39,800 --> 00:26:43,080
Speaker 2: I believe you're innocent. He says, I'm gonna do everything

463
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,760
Speaker 2: in my power to get you out of there. He

464
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 2: actually mortgaged his house a couple of times. I mean,

465
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 2: he was like a father to me. I believe Alan

466
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 2: Neeman came first. Denny Whalen went down and interviewed him,

467
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,760
Speaker 2: and then he recanted. I want to say eighty nine.

468
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:03,439
Speaker 2: We found out about Melissa in nineteen ninety two. She

469
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 2: talked about Yellow Boy and stuff like that.

470
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,280
Speaker 1: And she tells the same story that she told her

471
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,720
Speaker 1: classmates immediately after the murder, then to the police, only

472
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: to have a December nineteen eighty eight police report claim

473
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: that she had made it all up before being sent

474
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,640
Speaker 1: off to some juvenile placement in Colorado. And remember, her

475
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:27,800
Speaker 1: original account critically was corroborated by Sharon Condon's bleeding pattern,

476
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: as well as the neighbors who heard her knocking on

477
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: the door at three am. She also added that she

478
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 1: knew Jeff she heard three male voices that night and

479
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,959
Speaker 1: that he was not one of them. So they filed

480
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:42,960
Speaker 1: a motion for a new trial based on the new

481
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,639
Speaker 1: evidence and a Brady violation in the form of Melissa Martinez.

482
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: But again, Melissa Martinez never made it to the witness stand.

483
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 4: So they don't really get Melissa Martinez, but they get

484
00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:57,879
Speaker 4: a police report where she's scribbled this is true, this

485
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 4: is true, this is true, all of which tredicted the

486
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 4: sworn statement that she gave, the bulk of which is

487
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 4: statement she ended up going to her grave with. And

488
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,520
Speaker 4: then basically Niemen's the same thing. They have a state

489
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 4: trooper sa I talked to him and he denied it all.

490
00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,919
Speaker 4: They don't bring Neemen back to testifying, mind you, and

491
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 4: they allow this guy to give the hearsay testimony that

492
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,439
Speaker 4: he retracted his recantation. It's strange because Neiman said the

493
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,000
Speaker 4: only person that actually came to visit him in prison

494
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 4: was Silverman.

495
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:33,119
Speaker 1: Who, in all likelihood threatened him again with the murder charge, perjury,

496
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,880
Speaker 1: the whole kitchen sinke, Yeah, you sure.

497
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 3: You want to face murder charges?

498
00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 4: He signed something, but it's not a true affidavit, sworn affidavit.

499
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 3: But I was accepted. And how was that?

500
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 1: The court ruled that, in addition to the retractions, that Martinez's

501
00:28:46,800 --> 00:28:48,920
Speaker 1: account did not put her in a position to prove

502
00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 1: Jeff's citizens, so the motion was denied. Then came an

503
00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 1: ineffective council post conviction filing in nineteen ninety five, claiming

504
00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,480
Speaker 1: that councils should have investigated alternate suspects.

505
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,080
Speaker 4: I don't raise oddly, during the first and effective claim

506
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 4: that he also represented this jailhouse snitch, which a second

507
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,480
Speaker 4: year law student knows you can't do that. You can't

508
00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 4: represent the jail house snitch testifying against your client.

509
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: By this time, Danny Whalen's son, Lawrence, was representing Jeff

510
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: pro Bono, who found additional exculpatory evidence surrounding the alleged

511
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,720
Speaker 1: dying declaration that had been written on the floor in

512
00:29:24,840 --> 00:29:25,480
Speaker 1: Engine Greece.

513
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 4: They found that the door to Valdez's place had a

514
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 4: curtain rod and a curtain hanger, And as they're talking

515
00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 4: about it, while they're filming it, as they're going through it,

516
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,640
Speaker 4: they're saying, jeez, that looks like blood and grease on

517
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,760
Speaker 4: the curtain hanger. Which if there was grease on it,

518
00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,640
Speaker 4: that's a pretty big deal, right, because how did Valdez

519
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:47,640
Speaker 4: get all the way to the curtain Did he peek

520
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 4: out with the grease after and then lay down? It

521
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,040
Speaker 4: doesn't make any sense that curtain disappeared.

522
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: And the post conviction motion was denied in two thousand

523
00:29:56,560 --> 00:29:58,959
Speaker 1: and two, so the Whalen sought to expand their support

524
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 1: and begin DNA tech.

525
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 2: I don't know if you ever heard of Reuben Hurricane Carter.

526
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 2: So I got to speak to Ruben and Danny and

527
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,880
Speaker 2: his son had went to Canada for them guys to

528
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 2: endorse the case and then win where she got ahold

529
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: of Colin starter from the IP and then they got

530
00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 2: the DNA started on it.

531
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: The Innocent Project in New York was able to do

532
00:30:22,320 --> 00:30:25,360
Speaker 1: DNA testing on some of the crime scene evidence, including

533
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,320
Speaker 1: a bloodstain near the door handle.

534
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 4: Right and on the door they find John yellow Boy's

535
00:30:31,160 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 4: DNA blood DNA, and a judge makes finding that John

536
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:38,960
Speaker 4: Yellow Boy was a frequent visitor at the residence and

537
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,840
Speaker 4: that explains away his blood DNA on the door blood DNA.

538
00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to have to give them a ten out

539
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,480
Speaker 1: of ten for these intellectual gymnastics. I suppose they could

540
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:53,000
Speaker 1: also argue that even if Yellow Boy was there, that

541
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean that Jeff was not.

542
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:59,120
Speaker 4: Not according to Alan Neman, the theory of the case

543
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 4: was Alan Neiman, and yellow Boy is not part of that,

544
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 4: and his blood on the door doesn't fit that narrative.

545
00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:08,560
Speaker 3: The narrative that was used to convict it all either way.

546
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: These preceding stretched from two thousand and five all the

547
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:14,440
Speaker 1: way through twenty twelve, at which point Jeff's team began

548
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:17,200
Speaker 1: tracking down a woman named Sheila Janis who had told

549
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 1: Melissa Martinez about her past with John Yellowboy, and the

550
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,479
Speaker 1: team finally found her in twenty seventeen. Apparently she had

551
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:29,200
Speaker 1: disappeared after a horrific ongoing abduction scenario that began in

552
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:32,600
Speaker 1: the immediate aftermath of the murders in nineteen eighty eight.

553
00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:36,680
Speaker 4: John Yellow Boy had beaten her severely and taken her

554
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 4: to the house where the murder occurred, and she knew

555
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,400
Speaker 4: it was the house because the floor was cut out,

556
00:31:42,880 --> 00:31:46,560
Speaker 4: which is a detail that he probably wouldn't know. I mean,

557
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 4: they cut a section of the floor out where this

558
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 4: writing in Greece was, and the police picked the floor

559
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 4: with him, and she recalls being in the house being

560
00:31:56,840 --> 00:32:02,520
Speaker 4: repeatedly raped while John Yellowboy Boy is talking to Sharon

561
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 4: and Richard saying things like why did you make me

562
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:05,800
Speaker 4: do this?

563
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 3: Why? Why did you have to do this? You were mine?

564
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 4: Crazy weird things. Valdez was supposedly leaving town and had

565
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:18,000
Speaker 4: sold most of his worldly possessions. As he was getting

566
00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,479
Speaker 4: ready to leave, he thought his life was in danger.

567
00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 4: Told several people that.

568
00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 1: And we'll get to why he may have been in

569
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: fear for his life. But this certainly sets up the

570
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: motive for Yellowboy. According to Janice, Yellowboy, referring to Sharon

571
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 1: his confession, also said, quote she thought she could get

572
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:40,320
Speaker 1: away with that Mexican bastard end quote before Yellowboy continued

573
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: to beat Sheila nearly to death. In fact, it seems

574
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:44,960
Speaker 1: like he thought that he had actually killed her.

575
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 4: Yellow Boy, he's looking for sheilav after finding out that

576
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 4: she had survived. Sheila shows up.

577
00:32:52,280 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 3: At another woman's house. Sandra stands. She's called the police.

578
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 4: Sandra gave an affidavit when we found her that Sheila

579
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 4: showed up.

580
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 3: I called the police.

581
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 4: Took her to the bathroom, and while she was helping

582
00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:09,560
Speaker 4: Sheila clean up, she was startled by John Yellow Boy,

583
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,360
Speaker 4: who simply appeared behind me over my shoulder.

584
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:14,640
Speaker 1: There's those Michael Myers vibes.

585
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:17,440
Speaker 4: She's startled by him being there, and what the hell

586
00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 4: are you doing in my house? She pushed him out

587
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 4: the bathroom door and shut it. The police arrived, She

588
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,160
Speaker 4: answered the door, and the police said where is he?

589
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,720
Speaker 4: She was too afraid to say anything, but was able

590
00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,800
Speaker 4: to move and adjust her eyes in one direction, like

591
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 4: he's right here, And they busted in and they grabbed him, but.

592
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 3: Didn't get arrested.

593
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 4: What so, I think you need to understand some of

594
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 4: the baseline racism that exists in Scott's Bluff County. And

595
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 4: it's not the typical racism that I grew up in Waterloo, Iowa.

596
00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,440
Speaker 4: It's not while you're blacked, I should be afraid of

597
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,960
Speaker 4: you and distrustful of you. It's racism against the Native

598
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 4: American community and that race. The system was not of

599
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 4: you're a bad person, it's you're not even a person.

600
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:10,320
Speaker 4: So these people would be victims of crime, and probably

601
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 4: because there was an issue at times and getting those

602
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 4: people to show up to actually prosecute crimes, the police

603
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 4: never arrested.

604
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:20,600
Speaker 3: Anybody in those situations.

605
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:22,800
Speaker 4: They just say, well, if you want to press chargers

606
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:24,880
Speaker 4: to go to the county attorney's office. It's kind of

607
00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 4: a test to say are you going to pursue this

608
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 4: thing or not.

609
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:31,959
Speaker 3: But it also sent the message that we don't really care.

610
00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:36,840
Speaker 1: So John Yellowboy was free to assault Shila he regularly kidnapped, raped,

611
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 1: and beat her, and he did so continuously for months

612
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:43,200
Speaker 1: until his arrest for a rape in Colorado. And it

613
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:45,720
Speaker 1: turned out that while Yellow Boy had kidnapped s Sheila

614
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: to Colorado, they stayed with none other than Melissa Martinez,

615
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,400
Speaker 1: both of whom Yellow Boy claimed ownership over. They shared

616
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:57,360
Speaker 1: their experiences, Melissa's ear witness account of Sharon's murder, yellow

617
00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:00,400
Speaker 1: Boy's confession to Shila, and the ongoing of duction and

618
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,920
Speaker 1: sexual torture, and Sheila claims that he kept her compliant

619
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: by making threats.

620
00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:08,160
Speaker 4: John Yellowboy said, I'm going to kill your mother. I'm

621
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 4: going to kill anybody that's related to you if you

622
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,000
Speaker 4: talk about this or mention me or anything. And lo

623
00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 4: and behold, Sheila's mother's found dead and they said it's

624
00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 4: an accidental drowning in a foot half of water.

625
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 1: This is when she fled to her sisters out.

626
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,799
Speaker 4: Of state, and then he pretty much snatched her back in.

627
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:30,120
Speaker 4: She was present when he committed the rape in Colorado,

628
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 4: and that's how she got away.

629
00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:35,319
Speaker 1: So Sheila basically disappeared until the team found her in

630
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. And even though Yellow Boy seemed capable of

631
00:35:39,200 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: killing Richard too. There are so many inexplicable elements of

632
00:35:43,719 --> 00:35:47,200
Speaker 1: this crime scene that suggests that Richard was murdered somewhere else.

633
00:35:47,680 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: The discrepancy with how much blood Richard actually spilled it,

634
00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 1: the scene that according to Melissa Martinez, Richard's body was

635
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,200
Speaker 1: not there when she left. That according to Eddie Johnson,

636
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,319
Speaker 1: the pathologist and his post more to wounds, that his

637
00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:04,920
Speaker 1: body and dying declaration appear to have been staged. So

638
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: maybe after Sharon was killed, the body was discovered, and

639
00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: his business partners thought it was prudent to tie up

640
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: the loose end before Richard got a chance to leave town.

641
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 4: The police chief of Gearing, which is a city that's

642
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:24,240
Speaker 4: basically connected to Scott's Bluff. They're almost like small twin cities.

643
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,480
Speaker 4: Okay went to the FBI with his suspicions that Brian

644
00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:33,360
Speaker 4: Silverman was behind a large cocaine distribution network in the

645
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 4: Scott's Bluff area. Brian Silverman was the guy who prosecuted Jeff.

646
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: Bo Prix, and we're not suggesting that Silverman was responsible,

647
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 1: but a potential proximity to power for the cocaine operation

648
00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:47,760
Speaker 1: in Scott's Bluff can make sense of how the investigation

649
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:53,360
Speaker 1: and prosecution ignored the evidence suggesting separate murder scenes, staging,

650
00:36:54,040 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 1: and potentially other culprits, as well as how quickly Melissa

651
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:02,080
Speaker 1: Martinez was reassigned to juvenile placement, out of state and

652
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:05,839
Speaker 1: out of reach when her statement threatened to impeach the

653
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: entire narrative.

654
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 2: We got another affidavit from Melissa in twenty seventeen. She

655
00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,360
Speaker 2: said she was just heartbroken that I was still locked

656
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 2: up for Valdez in Condon's murders when she knows that

657
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:20,839
Speaker 2: I didn't do it.

658
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: So with a more full account from Melissa Martinez, Sheila

659
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,160
Speaker 1: Janis's story, the evidence of a separate crime scene, founded

660
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,600
Speaker 1: Detective Marino's files, the potential shady dealings of the district attorney,

661
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:35,799
Speaker 1: as well as new expert testimony about how at least

662
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,480
Speaker 1: two of the wounds were inflicted post mortem and that

663
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 1: according to the autopsy, there's no chance that Richard Valdez

664
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 1: had anything to do with writing on the wall or door,

665
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 1: which is supported by the way by Eddie Johnson. They

666
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,560
Speaker 1: went ahead and filed a new post conviction motion and

667
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,240
Speaker 1: emotion for a new trial back in twenty eighteen.

668
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,319
Speaker 4: To me, the biggest part of it was there's all

669
00:37:56,400 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 4: these things that had been litigated in bits and pieces

670
00:38:00,320 --> 00:38:02,800
Speaker 4: leading up to it, but when you put the full

671
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 4: picture together, it's like there's a lot here. But we

672
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 4: never got an evidentiary hearing, so our motion for new

673
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:14,880
Speaker 4: trial was denied. Nebraska Supreme Court denied an appeal of

674
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 4: that and a rather scathing opinion that why would you

675
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 4: write all this stuff?

676
00:38:19,239 --> 00:38:21,800
Speaker 3: Basically it was too much stuff.

677
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 4: And then we got a post conviction pending too that

678
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:28,800
Speaker 4: got thrown out. We tried to amend that's on appeal

679
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:31,840
Speaker 4: right now, the amendment whether we should have been allowed

680
00:38:31,840 --> 00:38:35,680
Speaker 4: to amend our post conviction relief that post later filed.

681
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,440
Speaker 4: We may end up having to do a federal habeas

682
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:39,319
Speaker 4: or something like that.

683
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 1: And there's a lot more evidence and mystery still to

684
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:46,359
Speaker 1: unfold in this case, including blonde hairs from crime scene

685
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 1: evidence that have never been tested. So we hope for

686
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:52,479
Speaker 1: the best in future proceedings. In the meantime, if you'd

687
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 1: like to show your support for Jet's release, please take

688
00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 1: a moment stop what you're doing right now, scroll down

689
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,880
Speaker 1: on your listening app to the link in our episode

690
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: description and click on the link to sign the petition,

691
00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,560
Speaker 1: and with that we're going to go to closing arguments.

692
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:08,879
Speaker 1: My favorite part of the show is everyone knows where.

693
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: First of all, I thank both of you guys for

694
00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:14,200
Speaker 1: being here and sharing, honestly, one of the craziest and

695
00:39:14,239 --> 00:39:17,359
Speaker 1: most terrifying stories I've ever heard in my thirty two

696
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:19,560
Speaker 1: years of doing this work. And now I'm going to

697
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:22,120
Speaker 1: kick back in my chair, turn my microphone off, and

698
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 1: leave my headphones on, and just listen to anything else

699
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:28,839
Speaker 1: you want to share. Tom, you start off and then

700
00:39:29,120 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: hand the microphone off to Jeff and he'll take us

701
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:32,880
Speaker 1: off into the sunset.

702
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:36,279
Speaker 4: I mean, I just Jeff has been concerned that he

703
00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 4: sits out there and nobody knows his plight.

704
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 3: So this kind of light.

705
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 4: Being shown on it is the kind of thing that

706
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:49,319
Speaker 4: I think Jeff feels is important and is the kind

707
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 4: of thing that may eventually bring some pressure to bear

708
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:56,680
Speaker 4: on somebody to take a good, close, hard look at

709
00:39:56,680 --> 00:39:57,200
Speaker 4: his case.

710
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:01,879
Speaker 2: I would like to say, of an innocent man that's

711
00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:05,360
Speaker 2: been in prison for thirty seven years, I would ask

712
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 2: everybody to come forward and sign this petition so that

713
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,720
Speaker 2: we can move this case forward and Jessica can finally

714
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 2: prevail and finally give me a release. Thirty seven years

715
00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:23,480
Speaker 2: is a long time, but I've never given up and

716
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,640
Speaker 2: with all the help of friends, families, lawyers that have

717
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 2: donated their time and their money for this case, I

718
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,839
Speaker 2: think it's time that we get an end to it.

719
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:39,120
Speaker 2: And I would like to say thank you all for

720
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 2: being part of this and giving me the hope that

721
00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:49,960
Speaker 2: I need to make it through another day.

722
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,240
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen

723
00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:56,680
Speaker 1: to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts one

724
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,680
Speaker 1: week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava for

725
00:40:59,719 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our

726
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 1: production team, Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink, as well as

727
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: my fellow executive producers Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wartis, and Jeff Kliber.

728
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 1: The music in this production was supplied by three time

729
00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,920
Speaker 1: OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow us

730
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,759
Speaker 1: across all social media platforms at Lava for Good and

731
00:41:18,040 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 1: at Wrongful Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram

732
00:41:21,040 --> 00:41:23,920
Speaker 1: at It's Jason Flamm. Wrongful Conviction is a production of

733
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,600
Speaker 1: Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number One.

734
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 1: We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported

735
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: in this show are accurate.

736
00:41:31,560 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 3: The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in

737
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 3: this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect

738
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:38,680
Speaker 3: those of Lava for Good