WEBVTT - #458 Jason Flom with Jeff Boppre 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:06.440 In the early morning hours of September nineteenth, nineteen eighty eight, 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:11.600 Richard Valdez and Sharon Condon were murdered in Scott's Bluff, Nebraska. 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.640 Scrolled in engine grease on the floor of their home. 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:24.320 The letters JFF and BPE. Investigators sought out local man 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.600 Jeff Boubrey, who returned from a road trip to dispel suspicion, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.400 but soon the two friends who were with him gave 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.320 statements to the contrary. Jeff faced a potential death sentence, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.000 yet according to the first witness on scene, the message 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:43.040 in engine grease that tilted the investigation toward Jeff was 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:48.120 not there when he discovered the bodies. This is Wrongful Conviction. 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.400 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction. You can listen to this 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.840 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week or 0:00:59.880 --> 0:01:04.000 ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:15.199 Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where this week 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:18.679 we're going for the first time to Scott's Bluff, Nebraska, 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.960 where we came across a double murder scene that appears 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:27.479 to have been in part staged, possibly driven in part 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:33.560 by incestuous urges or a cocaine operation involving law enforcement 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.639 and calling in from a Nebraska state penitentiary. The man 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.760 who had the terrible misfortune of being one of the 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:44.639 last to buy some of that cocaine, Jeff Beauprix. Jeff, 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:45.920 thanks for calling. 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:50.240 In, well, thank you for what you guys are doing 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:52.160 for the innocent and. 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.960 Joining him to help make sense of this a crazy ordeal. 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.240 His attorney, Tom Freericks, Tom, thanks for joining us. 0:01:58.440 --> 0:01:59.920 Absolutely my pleasure. 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:03.080 So let's do what we do and start at the 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:03.960 very beginning. 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.600 I was born in Mayville, North Dakota, to Clarence Baupriy 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:13.280 and Delores beaupri My parents were actually from a little 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.239 town about seven miles from the Canadian border called Rala, 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.800 North Dakota, and I got an older sister and two 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:26.880 younger brothers. We've always been a really close family. My 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:31.280 dad was an alcoholic, my mom was the peace maker 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.239 of everything. We did move around a lot. My dad 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.240 was a mechanic and was a little hot headed if 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:41.600 he was working a job and somebody pissed him off 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:45.200 and we were up and moving around. So we wind 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:50.960 up moving to Grand Forks, North Dakota, Petersburg, North Dakota 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.040 and then Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then we wind up 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:57.960 moving to Nebraska. So it was a lot of adjustment, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.280 but I dealt with it. And then when I graduated, 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:07.040 I wind up going into a roofing business until nineteen 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.440 eighty four eighty five. Then I went back to college 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.440 and stuff for auto body and stuff. So I'm actually 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:16.880 an auto bout body technician painting cars and stuff. But 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:20.400 I was in a bad accident in nineteen eighty seven 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:25.040 where I rolled the truck working for Weathercraft Roofing, and 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.040 I laid in it for an hour and a half 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:30.160 before they cut me out of it. There is pictures 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.920 of the accident, and it's probably pretty amazing that I 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:34.800 even lived. 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.400 Through that, And having seen those pictures, I can attest 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.080 that it is an absolute miracle that he survived. And 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.120 during his time on the Men, Jeff came into contact 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.440 with a number of people involved in this case. He 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.280 hired an attorney named Lenn Tabor to handle his personal 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:55.080 injury and workers' compensation proceedings, and he began to dabble 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.080 in some drugs, which brought him into contact with some 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.360 other drug users, like a queen of his younger brother, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:04.760 Alan Neeman and Kennard Waspmer, as well as one of 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.960 the victims in this case, a local drug dealer named 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:08.840 Richard Valdez. 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.920 Richard was a quiet person. He had to really get 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.200 to know you before you were able to go in 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:17.760 and buy drugs from him. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.640 And Jeff broke through that and was able to get served. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.039 But the only relationship we had was he was in 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.560 the business to sell drugs when I was in this 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:31.560 accident and trying to release some pain. 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.760 Waspmer and Nieman did not know Valdez well enough, so 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.400 when Wasper and Neieman wanted to get some cocaine, they 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:42.800 would enlist Jeff's help. 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:47.799 And then there was the other victim, Valdez's girlfriend, Sharon Condon, 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.039 who had a concerning relationship to say the least, with 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.080 her first cousin, a guy named John Yellowboy. Now some 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:59.560 said Yellow Boy had an unnatural attraction to Sharon. In fact, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.000 there had been some high drama in the weeks leading 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:03.760 up to her death. 0:05:04.120 --> 0:05:07.159 She apparently went to the hospital because she had gotten 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.640 hit with the butt of a gun during his dispute 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.720 with John. We pulled all of the criminal cases that 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.320 existed on Yellowboy Prior to the murder, Yellow Boy was 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:23.200 incarcerated at about fifteen for a pretty violent rape of 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.039 a middle aged woman that occurred, according to the police reports, 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.440 right in front of the woman's daughter. He left a 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.839 code at the scene that coat belonged to a relative. 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.839 It's almost like he was setting him up or something. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:41.039 I don't know, but there are a string of just 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:48.159 incredibly strange assault of behavior. When I met John's sister 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:50.839 and this stuck with me, probably because of the age 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.440 I grew up in, and I asked her, just give 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.279 me an idea who John Yellowboy is. She paused for 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.200 a moment, and then she looked at me, very directly, 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.800 matter of factly, and said, have you ever seen the 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.600 movie Halloween? That's basically my brother. 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.600 John, and that's his sister saying that. So this is 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.240 the backdrop for what happened on September eighteenth into the 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.599 nineteenth of nineteen eighty eight, when Nieman Wassmer and another 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.440 man Chris Ruff had asked Jeff for help. Was Richard Valdez. 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.320 They asked me if I could get them some weed 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.600 and some coke, and this is around ten o'clock at night. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.000 So I proceeded to go out to Valdeza's house by myself. 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:34.080 There was no lights or nothing on at the Valdez's residence, 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.039 so if you visualize, it's like on a rural road. 0:06:38.240 --> 0:06:41.320 I mean it's dark, so it's kind of spooky in 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:43.880 a way. And I went up and I knocked on 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.600 the door. Nobody was there, so then I left, and 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.839 then I went to meet those guys at their trailer, 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:50.800 and then I told him, I said, hey, I think 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:53.920 I know where Valdez might be at. And I went 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.800 to what's called Tiptop Trailer Court, and this is where 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:01.120 John yellow Boy he asked. He came out at one 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:04.200 of the apartments and he said that Valdez he'd be 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:05.640 back in a little while. 0:07:06.000 --> 0:07:08.719 Jeff eventually caught up with Richard Valdez in town and 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.960 bought some coke for Wasner and Nieman then traveled back 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.520 and forth to Valdez's place for more cocaine that evening. 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:18.840 The last time was around eleven thirty PM. 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.160 And then that was the last time I seen Richard Valdez. 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.880 And then once we were back to Kenner, Wisemuth and 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.400 Allen Nemans trailer at about twelve o'clock Chris Ruff. He 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.200 said he was leaving Kennard and Allen. They were pretty 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.480 high that night, and so during this time, Allen and 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.080 Kennard said, Hey, why don't we take a road trip. 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:42.800 Let's go to Arizona. 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.240 Jeff had a friend named Cassie who lived out in Arizona. 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:49.320 So the three of them got some things together and 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:53.000 got on the road. After all, cocaine is a hell 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:56.680 of a drug. But I digress here. In the following hours, 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.360 while these three were on the road, Sharon, Condon and 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:03.480 Richard were killed. The state's narrative was that they were 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.280 fatally shot around the same time inside the house, and 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.760 that Richard partially wrote Jeff's name on the ground in Engine, 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.120 Greece as a sort of dying declaration, and that's the theory. 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.360 I don't think that's what occurred. I don't think Richard 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:22.160 Valdez was killed inside the house. I think he was 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.120 brought back in the house and staged. The stab wounds 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:29.160 and the blood loss don't equal that he lost all 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.880 of his blood in the position where his body was found. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.640 And we've now got a pathologist who says that these 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:38.600 wounds across his neck and one of the bullet shots 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.640 were post mortem, and two thousand and eighteen we went 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.680 and went through all of the evidence still at the 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.199 Scott's Bluff County Sheriff's department. 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.160 And there we found a. 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:58.040 Package that had negatives, not photographs, and a memorandum from 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:01.800 a former deputy sheriff that said these were found in 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:06.959 Alex Marino's desk in twenty twelve fourteen, I don't remember 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:08.200 the actual date. 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.160 And there's a picture of a knife. 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:12.160 You have no idea where that knife's at, but it 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.319 looks like it's in a cornfield, which this house was 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.280 surrounded by cornfield. A black and white photograph of a 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.080 knife that doesn't match any of the other crime scene photos. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:22.439 It's just insane. 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.880 And that's just the beginning. And then there's Sharon's death, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.320 which was overheard by the sixteen year old girl who 0:09:30.360 --> 0:09:33.960 was with her at the time, a girl named Melissa Martinez. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.040 According to her, she's in the back bedroom and they 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:43.000 hear people enter the house and she recognizes John Yellow 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.760 Boy's voice. Sharon tells her to hide, which she does 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.040 partially under the bed. The lights go out, she hears 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:55.439 the commotion, and then she waits and waits and eventually 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:57.920 runs out of the house, and if you look at 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.880 the crime scene photos, she has to flip the mattress 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.640 to get Sharon off of her. And if you look 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.480 at the crime scene photos, you can see where Sharon 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.320 bled out, and then you could see that her body 0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:14.480 was moved and she continued to bleed. That's never explained. 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.040 Now, Melissa Martinez claims that she didn't hear Richard's death 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:19.959 or see his body on her way out the door, 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:22.840 which might be why this account was never included in 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:25.880 the state's narrative. It just didn't fit. But Melissa accounts 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.640 for the two spots where Sharon bled without having seen 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.559 the crime scene photographs, which certainly bolsters her credibility. 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:33.800 Right. 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:35.360 So, okay, back to her memory. 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.800 She runs through the same doorway where Richard Valdez's body 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.560 is supposedly right in the doorway. I mean she would 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.760 have tripped over him. She then runs to a neighbor 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.000 and is pounding on the door at two three in 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.440 the morning. The neighbors confirmed that there was somebody pounding 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:53.400 on the door that morning, and then she makes her 0:10:53.440 --> 0:10:56.319 way into town. That was about three am. 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.040 So both the crime scene photos of Sharon and the 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.199 neighbor's account. Robberate Melissa's version of events, and we'll explain 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.319 what happens to her in a bit. So, then both 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:10.800 bodies were discovered in the house Sharon where Melissa left her, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.160 and then Richard's was in the doorway. 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.480 There's a gentleman by the name of Eddie Johnson who 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:21.600 claims that he came there, saw the door slightly Ajar 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.600 pushed the door and it pushed it into Valdez. He 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:29.040 then kneeled down by the body, checked the body, realized 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.920 he was dead. And this is before cell phones. So 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:37.040 he then goes into Scott's Bluff and calls the police. 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:40.360 And as he's on the phone with the police, he 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.240 sees a cop driving by and flags him down. An 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.920 officer by the name of Terry Hall says, look, there's 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:48.960 a Duti's dead out here. They go to the scene, 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:54.760 Eddie stays outside. Eddie's later shown crime scene photos twenty 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.040 plus years later and says, that's not how the body 0:11:58.080 --> 0:12:00.960 was laid out. There was no grease next to the body. 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.760 I would have stepped right in it. Because next to 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.800 Valdez's body in crime scene. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.719 Photos are two words. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:31.920 In Greece, partial words j Ff and bope. According to 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.520 the autopsy doctor at the time, he would have been 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.720 bleeding profusely where he would have bled out very quickly 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.959 within a matter of minutes, and that's from the state's 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.840 own guy. But apparently in those minutes he still would 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:48.400 have been able to grab a tube of engine grease 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.000 right out Jeff and then maybe write Jeff on the 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:57.040 wall and blood and then ironically put the tuber grease 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.080 underneath him before he died. I figured that they find 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:02.920 the two degrees. You can see it in the crime 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.600 scene video. They lift his body up and go, oh, 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.880 there's the two degrees. But there was a question at 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:10.680 that time of trial whether he would have been able 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.120 to do that given the wounds he had suffered. But 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.040 the forensic pathologists today's in no way, not a chance 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:18.160 is he doing that. 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.559 According to the autopsy, Jeff's injuries included eight gunshot wounds 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:27.080 and two stab wounds, one of each type happening post mortem. 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.640 Either way, he was losing blood at an estimated rate 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.000 of about a half a leader per minute, leaving only 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.360 one hundred and fifty seconds two and a half minutes 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:39.880 until he'd experienced significant loss of his motor skills as 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:44.240 blood flow concentrated around maintaining his vital organs, which is 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.920 why the pathologists is saying, no way to the dying declaration. 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.760 But if that doesn't feel definitive enough, then you have 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:57.440 the two post mortem wounds. So not only does that, 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.400 along with on accounted for blood at the scene, suggests 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:06.120 staging of the body, but also whoever inflicted these post 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.760 mortem injuries was not going to allow him to make 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.520 a dying declaration, let alone apparently a second. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:19.280 One along the doorstop there is Jeff written in blood. 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:22.160 After they've surrendered the crime scene back to the family, 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:24.760 Valdez's family says, you got to get back out here. 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.920 It says Jeff and blood on here, And they went, oh, 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:29.240 but geez, we must have missed that. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:32.960 So maybe whoever had killed Sharon Richard or both of 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.680 them was still lurking around after Eddie had discovered the 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:38.720 bodies and then wrote Jeff's name at the crime scene, 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.640 trying to send the police in Jeff's direction. So the 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.040 police went straight to Jeff's and his father told them 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:47.480 about Jeff's thirty two caliber handgun while the police searched 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.400 for that. The next time Jeff called home. His dad 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:51.480 told him what was happening. 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:54.360 I had a passport to leave the country, and he said, 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:56.160 you want me to send this. I said no, I said, 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.040 I'm coming back. I'm innocent. I didn't do this when 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.480 I made this trip back and I got arrested. And 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:04.880 Leonard Taylor was my attorney. All he really worked on 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.200 was workman's comp cases and dwi's. This was actually his 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.400 first murder trial that he ever participated in. 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:16.000 Already, this is a bad sign. And then things get 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.680 worse when they questioned Waspmer and Neemen. 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:19.960 During the recorded interview. 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:25.280 Neemen is denying any knowledge about Anythingniemen's there with a 0:15:25.320 --> 0:15:29.960 public defender. The public defender tells Neeman, look, you're gonna 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:35.680 be in just fan shape with these fan gentlemen, and leaves. 0:15:36.800 --> 0:15:40.920 That's one the Atturneyniemen was specifically told that if he 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.640 didn't give a story blaming bou Prix, he was going 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.280 to be charged with the murder. Neiman then comes up 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.360 with a story that you know, bou pri went in 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.640 and then he heard a gunshot, and then beaupre grabbed 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:55.640 a few things inside the house and brought him out, 0:15:56.160 --> 0:16:01.080 and Neiman then goes in and supposedly steals in camera, 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:05.040 and that's ultimately what he pleads guilty to. 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.560 So he pleads guilty to theft. The problem is that 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.360 Sharon's camera was a really nice one, while the one 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:15.800 that Nieman pled guilty to stealing was cheap piece of junk. Additionally, 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:17.680 not only were there tens of thousands of dollars worth 0:16:17.680 --> 0:16:19.680 of cash and drugs in the house, but Richard had 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.040 three thousand dollars worth of cocaine in his pocket, which 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.680 makes this deaf motive totally unbelievable, not to mention that 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.040 this statement was made under the threat of a potential 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:33.120 death sentence, and then Wassmer got similar treatment. So he 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.320 said that he overheard Jeff and Allen talking about the 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.640 murder and then he helped to get rid of Jeff's 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:40.960 thirty two caliber handgun. 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.200 On the way to Arizona, they obtained the record of 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.920 the firearm that Jeff had bought before they ever found 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:51.120 the firearm to know what kind of firearm it was, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:54.040 and then changed that so, I don't know, we didn't 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.480 get those records. Then we got him months later, Wasmer says. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.960 Then he disassembles the gun and throws it out in 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.640 different parts along the way, but they found a gun 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.680 not disassembled. 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.760 Which would have ruled out Wassmer's statement. It just didn't match. 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.160 They say that we jumped over a fence and threw 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.160 it in a mud hole. I'm like, where are they 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:17.880 getting this? 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.520 So a thirty two caliber handgun was presented as Jeff's gun, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:25.479 allegedly found somewhere outside of Gallup, New Mexico, and it 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.119 was missing the thumb safety, which would have held in 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.320 the cartridge in this gun. Then the disconnector as well 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.320 as the hammer pin, which could have been used to 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:38.080 most accurately identify this weapon as Jeff's or not. Nevertheless, 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:42.639 the narrative had congealed around this weapon and the two statements. 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.840 But then they got wind of sixteen year old Melissa 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.920 Martinez talking about the murder with her classmates. 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.199 We found out about her in nineteen ninety two a 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.880 lady named Mellie Estada. Melly was a dispatch for the 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.680 Sheriff's Department. I think her daughter, Patty, told her that 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:05.080 Melissa had told this story at school. So she went 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.840 to State Patrol and they took a statement from Patty 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:10.800 and they said that they didn't believe her. 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.919 So by September twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, police had 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.440 spoken with Melissa. According to her affidavits many years later, 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:20.960 she told them about her experience that night. She knew 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.800 John Yello boy, don't forget. She told them that she 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:27.520 heard his voice in the trailer right before Sharon was killed. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:31.520 And then there's the rest of her memory about running out, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.800 not seeing Richard's body, and banging on the neighbor's door. 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.120 Of course, this all ran counter to the narrative from 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:40.840 Neemon and wasper They. 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.119 Take Melissa and scuttle her around in different juvenile placements 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:46.080 and get her out of. 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.480 Town along with her brand new living arrangements. A state 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:53.600 police report was submitted into evidence alleging that Melissa admitted 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.880 to fabricating the story. So that's all that the defense 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.840 was privy to a trial, and again things continued to 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:01.480 get worse. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.720 The whole process was kind of shady from the beginning, 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.400 because if you look at the rules of the courts, 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.080 now that I understand it, you pick a jury one 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.480 day two days before you actually go to trial. They 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.040 had picked my jury like seventeen days out. There was 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:21.640 no sub question of the jury or nothing like that, 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:26.439 so they got to see all the evidence that was 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:28.480 playing out in the media. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.240 Which all potentially biased the jury going into trial. In 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.240 early March nineteen eighty nine, when Alan Neeman testified that 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:40.240 Jeff suggested robbing and killing Richard on their multiple trips 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:43.480 to buy cocaine, Nieman claimed that Jeff had stopped at 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.600 his house, perhaps to get his gun before their final 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.280 trip to Richards, at which point he said that Jeff 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.879 shot Richard when he came to the door, suggesting a 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.959 forensically very improbable angle. Then said that they both stole 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.760 things from the house, including a ca and drug scales, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.160 before Jeff went back inside, and Neeman said he heard 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.320 a woman's voice followed by gunshots. 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.919 Alan Neman, he testifies, he can't motion to me. You 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.520 could read his lips where he was saying he was 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:16.000 sorry of what he was saying. 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:21.040 Despite whatever little good that did. Another state's witness named 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:24.960 rich Zog, claimed that Jeff had suggested robbing Richard on 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:28.280 multiple occasions, but again, there were tens of thousands of 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.280 dollars in drugs and cash left behind that made this 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:36.200 whole robbery story sound ludicrous. So moving on, they presented 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.040 wasmer with his bit about disassembling the gun and tossing 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:40.520 it away. 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.479 Then there's a fun guy named Mike Knu, a jailhouse snitch, 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:46.920 who testifies that Jeff confessed. 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:50.199 I think he said that I told him that you 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.960 should have heard the bit compleet for life and some 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:57.400 other stuff about val Daz kind of wrote nothing because 0:20:57.520 --> 0:20:58.919 he was bleeding too much. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:02.840 So the state it's own witness dispels the idea that 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:06.760 this was a dying declaration, while also assigning a consciousness 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:07.919 of guilt to Jeff. 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:13.119 Now, Jeff lawyer Taber also represented the jail house snitch, 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.040 but he never disclosed that he actually represented him. He 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.520 was serving time on a drunk driving case. It's unclear 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:24.640 what he got, although I mean he obviously was let 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:25.320 out of jail. 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.320 Well, I was being held at in jail. I was 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:33.200 like segregated from everybody else. So he apparently got out, 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:37.240 and then he came back in January, and he was 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:41.480 a trustee, so he started saying, Hey, I'm going to 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:45.000 a with your father. You want anything to say. I said, yeah, 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:47.000 tell my dad I love him and stuff like that. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.560 And that was probably the extent of any of our conversations. 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.320 But when he got on the stand and started saying 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.480 that he sept by my cell and I told him 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:58.960 the whole story, I'm like, this has to be a 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:00.960 plant from Silverman. 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:05.320 Or perhaps indirectly Leonard Tabor. Maybe he was told to 0:22:05.359 --> 0:22:08.760 approach the head DA Silverman to offer his testimony for 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:11.920 leniency in the charges for which Tabor was representing him. 0:22:12.280 --> 0:22:15.000 We can't know the specifics, but one thing I do 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.800 know is that this shit freaking stinks. 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.160 The jailers even got on the stand that testified said 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:23.960 that there was canvas pointing at my cell. They could 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.040 have seen all that stuff if somebody sit in front 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:28.240 of my cell and I told him for an hour 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:30.760 or so to tell them my story. So two of 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.800 the jailers got up on a stand and testified to 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:35.680 the fact that this never happened. 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:39.440 In addition to the jailers, Tabor had prepared expert witnesses 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:42.280 to battle both the States pathologists who claimed that Valdez 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.240 could have mustered the strength to write two dying declarations, 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.159 as well as the ballistics expert who called the gun 0:22:48.440 --> 0:22:51.080 allegedly found in the desert a match. 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:55.399 The guy that they had was Mark Bahadi. His story 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:59.880 has changed now too. But our expert Kwood said that 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.240 he couldn't even test fire the gun and that there 0:23:03.320 --> 0:23:06.600