WEBVTT - Hell and Gone Murder Line: Billie Jean Phillips Part 2 0:00:08.285 --> 0:00:11.125 School of Humans. 0:00:11.165 --> 0:00:14.285 Sometime between the evening of September second and the early 0:00:14.365 --> 0:00:18.085 morning hours of September third, nineteen ninety four, thirty five 0:00:18.165 --> 0:00:21.125 year old Billy Jean Phillips was brutally beaten to death 0:00:21.165 --> 0:00:25.085 at her home in Alabama, Arkansas. This case very quickly 0:00:25.125 --> 0:00:28.645 became the biggest story in Madison County. Billy Jean had 0:00:28.685 --> 0:00:31.925 had several lovers, including, as we said last week, the 0:00:31.925 --> 0:00:35.365 deputy prosecutor named Rusty Kane and his son. 0:00:35.965 --> 0:00:38.485 And Rusty's son was just twelve. 0:00:38.165 --> 0:00:42.525 Years old when Billy Jean first made sexual advances toward him. 0:00:42.965 --> 0:00:45.965 There was also Billy Jean's younger brother, Robert McKnight, who 0:00:46.005 --> 0:00:49.285 had had some issues with drugs. Needless to say, there 0:00:49.365 --> 0:00:53.085 was a long list of potential suspects. Billy Jean was 0:00:53.125 --> 0:00:56.445 found wearing her white T shirt and underwear. She had 0:00:56.445 --> 0:00:59.565 been attacked and beaten with a weapon that split her scalp. 0:01:00.325 --> 0:01:01.885 Police believed it was her. 0:01:01.765 --> 0:01:04.605 Son's tea ball bat, since the bat was found splintered 0:01:04.605 --> 0:01:08.845 into pieces in the master bedroom. Then Billy Jean's killer 0:01:08.965 --> 0:01:14.005 strangled her. Billy Jean had fought hard, so hard that 0:01:14.045 --> 0:01:17.885 two of her fingernails ripped out police were looking hard 0:01:17.925 --> 0:01:21.645 at Rusty Kane, the deputy prosecutor, and several other suspects, 0:01:22.805 --> 0:01:26.805 but over the years, police took DNA from several of them, 0:01:27.205 --> 0:01:31.205 and Rusty Kane and his son and Billy Jean's brother 0:01:31.405 --> 0:01:34.445 were eliminated. None of the people that they took DNA 0:01:34.565 --> 0:01:37.125 samples for were a match to the DNA that had 0:01:37.165 --> 0:01:40.565 been found under Billy Jean's fingernails. Over the years, it 0:01:40.605 --> 0:01:43.805 was reported that police had tested at least fourteen people, 0:01:44.765 --> 0:01:47.965 none of them were a match. But in two thousand 0:01:48.005 --> 0:01:50.405 and two, there was an arrest in the Billy Jean 0:01:50.445 --> 0:01:54.805 Phillips murder case, one that would shock the community. I'm 0:01:54.885 --> 0:01:58.205 Catherine Townsend. Over the past five years of making my 0:01:58.245 --> 0:02:02.085 true crime podcast, Telling Gone, I've learned there's no such 0:02:02.125 --> 0:02:05.845 thing as a small town where murder never happens. I've 0:02:05.885 --> 0:02:08.925 received hundreds of messages from people all around the country 0:02:09.445 --> 0:02:12.125 asking for help with an unsolved murder that's affected them, 0:02:12.565 --> 0:02:15.885 their families, and their communities. If you have a case 0:02:15.925 --> 0:02:18.245 you'd like me and my team to look into, you 0:02:18.245 --> 0:02:20.325 can reach out to us at our Helen Gone Murder 0:02:20.365 --> 0:02:23.885 line at six seven eight seven four four six one 0:02:24.125 --> 0:02:27.805 four five that's six seven eight seven four four six 0:02:27.965 --> 0:03:16.405 one four five. This is Helen Gone murder line. The 0:03:16.485 --> 0:03:20.285 guy who was arrested was named Clint Eugene Phillips. By 0:03:20.325 --> 0:03:23.765 the way, Clint was no relation to Billy Jean. That 0:03:23.845 --> 0:03:27.765 same last name was just a coincidence. Clint Phillips was 0:03:27.845 --> 0:03:31.245 never a suspect in the original police investigation. He was 0:03:31.285 --> 0:03:35.125 never even a person of interest. Initially, Clint was not 0:03:35.245 --> 0:03:38.485 arrested for Billy Jean's murder. He was arrested and charged 0:03:38.645 --> 0:03:41.965 with sexual assault against his girlfriend at the time. He 0:03:42.005 --> 0:03:45.925 was eventually convicted of that sexual assault, and after his arrest, 0:03:46.525 --> 0:03:49.685 law enforcement asked Clint to provide them with a blood sample, 0:03:50.685 --> 0:03:53.725 and when he did, the DNA was a match to 0:03:53.765 --> 0:03:56.885 the DNA that was found under Billy Jean phillips fingernails. 0:03:57.765 --> 0:04:00.485 Here's Terry Jones, the prosecutor on this case. 0:04:01.445 --> 0:04:04.325 Well, we didn't suspect him at all. We didn't even 0:04:04.365 --> 0:04:07.885 know about until we've got the DNA evidence back. 0:04:09.085 --> 0:04:12.245 This was kind of a shock because, again Clint Phillips 0:04:12.245 --> 0:04:14.405 was someone whose name never came up in the original 0:04:14.485 --> 0:04:19.325 investigation at all. But when Billy Jean's parents, Edna and 0:04:19.365 --> 0:04:22.845 Earle saw Clint on the news and saw the news 0:04:22.845 --> 0:04:27.125 reports about him being arrested for sexual assault. They remembered Clint. 0:04:27.405 --> 0:04:29.925 They remembered that he used to come into the Ozark 0:04:29.965 --> 0:04:32.485 shop where Billy Jean worked, and that he would talk 0:04:32.525 --> 0:04:33.285 to her while. 0:04:33.085 --> 0:04:33.725 She worked there. 0:04:34.245 --> 0:04:37.005 But Clint Phillips was just seventeen years old back in 0:04:37.085 --> 0:04:39.645 nineteen ninety four, just a couple of days from his 0:04:39.725 --> 0:04:43.125 eighteenth birthday when Billy Jane was killed, so he was 0:04:43.205 --> 0:04:47.325 never really on the radar, And honestly, from the newspaper reports, 0:04:47.405 --> 0:04:51.725 it's not clear whether police decided to compare Clint's DNA 0:04:51.845 --> 0:04:54.525 to the DNA under Billy Jean's fingernails on their own, 0:04:55.365 --> 0:04:59.005 or whether it was Billy Jean's father who called them 0:04:59.045 --> 0:05:02.605 and kind of prompted them to do that. After law 0:05:02.645 --> 0:05:06.525 enforcement said they had a match, detectives started looking deeper 0:05:06.605 --> 0:05:12.165 into Clint Phillips and his background. They started talking to 0:05:12.205 --> 0:05:16.605 Clint's former girlfriends, and in total, three girlfriends testified that 0:05:16.685 --> 0:05:18.005 Clint had been abusive. 0:05:18.685 --> 0:05:20.245 His lawyers said that all. 0:05:20.085 --> 0:05:23.285 The abuse had happened after nineteen ninety seven, when Clint 0:05:23.285 --> 0:05:25.525 apparently became addicted to methamphetamine. 0:05:25.765 --> 0:05:30.365 We questioned ex girlfriends found out that he was kind 0:05:30.405 --> 0:05:33.325 of a rough lover. He liked to do violent things 0:05:33.325 --> 0:05:35.885 to the girls and that sort of thing, and then 0:05:35.925 --> 0:05:38.565 we found out he was in town that night. 0:05:39.525 --> 0:05:42.485 Clint's lawyer painted a picture of Clint in nineteen ninety 0:05:42.485 --> 0:05:45.005 four as a normal teenager who wanted to go into 0:05:45.005 --> 0:05:49.565 computer science, but the women who eventually testified against Clint 0:05:50.045 --> 0:05:53.925 told police a very different story. Clint's ex wife, who 0:05:53.965 --> 0:05:56.725 he married a few years after Billy Jean was murdered, 0:05:57.325 --> 0:06:00.085 testified that he kicked her, threw her on the ground, 0:06:00.165 --> 0:06:03.805 and punched her in the face. Another ex girlfriend testified 0:06:03.805 --> 0:06:06.525 that in two thousand and one, Clint had locked her 0:06:06.565 --> 0:06:09.405 in a room and stabbed her with her own keys, 0:06:09.805 --> 0:06:13.965 as well as beating her. One ex girlfriend testified that 0:06:14.005 --> 0:06:16.885 Clint Phillips drugged and raped her in two thousand and two. 0:06:17.925 --> 0:06:20.885 This was the sexual assault that Clint was eventually convicted of. 0:06:21.725 --> 0:06:24.725 This ex girlfriend told police this was a violent attack. 0:06:25.285 --> 0:06:27.565 She said Clint had punched her in the face and 0:06:27.645 --> 0:06:30.605 tried to choke her with a TV chord, and this 0:06:30.685 --> 0:06:35.365 attempted strangulation reminded a lot of people of what happened 0:06:35.365 --> 0:06:38.005 to Billy Jean. Phillips because she had also been strangled. 0:06:39.325 --> 0:06:42.205 But Clint did something after his arrest that could either 0:06:42.245 --> 0:06:46.725 be seen as really kind of naive or really shrewd 0:06:46.765 --> 0:06:49.445 and smart. What he did was he reached out to 0:06:49.485 --> 0:06:52.885 local reporters and right after he was arrested, he did 0:06:52.925 --> 0:06:57.205 an interview with a local TV station. From jail, Pete. 0:06:57.045 --> 0:06:59.165 Got to TV State. He told that story to the 0:06:59.205 --> 0:07:01.565 TV stations before we even had the. 0:07:01.525 --> 0:07:06.805 Trial, and in that interview, Clinton admitted he had known 0:07:06.845 --> 0:07:08.685 Billy Jean. He said he had hooked up with her 0:07:08.765 --> 0:07:11.205 on the night she was murdered, but he said it 0:07:11.285 --> 0:07:14.165 was totally consensual, and he said that it did not 0:07:14.325 --> 0:07:18.165 happen at her house the crime scene. His story, which 0:07:18.245 --> 0:07:21.365 was later told through his attorney in court, was that 0:07:21.405 --> 0:07:24.485 Clint had flirted with Billy Jean. He would go see 0:07:24.485 --> 0:07:26.725 her in the Ozark shop and they would be flirtatious, 0:07:26.765 --> 0:07:29.405 and then he said, right before she was killed, he 0:07:29.485 --> 0:07:31.445 had mentioned that he was going to turn eighteen in 0:07:31.485 --> 0:07:34.805 two days. Clint's attorney said Billy Jean asked him what 0:07:35.125 --> 0:07:38.365 he wanted for his birthday, and that she offered to 0:07:38.405 --> 0:07:42.325 give him a sexual encounter as a birthday present. Clint 0:07:42.405 --> 0:07:45.565 claimed that the DNA under Billy Jean's fingernails must have 0:07:45.645 --> 0:07:49.525 happened when they had a sexual encounter. He claimed that 0:07:49.605 --> 0:07:52.285 she was giving him oral sex and he scratched her, 0:07:53.325 --> 0:07:55.725 but he claimed that when he left her she was 0:07:55.885 --> 0:07:59.325 very much alive. Let's go back to the night of 0:07:59.365 --> 0:08:03.565 September second. Clint claimed that on that night he was 0:08:03.685 --> 0:08:06.805 arrested in charge with d w I. He was released 0:08:06.845 --> 0:08:10.085 from jail at around seven pm. At first, he told 0:08:10.085 --> 0:08:13.005 police that at some point that night, he couldn't quite 0:08:13.085 --> 0:08:16.325 remember when because he was drunk, he and Billy Jean 0:08:16.445 --> 0:08:18.565 had met on the side of the road somewhere and 0:08:18.645 --> 0:08:22.005 had oral sex in his truck. Now, remember, Billy Jean 0:08:22.005 --> 0:08:24.685 Phillips was working at the Ozark shop that night, so 0:08:24.725 --> 0:08:28.565 it's not clear whether this supposed encounter happened while she. 0:08:28.605 --> 0:08:30.045 Was at work or afterwards. 0:08:30.725 --> 0:08:33.485 But the witness who saw Billy Jean and saw her 0:08:33.525 --> 0:08:37.045 car drive toward her house said that they saw her 0:08:37.045 --> 0:08:39.725 car turn off toward her road at around ten forty 0:08:39.765 --> 0:08:43.925 five or eleven PM. The timeline becomes very important here 0:08:43.965 --> 0:08:47.965 because remember, police said that Billy jan was killed approximately 0:08:48.045 --> 0:08:51.245 sometime between ten thirty that night and the next morning 0:08:51.285 --> 0:08:53.685 at around six am. They couldn't narrow it down any 0:08:53.685 --> 0:08:56.245 more than that, and Clint did seem to have an 0:08:56.285 --> 0:08:58.565 alibi for that night, at least for part of it. 0:08:59.485 --> 0:09:03.405 His sister, Angela Head, and another friend named Heather Harp 0:09:04.045 --> 0:09:06.925 said Clint was with them at the Washington County Fair 0:09:07.085 --> 0:09:10.165 from around eleven PM on September second until two thirty 0:09:10.205 --> 0:09:14.405 am the next morning, But at the trial, an Arkansas 0:09:14.405 --> 0:09:18.645 State Police investigator named Steve Coffinger said both Heather and 0:09:18.765 --> 0:09:22.205 Angela had originally told him a different story and said 0:09:22.245 --> 0:09:24.405 that Clint was not with them at the fair that night. 0:09:25.605 --> 0:09:29.125 In September of two thousand and three, Clint Eugene Phillips 0:09:29.285 --> 0:09:29.925 went to trial. 0:09:39.485 --> 0:09:40.765 Clint Phillips was on trial. 0:09:40.805 --> 0:09:44.045 The charge that he was facing was capital murder, and 0:09:44.245 --> 0:09:46.925 a lot of attention was focused on the crime scene 0:09:47.525 --> 0:09:49.565 because this was a tough case to prove. 0:09:49.725 --> 0:09:52.685 There was just so many rumors going around Madison County 0:09:52.725 --> 0:09:56.005 that was very difficult impossible to get a conviction. We 0:09:56.045 --> 0:09:59.165 didn't have anyth that put him in that house the 0:09:59.285 --> 0:10:02.245 night that she was killed. That's a pretty big hole. 0:10:03.685 --> 0:10:06.725 As Terry pointed out, other than the DNA evidence under 0:10:06.725 --> 0:10:09.925 Billy Jean's fingernails that was apparently a match to Clint Phillips. 0:10:10.405 --> 0:10:13.565 There was no physical evidence tying Clint to that crime 0:10:13.605 --> 0:10:18.725 scene at all, and prosecutors also struggled with providing the 0:10:18.805 --> 0:10:22.565 jury with a motive for this crime, which isn't a 0:10:22.605 --> 0:10:26.405 requirement necessarily, but would help tremendously in a case where 0:10:26.405 --> 0:10:28.845 it seemed like there were so many people who were 0:10:28.845 --> 0:10:33.165 pissed off the victim, The prosecution leaned hard into the 0:10:33.245 --> 0:10:37.525 DNA under Billy Jean's fingernails. An ex girlfriend of Clint's 0:10:38.045 --> 0:10:40.925 testified that Clint did have scratches on him the day 0:10:40.965 --> 0:10:44.365 after the murder, but again Clint had a story for that. 0:10:44.605 --> 0:10:47.525 He said that those had been sex scratches, that they 0:10:47.565 --> 0:10:51.565 had happened during oral sex. Clint told police he had 0:10:51.685 --> 0:10:54.365 oral sex with Billy Jean in the church parking lot 0:10:54.445 --> 0:10:57.645 near her home. Clint did not take the stand in 0:10:57.685 --> 0:11:01.125 his own defense, but the jury was able to see 0:11:01.205 --> 0:11:03.965 video footage of that interview that Clint did with the reporter. 0:11:04.725 --> 0:11:06.085 In that interview, Clint. 0:11:05.925 --> 0:11:08.965 Said, quote, there's nothing in my background that makes me 0:11:09.005 --> 0:11:09.565 a murderer. 0:11:09.925 --> 0:11:12.765 Everyone knows that end quote. 0:11:13.045 --> 0:11:16.165 Clint also told local journalists that he had doubts about 0:11:16.165 --> 0:11:19.685 the authenticity of that DNA. Clint told the Madison County 0:11:19.725 --> 0:11:22.485 Record that the police asked him to give a blood sample. 0:11:23.045 --> 0:11:25.605 He said that he had given everything that the police 0:11:25.645 --> 0:11:29.165 asked for voluntarily, and he believed that someone could be 0:11:29.205 --> 0:11:32.805 trying to frame him. This sounds a little bit wild, 0:11:32.885 --> 0:11:35.205 but as we've seen in other cases, we have to 0:11:35.205 --> 0:11:38.925 consider this possibility. We have seen a lot of other 0:11:39.005 --> 0:11:42.245 mistakes made in the Arkansas State Crime Lab. Remember in 0:11:42.325 --> 0:11:46.725 Christina Pipkins's case, the wrong hairs were sent in for testing, 0:11:47.285 --> 0:11:51.125 and if the defendant had not had a really good lawyer, 0:11:51.325 --> 0:11:53.365 that mistake might never have been uncovered. 0:11:53.405 --> 0:11:56.005 So we know that mistakes can happen. 0:11:57.205 --> 0:12:00.645 By the time of Billy Jan Phillips trial, doctor Fami Mallek, 0:12:00.725 --> 0:12:04.485 the controversial medical examiner who had been so discredited after 0:12:04.525 --> 0:12:08.485 making so many mistake was gone and there was a 0:12:08.525 --> 0:12:10.445 new medical examiner, Charles Cocus. 0:12:11.525 --> 0:12:13.205 Doctor Cocus testified. 0:12:12.765 --> 0:12:15.925 That in his opinion, it was unlikely that the scratches 0:12:16.045 --> 0:12:19.485 on Clint Phillips could have happened from oral sex, but 0:12:20.045 --> 0:12:22.005 he had to admit he didn't know for sure. It 0:12:22.085 --> 0:12:27.565 was a possibility, but there's another possibility maybe Clint didn't 0:12:27.645 --> 0:12:30.485 kill Billy Jean Phillips, but maybe he was not telling 0:12:30.485 --> 0:12:33.285 the full truth about what happened that night. Remember, there 0:12:33.285 --> 0:12:35.045 were a lot of questions at the crime scene that 0:12:35.085 --> 0:12:38.285 were never answered, including the fact we still have no 0:12:38.445 --> 0:12:42.205 explanation for the unmade bed upstairs or who may have. 0:12:42.165 --> 0:12:42.925 Been sleeping in it. 0:12:44.725 --> 0:12:47.685 And then there was another very last minute witness, and 0:12:47.725 --> 0:12:50.525 this person was a friend of Clint's. According to the 0:12:50.605 --> 0:12:54.325 Arkansas Democrat Gazette, this person had talked to Clint after 0:12:54.365 --> 0:12:57.885 the murder, and the person told police that Clint had 0:12:57.885 --> 0:13:01.005 told them that he had been there for Billy Jean's murder, 0:13:01.405 --> 0:13:03.165 but that he had just watched it happen and he 0:13:03.245 --> 0:13:07.285 wasn't a part of it. So the real story, did 0:13:07.365 --> 0:13:09.365 Clint really have oral sex on the side of the 0:13:09.445 --> 0:13:12.005 road with Billy Jean or did he go over to 0:13:12.045 --> 0:13:13.085 her house that night to. 0:13:13.045 --> 0:13:16.005 Have sex with her and then attack her? 0:13:16.845 --> 0:13:19.045 Or could it have been someone else, Maybe someone else 0:13:19.085 --> 0:13:21.205 who walked in on them or waited for Clint to 0:13:21.285 --> 0:13:24.405 leave and came in to confront Billy Jean, Maybe another 0:13:24.485 --> 0:13:28.045 jealous lover. Because remember there were signs of a cleanup 0:13:28.085 --> 0:13:30.805 and a stage crime scene a lot of people wondered 0:13:30.805 --> 0:13:33.285 whether Clint, as a senior in high school, would have 0:13:33.285 --> 0:13:40.885 been sophisticated enough to do that. Now, a lot of 0:13:40.885 --> 0:13:43.245 the questions in the Billy Jean Phillips case could have 0:13:43.285 --> 0:13:48.125 been answered with better crime scene evidence. Unfortunately, the police 0:13:48.165 --> 0:13:51.125 screwed up a lot of it. There were other mistakes. 0:13:51.165 --> 0:13:53.565 There was the missing black suitcase that had been seen 0:13:53.605 --> 0:13:57.205 in the video and the missing vacuum bag from Billy 0:13:57.285 --> 0:14:00.445 Jean's vacum cleaner. There were the bed sheets from that 0:14:00.565 --> 0:14:03.485 unmade bed that were apparently sent in for forensic testing 0:14:03.885 --> 0:14:08.365 and then were inexplicably lost. And there were other hairs 0:14:09.005 --> 0:14:12.845 hairs that police said might have been from a perpetrator 0:14:13.005 --> 0:14:16.725 but ended up being Billy Jean's hairs. And the biggest 0:14:16.725 --> 0:14:20.445 mistake was, as we said in last week's episode, police 0:14:20.485 --> 0:14:22.605 believed the murder weapon may have been a tee ball 0:14:22.605 --> 0:14:25.965 bat that was found splintered by Billy Jean's body, But 0:14:26.045 --> 0:14:29.725 it came out in court that investigators thought that bat 0:14:29.765 --> 0:14:32.685 had been cleaned off, But there could have absolutely been 0:14:32.765 --> 0:14:37.005 microscopic evidence on it. If it had been properly tested, 0:14:37.165 --> 0:14:39.765 it could have been the one thing that could tie 0:14:39.805 --> 0:14:44.325 a killer to the crime scene at Billy Jean's house. Unfortunately, 0:14:44.845 --> 0:14:48.525 the tee ball bat was mistakenly destroyed by the crime lab, 0:14:49.525 --> 0:14:52.805 and the defense cast doubt on the idea that Clint Phillips, 0:14:52.845 --> 0:14:55.205 who weighed one hundred and thirty five pounds and was 0:14:55.245 --> 0:14:59.565 described in newspapers as scrawny. They wondered whether he would 0:14:59.565 --> 0:15:01.445 have been strong enough to beat Billy. 0:15:01.285 --> 0:15:01.885 Jean to death. 0:15:02.645 --> 0:15:05.165 Now, in my opinion, one hundred and thirty five pounds 0:15:05.205 --> 0:15:07.965 man would absolutely have been strong enough to beat a 0:15:08.085 --> 0:15:10.645 very small woman to death, no matter how feisty she was. 0:15:11.645 --> 0:15:14.685 But the defense also pointed out the screens had been 0:15:14.725 --> 0:15:17.285 taken off the windows, and there were signs of staging 0:15:17.325 --> 0:15:20.565 at the crime scene, and they wondered whether a drunk 0:15:20.685 --> 0:15:23.765 high school student would have had the sophistication to clean 0:15:23.845 --> 0:15:27.405 up that crime scene. And I agree with that assessment. 0:15:27.525 --> 0:15:29.485 I think that there are elements of this crime scene 0:15:29.525 --> 0:15:33.125 that make no sense. Parts of it seemed very disorganized, 0:15:33.165 --> 0:15:35.885 like the killing itself. It seems like someone flew into 0:15:35.965 --> 0:15:40.605 a rage, picked up the nearest weapon of opportunity, and 0:15:40.725 --> 0:15:44.285 killed Billy Jean. But then there are signs that the 0:15:44.285 --> 0:15:47.445 scene was cleaned up afterwards. So I wonder was this 0:15:47.565 --> 0:15:50.445 the same person who did these things, or could someone 0:15:50.485 --> 0:15:53.645 have come by later, maybe another one of Billy Jean's lovers, 0:15:54.005 --> 0:15:56.725 and decided they need to clean things up before police 0:15:56.805 --> 0:16:00.085 arrived and started their official investigation. These are things that 0:16:00.165 --> 0:16:05.485 I still wonder about today. And again we come back 0:16:05.525 --> 0:16:06.965 to that murder weapon, the. 0:16:06.965 --> 0:16:07.805 T ball bat. 0:16:08.565 --> 0:16:12.085 I asked Terry Jones about that. I wondered if anything 0:16:12.085 --> 0:16:14.565 that was that light and small could have been the 0:16:14.565 --> 0:16:17.565 only murder weapon. I know she was strangled, but I 0:16:17.685 --> 0:16:20.845 just wondered if, in his opinion, there could have been 0:16:20.845 --> 0:16:24.085 something else, something police didn't find. And this is what 0:16:24.125 --> 0:16:24.805 he said. 0:16:25.125 --> 0:16:27.405 I don't think it was the bad eventually, I think 0:16:27.445 --> 0:16:32.885 it was something else. You do, yeah, because you can't 0:16:33.005 --> 0:16:36.485 describe the bat completely clean. You just can't do it right. 0:16:38.005 --> 0:16:40.765 So there could be a second murder weapon out there, 0:16:40.805 --> 0:16:49.005 something police have never found. At the trial, defense used 0:16:49.045 --> 0:16:51.605 the other suspects in Billy Jean's murder to their advantage. 0:16:51.645 --> 0:16:56.045 In closing arguments, the defense attorney said police had suspected 0:16:56.125 --> 0:17:00.205 Rusty Kane, the deputy prosecutor and Billy Jean's lover, for 0:17:00.245 --> 0:17:02.965 a long time. And again I need to point out 0:17:03.045 --> 0:17:06.845 Rusty Kane was never arrested or charge with anything, but 0:17:06.925 --> 0:17:10.085 the suspicions and rumors over the years definitely worked to 0:17:10.125 --> 0:17:16.205 the defendant's advantage. Prosecutor Terry Jones had a theory for 0:17:16.605 --> 0:17:20.205 what happened that night. He said that he believed that 0:17:20.285 --> 0:17:23.125 Clint Phillips was drinking very heavily that night. We know 0:17:23.245 --> 0:17:26.365 that because he got a DWI. He said, Billy Jean 0:17:26.645 --> 0:17:30.405 was sexually ford she offered him this birthday gift. So 0:17:30.525 --> 0:17:34.445 Terry Jones believes that Clint did come to Billy Jean's 0:17:34.485 --> 0:17:38.005 house and that they started a sexual encounter, but his 0:17:38.125 --> 0:17:42.525 theory is that perhaps Clint could not perform sexually. The 0:17:42.565 --> 0:17:45.725 Democrat Gazette quoted Terry Jones as saying in court, quote, 0:17:46.485 --> 0:17:49.085 maybe Clint Phillips and Billy Jean had a date that night. 0:17:49.485 --> 0:17:52.125 He went to her house after the fair. Perhaps the 0:17:52.165 --> 0:17:55.165 alcohol had an effect. She teased him about it and 0:17:55.245 --> 0:17:59.045 that set him off. End quote. We'll probably never know 0:17:59.165 --> 0:18:02.285 for sure exactly what went down in Billy Jean's bedroom, 0:18:02.925 --> 0:18:06.805 but that would explain why Clint had scratches on his 0:18:06.925 --> 0:18:10.565 back that to the medical examiner appeared to come from 0:18:10.605 --> 0:18:13.005 some kind of sexual encounter that was not oral sex, 0:18:13.765 --> 0:18:17.165 but would perhaps also explain why the forensic evidence did 0:18:17.165 --> 0:18:20.125 not indicate that Billy Jean had had intercourse with anyone 0:18:20.245 --> 0:18:24.845 before her death. Terry Jones told me he was convinced 0:18:24.845 --> 0:18:26.845 that Clint Phillips was the right guy. 0:18:27.445 --> 0:18:29.245 He said he did his best. Again. 0:18:29.805 --> 0:18:32.125 He wrote a book called Mister Prosecutor about this case, 0:18:32.125 --> 0:18:34.285 and he said it's one of the few cases he lost. 0:18:34.565 --> 0:18:36.925 I think we had the right guy. I think we 0:18:36.965 --> 0:18:39.605 had plenty of evidence to convictim if there had been 0:18:39.645 --> 0:18:42.245 some will among the jury. 0:18:43.085 --> 0:18:45.845 But in the end, it seems like the jury just 0:18:45.925 --> 0:18:51.165 had too many doubts. The trial took three days. After 0:18:51.285 --> 0:18:54.725 six hours of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict. 0:18:55.325 --> 0:19:00.245 They found Clint Phillips not guilty. Clint was crying in court. 0:19:00.325 --> 0:19:02.965 He visibly broke down and got emotional when that verdict 0:19:03.005 --> 0:19:03.365 was read. 0:19:04.005 --> 0:19:06.125 He walked out of the courtroom a free man. 0:19:06.845 --> 0:19:09.445 His family, who came to support him, said they always 0:19:09.445 --> 0:19:14.605 believed in his innocence. Billy Jean's parents, of course, were devastated. 0:19:15.285 --> 0:19:19.645 Earl McKnight, Billy Jean's father was in a wheelchair. Her mother, 0:19:20.125 --> 0:19:23.525 Edna was also very frail, and after the verdict was read, 0:19:23.525 --> 0:19:27.285 they kind of collapsed into each other's arms. Billy Jean's 0:19:27.285 --> 0:19:29.845 baby brother, Robert, the one she was super close to, 0:19:30.685 --> 0:19:32.285 carried his mother out to the car. 0:19:32.325 --> 0:19:34.125 Apparently it was just too much for her. 0:19:35.445 --> 0:19:40.285 Don Martinez, Billy Jean phillips uncle, told the Arkansas Democraticzette quote, 0:19:40.765 --> 0:19:43.405 the mcknights have been in this community for fifty years. 0:19:43.845 --> 0:19:47.045 They are good people. They are not vindictive, but a 0:19:47.085 --> 0:19:50.205 wound has been reopened here. Please pray for them. 0:19:51.005 --> 0:19:53.085 I think in the end, the father came back and 0:19:53.765 --> 0:19:56.165 thanked me for the efforts that we had done, and 0:19:56.685 --> 0:19:59.245 he said, we got the right guy. You know. He 0:19:59.405 --> 0:20:04.245 was not dissatisfied with what finally got done, except of course, 0:20:04.405 --> 0:20:05.125 for the verdict. 0:20:06.445 --> 0:20:10.445 Obviously, Billy Jean's family was devastated and the rest of 0:20:10.445 --> 0:20:14.445 the community was pretty divided. Was this an innocent man 0:20:14.565 --> 0:20:18.445 who had been railroaded or had local rumors about the 0:20:18.485 --> 0:20:21.965 prosecutor and the sheriff and Billy Jean's sex life stop 0:20:22.165 --> 0:20:34.005 justice from being served. Prosecutor Terry Jones said the verdict 0:20:34.045 --> 0:20:37.125 on Clint Phillips would, in his opinion, make it very 0:20:37.125 --> 0:20:41.285 difficult to prosecute anyone else in future. He said, everyone 0:20:41.325 --> 0:20:44.845 in town knew about the case. Everyone knew about Clint's 0:20:44.885 --> 0:20:49.245 DNA being under Billy Jean's fingernails. Another big question that 0:20:49.365 --> 0:20:53.685 I have is what happened to that physical evidence. Terry 0:20:53.765 --> 0:20:57.085 Jones says that along with the bat being destroyed and 0:20:57.205 --> 0:21:00.765 the bedsheets disappearing, and so many other pieces of evidence 0:21:00.845 --> 0:21:04.005 being mislaid, he was told all of the files had 0:21:04.045 --> 0:21:07.565 been destroyed in a flood. I told him that I 0:21:07.605 --> 0:21:09.805 was going to ask around and do my best to 0:21:09.845 --> 0:21:12.605 figure out what actually happened to those files and if 0:21:12.645 --> 0:21:15.645 any of them are out there somewhere, because it seems 0:21:15.765 --> 0:21:18.645 very strange to me that every single piece of evidence 0:21:19.365 --> 0:21:25.645 from such a crucial case is just gone. Billy Jean's father, Earl, 0:21:25.685 --> 0:21:28.325 passed away in two thousand and five. Edna died in 0:21:28.325 --> 0:21:33.165 twenty fourteen. These people died never knowing who killed their daughter. 0:21:34.405 --> 0:21:37.365 Remember Sheriff Ralph Baker, the one who was Billy Jean's 0:21:37.365 --> 0:21:41.445 friend and who ran Madison County and who, by the way, 0:21:41.485 --> 0:21:43.325 a lot of people believe ran the drug trade in 0:21:43.325 --> 0:21:47.005 Madison County. He became yet another person who died in 0:21:47.045 --> 0:21:51.725 a freak accident that happened in January of nineteen ninety eight. Apparently, 0:21:51.805 --> 0:21:54.245 Sheriff Ralph was in his patrol car trying to cross 0:21:54.285 --> 0:21:58.845 the White River. The cruiser started to flood, it flipped over, 0:21:59.085 --> 0:22:02.325 and he drowned. But some people believe this was not 0:22:02.445 --> 0:22:06.325 just an accident. Even though the sheriff's body was found, 0:22:06.685 --> 0:22:09.445 he became kind of like the Elvis Presley of Arkansas. 0:22:10.125 --> 0:22:12.205 There were rumors he had faked his own death and 0:22:12.365 --> 0:22:14.645 escaped somewhere, that he had taken a lot of cash 0:22:14.645 --> 0:22:18.245 with him, And even though this seems extremely far fetched, 0:22:18.285 --> 0:22:20.565 I can tell you there are rumors on Facebook and 0:22:20.605 --> 0:22:24.685 other places to that effect. One of the reasons why 0:22:24.765 --> 0:22:27.325 a lot of people seem to believe that Ralph Baker 0:22:27.325 --> 0:22:29.565 couldn't have died this way was because he had so. 0:22:29.605 --> 0:22:31.805 Much experience crossing the river. 0:22:31.925 --> 0:22:34.765 They believe he would have known that a bridge like 0:22:34.845 --> 0:22:36.645 that was not safe to cross, and they just don't 0:22:36.645 --> 0:22:39.005 believe he would have taken that chance in those conditions. 0:22:39.685 --> 0:22:41.485 They believe he would have known that that would be 0:22:41.485 --> 0:22:45.125 super dangerous. There were lots of Facebook comments on the 0:22:45.165 --> 0:22:48.605 post about the twentieth anniversary of Ralph's death. It's clear 0:22:48.725 --> 0:22:52.565 again he was a very polarizing figure. Some people absolutely 0:22:52.605 --> 0:22:54.725 loved him and others really hated him. 0:22:55.405 --> 0:22:56.525 One red quote. 0:22:56.765 --> 0:22:59.125 I remember when Ralph Baker took my dad down the 0:22:59.205 --> 0:23:01.565 riverbed and left him handcuffed, beat the hell out of 0:23:01.645 --> 0:23:04.165 him with a gun and a pistol and a flashlight 0:23:04.725 --> 0:23:06.845 and told him to run so he could shoot him 0:23:06.845 --> 0:23:08.765 in the back because he was from California. 0:23:09.325 --> 0:23:09.765 End quote. 0:23:10.645 --> 0:23:16.085 So the controversy over Sheriff Ralph Baker continues to this day. Then, 0:23:16.325 --> 0:23:18.285 in two thousand and nine, and this is just kind 0:23:18.325 --> 0:23:21.445 of a weird side note, but David Mack, the author 0:23:21.485 --> 0:23:24.565 of the expose on Sheriff Ralph Baker, the one that 0:23:24.645 --> 0:23:27.845 talked about Sheriff Baker's alleged involvement in the drug trade. 0:23:28.365 --> 0:23:31.605