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Speaker 3: Did you have any reservation at all about having that child?
Speaker 2: Of course not.
Speaker 4: Did you ever have any.
Speaker 3: Second thoughts about why did I have this child in
Speaker 3: the first time?
Speaker 2: Never? My children were everything to me.
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Glass and this is Burden of Guilt, Episode five,
Speaker 1: Game on. It was the second day of testimony in
Speaker 1: the State of Georgia versus Jan Barry Sandlin wife Tracy
Speaker 1: Raquel's mother, Kathy Allman, was on the stand. She would
Speaker 1: be questioned for six hours. Jeff Brickman went first for
Speaker 1: the prosecution.
Speaker 4: How had you met Jan Berry Sam?
Speaker 2: I met him in the sixth grade when I was
Speaker 2: about eleven or twelve years old.
Speaker 4: Did you care for mister Sam went back in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 2: One, Yes, that is.
Speaker 1: Lead Assistant District Attorney Jeff Brickman then wanted to know
Speaker 1: what happened in the hours leading to Matthew's death.
Speaker 4: December twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one. I want you to
Speaker 4: tell the members of the jury. It's best you can
Speaker 4: remember what it is you did that day, starting in
Speaker 4: the morning.
Speaker 2: I fed the kid's breakfast, bathed im like I always do,
Speaker 2: got them dressed, played with matt That's pretty much for
Speaker 2: the morning. Then I took Tracy to the pediatrician.
Speaker 1: In episode three, I told you how Kathy brought Tracy
Speaker 1: Raquel to the doctor to be treated for bruises and
Speaker 1: a bleeding ear and asked for the baby. Before Kathy
Speaker 1: left the house that day, she laid the baby down
Speaker 1: for a nap and then left him under Jan's supervision.
Speaker 4: When you put him down for a nap on December
Speaker 4: twenty seventh, nineteen seventy one, as far as you knew,
Speaker 4: was he healthy?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Was he breathing yes, Kathy says. When she came home,
Speaker 1: Jan told her to leave Tracy Roquel with him and
Speaker 1: go get the laundry out of the car. She says,
Speaker 1: when she came back into the apartment, Tracy Roquel was
Speaker 1: nowhere to be seen.
Speaker 4: Then what did you do?
Speaker 2: I panicked and wanted to know where Tracy was, and
Speaker 2: Jan said, I don't know. She was right here in
Speaker 2: front of me. And I was panicking, like, well, why
Speaker 2: didn't you see where she went? She's only two years old,
Speaker 2: she should keep an eye her.
Speaker 4: So what did you do?
Speaker 2: Started frantically running around the house looking for Tracy?
Speaker 4: Were there only a certain number of rooms? Wish to look?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Did you look in the room?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Did you find her when you first started looking for her?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Where did you find her in Matt's bed? What was
Speaker 4: she doing in the bed sitting? Did you see Matt?
Speaker 2: Not at first?
Speaker 4: Did you do at some point see him?
Speaker 2: Then I walked in over to Tracy because I thought
Speaker 2: she was in the bed with Matt, and I panicked.
Speaker 2: And then when I got to the bed, Matt wasn't
Speaker 2: in there, and I saw him laying on the floor
Speaker 2: next to the chester drawers.
Speaker 4: What did he look like?
Speaker 2: He looked fine, but he was breathing real heavy.
Speaker 4: Did you have a chance to look at his face
Speaker 4: or his eyes?
Speaker 2: Yes? I held him and looked at him. He wouldn't
Speaker 2: wake up. And one eye was dilated all the way
Speaker 2: in and one was all the way out, and he
Speaker 2: just wouldn't wake up, and he was breathing funny.
Speaker 1: Matthew would never wake up.
Speaker 2: What if anything to mister Samlin did he started to
Speaker 2: grab Tracy up in Spiker.
Speaker 1: One child was dying and the other was being punished.
Speaker 4: If you would describe for the member of the jury
Speaker 4: as best you can, what was your condition right then?
Speaker 2: I was in a status shock.
Speaker 4: Do you recall much about what happened after that night? No?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 1: According to the recorded phone call between Kathy and Tracy Riquel,
Speaker 1: Cathy had no memory of the two weeks that followed
Speaker 1: Matthew's death, and she says Jan kept her in seclusion.
Speaker 4: Did you have any idea how he had died?
Speaker 2: No? I thought it was an accident in a horrible accent.
Speaker 1: But records show that authorities were told that two year
Speaker 1: old Tracy Roquel threw Matthew out of the crib and
Speaker 1: killed him.
Speaker 4: Anytime, were you led to believe that it was an accident?
Speaker 2: Yes, how through the police and everybody around me.
Speaker 4: Did you believe that?
Speaker 2: Yes? I believed it.
Speaker 4: Did you have any reason not to believe that?
Speaker 2: Oh? I did.
Speaker 4: At any time, did you have an opportunity to talk
Speaker 4: with mister Sandlin about what happened to Matt that day? Yes,
Speaker 4: what did he tell you?
Speaker 2: You tell me it was a terrible accident and I
Speaker 2: needed to accept it and get over it.
Speaker 4: Did you take him out his work?
Speaker 2: Pretty much?
Speaker 4: Anything about that?
Speaker 1: Kathy Aumen was asked why all those years later she
Speaker 1: stuck with that story and repeated it to her daughter
Speaker 1: even when it didn't make sense.
Speaker 4: You were called telling her that there was easier to
Speaker 4: believe what I was led to believe. Yes, what did
Speaker 4: you mean by that?
Speaker 2: What I meant was, when you're in a state of
Speaker 2: shock and you just lost your child, it's somehow emotionally
Speaker 2: easier to accept an accident than it would be to
Speaker 2: accept that he was murdered.
Speaker 4: Did you want to believe that it was possible that
Speaker 4: he could have done this to your child? Did you
Speaker 4: want to believe that?
Speaker 2: Then? No, this was a person that I loved since
Speaker 2: I was twelve years old. I thought he was the
Speaker 2: love of my life.
Speaker 3: Did you have any reservation at all about having that child?
Speaker 2: Of course not.
Speaker 4: Did you ever have any.
Speaker 3: Second thoughts about why did I have this child in
Speaker 3: the first time?
Speaker 2: Oh? Never? My children were everything to me.
Speaker 1: Jeff Brickman asked Kathy about her own involvement in her
Speaker 1: son's death.
Speaker 4: Did you kill him?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: I didn't.
Speaker 1: She also told the court why she kept this a
Speaker 1: secret from Tracy Riquel.
Speaker 4: Why wasn't it easy for you to talk about this
Speaker 4: with Tracy.
Speaker 2: Because I didn't want to hurt her if she had
Speaker 2: done it, I really wasn't sure.
Speaker 4: Did she question you about it?
Speaker 2: Yes, a lot, lot for about ten years.
Speaker 4: Was there a point in time when Tracy asked you
Speaker 4: to grant a release of the medical records?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Did you do that?
Speaker 2: Yes? Why did you do it? Because I want the
Speaker 2: truth to come out.
Speaker 1: I want to know what happened to my son and
Speaker 1: for Cathy, the idea that Tracy Raquel killed her brother
Speaker 1: didn't seem out of the question.
Speaker 4: If it was an accident, was Tracy the person it
Speaker 4: would have been the cause of the accident?
Speaker 2: Yes, well either her Jan, I don't know. They were
Speaker 2: the only two in the.
Speaker 1: House, that's true. The only two people home were a
Speaker 1: grown adult and a two year old Jan. Sandlan's lawyer,
Speaker 1: Carin Maul was ready for the cross examination.
Speaker 5: Now, Tracy was and is a fairly very intelligent young lady,
Speaker 5: and she and she was developmentally advanced. She was walking
Speaker 5: when she was nine months old, right, and she was talking.
Speaker 5: She wasn't talking yet, she was about twelve months. She
Speaker 5: wasn't talking yet. She could just say MoMA and bye bye.
Speaker 5: She was walking at nine months. And she was a
Speaker 5: caretaker in a sense, wasn't she of Matt? She took
Speaker 5: care of her. You called her once the little mother,
Speaker 5: didn't you.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's hard to know what Karen Maul was going
Speaker 1: for here. How would Tracy Raquel's ability to walk and
Speaker 1: talk around the age of one make a difference in
Speaker 1: this case. Karin's next line of questioning was about baby
Speaker 1: Matt's condition on the day he died.
Speaker 5: When you left Matt, there wasn't anything on his body.
Speaker 2: What do you mean there was?
Speaker 5: I mean there wasn't any old bruises on the house neck, No,
Speaker 5: no mark. Sorry, there wasn't anything on his left heel.
Speaker 1: Now, remember when Matthew was brought to the hospital night
Speaker 1: he died, doctors noticed a bruised clavicle and a burnmark
Speaker 1: on his left foot.
Speaker 5: No, okay, So it must have shocked you when you
Speaker 5: read those medical reports.
Speaker 2: Yes, very much so.
Speaker 5: Now you testified here today that you ran around the
Speaker 5: house frantically looking for Tracy. And we've already established that
Speaker 5: we basically got two bedrooms right right, very small apartment,
Speaker 5: so not a whole lot of running around, right, I mean,
Speaker 5: we're going in one bedroom, in the other correct.
Speaker 2: Right, and in the kitchen, and on the back porch
Speaker 2: and on the front. I was looking everywhere for it.
Speaker 5: Okay, you didn't go into the bedrooms. Evidently didn't go
Speaker 5: into Matt's bedrooms.
Speaker 2: At first. I looked in there and I didn't see her.
Speaker 2: But I wasn't looking at his bed because I thought
Speaker 2: he was a sweep.
Speaker 5: Okay, but it's a small room. If you had stood
Speaker 5: in the doorway and looked in, you'd have seen whoever
Speaker 5: was there.
Speaker 2: Like I said, I glanced in the first time, the
Speaker 2: second time I found.
Speaker 1: Let's step out of the courtroom for a minute here
Speaker 1: and talk about what Tracy Riquel had been through over
Speaker 1: the course of her life. As you know, Tercy Raquel
Speaker 1: suffered a lot. During her childhood. Jan Sanlin was extremely
Speaker 1: abusive and some stories were frankly too horrific to broadcast.
Speaker 1: As a teenager, she had attempted suicide and her mother
Speaker 1: tried to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital. By
Speaker 1: the mid eighties, Tracy Raquel had read the incident report
Speaker 1: that showed Matthew had suffered a head injury, but there
Speaker 1: was no investigation. Despite her fragile state, she wanted answers.
Speaker 5: Nineteen eighty six, she starts confronting you, and during this
Speaker 5: period of time, you tell her the truth. What do
Speaker 5: you believe is the truth? You tell her that she's responsible.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't tell her that.
Speaker 5: Okay, what did you tell her?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know how to answer that question. She
Speaker 2: was having problems in trying to help her with the problems,
Speaker 2: I brought it up. What did you say? I told
Speaker 2: her what had happened, that it was an accident.
Speaker 5: Did you tell her that she threw the baby out
Speaker 5: of the crip?
Speaker 2: I may have at some point, I really don't remember.
Speaker 5: Let's just step back from that. Sometime in eighty five
Speaker 5: or eighty six, to help your daughter, you brought up
Speaker 5: the fact that she may have been responsible for throwing
Speaker 5: the baby out of the crib.
Speaker 2: Well, the truth is, my mother actually told her how
Speaker 2: matt died. I told therapists and people what I thought happened,
Speaker 2: and we were trying to help Tracy deal with Let's.
Speaker 5: Let's take one fact at a time. Did you tell
Speaker 5: your daughter sometime in eighty five or eighty six that
Speaker 5: she maybe No, I told her therapist.
Speaker 1: Tracy Raquel didn't know, but Cathy had no problem stating
Speaker 1: it as fact her two year old was capable of murder.
Speaker 5: Isn't it true, Miss Almond, that you told them that
Speaker 5: it was possible that you believed that Tracy, with her
Speaker 5: heavy baby shoes, stepped on Matthew's head. Yes, you tell
Speaker 5: that to Sergeant Unis when you talk to.
Speaker 2: Him nineteen eighty five.
Speaker 5: I don't remember you tell that to mister Brickman and
Speaker 5: Miss Mango.
Speaker 2: I may have mentioned it, I don't remember.
Speaker 5: You don't well, missus Almond, you wrote a statements for
Speaker 5: sergeant's units, didn't you. Yes, from nineteen ninety five. Yes,
Speaker 5: you put it in that statement.
Speaker 2: I don't remember.
Speaker 5: Did Miss Mann ask you to sign a release so
Speaker 5: that she could see the records from PIA.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: PIA stands for the Psychiatric Institute of Atlanta, the facility
Speaker 1: where Kathy had Tracy Riquel committed.
Speaker 5: She never asked you that. Did you ever tell her
Speaker 5: that you had talked to folks at PIA.
Speaker 2: No, Tracy was only there for a brief time, just
Speaker 2: to be evaluated. But you had told I told him
Speaker 2: about Matt's death because I thought maybe that was what
Speaker 2: was wrong with her.
Speaker 5: And you told them that it was possible that Tracy,
Speaker 5: with her heavy baby shoes, stepped on Matt's head and then.
Speaker 2: Possibly trying to figure out what happened.
Speaker 5: You also mentioned that there was some thought that maybe
Speaker 5: mister Sandlin did it right, right, okay, but that you
Speaker 5: believed and correct me if I'm mistaken that she was
Speaker 5: wearing heavy baby shoes right, yes, and that she could
Speaker 5: have crushed the baby's skull that way.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't remember exactly that. I was just trying
Speaker 2: to throw up ideas of anything that would help her.
Speaker 1: I'm having a hard time with this. Kathy wants to
Speaker 1: help Tracy Raquel get over something she isn't even aware of,
Speaker 1: and so I'm.
Speaker 5: Making sure I understand January first, nineteen eighty five, when
Speaker 5: you're talking to the social worker, at that point in time,
Speaker 5: Tracy doesn't know that she is in any way responsible, right,
Speaker 5: So you're not trying to help her, right, I'm trying
Speaker 5: to help Tracy, Okay, but you're not telling Tracy this right, right? Okay.
Speaker 5: So January of nineteen eighty five, you were talking to therapists, correct,
Speaker 5: and you mentioned about Tracy possibly throwing the baby out
Speaker 5: of the bed, right. You mentioned about crushing the baby's skull,
Speaker 5: and you mentioned about, well, the authorities have some suspicion
Speaker 5: that maybe it didn't happen that way, right, right, That
Speaker 5: it had been ruled an accident, yes, And that you
Speaker 5: had married this man in nineteen seventy three, yes, And
Speaker 5: that you had lived with him as a married that
Speaker 5: you had been married until nineteen eighty right. And at
Speaker 5: that time you told the therapists that you believed that
Speaker 5: Tracy threw the baby out of the bed.
Speaker 2: Right, That's what I believed for a long time. The
Speaker 2: police and the investigation and all led me to believe that.
Speaker 5: Okay. So it was the police and the investigation investigators
Speaker 5: that led you to believe that Tracy threw the baby
Speaker 5: from the bed.
Speaker 1: Yes, what investigation in nineteen seventy one? There was no investigation,
Speaker 1: That's what God Tracy riquelso interested in the first place.
Speaker 5: Did the police also lead you to believe that Tracy
Speaker 5: might have stepped on the baby's head with her heavy
Speaker 5: baby shoes.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't remember where that came from. I thought maybe
Speaker 2: I was just trying to figure it out in my
Speaker 2: mind somehow.
Speaker 5: Didn't miss rain tell you that to find out at
Speaker 5: the age of fifteen that she was responsible for the
Speaker 5: death of her brother, that that was pretty traumatic for Yes,
Speaker 5: And she says to you at that point that it
Speaker 5: has caused her a lot of pain and anguish to
Speaker 5: carry the burden from nineteen eighty five when she's fifteen
Speaker 5: to today, at that time ninety four, that she was
Speaker 5: responsible for the death of her brother.
Speaker 2: Right, That's where she says.
Speaker 5: Miss Almond. Isn't it true that Tracy told you that
Speaker 5: she has spent fifteen years believing that she was responsible
Speaker 5: for the death of her brother? Right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 5: And she told you that you never said anything different,
Speaker 5: In the fact, you told her that she was responsible.
Speaker 2: Correct, That's what I believed.
Speaker 5: Your mother told your daughter that at the age of fifteen,
Speaker 5: that she threw her baby brother out of the bed.
Speaker 5: You told her therapist that she stepped on the baby's spell.
Speaker 5: Miss Almond.
Speaker 2: Right, I don't recall that, but I could have. She
Speaker 2: had on nephew shoes.
Speaker 5: You've tried to stop her from digging into it, haven't
Speaker 5: you know?
Speaker 2: I haven't tried to stop her from digging into it.
Speaker 2: I have tried to stop her from harassing me. There's
Speaker 2: a big difference.
Speaker 5: From harassing you from accusing you.
Speaker 2: If she was accusing me of not knowing what happened,
Speaker 2: that I should have known.
Speaker 5: I was the mother you testified earlier. She accused you
Speaker 5: of being directly responsible at one time.
Speaker 2: Well, she has had lots of different thoughts about it all.
Speaker 5: Isn't it true that your daughter suggested to you that
Speaker 5: there Isn't it by some chance possible that Jen coersed
Speaker 5: you into saying that I was responsible for it, and
Speaker 5: maybe that you told the hospital folks that and that's
Speaker 5: why they didn't pursue it. Doesn't she ask you those
Speaker 5: sort of things, yes, And your response is I don't
Speaker 5: think that that's true.
Speaker 1: Right, And then Cathy pointed the finger at Jam.
Speaker 2: It had to be him because it wasn't me, and
Speaker 2: no one was else was in there but Tracy. And
Speaker 2: when we saw the medical reports, there's no why Tracy
Speaker 2: could have done that to him. It had to be
Speaker 2: done by somebody else. And the only person there was
Speaker 2: Chan and he tricked me by making me go downstairs
Speaker 2: and get the clothes so he could put Tracy in
Speaker 2: the bed.
Speaker 5: I am sure of it, okay, Then why in nineteen
Speaker 5: eighty five didn't you say that.
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure of it in eighty five.
Speaker 5: Why miss Allman, if you remember it clear as a bell,
Speaker 5: didn't you say anytime in nineteen eighty five when you
Speaker 5: were talking to the social worker, why did you suggest
Speaker 5: to her that your daughter threw the baby out of
Speaker 5: the bed or crushed the baby with her heavy baby shoes.
Speaker 5: Why didn't you say he blocked my way. And I'm suspicious.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I simply giving background information to them
Speaker 2: so they could help Tracy. And I thought it was
Speaker 2: because she was having bad memories about what happened to Man.
Speaker 5: The tombstone that was on the grave at the time
Speaker 5: of the exhamation says mother's little angel resting to the snow.
Speaker 1: Yes, but when Matthew was buried in nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: his tombstone read great grandson of Arthur Ahmann, and that
Speaker 1: was it.
Speaker 2: That's not the.
Speaker 5: Original stone, isn't That stone was placed two or three
Speaker 5: days before the exhibition two or three days before you
Speaker 5: and Ms. Mangoon and mister Brickman and everybody else that
Speaker 5: was that the exhibition two or three days before that.
Speaker 2: Yes, I wanted to take the opportunity to her at
Speaker 2: that time. Didn't make a new.
Speaker 5: One show everyone. No, you did not wait until after
Speaker 5: the exculution.
Speaker 2: No, I just wanted to in place for the reburial,
Speaker 2: and that was the time that we could get it done.
Speaker 1: Or it was because the media would be covering the exhumation.
Speaker 1: Let's get back to Tracy Raquel. She was home when
Speaker 1: Kathy was on the stand because she had been dismissed
Speaker 1: and had two small children waiting for her in Savannah.
Speaker 6: The judge had said, no one is supposed to watch
Speaker 6: the trial. You're a witness, so to question yourself, okay.
Speaker 6: I went home and there were family in the house,
Speaker 6: and people were in and the court was on in
Speaker 6: another room and the den in the house, and I
Speaker 6: walked from the laundry room with the laundry and I
Speaker 6: caught a glimpse of Kathy on the television and she
Speaker 6: was satisfying. The prosecution called me that night.
Speaker 1: Former Assistant District Attorney Leeann Mangoon.
Speaker 7: I called her that night. I remember I was standing
Speaker 7: in my kitchen and this was back in the days
Speaker 7: when there was bones on the wall with a cord,
Speaker 7: so I remember standing there with this phone and said
Speaker 7: something about your mom testified.
Speaker 1: It all went.
Speaker 7: Okay, and I don't remember her exact words, but she
Speaker 7: told me she had watched it on TV and my
Speaker 7: heart sunk.
Speaker 1: Tracy rerickkil says it wasn't intentional. It was only a
Speaker 1: few seconds, but it was enough. Lead Assistant District Attorney Jeff.
Speaker 8: Rickman, we didn't think we had any choice but to
Speaker 8: bring that to the attention immediately to Judge Fuller, and
Speaker 8: we hoped, the hope of hopes that he wasn't going
Speaker 8: to declare a mistrial. I don't think Tracy did anything intentional.
Speaker 8: Tracy thought her testimony was over. There was nothing that
Speaker 8: she did wrong. It wasn't going to change the course
Speaker 8: of anything.
Speaker 7: She was not a fact witness who had something to
Speaker 7: offer about what happened on the day that Matthew was murdered.
Speaker 7: So while I knew it was a problem, and I
Speaker 7: knew unquestionably it was something I needed to let the
Speaker 7: judge know about it. Didn't immediately strike me as something
Speaker 7: that was going to result in a mistrial.
Speaker 1: The prosecutors did their duty and notified the court.
Speaker 6: Then they called back an hour later and said, okay,
Speaker 6: we need you in court. So there's a five am flight.
Speaker 6: I arrived, walked into the courtroom and no jury, nobody
Speaker 6: in the court, just the judge, the prosecutors, the defense
Speaker 6: in jan and asked me if I had seen anything
Speaker 6: on the television.
Speaker 1: As expected, defense counsel pounced on what happened.
Speaker 6: The defense asked for a mistrial, that I had broken
Speaker 6: sequester quorders.
Speaker 1: Judge Fuller heard arguments for and against a mistrial. Everything
Speaker 1: hung in the balance.
Speaker 2: I don't think that I have done any thing wrong
Speaker 2: to effect this man's rights. He has more rights than
Speaker 2: I have. And I'm sitting here and I'm not charged.
Speaker 5: You're not going to be sent away for life in
Speaker 5: prison as well.
Speaker 2: I had spent a life in a prison.
Speaker 1: Corrin mal blamed cameras in the courtroom for causing the problem.
Speaker 5: This is a man's life, and Jerry Springer is calling.
Speaker 1: Us and she didn't seem particularly moved by Tracy Riquel.
Speaker 5: That's something to look forward to. Getting her up on
Speaker 5: the stand so she can do what she did. Just now,
Speaker 5: sit and cry, a beautiful crying girl. That's what I'm
Speaker 5: going to confront.
Speaker 1: Would Judge Fuller allow the trial to continue? Tracy Riquel
Speaker 1: held her breath. It was finally possible to get justice
Speaker 1: for Matthew, and now her actions could undo all the
Speaker 1: years of work. Tracy Riquel Burns had spent years of
Speaker 1: her young life persuading law enforcement that the death of
Speaker 1: her baby brother in nineteen seventy one wasn't an accident
Speaker 1: but a vicious murder, and she had succeeded. But five
Speaker 1: days into the trial, she had violated the judge's order
Speaker 1: of sequestration and saw her mother's testimony on television. Defense
Speaker 1: attorney Corin Maul argued for a mistrial and went after
Speaker 1: the prosecution.
Speaker 5: They deliberately deliberately violated your order and your honor. I
Speaker 5: hate to say that I told everyone so, but I did.
Speaker 1: She also went after Tracy Riquel.
Speaker 5: She has been tainted and she violated this rule. And
Speaker 5: now when it comes down to it, she's a pretty
Speaker 5: lovely young woman and she's going to sit there and
Speaker 5: cry and cry and cry and cry. I have no
Speaker 5: way to process it no way.
Speaker 1: She saved her last words for the media.
Speaker 5: Having these folks in here was just basically putting the
Speaker 5: feed into the witnesses, into the jurors homes so that
Speaker 5: they could go home and see what they were not
Speaker 5: able to see, either because they were sequestered or because
Speaker 5: they were in a jury room.
Speaker 1: Defense attorney carrin Mal made it seem like the most
Speaker 1: important thing was not proving who did it, but who
Speaker 1: didn't do it. And if she could do that, why
Speaker 1: would you need a trial?
Speaker 9: By dad, I'm going to order one, and I'm sure
Speaker 9: they're getting the state size and the certificate for Tracy,
Speaker 9: and you're on her considant with the all signed members
Speaker 9: of the press.
Speaker 5: Tracy, you are not responsible for the death of your brother,
Speaker 5: and let's go home. She isn't responsible, she never was responsible.
Speaker 5: Her mother made her responsible. She now has ruined the claw.
Speaker 5: He can't have fair trial. Let's put an end to
Speaker 5: this show of wanna please moved for miss trial.
Speaker 1: With prejudice with prejudice. Let's talk about that. For a
Speaker 1: sec asking for a mistrial with prejudice was an important distinction.
Speaker 1: If the judge announced that the case was dismissed with prejudice.
Speaker 1: That meant it would be permanently dismissed and could not
Speaker 1: be retried. And while the prosecution was upset Tracy Riquel
Speaker 1: broke the sequestration order, they weren't giving up Roder.
Speaker 7: I take strong exception with Ms Maul's contention that this
Speaker 7: was a purposeful violation. Clearly, if this were wilful disobedience
Speaker 7: of the court's order, she never.
Speaker 4: Would have told me about it.
Speaker 7: It was not something which was done intentionally, and it
Speaker 7: does not rise to the level of an error which
Speaker 7: warrants a mistrial.
Speaker 1: Prosecutor Lianne Manngun implored Judge Fuller to let the trial continue.
Speaker 5: There are any number of cases which support the position.
Speaker 7: What is affected by her violating the rule is her credibility,
Speaker 7: not her ability to testify.
Speaker 1: Judge Fuller listened, but he would take his time to
Speaker 1: make a ruling.
Speaker 10: I am not prepared at this moment to rule on
Speaker 10: the motion for miss Trump. I'm going to recess the
Speaker 10: trial until Monday morning. In the meantime, I may or
Speaker 10: may not grant a Miss Trump. I don't blame it
Speaker 10: on the TV coverage, but without it, it wouldn't occurred. There
Speaker 10: are times in our society that we must pay a
Speaker 10: price for other freedoms that we have. It could be
Speaker 10: that this case ends up being a casualty in order
Speaker 10: to guarantee that we have other rights.
Speaker 1: What was your reaction to the idea of a mistrial.
Speaker 6: I didn't do anything. It just really floored me. I
Speaker 6: was run over by freight traine. I didn't understand.
Speaker 1: When Monday finally came around, all sides anxiously awaited the
Speaker 1: judge's decision.
Speaker 10: That's true to come in, please, ladies and gentlemen. I
Speaker 10: have a statement to make. There has been an egregious
Speaker 10: violation of the witness requestration rule, which, in the context
Speaker 10: of this case, is irreputable. I cannot fix it. The
Speaker 10: ability to present the best available defense has been destroyed,
Speaker 10: at least for now, perhaps forever. One must remember that
Speaker 10: missus Vrain is not an incidental witness. In retrospect, it
Speaker 10: was too much to expect this young woman to ignore
Speaker 10: not only her mother's testimony, but all of the commentaries
Speaker 10: in her words and I quote, I have spent my
Speaker 10: entire life waiting to hear this testimony. How many of
Speaker 10: us understand circumstances could have resisted this temptation. The defendant's
Speaker 10: motion for mistrial is granted. Well, the prejudice attaches will
Speaker 10: be the subject of further discussion with counsel. It is
Speaker 10: my hope that Miss rain will receive some comfort from
Speaker 10: knowing that she caused this case to be reopened, that
Speaker 10: the cabcatty responded in extraordinary fashion, and that it has
Speaker 10: been established in the court of law acknowledged by all
Speaker 10: that she did not cause her brother's death.
Speaker 1: It was a devastating blow. Tracy Raquel had waited decades
Speaker 1: to get justice from Matthew, and it was over.
Speaker 8: It was a carefully worded statement letting Tracy know that
Speaker 8: he didn't fault her, and he took some blame about
Speaker 8: the cameras, but that despite her valiant efforts, this may
Speaker 8: be the end. And then we went back to the office,
Speaker 8: tail between our legs.
Speaker 1: As for Tracy Riquel, she already knew she hadn't killed Matthew.
Speaker 1: She wasn't there for that. She was there to bring
Speaker 1: a child's killer to justice. Judge Fuller's words didn't make
Speaker 1: a difference. You must have had so many feelings at
Speaker 1: this point.
Speaker 6: I think I was just in shock of course, there's
Speaker 6: all of these things. It's humiliation, it's anger, it's what
Speaker 6: just happened.
Speaker 1: Nobody was enjoying this moment more than her father. And
Speaker 1: somehow Jan Barry Sandlin managed to get a hold of
Speaker 1: Tracy Riquel's phone number.
Speaker 6: I went home and the very next evening got a
Speaker 6: call from Jan, which is not supposed to happen.
Speaker 1: It was ominous. She could hear something faint in the background.
Speaker 6: It was a talk show or something that was playing,
Speaker 6: and that's all you could hear. And it was describing
Speaker 6: a lawnmower that had run over this little girl's legs.
Speaker 6: And that was the first indirect threat to my children.
Speaker 1: Did he say anything?
Speaker 6: He was laughing and said, see, I told you Ed,
Speaker 6: I'll win the war. He may have won a battle,
Speaker 6: but I'm the one who's going to win the war.
Speaker 1: Next time. On Burden of Guilt.
Speaker 8: Last time I checked, there's no such thing as a
Speaker 8: one free murder rule in Georgia. Let's crank it up,
Speaker 8: game one trial to Let's go.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for Burden of Guilt at documentary coming in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four and airing only on Paramount Plus. If
Speaker 1: you would like to reach out to the Burden of
Speaker 1: Guilt team. Email us at burdenoguiltpod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: That's Burden of Guilt Pod at gmail dot com. If
Speaker 1: you or someone you know is worried about maltreatment or
Speaker 1: suspect that a child is being abused or neglected, call
Speaker 1: the Child Help National Child Abuse Hotline. You can call
Speaker 1: or text one eight hundred four a child. That's one
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Speaker 1: Glass Podcasts. Burden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts,
Speaker 1: a division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted and executive produced by me Nancy Glass,
Speaker 1: written and produced by Andrea Gunning and Carrie Hartman, also
Speaker 1: produced by Ben Fetterman and associate producer Kristin Melchiori. Our
Speaker 1: iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Trey Cyrah kel Burns and her husband Bart. Audio
Speaker 1: editing and mixing by Matt Delbecchio. Burden of Guild's theme
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