WEBVTT - The Secret Girlfriend 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:01.880 What you are about to hear is a work of 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.920 investigative journalism that explores one woman's search for answers in 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.560 her son's death. The views and opinions in this podcast 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:14.280 do not reflect those of I Heart Media. Previously on Somebody, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.759 the first car that we thought were the police that 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.840 was not Courtney's vehicle in the league, and they found 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.200 some new evidence that said that it may have happened 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.920 the way the police stated. The metaphor of walking back 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.440 and assumption feels exactly right. You're really trying to reorient 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.640 and reboot really the entire investigation. Every part of me 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.320 wants to believe that my son could have survived. Every 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:50.960 part of me. It looks like they are handcuffing a 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:56.720 suspect to bring them in for an arrest. My name 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.680 is Chaparral Wells. This is a story of my on Courtney, 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.080 a young black man in a fancy car who wound 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.080 up with a bullet in his back in front of 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.800 a Chicago police station. And it's the story of my 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:21.240 search for the truth. This is somebody, everybody, somebody every day, 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:41.880 No bide, no, no, that's right. This is a video 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.880 of Courtney sleeping. Babe still want to go out. It's 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:53.040 taken a few years ago by his girlfriend at the time, Roseo. Babe, 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:59.240 you still want to go out? Churn up. Hmm Yeah. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.680 Roseo and Courtney they were one of those on again, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.800 off again couples, but everyone knew that Rosseo was the 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.040 love of his life. She always felt like a daughter 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:15.200 to me and still does. Can you show us your tattoo? 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:20.360 This is it, but it's um actually Courtney's name, and 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.959 the date we started officially dating. Um. It's kind of funny. 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:27.799 It was eleven, twelve thirteen. I made him way to 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:29.160 day to ask me out the next day so it 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:36.440 could be eleven. Corney was very caring and for Rosseo, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:40.400 she received all of that. He'd make up breakfast, he'd 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:43.800 packed her lunch. He even sometimes he watched her niece 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:46.440 for her. He's like, oh, this is a kid I'm 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.280 taking to school and babysitting her And I'm like, you're 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:58.320 doing what? Yeah. He just loved kids. Rosie and Courtney 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.720 joining World Ventures at the same time. She also got 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.040 a BMW as a sales reward. Courtney's was my room 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.200 and Rossel's was Champagne. I'm kind of competitive, so as 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:10.800 soon as Corney pulled it out, I was like, I 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.840 have to go get mine too. But at World Ventures, 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.000 Courtney had a lot of other female co workers. You know, 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:22.840 Courtney really loved women. That's Maryland. She worked with Courtney. 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.800 She saw all the drama around him. There was always 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.000 an incident with with something like, oh, you know, you're 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.440 flaring with this girl or you're talking to this girl. 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.560 She can't be playing games and having like all these 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.320 different like you know, girls that you're talking to, like 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:42.240 we're here to run a business. When I think about 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.440 all these other women that it things that he had 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:48.880 a relationship with, they were to me just filling the gap. 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.720 Here I am talking to Alison from the Invisible Institute 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.320 about all of this. Don't know why he and r 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:01.000 broke up because he was shams. Oh she found out that. 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:06.760 I knew Courtney had a lot of little girl friends, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:09.560 but what I didn't know is that his love life 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:12.360 was getting in the way of his job. I found 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.720 this recording of Courtney talking about his setbacks at work. 0:04:16.880 --> 0:04:19.559 You think about me is that you know, it looks 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.440 good on the outside, but sometimes it can be bad 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.360 behind closed doors, and you know, and that's that's that's 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:28.360 the obstacles that you're gonna have to go through. You're 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.680 gonna have to be able to take a punch in. 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.159 Courtney's boss set him down more than once and told 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.960 him he needed to stop dating people from World Ventures. 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:43.360 They even removed him from the leadership team. But Courtney 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.880 started seeing another co worker anyway, so they had to 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:53.800 keep it a secret. Her name was Alma, and the 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.359 night he was killed, Courtney was on his way to 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:07.520 her house. When word got out that Courtney was shot, 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.440 all of his friends started calling each other. They were 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:13.760 trying to figure out who Courtney was going to see 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:20.520 at that hour. Eventually they landed on Alma. A lot 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.360 of people were very very up that were Courtney's coworker, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:29.160 Maryland again, because first of all, we had no idea, 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.560 like no idea that you know, they were even like 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.919 talking or messing around or anything. She lives in a 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:41.400 really rough neighborhood. Maybe an exploit for saw something and 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:44.440 got upset that Cortney was there, Like you know, so 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:47.279 many things ran through our head, and of course the 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.960 first thing to do is blame her, because why were 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:58.560 you even there. A few hours after Courtney died, the 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.720 police went to see out mom and they drove her 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:06.839 to the hospital. Lots of Courtney's friends were there. Courtney's 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.159 friends were grilling Alma for information. She told them that 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.880 she didn't hear anything, she didn't see anything, just that 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.200 Courtney had text her saying he was outside her house 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:26.320 and then he never showed up. I wonder if they 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.200 would have blamed her if that hadn't if they hadn't 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.360 been romantically involved. I feel like people do that to women. 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.680 You know, you could see the pain on her face 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.240 that she felt some sort of guilt, and I told 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.280 her at that that very day, you can't feel guilty, 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:47.800 Corney Courtney. Ultimately, Cortney made the choice. He unfortunately made 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:52.560 a choice that was deadly for him. The more I 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.440 learned about Almah, the more I understood this wasn't just 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.160 the hookup situation. It was starting to get serious is 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.440 and he was trying to bond with her kids, and 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:07.560 he was over there at three or four nights a week. 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.040 It had been more than a year since my last 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.400 meeting with police. In their latest case update in Courtney's 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:29.679 file just stated that they had no updates. I needed 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:33.360 to know who shot my son and clearly the police 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.560 weren't going to be any help, so Alison and I 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:41.360 we went on without them. We kept going through Courtney's phone, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.480 trying to understand not only who he was talking to, 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.800 but what was going on in his life in the 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:52.080 exact time of his interactions that last night. We got 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:56.800 help from this digital forensic expert, Dr Ashley Podowski, who 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:02.120 volunteered her time to go through Courtney's phone. Hi, Ashley, 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.560 how are you. I'm doing good. How are you doing? 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.320 I'm doing very well. She has these tools to scrape 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.560 every bit of information off the phone and organize it 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.520 so we can find any clues that were there. So 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.680 I'm actually sending you something right now. I mean, she's 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.920 got an email from drop box. She's based in South Dakota, 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.440 so we had to send her Cordiney's phone. I was 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.840 nervous that the phone could get lost, because you know, 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:28.560 that was all that I had of him, and it 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.440 was evidence. So I was just nervous of it leaving 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:39.360 my presence. These are precious things to me. It was 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.240 about a week and a half when we received the 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.000 phone back. It came back safe and sound, thank god. 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.199 Plus it came back with a detail log of all 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.880 Cortneys calls texts with time stamps as accurate as they 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:58.800 can get. I calmbed through them with my family. When 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:02.120 did he make the nine one one? Carl at one 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.160 sixty three, so from one level, it had to be 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:11.800 about one twelve. Now after this, okay, I'm going We 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.760 were looking for signs that Courtney was in trouble, that 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.080 something was going on, but we didn't see anything. The 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.360 only thing that we found was him goofing off with 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:28.000 his friends and also singing and dancing and making videos. 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.120 Then we looked at the day he was killed. I 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:34.200 wanted to see exactly when Courtney and Alma were in touch. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:37.560 He sent her a text in top of the morning 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.640 at am. She rolled back a few hours later, and 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.760 then they were texting all afternoon, lots of heart emojis. 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.680 He messaged her again about ten PM from a World 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.280 Venturous presentation. He was in the city training a new 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:59.000 recruit Casey. Everybody was really happy like um. By the 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:02.640 end of the night, we ended up listening to music 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.559 and he was wrapping, which was really cool. I found 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.880 the photo of Cordney circled up around a kitchen table 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.080 with some friend He's wearing his favorite red hoodie and 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.439 everyone is holding Dixie cups. Corney is doing a hand 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:21.000 gesture and basically it's the rock on sign. Corney was 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.360 always doing the rock on side and pictures rock on dude. 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:34.400 You know, right about midnight, Courtney text Alma saying I 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:39.080 need to book a massage super sore. Then Alma text 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:44.360 him back, I got you. Corney says when, and she 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:50.800 wrote today. Then just before one in the morning, Corney 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:56.200 headed to her house and Belmont Craigan. On the way there, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:00.440 Courtney was just being his social butterfly self. He was 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.160 on his phone. He was talking to friends and chatting 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:11.040 on Facebook Messenger. He texts Alma, I'm outside. She texts back, 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:15.480 what really, and he was like, yo, okay, I'm going, 0:11:15.600 --> 0:11:18.800 she said, meaning that she was headed downstairs to open 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:24.640 the gate. From the phone records and parking tickets that 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.240 we found, we know that Courtney and Alma had this 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.439 little routine. He drive down her street, cut through the alley, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:33.680 and parked by the church where he could leave his 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:38.120 car overnight, right by this gold statue of Jesus arms 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:43.680 open wide. Courtney would text Alma saying he arrived, so 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.360 she go downstairs and opened the gate for him. They 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.320 did this several nights a week, over and over again. 0:11:52.120 --> 0:12:00.200 Ali Park Alma, Ali Park Alma. And that night on 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:05.720 March four, Corney sent his last text to Alma at 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.079 one eleven in the morning, but he never showed up 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:20.520 at her door. I've been uh living in ministering here 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:25.040 for nineteen years already. This is Father Richard Ballas. He's 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:27.480 a Catholic priest at the church on the corner St. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:31.280 Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr. Father Ballas lives on the second 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:33.520 floor of the church rectory. I know there was a 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:36.800 shooting movie here right in front of the rectory between 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.280 the two streets there. I remember that, and they put 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.960 flowers there, and but I don't remember the name. I'm 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.920 probably numb to a lot of this. And what about 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:49.840 that police station right there? Do you have any interaction 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:55.240 with the police there ever? Well, yeah, the the policemen 0:12:55.360 --> 0:13:01.720 very good to us. We used to have perish carnivals 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.400 every year, and of course for security we had the 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:10.760 police at that. The previous pastor stopped it because of 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:20.560 games the gangs in Belmont Craigan. It feels safe during 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.560 the day. There's parks and schools, but at night it's 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:32.120 a different story. I had one, two, three, four or 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:39.160 five six eight cameras. This is Jerry Brito. He's a 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.120 mechanic who's lived in Bellmont Craigan for twenty five years. 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:43.920 Down the street from the church where Courtney used to 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:47.040 park to go to Alma's. Jerry's put up cameras all 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.840 over his property. He says, some years are quiet, some 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.600 years are really rough, like when someone moves out and 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.040 some of the people move in and they start selling drugs, 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:02.000 or they have people are joining gangs and they bring 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:08.359 the gangs over in Bellmont Craigan. The gangs are mostly Hispanic. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.960 You've got the stylers, the Royals, and the Patucos. Then 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:15.240 there's the Four Corner Hustlers, a black gang. They've all 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:18.400 got their territories. Jerry says the police come to his 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:21.040 house all the time to pull his camera footage because 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:23.920 the city's cameras don't always work. They even got his 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.000 videos for Courtney's case. They always respectful and they'd tried 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:29.880 to do the best they can with what they have. 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.160 And when the city's cameras don't work, the gang bangers 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.840 know it. If they've been shooting. They know that they 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.360 can get away with it. To the camera is not working, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:48.520 that's a problem, if you ask me, He's right. Broken 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.720 cameras are a serious problem around Chicago. Citizens pay for 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.440 them to help solve crimes, but often they don't work, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.280 like the camera on the corner by Alma's place, the 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.040 most critic called camera. Courtney's police file says that camera 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:07.920 didn't capture anything because of a DVR error. Chapralle and 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:10.920 I've gone over this quite a lot. She's still suspicious. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.480 It just tells me, like this whole pod cameras and 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:20.120 all these things, I just don't trust it that camera 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.520 would have shown Courtney going down that street and turning 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.480 into the alleyway. We've gone out to the neighborhood several 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:29.720 times to track down other cameras to see if police 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.480 missed any. Did they get this one? I wonder if 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.840 they got the better Yeah, so they have cameras too. 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:40.320 We don't know if they get that. We did find 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:43.080 cameras that were not noted in their reports, but it's 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.080 possible they were put up after Courtney's death, so we 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.800 didn't have any footage, but we knew there had to 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.200 be more information out there. I believe that somebody knows something, 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:55.800 somebody saw something, and it just takes a lot of 0:15:55.840 --> 0:16:00.160 courage um from somebody to tell what they saw. All 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.360 the police file on Courtney's case was thin. They only 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.760 documented interviews with a handful of people, So we decided 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:12.960 to go back and reinterview everyone the detectives talked to. 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:17.360 That meant it was time to talk to Alma, Courtney's 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:26.440 secret girlfriend. Alma and I haven't really been in touch, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.000 but now Allison really wanted to talk to her. So 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.040 almost two years after Courtney's death, I text Alma to 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.800 see if she would meet with us. As I was 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.720 texting her back and forth, Alma mentioned something something that 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:44.160 she never told me before, and I think it's totally 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:49.440 crazy that she will withhold this information. She said she 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:55.200 heard gunshots the night Courtney died. I asked her that 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.960 question the day after Courtney was killed, I asked her 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:02.400 did she hear anything? Did she see anything? And this 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.119 girl never once told me that she heard gunshots the 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:18.240 night that he died. Hi there your Alma. Hi'm Allison. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.000 Very nice to meet you. Thank you for setting us 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:26.280 side the time. This is Bill in February, I arranged 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.320 a meeting. We met up with her on the North 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:32.920 side of Chicago in Uptown, where Alma works at a 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:38.080 cell phone shop. I remember it was freezing outside, so 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:43.400 we used a conference room in a lawyer's office nearby. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:45.119 I know, you were probably like, oh, I don't want 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.080 to go out, and now we're literally right around the corner. 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.479 I sat next to Alma, Bill and Allison sat across 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.919 the table. All the microphones and the fact that we 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.520 were in a law office made it feel sort of 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:04.159 like an interrogation. And Alma, she definitely looked tense. The 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.240 way she was sitting. It was like she was protecting herself. 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.399 I was just praying that she would finally tell us 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:14.439 everything she knew. I was just ready to put myself 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:26.200 in her train of thought and let her tell her story. 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.960 Alma played us some videos of Courtney when we first 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.280 sat down. This was like one of those good morning videos, 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:36.000 like he was awake, was everybody else doing? It's him? 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:37.680 And he was always trying to make me laugh because 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.360 I was always really serious. That was him all the time. 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.160 He'll say the USA or not the US, that let's 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.480 get it. Did the people you work with now that 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:49.720 you guys were romantically involved. No, okay, so it was 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.960 sort of on the down though, Yes, okay, how did 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.160 you feel about that? Um? I was fine with that. 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:02.080 It was it was a little bit complicated, just because 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.280 of the way that our team is set up. They've 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:10.040 been keeping their relationship a secret for months, but Courtney 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.880 had become close with her three kids. Well, I told 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.520 my son that Courtney passed and he asked me what happened, 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.800 and I told him that he was shot, and he 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:28.240 just started crying. Did he ask a lot of questions? Um? No. 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:31.600 After that, he just he didn't want to be outside. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:33.919 He would always tell me we had to hurry up. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.760 Do you sense that the kids are still afraid? For 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.280 a long time, they were like coming home from school, 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:47.520 my son would say, we have to starry up because 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:55.920 I don't want to die. We went back to that night. 0:19:56.480 --> 0:19:59.040 We asked Alma to walk us through what she remembered. 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:03.359 H He messaged me like around close to one in 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.479 the morning, and then uh, he asked me if I 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.840 was home, if he could come over. She said she 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:11.440 was in her room listening to music on her headphones 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.199 and her roommate Brianna came in to tell her that 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.960 she was making a late night run to Walgreens. As 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.240 she was telling me that we heard two gunshots and 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.840 a car drive off. And was that before or after 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:27.320 you'd gone downstairs to be ready to open the door. No, 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.840 that was before we heard the gunshots, like as I 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.320 was receiving the text message that he was there. So 0:20:34.400 --> 0:20:36.640 the text message came in and we heard the gun 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.639 shots at the same time. She went downstairs to open 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:44.159 the gate as usual, but Courtney wasn't there. What did 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:46.880 you think happened at that point in time. I mean, 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.560 I was a little bit worried, but it's not It's 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.479 not unlike him to change plans quickly. Because I almost 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.720 said she heard gunshots right as she got Courtney's text 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:02.040 saying I'm outside. It was one eleven am. But that 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.080 just didn't make sense to us because we knew that 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.800 four minutes after Courtney text Alma, he was still alive 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.840 and well. He was messing around on his phone Facebook, 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:15.960 messaging his friend Brandon, who had just gotten a new job. 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:20.280 Courtney wrote to Brandon, nice, bro, You're gonna kill it man. 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:26.280 Courtney sent that text message to Brandon at one fifteen am. 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.560 That was four minutes after he texts Alma and the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:34.080 Forends that expert confirmed those times. Allison showed Alma the 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:39.160 timeline we put together, so we have if you're hearing 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:43.160 the shots here, obviously he's not gonna be doing He's 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:45.920 not gonna be text you know, saying to Brandon, nice bro, 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:51.520 you're gonna kill it man. So does this at all 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:56.119 like revising your brain what might have happened, or like 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.800 when you might have heard the shots? Does this refresh 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:05.680 anything for you? It doesn't make sense. Okay, but you're 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:10.080 you're pretty competent that you heard the shots before you said, okay, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:12.600 I'm going to go open the door. It was between 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:15.600 here and here. My text messages were back to back. 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:19.159 Did it sound like distance or did it sound really close? 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:24.000 It sounded close. It was two of them pretty like 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:27.159 back to back. It sounded like they were either on 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.720 the street or like on the block over, but they 0:22:30.760 --> 0:22:33.639 were close. It didn't sound like it was just a 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.800 when you heard the shots, as you think, oh that 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:39.359 that could be Courtney or did it not even cross 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:43.320 your mind? It didn't cross my mind because around that time, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:46.399 like there was just a lot of things going on 0:22:46.440 --> 0:22:50.919 in the neighborhood, so we had heard gunshots before, you know, 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.520 and it was it wasn't something that was like out 0:22:53.520 --> 0:22:57.960 of the ordinary. We kept asking Alma to replay this moment. 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.960 Was she really sure about her timing? Almost in her 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:06.359 bedroom with her roommate, there's music on her headphones, and 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.720 then they hear gunshots? How many shots too? And did 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:13.240 you all make eye contact or acknowledge that you had 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:15.200 both just heard shots? Or was it just so commonplace 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:18.119 that you wouldn't even have a reaction. Really well, I 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.160 had my headphones on, so I took him on off, 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:21.560 and she was like, did you hear that? And I 0:23:21.600 --> 0:23:25.480 said yeah, but I wasn't sure. So after that, she 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:27.320 said that she was going to the store, and I 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:29.520 told her that she should wait because we didn't know 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.000 what was going on. She went to all grants, did 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.719 she see anything not on her way there? Um, when 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:38.040 she was on her way back from the store, she 0:23:38.119 --> 0:23:41.239 said that there were police officers with flashlights looking up 0:23:41.240 --> 0:23:43.199 and down the street like they were looking for something. 0:23:43.680 --> 0:23:46.240 So I couldn't understand why I took almost so long 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:49.560 to speak up about this. I specifically asked her after 0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:52.800 corney died more than once. If she had heard any shots, 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:59.359 I was piste off and I know I'll both positive. 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:03.000 I asked, did you hear anything? But I never recalled 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:06.320 you saying anything like that, So I was like, when 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:08.119 you said it, I was like, because we were we 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:11.919 were piecing together at the timeline, we we had to 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.399 figure that somebody else would have had to have heard something. 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:18.959 So that's why that question I posed that to you, 0:24:19.840 --> 0:24:25.359 And so I was like, okay, because that was like 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:29.040 an important piece of information. Just at the time I 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.000 wasn't sure. I felt like I had to be sure. 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:36.280 Even if Alma wasn't sure, she still should have told 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:39.479 me something. And she didn't even tell the detectives when 0:24:39.480 --> 0:24:41.840 they came to our house that morning, she said no. 0:24:41.880 --> 0:24:45.720 One't even asked her about the shots. Instead, they asked 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.560 her about the password to Courtney's phone. To his phone, 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:50.600 I told him he has a kN iPhone, it's his fingerprint. 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:54.920 He didn't never passwords his finger print. By the time 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:57.080 that we got the phone back, the phone's on locks, 0:24:57.119 --> 0:25:00.040 so they probably had to take his finger and to 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.199 lock his phone. The police got into Courtney's phone just 0:25:03.359 --> 0:25:06.679 hours after he died. They put in their report that 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.919 Courtney's pass code was his birthday. Now, I know that 0:25:10.920 --> 0:25:14.320 couldn't be true because he had way too many girlfriends 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:17.840 to do something like that. When the police talked to Alma, 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:20.600 they wanted to see her phone too, and they just 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:22.600 looked at it and they said it wasn't gonna be 0:25:22.680 --> 0:25:25.040 much help, and they just handed me back my phone. 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:28.840 How long did they have her phone far, maybe like 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:31.680 thirty seconds, just opened it and he looked up and down. 0:25:32.680 --> 0:25:34.920 And they never asked you if you heard anything, or 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.959 they didn't consider your witness. No. After that, they just 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:41.399 gave me their business card and they said that they 0:25:41.400 --> 0:25:43.560 were going to call me to speak with me. And 0:25:43.600 --> 0:25:46.879 after that I never heard from them. There's just a 0:25:46.920 --> 0:25:50.600 few lines and Courtney's foul about the police talking to Alma. 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:55.680 But then there's another report about one of Alma's ex boyfriends. 0:25:56.600 --> 0:25:59.480 His name was Kevin, but he also went by Hawk. 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:04.480 They all worked together. Alma and Courtney actually met for 0:26:04.480 --> 0:26:07.480 the first time at a birthday party for Hawk. Alma 0:26:07.560 --> 0:26:11.160 said Hawk Kevin tried to start a fight with Courtney 0:26:11.200 --> 0:26:14.679 that now, Courtney says something to me, like, you know, 0:26:14.800 --> 0:26:17.679 we were at a birthday party, people were having drinks. 0:26:18.240 --> 0:26:20.639 Um he said something to me him and I laughed 0:26:20.680 --> 0:26:23.919 it off. Kevin overheard, and the next thing you know, 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:26.439 there was like an exchange of words, and then Kevin 0:26:26.440 --> 0:26:29.360 tried to fight Courtney. I think he was just jealous 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:33.040 of how Courtney was as a person and how other 0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:36.280 people reacted to him. I think that was really it. 0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.680 It wasn't anything else, someone told the police. After Courtney died, 0:26:39.880 --> 0:26:45.440 Hawk posted then deleted a message on Facebook saying sorry Courtney, 0:26:45.840 --> 0:26:48.840