Speaker 1: Heads up, this series contains graphic descriptions of violence.
Speaker 2: That's your dang through the ricorum, please, Susan Gallaberth.
Speaker 1: When Susan Galbreath was called to testify in the Jessica
Speaker 1: Current murder trial, she started with an apology for the judge.
Speaker 3: I'd like to have first apologize.
Speaker 1: For being late.
Speaker 4: I show you I didn't mean to be late today.
Speaker 5: I want to mentor.
Speaker 6: For okay.
Speaker 1: This set the tone for the rest of her testimony.
Speaker 1: She was kind of scattered, hedging on her answers, chewing
Speaker 1: gum loudly. The attorneys on both sides even approached the
Speaker 1: judge to complain, I'll be responsive, She's saying. Susan's not
Speaker 1: answering the questions, She's meandering. Susan sounds nothing like the
Speaker 1: woman who so clearly had written and talked about her
Speaker 1: fervent commitment to solving the murder. Like this is how
Speaker 1: she describes her feelings about Jessica's case.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've like followed Core TV stuff like that, and
Speaker 2: so I of course was at the time there were
Speaker 2: so many murders in Mayfield going on that it was
Speaker 2: I was just you know, dumbfounded by it. It was
Speaker 2: just you know, and here was another one, and it
Speaker 2: just all of them kind of captured and interest in me,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: And this strikes me as odd considering there weren't many
Speaker 1: murders in Mayfield around two thousand. Police said it had
Speaker 1: been the first in over a year.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: I can't ask Susan what was going on in her head,
Speaker 1: but the way it looks to people who Susan accused
Speaker 1: is that she's trying to downplay her involvement in the
Speaker 1: case and with some of the people embroiled in it.
Speaker 7: So what about jar is.
Speaker 1: Jeremy Adams is a name you've heard before. He's the
Speaker 1: unwitting father of Jessica Currn's baby boy, Zion. You might
Speaker 1: remember Jessica's friend describing their encounter.
Speaker 8: He kind of forcibly took her around the building and
Speaker 8: had said they had six It was like two seconds
Speaker 8: they were around there and came back and he walked
Speaker 8: off and.
Speaker 4: That was that.
Speaker 1: She said. How disappointed Jessica was to find out that
Speaker 1: Zion was Jeremy's son. She was very upset. Another significant
Speaker 1: fact about Jeremy Adams. He was initially charged with Jessica's
Speaker 1: murder when the Mayfield police department bungled the investigation, he
Speaker 1: got off, and when Susan Goalbreath began her citizen investigation,
Speaker 1: suddenly the blame shifted elsewhere. This is Graves County, Chapter four,
Speaker 1: My girl, Susan, You've now heard the story the prosecution
Speaker 1: used to convict Quincy Cross, Tammer Caldwell, and Jeff Burton
Speaker 1: a kidnapping, a drug field orgy and rape, necrophilia, and
Speaker 1: a murder. But many of the people I've talked to
Speaker 1: about this case have told me that if I want
Speaker 1: to figure out exactly why Quincy was arrested in the
Speaker 1: first place, then bits of truth lies somewhere in the beginning,
Speaker 1: back when police had a much simpler theory and alternate suspects.
Speaker 1: Their main one was Jeremy Adams. Jeremy Adams was only
Speaker 1: twenty when Jessica was killed, a skinny kid with a
Speaker 1: buzz cut and the whisper of a mustache on his
Speaker 1: top lip. He was known as a local troublemaker with
Speaker 1: a growing rap sheet charges like promoting contraband, robbery, and assault,
Speaker 1: but nothing that merited serious prison time until two thousand
Speaker 1: and one, when he was arrested for Jessica's murder, Jeremy
Speaker 1: wasn't charged alone. His co defendant was another person you've
Speaker 1: heard of, Carlos Lolo Saxton, Jessica Curran's boyfriend at the
Speaker 1: time she was killed. Remember her best friend said about Carlos, I.
Speaker 8: Mean she laughing, she really liked him.
Speaker 1: He and Jeremy were both indicted the year after Jessica's killing,
Speaker 1: Jeremy for murder and Carlos for complicity to commit murder,
Speaker 1: and the person who was among the first to point
Speaker 1: the finger at them was none other than Victoria, called well,
Speaker 1: the state's key witness against Quincy Cross.
Speaker 9: Do you want to be called the Viking?
Speaker 10: Or let it matter?
Speaker 1: In September of two thousand, more than one month after
Speaker 1: Jessica's body was found, Victoria told the very first investigators
Speaker 1: on this case that she had overheard Jeremy, Carlos and
Speaker 1: others talking about Jessica. This tape has been edited for length.
Speaker 11: Oh, Jeremy, they pay back to the book.
Speaker 1: Okay, the recording is not very clear, but she's saying,
Speaker 1: Jeremy said, payback's a bitch and we're going to get
Speaker 1: her good.
Speaker 11: Why would pay back be a bitch?
Speaker 9: Whether wordn't for going to Jeremy or I guess they
Speaker 9: found out that they was Jeremy.
Speaker 12: Okay, So maybe we got upset because she was telling
Speaker 12: everybody but the label was alive or something.
Speaker 8: Okay.
Speaker 1: Jeremy was in a relationship with a girl named net
Speaker 1: Todd back in two thousand. They even had kids, and
Speaker 1: the rumor around town, which then became the first theory,
Speaker 1: was that Jessica went to confront Jeremy about child support.
Speaker 1: Maybe she even threatened to tell net that the baby
Speaker 1: was his. This made Jeremy lash out, and then he
Speaker 1: accidentally or intentionally killed her. Jeremy and Carlos have been
Speaker 1: tough to track down, but net Todd lives about twenty
Speaker 1: minutes outside of Mayfield, and she's one of the many
Speaker 1: people I've reached out to for this story. Hey, my
Speaker 1: name is Maggie. We have been looking into a really
Speaker 1: old case from a long time ago, Quincy Cross. I
Speaker 1: don't have anything to do with it, but she's not
Speaker 1: exactly happy that I'm standing here.
Speaker 9: I don't know anything about that La property.
Speaker 1: There aren't that many details in the press about the
Speaker 1: case police built against Jeremy, and there's even less out
Speaker 1: there about the charge which is against Carlos. On top
Speaker 1: of that, many of the files in the case were
Speaker 1: destroyed in December twenty twenty one when a devastating tornado
Speaker 1: hit western Kentucky and leveled the Graves County Courthouse. A
Speaker 1: lot of those records were kept there. So getting the
Speaker 1: full story is tough. But I've got a secret weapon.
Speaker 13: Well at least, shall Kate never say that I don't
Speaker 13: keep you informed with the going zones and the gossip.
Speaker 13: So Darryl Woolman, ay, I love your face, Jeez, America,
Speaker 13: Trump and.
Speaker 1: Shovels. She got me a partial recording of the two
Speaker 1: thousand and one grand jury proceedings against Jeremy and Carlos.
Speaker 10: Would you state your name for the record player?
Speaker 12: Check?
Speaker 3: Is Tam Partner and I'm Jim.
Speaker 13: And how are you employing?
Speaker 12: I'm employed by the City of Mayfield as a police
Speaker 12: detected I actually have.
Speaker 1: A grand jury proceedings are secret. These tapes aren't usually
Speaker 1: made public. We are lucky to have this insight, and in.
Speaker 12: That capacity, you are here to be testifying some cases
Speaker 12: now being brought against the Jeremy Adams and also Carlo Saxon.
Speaker 9: Is that correct?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 3: Correct now.
Speaker 1: This that's Tim Fortner, the lead detective for the Mayfield
Speaker 1: Police who very politely declined to talk to me for
Speaker 1: this series. In this proceeding, you hear him laying out
Speaker 1: the first police theory of the case. He says, Jeremy
Speaker 1: and Carlos knew each other from around Mayfield and dealing drugs,
Speaker 1: and he says they both went out looking for Jessica.
Speaker 12: Jeremy and Lolo had went out looking for Jessica a founder.
Speaker 12: An argument ensued.
Speaker 1: One of the doors to the middle school had unidentified
Speaker 1: palm prints sneered on it look like.
Speaker 14: They're made and somebody trying to get into into the
Speaker 14: door or.
Speaker 1: Something, And there was also a clump of hair land nearby.
Speaker 8: And with the clump of hair there, it certainly appeared
Speaker 8: to have been some type of struggle, perhaps somebody trying
Speaker 8: to get in or for the door open.
Speaker 1: It may not be, but something that could happen, He says.
Speaker 1: Maybe Jessica fought.
Speaker 12: Back, Jessica hit Jeremy in the face. Jeremy then hit
Speaker 12: Jessica in the face with the things.
Speaker 1: That would explain why Jessica's body was found with cuts
Speaker 1: to her face and a broken nose.
Speaker 12: Said it knocked her down when she got up to
Speaker 12: take off down and he found a piece of metal
Speaker 12: and hit her in the back of the head, which
Speaker 12: also would go inside with the coin.
Speaker 15: Of the port.
Speaker 1: Here, Mayfield police aren't discussing the belt fragment much the
Speaker 1: one found near Jessica's body, like you heard the prosecution
Speaker 1: do at Quincy's trial. Instead, they're saying blunt force trauma
Speaker 1: to the head is what most likely killed Jessica. Now,
Speaker 1: even though they suspected Jessica had been bludgeoned, they didn't
Speaker 1: find any evidence of blood spatter, but Mayfield police theorized
Speaker 1: that was most likely because it had rained those days, but.
Speaker 16: With all the rain, it watched its way.
Speaker 5: And then they found later that they were still on the.
Speaker 11: Flood there and it drained there, so most of it
Speaker 11: happened pretty close to it.
Speaker 14: And definitely did burning happened there because the grass was burned.
Speaker 1: What's the either way, the police concluded that Jessica had
Speaker 1: to have been killed at the school grounds. Then he
Speaker 1: says the killers pulled her underwear off to make it
Speaker 1: look like a rape, and they burned her body.
Speaker 12: They burned the body so that they could tever rember
Speaker 12: in the DNA evidence, and that's where I wanted.
Speaker 1: Detective Tim Fortner got these theories from the testimonies of
Speaker 1: at least three jailhouse informants who had all shared a
Speaker 1: cell with Jeremy at some point in two thousand and one.
Speaker 14: Up here and talk to you about the Jessica Kern
Speaker 14: murder down and my Field.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and tell us I've listened to those recordings.
Speaker 1: And they either say Jeremy admits of various points to
Speaker 1: attacking Jessica.
Speaker 2: In the back of the head with the scale high,
Speaker 2: and that's what we're telling came about.
Speaker 1: Or they say Jeremy appears worried about any DNA they
Speaker 1: might find on some cigarette butts the police collected near
Speaker 1: Jessica's body.
Speaker 13: If the DNA could be.
Speaker 17: Brought off a bet.
Speaker 1: Now, to be clear, I haven't been able to find
Speaker 1: what physical evidence the police had against Jeremy and Carlos.
Speaker 1: They found those cigarette butts Jeremy was worried about, but
Speaker 1: didn't make an official DNA connection to either of them,
Speaker 1: And I already described the mistakes Mayfield police made and
Speaker 1: their investigation. There's a chance that all they had against
Speaker 1: them was the word of three jailhouse snitches saying Jeremy
Speaker 1: had some thing to do with it.
Speaker 12: Again, we received several tips Jeremy Adams might be involved.
Speaker 3: Jeremy Adams might be involved.
Speaker 1: Jeremy in turn implicated Carlos as far as he goes.
Speaker 1: The police always described Carlos as someone who may have
Speaker 1: helped plan the murder or failed to stop it. On
Speaker 1: top of that, remember the party Quincy Cross was at
Speaker 1: the night Jessica was last seen, the one on Chris Drive.
Speaker 1: Carlos was also at that party. He was arrested for
Speaker 1: drugs along with Quincy Cross and everyone else on Sunday morning,
Speaker 1: hours after Jessica was last seen alive. So it's unclear
Speaker 1: as to when exactly he would have picked up Jessica
Speaker 1: and helped Jeremy kill her. But I might never have
Speaker 1: a clear answer because Jeremy and Carlos would never see
Speaker 1: their day in court and lead up to their trial,
Speaker 1: the prosecution and police failed to turn over evidence to
Speaker 1: the defense, including eighteen to twenty audio and video recordings
Speaker 1: Jeremy and Carlos's attorneys thought could point to their client's innocence,
Speaker 1: and the prosecutor basically said we can't find a lot
Speaker 1: of this evidence. The judge was pissed. He told law enforcement, quote,
Speaker 1: I have never seen a case so encumbered with problems,
Speaker 1: and I hope I never see another one. The judge
Speaker 1: dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning that Jeremy and Carlos
Speaker 1: could be charged and tried again. And when the Kentucky
Speaker 1: State Police took over the investigation, it appears as if
Speaker 1: they did chase the case against Jeremy for a bit.
Speaker 1: But then just a year later came Susan Gallbreath.
Speaker 11: So pretty much Susan Galbert ran the investigation.
Speaker 1: But what is her motive?
Speaker 12: Like?
Speaker 1: Why is Susan Barbreath vested on us?
Speaker 13: Because she's fucking awns Ona Adams, Jeremy's mother.
Speaker 1: That's coming up. When Quincy Cross was convicted, Susan Golbreath
Speaker 1: wrote an email to her journalist friend Tom Mangled, saying quote,
Speaker 1: I can hardly see from tears falling, this was her
Speaker 1: crowning moment, years of her labor finally paying off. But
Speaker 1: now almost two decades later, Susan's own work is being
Speaker 1: used to try and get Quincy Cross out of prison.
Speaker 10: So I just wanted to tell you, I was looking
Speaker 10: at my timeline and I have around two thousand and four,
Speaker 10: Susan Galbrith first pops into the picture.
Speaker 1: Miranda Hellman is an attorney and for four years, starting
Speaker 1: around twenty twenty, Miranda worked with the Kentucky Innocence Project
Speaker 1: on the post conviction case for the main person found
Speaker 1: guilty of murdering Jessica Currn Quincy Cross.
Speaker 10: So mid two thousand and four is when I really.
Speaker 1: Miranda's walking me through a timeline she's put together, connecting
Speaker 1: Susan's involvement in the case to changing stories of the
Speaker 1: state's main witnesses and law enforcements theories.
Speaker 10: What I did was compare that with the statements of
Speaker 10: Victoria and Venetia up until that point. So up until
Speaker 10: late two thousand and three is the last one I
Speaker 10: have from them, and there is no sexual component, and
Speaker 10: there is no Quincy. The story is absolutely we left
Speaker 10: the car party. It was Jeremy Adams.
Speaker 1: The Kentucky Innocence Project actually first took on Quincy's case
Speaker 1: in the early twenty tens, but they had to shelve
Speaker 1: it because of funding. When Miranda and her team picked
Speaker 1: it back up, they had their work cut out for them.
Speaker 1: It's very hard to get a conviction overturned in the
Speaker 1: state of Kentucky or in most of the country. Really.
Speaker 1: One of the many hurdles is that Quincy's attorneys have
Speaker 1: to present new evidence that points to his innocence.
Speaker 10: So it has to be something that wasn't available or
Speaker 10: should have been discovered at the time of trial, and
Speaker 10: so the burden is incredibly high. It has to be
Speaker 10: something that truly is new.
Speaker 1: Then in twenty twenty two, Miranda and her team had
Speaker 1: a lucky break.
Speaker 10: We've been able to obtain new documents that weren't part
Speaker 10: of the original discovery or part of the initial investigation.
Speaker 10: A lot of that is centered around Susan Galbreth.
Speaker 1: They obtained years of emails between journalists Tom Mangold and
Speaker 1: Susan Goalbreth, which you've been hearing throughout this series. Last episode,
Speaker 1: those emails helped explain how Susan, suspects and theories found
Speaker 1: their way into the prosecution's case, and now Miranda says
Speaker 1: they can give us insight into Susan's motive.
Speaker 10: Welcome to Susan Gabert world, whose main goal was always
Speaker 10: to get Jeremy Adams out of this.
Speaker 1: At Quincy's trial, his attorneys did try to point out
Speaker 1: Susan's relationship with Donna Adams, Jeremy's mom. They even said
Speaker 1: both women were invested in finding the quote real killer together,
Speaker 1: But when questioned by the defense, Susan denies being close
Speaker 1: to Donna years ago.
Speaker 7: She lived upstairs from me, and that was how I
Speaker 7: met her, and you know those I did party that.
Speaker 7: You know, we might party together or something like that,
Speaker 7: but we would have never hung out.
Speaker 1: She says. They were neighbors in the late nineties and
Speaker 1: they lost touch for a few years, and then you.
Speaker 9: Were kindled your relationship with her or as of being
Speaker 9: a flight you make rekindle sound as though we were
Speaker 9: like and slow mo should run in towards one another.
Speaker 4: There was nothing like that at all. Nothing.
Speaker 1: When did you reapplint yourself in what.
Speaker 4: In two thousand and four did you consider her overre in?
Speaker 4: I don't, I don't.
Speaker 2: I really don't think that I would even consider it that.
Speaker 1: But new emails and testimony that the Kentucky Innocence Project
Speaker 1: obtained and that my team and I have reviewed, tell
Speaker 1: a different story, as do the findings of other people.
Speaker 1: Invested in clearing the names of Quincy, Tamra and Jeff
Speaker 1: Excuse me one second, like private investigator John Poole.
Speaker 4: May you got to add Johnson working.
Speaker 1: When I first met John in twenty twenty three, he
Speaker 1: drove me around Mayfield and he knows everyone. We stopped
Speaker 1: to say hi to some construction workers.
Speaker 4: I figured you're the worker bees.
Speaker 11: I figured that Ed wouldn't be doing anything.
Speaker 1: John grew up in Mayfield. He left to work as
Speaker 1: a police officer in California, then came back home in
Speaker 1: his fifties. Since returning, he's been a three time council member,
Speaker 1: heavily involved in the community. He's also a dead ringer
Speaker 1: for the late actor Leslie Jordan.
Speaker 11: Plus, I'm the uncle of Jeffrey Burton. He was one
Speaker 11: of the people that was charged in the Jessica Current murder.
Speaker 1: Jeff Burton the white boy Susan Goalbreth helped find she
Speaker 1: made his house the scene of the crime. John has
Speaker 1: also become a good friend of Darra's.
Speaker 13: I was sitting on his floor three years ago, almost
Speaker 13: to the date, and we were looking through papers and
Speaker 13: the light was hitting him so perfectly. I said, why
Speaker 13: are you still do this, John, why are you still involved,
Speaker 13: you know, other than Jeff, And he said, we said
Speaker 13: fucking vengeance, vengeance over the fucking judicial system and how
Speaker 13: much it needed to be changed.
Speaker 11: There's no physical evidence in this case that indicates any
Speaker 11: of them did anything.
Speaker 1: John also believes that Susan Goaalbreath played a big role
Speaker 1: in shaping the case against Quincy, Tamra and Jeff.
Speaker 14: If you look at the record, the prosecution used a
Speaker 14: story that was developed by Susan Galbert and Susan in
Speaker 14: any of the stuff that you look at, her goal
Speaker 14: was to save Jeremy Adams.
Speaker 1: This is a big departure from Susan's publicly stated goal
Speaker 1: that she was a selfless, everyday citizen called by divine
Speaker 1: forces to help find justice for Jessica Current. John managed
Speaker 1: to find a friend of Susan's of over twenty years
Speaker 1: who often helped her with the case.
Speaker 11: Lacey Gates gave us some information and tried to clean
Speaker 11: this up. We even had her down here. She knew
Speaker 11: that it was wrong.
Speaker 16: Where is she now?
Speaker 11: She is deceased.
Speaker 1: Lacy Gates died in twenty twenty two, but before that
Speaker 1: she did give an Affidavid to the Kentucky Innocence Project,
Speaker 1: which said, I feel that Susan Goalbreth directed the police
Speaker 1: in the wrong direction and the wrong people were convicted.
Speaker 1: Susan Gaalbreth was friends with Donna Adams, the mother of
Speaker 1: Jeremy Adams, one of the first persons accused of Jessica's murder.
Speaker 1: Donna was under the impression that Susan was going to
Speaker 1: help get Jeremy out of trouble.
Speaker 11: Susan Galbert was able to get the discovery in the
Speaker 11: Adams case.
Speaker 1: Jeremy signed over his case files to journalist Tom Mangold,
Speaker 1: and those documents were part of of what Tom used
Speaker 1: to source his first articles on Mayfield and Jessica. Current
Speaker 1: before those articles came out, Susan writes to Tom that
Speaker 1: Donna was anxious that her son's name still hadn't been cleared.
Speaker 1: Here's my colleague reading the email.
Speaker 6: I have pleaded with her so many times to stay
Speaker 6: level headed and to wait.
Speaker 1: Remember, the charges alleging Jeremy had killed Jessica in a
Speaker 1: supposed fight over child support had been dismissed. John says, but.
Speaker 11: They were dismissed without prejudice, and that means the case
Speaker 11: could have been brought back up at any time, But
Speaker 11: again it's appeared that Galbert was pushing the other scenario,
Speaker 11: the one the state used.
Speaker 1: And the scenario Tom Mingled used in his articles. In
Speaker 1: these stories, Tom states matter of factly that Jeremy was
Speaker 1: obviously an innocent man, and he repeats that sentiment year
Speaker 1: later in his BBC retrospective.
Speaker 17: By the end of the first week, we'd established that
Speaker 17: Jeremy Adams, the local small time criminal, had been wrongly
Speaker 17: charged by the cops.
Speaker 1: Tom describes a bumbling police department that just wanted to
Speaker 1: pin the murder on a petty criminal. Tom says the
Speaker 1: strongest evidence the Mayfield police had against Jeremy was the
Speaker 1: alleged confessions he made to those cellmates you heard from earlier.
Speaker 1: But Jeremy's attorney told Tom that the only reason Jeremy
Speaker 1: confessed was because Detective Tim Fortner had shown Jeremy pictures
Speaker 1: of the crime scene.
Speaker 9: They went there to ask him about a murder, and
Speaker 9: they showed him evidence that no one had really seen before.
Speaker 9: So of course he's going to implicate himself in some way.
Speaker 9: Jeremy is a simple minded gentleman. He can be led
Speaker 9: very easily. He was one of the town criminals, and
Speaker 9: it was very easy for them to close this case
Speaker 9: and make themselves look.
Speaker 1: Good, decides Tom Mingled and Susan Goalbreath had a much
Speaker 1: better suspect.
Speaker 17: The seriously nasty drug dealer called Quincy Cross, whod been
Speaker 17: arrested just hours after the murder.
Speaker 10: He was a pretty easy mark as well. You know,
Speaker 10: he had a little bit of a history with the
Speaker 10: law as far as the drugs went. He was an outsider,
Speaker 10: which I think is incredibly important to this case. He
Speaker 10: was not from Mayfield, He had very few ties to Mayfield.
Speaker 10: It was easy to point the finger at him because
Speaker 10: he was kind of a nameless, faceless person that was
Speaker 10: not her best friend's son.
Speaker 1: But what Tom ignores or fails to mention in his
Speaker 1: stories is that it wasn't just him and Susan out investigating.
Speaker 1: Susan had help. She conducted part of her investigation alongside
Speaker 1: Jeremy's mom, Donna, and the mother of his children, Net.
Speaker 1: According to her emails, they went on at least half
Speaker 1: a dozen interviews together. She even used NET to collect
Speaker 1: DNA evidence from people they suspected. After one of Tom's
Speaker 1: stories accusing Quincy and Clearing Jeremy was published in late
Speaker 1: two thousand and four. Susan wrote him.
Speaker 6: Can you believe it? Jeremy is becoming a celebtnow? Who
Speaker 6: to thunk it?
Speaker 1: And While Susan was more than happy to share information
Speaker 1: with law enforcement, she didn't want anyone else getting their
Speaker 1: hands on her correspondence or files. In the lead up
Speaker 1: to Quincy, Tamra, and Jeff's trials, Susan was worried that
Speaker 1: defense attorneys wanted to subpoena her computer. She writes, Tom.
Speaker 6: Met with my friends today and was told not to
Speaker 6: worry about anything concerning my PC. I was told that
Speaker 6: even if they subpoena my hard drive, as a private citizen,
Speaker 6: I can do whatever I want to with my computer
Speaker 6: except break the law.
Speaker 1: Her friends are the KBI agents you met last episode,
Speaker 1: the ones who would eventually solve Jessica curns More with
Speaker 1: the help of Susan Gallbroth. Attorney Miranda Hellman says if
Speaker 1: the defense had had full access to Susan's documents and
Speaker 1: emails at trial, they could have shown the jurors the
Speaker 1: full extent of Susan's involvement in accusing Quincy and shifting
Speaker 1: the blame away from Jeremy. Things could have played out differently.
Speaker 10: You couldn't cross examine someone who was actively hiding information
Speaker 10: from the prosecutors and the defense attorneys and not giving
Speaker 10: them a fair shot.
Speaker 1: And there's one more thing. Even though Susan publicly denied
Speaker 1: wanting to help Jeremy, that was not the impression Jeremy
Speaker 1: Adams Scott.
Speaker 8: This is the interview with Jeremy Adams President or myself
Speaker 8: detected sam'ste Textec Police and com Attorney's office.
Speaker 1: Just listen to parts of his interview between him and
Speaker 1: law enforcement in two thousand and five.
Speaker 18: My number one prior is to get this case out
Speaker 18: of the way.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying by this time, Jeremy had actually
Speaker 1: met Quincy Cross in jail, one of the many times
Speaker 1: they'd both been locked up on various charges. And Jeremy
Speaker 1: says he knows Venetia's Stubblefield, the last person to see
Speaker 1: Jessica alive. He says they hooked up once, and he's
Speaker 1: making the case that he could be of use in
Speaker 1: the investigation.
Speaker 18: And I believe with all my heart, I know for
Speaker 18: a fact that if I was out that I'd be
Speaker 18: able to wire up on them or whatever and get
Speaker 18: them on tape talking about these things.
Speaker 1: He just needs prosecutors to cut him a deal so
Speaker 1: he can get out of jail on his other charges.
Speaker 15: Give me see.
Speaker 17: Today and watch me.
Speaker 19: I guarantee you if it's not solved, If it's not
Speaker 19: solved to sixty days, lock my ass right back up
Speaker 19: and convict me of the charges.
Speaker 18: That's how much faith I got in myself.
Speaker 1: And part of his pitch is that he can help
Speaker 1: find the real killer because he's connected in Mayfield.
Speaker 19: I have a whole team of people that's been in
Speaker 19: Mayfield for years.
Speaker 20: It's got people.
Speaker 18: Topping out of the way. One of them, you know
Speaker 18: who it is, Susan.
Speaker 9: Susan, Oh, Susan yeah, Ji Gomer, Yeah.
Speaker 18: Yeah, she knows people Galrd.
Speaker 19: A whole lot of information that's been found out now
Speaker 19: came through my girl, Susan.
Speaker 18: And this other guy because they went out there and
Speaker 18: they personally.
Speaker 1: Were my girl Susan and the other guy journalist Tom Mingled,
Speaker 1: who by that time had published two articles saying Jeremy
Speaker 1: had been wrongly accused.
Speaker 19: What I'm saying is I have a connection to where
Speaker 19: if I can't get them somebody else. Can you feel
Speaker 19: what I'm saying?
Speaker 8: Why I haven't think so far there because they were,
Speaker 8: you know, Susan was working.
Speaker 14: Pretty harder for you apparently, right, I come over from
Speaker 14: Britain and do this story and all that thing.
Speaker 19: Right to see, there are a whole lot of things that
Speaker 19: they can do that I can't do.
Speaker 13: There's a whole lot of things.
Speaker 20: I can do that they can't do.
Speaker 1: As far as I can tell, law enforcement never takes
Speaker 1: Jeremy up on his offer to be an informant, but
Speaker 1: they do maintain a working relationship with Susan Goalbreth. In
Speaker 1: a phone call with one of those same officers in
Speaker 1: the years before Quincy's trial, she tells him to hurry
Speaker 1: and charge Quincy already.
Speaker 11: I mean, there was so much more I'm him than
Speaker 11: they ever had on Jeremy.
Speaker 8: Oh oh, I agree. I totally agree. Oh my god,
Speaker 8: I totally agree with you.
Speaker 13: I'm I agree.
Speaker 15: But you know what, but that is right a micapro right, Yeah,
Speaker 15: I agree.
Speaker 1: As you know now, Quincy Cross is serving life in
Speaker 1: prison for the murder of Jessica Currn. Miranda and the
Speaker 1: folks at the Kentucky Innocence Project have filed state and
Speaker 1: federal motions looking to vacate Quincy's conviction. The emails between
Speaker 1: Susan and Tom are part of their case. Miranda says.
Speaker 1: They show how Susan influenced the investigation beyond what was
Speaker 1: originally known, revealing how Susan worked alongside two women who
Speaker 1: had a vested interest in seeing Jeremy's name cleared, his
Speaker 1: girlfriend and his mom. And they show that Susan fought
Speaker 1: to conceal her documents from defense attorneys.
Speaker 10: She was the person who put Quincy Cross in prison.
Speaker 10: She's the person who handed the police their theory, their investigation,
Speaker 10: and their star witnesses. What we want to present to
Speaker 10: the court is that they never had the full story.
Speaker 1: And where is Jeremy Adams.
Speaker 16: That's after the break.
Speaker 1: The people I've talked to who are invested in clearing Quincy,
Speaker 1: Jeff and Tamer's names have all pointed to Jeremy Adams
Speaker 1: as a more obvious suspect in the murder of Jessica
Speaker 1: Currn and I want to be fair to him. Based
Speaker 1: on the evidence I've been able to see, it seems
Speaker 1: like the Mayfield Police relied heavily on the word of
Speaker 1: Jeremy's cellmates when they were building the case against him.
Speaker 1: A lot of wrongful conviction cases I've covered involve the
Speaker 1: false testimony of jailhouse informants. They often lie to get
Speaker 1: a better sentencing deal from the prosecution or to get
Speaker 1: even with another prisoner, so I know better than to
Speaker 1: trust them uncritically. But the thing is, Jeremy went on
Speaker 1: to tell more people about his involvement or knowledge surrounding
Speaker 1: the death of Jessica.
Speaker 11: Current Jeremy Adams kept hanging around my office up there
Speaker 11: and wanted to talk to me.
Speaker 1: He reached out to private investigator John Pool.
Speaker 11: And so I finally talked to him. In fact, I
Speaker 11: even gave him a ride to where he was staying
Speaker 11: at the time, and he claims that he was going
Speaker 11: to tell me who did it.
Speaker 1: He never did, But Jeremy did tell even more sell
Speaker 1: mads through the years that he either attacked Jessica or
Speaker 1: knew who did, and John says Susan often trailed behind
Speaker 1: Jeremy trying to do damage control.
Speaker 11: Once Susan knew what was going on, she would go
Speaker 11: to those people and try to talk him in to
Speaker 11: not saying anything, and at our correct their story. So
Speaker 11: she was a busy little.
Speaker 1: Bee, according to court filings from the Kentucky Innocence Project.
Speaker 1: At one point, Jeremy tells the police he was in
Speaker 1: the car with Jessica the night she was killed, and
Speaker 1: that same day Susan calls the police to say Jeremy
Speaker 1: was mistaken. On top of that, he talked to Jessica's family.
Speaker 1: I asked Jessica's father, Joe Curran about it. From what
Speaker 1: I understand, Jeremy Adams told you he knows who did this.
Speaker 15: He wrote letters from prison and jail saying if you'll
Speaker 15: tell me, well I'm not I'm science father, I'll tell
Speaker 15: you who did it. But of course he never told you.
Speaker 1: And Jeremy didn't stop there.
Speaker 15: But one incident happened when we saw him at Paduca
Speaker 15: Mall and he walked and followed my wife and was
Speaker 15: telling her that he would tell us who done it,
Speaker 15: you know, and telling her that he didn't do it,
Speaker 15: and that's what he was saying. But he was telling
Speaker 15: people on the street that he did it. He was
Speaker 15: the one who did it. So it was such a
Speaker 15: you know, you really don't know who's responsible. I've always
Speaker 15: felt like that he's definitely involved. If he didn't do it,
Speaker 15: he's definitely involved.
Speaker 1: The Kurrans never let Jeremy have a relationship with their grandson.
Speaker 1: My producer and I went looking for Jeremy in August
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four. We checked out one of his
Speaker 1: known Mayfield addresses, a modest, one story home in the
Speaker 1: outskirts of town.
Speaker 3: Hello, we're looking for Jeremy Adams.
Speaker 1: Do you know who that is?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I knew, Hell, I'm in born that wish.
Speaker 4: You knew where he was.
Speaker 1: The woman who opens the door is Alice, Jeremy's great aunt.
Speaker 1: Alice has had a couple of strokes, so it's a
Speaker 1: little hard for her to talk. She says she's been
Speaker 1: getting his mail for years.
Speaker 3: Young mail here comes here every night every night.
Speaker 1: She shows us his medical bills and traffic tickets. But
Speaker 1: she says she hasn't seen Jeremy in forever?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 1: Where are his parents?
Speaker 5: Dead?
Speaker 8: Dead?
Speaker 1: His mom, Donna, died in twenty nineteen at the age
Speaker 1: of sixty, most likely from an overdose.
Speaker 8: What is to me?
Speaker 3: Come on in a thank you? Come on out?
Speaker 16: Is anyone else here with you?
Speaker 1: The TV is blasting in the cozy living room it's
Speaker 1: full of black and white family pictures, cluttered with mail
Speaker 1: magazines and dog food, the things of life alone. Alice
Speaker 1: sits down in her arm and we start to talk,
Speaker 1: and then she points to a corner above.
Speaker 3: Jeremy.
Speaker 1: She says, when Jeremy was little, he used to sit
Speaker 1: there in her antique chair, banging his head against the wall.
Speaker 1: He was a troubled child, she says, who grew up
Speaker 1: to be a troubled man. Drug addiction runs in the family.
Speaker 1: His mom, Donna, also drank a lot, and Alice says
Speaker 1: Jeremy never stood a chance. He never had a steady
Speaker 1: home and got into drugs and drug dealing when he
Speaker 1: was just a kid, and he could be violent, though
Speaker 1: never with her. Alice says, he's been in and out
Speaker 1: of prison or jail a lot, and the few times
Speaker 1: she's seen him over the years, he's been high and struggling.
Speaker 4: To me, he was right, do you know what kind
Speaker 4: of drugs?
Speaker 8: Maybe?
Speaker 3: No, it's the mardin Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1: One of the last times Alice saw Jeremy, he was
Speaker 1: sleeping on the street.
Speaker 3: I think you look been no water time? I bet
Speaker 3: here night Bil.
Speaker 1: She gave him a warm bed for a few days,
Speaker 1: her eyes well up with tears talking about her nephew.
Speaker 19: Thank you for talking to us.
Speaker 1: Then we say goodbye, thank you, nice to meet you.
Speaker 1: Jeremy has spoken publicly in recent years. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: he talked about being arrested for Jessica's murder on The
Speaker 1: Steve Wilko Show, which is kind of like Jerry Springer
Speaker 1: but somehow trashier.
Speaker 20: What twenty years, I've been accused time and time again
Speaker 20: of this horrific rhyme that I did not commit, had
Speaker 20: no involvement whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And because of the.
Speaker 20: Way my case was dismissed, the police didn't go back
Speaker 20: on on television to say, hey, we charged the wrong man.
Speaker 20: When they later charged, tried and convicted this other man,
Speaker 20: they didn't say I'm sorry. They just left it out
Speaker 20: in the open, being that I was the one that
Speaker 20: originally charged in the case. They left it for the
Speaker 20: community to decide, and it left doubt in the community.
Speaker 20: That is my purpose for being here today, to clear
Speaker 20: my name in the eyes of the world.
Speaker 1: He even wrote and self published a book titled Almost Framed,
Speaker 1: The Diary of Jeremy m Adams.
Speaker 13: It's one of the best books Ever, the fact that
Speaker 13: I hasn't want to pullet sir is fucking astonishing.
Speaker 1: I've skimmed a PDF, but Darrah has the hard copy.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I've had the book for two and a half
Speaker 13: years and I can't finish it. It's that fucking genius
Speaker 13: full of emojis.
Speaker 1: In just over one hundred pages, Jeremy relittigates the case.
Speaker 13: He talks about racism and how Jessica's father was so
Speaker 13: mad because she was gonna have a biracial child.
Speaker 1: He goes further than that. He accuses Joe Kerran of
Speaker 1: his daughter's murder.
Speaker 13: It talks about how he was framed by the cops.
Speaker 13: It talks about the night they met. It talks about
Speaker 13: really nothing.
Speaker 1: It would almost be funny if it weren't so cruel.
Speaker 1: And it just adds to the noise of an already
Speaker 1: complicated case where so many people have lied or told
Speaker 1: half truths, noise Miranda and the Kentucky Innocence Project have
Speaker 1: had to contend with.
Speaker 10: The truth may just be gone. Us have no idea,
Speaker 10: but there.
Speaker 1: Are people in this case who have tried to tell
Speaker 1: the truth or a version of the truth, like Rosie Christ,
Speaker 1: Victoria Caldwell's sister. You heard her at Quincy's trial, recanting
Speaker 1: on the stand, saying police made her lie, and prosecutors
Speaker 1: punished her for it, charged her with perjury and sentenced
Speaker 1: her to three years in prison.
Speaker 21: I mean, nobody's perfect, but Rosie was a good hearted
Speaker 21: woman before all just started.
Speaker 4: It made it seem like I was just a monster.
Speaker 1: Rosie is forty four years old today, she's a mom,
Speaker 1: and she says she was born to be a singer,
Speaker 1: but instead she works at the fast food chain Sonic,
Speaker 1: and Rosie refers to herself in the third person.
Speaker 21: There everybody loves Rosie. I mean Sonics up there in
Speaker 21: my job can tell you better than anybody. I mean
Speaker 21: the whole Sonics love Rosie. I mean any job I'll
Speaker 21: get LOWD Rosie because that's who Rosie really is, a
Speaker 21: Rosie person.
Speaker 4: My name fits me, It really fits me.
Speaker 1: She's all smiles and her eyes disappear into tiny slits
Speaker 1: as she talks. She's wearing fuzzy sandals and floral tights.
Speaker 1: It's a cheerful outfit to match her demeanor. Nothing like
Speaker 1: the twenty six year old at Quincy's trial who came
Speaker 1: off as angry, especially at the prosecution.
Speaker 4: But I wasn't.
Speaker 21: It was just like I was trying to I was
Speaker 21: mad and angry because even though I lied the day before,
Speaker 21: I knew what I was saying the next day was
Speaker 21: the god honest truth I was one, which was that
Speaker 21: Quincyham didn't have no involvement in the case. They had
Speaker 21: took me, threatened me, told me that I didn't even
Speaker 21: need a lawyer, told me they could make it look
Speaker 21: like I was the one that murdered, just concured if
Speaker 21: I didn't say their story what they wanted to hear.
Speaker 21: I mean, then they started talking about I'm gonna take
Speaker 21: your kids, trom me what to look god, threaten, yeah, everything,
Speaker 21: take my is make it look like the murders on me.
Speaker 21: Told me, I'm gonna get lead to injection and stuff.
Speaker 10: All it has Victoria ever told you the truth of
Speaker 10: what happened?
Speaker 4: Oh, she told me. She's telling the damn lie. She
Speaker 4: did say that. Victoria told me, you got paid to
Speaker 4: make up a whole story just to get rid of
Speaker 4: this case.
Speaker 1: And get money.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and get money. Yes, she got paid to get
Speaker 4: to do this case. Yes, she got paid to do it.
Speaker 1: And Rosie stands by her story.
Speaker 4: Tell the truth. It's what God wants you to do.
Speaker 4: I know that.
Speaker 21: I know Jesus name is truth. I do know that,
Speaker 21: and with that being his name is what you're supposed
Speaker 21: to do is tell the truth. I know it's righteous
Speaker 21: to do, It's the right thing to do. That's all
Speaker 21: I do know.
Speaker 1: I want to believe Rosie, and I think I do
Speaker 1: believe Rosie in part because while she was the first
Speaker 1: person to publicly say that law enforcement made her lie
Speaker 1: on Quincy, Jeff and Tamra, she wouldn't be the last.
Speaker 1: That's on the next episode.
Speaker 5: They literally made me say that I took part in it.
Speaker 5: They literally made me say I had this part I
Speaker 5: done in it. They literally made me say that I
Speaker 5: took a match and struck and threw it on her.
Speaker 5: They made me say that I pour guests on her
Speaker 5: and everything. They made me say that I took party
Speaker 5: into having sexual contacts with her when she was already
Speaker 5: dead and everything.
Speaker 9: Yes, but I did do something in the courtroom when
Speaker 9: I went to go testify, I catch.
Speaker 3: You know how they tell you to read your right hand.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I didn't do that. Oh wow, So you were
Speaker 13: never sworn in is that what you're saying? Yes?
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I would never allow on the Bible.
Speaker 1: Graves County is a production of Lava for Good in
Speaker 1: association with Signal Company Number One. This show is written
Speaker 1: and produced by Me, Maggie Frieling and senior producer Rebecca Ibarra.
Speaker 1: Jason Flamm, Jeff Kempler and Kevin Burtis are executive producers.
Speaker 1: Our editor is Martina Abraham's Ilunga. Dannia Suleiman is our
Speaker 1: fact checker. Sound design and mixing by Joe Plord. Music
Speaker 1: created by Wrench. Our theme song is the Gangsta grass
Speaker 1: version of The One Who's Holding the Star by Leo
Speaker 1: Schofield and Kevin Herrick. Darrel Woolman is investigative producer. Our
Speaker 1: head of Marketing and Operations is Jeff Cliburn. Ismay Guderama
Speaker 1: is our social media director and our social Media manager
Speaker 1: is Sarah Gibbons. Andrew Nelson is art director, with additional
Speaker 1: production help from Jackie Pauley, Kara Kornhaber and Kathleen Fink.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and
Speaker 1: threads at Lava Are Good and follow me at Maggie Freeling.
Speaker 1: And we know there's a lot of names for you
Speaker 1: to keep up with in this series, so for a
Speaker 1: detailed list of characters, please go to our show notes