WEBVTT - #434 Maggie Freleng with Kim Hoover 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.200 It was the day after Thanksgiving in two thousand and two, 0:00:08.480 --> 0:00:12.280 and Kim Hoover's Home daycare center in Columbus, Ohio was 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:16.640 bustling that afternoon. She was caring for three children along 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:20.520 with her thirteen year old son Bo. Around three o'clock, 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:22.800 two more girls were dropped off by their father as 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:24.800 he was on his way to work, two year old 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.480 Dorica and seven month old Samasha. Kim had been caring 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.479 for them for about three months. Samisha was asleep in 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:34.600 her car seat, so Kim moved her to a crib 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.000 and let her nap while she fed the other kids. 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:40.200 After a couple of hours, she went to wake the baby. 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.239 I took her snowsued off. I went to try to 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.560 give her a bottle, and that's when I realized that 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.960 she looked lethargic and that she really couldn't hold her 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:50.440 head up. 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.400 Alarmed, Kim quickly called nine one one and then administered CPR. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.000 When paramedics arrived, they couldn't revive Semasha. She was rushed 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:00.840 to the hospital. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.760 We never did find out that night what happened to Summasias. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:11.039 And then December twentieth, I woke up, took my son 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.680 to school, and then came home and then there was 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.679 a knock on the door and Schwatt was there to 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:22.319 arrest me. My name is Kim Hoover. I was in 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:27.560 prison for nineteen years for wrongful conviction of telling a 0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:29.920 baby that was in my daycare. 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:34.600 From love over good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:57.720 Freeling today Kim Hoover. Kim Hoover was born in nineteen 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:01.640 sixty three to a big, loving family. She grew up 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:02.760 in Columbus, Ohio. 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:09.560 My mother was Elizabeth Hoover. She went by Betty. My 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.880 dad was Alfred Hoover, he went by Buck. I have 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:17.760 two siblings, an older sister, Keina, and a younger brother, Todd. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.440 We had a great childhood. I remember every winter we 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:28.560 would get our ice skate and Dad would take us 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:33.000 around after it had rained and froze. The ground head 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.560 froze or a pond head froze, and then we would 0:02:35.600 --> 0:02:39.560 go ice skating and we all looked forward to that. 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:41.440 That was something that was fun. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:48.160 My name is Keina. I'm Kim Hoover's older sister. 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.080 Tell me about growing up with Kim. Do you have 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:52.520 any favorite memories of her? 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.880 Typical sister stuff you know, we were twenty three months apart, 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.720 so we were just a typical leave me alone teenager 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:01.639 kind of thing. 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:01.880 You know. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.000 Mom was to stay at home mom. She took care 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:09.440 of all of us. Dad worked for United Parcel Service 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:10.560 for years. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.480 And then when Kim was around twelve or thirteen, her 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.280 father had an accident at work. His backbone was crushed 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:21.240 and he spent a year in traction at the hospital. 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.600 His recuperation took several years more. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:29.760 We didn't have any income coming in, so Mom took 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.960 in kids through a daycare that she had started at 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.640 that time, and she ended up having for more than 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:40.800 thirty five years. She never advertised. It was always word 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.160 of mouth and family and friends. If it hadn't been 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.360 for family and friends and then Mom getting her job 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.200 with her daycare, that we probably would have lost our house. 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.000 Kim and her siblings grew up in the daycare, and 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:58.840 as she got into her teens, Kim enjoyed helping her 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:00.360 mother out. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.720 When she wasn't able to she had a doctor's appointment 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.400 or something like that. I took over watching her daycare kids. 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:14.040 In her early twenties, Kim was working at Lenscrafter's as 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.760 an apprentice optician, and one day her cousin invited her 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.520 to come up north to Delaware, Ohio for a visit. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:23.120 There was someone she wanted Kim to meet. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:27.160 And when I went up there, I didn't actually meet 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.240 the person she wanted me to meet. I met somebody else. 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:35.480 And then we started dating, and about two years later 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:36.679 we were married. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.400 Their son Bo was born in nineteen eighty eight, but 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.240 by then, Kim says, the marriage had run its course. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.000 We were different people and had we dated longer, we 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.159 would have realized that and not got married. But about 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.400 two and a half years after we were married in 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.920 eighty eight, we got a divorce and I raised my 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:02.520 son all by myself. I had so custody. 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.839 What was that like, being a single mother with a newborn. 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.280 It was I had my mom. 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.560 She was his daycare provider while I worked and then 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.600 eventually went to school, and so kind of like the 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:17.960 theme of our life is that family is always there 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:19.039 for you no matter what. 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.840 Well raising her son, Bow, Kim was also working and 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:24.080 going to school. 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.400 And I was accumulating debt and I wasn't really making 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.000 a whole lot back then. So I went back to 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.159 work and I had a series of different jobs, but 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:37.719 I wanted to pay off my student loans, and then 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:42.760 life got in the way and I never did go back. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.840 So when did you start doing the or open your 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:53.400 own daycare center. 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:59.080 I'm not exactly sure, because I just started watching kids on. 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.240 Kids were always at my house, you know, There's just 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.039 a thing where they would always be there. There was 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:12.239 a little boy who lived near us, and he would 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.360 always come over to my house and say he's locked 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:20.600 out or he forgot his key or something to that effect. 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:24.839 And then later on his mother had told me, she said, 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:29.120 there's a key right outside. He wasn't locked out or anything. 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.159 He just he didn't want to be alone, you know, 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:36.800 And so I was more than happy to take him 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:38.200 in and give him a snack. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:44.000 And you know, like her mother, Kim loved kids and 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:45.279 was a natural caregiver. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:49.000 The kids thought of my house as a safe place 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.200 to be, and I like that. I like knowing that 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.320 they were safe. I liked knowing that they could trust me, 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.000 and the families could trust me, And so it was 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:07.919 somewhat of a natural progression when I started my own Actually, 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:10.240 I went to college for and I went to Columbus 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.720 State and took classes in early childhood development. So this 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:20.160 was something that I planned on doing until I retired. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:28.280 You know, I love kids. I should probably have managed 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.520 my business more as a business, but once they come 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.160 into my house, they become part of my family. 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.800 Over the years, Kim took care of around twenty children altogether. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.680 In two thousand and two, she had around half a 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.160 dozen regular kids. 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:51.280 I had two eight week old twin daughters, and I 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:58.200 had their brother who was autistic. I had Samasha, her 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.680 older sister, Dureka, and I had a seven year old 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:06.000 boy named Euro. I had the twins in the morning 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.560 through the afternoon, and then I would have Daureka and 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:14.080 Samasha in the afternoon into the evening hours. 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:17.920 Dareka was two years old and Samisia was seven months. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.080 Kim remembers that their mother, twenty two year old Akila Benson, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.240 first reached out to her in September of two thousand 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:25.560 and two. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.520 She came to my home and we interviewed, We talked, 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.200 and everything was fine, and she said right then and 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:36.760 there that she wanted me to be her daycare provider. 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:39.240 So a few days later she's supposed to be at 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.040 my house. I think around nine but she showed up 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.160 around like eight. I was still in the shower, so 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:51.160 I came running downstairs and she had pushed a double 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.800 baby stroller a good two three miles in major traffic 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.520 to my house. She had assumed that her husband was 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.160 going to give her the only working car that they had, 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.199 beings that she had to travel so far to come 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.480 to my house, but he didn't. 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.120 So Kim bundled the young mother and her kids into 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.120 her own car and drove Akila to work that morning. 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:16.040 I told her then, I said, for about the next 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.199 two weeks, you know, so you can get your car 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.360 pick you get your first paycheck, and get your car PIX. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.440 I'll go ahead and give you rides. 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.600 After she dropped Aquila off at work, Kim drove the 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:27.040 girls back to her house. 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:34.199 That's when I took off samacious coat, and that's when 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.120 I realized that she had a green, runny nose, and 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.240 I assumed it was an infection. So when I went 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.959 to pick up the mother from work that day and 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.560 take them all home, I asked her about that, and 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.400 she said she was giving her medication for it. But 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.000 she kind of went into this long spiel about she's 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.360 looking for a new doctor and all of that. So 0:09:58.640 --> 0:09:59.440 I left it at that. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.240 But as the weeks went by, Samisha's running nose didn't 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:04.080 get any better. 0:10:05.320 --> 0:10:12.160 In fact, it kept getting worse. And in the about 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:15.160 two and a half months that I took care of them, 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:20.760 I asked her on numerous occasions, and each time it 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:25.440 was a different excuse. She switched doctors, and then it 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.920 came down to that she's giving Samesha her medication before 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.760 she brings her. She doesn't understand why she's not getting 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:33.400 any better. 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.520 Years later, Kim learned through hospital paperwork that Akila had 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.360 never actually taken Semisha to the doctor. 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:47.000 She had lied to me about that, which to this day, 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:50.280 I still don't understand because I'm someone that's trying to 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:56.720 help her take care of her daughter, and why would 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.640 you lie to me? I don't understand that part even 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:06.240 today as a mother, as a parent, I don't get that. 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:14.200 Why do you let your child suffer? That's something that 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:21.840 I still think about quite often, and how I could 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:27.200 have I've realized she wasn't getting any better. Had the 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.040 mother said I haven't taken her, I would have driven 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:35.360 her over to my son's pediatrician. And now there was 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:40.160 no reason for that to go untreated, and there. 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.680 Were other unusual physical issues that Kim had observed in Sumasha. 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:50.480 She was twenty pounds at nine months. She was very 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:58.280 top heavy, her body was not normal, her head was massive, 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.040 her chest was massive, but her legs were still very 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.840 much premature, which she was a premature baby. Her belly 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:09.880 was so big that she could never get her legs 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.000 up under her to crawl to lose some of that weight. 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.000 Kim also sensed that Akila was having problems with her 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:20.599 husband window It started that first day when Kim was 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:22.040 giving her a ride to work. 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.439 She started opening up then about things that were going on. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:28.880 I said to her, how long is it going to 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.480 take for you to get your car fixed? And she said, well, 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:34.000 I don't know. He doesn't really want me to get 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.600 it fixed, and I said, well why not, and then 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:42.120 she said, well, he doesn't want me working. So I 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:45.720 started attributing a lot of problems to that. But then 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:50.520 as time went on, she started telling me about the 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.280 fact that when they were in New York, he had 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:59.200 gone to jail for supposedly hurting Dureka. And then I 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:03.760 started seeing being a pattern emerging of domestic violence. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.920 Over time, Kim began to notice signs that Akila might 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:13.199 be planning to leave Window. One day, Akila told her 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.720 she'd found a new apartment and asked Kim to drive 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.080 her there to sign the lease. 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:20.199 When I took her to sign the lease on the apartment, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.320 she kept asking me, please don't tell him, Please don't 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.320 tell him where it is. And even at the hospital, 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.319 if you go back and look at the hospital paperwork, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.120 it says do not give out new address to father. 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:36.440 Kim kept her word. She didn't tell Window about the apartment. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.760 Within that last month, he was always asking about Akila's plans, 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.280 what is she planning on doing, Where's she going? And 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.720 I think he caught win that she was working to 0:13:48.720 --> 0:13:49.760 get away from him. 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:54.319 One week in November, Akila didn't bring the girls to Kim's. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.680 Kim didn't see them until the day after Thanksgiving. That afternoon, 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:00.840 she was taking care of the eight week old twin 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:04.199 girls and their brother, along with her son Bo, who 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:09.199 was thirteen. Around three o'clock, Window brought Dorika and Semisha over. 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:12.160 I went over and picked up Semisha, took her out 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.720 of that chair. I left her coat on her because 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:16.839 I had the front door open, but I put her 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:21.400 in a baby bed beside me on the couch, and 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.680 everything seemed normal at that time. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.520 A couple hours later, after the other children were picked 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.120 up by their mother, Kim turned her attention to feeding Semasha. 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:37.480 I took her snowsuit off, I went to try to 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:39.840 give her a bottle, and that's when I realized that 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.200 she looked lethargic and that she really couldn't hold her 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:48.040 head up. So at that point in time, I'm thinking 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.200 that the green running nose and her not really wanting 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.080 to eat had turned into something worse like pneumonia. And 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.360 at that point in time, I wasn't calling the parents. 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:00.920 Called nine to one on. 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:05.000 The operator told Kim to try doing CPR and Samsha, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.280 but she didn't revive. When the paramedics arrived, they took 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.760 the baby straight to Columbus Children's Hospital. Meanwhile, police were 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.680 questioning Kim about Semisha's parents. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.680 They kept asking about Window. They kept asking had I 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:23.240 met him, and I said, yeah, you know, I wasn't 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.280 really thrilled with him and I didn't want to deal 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:26.960 with him. 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.800 The police told her to call the baby's mother to 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:30.480 meet them there. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.160 Well, I was her ride, So I said, I have 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.200 to go get her. She doesn't have a way, and 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.920 so I went to pick her up, and her and 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.520 my son and Dareka all drove in the car to 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:45.320 the hospital. 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.320 Kim and the hospital social worker tried to get Aquila 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.200 to talk to the detectives about what had been going 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:53.440 on with Window. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.840 And she wouldn't do it. She laid on the couch 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.200 with her coat over her head and kept saying she 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.680 wanted to go home. She hadn't been in her daughter's room, 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:08.400 she hadn't seen her daughter. I ended up calling Aquila's mother. 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.600 We ended up taking Aquila home. For whatever reason, she 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:14.440 wouldn't stay at the hospital. 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.440 Kim told the detectives what she'd observed about Samisha's health 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:21.800 over the past two months, but they wanted to know more. 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.840 They asked me more about Akila and windows relationship, and 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.280 I told him what I knew at the time. You 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:33.160 know that she was trying to get away from him 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.880 and all of that, And at that point in time, 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:40.160 he said, well, we've already got your statements. We need 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:44.560 to deal with the parents, So you guys you're free 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:51.680 to go. You know, thank you for bringing her. We 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.920 never did find out that night what happened to Samasha's 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:57.720 I just kept watching the news like everybody else to 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:03.320 see what was going on. And then December twentieth, I 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.760 woke up, took my son to school, took it to 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:10.520 his bus stop, and then came home and then there 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.440 was a knock on the door and Schwat was there 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:14.199 to arrest me. 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.520 You're listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. You can 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.600 listen to this and all the Lava for Good podcasts 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.080 one week early and ad free by subscribing to Lava 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:53.080 for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.960 From minute one, Kim has said she did not commit 0:17:58.000 --> 0:17:58.520 this crime. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.520 This is Joanna Sanchez, director of the Wrongful Conviction Project 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.800 at the Ohio Public Defender's Office. 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:10.760 Kim has always said this child collapsed in my care 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.879 and unfortunately we weren't able to save her, but that 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.680 she did not harm this child. 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.560 At the hospital, Semisha had been treated by doctor Ellen McManus. 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.600 A CT scan showed that the baby had a skull 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:29.680 fracture and blood across the brain. Ultimately, doctor McManus diagnosed 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:33.400 Semasha with SBS shaken Baby syndrome. 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:38.040 Twenty years ago, the understanding of shaken baby syndrome and 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.360 abusive head trauma was very different than what it is today. Particularly, 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.680 the doctors would look for three things which were retinal hemorrhaging, 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:49.040 hemorrhage on the brain, and brain swelling. And so when 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.840 they saw those three things, the presumption was a child 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.600 was a victim of shaken baby syndrome. As soon as 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.000 the child would shake in within about fifteen minutes, the 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.600 belief was that they would go into distress. And what 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.280 that meant and the criminal context is really the last 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:06.040 adult with the child was always the suspect and always 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.919 the person who was blamed for what happened to the child. 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.720 And that's exactly what happened in Kim's case. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.880 When the officers arrived at Kim's house to arrest her, 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:17.959 she was in complete shock. 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.960 I couldn't even talk, and then they handcuffed me in 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.600 the back and they drove me to the I guess 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:31.359 downtown to the Sheriff's office or somewhere. I was trying 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.800 to wrap my brain around being arrested. 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.439 I mean the phone call, you know, we got the 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:41.960 phone call and then everything just like went off the rails. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.320 Here's Kim's sister, Keina again. 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:47.520 I don't even know how to explain it. I mean, 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.359 we just didn't believe it. There's just no way that 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.680 it was true. There's no possible way that it happened. 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:56.280 And heard her daycare. 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.119 Like she didn't do it. Yeah, they got their facts wrong. 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:04.000 There were all kinds of news photographers and all that. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.680 They're taking pictures and yelling things, you know, trying to 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.800 get me to talk to them. And then they ushered 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:16.160 me into the jail and your strip searched your pictures, 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:20.280 taken your fingerprints, all of that stuff. And then you're 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:24.639 stuck in a room with other people that have been arrested, 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:29.880 and time just gets away from you then because there 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.560 isn't a clock that you can look at. I don't 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:36.439 remember if it was daytime or nighttime or whatever, but 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:37.960 I spent a lot of time there. 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.639 On December thirtieth, two thousand and two, Kim was indicted 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:51.919 for Samasha's murder. Kim went to trial in Franklin County 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:55.120 Court in November of two thousand and three, and as always, 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.159 her family was there to support her. 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.000 I remember seeing her being brought out in handcuffs, and 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:03.880 that was that was the hardest thing. 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.879 Anybody could see. You know, your sister would be like that. 0:21:08.359 --> 0:21:10.440 You know she I could tell she was upset. I 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:11.960 could tell she she was angry. 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:17.320 The whole trial was it was like a blur now 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:19.040 that you look back on it, because you know, I don't. 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:20.160 Want to remember the bad stuff. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:22.399 I don't want to remember any of the bad stuff, 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:24.479 but you know, you got to, you gotta think about 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:26.760 the past. 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:32.800 Kim's trial was very heavily medical based, so it was 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.080 really medical testimony on both sides. 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.760 The prosecution's primary witnesses were doctor McManus, the doctor who 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.480 had treated Samasha, and doctor Charles Johnson, head of the 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:45.800 child abuse team at Children's Hospital. 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:51.120 They both testified that the child had these three symptoms 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:53.360 and that that meant it had to be shaken baby syndrome. 0:21:53.560 --> 0:21:57.439 They also called a deputy coroner, doctor Patrick Fardell, to 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.480 testify at trial, and he provided similar test so he 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.600 said he performed the autopsy at that time. He said 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:06.080 he hadn't noticed that the child had any pre existing 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.560 injuries and that he believed that this was shaking baby syndrome. 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:15.800 It was very hard to listen to At times. I 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:21.000 felt like I had to zone out because It was 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.920 too much for me for anyone to think that I 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:26.679 could hurt anyone. I've never heard anyone in my life, 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:31.000 and for someone to make the accusation that I could 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.800 hurt a child, it takes away from who you are. 0:22:35.680 --> 0:22:37.919 I can't even imagine what she's going through. You know, 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:39.560 you're trying to think, how is she going through this, 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:40.840 What's what's in her mind? 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.280 She would look over at us and we would smile 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:45.320 and you know, let her know. 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.320 I guess just letting her know that we were there 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.360 helped her out a lot, you know, But there wasn't 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:55.000 nothing you could do. I mean, it was weird. Like 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.040 I said, I've never really something you see on TV, 0:22:57.119 --> 0:22:57.879 but worse, you know. 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:03.760 I assumed that my attorney would be there to make 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:07.600 sure that things were put right, that the evidence would 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:18.880 come out, but that really didn't happen. None of their 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:25.000 hospital paperwork, their reports, their findings, anything were ever brought up. 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.320 Nobody could understand that we had expected that to be 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:33.800 put into trial and it wasn't, and why it wasn't 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:38.600 refuted by my own attorney. And that's one thing that 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.639 I think needs to truly be looked at, not just 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:46.160 in my case. But when we're talking about how people 0:23:46.200 --> 0:23:49.800 get wrongfully convicted, if you don't have the true evidence 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:53.520 in front of you, how do you know what is 0:23:53.560 --> 0:24:02.879 being said by people on the stand is actually true. 0:24:06.680 --> 0:24:10.520 Kim's defense was that she hadn't harmed this child, that 0:24:10.600 --> 0:24:13.600 this child potentially had been harmed, but it did not 0:24:13.720 --> 0:24:17.160 happen in Kim's care, And so she had her own 0:24:17.160 --> 0:24:20.760 expert who testified by deposition, and what he said was 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:22.919 that he did believe it was shaken baby syndrome, but 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:27.280 that the injuries may have occurred hours earlier. A critical 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:31.040 component of that defense was that the child's parents had 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:33.920 a history of domestic violence, and so there was evidence 0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.840 put forth about that history at Kim's trial. So there 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:40.600 was police reports documenting a number of calls out to 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:45.639 the family's house, including incidents where each parent had harmed 0:24:45.680 --> 0:24:48.480 the other, but also an incident or two where the 0:24:48.520 --> 0:24:51.800 children had been harmed. So, for example, one was a 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:55.119 police report that Samasha's older sister had been shaken, and 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.120 so we knew that there was this history of police 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:02.479 activity at the home. But in between the family, you know, 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:05.199 I think as far as the defense, the father was 0:25:05.320 --> 0:25:09.040