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Speaker 2: He had this twinkle in his eye. I got the
Speaker 2: sense that he thought he was smarter than everybody. He
Speaker 2: would smile, He smiled into the camera. He would smile
Speaker 2: at witnesses. He tried to smile at Tracy. He tried
Speaker 2: to stare down Kathy in a way. I thought he
Speaker 2: found this was sort of a game.
Speaker 1: That's lead Assistant District Attorney Jeff Brickman talking about the
Speaker 1: demeanor of the defendant. I'm Nancy Glass and this is
Speaker 1: Burden of Guilt, Episode six, Battlefield. Tracy Riquel told the
Speaker 1: prosecution that she had seen some of her mother's testimony
Speaker 1: on television, and since witnesses weren't allowed to watch the
Speaker 1: court proceedings due to sequestration orders, the judge was left
Speaker 1: with no choice but to declare a mistrial. It was
Speaker 1: a heavy blow to the prosecution, and District Attorney j
Speaker 1: Tom Morgan had to decide if it was worth the
Speaker 1: time and money to take the decades old cold case
Speaker 1: to trial once again. Assistant District Attorney LeAnn Mangon.
Speaker 3: Jeff and I felt pretty deflated by the fact that
Speaker 3: the mistrial had been declared. When Judge Fuller declared the
Speaker 3: mist trial, he did make that ruling in a way
Speaker 3: that allowed us to make a decision about whether we
Speaker 3: wanted to retry the case.
Speaker 2: We are in the dumps. I mean, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: but you know, you look at each other and go,
Speaker 2: this guy killed a four month old.
Speaker 1: District Attorney Jay tom Morgan.
Speaker 4: I was furious.
Speaker 5: I mean, all the work that Leanne and Jeff had
Speaker 5: put into it, and so my job as a DiscT
Speaker 5: attorney was to get my two assistants in there and say,
Speaker 5: take a deep breath, let's do this again.
Speaker 3: After all of this had happened, I came into work
Speaker 3: to a voicemail message from Tracy saying please don't give up.
Speaker 6: I basically just called the prosecution and said, look, I'm sorry,
Speaker 6: I didn't mean to mess everything up. Could you do
Speaker 6: this again.
Speaker 2: After going in and talking about it with Jay Tom
Speaker 2: and looking at each other and realizing, you know, this
Speaker 2: doesn't change what happen.
Speaker 7: Happened.
Speaker 2: It doesn't change the facts. And as I told Leanne,
Speaker 2: you know what, last time I checked, there's no such
Speaker 2: thing as the one free murder rule in Georgia. And
Speaker 2: we were back at it within a month, supercharged out.
Speaker 1: The prosecution once again set out to prove that Jan
Speaker 1: Berry Sandlin killed four month old Matthew.
Speaker 2: We didn't really change the theory of the case at all.
Speaker 1: The theory a man was left alone with a baby.
Speaker 1: By the time the baby's mother came home and found him,
Speaker 1: he was near death. The child was a victim of
Speaker 1: the man's abuse. That man was Tracy Riquel's father, Jan
Speaker 1: Barry Sandlin, a person with a history of cruel and
Speaker 1: abusive behavior towards his children. And as we told you,
Speaker 1: Tracy Riquel has spent a lifetime dealing with the abuse
Speaker 1: she suffered at the hands of her father.
Speaker 6: He would just show up in milanit row us on
Speaker 6: the street. We spent lots of time just sleeping on
Speaker 6: a park bench. He put that camel cigarette off on me.
Speaker 6: I was in the car with Kathy and she said,
Speaker 6: day after tomorrow is Matthew's birthday, and I just had
Speaker 6: this child like remark of you don't take me to
Speaker 6: the cemetery of nervousbetian, she told Jan, and he beat
Speaker 6: me terribly. He really enjoyed the belt, the wrong end
Speaker 6: of the belt.
Speaker 1: We shared how he fed her roaches on toast as
Speaker 1: a form of punishment, and how Tracy Raquel spent much
Speaker 1: of her childhood navigating the emotional and physical abuse between
Speaker 1: Kathy and Jan. We told you how he beat Kathy
Speaker 1: and locked her in closets. For Tracy Raquel, those memories
Speaker 1: were like a bad dream.
Speaker 6: Nightmares are an ongoing thing for me. I never have
Speaker 6: nightmares about Matthew. I have a lot of nightmares that
Speaker 6: revolve around events in my childhood and just always being
Speaker 6: terrified and never feeling safe, and that comes from not
Speaker 6: being stable and getting thrown out of your house in
Speaker 6: the middle of the night, and people getting beat up
Speaker 6: and abuse, like all of these things don't go away.
Speaker 1: Lead Ada Jeff Brickman imagined how the series of events
Speaker 1: unfolded between Jan and the baby who was not his son.
Speaker 2: Leanne and I were recent parents of two year old
Speaker 2: We had learned in the last couple of years what
Speaker 2: it's like to have a baby at home who can't speak,
Speaker 2: who cries a lot. They're crying, You're upset, they won't
Speaker 2: shut up. You want to sleep. You're not real jazzed
Speaker 2: up about the fact that you're being left at home
Speaker 2: with this four month old is not even yours, and
Speaker 2: you just wanted to be quiet. Just like that, You'll
Speaker 2: get your quiet. You'll be dead, but you'll get the quiet.
Speaker 2: So we knew that one of the things we wanted
Speaker 2: to impress upon the jury was that this can happen
Speaker 2: just like that. And he had every reason to do that,
Speaker 2: and given the nature of the injuries, he decided just
Speaker 2: like that that he was going to shut him up.
Speaker 2: And as horrific as that is to imagine, that's exactly
Speaker 2: what happened.
Speaker 1: Jeff Brickman knew if the prosecution was going to win
Speaker 1: this trial, the jury had to believe that's what happened.
Speaker 1: As for the defense, they learned something from the first
Speaker 1: trial and this time honed in on a single strategy.
Speaker 2: This time, the defense was none too subtle, and we knew, Karen,
Speaker 2: it was not going to be a well just can't
Speaker 2: prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. It was one person
Speaker 2: did it. It was Kathy Almon.
Speaker 3: There was more of a focus on Kathy Allman as
Speaker 3: someone who may have had something to do with Matthew's murder.
Speaker 2: I distinctly remember talking to Kathy, going, let me tell
Speaker 2: you what the defense is. You killed your four month old.
Speaker 2: You get it. Now, it's up to you. I can't
Speaker 2: get up and testify. You need to be convincing.
Speaker 1: Adyajff Brickman was saying Kathy could make her break this
Speaker 1: second trial, and he was worried about her state of
Speaker 1: mind and her lack of self assurance on the stand.
Speaker 2: Kathy was kind of damaged over the years, and she
Speaker 2: was very vulnerable. She was easy to pick on, and
Speaker 2: karenn was great at finding weaknesses.
Speaker 3: They were introducing a suggestion that perhaps there's not enough
Speaker 3: evidence to demonstrate that Jan Sanmlin was solely responsible.
Speaker 1: On day one of the t Tracy Roquel was the
Speaker 1: second witness to be called. Assistant District Attorney Lee and
Speaker 1: man Gone asked Tracy Raquel about the time she contacted
Speaker 1: her father in prison.
Speaker 8: When you were younger, did you make a telephone call
Speaker 8: to the defendant yes I did. Did you ask him
Speaker 8: for an explanation for Matt's death? Yes, I did, And
Speaker 8: in that telephone call, what was his response, asked your mother.
Speaker 1: She couldn't get a straight answer from Jan and her mother,
Speaker 1: Kathy wouldn't provide any clarity either.
Speaker 8: Do you and miss Rain have any information which would
Speaker 8: indicate that your mother is responsible for Matt's death?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 8: Can you tell the members of the jury why it
Speaker 8: is you have worked so hard to find out what
Speaker 8: happened to that? Well?
Speaker 7: I always knew that he had died, and it was
Speaker 7: always a very if subject with everyone in my family,
Speaker 7: and I guess that just sparked me to think that
Speaker 7: something was wrong, and I thought if there was something wrong,
Speaker 7: you needed to fix it.
Speaker 4: I had no idea of it.
Speaker 5: It was because they thought that I had love.
Speaker 1: That was obviously very emotional for Tracy Riquel. She regained
Speaker 1: her composure and lee Anne continued her questioning. She asked
Speaker 1: Tracy Roquel what happened when she asked her mother to
Speaker 1: have Matt's death investigated.
Speaker 8: What generally was your mother's response when you were talking
Speaker 8: about that issue.
Speaker 7: That she didn't want to deal with the pain. She
Speaker 7: was not capable of dealing with the pain, she didn't
Speaker 7: have the support that she needed.
Speaker 1: Kathy Almand's mother, Tracy Riquel's grandmother, Anne Davidson, took the stand.
Speaker 1: She testified about an incident that occurred when she came
Speaker 1: home with Kathy after Jan was alone with baby Matthew.
Speaker 9: Were you when and matt was screaming? And Kathy said,
Speaker 9: what's wrong with the baby? And he said, oh, I
Speaker 9: was playing with him here on the table and he
Speaker 9: picked up the pepper shaker and I guess he got
Speaker 9: it in his eyes.
Speaker 4: Could you tell what the appearance was at this chart?
Speaker 9: Bob was crying, his eyes were red. What did Kathy do?
Speaker 9: If anything?
Speaker 7: She took the.
Speaker 9: Baby and she got a washcloth and washed his eyes out,
Speaker 9: gave him a bottle, and pretty soon he stopped crying.
Speaker 2: Was there any further discussion that day as far as
Speaker 2: you remember about what happened?
Speaker 9: No, never was mentioned again.
Speaker 1: Then the questioning turned to the night Matthew died.
Speaker 2: At any point once you got to the hospital, did
Speaker 2: you make any effort or attempt to talk.
Speaker 9: To kat Yes, I did. I just went straight to
Speaker 9: her and said, Katy, what happened? And Jan just came
Speaker 9: forward and said that Tracy threw little Matt from the
Speaker 9: crib and he was hurt real bad, and that's why
Speaker 9: they were there.
Speaker 4: Eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Jeff Brickman asked Kathy's mother, Anne Davidson, those questions to
Speaker 1: establish a history of abuse by jam. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: defense attorney Kren Malls seemed to say, if the pepper
Speaker 1: incident was so bad, if there was abuse, why didn't
Speaker 1: anyone call the police, Miss Davidson?
Speaker 4: What was the name of the police officer you spoke
Speaker 4: to being told about this pepper incident after Matt died.
Speaker 4: I didn't speak you didn't You didn't happen to say, God,
Speaker 4: this land not only has he killed my child, Let
Speaker 4: me tell you about the pepper incident. No, didn't say
Speaker 4: that to anybody?
Speaker 7: Did you?
Speaker 4: First time you ever mentioned it is July nineteen ninety
Speaker 4: seven to these folks.
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Krin Mall pointed out that Kathy's mother didn't
Speaker 1: share that information with anybody until the second trial.
Speaker 4: Did you hear a singales soul besides your daughter, say
Speaker 4: Jane Mary Sandwin told them that this child was thrown
Speaker 4: out of the bed by his sister.
Speaker 9: No, I didn't, okay, And your daughter.
Speaker 4: Also said she didn't know if he did or not,
Speaker 4: didn't she That's right, neither do I.
Speaker 1: Corin Mal had spent hours questioning Kathy during the first trial,
Speaker 1: and she had no plans to ease up in the second.
Speaker 1: In fact, she would press Kathy even harder about inconsistencies.
Speaker 4: You have told her, and you have told us that
Speaker 4: besides your initial different stories that you told her the
Speaker 4: Krim dead, banging the head on the throwing out, crushing
Speaker 4: the baby shoes, besides those different stories, you have always
Speaker 4: you said, maintain what happened that day to everyone having you,
Speaker 4: and you maintained to everyone that you believed she'd thrown
Speaker 4: the baby out of the bed. That's what I thought
Speaker 4: for many, many years.
Speaker 1: The defense wanted to make the point that even while
Speaker 1: jan was out of their lives and in prison, Kathy
Speaker 1: continued to communicate with him. It seemed like she still
Speaker 1: wanted them to have a relationship.
Speaker 4: It was almend you wrote a letter to your ex husband. Correctly,
Speaker 4: you've written to them, yes, and you wrote to him
Speaker 4: about Tracy making accusations.
Speaker 10: Right.
Speaker 4: I don't really recall what I wrote in those letters.
Speaker 4: Isn't it truth in this Almond that you told in
Speaker 4: your letters, don't worry about Tracy. You know my parents,
Speaker 4: they've just been saying some ugly things about you.
Speaker 7: I don't recall what was in those letters, so I
Speaker 7: can't say I was very depressed when I wrote him.
Speaker 9: I know that.
Speaker 4: I thought something's wrong with me. I don't know in
Speaker 4: those letters. In the last letter that you wrote to
Speaker 4: mister Sandlin, do you recall telling him in there not
Speaker 4: to be concerned about Tracy because she just resented him
Speaker 4: not being there, I have I don't know.
Speaker 1: In another letter, Kathy had expressed frustration about Tracy Raquel's
Speaker 1: younger brother, Jason. He was the second child Kathy had
Speaker 1: with jan Didn't.
Speaker 4: You tell Jason that you told mister Sandlin he's bothering me.
Speaker 4: I'm going to beat him with a baseball.
Speaker 6: I don't recall that.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's what she wrote, that she was going to
Speaker 1: beat her son with a baseball bat.
Speaker 4: Let me show you something and see if that refreshes
Speaker 4: nor recollection.
Speaker 7: Yes, I did say it in a joking way.
Speaker 4: And you did say in a joking way, I'm going
Speaker 4: to beat him with a baseball.
Speaker 1: Yes, the prosecution came back one last time with Kathy
Speaker 1: to put the focus back on Matthew's death.
Speaker 11: And on that day when you did leave matt for
Speaker 11: the second time with that man over, there was this
Speaker 11: child who was depicted in States five just two days
Speaker 11: before his death. In this picture.
Speaker 4: Was he healthy?
Speaker 7: Yes, he was healthy.
Speaker 11: Was he as alive as could be, live as could.
Speaker 4: Be, happy as could be in a very good, wonderful baby.
Speaker 1: When the prosecution finished, the defense left the jury with this, isn't.
Speaker 4: It truth that the accident, and he was an accident,
Speaker 4: was caused by hums Ho.
Speaker 1: No, there was no more suggesting or circling around it.
Speaker 12: There.
Speaker 1: It was the defense put on the line. It was
Speaker 1: your fault, Kathy. The defense never called a single witness,
Speaker 1: and Jan never took the stand. Jeff Brickman remembers observing
Speaker 1: Jan's behavior as he watched the testimony.
Speaker 2: He had this twinkle in his eye. I got the
Speaker 2: sense that he thought he was smarter than everybody. He
Speaker 2: would smile, he smiled into the camera. He would smile
Speaker 2: at witnesses. He tried to smile at Tracy. He tried
Speaker 2: to stare down Kathy. He would stare back at us.
Speaker 2: And he just kind of stared through you.
Speaker 9: In a way.
Speaker 2: I thought he found this was sort of a game.
Speaker 2: I really do think he found pleasure in making everybody
Speaker 2: who came in there to testify against him.
Speaker 1: Hey, the last person to testify was the medical examiner
Speaker 1: who performed the second autopsy, doctor Burton. The prosecution strategically
Speaker 1: saved him for the end. He was their key witness.
Speaker 1: The prosecution's case was straightforward. Matthew's death was from unspeakable abuse.
Speaker 8: Do you have an opinion, doctor Burdon, as to whether
Speaker 8: these injuries could have been inflicted by a two year
Speaker 8: old child throwing the baby out of a crip?
Speaker 12: Well, first of all, a two year old child couldn't
Speaker 12: throw the baby out. It's a squirming ten pound weight,
Speaker 12: and so to throw it out would be virtually impossible.
Speaker 12: To say that a two year old could get in
Speaker 12: the bed and somehow tug it up over the edge
Speaker 12: of the rail and let the baby tip over the
Speaker 12: edge of the rail and fall. It's possible, but even
Speaker 12: that is not likely.
Speaker 1: In the last episode, you heard, defense attorney carin Mal
Speaker 1: questioned Kathy about Tracy Riquel's heavy baby shoes because Kathy
Speaker 1: had said she thought Tracy Riquel had stepped on Matthew's
Speaker 1: head with her heavy baby shoes and that led to
Speaker 1: his death. A Leean Mangune showed doctor Burton a pair
Speaker 1: of those shoes.
Speaker 12: These shoes have leather soles and rubber hills on them.
Speaker 12: The soles and hills have edges on them. There's nothing
Speaker 12: in any of the records to describe any type of
Speaker 12: a pattern of bruise or abrasion to Matthew's head. This
Speaker 12: tells us that the impact happened on a surface smooth,
Speaker 12: but no proturberances on it. There's not enough mass in
Speaker 12: the foot and leg of a two year old to
Speaker 12: cause fractures on both sides of this baby's head to
Speaker 12: compress the head against the floor. It would be almost
Speaker 12: impossible for all the circumstances to exist for a shoe
Speaker 12: not to leave a mark on Matthew's head.
Speaker 1: Further emphasizing it was no accident, the prosecution asked how
Speaker 1: a child would sustain the injuries found on Matthew, so.
Speaker 8: That the jury better understands the force which must have
Speaker 8: been used in this case. Under what non abusive circumstances
Speaker 8: would you expect to see these types.
Speaker 12: Of injuries fractures like this that are bilateral complex fractures.
Speaker 12: You see an automobile wrecks, you see them, and children
Speaker 12: are people who fall heights like fifteen twenty feet.
Speaker 8: Do you, doctor Burton, have an opinion based on a
Speaker 8: reasonable degree of medical certainty as to the manner of
Speaker 8: death of Matthew Stephen Golder on December the twenty seventh
Speaker 8: of nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 12: I do the injuries that resulted in Matthew's death were
Speaker 12: inflicted or caused by another person?
Speaker 1: Carin Mal did not mince words during the cross examination.
Speaker 4: The scenario that you were given was mainly to disprove
Speaker 4: that this child had not been thrown out by a
Speaker 4: two year old onto the floor from a bed from
Speaker 4: a crib. Correct.
Speaker 12: Yes, I was trying to decide whether this was an
Speaker 12: accidental death or some other type of death.
Speaker 4: And it is true, doctor Burton, that this injury could
Speaker 4: have been inflicted several different ways, and you have shown
Speaker 4: some of them, correct.
Speaker 12: And there may be others.
Speaker 4: But bottom line is that this child is not thrown
Speaker 4: out of a bed by a two year old. This
Speaker 4: child died as a result of abuse from an adult. Correct.
Speaker 12: I think that's the probability, Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1: So which adult was it? Would the jury believe it
Speaker 1: was Jan or did the defense raise enough doubt by
Speaker 1: presenting Kathy as a culprit Ada Lee and Mangon went
Speaker 1: first in closing arguments.
Speaker 8: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a case about murder. This
Speaker 8: is a case about the murder of a four month
Speaker 8: old little boy, about the murder of a child who
Speaker 8: lived on this earth for less than twenty weeks. This
Speaker 8: is the case about a murder which could have been
Speaker 8: committed by only one person, and that person is sitting
Speaker 8: right there. Jan Berry Sandlin is guilty of murder.
Speaker 1: Leanne held up a photo of Matthew.
Speaker 8: Matt Golder is speaking to you, ladies and gentlemen. He's saying,
Speaker 8: my name is Matthew Stephen Golder. I died when I
Speaker 8: was four months old. I was robbed of my opportunity
Speaker 8: to run, to jump, to laugh. My innocence was taken
Speaker 8: from me. It was taken from me by that man.
Speaker 8: Ladies and gentlemen. Matt Golder is crying out to you
Speaker 8: today as he must have cried in December of nineteen
Speaker 8: seventy one. But today he's crying very differently. He's crying
Speaker 8: for justice, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 10: He is asking that you send the loudest and clearest
Speaker 10: message that you can. He wants you to tell this
Speaker 10: man what you did was wrong, what you did was murderers.
Speaker 8: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Defense attorney Carin Maul gave her summation.
Speaker 4: While it is true that there's nothing worse than the
Speaker 4: death of a child, and those of us who have
Speaker 4: suffered it know how poignant that is and know how
Speaker 4: debilitating that is. But second to that is to convict an.
Speaker 1: Innocent, Carin Maul then focused on Kathy's strange behavior, specifically
Speaker 1: towards Tracy Riquel. Kathy told the same story over and
Speaker 1: over again, even to Tracy Raquel's doctor when she was
Speaker 1: just a teenager.
Speaker 4: You're giving information to your child's doctor that you so
Speaker 4: badly wanted. You don't lie to that doctor. You tell
Speaker 4: them everything. You especially would not tell your child's doctor
Speaker 4: that your child had thrown the baby out of the
Speaker 4: bed when any fool could have seen that didn't happen,
Speaker 4: and you certainly wouldn't blame it on a child. From
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety seven, when your child
Speaker 4: is in your face, telling you, how could you do
Speaker 4: this to me? January nineteen ninety seven. What does miss
Speaker 4: Almond do? She brings the baby shoes, still trying to
Speaker 4: blame Tracy Ray. She knows what happened. She's the only
Speaker 4: one that knows what happened. Miss Almond is responsible not
Speaker 4: for killing her child, but for the death of her job.
Speaker 1: There was no more to say. Arguments were finished, the
Speaker 1: trial concluded, and now the waiting began.
Speaker 3: I always knew that it was up to those twelve citizens.
Speaker 3: We slept with a jury out. We went home one
Speaker 3: night and came back the next morning. I don't remember
Speaker 3: them deliberating a long time, but I remember the call
Speaker 3: that we got being that there was a verdict.
Speaker 4: We the jury found the defendant Jan Barrysilin.
Speaker 1: This case takes yet another turn, and it was a shocker.
Speaker 2: My stomach dropped.
Speaker 1: That's next time on Burden of Guilt. Stay tuned for
Speaker 1: Burden of Guilt at documentary coming in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: and airing only on Paramount Plus. If you would like
Speaker 1: to reach out to the Burden of Guilt team, email
Speaker 1: us at Burden of guildtpod at gmail dot com. That's
Speaker 1: Burden of Guilt pod at gmail dot com. If you
Speaker 1: or someone you know was worried about maltreatment or suspect
Speaker 1: that the child is being abused or neglected, call the
Speaker 1: Child Help National Child Abuse Hotline. You can call or
Speaker 1: text one eight hundred four a child that's one eight
Speaker 1: hundred four two two four four five three. One way
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Speaker 1: Burden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts, a
Speaker 1: division of Glass Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is hosted and executive produced by me Nancy Glass,
Speaker 1: written and produced by Andrea Gunning and Carrie Hartman, also
Speaker 1: produced by Ben Fetterman and associate producer Kristin Melchure. Our
Speaker 1: iHeart team is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to Tracy Riquel Burns and her husband Bart. Audio editing
Speaker 1: and mixing by Matt Delvecchio. Burden of Guild's theme composed
Speaker 1: by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by my Music and
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