WEBVTT - #288 Jason Flom with Ken Middleton 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:03.519 When we initially released Ken Middleton's episode in March twenty 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:06.680 twenty two, we were hoping that Jackson County District Attorney 0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:09.600 Jean Peters Baker would be moved to action. But it 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.040 turns out it looks like Ken's son, Cliff Middleton, has 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.400 exposed another conflict of interest for the Jackson County Prosecutor's office, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:21.079 and this one comes with a constitutional violation. When the 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.239 trial prosecutor struck a bond agreement with the court for 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.440 mister Middleton, there was a stipulation that he would not 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.600 have access to his assets. This was a clear violation 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.239 of his Sixth Amendment rights, as affirmed in twenty sixteen 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.440 by the Supreme Court, who decided in Louis versus United 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.120 States that the Sixth Amendment prohibits the pre trial restraint 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:45.080 of assets needed to retain a defendant's council of choice 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:47.920 when those assets have not been used in conjunction with 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.479 criminal activity. Mister Middleton is hoping that the Court agrees 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:55.480 that the actions of the Jackson County Prosecutor's office to 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:59.000 do just that to mister Middleton pre trial represented a 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:02.200 conflict of interest that will disqualify that office and result 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.759 in the appointment of a special prosecutor. A prosecutor who's 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.200 free of this conflict, among others, would be able to 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:13.000 apply the newly enacted SB fifty three in order to 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.080 grant mister Middleton a new trial on his ineffective assistance 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:22.880 of counsel, constitutional violations and actual innocence claims. Canon Kathy 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:25.560 Middleton had properties in Blue Springs, Missouri, as well as 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.319 Ken's family land back in Arkansas, where they hoped to 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:31.960 one day retire. On February twelfth, nineteen ninety, when he 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:33.840 planned to clean a gun that he had brought back 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.000 from Arkansas, Ken felt Hill, laid the gun down and 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.399 took a nap. Meanwhile, Kathy returned early from work to 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.320 confront Ken about news of a regretful affair that had 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.520 ended three years earlier. After grabbing the gun from where 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:48.840 Ken had laid it down, Kathy made her way to 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.080 the phone to call the alleged mistress. When tragedy struck. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.440 It is believed that it destroyed. Kathy mishandled the weapon 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:57.800 in her left hand and shot herself in the head. 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:01.080 Ken immediately called nine to one one when first responders 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.840 found him without a drop of blood or gunshot residue 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.520 on him. A positive gunshot residue test of Kathy's left 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.240 hand would have conclusively ruled her death as a tragic accident. However, 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:14.440 her left hand test results went missing and the crime 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:17.480 lab document was altered in what clearly appears to be 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.320 evidence tampering, where a medical examiner and blood spatter expert 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:24.720 willing to testify to an impossible scenario in which Ken 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.280 was magically able to shoot Kathy from less than a 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.080 foot away while remaining free of blood and GSR. Ken 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.400 was sentenced to life plus two hundred years. Despite the 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.560 mishandling of the crime scene, ballistics testing was still able 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.960 to prove Ken's innocence. His conviction was overturned in two 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.560 thousand and four, but a jurisdictional technicality has held him 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.639 in legal limbo ever since. Keneda's son, Cliff Middleton, join 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.560 us to ask, how is it that, even though a 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.440 new statute remedies that technicality, the current prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:13.080 refuses to act. This is wrongful conviction. Welcome back to 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.920 Ronful Conviction. I'm your host, Jason Fom. You know each 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.639 week I have a pretty good idea of how I'm 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:20.799 going to start the show. You know, usually there's one 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.680 main focus, one main problem that we can talk about 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.800 in any particular case. But this time, I don't even 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.400 know where to start. When our friend Larry Garrison, who's 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:35.880 actually known as the Newsbreaker, okay for his years of 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.680 investigative reporting and his work through Silver Creek Entertainment, when 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.960 he first told me and us here at Ronful Conviction 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.360 about the case of Ken Middleton, he had lived up 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:48.320 to his nickname once again, I mean the Newsbreaker. So 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.600 I'll start by saying that Ken Middleton has been in 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:53.760 prison for over thirty years for being present during what 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.640 they may well have known all along was just a 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:59.520 tragic accident. And there are so many problems in this 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:01.480 case that we could literally pick on any one of 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:03.840 them and make an entire episode of the show just 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.000 about that. I'm talking about ineffective assistance of counsel, false 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:14.720 expert testimony, evidence tampering, incompetent investigator's official corruption, conflicts of interest, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.880 Ken refusing freedom through an Alfred plea right, something that 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.680 you never catch a guilty person doing, and that's something 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:25.960 that happened seventeen years ago, almost eighteen now, plus there's 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.520 this insane jurisdictional technicality that has kept this innocent man 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.160 in prison long past the time that I believe everyone 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.240 knows that he should have ever been in there. So 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.640 without further ado, at seventy seven years old, Ken is 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.560 calling in from inside the prison walls in Missouri. Ken, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.240 I'm so sorry you're here because of the reason why 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.920 you're here, but I'm very honored to have you on 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:50.359 the show. 0:04:50.640 --> 0:04:52.200 Thank you appreciate it. 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:58.280 And with Ken is his son and probably most passionate advocate, 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.960 Cliff Middleton. Thanks for joining us. 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:03.560 Thank you so much for having me on. Jason, I 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:04.920 really really appreciate it. 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:06.880 And I know how hard this is going to be. 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.240 I mean, like any other son, you love your dad 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:12.520 and you just want this thing to end. Okay, let's 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:16.280 go back in time and I'm gonna turn to you. Ken. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:20.480 This is early nineteen ninety in Blue Springs, Missouri, and 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:23.200 you're there with your wife Kathy. So tell us what 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.160 was happening in your life? What were things like before 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:27.080 all this happened. 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.560 It was great. We had a great marriage for over 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.520 sixteen years, had a farm in Arkansas, two different farms. 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.599 I had three hundred and fifty two acres of the land. 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.640 I had drove a truck for over twenty years, and 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.720 I'd injured my back and I wasn't working right then, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.800 so I was going to the farm and doing projects, 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:50.000 working on the house and watching nice of the cattle 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.039 and stuff like that. Kathy worked today at and T 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.160 for twenty eight years, and two years you'd have her 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.160 time in Horse you could retire regardless of age. And 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.360 that's what was waiting on, and was moving back to 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:04.400 Tarkansas for good. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.640 And let's get into how this came to pass. So 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.480 let's go back to February twelfth, nineteen ninety and just 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.279 to set the stage here, you had been at your 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.760 place in Arkansas and you brought a handgun that you 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.120 owned back to Missouri with you. But meanwhile you had 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.560 been feeling sick, but no one knew at the time, 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.480 not you or anybody, that you were really seriously ill 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.400 at this point, Is that right, right? 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.120 And I was sick for left Arkansas, and when I 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:38.080 got back Sunday afternoon, I didn't sleep much all night. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.120 So the next morning, Kathy had went to work at 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.480 at and T and I unloaded the rest of my 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:48.320 truck and brought the gun in the house. It had 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.479 been in Arkansas since i'd went to Colorado Elcott in 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.640 the fall before, and there's a big snow and rain 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.479 and stuff in Colorado and it got wet. So I 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.760 picked it up and brought it back to Missouri. I 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:02.719 was aiming to clean it. And when I got it 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:05.000 out of the truck, I went in the house and 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.279 sat down. I called Kathy at work, and she asked 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.160 me how I was feeling. I said about the same. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.400 I wasn't feeling good, and I sat in a recliner 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.920 and I went to sleep. And I'd never cleaned the gun. 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:21.400 So the next thing I knew is she was already home, 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.320 and she'd picked up the gun out of the towel 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:26.600 that I had had the gun laying on, and she 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.520 was upset that somebody had told her that I was 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.480 having an affair with a woman, which was true, but 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:37.880 it had been over for three years, and she walked 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.720 over to the phone in the dining room to call 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.240 the woman. So I got up and was dizzy, and 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:47.080 next thing I know, the tragedy had happened. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.120 And the tragedy that had happened is the matter of 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.160 this dispute between the Middletons and the State. Now, Ken 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.840 maintained his innocence in the matter, that this was a 0:07:56.880 --> 0:08:00.520 tragic accident at which Kathy visibly upset about the news 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:02.840 of this affair, and on her way to the phone 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:07.000 to confront your alleged mistress, Kathy was holding the gun 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.960 in her left hand and accidentally shot herself on the 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.600 left side of her forehead, splattering blood all over the wall. 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.640 This version of events is supported by the ballistics and 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.200 all the other physical evidence. And then there's what the 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.960 state wants everyone to believe. Right, bear with me, because 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.040 this is nuts. That Ken had somehow held Kathy up 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.520 against the wall and shot her in the face, but 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:36.120 somehow miraculously was able to be completely clear of blood 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.679 spatter or gunshot residue, not a trace on him. And 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.199 we'll get into all of that a bit later. So 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.839 back to this terrible tragedy. A gunshot rang out and 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.880 Kathy was on the floor in a pool of blood. 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.040 What a nightmare, Ken, What happened next? 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.040 I'd seen her on the floor and grabbed a gun 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.839 and put it on the table and call nine one 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:01.760 one immediately. I asked for the paramedics, and I'd called 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:04.880 him three times within a short period of time wanted 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.600 to know who the paramedics was. And the third time, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:12.679 the operator told me to go outside, that the paramedics 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.959 were there. And I looked out, and I told her 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.280 that I'd looked out and there wasn't nobody out there, 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.080 and she convinced me to go outside that they were there. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.120 So I went out and the first thing I've seen 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.440 was a copp hole behind the walls, screaming at me 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.680 to get my hands in the air and turn around 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.040 with my back to him at his gun pointed at me, 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:37.120 and I'd done as he said, and he'd come up 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.480 behind me and search me. I wanted to know where 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.360 the paramedics were, and he ordered me back in the house, 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.480 and we went back in the house and he went 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.000 in and checked on my wife, and I was just hysterical, 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.640 and I guess I was down on my knees and 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:56.880 he jerked me up, and when he'd done that fast, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.640 I become dizzy, real dizzy. Oh No, I was ain't 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.920 a blackout, So I said it was amb six and 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:06.360 I went down the hall to the bathroom and I 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:09.079 went in and spliced water on my face, and then 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.600 he took me outside and I had a real bad 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.959 hurting in my left arm and chased. 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:18.280 Now, when the paramedics arrived, they determined Ken, that you 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.640 had been hyperventilating, complaining of chess plains and blood pressure 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.120 was going crazy, and they convinced you to go to 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:26.720 the hospital for an examination. 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.720 They taught me to go into the hospital, and they 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:32.480 took me to three medical hospitals, and then on the 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.280 third one, I was forced in a mental hospital till 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:35.960 the next day. 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.800 They later tried to say that you had checked into 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.280 that mental hospital to try to get away with murder 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:43.920 claim by claiming insanity defense. But we're getting ahead of 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.160 ourselves here, and let's not leave out the fact that 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.280 your dad was in and out of consciousness on his 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.839 way to the hospital. And they took an EKG at 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:53.959 the hospital and it showed that Ken, that you had 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.520 recently suffered from a heart attack. Now here's another thing 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:03.640 that I have trouble understanding processing. The officers didn't write 0:11:03.760 --> 0:11:08.719 their statements until days later, and they did it by memory, right, 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.000 And these statements that were taken from a hysterical man 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.160 who had to be rushed to the hospital talking about you, 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:15.120 of course, Ken, who was just trying to help figure 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.840 out what happened, so the officers didn't bother to write 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:19.440 it down. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.960 There were a couple police reports that were handwritten out 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:29.359 that day, but the official reports that I have reviewed 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:34.760 were written on I believe it was February twenty first, 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.000 and Kathy died on the twelve. 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:41.720 Now, in researching this case, I saw in the police 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.800 reports where they kept on documenting instances in which Ken 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:47.760 allegedly had done something with his hands, like he mentioned 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.600 splashing water on its face, right. They wrote down another 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.160 instance where they said he wiped his hands on a door, 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.400 touched dirt in a potted plant, and the implication is 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:04.239 that Ken was trying to somehow wash away the gunshot residue. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.800 There's a picture the Independence News Examiner paper took of 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:13.280 my father out there on the front stoop, leaning over 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:19.640 that powder plant, sobbing, and the two paramedics are consoling him. 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:24.160 It's very obvious that he was in a state of 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.480 shock in hysteria. First of all, you already claimed he 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.560 was washing his hands when he splashed water on his face. 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.760 It's crazy to think that somebody's trying to wash their 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.880 hands in the dirt. Unless you've been involved in something 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.840 like this, how would you even know what a gunshot 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:45.480 residue test is, especially in nineteen ninety Jayson, maybe today 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.720 with crime shows and things, but he didn't know what 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:50.360 they were testing him for. 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.720 They took my shirt, under shirt and clothes and shoes 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.080 and all, and they did this and then come back negative. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.240 No blood or nothing on my lone sleeve shirt. And 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.720 that picture in the front high of a house when 0:13:02.720 --> 0:13:05.520 I was over the stuke shows the long sleeve shirt 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.640 down to my risk, there was no blood, no gunshots. 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.760 Right, and as the evidence clearly shows, she was shot 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.800 from very close range, less than a foot away, and 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.760 there's no way you can do that without being covered 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:23.199 in blood and gunshot residue. But you weren't because you 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:27.559 didn't kill her. And Kathy's gunshot residue tests would likely 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:30.480 have corroborated Ken's version of events and shown that this 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.480 was a tragic accident, not a homicide. Cliff, can you 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.079 explain what I mean by that. 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:41.680 They swabbed both of her hands, that they four gunshot residue, 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.480 and the prime document that they fill out shows that 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.920 they swabbed both hands, right and left hands, and it 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:54.480 shows they used two different kids to do that, one 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:57.240 for the right hand and one for the left hand. Well, 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.360 the next day when the corner did the autas, the 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.880 corner ruled it a homicide based on what the police 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:11.000 were telling him unless other information come forward to prove otherwise. 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:17.200 Now that gunshot residue was important information, and took them 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:22.120 nine days to turn the gunshot residue samples into the 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.960 crime lab. And when they turned them into the crime lab, 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:31.840 the document was altered to show only one kit and 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.360 the left hand was wided out to show they only 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.440 tested the right hand when she was shot from eight 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.160 to twelve inches away on the left side of her head. 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.960 You really have to see this to believe it. And 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.520 we're going to link pictures of this in our episode Child, 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.560 because I'm looking at it right now and I still 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:56.280 can't believe that I'm actually looking at what I'm looking at. Okay, So, 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.960 the test of Kathy's left hand, the one in which 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.720 she would have held the gun in order to shoot herself, 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:08.360 the test of that hand disappeared or it wasn't tested 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:13.520 on purpose. There's only two possibilities. The crime lab document 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.040 that should have been for both of her hands was 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.960 altered with whiteout. Okay, remember white out, it's unreal. This 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.320 is like to show that only her right hand had 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:28.800 been tested. And this is reinforced when you compare it 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.840 with the GSR test document for Ken in the same 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:36.120 handwriting okay, get ready for this, it states quote number 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:40.960 of articles two GSR test kits for right and left hands. 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:45.240 End quote. But then on Kathy's GSR test document, in 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:49.840 the same exact handwriting, it says, quote number of articles 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:54.640 and whatever was there is white it out, right, just 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.640 white it out, and the number one is in its place. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:02.240 And then it reads quote gunshot residue for right and 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.520 quote followed by another gob of whiteout and the word hand. 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.920 So in all likelihood the white out is simply covering 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.880 the words and left, as it would have been in 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:17.320 a request for testing of both right and left hands, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:21.720 where now only one test for her right hand exists 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.600 and the one that really matters the left hand is missing. 0:16:27.400 --> 0:16:30.520 Later on, after us convicted years later, we took their 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.920 deposition and Jeff Rogers that wrote the report out he 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:37.280 swore that he didn't put the white out on that 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.080 because his on green paper, and he said that he 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.600 wouldn't have whited it out. He'd just filled out a 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.440 new report and we got Dave Link, the one that 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.800 took it to the lab. Nine days later, he swore 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.600 up and down that he didn't do it. And he 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.440 was asked, did he always take both hands of a 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:01.840 close gunshot residue test? He said yeah, My attorney asking 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.680 years later in ninety seven, always, and he said absolutely. 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.680 They whited out the left hand, and they whited out 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.560 the number of articles. I mean, somebody literally just took 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:14.400 white out. 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.880 Yeah, the left hand. If it would have come back positive, 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:22.959 it would have been powerful evidence that she accidentally fired 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.959 the gun herself. Our attorney told us that if that 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.040 left hand come back positive, the coroner would have changed 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.399 his findings and they wouldn't have had a case against 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.040 my father. It all would have ended right there. 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.520 This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.320 AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and is making 0:17:56.359 --> 0:17:59.159 a positive difference in the lives of its employees and 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.880 in the communities where we work and live. In light 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:04.719 of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.600 in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.840 The AIG Pro Bono program provides free legal services and 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:23.000 other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. Now, this is 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:26.320 a small town police department. My understanding is there hadn't 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:30.399 been a homicide investigation in almost a decade. These people 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:33.840 were not up to the task, and they started making 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.160 mistakes more or less as soon as they walked into 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:36.639 the house. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:39.520 Yes, yes, And like so many other cases, I believe 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.199 the police immediately focused on my father and had tunnel 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:49.400 vision as they began to investigate this case. I'll start 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.719 with the fact that they took photos that day of 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:59.600 the alleged crime scene, and the photos allegedly did not 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:06.280 come out, And after Kathy's body was removed, they went 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:10.760 back and restaged the crime scene and took new photos. 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:14.080 By the time they'd done this, my stepmother had already 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.920 been taken out of the house, and the fire department 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.240 had actually been called in to cut sheet rock out 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.720 of the wall with blood spatter and things, And so 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:28.400 the new pictures they took the sheet rock was already 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.920 cut out, and they had drawn a diagram of the 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:37.879 dining room where this happened, and the diagram didn't match 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.840 the pictures. They had moved the dining room table all 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.120 the way up against the wall to make it appear 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:50.040 that there was a bigger area there when she was shot. 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.760 Right to make room for this alleged struggle that never 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.400 even happened. When she went to use the phone. 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:58.440 In every picture they took of this small dining room, 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:02.119 they missed that phone Jason by a quarter of an inch. 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:07.159 Another mistake that was made that day at the crime scene. 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:13.159 According to the police reports, they unclothed my stepmother naked 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:17.680 right there on the dining room floor and folded her 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.119 clothes up and put them in bags and transported her 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:26.240 to the morgue naked for them to unclothe her and 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.600 alter any evidence that could have been gathered from that. Now, 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:35.359 that goes against every protocol of any police department anywhere. 0:20:35.920 --> 0:20:39.000 Best I remember, the medical examiner said she'd come in 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:43.040 fully clothing, So what they actually done was recloser the 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:46.440 poor the medical examiner examiner. 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.920 That's exactly right. What the medical examiner reported didn't match 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:54.920 the police reports. They unclothed her and at some point 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:56.600 reclothed her. 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.520 So they mishandled the scene, and the evidence altered or disappeared, 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:03.520 the key gunshot resident test of Kathy's left hand, And 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.320 then they arrested you, and eventually you got out on bond, 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.320 and even that was kind of odd. 0:21:09.600 --> 0:21:14.280 Right, Prosecutor Peters agreed to ten thousand and he put 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:19.080 a restriction on my bond that says not to dispose 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:23.280 of any martal or jointly held property without the permission 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:26.199 of the prosecute attorney in the probate court. 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.199 You got the State of Missouri coming after you with 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:34.480 unlimited resources, and your life and liberty is on the line. 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.399 My dad should have had access to every dime he 0:21:38.760 --> 0:21:40.399 had to save his life. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.160 Right, And this also gets us to a crazy part 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:47.080 of this whole story. So while you're facing Prosecutor Patrick 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:50.359 Peters in this criminal trial against you, there's also a 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:54.680 wrongful death civil suit filed against you by Kathy's sisters. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:22:02.359 And get this, Prosecutor Peters's father is part of the 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:08.040 law firm behind that civil suit, so stands to benefit 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:11.439 from the outcome. And of course you didn't even know 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:12.200 that at the time. 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.159 They had concealed it and they had said that he 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.000 convinced them and he would convict me, and the law 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:21.080 firm would help keep me in prison. 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.240 I'd like to point out that the Blue Springs Police 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:30.000 Department city attorney for Blue Springs was also in the 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.880 same law firm as the prosecutor's father, So you had 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:37.840 a triangle of a conflict of interest here that was 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:39.560 hidden from everyone. 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:41.760 Every time we do an episode, I always think I've 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:43.760 heard it all, I could say, even after doing two 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:46.880 hundred and fifty episodes of this show, I've never heard 0:22:46.920 --> 0:22:51.879 of that the prosecutor refers the family of the woman 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:57.760 who died to his own father's law firm. Now everybody's compromised, right, 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.880 because now there's a whole nother for them to want 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.959 to convict you of this crime so that everybody can 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:04.600 make money. 0:23:05.000 --> 0:23:08.480 And they ultimately got a one point three five million 0:23:08.600 --> 0:23:12.080 dollar default wrongful debt judgment against my father. 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.919 So now there's been this litany of errors, misconduct, malfeasans 0:23:17.840 --> 0:23:20.399 straight up insanity. I'm going to call it what it is, 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:24.080 it's insanity. And now finally it's time for the trial. 0:23:24.920 --> 0:23:28.520 It's February nineteen ninety one, a year after the incident. 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:32.520 Basically the cross of the state's case against my dad 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:35.679 was that he held her up against the wall and 0:23:35.840 --> 0:23:38.320 shot her from a foot away from her face. 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:42.560 The prosecutor put on his so called experts saying that 0:23:42.600 --> 0:23:46.439 she was two inches away from the wall, and that 0:23:46.520 --> 0:23:49.520