WEBVTT - #500 Maggie Freleng with Stacy Larson 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:01.720 Thank you for using GTL. 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:06.279 Stacy. Yes, it's finally happening. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.240 Yes it is. 0:00:13.400 --> 0:00:17.000 Stacey Laarson and I have been speaking for years. I've 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.319 been trying to get him on my podcast. He wrote 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:20.960 me a letter back in twenty twenty. 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:23.000 Yeah, like four or five years ago. 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:24.640 It was one of many. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.800 How many letters do you think you've written over the years? 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:40.360 Oh geez, oh geez, well over one hundred, eas probably 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:41.040 a couple of hundred. 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.040 Were you just writing anyone and everyone. 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.240 I've heard about podcasts they get out there. I mean 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:51.040 they're all over the world. I've seen stuff like that 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:54.480 on TV, like TikTok and stuff like that. People got 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:59.080 podcasts on things and stuff. Hey, I got nothing to 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:01.480 lose by trying. I got more to gain if I 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.720 get in. I'll write it. Anybody try anybody. You just 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:05.080 don't know. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.240 Stacy is even on prison pen. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.720 Pal sites hopt thing some of that might read is hey, 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:13.840 almost see what this kid to Bob. Maybe I could 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:15.120 help them, and stuff like that. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.720 Stacy's doggedness to prove his innocence paid off twenty years 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.600 ago when the Great North Innocence Project took on his case, 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:26.120 but over the decades, his attorneys have run out of 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:27.600 avenues to pursue. 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:30.679 We have believed for a very long time that Stacy 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:34.959 is innocent, and so this podcast, I think is sort 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.440 of a Hail Mary or a last ditch effort and 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.000 hoping that someone out there will listen to this podcast 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.120 and provide us with new information. 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.560 My name is Stacy Larson. I've been locked up over 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:51.400 thirty four years. I'm doing a life sentence for a 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:52.240 crime that i did not do. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.840 From love of for good. This is wrongful conviction with 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:03.640 Maggie Freeling today Stacy Larson. Stacy Larson was born June 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.920 twenty sixth, nineteen sixty nine, in Mitchell, South Dakota. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.720 Southcoat was mostly a farmland. We lived on a farm 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:13.360 when them or just little kids. They had like tangentss 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:18.240 of land. We had horses, pickens, geese, stuff like that. 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:24.120 I grew an old little garden stuff corn, you know, pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes, carrots, 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:26.519 rue barb. Mom did all that. 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:27.880 Did you like that life? 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.000 Yeah? 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.160 Besides tending to their farm, Stacy's mom worked as a 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:39.280 waitress and bartender, and Stacy's dad was an auto mechanic. 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.040 Mom dad worked a lot. They're always working. 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.760 So Stacy hung out with his siblings. 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.120 Three older brothers. I'm the baby of the family. That 0:02:48.200 --> 0:02:51.000 kind of sucks. What was that like, I, Oh, you 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.160 kind of got always picked on. You always got told 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.560 to do this and do that because you know, mom 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.520 and dad tell them. You guys had certain chores to do, 0:02:57.880 --> 0:02:59.880 and mom dandy around the house. So my brothers had 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.040 me do their chores and stuff. It was a handful 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.200 for my mom. I know that for sure. We're kind 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.920 of like kind of wild kids a little bit. You know, 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.200 I'm doing this, doing that, Mommy, don't be doing that. 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:13.000 Don't be doing that. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.720 Well, like, what what would you guys do that? What 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:17.760 would you guys do? That would kiss her off? 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:20.800 Oh? We like go outside and run around and get dirty, 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.600 come in and stuff like that. Be wrestling around in 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.120 the house, horse playing and stuff. They like, don't be 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:27.680 doing that in the house. Do it outside. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.680 Stacy remembers spending a lot of time outdoors. 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:33.800 We lived by the Mitchell Lake, so we got to 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.360 go to the lake and go swim in and stuff 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:37.960 like that. Let me go to Rapid City. My mom 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.440 and dad had friends out there. They live out in 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:42.480 the hills. They had a motor home a boat. So 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.560 we used to go fishing and moving, swimming, all that stuff, camping, 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:47.920 like for a week out there in Rapid City. 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:51.480 So I'm looking at a map Stacy, and kind of 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.040 near where you grew up, there's a place called the 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:55.320 Corn Palace. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:57.480 Have you been to the Corn Palace? 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.600 Yeah? I used to work there. 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:09.839 That's Mental South Dakota, and Stacy loved it. But as 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:12.400 he got older he started to act out. 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:15.520 That's kind of like the little shit. I didn't really 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:17.359 like pay attention to my parents that much, you know, 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:19.000 just kind of did what I wanted to do. 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.240 Stacy dropped out of school in tenth grade. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:27.000 I kind of struggled in school. I couldn't like pay 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.760 attention too well. I couldn't sit stale too well. I 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.440 was I had like you know, I was always like 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.800 HDD whatever I was. Always had to be moving, had 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.960 to be doing something. I just had a hard time 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:38.480 in school. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.560 I know you did some time in juvenile detention. What 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:43.000 were you getting in trouble for? 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.800 I agree, And I did some couple high speed chases. 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:52.919 High speed chases in a car, yeah, with food, the 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:54.280 police or like drag. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:59.159 Racing, NOEP police did you do anything like violent? 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:03.320 No, I got no violence on my record or nothing. 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.440 I ain't even in prison. I have no violence at all. 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.040 After he dropped out of school, Stacey started working. 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.400 Graham Goodyear, where my dad worked. He was assistant manager there. 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:16.159 And how did you see your life going? 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:16.320 Like? 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:17.800 What did you want to do? 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.600 I was hoping it was going to go up. So 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:26.440 I met this girl. Their name is Monica. 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.600 At eighteen, Stacey met Monica through a friend and they 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.719 fell hard in the way kids in Mitchell do. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:37.840 Oh me and Monica head. You used to go to 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.719 the park a lot on the weekends and stuff. Hang, 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:44.800 I'll go on the swings and stuff. Slide later and 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:47.040 they like with a blanket out, maybe eat some snacks 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:47.520 and stuff. 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.120 Stacey says Monica was a. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:56.960 Catch fivey long black hair, good looking. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:05:58.640 And what do you think she liked about you? 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:00.560 She said, I was good look in hot. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:03.560 Do you think you're hot? 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:09.200 Yeah? Getting older now, kind of fading away a little bit, but. 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:10.320 Back then you were a looker. 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.000 Huh. 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:14.400 I had long hair. I have my hair comb to 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.799 the side, always to the back, but he laid it down. 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:18.839 My bangs were like blow my nose. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.080 But Stacy says what Monica especially liked. 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:25.719 She knows I was a good father. 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:29.680 She knows that Monica had a newborn baby when Stacy 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:31.480 met her, So I took. 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:35.160 Fold responsible for her daughter, the razor, the bather that 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.239 take care of her feet and all that stuff. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.040 Her name was Heaven, and Stacy loved her like his own. 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.920 And he says he adored his life with Monica. So 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:49.200 you were planning to kind of have a life with her. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:51.039 Yep, that was the plan. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:52.360 Did you like being a dad? 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:55.720 Yeah? I enjoyed it. I think it was the best 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:01.320 thing in the world. That straightened julyfe out like getting 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.920 in trouble. It's all in the past. You have responsibilities now. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.920 Did you start to change your life around when you out? 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.800 It's kids full or poun skill. The kids are before anything. 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:19.200 They've always put your kids first, kids always priority. 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:25.040 And soon Stacy had a kid of his own. Sunny 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.320 was born in the spring of nineteen ninety, but Stacy 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:30.160 wouldn't get to raise him. 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.440 It was like two months old when I got arrested. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.440 On May twelfth, nineteen ninety. Stacy was out with his 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.440 buddy Elmer Pickner and their friend Louis medicine horn. He 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:51.480 was Monica's uncle. 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.080 We're just kind of looking for some weeds, you know, 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:55.920 to get high and stuff because I always got high 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:57.480 and that was one of my things. But I know 0:07:57.480 --> 0:07:58.520 I shouldn't have been doing that. 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.800 But they decided to go to Sue Falls, about an 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.360 hour away, where they knew they could get some. On 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:07.200 their way there, at around seven pm, they stopped at 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.640 a convenience store in Mitchell called Food and Fuel. They 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.400 got gas and beer, and Stacy knew the clerk, so 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.160 they shot the shit, that's him. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.400 We'd be back before he closed, And they closed at 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:20.280 midnight and got in my car and then we had 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:21.160 to see Falls. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.960 Once they got to Sue Falls, Stacey says he dropped 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:25.880 Uncle Louis at a bar to see if he can 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:26.640 find any weed. 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.360 Me and Alma looked a seven eleven, got something eat 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:30.920 in between. 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.960 Eventually they struck out and headed back to Mitchell. They 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:37.760 stopped at the Food and Fuel again, got another case 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.280 of beer, and filled up the car with gas. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:42.440 I dropped Uncle Louis off and we went to my 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:45.120 mom and dad's house, my mom, my ex sister in law. 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:47.959 We're at the counter in the kitchen. That was about 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.840 twelve to twelve fifteenth, so my mom dad got a 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:53.319 clock in the kitchen and dining room. When you walk 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.560 in through the back door, you can see it. They're 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.200 sitting right there. We talked to him for a. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.400 Little while and that was the night on a full 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:03.800 and a bummer. A few days later, Stacey and Elmer 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.800 went to the police station. Elmer had lost his wallet, so. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.240 We're looking for We couldn't find it, so we went 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.199 to the police station to report it missing. That's when 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:21.280 it all started. Well, they took me in Elma upstairs 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:23.600 and split us up in different rooms and started asking 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.800 the questions like what we did Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.760 called that time we miss the peace station? Where we were? 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.160 What time he got up so, what time we went 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.560 to bed? Whose house were at? Stuff like that. 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.600 Stacy says he had no idea what was going on. 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.880 Eventually the detective left the room. He also left his 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:48.880 documents on the table, so. 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.800 I started like looking at it, and they said something 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.640 like about us drive by shooting or something. Then I said, 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:57.360 that's how I knew what it was, because I remember 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.800 people talking about because it was in the paper, and. 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.800 So the Knight Stacy had been in Sue Falls looking 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:04.640 for weed. There'd been a murder. 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.800 Ronald Hilgenberg was driving his car in the right lane. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.800 His wife was in the passenger seat. A vehicle comes 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.640 up next to him and shoots him once. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:17.960 In the head. 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.600 This is Anna McGinn's staff attorney at the Great North 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:21.720 Innocence Project. 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.319 The victim's wife testified that she didn't get a good 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:26.960 look at the shooter's car when it passed, but she 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.840 had a slight feeling that something light was going by, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:34.640 so you know, maybe a light colored car. His wife 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:40.160 recounted that the crime must have occurred around eleven forty 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:44.120 two or eleven forty three pm because she remembers looking 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.320 at the clock at eleven forty and she estimated that 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:51.160 about two to three minutes had elapsed when the shooting occurred. 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:52.240 And that's to be clear. 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.640 A person was driving down the street. This was all 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.680 while driving and shot at another car that was also 0:10:58.720 --> 0:10:59.160 in motion. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.959 That's correct. So they were driving west on I ninety, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:07.840 about twenty miles west of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.760 That same night, there was also a house burglary and 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:11.880 a house vandalism. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.800 The bar residence in Hartford, South Dakota was burglarized. A 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:21.120 Winchester twenty gage shotgun and twenty gage shells were taken. 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:25.120 The Curtain Home, a neighboring home of the bar residence, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.080 was vandalized. Someone shot through one of the windows in 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:29.480 the home. 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.240 Ballistics would end up determining that the same gun was 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.960 used at both homes. Police also removed pellets from the 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.160 victim's body in the drive by killing, and police said 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.440 they were similar to the ones found in the other 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:43.720 two crime scenes. 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:48.200 And then this other woman who's just driving by her 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.600 car gets shot at. No one's injured, but someone shoots 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:53.080 through a window in her car. 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.440 The woman driving that car was Tanya Issuel, and she 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.400 winds up telling police that she got a good look 0:11:59.440 --> 0:11:59.880 at the car. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:04.560 She described the shooter's car as an older model four 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:07.960 door car, light green with a white vinyl. 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.640 Top, although passengers in the car with Tanya described the 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:12.559 car differently. 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:17.119 Police were asking for information about these crimes and provided 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:22.240 a description of the car, and they then received an 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.840 anonymous tip from someone concerned that Stacy's car matched the 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:31.599 one identified by the passerbys. So that's how He's ultimately 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:33.120 put on the radar. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:36.120 Of the police, and that's when Stacy walked into the 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:41.800 police station looking for Elmer's wallet. Stacy was held for questioning, 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.240 but was ultimately released, though it wasn't long before the 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.600 police brought him back. And this time they meant business. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.480 They're saying, we're lying. We ain't tell them the truth. 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:57.320 You guys did it? You just bought brand new cars. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.840 On your car the car trucks up the scene were fresh, 0:13:00.280 --> 0:13:02.840 like brand new tires. Oh you got a beb hole 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:07.400 in your tail, like your carpety description. We got eyewinness 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.880 that saw you do it and all this stuff. I 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:11.840 was like, what in no way? 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.760 Tanya also identified Stacy in a lineup. Police were convinced 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:18.079 they had their men. 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.880 So Stacy was held in the police station for ten hours, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.200 during which time he asked for an attorney several times, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.760 and he never got one. He was never mirandized or 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:36.359 given his Miranda warnings. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.360 They questioned us, question us and questions and the man 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.319 light detector. We went to the PlayStation about three thirty 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:47.640 in that afternoon, I think it was like ten ten 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.640 thirty when they gave us to light detector and they said, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:55.480 we're a deception or whatever. Imagine after so many ills 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:58.440 being questioned, I was frustrated, I was scared. I was confused. 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.680 They brought in his friend and infant son in the 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.160 middle of the night and told him that he should 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:07.079 kiss his baby goodbye since he'd never see him again. 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.640 They told him that his dad was in the lobby 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.520 and looked very sick. He was sweaty and pale, like 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:16.600 he might have a heart attack, which was alive. So 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:19.160 they're basically saying, look, your dad's here, he's going to 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.480 have another heart attack, and you can go if you 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:23.680 just make a confession. 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.440 He had his hand on the accounter, real hard stuff, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.080 and I'll just admit to what you did to talk 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.000 about like the death penalty and stuff. 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:35.320 So what did you think. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.400 Did you think, like, Okay, if I just say what 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.080 they're saying, I can go home. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.960 Yep, that's pretty much it tell us what happened. What 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.840 did you guys did and be dealt with? That was 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:47.600 minors fanning. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.400 Did you have an understanding that when you confess to 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.760 a crime that they would arrest you then or were 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:55.360 they telling you like you'll go. 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.840 Home they would and say exactly, I was going to 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.360 get the rested or go home, but tell us what happened. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.840 The interview was done. You know, no more question for through. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.400 I was my understanding, And so after ten hours of torment, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.720 Stacy wrote out a confession that he was involved in 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:15.400 this crime. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.840 Stacy says the detectives told him what to say, and 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:22.440 when he was done, he never went home. Stacy was 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.880 indicted for the murder of seventy six year old Ronald Hildenberg. 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:28.960 What were you thinking when you went to trial. 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:32.760 I'll go at home. I didn't do it. 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.960 They don't have nothing, So you believed you believed the 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:38.320 system would get it right. 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:43.080 They would figure out, oh he didn't do this. Elmer Pickner, 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.200 Louis Medicine, Horn, and Stacy were all charged and Stacy 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:48.920 was the first to go to trial. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.080 He offered me a deal to test flag against him. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:52.600 I said no, I ain't taking a no deal. 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:57.800 Stacey insisted on his innocence, so he went to trial 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:02.640 November third, nineteen ninety. He was twenty years old. McCook 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.800 County State's Attorney Roger Gurlac, tried the case. 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.480 So the state's theory of the case was that these 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.800 three men were so frustrated at their failure to secure 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:16.680 marijuana that they went on a crime spree that ultimately 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:22.280 culminated in the Hilgenberg murder. The state's ballistic expert opined 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.640 that the pellets and the wads retrieved from the scene 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.840 were likely fired from the same gun that was fired 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:33.120 at the bar residence, the Curtain residence, and also matched 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.840 evidence found at the Hilgenberg murder and the pellets taken 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:38.160 from the victim's. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.840 Body, But the state didn't have much else to work with. 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:47.320 None of the unidentified fingerprints, footprints, or tire prints matched 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.000 Stacy or his friends, and his confession never made it 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:51.480 to trial. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.080 His confession was actually thrown out and found to be 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.880 inadmissible because of all of these horribly coercive tactics by 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:07.120 the police. The judge would not allow it in. But apparently, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:12.879 while he was alone in the police officer's car, Stacy, 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.080 according to this officer, again alleged to have made some 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.920 sort of incriminating admission to him when the two were 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:24.040 alone in the vehicle, and that ultimately was admitted at trial. 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.439 The officer was allowed to testify as to what he 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:29.720 alleged he heard Stacy say in the car. 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:35.040 These admissions, in addition to the word of two jailhouse snitches, 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:38.359 made up some of the only evidence against Stacy at 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:39.359 the time of the crime. 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.200 In fact, the defense was turning up evidence to the contrary. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:51.760 So this case is in some ways complicated the timing 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:54.719 of the events, but in other ways it's very simple 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:58.840 because Stacy had an ironclad alibi. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:03.480 Stacy, uncle Louis, and Elmer had gone to Sue Falls 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.000 to get weed at the Frontier Barn. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:10.840 Acquaintance testified to seeing the group leave around eleven ten pm. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.760 Then all three men left Sue Falls and returned westbound 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:19.879 to Mitchell. At eleven forty seven pm, Stacy and his 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.760 two friends purchased gas and beer at a Food and 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:26.360 Fuel in Mitchell, South Dakota, and this was corroborated by 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:28.600 the stores tape and employee testimony. 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.760 Sales tape not videotape, a receipt from the Food and 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.600 Fuel marked twelve o two am. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.479 The problem with this is that the distance between the 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.920 site of the Hilgenberg murder and the Food and Fuel 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:48.600 is forty three point two miles, and the Hilgenberg murder 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:53.960 occurred around eleven forty two pm, Stacy would have had 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:58.680 to cover that forty three miles in about twenty minutes, 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.679 and that would be an average of one hundred and 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.160 thirty five miles per hour. 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:06.280 But Stacy's defense found out that the clock on the 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.199 timestamped for seat was ten minutes fast. 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.320 And given the reality that the clock was ten minutes 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.200 fast he purchased the store items, actually at eleven fifty two, 0:19:17.760 --> 0:19:21.679 he probably would have had to drive about two hundred 0:19:21.680 --> 0:19:25.000 and sixty to even three hundred and seventy miles per hour, 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.560 which was obviously impossible. 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.200 How did the state get around this at trial? 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.920 So the state was allowed to introduce prior bad acts 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.240 that Stacy had a history of speeding. 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:42.520 Remember Stacy liked racing cops. 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:48.320 So they said, you can sort of extrapolate from the 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:51.480 times and say, okay, well, let's say the shooting actually 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.680 ocurred at eleven forty pm. You know, no one knows 0:19:54.760 --> 0:19:57.919 exactly the time that the shooting occurred, and so you know, 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.120 giving it a little bit of leeway there, and let's 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.240 say he actually got there at twelve oh two am. 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.879 The clock wasn't actually fast, then one hundred and thirty 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.640 miles per hour. Well, Stacey has all this history of speeding, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.000 so you know, maybe it makes sense that he did 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:20.280 speed that fast, which again, you know, an average of 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:23.879 one hundred and thirty five miles per hour. I guess 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.760 that's technically possible, but strikes me as exceedingly unlikely, unlike 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.000 what we believe the real timeline was, which is going 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.680 about three hundred miles per hour. I mean, that's physically impossible. 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.119 You know, this is an ironclad alibi. The problem is 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.479 all of this was known at the time of trial, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:44.160 and he was still convicted. 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:51.280 After about eight hours deliberating, the jury found Stacy Larsen 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.919 guilty of second degree murder just after midnight on November 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.840 twenty first, nineteen ninety He was sentenced to life in 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:03.919 prison without the possibility of parole. Roger Gerlac told the 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.000 press he would use the same approach and witnesses for 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.280 the other two trials, but he ended up dropping the 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:14.040 charges against Uncle Louis, and Elmer was acquitted at trial 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.119 a few months later in nineteen ninety one. 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.520 Stacy's the only one that's sitting in prison for this crime. 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:23.720 The alibi was enough for a one jury and not 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:25.720 enough for his unfortunately. 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:36.240 Stacy says after he was convicted, he was devastated. 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:43.520 Devastated. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:44.320 what to do because. 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.840 I was just a young kid, twenty years old, his 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.880 whole life ahead of him, and now it was gone. 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.760 So, Monica, when you went to prison, how did that 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.199 relationship end? Did you guys stay together? 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.680