Speaker 1: So dealing with children who get wrongfully convicted for something
Speaker 1: like I think about all the things that I did
Speaker 1: as a kid, you know, not knowing, believing the adults.
Speaker 1: You want to be part of the cool crowd, so
Speaker 1: to speak, right, I think we all want to teach
Speaker 1: our kids, and I know I've tried to teach my
Speaker 1: kids the best I could to stay out of those
Speaker 1: situations and call me and no matter where you are,
Speaker 1: what you did to get yourself in that situation or
Speaker 1: what's happening, I come, I get you, no questions asked
Speaker 1: and that but that that, actually, you know, is a
Speaker 1: great point because your children, they come from a place
Speaker 1: of privilege where they have a family. I mean, in
Speaker 1: certain cases, we're talking about somebody who didn't have a
Speaker 1: family and was just seeking affection and love from the
Speaker 1: first person they found. And I said, no, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to testify against him. I love him. He's my boyfriend,
Speaker 1: he loves me. And so the d A basically said, well,
Speaker 1: if you don't want to be as victim, you could
Speaker 1: be as codefended, and they charged him and meet both
Speaker 1: with murder from LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction
Speaker 1: with Maggie freeling today. Alicia Burns. In August of two
Speaker 1: thousand two, fifteen year old Alicia Burns was swimming at
Speaker 1: a lake in Ohio when a man named Stephen Cosmic
Speaker 1: approached her. He told her he was twenty one, and
Speaker 1: the duo quickly formed an intimate relationship. They decided to
Speaker 1: steal Alicia's foster mother's car and run off together to
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. However, this whirlwind romance was anything but Alicia
Speaker 1: didn't know that Kasmeric was actually thirty two and a
Speaker 1: convicted sex offender. Very quickly during their trip, because Americ
Speaker 1: began to force Alicia into selling her body for money,
Speaker 1: and he was getting increasingly violent with Alicia if she refused.
Speaker 1: This continued once they got to Vegas. One day in
Speaker 1: September two, Kazmeric made one of these deals with a
Speaker 1: man named pedro via Real. Alicia expected this time to
Speaker 1: be like all the others. She was to have sexual
Speaker 1: contact with this man and he would pay Kasmrick, But
Speaker 1: unbeknowst to Alicia, Kazmerrick had a plan to forcibly rob
Speaker 1: the man. When the robbery went horribly wrong, the man,
Speaker 1: pedro via Real, wound up dead. Kazmeric and Alicia were
Speaker 1: eventually charged with his murder, but Alicia says she did
Speaker 1: not kill Mr. Via Real and that she too was
Speaker 1: a victim. I was a foster child and I was
Speaker 1: trafficked when I was fifteen. My trafficker forced me to
Speaker 1: participate in a robbery that resulted in a death, and
Speaker 1: as a result of that, they made me his co
Speaker 1: defendant in a her charge. My name is Alicia Burns.
Speaker 1: They gave me tend of life in prison. I served
Speaker 1: a total of sixteen years. Alicia Burns was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,
Speaker 1: on March sixth. From a young age, her life with
Speaker 1: her birth family was difficult. My biological mother was a
Speaker 1: drug addict and abusive relationships, and the state took me
Speaker 1: and my siblings from my mother, and at three, I
Speaker 1: got adopted by a family who couldn't have children. But
Speaker 1: Alicia struggled in her new family. She wanted to find
Speaker 1: her biological mother and ended up running away from home.
Speaker 1: Her adoptive parents eventually put her up for adoption again,
Speaker 1: and at age eleven, Alicia wound up in the foster
Speaker 1: care system. Her experience was not great. Most people who
Speaker 1: are pre teen in teenage in foster care um injured
Speaker 1: abuse in all kinds of forms, whether it's sexual or physical,
Speaker 1: or emotional or mental, and that's something that's very prominent
Speaker 1: in the foster care system Sadly, uh I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time running away from foster homes. I went
Speaker 1: through thirty six different placements between the ages of eleven
Speaker 1: and fifteen, so I was booted around a lot and
Speaker 1: just kind of did the foster care system thing before
Speaker 1: I ended up in prison in two thousand two, Alicia,
Speaker 1: now a teenager, was longing for something more. One day
Speaker 1: in August, she was at a lake with one of
Speaker 1: her foster parents when a man approached her. He came
Speaker 1: up to me and started talking to me, and I
Speaker 1: liked the attention. I told him I was eighteen, and
Speaker 1: he told me he was twenty one. They were both lying.
Speaker 1: Alicia was just fifteen and the man, Stephen Kasmark, was
Speaker 1: actually thirty two, but Alicia didn't know or really care.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, above and beyond all logic, I
Speaker 1: yearned for attention and love so much that nothing else mattered,
Speaker 1: I guess. She quickly started to build a relationship with Cosmic,
Speaker 1: and eventually he convinced her to leave Ohio and run
Speaker 1: away with him to Las Vegas to get married. I
Speaker 1: fully believed this man was my boyfriend and that he
Speaker 1: loved me, that he was the only person in the
Speaker 1: world that loved me and cared about me, because that's
Speaker 1: that's what he convinced me of. That's what he made
Speaker 1: me believe. We're gonna spend our lives together and and
Speaker 1: I'm going to take care of you and you never
Speaker 1: have to be in a foster home again. And of
Speaker 1: course that that was a fantastical notion to a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old foster child with you know, ob his trust
Speaker 1: issues of abandonment issues. It felt like a whirlwind romance
Speaker 1: to Alicia. But then things took a turn. Yeah. It
Speaker 1: started on the way to Vegas. So we had stolen
Speaker 1: my foster brother's car and some money from her, and
Speaker 1: but I don't think we even made it out of
Speaker 1: the Midwest. We had stopped at a motel and he
Speaker 1: was like, Hey, we're kind of getting low on cash.
Speaker 1: You know, Um, there's this guy. He's you know, a
Speaker 1: couple of doors down and he just wants to touch you.
Speaker 1: He's not going to touch you under your clothes. He
Speaker 1: just wants to touch you like, above your clothes, and
Speaker 1: he's going to give us some money for it. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to be right there the whole time, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to make sure nothing happens. And you know,
Speaker 1: you you can help us right now, because Meerk convinced
Speaker 1: Alicia that she had to do this to financially contribute
Speaker 1: to their relationship, and so I let it happen. And
Speaker 1: then the next time we were at another tell and
Speaker 1: it was you know, this person just wants to touch
Speaker 1: you under your clothes, but just for a second. And
Speaker 1: then the next time it was a blow job. And
Speaker 1: then it's just really progressed from there. And by the
Speaker 1: time that I told him no that I didn't want
Speaker 1: to um, he hit me hard on the side of
Speaker 1: my face. He hit me hard enough that my ear
Speaker 1: was ringing in, hard enough that it scared me to
Speaker 1: not want to tell him no again. Wow, what what
Speaker 1: were you thinking when that happened? I was thinking how
Speaker 1: much I had messed up because he was yelling at
Speaker 1: me and he was telling me, you know, by then,
Speaker 1: we were in Las Vegas, and so he was telling me, like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're out here, you don't know anybody out here.
Speaker 1: If you know if I leave you, you know, these
Speaker 1: other people are going to get you and they're going
Speaker 1: to treat you a lot where than I do, you know,
Speaker 1: And I was scared Alicia was trapped. It seemed like
Speaker 1: a way to receive his praise, to make him happy, um,
Speaker 1: because he was happy that I did what he wanted
Speaker 1: me to do, and I was happy that now I
Speaker 1: could get a burger from McDonald's or a hotel room
Speaker 1: for the night so that I wasn't sleeping outside. She
Speaker 1: didn't realize what was really happening, that Chasmeric was trafficking
Speaker 1: her for sex. I guess it's like similar to any
Speaker 1: abusive or domestic violence type of situation. It flip flops,
Speaker 1: you know, there's those really bad times and then it's
Speaker 1: like made up for with this overabundance of I appreciate you,
Speaker 1: I adore you, I love you, you know, and so
Speaker 1: it's it's really it's a it's a manipulative tactic, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's that's what I went through with my trafficker.
Speaker 1: But she was also still just a kid and she
Speaker 1: believed Casmeric loved her, and so they eventually reached their destination,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas. Let's go to September. Okay, so tell me
Speaker 1: about that day. How did it start. We were walking
Speaker 1: around on Fremont Street, and my trafficker had met like
Speaker 1: some guy out there that was also from Chicago, where
Speaker 1: my trafficker was from, and so they were talking and
Speaker 1: hanging out and laughing, and Alicia says, she wandered away
Speaker 1: and a man approached her, asking if he could buy
Speaker 1: her a drink. She said, all she wanted was a
Speaker 1: soda from McDonald's, and so we, uh, we walked into
Speaker 1: the McDonald so he could buy me a sprite, and
Speaker 1: he offered me money for sex. Alicia told Kasmeric, who
Speaker 1: saw an opportunity. He and the man agreed on a price,
Speaker 1: and they decided to go back to his apartment. Kasmeric
Speaker 1: brought along a friend who to this day is only
Speaker 1: known as Tommy. When we got there, they turned on
Speaker 1: some music and they were drinking beers and we were
Speaker 1: sitting there and the gentleman was sitting next to me
Speaker 1: on the bed, and he kept like rubbing on my
Speaker 1: legs and and things like that, and um touching my back,
Speaker 1: and I was getting uncomfortable, and so I, you know,
Speaker 1: said I had to use the restroom. So I got
Speaker 1: up and I went to the restroom and I came
Speaker 1: back out and out back down, and then my trafficker
Speaker 1: said that he had to use the restroom as well.
Speaker 1: And when he got to the bathroom door, he was like,
Speaker 1: whoa dude, your your mirror is broken in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: And the gentleman was like, what what do you what
Speaker 1: do you mean? My mirror is broken? And so he
Speaker 1: got up to go look into the bathroom, and when
Speaker 1: he peeked his head like around the corner to the bathroom,
Speaker 1: my trafficker grabbed him from behind and started choking him.
Speaker 1: So I was standing there scared and shocked, and um,
Speaker 1: I didn't try to stop it. I didn't. I didn't,
Speaker 1: I don't, But I remember just standing there like what
Speaker 1: the hell is going on? Alicia had no idea that
Speaker 1: Kasmeric planned to hurt anyone, but a long struggle ensued
Speaker 1: and then the man lost consciousness. Cosmic told Alicia and
Speaker 1: taught me to go grab extension cords to tie him up.
Speaker 1: By now, Alicia knew better than to disobey Kasmeric, So
Speaker 1: I did. I cut the cord off the back of
Speaker 1: this small like box fan and I handed it to him.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, okay, we need to we
Speaker 1: need to look around for any valuables. Kasmari told them
Speaker 1: to bag up the valuable so they could pawn them.
Speaker 1: And then the man started to wake up, so Kasmeric
Speaker 1: quickly shifted orders and he was like, well, just do
Speaker 1: what I did, Just you know, put your arm around
Speaker 1: his neck like I did, until he passes out again.
Speaker 1: And I would eighty nine pounds at the time, so
Speaker 1: nothing I did physically was going to make a difference
Speaker 1: for this this adult man, um who's closer, you know,
Speaker 1: around two pounds. And that's when my trafficker cam over
Speaker 1: and choked him unconscious himself, you know, and he was like,
Speaker 1: just just forget it, just forget it. Just start wiping
Speaker 1: things down, you know, wipe, wipe all of our fingerprints,
Speaker 1: wipe everything. And he said that the friend had to
Speaker 1: help him carry him into the bathroom and put him
Speaker 1: in the bathtub. And um, I remember at one point
Speaker 1: I heard noises in the bathroom and my trafficker was saying,
Speaker 1: you know, shut the funk up, shut the funk up.
Speaker 1: And I looked in there and he was punching him
Speaker 1: like inside the bathtub and telling him to shut up,
Speaker 1: and he looked over and saw me, and he said, Alicia,
Speaker 1: don't look, don't look, and he pushed the door closed.
Speaker 1: Kasmeric then ordered Alicia and Tommy to clean up the
Speaker 1: apartment and continue to wipe everything down to not leave
Speaker 1: any fingerprints because when we leave, I'm going to open,
Speaker 1: you know, the window here so that people not the
Speaker 1: window itself, but like the blinds or curtains or whatever
Speaker 1: it was. He says, I'm going to open this so
Speaker 1: in case people walk by, it looks normal in here.
Speaker 1: After they left, Kazmeric ponnd the items they stole. Alicia
Speaker 1: says that when they left, the man in the bathtub
Speaker 1: was still alive. About a week later, she says, Kasmeric
Speaker 1: was back to trying to solicit Alicia's body for money,
Speaker 1: this time at the Stardust Casino. I got stopped by
Speaker 1: security because that was very clearly under age, and uh,
Speaker 1: he came over while security was talking to me to
Speaker 1: kind of try to, I guess, try to talk us
Speaker 1: out of it or something, and security it's his idea
Speaker 1: as well, and they took us into the back. Apparently
Speaker 1: the security guard got a fishing feeling about the whole
Speaker 1: scenario and the security guard started asking me questions. He
Speaker 1: wanted to know how old I was, and he wanted
Speaker 1: to know where I was from, and how I knew
Speaker 1: the gentleman that I or the man that I was with,
Speaker 1: and you know, I told him, oh, he's my boyfriends
Speaker 1: and we came out here from Ohio, and we came
Speaker 1: out here as we're going to get married. And then
Speaker 1: the security guard called the police, and the police came
Speaker 1: and they were asking me all the same questions, and
Speaker 1: but they were wanting to know if we had ever
Speaker 1: had sex, and how many times and in what fashion,
Speaker 1: and you know, things of that sort. So ultimately they
Speaker 1: arrested him for kidnapping, h fifteen counts of sexual assault
Speaker 1: of a minor statue tory sexual seduction, and I was
Speaker 1: his victim, and they took him to jail for that,
Speaker 1: and because police saw that Alicia was listed as a runaway,
Speaker 1: she was sent back to Ohio. Meanwhile, they had discovered
Speaker 1: that Kazmeric was a convicted sex offender on par role
Speaker 1: at the time, so in addition to the new charges,
Speaker 1: the police had another reason to hold him in the
Speaker 1: county jail. While he was there, other incarcerated people learned
Speaker 1: what he was in for, and in jails and prisons,
Speaker 1: child molestation is considered by other prisoners one of the
Speaker 1: most heinous charges someone could have, and often child molesters
Speaker 1: are quickly hurt or killed while inside. Kazmeric knew this,
Speaker 1: and allegedly, to avoid being targeted, he was telling people
Speaker 1: he was actually there for a robbery to our knowledge,
Speaker 1: because Meerck wasn't aware that his victim, paedro Via Real,
Speaker 1: was dead. He was left tied up but alive, but
Speaker 1: by now police had found his body, and so I
Speaker 1: guess he was like kind of trying to save his
Speaker 1: ass um instead of like being known as a child molester,
Speaker 1: he'd rather be known as someone who was like robbing
Speaker 1: someone and you know, and did this and that. So
Speaker 1: he had told other inmates about that, and they called
Speaker 1: the homicide detectives. It's not clear whether police connected the
Speaker 1: pond items to Kasmeric before or after he bragged to
Speaker 1: other prisoners, but the admission nevertheless piqued their interest in him,
Speaker 1: and now the police and prosecution needed Alicia to testify
Speaker 1: against Chasmeric, both as a witness of the murder and
Speaker 1: as a victim to the child's molestation. But she was
Speaker 1: still caught up in their love story, and I said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to testify against him. I love him.
Speaker 1: He's my boyfriend. He loves me. This episode is underwritten
Speaker 1: by A i G, a leading global insurance company. A
Speaker 1: I G is committed to corporate social responsibility and to
Speaker 1: making a positive difference in the lives of its employees
Speaker 1: and in the communities where we work and live. In
Speaker 1: light of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance,
Speaker 1: and in recognition of A I G's commitment to criminal
Speaker 1: and social justice reform, the A i G pro Bono
Speaker 1: Program provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented
Speaker 1: communities and individuals. So, after all Kasmerica had put her through,
Speaker 1: why it was alicious still loyal to him. Well, it's
Speaker 1: because of something called Stockholm syndrome. So Stockholm syndrome is
Speaker 1: a type of a drama bond. This is Kelly Diane Galloway.
Speaker 1: She's the president and founder of Project Mona's House, an
Speaker 1: organization that helps women who come in as victims to
Speaker 1: be transformed into survivors. Though, um, the reason why we
Speaker 1: bring that up and we bring up trauma bonds and
Speaker 1: Stockholm syndrome is because a lot of people say, well,
Speaker 1: obviously they weren't held against their will, they weren't chained,
Speaker 1: they weren't tied, nobody had a gun to their head.
Speaker 1: But human trafficking happens through force, fraud, and coercion. And
Speaker 1: what ends up happening is you can have a victim who,
Speaker 1: for some reason believes the words that the traffickers are saying.
Speaker 1: Nobody's gonna help you. If you run, I'll find you.
Speaker 1: If you run, I'll kill your family members. There's no
Speaker 1: place to go. Nobody else loves you, nobody else will
Speaker 1: take care of you. I treat you so good, and
Speaker 1: then they start to develop this morphed view of love,
Speaker 1: this morphed view of companionship, and this morph view of support.
Speaker 1: Which is why even when you go into the restoration
Speaker 1: process of a lot of people who have gone through
Speaker 1: these forms of trauma, it's hard to convince them that
Speaker 1: their abuser is not their lover, their abuser is not
Speaker 1: their friend, their abuser is not their romantic partner, but
Speaker 1: in fact that they're an abuser. At this point, Alicia
Speaker 1: didn't realize how manipulated she had been, and so when
Speaker 1: my public defenders told the d A that I was
Speaker 1: refusing to testify. The d A basically said, well, if
Speaker 1: you don't want to be as victim, you can be
Speaker 1: as co defended. They dropped the charges against him where
Speaker 1: I was his victim, and they charged him and me
Speaker 1: both with murder. And I was held for thirteen days
Speaker 1: in the adult jail. And during the course of that
Speaker 1: thirteen days, I was in solitary confinement. I wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to talk to anybody, but I was receiving letters from
Speaker 1: my trafficker, and he was basically telling me how much
Speaker 1: he loved me and how I had the power to
Speaker 1: save both of us. And because I was young, if
Speaker 1: I took the blame, uh, they would only give me
Speaker 1: a little bit of time, and then they would only
Speaker 1: give him a little bit of time, and then we
Speaker 1: would get out around the same time and we could
Speaker 1: still get married and be together. So he was still
Speaker 1: very much grooming me and manipulating me in these letters.
Speaker 1: And for the record, prisoners are not typically allowed to
Speaker 1: communicate with one another via letter or phone, let alone
Speaker 1: be in a consistent communication with each other, but for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, this rule was disregarded, and then as if
Speaker 1: the letters were not bad enough, Alicia and Kasmeric were
Speaker 1: allowed and in person contact visit. A week or two
Speaker 1: after the preliminary hearing, the d A, my traffickers attorney,
Speaker 1: and UH, my public defender got together and had the
Speaker 1: judge sign off on a contact visit between me and
Speaker 1: my trafficker inside the county jail. It makes no sense
Speaker 1: why this would happen except the district attorney had offered
Speaker 1: Alicia a deal tend to life in exchange for a
Speaker 1: guilty plea, and Kasmeric wanted her to take it. I
Speaker 1: can only speculate as to the reasons why he would
Speaker 1: agree to talk me into taking their deal. We have
Speaker 1: presumed that there was a possibility that he was being
Speaker 1: promised not receiving the death penalty because he had already
Speaker 1: been found guilty. So we think that he was told
Speaker 1: if he got me to sign the deal, he would
Speaker 1: not receive the death penalty. What was the visit like?
Speaker 1: I don't remember, I don't remember, and there are no transcripts,
Speaker 1: there's no recording, audio, or video of that visit. There's nothing.
Speaker 1: Was there anyone there with you in there? I don't remember.
Speaker 1: I remember him, I remember him sitting in front of
Speaker 1: me and telling me how much he loved me, and
Speaker 1: how taking their deal was the best thing for me.
Speaker 1: Shortly after that visit is when I signed their deal.
Speaker 1: Alicia pleaded guilty to second degree murder on April two three.
Speaker 1: She had only just turned sixteen. Her sentence was handed
Speaker 1: down in June, and on July one, she was sent
Speaker 1: to the women's prison. July one, two thousand three, is
Speaker 1: the day that it became real to me. Up to
Speaker 1: that day, UM, I kind of thought that it was
Speaker 1: a scared straight program or that they were gonna release
Speaker 1: me like they did the first time. I I didn't
Speaker 1: understand the severity. UM. But I remember that day when
Speaker 1: we pulled up to the prison and the van pulls
Speaker 1: in through one gate. The gate closes behind the van,
Speaker 1: and then the gate in front open so the van
Speaker 1: can pull through. When that first gate was closed behind us,
Speaker 1: I just I broke. I started crying because literally, and
Speaker 1: it was so weird because through signing the deal and
Speaker 1: through all the court hearings that they're sentencing it, through
Speaker 1: transport to the prison, I it didn't seem real to me.
Speaker 1: But when when that gate closed, I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is real. Alicious first years in prison
Speaker 1: were rough. I gave up. I gave up for a
Speaker 1: long time. What was giving up? Like, what what does
Speaker 1: that mean? Giving up? Was accepting that that that was
Speaker 1: my life and that was all I was ever going
Speaker 1: to be. I was going to be an inmate forever.
Speaker 1: I had nobody, and I was by myself, and I
Speaker 1: had guards and I had other inmates telling me that
Speaker 1: I wasn't ship, that I was never going to be
Speaker 1: anything else, that that that's what my life was forever.
Speaker 1: After the initial ten years she was sentenced to, Alicia
Speaker 1: was released on parole in November, but she says even
Speaker 1: though she was now, she still felt like a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old trying to navigate the world. Within eight months,
Speaker 1: Alicia found herself back in prison simply because I had
Speaker 1: no life skills. I didn't know anything about life, you know,
Speaker 1: So of course I found myself in bad situations immediately.
Speaker 1: During the eight months, I had gotten pregnant with my daughter.
Speaker 1: I ended up having her in prison. I did two
Speaker 1: years on that first violation. I got out again, and
Speaker 1: I was only out nine months before I was violated
Speaker 1: again and sent back. During that nine months, I got
Speaker 1: pregnant with my son and ended up having him in
Speaker 1: prison as well. Because Alicia was in state custody when
Speaker 1: she gave birth to her children, they were taken from her,
Speaker 1: and because she had no family to take them, the
Speaker 1: state put them up for adoption. When I lost my kids,
Speaker 1: I was out of fork. I could either give up
Speaker 1: all life on everything, or I could fight. And I
Speaker 1: decided to fight. So I called an attorney. I called
Speaker 1: a lawyer. I called Tony Abatagelo, and I told him
Speaker 1: my situation. And UH, I had the honor of meeting
Speaker 1: Alicia Burns five or six years ago and we've been
Speaker 1: fighting for her case ever since then. This is Tony Abatangelo.
Speaker 1: He's an attorney in Las Vegas, and while working on
Speaker 1: Alicia's case, he's found a few things that stand out.
Speaker 1: Starting with the crime scene. Remember when Alicia, Cosmeric and
Speaker 1: Tommy left the apartment. Alicia said they wiped down the
Speaker 1: room for fingerprints and made it look as normal as possible.
Speaker 1: Alicia also says that Vera Real was alive two days later,
Speaker 1: approximately the maintenance man Thomas Riddle. He said that there
Speaker 1: was a call from another unit saying, hey, there's a
Speaker 1: flyt here. So Riddle goes to UH the unit that
Speaker 1: the victim was eventually founded, and there was a chain
Speaker 1: on the door, the chain locking the door from the inside.
Speaker 1: This is an agreed upon fact. There's a chain on
Speaker 1: a door, and we all know you can't put a
Speaker 1: chain on the door from the outside. You gotta be inside, right,
Speaker 1: So without a way to get in, Riddle left. When
Speaker 1: he came back less than an hour later to try again,
Speaker 1: he found the chain off. So Riddle went in the
Speaker 1: room and that's when he finds victim fl a real
Speaker 1: and like about two inches of bathtub water. So once again,
Speaker 1: these are not facts. The defense is just making up.
Speaker 1: These are facts that I've been given and we're fighting
Speaker 1: and arguing about. Tony says, this shows that someone else
Speaker 1: went into the room after Alicia, Ksmerrick and Tommy left.
Speaker 1: According to Riddle, the room was also in disarray. Also,
Speaker 1: when the police did come to the scene of a crime,
Speaker 1: they dusted for fingerprints. They found fingerprints, but remember Alicia
Speaker 1: says that they left without a trace. So who's prints
Speaker 1: worth these? Well, they ran them and couldn't find a match,
Speaker 1: not to Alicia, Ksmerrick, Tommy or anyone else. Our position
Speaker 1: is run them. Maybe those people's names will pop up
Speaker 1: or a somebody will be identified or hit is what
Speaker 1: it's called, will be associated with the fingerprint, and that
Speaker 1: will reflect who was in there, and that could help
Speaker 1: Alicia's claim that he was still alive. It was at
Speaker 1: this time that Alicia started to realize the truth about
Speaker 1: her time with Casmeric. You know, there were lots of
Speaker 1: things on TV about human trafficking and sex trafficking and
Speaker 1: and what it looks like, and there was more awareness
Speaker 1: about it, and I thought, oh, my gosh, that's what
Speaker 1: happens to me. I should have been treated as a victim,
Speaker 1: because victims should be treated as victims. They should not
Speaker 1: be criminalized for being victims. I believe that Alicia is
Speaker 1: a textbook definition of what a child sex trafficking victim is.
Speaker 1: This is Kelly Diane Galloway. Again. Kelly has been helping
Speaker 1: Alicia understand exactly what happened to her. One of the
Speaker 1: initiatives of Project Mona's House is to help raise awareness
Speaker 1: about victims of human trafficking who are who have experienced
Speaker 1: what we call double victimization, victimized by both of a
Speaker 1: um a trafficker or Jane or John, and then by
Speaker 1: the criminal justice systems, And it's so incredibly hard for
Speaker 1: me to understand, believe, and even conceive the mindset of
Speaker 1: um the prosecutors who brought charges against her, knowing her situation.
Speaker 1: It is incredibly difficult for me to understand why she's
Speaker 1: on lifetime parole when she literally was bought and sold
Speaker 1: for sex at fifteen years old. Do you think back
Speaker 1: sometimes and and like are like, I can't believe this
Speaker 1: happened to me, and how did this happen? UM? I
Speaker 1: don't wonder how, because I know how I was. I
Speaker 1: was neglected. I was I felt ud loved, and I
Speaker 1: felt forgotten about. And to have somebody even pretend to
Speaker 1: notice me and love me a bit the world and
Speaker 1: admit that I would have done anything for him, and
Speaker 1: clearly I did. Do you feel loved today? I do today.
Speaker 1: I have friends and family who loved me and care
Speaker 1: about me. M M m. Our position is, hey two two.
Speaker 1: Sex trafficking really wasn't much of a thing at that time.
Speaker 1: Since then, we have laws, whether it's in the federal
Speaker 1: court system or in the state court system, that view
Speaker 1: this type of behavior completely different. Tony and Alicia are
Speaker 1: currently appealing a decision by the Nevada Supreme Court denying
Speaker 1: Alicia and evidentiary hearing. I wish, of course, that we
Speaker 1: can get the conviction overturned or at least at minimum
Speaker 1: get her off of lifetime supervision for parole. But I'm
Speaker 1: so proud of her in a way, the progress she's
Speaker 1: made in her life. She is very intelligent young woman
Speaker 1: who you know, she's doing great. I mean, I'm very
Speaker 1: proud of her. While she was in prison, Alicia started
Speaker 1: training in cosmetology. Her most recent parole in July cut
Speaker 1: that training short un sous she never got to complete it,
Speaker 1: but that didn't deter her goals. Even though she hadn't
Speaker 1: completed her training, Alicia was able to start a successful
Speaker 1: beauty business into Cooma, Washington. Within six months, she sold
Speaker 1: it to a medical spa and moved back to Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: The plan was to open up the business down here.
Speaker 1: I was just about to do that when I found
Speaker 1: out I was growing a human. Alicia is thrilled to
Speaker 1: be expecting her third child. While her son's adoptive parents
Speaker 1: do allow her to have a relationship with him, her
Speaker 1: daughter's adoption was closed, so she can't get in touch
Speaker 1: with her, but with this child on the way. Alicia
Speaker 1: plans to fully enjoy being a mother at last. This
Speaker 1: this baby is coming and I have to create a world,
Speaker 1: you know, for it to come into. Where do you
Speaker 1: hope for your your child? You know you have two others,
Speaker 1: but it was not an ideal less than ideal parenting situation.
Speaker 1: You know, now you have a chance to do it over.
Speaker 1: I want my child happy and healthy and safe and secure.
Speaker 1: And I want my child to know that he or
Speaker 1: she is loved and it has people that that love them.
Speaker 1: Alicia is currently looking for work. If you want to
Speaker 1: help her with basic living expenses while she builds her
Speaker 1: new life, go to go fund me dot com slash
Speaker 1: support Alicia Burns. Hey y'all. Next week, the Wrongful Conviction
Speaker 1: Team is taking a break, but don't worry, we have
Speaker 1: something very special planned for you in our regular slot.
Speaker 1: Next Monday, we are featuring episode one of the Pulitzer
Speaker 1: Prize winning podcast Swave, which I hosted and produced along
Speaker 1: with the Futudo Media group. Suave goes inside the juvenile
Speaker 1: justice system to tell a story of incarceration, redemption, and
Speaker 1: the unusual relationship between a journalist and source. I know
Speaker 1: you'll want to hear it. I have spent years on
Speaker 1: this project and we'll be back just the week after
Speaker 1: with another episode of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, please enjoy suave. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please support your local
Speaker 1: innocence organizations and go to the links in our bio
Speaker 1: to see how you can help. I'd like to thank
Speaker 1: our executive producers Jason Flam and Kevin Wordis, as well
Speaker 1: as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, researcher Lila Robinson, story
Speaker 1: editor Sonya Paul, with additional production by Jeff Klaiburne and
Speaker 1: Connor Hall. The music in this production is by three
Speaker 1: time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at Wrongful
Speaker 1: Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at Wrongful Conviction, as well
Speaker 1: as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms, you
Speaker 1: can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter at
Speaker 1: Maggie Freeling. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production
Speaker 1: of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Speaker 1: Number one