WEBVTT - #422 Maggie Freleng with Angela Garcia 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:09.440 On the night of November twentieth, nineteen ninety nine, Angela Garcia, 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.840 a single mother, was at home with her two toddlers. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.680 It was a quiet, peaceful evening. The girls were upstairs 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:20.680 in her bedroom watching Rugrats on TV. Downstairs, Angela was 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.919 on the phone with her family making Thanksgiving plans. Angela 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.159 went up to use the bathroom, and while there, she 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.480 noticed it was getting hard to breathe. She began coughing. 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:33.280 I knew something was going on, but I couldn't really 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:35.160 figure out what was happening in the house. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.479 When she came out of the bathroom, Angela saw smoke 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.839 billowing up from downstairs. Frantically, she searched for her daughters, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.000 but the smoke was too thick. 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:48.559 I couldn't find them, and so the only thing I 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:50.879 thought about was I needed somebody to help me. 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.840 Angela broke the window, jumped down from the second story, 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:56.800 and ran to the neighbor's house. 0:00:57.880 --> 0:00:59.400 I went to her house, and not to please help me, 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:01.560 Please help me find my kids. Can't get I can't 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:02.680 get my kids. 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.800 Both of her children died in the fire. Angela was 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.480 convicted of arson and murder and given a life sentence, 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:16.039 and then after spending over sixteen years in prison, she 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.920 was faced with an agonizing choice. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.960 I cried so hard, and I remember praying to God 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:25.960 and asking God, like, whatever you want me to do 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:28.480 or do because I just I had to make a 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.399 decision within a couple of minutes that was gonna change 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.800 the rest of my life. 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.040 From LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie 0:01:38.080 --> 0:02:00.200 Freeling today Angela Garcia. Angela Garcia was born in New 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.760 York in nineteen seventy seven. She moved to Cleveland when 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:04.680 she was fourteen. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:08.960 My mom got married to my stepdad when I was 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:11.840 really young, so he kind of raised me. I lived 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.440 with him and my mom. So I have a bunch 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.160 of step brothers and sisters, but for my mom, I 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.160 only have. It's me and I have one sister, my 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:22.680 sister Judy, for my mom were seven years apart. 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.760 She was just a little sister. She always wanted to 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:29.120 be up under me, as little sisters always want to do. 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.800 This is Angela's older sister, Judy Cotto Nichols, and despite 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.120 their age difference, the two have always been close. 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.560 I have this one memory that I always think about 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:44.960 my mom had I don't know how old I was. 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.079 I had been really young. My mom had bought these 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.359 telephones and we had this long hallway, and I remember 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:54.840 us being on these like I think they were blue phones. 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:57.160 Oh my god, that is so silly. 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:01.400 Yes, my mother had bought her for Christmas, these little phones, 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:05.200 remember them princess phones. Well there was two of them 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.000 attached to one that She'd be in one room and 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:10.200 I'd be in the other room. We talked. 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:12.600 Oh my god, that is so silly. 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:17.080 Hi, Angela, Hi Judy. I just that's like one of 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:21.440 the memories from my childhood that is so fond in 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:22.000 my mind. 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.040 I think we had a good childhood. You know, we 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:27.520 would know it was never hungry. 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:29.160 We lived nicely. 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.040 The sisters stayed close as they grew older and both 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:37.480 started families. Judy had a son, dj and Angela had 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.560 two girls, Nayima and Nysa. Their children were around the 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:43.800 same age and constantly together. 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.440 My oldest daughter was like real bubbly, real talkative, and 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.280 just really outgoing, and then my youngest daughter was kind 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.760 of quiet, like real observant. She would be quick to 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.120 speak to people, but like she would try to get 0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.000 a feel of people. I A would say that they 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:02.280 like they were both of my characters kind of like 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:03.720 split up and got into both of them. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.240 Naima she was always smiling. She thought she was big 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:13.040 sister to her little sister and my son. Yeah, she 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.840 was a smart one. And Nida, Yeah she was the. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:19.160 Roly poly one. 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.200 She was more quiet. She was just she was like 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:24.200 a little Buddha. She's so adorable. 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.320 And I used to love to do to hear, used 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.480 to like braid to hear and for men here. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.320 And it was spoiled by everyone. They were babies that couldn't. 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:35.720 Do no wrong. How was she as a mom? 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.960 She was a good mom. Yeah. I kept the kids 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.599 a lot because I had a younger son, so so 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:43.680 they can play together all the time. So basically I 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:45.320 had them mostly all the weekends. 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.080 Angela was a single mother, twenty two years old and 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.440 engaged to be married. She was raising her daughters in 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.919 a two story house she rented from her parents in 0:04:56.000 --> 0:05:01.320 East Cleveland. Judy and her family lived nearby. Angela was 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.799 in school and dreamed of becoming a paramedic. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.240 But it was like schooling was expensive. So me and 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:11.320 my sister had I think we had went somewhere and 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.080 we met a recruiter, and he told me like, hey, 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.800 if you sign up for you know, to be in 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:18.760 a navy, you know, we'll pay for you go to school. 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.960 So I mean, I just figured why not, Like, who 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:24.840 wouldn't want to do that? And knowing that somebody that 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.000 your whole schooling is going to be paid for. 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:31.440 Basic training would take six weeks, and Angela knew she 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.000 would need someone to take care of her daughters during 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:39.840 that time, So naturally she asked Judy. 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.320 Yeah, that's not a problem. It wasn't a problem, you know. 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:43.520 I just say, it takes a village to raise a family, 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:46.039 you know, so we was our little village. 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.400 But yeah, of course that never happened. 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.880 So this case started with a fire at Angela's house 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.360 on November twentieth, nineteen ninety nine. 0:05:58.080 --> 0:05:59.920 This is Joanna Sanchez. 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.000 Managing counsel of the Wrongful Conviction Project at the Office 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:04.240 of the Ohio Public Defender. 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.440 It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and Angela was at 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:10.320 home with the girls. 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.440 My daughters used to love Rugrats, so we used to 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.040 watch that all the time they were two and three, 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.080 So it really wasn't like we were doing like a 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:19.680 whole lot. 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.680 The house was calm and quiet. While the girls watched TV. 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.960 Up in her bedroom, Angela lit a couple of candles. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.880 I was talking with her stepsister on the phone downstairs. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.800 And we were just talking about Thanksgiving and who's gonna 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:43.080 cook and what they're gonna cook and all that. I 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:45.240 had Winnes say as he used the restroom, and my 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:50.039 oldest daughter, Naima, she had came in the bathroom and 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.560 I told him, like, get out the bathroom, and she 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.160 said something to me, but I didn't pay any attention 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.400 whatever she was saying. And to this day, I always 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.919 think about if I would have listened to her. Maybe 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.200 she was telling me something, maybe she seen something, heard 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.200 something and was trying to tell me, But at the 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:10.680 time I didn't think anything of it. 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:14.600 When she came out of the bathroom, she noticed she 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.120 was coughing and she saw smoke, so she kind of 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:20.640 went towards the stairs and saw just smoke billowing up 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:21.280 the stairs. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.040 I knew something was going on, but I couldn't really 0:07:24.040 --> 0:07:26.600 figure out what was happening in the house. And I 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.520 knew I was having problems breathing and I couldn't breathe. 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:34.760 The first thing Angela thought of was her children. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.400 They were in my bedroom at the time, and so 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:40.360 I was feeling all over my bed for them, and 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:41.320 I couldn't find them. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:44.880 And by this point the house was just filling with 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:46.400 thick black smoke. 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.720 I couldn't find them, and so the only thing I 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.240 thought about was I needed somebody to help me. So 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.920 I opened up the window and I was screaming out 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:02.040 the window, and then somehow I broke. I busted the 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:05.080 window out trying to get out, and then I jumped down. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.200 I jumped out of the house. And in my mind 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:10.720 at the time, I thought that if I jump, if 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:14.400 I jumped out and found somebody to help me, I 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:15.480 could find my daughters. 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.600 So she did break out the second story window, went 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.680 onto what was the roof of the porch, jumped down 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:26.400 to the yard, and ran to her neighbor's house to 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:26.920 get help. 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.360 You don't think like I didn't think about if you 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.880 jump out the window, how are you gonna get back 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:45.000 in the house. I never even thought about that. The 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.160 only thing I thought about was trying to get back in, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.440 you know, trying to trying to stay them, trying to 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:53.920 find them. And so I went to the next door 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:56.200 neighbor's house, and I said, please help me, Please help 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:58.600 me find my kids. Can't get I can't get my kids, 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.679 and me and her went back to the house. I 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.640 don't remember everything that happened. I remember me and her 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:10.600 being on the porch because we couldn't get back in 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:11.000 the house. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:20.200 Unfortunately, by the time the firefighters came, Nija and Naima 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:31.640 had died. Initially, the firefighters, they looked at the house, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.280 they documented the scene. They brought in an accelerant sniffing 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.920 dog who found no accelerant, and they determined that this 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.559 was an accidental fire, and they destroyed the house. 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.520 Is that normal? I thought that was so crazy. Two 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:47.120 days later, the house is destroyed. 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.680 It's very quick. I mean it prevented certainly the defense 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.400 from ever collecting any evidence in the house. But really 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.200 no evidence was collected. I mean they took photos, but 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.200 no materials were collected for any store of testing for 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:05.360 accelerance or anything of that nature. So it's very strange. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:10.280 So then walk me through. It's an accident. The house 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.199 is leveled. How do we get to where we are? 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.720 So the house is leveled. A couple months later, Angela 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:22.200 submitted her insurance claim for her renter's insurance, and they 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.080 believed that she had overvalued the contents of her home. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.679 And so at that point the police and the fire 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:35.080 investigation unit started looking at this again and determined instead 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:36.720 that this was an incendiary fire. 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:41.679 How do they come to that conclusion without the house? 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.080 So what they did was they looked back at some 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.560 of the photographs. There's a large burned through pattern in 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.000 the dining room floor, and so they believed that was 0:10:51.040 --> 0:10:54.680 the area of origin. I think when they had called 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.000 it an accidental fire, the presumption had been that maybe 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.640 one of the gandals had fallen over and caused this fire. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.280 And so one of the fire investigating unit officers indicated 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.840 that he thought now the candle was too sturdy and 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.640 too far away from any combustibles to have caused the fire, 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:13.000 and so they came to the conclusion that it must 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:14.160 have been an intentional fire. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.360 Angela was barely into her twenties. She had lost both 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.479 her daughters as well as her home. 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:36.400 That hope time period. I can't even say, you know 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.440 how when you're sleep in like you think you're dreaming, 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:43.559 but you're not sure because sometimes it looks real. Something 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.680 parts of the dream looks real something parts to fake. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.480 And that's just how I felt for that time period. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.080 You know, I was I was a young mom, and 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:59.160 I never really experienced losing anybody. I didn't know how 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:01.480 to feel. I didn't how to feel. I didn't know 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.200 what I was supposed to feel. Now I know that 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:06.280 I was in a real bad depression. 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.880 And then just three months later, in February of two thousand, 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.880 Angela was arrested. She was charged with insurance fraud and 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:18.120 aggravated murder. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.280 I couldn't believe I was arrested. Actually, I was like, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:29.080 what is this crazy? You know, it didn't make no 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:33.839 sense to me, none whatsoever. I knew I didn't hurt 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.240 my daughters. You know, I knew I didn't them. I 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.400 love them like I love myself. You know, I always 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:43.760 believed that the truth will prevail. I always thought that 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:48.959 if somebody got arrested, whatever they got arrested for, they did, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.160 because that's what society teaches you to think, That's what 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.199 the news teaches you to think. So why would I 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:58.320 ever think that the system would let me down? 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.120 Thank you for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.000 You can listen to this and all the Lava for 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:20.080 Good podcasts one week early and ad free by subscribing 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:32.520 to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Angela's two daughters, 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.600 three year old Naima and two year old Nyja, had 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:39.120 died in the house fire, and on August twenty first, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.800 two thousand, Angela went to trial for the first time 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.720 before Judge Bridget McCafferty. The state sought the death penalty. 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.640 Their case hinged on the theory that Angela had burned 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.000 down her house and killed her children to get the 0:13:55.120 --> 0:13:56.000 insurance money. 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.960 She had a render's insurance policy. She had life insurance 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.960 on herself, and their theory was that she burned down 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.840 her house and murdered her children so that she could 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.080 collect some money on those insurance policies and sort of 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:13.920 start a new life child free. 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.280 Remember the year before, Angela had been thinking about joining 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:19.080 the navy. 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:21.880 And because she was a single mother, she was told, 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.480 you can't join the navy with dependence, you know. So 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.080 Angela looked into having her older sister, who she was 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:30.360 very close with and very close with her children, to 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.880 take temporary custody of them while she pursued this navy career. 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:37.000 Ultimately Angela changed her mind and didn't do that. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.960 Nevertheless, the state used that information at trial to bolster 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:45.520 their narrative that Angela was trying to free herself from 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.600 the responsibility of motherhood by setting fire to her own home. 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:54.280 They put on their fire investigation unit, a couple officers 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.000 from there, and they testified about what we now know 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:01.280 are really outdated myths that used to use that indicated 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.000 arson in their minds, so different types of char like 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:10.120 alligator char on the walls, burned through pattern. They put 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:10.800 that evidence on. 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.840 The prosecution also presented an insurance adjuster to testify that 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:20.840 Angela had recently purchased a large renter's insurance policy as 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.360 well as a policy on herself and her daughters. 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:26.880 The defense put on evidence that indicated she actually hadn't 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.520 sought out those policies. These are salesmen who had come 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:32.520 to her work and sort of given her a sales pitch, 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:34.720 and she had reluctantly signed up for insurance. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.280 In addition to those witnesses, the prosecution presented firefighters and 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:42.600 neighbors who had witnessed the events that night. They also 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.320 presented a hospital worker who testified that when Naimo was 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.280 brought into the er. She was wrapped in a cord 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:50.800 from the window blind. 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:55.280 They alleged that Angela had tied up one of her children. 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.560 There's lots of testimony that shows why she might have 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:03.240 ended up bound in those blinds. There was testimony from 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:05.640 the firefighters that they actually came in and they used 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:07.720 a tool to knock out the windows and knock down 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.640 all the blinds and curtains, and so those blinds would 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.640 have landed on her child. The firefighter then scooped her 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:16.720 up with the blinds, went outside with her, handed her 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.400 to an EMS worker, who then handed her to someone else, 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.480 and so it's easy to see how during this whole 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.160 process she may have become entangled in the blinds. 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.560 The prosecution also alleged that Angela wasn't reacting properly at 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:34.320 the hospital, that she wasn't behaving the way a grieving 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:35.000 mother should. 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.160 You know, that's something that's really interesting about this case 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.120 because originally what the witnesses that the scene were saying 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:44.840 was that Angela was hysterical. She was sitting on the ground, 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.320 she was rocking back and forth. You know, she was 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.960 screaming about her children. Really, you know, couldn't be consoled, 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.640 and when she was interviewed at the hospital by the 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:58.040 firefighters and the police detectives, they wrote up a report 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.120 said nothing about her demeanor thing out of sorts. Later, 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.040 after they changed the fire to incendiary, they went back 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.200 and added a report about their reflections of her demeanor 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.119 that night in the hospital and said that she was 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:10.760 too calm. 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:15.639 When the defense presented their case, they didn't call any 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.240 witnesses to testify. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.399 What they did was aggressively cross examine the state's witnesses. 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:25.600 So these trials happened in two thousand and two thousand 0:17:25.640 --> 0:17:29.760 and one, and by then fire science was starting to evolve. 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.280 This guide that fire investigators use n FPA nine to 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.840 twenty one had started to debunk some of these long 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:40.879 held myths, and so the defense at trial really used 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.679 that to cross examine the fire investigators about, you know, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:46.560 all these things that they were relying on that weren't 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:47.720 supported by science. 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.880 The first trial ended in a hung jury. A few 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:57.320 months later, there was a second trial, which started in 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.159 January of two thousand and one. The same judge and prosecutors. 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.000 For the second trial, the state presented much of the 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.080 same evidence they did at the first but then also 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:08.600 brought in a jailhouse informant. 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.159 That informant's name was Tanya Lanham. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.960 Tanya and her husband Tim were arrested for passing bad 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:21.320 checks and they hit the jail at the same time. 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.080 He was on the men's side, she was on the 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.160 women's side with Angela, and so then she would later 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.440 testify that Angela confessed to her during that time. 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:33.400 And as we've seen in so many wrongful conviction cases, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.880 that jailhouse confession never actually happened. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.520 Years later, Tim would write a letter to Angela indicating 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.240 that you know that was a lie, and what he 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.199 said was that the police approached them. After her first 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.680 trial about testifying against Angela. 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.560 The prosecution denied that Tanya and Tim had been offered 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.800 any kind of deal, but after she gave that information 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:03.160 to the police, Hanya received a sixty day suspended sentence 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:08.119 for the bad checks charge. That second trial also ended 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.560 in a mistrial. The jury couldn't reach a verdict there either, 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.760 but the state just would not give up. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:18.600 By the time we got to the third trial, the 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:24.000 prosecution had completely changed its prosecutors. They really enhanced their 0:19:24.520 --> 0:19:28.359 evidence about the financial motives. It really became a trial 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:32.399 almost entirely about that. And they also alleged that in 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.199 between the second and third trial, they had discovered a 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.919 second area of origin for the fire in the house. 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.600 So now they were saying this didn't just start in 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:44.240 the dining room. There was also a poor pattern on 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.200 the stairs, and so the state's theory was an accidental 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:51.800 fire couldn't start in two different locations. They also brought 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:53.800 on and this is kind of maybe one of the 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.320 more shocking parts of the third trial, they had a 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.760 firefighter testify that he was at the scene the night 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.720 of the fire and that on the stairs he found 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.920 an intact bit lighter that he didn't photograph, didn't tell 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.800 anyone about. He just looked at it, put it back 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:15.679 down and never said anything until trial number three. And 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:17.720 then the other thing the defense did in the third trial, 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:19.600 which they hadn't done in the first two is they 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.920 called an expert witness. So they brought in doctor Richard Roby, 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.160 who was a chemical engineer and an expert on fire science, 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.800 and he testified that the fire investigators had relied on 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.520 outdated signs of arson. He really debunked a lot of 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.960 what the state's evidence was. He described this concept of 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:45.000 flashover that really changes how fire investigations should be conducted. 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:47.919 And so he was really kind of ahead of his time. 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.520 And the state at the third trial called him junk 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:54.240 science and said that he had kind of created a 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:58.920 quote miracle theory of flashover and tried to discredit him, 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.760 and they effectively so, and Angela was convicted at the 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:02.560 end of that trial. 0:21:05.800 --> 0:21:08.879 By the time my second trial happened, I just I 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:12.840 really believe that, you know, I had two hung juries. Okay, 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:18.360 they don't let me go because why would you still 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:23.679 why would you still keep trying me? And it's like 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:28.320 mentally it starts to weigh you down, and you know, 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.479 hearing people say things about me that's not true, or 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.679 you know, certain people call me a predator, and you know, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:39.919 all these different type of names and stuff like that. 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.600 So I was really going through it and I just 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:49.439 had like this overwhelmingly tired feeling, you know, I was. 0:21:49.680 --> 0:21:51.719 I was just so overwhelmingly tired. 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:57.800 Joanna. I feel like we'd think after one or two 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:00.919 mistrials they would just let this go, but they did not. 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:05.119 The state kept coming for Angela. Was there something else 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:06.360 going on? 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:07.680 Yeah? 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:12.159 I think that there's certainly racism and misogyny are a 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:16.840 big factor in Angela's conviction. You know, we often see 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:20.040 this with women who are wrongfully convicted of killing their children. 0:22:20.240 --> 0:22:23.600 This idea that they're a horrible mutter is running throughout 0:22:23.640 --> 0:22:27.919 their trial, right And in Angela's trial, there's also a 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:32.560 huge degree of racism the way she was characterized throughout 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:36.480 the trial. Angela's Puerto Rican She was referred to as 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:40.520 a predator, as an animal. They suggested that her family 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.639 were engaged in fraudulent business or fraudulent practices without any 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.199 proof of that. Jurors were interviewed after the first and 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.520 second trial, and we know that the deliberations often broke 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.720 down along racial lines, and so I think race was 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:57.480 a huge undercurrent in this trial. 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.200 Angela was convicted of three counts of arson, two counts 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:10.439 of murder, and four counts of aggravated murder. She was 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:14.760 given two life sentences. She would not become eligible for 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:23.040 parole for almost fifty years. When they convicted you, what 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:25.919 did you think? I mean, that was the moment that 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:28.160 it all became pretty real. 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:32.080 Do you know I wasn't in like a state of shock, 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.240 because when I got found guilty I didn't believe it. 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:41.320 I didn't believe it. How do you send someone innocent 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:49.000 to prison when you know I didn't do this. I 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:50.879