WEBVTT - #489 Guest Host Conor Hall with Brian Pippitt 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.080 Hello everybody. Once again, this is Connor Hall, the producer 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.880 for Wrongful Conviction, filling in for Jason Vlahm. I hope 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:11.799 you enjoy it. On February twenty fourth, nineteen ninety eight, 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.680 eighty four year old Minnesotan Evelyn Mallin was discovered in 0:00:16.760 --> 0:00:21.720 her ransacked bedroom, strangled and beaten to death. Her small 0:00:21.720 --> 0:00:25.320 apartment was attached to her convenience store, but the store 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:29.240 was undisturbed, including any signs of forced entry. There was 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.000 a broken basement window, but it appeared to have been 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:36.320 broken from the inside out. Yet, instead of focusing on 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.800 personal or business relations with access to keys, the investigation 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.800 targeted an Indigenous man named Brian Pippott and four of 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:50.120 his male relatives, despite no evidence connecting them to the scene, 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:55.120 credible alibis, and an equally incredible theory of guilt. One 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.520 of them made a statement. Two more pled. One was acquitted, 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:05.280 but Brian wasn't so lucky. This is wrongful conviction. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.319 Wrongful conviction has always given voice to innocent people in prison, 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.000 and now we're expanding that voice to you. Call us 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.280 at eight three, three, two oh seven, four six sixty 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.679 six and tell us how these stories make you feel 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:25.280 and what you've done to help the cause, even if 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.119 it's something as simple as telling a friend or sharing 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:31.440 on social media, and you might just hear yourself in 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:35.000 a future episode call us eight three three, two oh 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:36.479 seven four six sixty six. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.080 Welcome back to Wrongful Conviction, where we have a story 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.920 about a group of indigenous men about an hour's drive 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:57.360 north of Minneapolis, Saint Paul, the Malax Band of Vojaboy 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.040 to be exact, but the theory of their involvement and 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.560 the murder was so lazy and full of holes that 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:08.360 authorities must have known it was also full of something else. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.760 And joining us to tell his story, still in Minnesota 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:18.760 prison is Brian Pippott. Welcome Brian, and to help tell 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.639 this story an attorney and investigator from probably the original 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:29.680 innocence organization in this country, Centurion Ministries. Jim Cousins Welcome well, 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.760 thank you, and before we even begin with Brian's personal history, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.919 I'd like to recognize the history of the Malax Band 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.040 of Ojibweh as well as their relations throughout the area, 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:44.480 whose roots are on the East coast, but as Europeans 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:49.200 began their continental conquest about five hundred years ago, the 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:54.519 Ojibwe were forced into a nomadic lifestyle. They eventually allied 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.280 themselves with the French in the Seven Years War, a 0:02:57.360 --> 0:03:01.320 relationship evidenced even by the name Lacks. It's French for 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.160 a Thousand Lakes, a reference to the Great Lakes area 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:06.880 in which the Jojubwe eventually settled a little over two 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.200 hundred years ago, and where they were later recognized by 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:14.919 the US government as a sovereign nation. Spread among various reservations, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.840 some of which were in Aitkin County, Minnesota. 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.200 Well, Aikin County includes the town or city of Aiken itself, 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:26.080 and about twenty miles from there is a town called McGregor. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:31.080 That's where there's a small Native American reservation called the 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:36.040 Sandy Lake Reservation. I understand that there's a fair degree 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.920 of tension between the white community, law enforcement authorities from 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.320 the Aiken County Sheriff's office, and the Native American community. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.080 That tension has made headlines in recent years as the 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.640 current sheriff, Daniel Gaida, it appears, has accepted financial support 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.560 from an oil conglomerate called Enbridge, and then it just 0:03:55.640 --> 0:04:00.360 so happens that protesters were treated pretty roughly for seeking 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.280 to protect clean drinking water in the area where Brian 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:05.000 was raised. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:10.320 List McGregor, mister two of malaccs the Sandy Lake Indian Reservation. 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.320 We moved up in the late eighties to Sandy Lake 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.960 and a mother. She rented a parcel land up there 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:23.520 for a dollar for fifty years and had a house built. 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.760 She kept adding on to the house. She wanted a 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:32.320 place for everyone, and we all lived in alsos around 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.960 the Sandy Lake area. Had some brothers and they have 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.599 all passed, and we had some good times going swimming 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.400 in the lakes, going fishing, going hunt trapping with my 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:48.200 uncles in the wintertime, harvesting deer, using everything of the 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:52.359 tier and giving thanks for the deer, and offering tobacco. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.000 Despite ugly efforts to the contrary, the Ojuboy and other 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.400 Indigenous nations have been able to maintain their culture and 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.680 self governance well. Folks like Ojiboy Elder Marge Anderson were 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:08.320 able to make strides for their nations with the US government, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.000 like the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of nineteen eighty eight, 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:16.280 which brought much needed economic opportunities to their nation. In fact, 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.360 on February twenty third, nineteen ninety eight, Brian had accompanied 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.160 his nephew, Michael mus Squattis to an interview at one 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:24.640 of those casinos. 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:29.400 Yeah, Mike Squads my sister Anita's son. He had a 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.960 job interview that day and upon the radio for I 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.239 don't know, thirty dollars or something for some extra money 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.400 to go to a casino. I didn't drive at that 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.320 time that I had a ride with him and my 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:45.719 other nephew, Brandon. 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:49.320 By all accounts, the trio returned to the area around 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.920 eight thirty PM, and Brian was home for the night 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:56.800 by ten. Then the following morning, February twenty fourth, nineteen 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:59.800 ninety eight, eighty four year old Evelyn Mallin's body was 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.200 to discovered in her bedroom in nearby tiny Shamrock Township. 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:10.000 The building is very small and houses not only her bedroom, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.000 but also a little convenience store that has some three 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.719 point two beer and cigarettes and other sundry items. And 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.120 piecing together some of the witness testimony, she's probably murdered 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.680 the night before, sometime between ten and ten thirty in 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:28.159 the morning, her daughter, Norma Horner went to the store 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:31.960 with her boyfriend Gerald Horsemen, and they knocked on the door. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.359 They knocked on the windows, they didn't get a response. 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:37.479 They went around to the back door. There was a 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.760 skeleton key broken off from the inside of the back door, 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.520 so they couldn't open it, so they called nine to 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.520 one one Aiken County Sheriff's Department. Kicking the back door, 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.200 they find Evelyn Male and the victim in her bedroom. 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:55.240 That she was strangled and beaten rather savagely, and there 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.359 was fecal matter on her too. Now that may have 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:00.640 been that she evacuated as a result of being strangled 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.200 and beaten, but there's some other theories that who the 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.480 ever of the assailant was took some vehicle matter from 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.040 a little there's a bowl, I mean, there's no indoor 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.600 plumbing in the store and through that on her. I 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.240 don't know whether that's true or not. But they didn't 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.440 see her immediately because her bedroom was ransacked. Things are 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.880 thrown all over the place, and she was tossed off 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:22.720 her ben There was a mattress on top of her. 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.840 And then they went around throughout the building. They noted 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.280 that the front and door locks were locked. They noted 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.800 that a basement window was broken, and the store portion 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:35.520 is utterly untouched. 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:40.040 The back room was ripped apart, like whoever did that 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:42.560 was looking for something particular. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:48.600 Thereafter, they interviewed Gerald Horseman and Norma Horner. Gerald Horseman 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.160 was responsible for some of the inventory in the little store, 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.800 and he told them at the time that there was 0:07:54.880 --> 0:08:00.200 no beer, no cigarettes missing. Subsequently, Merle Maylon, the victim's son, 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.480 came up from his home in New Mexico several days 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:07.440 after the murder. Theoretically there was some cash in a 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.800 white envelope that she used to keep that he thought 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:11.400 was missing. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:15.960 Initially, Gerald Horseman thought so too, as well as a checkbook, 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:20.160 but both turned up. Yet Merle Mallin continued to allege 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:21.480 that other items were missing. 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:27.560 There was a mention of guns missing, biers, televisions, all 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.800 kinds of stuff, and they were flying over the reservation 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.319 looking in swamps for the stuff. And then oh no, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:37.520 this wasn't missing. Miss was a missing. Messing was missing. 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.760 At trial he said, oh, we found them money. 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.680 But Merle Malan has always maintained that beer, cigarettes, and 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:47.880 a gun were stolen, which propped up the state's theory 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:53.040 a robbery turned homicide. Despite what Horsemen, who actually kept 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:56.680 the store's inventory has maintained all along that the store 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:01.880 was undisturbed and no store items were missing. Interestingly, one 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:05.840 of the alternative suspects was Merle's son, Mark Mallan. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:13.160 The mourning of the murder, relatives actually pointed toward her grandson, 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:16.079 Mark Maelon and he would help her at the store too, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.640 so he had access to the store and said that 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.320 he could be violent, particularly was on something, and that 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.080 Evelyn Malan used to give him money, and a couple 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.480 of weeks before this incident, Mark Maelan asked her for 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.680 four or five hundred dollars and it was one of 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.480 the first times when she had refused him money. Others 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.200 subsequently had said, we know that he's been rough with 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:39.839 his grandmother before and he knows where she hides money 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.480 in the store, but law enforcement didn't really follow up 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.360 on that thread. Another alternative suspect was a man by 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.200 the name of Terry Peat. He evidently was somebody that 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:50.839 Evelyn Maylen was afraid of, and she expressed that fear 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.000 to some others that bad news is back in town. 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.679 He had been released from being incarcerated, and he had 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.640 asked her to buy some pro pain on credit. And 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:04.680 she had refused. He subsequently perished when his trailer caught fire. 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:05.880 Several months later. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.959 But before the death of Terry Pete, as well as 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:12.240 the specter of missing cash and dissipated, the rumor mill 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.440 in Aiken County was quite active. 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:19.880 There were rampant rumors, some of which are clearly untrue, 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:22.760 that the assailants cut off her finger to take her 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:27.200 ring off her, the assailants sexually assaulted her. I heard 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.360 it was the Miss Squades. I heard it was this person. 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:32.120 I heard it was that person. And so mister Bijurga 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:36.319 from the BCA, which is the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.800 the equivalent of an FBI for the state, and Bruce 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.120 Beck from the Aiken County Sheriff's Office went over to 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.679 interview Michael MSS Squaddes, Keith MS. Squades, and Brandon Miss 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.400 Squades as well. They are all the nephews of Brian Pippott. 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.439 This is within I think a week of the murder. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.760 And they looked at Keith and checked his body for 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.760 scrapes from Mars. He didn't have any, and they asked 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.360 him where he was he was at home and Mike 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:05.640 where he was. 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.320 Michael Musquad says, what day is this now, Oh, that 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.600 was the day I had my interview down at the 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.160 Grand Casino. Brandon and my uncle Brian Piptt went with 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:19.120 me as well. The authorities knew this now. They later 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.480 interrogated Brandon Misquattis, who was fifteen at the time, in 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.880 a very coercive interview where they kept saying to him, 0:11:25.920 --> 0:11:28.320 we know you were there. Your relatives have said you 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.920 were there. Come clean, and he said, no, I wasn't there. 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:33.240 I wasn't there. I was at the casino. They later 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.920 acknowledged that his alibi was correct. So that's the same 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:40.520 alibi that Brian Pippott has. So the alibi was established 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:41.319 quite early on. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.720 Nevertheless, after a year had gone by, Terry Pete had passed, 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.960 while Merle Mallin kept the specter of a robbery alive 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.480 and the rumor mill led investigators to Brian Pippott, his 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:56.200 nephews Raymond and Keith Musquattis, as well as his cousins 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.120 Neil King and Don Hill. 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.040 Right after an award had been offered, Don Hill started 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.040 a rumor that Brian Pippott said something along the lines 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:08.480 of oh, she was already dead when I went in there, 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.200 And then eventually Don Hill starts naming a few of 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:16.160 these people that ultimately are selected as the assailants. And 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.000 as they started to narrow down some of these rumors, 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.000 they used tactics of saying to one so and so 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.600 said you were there. Now you need to help yourself 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:28.800 by saying you were there and admitting to things, and 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:32.880 the first person to the trough gets the best meal 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:33.520 or something. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:38.400 That was the line they used, yes live, threatening all 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.439 your younger kids with long term prison ten and. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:46.480 So there was a carousel of interrogations of various people 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.240 until they got somebody to say, okay, I was there, 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:53.840 and that was Raymond Musquaddes. He had a couple of 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.040 felonies pending, and there had been some rumors about him 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.920 being there and not being there, and he is recanted 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:05.360 completely and fully, genuinely, in detail and with specificity, and 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:09.240 if you look at his various statements, I actually have 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:12.960 a chart as to how they changed over time, you 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:14.199 can tell he wasn't there. 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.760 Raymond first said that around seven pm they arrived at 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.080 the Dollar Lake store and Brian had kicked in the 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:24.640 front door, both elements not true. So his story had 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:28.959 to change alongside the state's narrative until they were the same. 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.360 The state's theory is that these five men were driving 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.120 around drunk and decided that they were going to go 0:13:37.160 --> 0:13:39.120 to the Dollar Lake store. The store was closed with 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.160 the allegation is that Keith Musquades was able to get 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:44.680 through a basement window, which by the way, would have 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.280 entailed removing panes of glass with the little pieces of 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.880 wood that separate the panes, reaching in and removing two 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:56.320 wooden slats that were nailed across the window, squeeze down 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.640 through the window, walk across a sandy basement floor, come 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.160 up through a trapdoor, which, as far as we know, 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:05.880 he would have no idea existed. 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:10.080 Everybody forgets to mention that there was a chair on 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:12.600 top of that trap door and it was wedged up 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.560 against the window sill. It was in the police report 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.000 that the police removed the chair from a trap door 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:19.920 to get down. 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.960 To the basement, so the back door was inoperable, the 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.320 front door was dead bolted shut, and their suspects didn't 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.600 have access to keys. Yet, this basement entry theory was 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:35.240 still chosen despite its impossibility, and I guess since the 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.520 front door was definitely not kicked in. Raymond changed his 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:41.400 story from Brian kicking in the front door to an 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:46.680 intoxicated Keith musquattis wiggling through a jagged basement window. And 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:50.280 remember they examined him just days after the crime, and 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:51.560 he didn't have a scratch. 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.480 He said that Keith Musquades cut himself going through the window, 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.960 but Keith Msquades had no cuts on him. There's no 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.520 evidence anywhere that anyone went through that window, no fabric, 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.400 no blood, no skin. There is some cat blood, so 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:08.080 I guess a cat couldn't get through there without cutting itself. 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:11.320 So he theoretically comes up opens up the trap door. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.960 Raymond says that they all came in and out through 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:16.000 the front door, But we now know that the front 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.080 door was locked with a dead bolt, that you needed 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:19.160 a key to operate. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:24.080 Even with the alleged gymnastics, the theory still doesn't work 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:26.960 without a front door key. But not according to BCA 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:28.840 investigator David Bjurga. 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:33.040 Mister Bjurga was questioned about that locked at the grand jury. 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.000 He was asked, you can't get in and out of 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:37.240 that door without locking the dead bold? Is that right? 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:39.560 He said, well, that's right. We don't believe it was locked. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.160 Why do you think that, Well, because Raymond squads and 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.040 Don Hill said they went through the door, so it 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.080 couldn't have been locked. Well, that's completely circular logic. That's 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.560 not saying anything about the forensics or the physics of 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:49.960 the scene. 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:57.080 Again with the door, prosscutter on around and evaded the question, said, well, 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:01.320 I can't go into that because it's from the whole investigation. 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.760 The theory on the door was that the dead bolt 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:08.200 lock wasn't really locked. That was just the lock on 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.600 the door handle that you could lock by pulling it shut. 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.240 There's no merit to that whatsoever. The first responders all 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.040 reported that door locked. The crime scene photograph shows that 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.640 the dead bolt door locked. I had a forensic locksmith 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.080 examined that photograph. He said, that's clearly a dead bolt 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:27.720 and it's clearly locked. And when they took photographs of 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.040 the lock when they disassembled it, they didn't show the 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.520 actual bolt portion of it because that would show you 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.880 that what you see in that photograph a dead bolt 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.280 clearly locked. There's no real getting around that. Now they've 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:41.000 lost the lock. 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:46.000 However, Raymond was not aware of those damning specifics in 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.600 real life or in the statements he was making. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:51.920 He said that he stayed in the car but he 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.200 heard a crash. They come out with beer and cigarettes, 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.080 and Brian comes out with some kind of bag with 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.720 what they thought was a weapon in it, and the 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.640 theory is that they then went back to Raymond's father's 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:07.719 house and Keith Musquades and Brian Pippott confessed that they 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.199 had killed Evelyn malon Or when she came out of 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:11.880 her bedroom, but she didn't come out of her. 0:17:11.760 --> 0:17:17.520 Bedroom, according to other interviewees. BCA investigator David Bijerga routinely 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:21.639 inserted this unfounded element into his questioning that the victim 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.320 had discovered the assailants in the store and so they 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:27.280 had to put her down, but the store was undisturbed, 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:30.840 no signs of a struggle, according to both police reports 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.359 and Gerald Horseman, who also maintained that no store items 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.800 were missing. But instead Raymond conformed his statement to include 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.800 unsubstantiated claims from Merle Mallin, the father of the only 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:47.040 alternative suspect, about a stolen gun, cigarettes and beer. Mallin 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:50.399 also testified that his mother wasn't able to lock the door, 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:53.160 something that it appears he forgot, he had said when 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.920 interviewed years later by a post conviction investigator, and again 0:17:56.960 --> 0:17:59.280 at a two thousand and six PCR hearing when he 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.280 said that she could in fact lock the door. And 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.320 there's even more nonsense to unravel. 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.920 Ramus Squade said they went to an abandoned house that 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:11.200 used to be his father's on the Sandy Lake Reservation, 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.040 which was probably abandoned the last time he had been 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.880 there years ago, but has since been remodeled and had 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.040 residents in it. He said that they were all driving 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.840 a gold Toronado, but no such car existed, so almost nothing, 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:26.919 he said, matched with reality. 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.399 You're listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.160 and all the Lava for Good podcasts one week early 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.600 and ad free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:54.640 on Apple Podcasts. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:58.959 That was a reference that was a year later or something, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.520 and it was a significant time for me to remember anything. 0:19:03.720 --> 0:19:08.000 So I told him, well, I don't know where I was. 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.880 And it wasn't until I read the report and my 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.879 mother came to visit me, and she said, oh, yeah, 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.480 that's that day that I had loaned a vent for 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.960 the job interview and then you wrote along and I said, 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.760 oh yeah, okay, well I would have a pond ticket 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:29.119 for that data. And I called my investigator and he 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:31.480 went over there and he's sure enough, there was that 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:35.679 pon ticket. And it wasn't until later on that I 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.880 was getting the discovery papers that I realized that the 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:44.160 fat Mike and Brandon and my mother all confirmed my alibi. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.840 Yeah, in all likelihood this was you know, somebody that 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.680 was related to her or had access to a key, right. 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.119 Yeah. I remember sitting in the shell and reading a 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.640 discovery and I said, huh, this is an inside job. 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:00.880 And the police didn't pick up on that. They didn't 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.000 pick up on the doors being locked, didn't pick up 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.119 on the chair being on top of the trap door, 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:12.080 even the tops he had report, Well, this person had 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.280 a lot of anger towards. 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.480 Her, But that, along with the gaping holes in Raymond's 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.320 and the state's narrative, appear to have been ignored, as 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.920 Raymond was offered five years and his other charges dropped 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:28.080 to become the state star witness against his four relatives. 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.280 Keith Msquades, Brian and Neil King denied having anything to 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:34.400 do with it, and deny that to this day. They 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.560 did get a sort of confession from Don Hill, except 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:39.639 for it kept changing and changing and changing. He was 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.600 going to testify and he would get five years and 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.240 they would forgive some sexual assault pilonies. He never did 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.879 testify because they recognized that nothing this guy said was true, 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.320 even though he still got the deal, which was I 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.600 think less than five years. Same with Raymond. 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.159 Meanwhile, Brian, Neil and Keith awaited trial in jail, with 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.919 proceedings take plays between nineteen ninety nine and two thousand 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:03.240 and one. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.040 Keith msquades he had a first degree sexual assault case 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.639 pending against him. They dismissed that in exchange for his 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:13.600 Alfred plea on the murder. I think it was manslaughter. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:15.439 He had nothing to do with it. He has an 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.120 alibi as well. But he takes this plea on the 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.080 theory that you know, I might be able to survive 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:25.560 prison better if I'm a murderer as opposed to sexual assault. 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.440 So he takes an Alfred plea. But then he tries 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:32.360 to withdraw his plea within I think two weeks, and 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:36.280 that's denied. So he serves I think fifteen years. 0:21:36.520 --> 0:21:40.159 So only Neil and Brian couldn't be coerced into a 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:40.720 plea deal. 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.840 Neil King has tried first, and he is acquitted by 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.919 the judge at the conclusion of the state's evidence on 0:21:48.000 --> 0:21:52.040 two grounds. One that the only incriminating testimony against him 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.240 was Raymond Musquaddes, who was an accomplice and in Minnesota 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:59.840 unied corroborating evidence in addition to accomplice evidence. And the 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.879 other thing is that Raymond Squatt said Neil King he 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:04.960 was drunk in the backseat of the car, So there 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:07.879 was no clear evidence that, even under Raymond's story, that 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.400 Neil King had gone in and participated in the actual 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.400 homicide or burglary. But in any event, he was acquitted 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.440 based on the principle that there was no corroborating evidence. 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:22.680 So the state right away started interviewing all my cellmates 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:26.160 and trying to threaten them and getting them to say 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:27.600 something against. 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:29.640 Me, and they found jail house snitch. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.600 The jail house snitch is a guy by the name 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:36.239 of Peter Arnaldi. It's a longtime con man, fraudster, and 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.480 so Brian been told this guy knows his way around 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.959 the court system, and Brian said, I've been wrongfully charged here. 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:44.760 I mean, I said, what should I do? And he 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:46.040 showed him the criminal complaint. 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:47.800 I asked him to look at it, and I tell 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.280 him what I'm being charged with. And then he said, well, 0:22:51.320 --> 0:22:56.159 I'm gonna take this to the room, and I'm thinking, okay, well, no, 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:59.800 I'm going to need that back side grab it back. 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.560 And that's the last I'm not saying there until a 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:05.960 couple of years later when he was strolls into the 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.800 courtroom wearing the street clothes and I didn't know that 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:12.120 he was in federal custody for bank robbers and they 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.560 had a player's system and then work it to his advantage. 0:23:16.720 --> 0:23:22.560