WEBVTT - #327 Maggie Freleng with Hope White 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.920 In the early morning hours of July nineteenth, two thousand 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:12.239 and eight, police discovered the body of twenty four year 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:16.800 old Julie Burchett at an abandoned palette mill in Monticello, Kentucky. 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:23.000 She had been brutally murdered. Witnesses said they had seen 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.000 Julie attacked and stabbed by another woman at a house 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.840 party the night before, and that the party was thrown 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:33.840 by Hope White at her mother's house. Did you ever 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:35.560 have parties at your mom's house? 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.960 Absolutely not. My mother would not allow something like that 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:40.479 to go on. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.360 So what did you think about this whole party story? 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:51.040 I thought it was bizarre and guyzy, and I really 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.760 didn't think that I had anything to worry about because 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.400 I thought, Okay, this is very easy to prove these 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:00.480 these people lion. 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.160 But regardless, Hope was arrested and convicted of the murder 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:07.839 of Julie Hicks bur chet. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:11.840 My name is Hope Rena White and I've been in 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:17.240 prison for approsingly thirteen years in four months. 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:20.920 From LoVa for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:32.480 Freeling today Hope White. 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:37.039 So I'm from Kentucky in a little small town named Monticello. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.440 Hope White was born in July thirtieth, nineteen eighty two, 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.680 to Daryl and Tammy White. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:46.880 We didn't have a lot of money growing up. My 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.640 mother did work, mostly just at restaurants that didn't pay 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:54.440 very much or give her many hours. I did look 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.080 up to my dad and think that he was the 0:01:56.120 --> 0:01:59.200 coolest because he did drink and things like that. 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:03.680 As a young girl, Hope thought her dad just liked 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:06.440 to have a good time. But the truth was. 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.560 Watched my father suffer from mental illness and addiction to 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:12.560 drugs from alcohol. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:17.720 As Hope got older, she says she followed in his footsteps. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:24.480 By the age eleven, I was consigarette, local marijuana, drinking alcohol. 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.880 I could even go to the local bootleggers and buy 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:34.639 my own pont DeLisi. I was very I'm a very 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:38.480 attention seeking person, so I would hang out with whoever 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:42.040 gave me an attention. Sometimes I might even change my 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:46.679 values or my morals, even my appearance for other's approval. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.600 But not everyone saw that side of Hope. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:59.919 She was so fun, She was so outgoing, outspoken, passionate. 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.200 This is Brittany Hope's sister. 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.520 She is eleven years older than me, So she was 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:10.280 someone that I looked up to. My early memories of 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:15.520 her are almost a mother role rather than a sister. 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:22.440 She was very, very passionate about family, about making sure 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.680 that I had the same experiences as her children did. 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:29.640 Hope had her first daughter, Shonda, in nineteen ninety nine, 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.160 so she was sixteen when she had her first kid. 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.400 And if y'all are eleven years apart, you're actually pretty 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.160 close in age to your nieces and nephews. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:38.880 Correct. Yeah. 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.640 Yeah, she has two daughters, and the first one is 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.000 five years younger than me, and the second one is 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.480 nine years younger than me. We kind of grew up 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.960 as sisters more so than aunt and niece, just because 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.040 we're so close in age. 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:00.000 When Hope gave birth to Shonda, she knew she wanted 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.600 a better life for her daughter than she had growing up, 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.800 but parenthood spun her life in a new direction. 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.120 Me and her father worked at various places in town. 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.480 It was a lot harder than what we thought it 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:18.760 would be. It didn't take as long to figure out 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.960 sailing marijuana and fills and was really fast money for 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:28.640 a small town. I began to feel powerful having tons 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.640 of friends and that money and that I wasn't used 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:32.080 to having. 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:35.960 But to her little sister Brittany, she was still the 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:37.000 same Hope at heart. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.080 I remember she had and it seems like such a 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.440 small thing now, but she had went to the gas 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:47.360 station and got bug juice, which is these little juices 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.080 made for kids, and she had already gave them theirs, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:52.839 they had already drank them. And I got home and 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.000 happened to see like a half empty one, you know, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.560 on the counter. And before I could even so much 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:00.320 as get a disappointed look on my face, she whipped 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.040 one out of the fridge and was like, don't worry, 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.960 I got you one too. It just made me so 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.200 excited and so happy that even though I wasn't there 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.599 and she didn't have to get me something, it was 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.280 so touching to me knowing that she did not have 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:13.800 to do that. 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.279 Hope's second daughter, Desiree, was born in two thousand and three, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.359 and two years later, Shanda and Desiree's father went to 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.680 prison for selling drugs. Hope was left to support her 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.640 family on her own, but soon she met someone new, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:30.360 a man named Bobby Buster. 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:36.600 At first, our relationship was very good. We were good 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.880 for each other, we got each other sober. He got 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:45.040 a good job building houses, for example. I was at 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.560 home much the kids and force. He paid the bills 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:50.360 and everything. So we still didn't have a whole lot 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:56.000 of money, and I began listen that fast money. So 0:05:56.040 --> 0:06:02.000 therefore I started sailing again, and eventually we started to 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.120 use again together. I started giving a bad one in 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.640 harder drugs. I began to do things that I wasn't 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:17.080 proud of. I'd live. She still, I was very depressed 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:22.320 and struggled with anger my whole life. So I acted 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:26.359 out a lot of times in violence, many different forms, 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.320 whether it was getting bangs, steeple, or even harm in myself. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.960 Hope says that violence eventually showed up in her relationship 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.719 with Bobby. It started with their arguments, which soon erupted 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:44.360 into physical altercations. By the time Shonda was around nine 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.200 years old, the neighbors were starting to notice. The night 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.120 of the murder, there was a domestic violence called to 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.720 your house? Correct, Yes, can you tell me about that? 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:56.400 What happened? 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:03.680 Well? Our fight actually started at the lake. 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.960 On July nineteenth, two thousand and eight. Hope spent most 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.880 of the day shopping with her mom. Later When Bobby 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:28.080 got off work, Hope met up with him and their 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:31.400 friends Janet and Billy Burke. The four of them drove 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:33.680 out to f and T Lake, a few miles outside 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.080 of Monticello, to hang out and ride four wheelers. They 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:40.000 left for the lake about four thirty PM, and an 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:42.600 hour later, Bobby got a citation. 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.400 From Fish and Wild Laugh for Hopper writing his four 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.920 wheeler illegally because there's signs all over the place down there, 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.200 saying that those types of things aren't supposed to be 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:52.920 on the property. 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:58.280 The evening went downhill from there. Bobby and Hope got 0:07:58.360 --> 0:07:59.000 into a fight. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.880 I really don't even remember what we were fighting about. 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:07.720 I was drinking pretty heavily that day, and I do 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.200 remember a fight and at the lake, and it escalated. 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:16.360 I hit myself in the head with a rock at 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:16.720 the lake. 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.040 Once they got back to their apartment, the arguing continued. 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.800 At around nine pm, a neighbor reported hearing Hope and 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:31.400 Bobby fighting. Sometime after that, police received a second call 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:36.800 reporting a suspected domestic violence incident at their apartment. Finally, 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:42.199 at around eleven that night, the police showed up. They 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.680 first treated the cut on Hope's forehead from the rock 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:48.520 injury earlier that day, and then Deputy John Hurd arrested 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.560 Hope for an active bench warrant for an unpaid fine. 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.480 Former Monticello police officer Derek Lester was also at Hope's 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.520 apartment at that time, but he left top to a 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.680 reckless driving call. On the way, he drove by an 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.440 abandoned palette mill and noticed a familiar car parked in 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.360 the lot. It was one officers had been alerted to 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.199 pay attention to because its driver didn't have a license. 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.400 The car belonged to twenty four year old Julie Hicks Perchett, 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.840 so Officer Lester parked and walked towards the car with 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:27.680 a flashlight. As he approached, he saw Julie sprawled across 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.360 the front seat of her car. She had multiple stab 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.240 wounds on her body and was lying in a pool 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:49.840 of blood dead. This episode is underwritten by AIG, a 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:54.240 leading global insurance company. AIG is committed to corporate social 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.640 responsibility and to making a positive difference in the lives 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.400 of its employees and in the communities were they work 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.000 and live. In light of the compelling need for pro 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:07.280 bono legal assistance and in recognition of AIG's commitment to 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.360 criminal and social justice reform, The AIG pro Bono program 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:16.360 provides free legal services and other support to underrepresented communities 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:28.840 and individuals. As soon as officer Lester found the body 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.240 at twelve thirty six am, he made a distraught call 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.559 to his department. He needed all hands on deck at 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:39.760 the mill. Officers immediately released Hope from custody and went 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:45.120 to the crime scene, and it was a spectacle. People 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:48.480 throughout the neighborhood, including Bobby and Hope, gathered to see 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:51.720 what the commotion was about. Hope had known Julie most 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:53.960 of their lives. 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.240 We rode the same school bus together our whole entire life, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:04.440 going to school, and after we started hanging round together 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:08.959 when we got older, when she got into doing drugs 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.400 and had got into seal and drugs, she would actually 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:12.560 come and buy them from me. 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:19.720 The investigation into Julie's murder lasted almost a full year. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.680 Witnesses said they had seen Julie's car at the mill 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.600 starting at ten thirty that morning, and they had seen 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.400 her coming and going. Her car, however, remained there throughout 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.600 the day with different men passing by, until about seven 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.720 thirty PM. The minimal forensic evidence police collected at the 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.360 scene was of little value. Some of it wasn't tested 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.719 at all, and the items that were tested did not 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.880 return any fingerprints or DNA matches. The items included a 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.640 lighter that was found near Julie's car and a large 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:55.079 Jenco sweatshirt that appeared to have blood on it at 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.240 the time. The DNA samples on the sweatshirt weren't large 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:02.000 enough to develop a profile, and while the lighter was fingerprinted, 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:07.440 it wasn't tested for DNA at all. Fingernail scrapings were collected, 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.160 and multiple hairs were also found on Julie's body, clothes 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.439 and in the car, but none of this was tested 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:19.680 at the time of the investigation. The case went cold 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:23.480 for months, and then a man named Jason Miller was 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.360 arrested on felony drug charges. 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.800 He met with the lead detective for the state Police 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.280 and the prosecutor and said he knew something about the murder. 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.960 This is Miranda Hellman, an attorney with the Kentucky Innocence 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:43.720 Project who now represents Hope. Miranda says how exactly Jason 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:45.280 came forward is unknown. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:48.960 Not a lot of it is recorded we do know 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:52.840 from there that they kind of took Jason out into 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:56.800 the county and had him try to walk through the narrative. 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.400 Jason Miller told police that the knight of Julie's murder, 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:03.360 he was at a party at Hope's mother's house and 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.120 that he had seen Hope kill Julie in a fight there. 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.800 His story was that Hope confronted Julie about sleeping with 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:15.600 her boyfriend and then stabbed her, spewing blood everywhere. Police 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:17.560 wanted more details. 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:19.800 So they actually take him on a ride along from 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.000 the courthouse where he's supposed to point out where the 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:26.640 party occurred, where Hope's mom lived, how things occurred, but 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:30.280 he couldn't identify the house, He couldn't identify the route. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:33.960 Julie's cell phone was missing. He said that it was 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:36.280 in his car and he threw it out into the 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:39.120 woods on the way out of the neighborhood, you know, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.760 away from Hope's mom's house, and then he had literally 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.360 the prosecutor and the police looking for a cell phone 0:13:45.400 --> 0:13:47.960 in the ditch, but was never located. 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.440 Jason also couldn't say what date this happened, or what 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.360 Julie was wearing. Rather he gave the names of three 0:13:55.400 --> 0:14:02.600 people he said, we're also at the party. The first 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.959 witness Jason named was Seth Frost, but Frost denied any 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.000 knowledge of the murder. Meanwhile, Adam Manning, the second witness, 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:14.280 was also in jail on a pending felony charge. When 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.040 he was questioned, Manning said he arrived at the party 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.240 at ten pm and that there were approximately thirty to 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.160 thirty five people there. He said the stabbing happened at 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.520 around midnight, but in a completely different location in the 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:32.080 house than where Jason Miller had placed it. Scotty Stanton, 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.320 the third witness Miller named, gave a statement different from 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.120 all the others. He said they went to the party 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.720 after a football game around eleven pm, although it wasn't 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.560 football season. He said they saw some girls arguing and left, 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.800 and he didn't see anything related to a stabbing. Stanton 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:51.720 couldn't give an exact date either. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:54.520 None of it adds up. 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.040 No one's story is consistent enough to even really say 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.560 it happened on this day and time July, So you 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.400 know when all these people were supposed to be at 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:06.600 this party, but only three can tell you a story 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.360 that even points to Hope is incredibly concerning. And it's 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.040 not just concerning for me, you know, as a citizen 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:14.880 and me as a defense attorney, or. 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:16.840 Me as an advocate for Hope. 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.920 It's concerning in that, you know, why did they push 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.480 so hard to get this story? You know, why did 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.800 they use these people that had pending charges. 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:32.600 And despite the allegations that dozens of people were at 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:36.000 this party, no one called the police after Julie was 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.680 supposedly brutally murdered, and no one was identified or interviewed 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.240 from the alleged party other than Jason Miller and the 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:45.520 three witnesses he named. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:49.200 One of them says they're there for an hour. 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:51.920 One of them says they're there for five minutes, and 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.000 that there was a fight in the back of the house. 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.320 I'm arguing Hope came out of the bathroom in the 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.480 back of the house and just picked up an knife. 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.240 No one really describes what the knife is, if it's 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:07.000 a kitchen knife, a pocket knife, two knives, one knife, 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.280 nobody really knows, and just stabs her. 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.880 The stories get even more confused from there. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.040 Nobody says how many times, nobody really says where in 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.680 the house they all described the house as this open 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.440 floor plan had a pool table in the middle of 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:29.160 the living room and a chair in the corner, and 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.680 that Hope had walked out into this living room and 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.160 that's where the stabbing occurred, somewhere between the hallway and 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.920 the living room. And then everyone says they left. Jason 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.880 says he left as soon as that stabbing happens. Adam 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:45.040 and Scottie say the same. So there's no testimony or 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.720 explanation about what happens after that, how a body would 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.800 have been transported, Who would have transported it. I've been 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.720 in Tammy's house multiple times. We actually had the layout 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.600 at trial the defense attorneys did to show whatever house 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:01.840 they were to describing couldn't have been Tammy's house. 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.360 It's not how her house is laid out. 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:09.159 Despite these shaky testimonies, police executed a search warrant for 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.840 Tammy White's house. They went in with cadaver dogs and luminol, 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:14.560 which is just like. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.520 A spray that reacts to black light, and it will 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.960 react when it hits certain things. So one of the 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.920 big ones' is blood or bodily fluids. So the quote 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.680 at trial was that when they hit the black light 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.560 in Tammy's house that it lit up like a Christmas tree, 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.440 and I've seen the photos it did that the walls, 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.760 the floor, every piece of this house looked like it 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.920 was having a reaction to luminol. So they pull floor samples, 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.280 carpet samples, door, drywall, everything. 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.439 But when they tested these samples, no blood or DNA 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.040 showed up on any of them. Police also never interviewed 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:53.640 any of Tammy's neighbors to find out if they saw 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:56.840 a party happening. These neighbors would have had a direct 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.960 line of sight to the house and would have seen 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.440 dozens of people and cars coming and going. The police, however, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:07.800 did speak to Bobby. 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:13.120 The cops really pushed for him to sign safe evidence 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:18.280 against me, to say that this party did happen and 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.000 that he did witness a murder, And they really pushed 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:26.920 him to say that this is the truth and this 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:28.760 is what's gonna happen, or we're going to charge you 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:35.920 for the murder. Also, it also said that they would 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:40.320 let him off his charges that he was facing if 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.400 he would just tell the truth about the whole murders. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.000 But Bobby refused to lie. As the cops were pressuring 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:52.040 him to do Despite that, Hope was ultimately indicted on 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.119 August eighteenth, two thousand and nine. 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.880 When they first resided me, I wasn't really I wasn't 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.879 really worried about it. I just thought, Okay, this is 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.360 a mix up. It's very easy to prove the these 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.200 sep a lion, and I have people to back me 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.400 up where I was at, what I was doing. This 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.119 will be cleared up in no time. I'll go to 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.880 the accounting and get booked in and I will be released. 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:28.080 So Hope cooperated with the police. She had nothing to hide. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:31.600 They asked me for a sample my DNA I gave 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:36.200 back to them. They asked me for at a lot 0:19:36.200 --> 0:19:40.400 of sector test I gave back to him, which I passed. 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:45.920 Yet, investigators continued to focus on Hope as a prime suspect. 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.840 Instead of doing any other investigation on any other lease 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:53.080 that they may have had at the time or could 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.159 have done. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.840 Such as Julie's ex boyfriend at the time. Clues about 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.760 this came from Julie's which was found in the trunk 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.400 of her car. Inside it were numerous love letters from 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:08.520 a man named Billy Shepherd alluding to buying her a 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.200 wedding ring. And saying if he could not be with her, 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.800 then he did not want to live. Shepherd also called 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.600 Julie on the afternoon of her murder, but he was 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:26.400 never investigated. Police also had another suspect, Rodney Porter, who 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:28.320 drove a car that was seen at the mill the 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.080 day Julie was murdered. Even though she was married at 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:34.280 the time, Porter was rumored to also have been in 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.399 a relationship with Julie. 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:40.200 He was a suspect for some amount of time. We 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.600 know he's listed as a suspect in many of the 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:49.560 police documents, and then about six months of investigation occurs 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:51.840 and at some point the suspect. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:53.280 Changes to Hope. 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.280 Really, there's no explanation other than the story from Jason Miller. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.679 When you were at trial, did you think everything was 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:21.400 going to work out? 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:27.160 I absolutely did. I had faith in the justice system 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:32.080 that yes, the people didn't go to jail. So once 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.679 this happened to me, I realized now and by looking 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:39.560 at back at everything that's happened, of how much corruption 0:21:39.960 --> 0:21:42.360 is in a small town like the one I lived in. 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:55.280 Hope's trial started on April sixteenth, twenty ten. Prosecutor Matthew 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:58.280 Leverage laid out the state's case. He said that Hope 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.720 thought Bobby was cheating on her Julie, so she killed her. 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:05.760 To this allegation, Hope admits that she, Bobby, and Julie 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.800 sometimes participated in casual three zones, but it was all 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:11.400 mutually consensual. 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:15.480 I'm not sure how the police they even knew that 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:19.639 we had had these encounters in private, but they asked 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.480 me about them, and I was honest, and they kind 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:24.959 of took their own a little bit of the truth 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.000 and sun it into their own theory and of events 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.359 that I supposedly played out in the non in question. 0:22:32.840 --> 0:22:37.120 The prosecution called all four alleged witnesses once again. They 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:40.320 all gave different accounts, with very few details matching their 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.200 original statements or those of each other. The only person 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.480 whose story was consistent with what he told police was 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:48.200 Seth Frost. 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:51.560 He said, this didn't happen. He said, they've talked to 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.840 the police, they've threatened me. I'm terrified, but this never 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.680 happened and I'm not going to say it did. So 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:03.160 the jury, here's testimony from these witnesses talking about this party, 0:23:03.200 --> 0:23:05.600 with the understanding that we're going to find Julie's blood 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.520 in this house and its damning evidence against Hope. 0:23:09.280 --> 0:23:11.200 But at the end of the day, there. 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:13.480 Was no blood found on any of the items submitted 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:18.199 from Tammy's house. Nothing ties anyone to this murder, and 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:21.560 most certainly does not tie Hope or her home or 0:23:21.560 --> 0:23:23.960 her mother's home to Julian anyway. 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.400 There was also no blood found outside of Julie's car. 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:31.520 The inside of the car, though, was soaked in blood, 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.600 indicating that the murder happened inside the car, which totally 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.879 invalidated the story of the stabbing at Tammy White's house. 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.200 When it came to the physical evidence, the prosecution reiterated 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:47.600 that the case lacked forensic evidence. Except there actually was some. 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:52.280 It was either just untested or simply did not incriminate Hope. 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:54.720 Yet the jury never heard this. 0:23:55.880 --> 0:23:58.399 Much of the trial felt like smoke and mirrors. It 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.479 was alluding to what you're going to hear and then 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.440 you never hear it, alluding to there's you know, there's 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.240 evidence against her. But really the evidence were just these 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:13.760 eyewitness statements that truly weren't I don't believe believable eyewitness statements. 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:18.280 So Hope's public defenders, Jim Cox and Teresa Whittaker were 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.240 left to try and discredit these supposed eyewitnesses and their stories. 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:24.600 They called a witness who said he saw Hope and 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:26.960 Bobby at the lake that day, and that he drove 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:30.280 past Tammy's house later that night and didn't see any party. 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:34.720 Hope also testified at her trial, as did Bobby. He 0:24:34.760 --> 0:24:37.199 said Hope was with him all day and night and 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:40.920 they were not at a party. Did you ever have 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:42.359 parties at your mom's house? 0:24:43.160 --> 0:24:46.879 Absolutely not. My mother would not allow something like that 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:52.280 to go on. She knew that I did drugs and 0:24:52.280 --> 0:24:56.280 stuff sometimes that she was basically she would be in 0:24:56.400 --> 0:24:59.479 mind but all the time about what I should be 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:01.679 doing and what I should not be doing, and what 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:05.240 my kids should and should not be around, and she 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:07.520 would never allow something like that to go on in 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:08.000 her home. 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:12.560 They also called Hope's younger sister, Brittany to the stand. Brittany, 0:25:12.680 --> 0:25:15.480 who lived with their mother Tammy, had been home alone 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:16.520