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you can listen to new episodes of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubl case against Crosley green early and AD free
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with a 48 Hours Plus subscription join 48 hours plus on Apple podcast today can you ask him to come
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in he how you doing hey Crosley hey hey good to see you again it's great seeing you I told you I would be here soon this
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wasn't quite as soon as I hoped just soon enough here I'm talking to Crosley green
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Crosley is a 67-year-old africanamerican man he's fairly tall just under 6 ft with a lean build and delicate features
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these days Crosley is mostly bald with a receding hairline that speckled with more salt than Pepper did you get
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finally get a letter from me no see I kept I got one sent back I sent another at the time of this interview in June of
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2024 we had been meeting like this for 25 years we sound like old friends catching up except instead of meeting in
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coffee shops we meet in Florida state prisons why do I keep coming back because in my entire career as a
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journalist and and I've been doing this now for 40 years this is the case that troubles me most it's a bizarre and
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maddening tale that involves murder a timeline that doesn't quite add up a sister testifying against a brother
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death row and even the US Supreme Court and at the heart of the story Crosley green a man who has lived more than half
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his life behind bars for a crime he says he didn't commit yet even after all these years Crosley only asked for one
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thing don't listen to him look into his case yourself you know are you going to believe me me telling you or you going
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to go out there and try to find the truth out for yourself because I can tell you
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things whether not you believe it or not it's up to you but to me for anything to be truthful that I
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tell you you have to go out there and read it yourself get knowledge of it yourself I'm 48 Hours correspondent eron
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morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley Green episode 1 moonless
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Night Sheriff's case number 89- 33497 to tell crosley's story we have to rewind the tapes all the way back to
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1989 the date is April 4th 1989 time is approximately 8:20 a.m. back to a sheriff's office in Titusville
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Florida the county seat of Bard County along Central Florida's Space Coast uh Kim for record would you please State
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your full name and spell your last name please Kim suik h a l l o c k on the morning of April 4th
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1989 police were interviewing 19-year-old Kim hoc about a trauma that began unfolding the night before one
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that would forever change the lives of Kim her ex-boyfriend Charles chip Flynn and Crosley green you saw me swear the
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statement you're about to give is true and correct to the best of your knowledge to help you out yes okay at
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the time of this recording Kim had already been with investigators at the sheriff's office for 4 hours but this
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was the first time they were recording her sworn statement uh let's start by uh what was the first time that you saw
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the victim who is uh it was Charles Flynn we call you call him chip yes okay Kim HCK and Charles Flynn he went
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by the name chip both lived in the city of Titus dville Kim was white with dark eyes and haircut above her shoulders
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those who knew her described her as a fairly smart nice looking girl 22-year-old chip was also white with
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Shaggy Sandy brown hair and a smile always on his face they dated a little over a year and a half but had broken up
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about 2 months earlier Chipen moved on he had a new girlfriend and didn't talk about Kim anymore to his family or
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friends but he hadn't fully cut ties with Kim either when was the first time that you saw chip yesterday which would
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have been 43 of 89 about 10:00 at night he came over to my house Kim said that she and Chip watched a movie together
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Pretty in Pink it was around 11:00 p.m. when he asked her if she wanted to go for a ride in his pickup truck it was a
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82 ship relay Stepside 4x4 pickup truck what color dark blue chip had a manual transmission
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truck a a stick shift there was only one row of seed so Kim sat on the passenger
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side while chip drove to holder Park in the nearby town of Mims they parked the truck on the doomes by the baseball
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field under some trees after about 15 minutes a patrol Deputy drove by but he didn't see the couple another few
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minutes passed and Kim said she saw someone else walking towards them from the baseball fields it's after that a
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black guy walked up in front of the truck Kim told the police that she and Chip were instantly unsettled by this
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unknown man who she called quote unquote the black guy you'll hear Kim say this over and over again when speaking with
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police I was looking up and then I looked down and I saw the black guy come up and I told Chip there's a black guy
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on on your side and he rolled up the window real quick Kim said she was unnerved by the encounter and told Chip
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she wanted to leave the park but chip said it was all right because the man had left Kim said that about 20 minutes
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later chip got out of the truck to go to the bathroom and that's when she heard him say wait a minute hold on wait a
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minute man and I just looked and I saw a black guy according to Kim's timeline the time would be between 11:30 and
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midnight Kim said that she remembered that chip had a pistol in the glove box so she pulled it out and hid it under a
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pair of jeans on the seat beside her and that's when the man she said told Chip to get on the
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ground did you see that uh the black male was armed at that time yes I did as he was in front of the door okay she
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said he asked how much money they had and started calling calling them names even calling him crack crackhead CRA
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cracker head and me [ __ ] chips just said just let her go you have me there is salent said he would
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let them go but first Kim said he threw one of Chip's sneakers at her and then told her to take the shoelace out she
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said that while the asala was tying up Chip's arms with that shoelace his gum was went
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off nobody was hurt and Kim told police that she didn't think the gunshot was intentional but on the moonless night it
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would have been terrifying Kim said that at this point chip was on his knees no shoes on his
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arms tied behind his back with a shoelace the as salent pulled Chip's wallet out of his pants
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pocket and he opened up the wallet and then he threw me and told me to take out the money M and count it and
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approximately how much money was in the wallet $185 okay the as salent allowed her to
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get out of the truck himim said and then come around to where he and Chip were standing before instructing her to start
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the truck what is he doing with the gun while he is instructing giving you the instructions he's got Chip he's holding
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the gun on chip yeah then according to Kim all all three of them got back in the pickup truck on
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that one row of seats chip is now in the passenger side with his hands tied Kim in the middle and they're now kidnappers
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steering and shifting gears They begged him to let them go with chip once again offering himself up to save Kim Take Me
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Do What if you want just let her go and he said he was going to but he I knew he
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wasn't this might have been the best chance Kim how it got to really look at the as salant although it was still
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pitch black and according to Kim the truck's interior light might not have been working the police officer
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questioning Kim was eager to try to pin down a physical description of the as salant from his height how tall was he
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between 58 and about 6 foot mhm and his weight about 108 lb mhm kind of a big Bill to his
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clothing had a big heavy jacket on a dark heavy jacket remember possibly green a real dull
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green blue jeans and big heavy boots like working boots to his hairstyle just afro and there nothing fancy nothing
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weird was said thick long short just thick kind of long not long a little bit little bit of an ass
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uhhuh but Kim was unable to provide a detailed description anything else unusual about
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the face not really not I really didn't get a real good look at him I was really scared in her ter
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Kim said she did not get a good look at the as salant another police officer prester about the man's Footwear again
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later in the interview describing his Footwear are you certain of what type of Footwear he was wearing yes or
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no not real Ser so the answer is no right okay could he have been wearing tennis
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shoes that's possible isn't it yeah but it seemed like tennis shoes weren't heavy enough for what he was okay your
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recollection in describing his Footwear is not based on something you visually saw and remember it's a sound you heard
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Kim told B that the man made her and Chip duck down as they drove out of holder Park and when chip lifted his
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head Kim said the asent yelled at him to put it down or he'd blow his head off okay what was he doing with the gun
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at time he had it at me where where was he pointing it at my side mhm was he holding it there while he was shifting
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too how was he how was he doing that he had he had his hand sh PR sure if you couldn't quite hear Kim said
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that their kidnapper was holding the gun pointing it at her while shifting gears
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and driving at this point chip found his own gun the one that Kim said she hid under a pair of jeans on the seat chip
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motioned to Kim to scoot up so he could get a clear shot at their as salent but Kim said she couldn't move without the
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driver noticing 10 minutes later the as salent stopped the truck at a familiar Landmark
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the orange factory nevan's orange factory that's it mhm Kim and Chip were in an Orange Grove
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in the city of Titusville Florida they ass salent she said shut the car off it was completely dark then he yanked him
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out of the driver's seat by her arm Kim said she pulled free and then ran around
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to the passenger side of the truck opening Chip's door and just as she put one foot inside the as salant yanked her
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out again and she fell to the ground by the back rear tire the as salent got one
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arm around her and held his gun on her my hand it was on my face okay Kim said that when she started to cry the as
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salent shouted that he was going to quote blow her brain out if she didn't shut up and that's when according to Kim
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chip leaned out of the passenger seat his pistol still clutched in his shoelace bound
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hands his hands were behind his back he leaned out of the truck and somehow shot
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at the guy and the guy steep back chipped him out of the truck I jumped in the truck shut the passenger door
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then I reached over and locked it and I heard about five or six gunshots so if you're following Kim said that chip shot
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at the As salant and then jumped out of the passenger side of the pickup truck all with his hands still tied behind his
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back the police officer asked him exactly how chip got out of the truck no like face first on the ground onto
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stomach mhm so I could get in and leave and then ask him about those other gunshots okay the other shots occurred
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after you got into the truck after I got in the truck do you recall how many shots chip
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fired I he might have shot two I'm not sure the second one went from Chip I'm not real sure but then like four or five
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came from the black guy Kim said chip yelled at her to go and in her haste to leave the Orange Grove Kim said she
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might have accidentally run over Chip's leg Kim drove for about 4 miles going past the gas station and even a local
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hospital stopping at a trailer park where Chip's best friend David Stroop lived it was just about a minute away
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from her family home David was asleep and didn't hear Kim when she banged on his trailer door so I went back to the
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where his bedroom is and I beat on the door and I told him I think chip got shot
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David strou and Chip Flynn had been best friends for close to 5 years meeting at
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a party after Chip's family moved down from Illinois to Florida they enjoyed doing the same kinds of things and spent
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many afternoons camping four-wheeling fishing David liked that chip was easygoing
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without an enemy in the world he called him country a good old boy David had been with chip just hours earlier
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watching a basketball game in David's trailer around 10:30 p.m. David had started nodding off on the couch hey man
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I'm going to go to bed he told Chip Chip left and David just assumed he was going
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home it was a work night after all when Kim banged on David's trailer it was around 1:00 a.m. in the morning David
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got out of bed to let her inside she was hysterical and told him chip had been shot up to an hour had passed since Kim
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had left the Orange Grove Kim doesn't explain in her police interview why the drive took so long David tried to get
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Kim to tell him exactly what happened but after a minute of not getting anywhere he told her hey we got a call
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911 the initial call was very ambiguous two men fighting in the road at an intersection in Mims at 1:13 a.m.
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bravard County deputy sheriff Mark rxy got the dispatch call he was out on road Patrol in fact he was the police officer
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who drove through holder Park a few hours earlier that night with when he arrived at the location given to him by
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Dispatch he didn't see a disturbance called the dispatch back and said Bard there's nobody here can we get
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you know more information dispatch relays a new location then they say well it's down
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holder road so I drive down up and down holder Road and there's nothing there something
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didn't seem right normally when somebody witnesses an incident it would not be such a drastic change of location
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if I told you that an incident had occurred at the Hilton in Coco Beach it wouldn't turn out later that it
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actually happened 2 or three miles down the road rexie even began to suspect that
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the call was fake this is a prank because nobody could get it that wrong Sergeant Diane Clark was driving
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in a separate patrol car and monitoring all the dispatch calls coming into Deputy rxy by this time dispatch was
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telling him shots have been fired out in the Orange Grove while the Orange Groves
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go from the north side of Titusville all the way to the county line and Beyond so
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that didn't give us a lot of information and the the Orange Groves are there little dirt rows we would have
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been tracking all night long trying to find him time was quickly passing so Clark met up with rexie and sent another
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deputy to pick up Kim hoc they all headed to the Orange Grove so Kim could show them the exact location of the
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disturbance but Kim refused to get out of the police car she says he's down this road a dirt road but she's afraid
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to go down there well will go down there Mark and I F follow this dirt road or path it was so dark they couldn't see
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their own hands in front of their faces so the officers had to use flashlights you know the kind of a night you get
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where the stars are you think you can reach up and touch them they're so vibrant when there's no moon they're
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even more vibrant but it's like pitch black out there it was a very in the middle of the woods in the
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middle of the night it was very dark both officers walk cautiously down the dark path flashlights Illuminating their
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way and while I'm walking I am noticing Tire prints in the dirt perfectly detailed Tire prints so you
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can actually see the tread and at the end of the path was a figure lying face down in the dirt it was Chip
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Flynn almost like a fetal position his hands tied behind his back with a Sho string kind of crossed over behind him
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um he had a a bullet wound was blood on the right side of his chest um he didn't have any shoes on
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Clark call for an ambulance while rexie moved quickly to free chip from the bindings on his hands he seemed very
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cognant very um very alert not suffering from uh the effects of a gunshot there was a
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gun on the ground just one a 22 caliber pistol and Chip was moaning alive and conscious we started asking him who did
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this to you and all he said was get me out of here well could you at least tell us
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which way he went because as far as we were concerned there was an arm as salent loose in The Orchards where we
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were and it was a safety issue a big safety issue not only catching the suspect but a safety issue for us
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because we're exposed get me out of here is all he would say chip wouldn't answer any of
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their questions about his as salent I've never even heard of that happening before normally someone will say he went
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that way it's this kind of guy but it quickly became clear that the more urgent priority was saving Chip's life
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obviously he's injured he needs an am an ambulance it was a pool of blood under him Kim had called both her parents and
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Chip's parents after calling 911 and now they were all waiting together about half a mile away from where chip lay in
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the Orange Grove the police wouldn't let them any closer worried that an armed as
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salant could still be lurking nearby down the dirt path Chip's condition took a turn for the worst you know all of a
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sudden his breathing got shallow all of a sudden you know he he deteriorated really quickly chip stopped breathing
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but he still had a pulse so Clark performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and I'm waiting for the
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ambulance and it seems like forever when the am you know it just seems like when
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you're it's life and death you feel like oh my God are they ever going to get here and they could hear them in the
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distance the ambulance was close by waiting by the main road with Kim her parents Chip's parents and more police
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that had arrived for backup but the police wouldn't let paramedics any closer still concerned that a man with a
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gun could be waiting to attack back in the Grove Clark was able to resuscitate chip but then he stopped reading the
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second time I did mou to mouth again brought him back chip had a sucking chest wound and when Clark saw it she
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knew Chip's condition was far more critical than it first appeared you know every minute that ticks away with that
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kind of a wound is closer to death it needed a cellophane dressing but she didn't have one only thing I had was a
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handkerchief so I took that out covered it to keep the try to keep the air out and try to stop the bleeding chip
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stopped breathing a third time when the ambulance finally arrived rescue Personnel sped him off to the hospital
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but chip didn't make it that far uh Communications notified me around 220 or so that he had expired that he
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had died uh we did everything we could to try to save him and you know it's like
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that's my job and it was very hard to to not have been able to do more for him officer rxy questioned why it took
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so long to nail down Chip's location in the first place if we had been able to locate him the very first
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time the time lapse between the time we found him and the time we got the call would have been about 5 to 10 minutes
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instead of 45 while Kim was transported to the Sheriff's Office for questioning officers Clark and rexie remained behind
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to protect the scene until the crime scene unit arrived before Daybreak as they left the scene rexie noticed
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something that had caught his eye the night before on the way out of the Orange Grove I followed the same path
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that the truck left the orchard in and again I noticed that the tire prints were perfectly detailed
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uh if you leave a Sandy area or a dirt area in a hurry you're going to have some Tire spin there's not going to be
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perfectly detailed tire tracks and these were perfectly detailed like there was no big rush to to
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[Music] leave by this point you're probably wondering what any of this has to do
00:25:51
with Crosley green or maybe you've already guessed I was in h Park that night we all go to holder Park I live
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there I live right right behind the baseball field there yes that holder Park the one where Kim said quote a
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black man robbed and then kidnapped her in chip before taking them to the Orange
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Grove Crosley green is a self-described sports fanatic he was a star Athlete on the high school football team back in
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the day and on the afternoon and early evening of April 3rd 1989 31-year-old Crosley green was in holder
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Park watching a little league baseball game and after the baseball game he says he left the park hoping to catch a
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college basketball game on TV possibly the same game that chip and David were watching in the trailer it was the NCAA
00:26:48
tournament championship game it was doing a playoff time I wanted to get back and watch the games Crosley says
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that he left holder Park just as it was getting done dark sometime between 99: and 10: p.m. and walked to the house of
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his cousin carlen Brothers which is uh approximately I would say mileage wise 3 or 4 miles Crosley
00:27:13
walked those miles in his white rebok tennis shoes I walked I walk but it I didn't go down
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the roads okay you can go through the Orange Grove you know or cut instead of go all around the corner he cut across
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the corners cutting through the Orange Grove yes that Orange Grove he got to caren's house a little after 1000 p.m.
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he watched TV with her uh Hall was on I stayed there watch Hall at the time this
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show was running at the time at night arcenio Halls show ran from 11:00 p.m. to midnight after watching the show for
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a while Crosley says he went out to the road in front of caren's house he was selling drugs marijuana and cocaine at
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the time even though he had just gotten out of prison on a drug charge the time that Crosley was out on the road selling
00:28:15
drugs differs depending on who you talk to caren's ex-boyfriend James K says Crosley was back inside the house at
00:28:24
12:40 a.m. James says he remembers because Crosley interrupted an argument that he was having with carlen there
00:28:33
dispute about what she was doing and stuff like this there another guy so they got a little argument little push
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around James had let the air out of a tire on Carlene's car so she couldn't leave Crosley helped deescalate the
00:28:47
argument he wasn't the type of guy to normally get involved in other people's business but he says that when he saw
00:28:54
something wrong he'd intervene he told carlen and James you ought to work things out James said the three of them
00:29:03
then sat down and talked before Crosley walked to the house of another friend in
00:29:08
the neighborhood never went back to Holy Park the only other place I went to from
00:29:13
from Caren house was over to Lori rain house Lori Reigns had once been crosley's girlfriend and while they
00:29:20
weren't dating at the time he had known her for over 10 years and she was still a good friend I mean to me he's a very
00:29:28
very nice man I mean you know when me and him first got together my daughter was young and he really treated her very
00:29:35
nice I mean he treated me very nice I never had any problems with him you know I really honestly didn't he was a very
00:29:41
gentleman to me but here's where the stories about crosley's whereabouts differ Lori said that Crosley arrived at
00:29:49
her apartment in Mims on the night of April 3r around 11:00 p.m. the last time he came to my house was like 11 11:15
00:29:58
both Lori and Crosley say that he stayed at Lor's house for the rest of the night
00:30:04
we we basically didn't go to SLE till like about 1 1:30 something like that when we fell asleep Crosley green says
00:30:09
that he left Lor's house the next morning around 7 a.m. and then walked back past his cousin caren's house
00:30:18
carlen was outside dealing with that flat tire that James had given her the night before carlen called out to
00:30:25
Crosley by his nickname Papa let's hear from her he was walking over towards my way so I say papa I said come
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change my tie said this boy flat my tie Crosley then changed her tire for her according to carlen Crosley was in his
00:30:41
usual good spirits a nice friendly move that move he always been very nice and friendly this was about 700 a.m. on
00:30:54
April 4th just a few miles away at a local County sheriff's office in Titusville Kim hoc was meeting with
00:31:01
police telling them about the black man that she said attacked her in chip Flynn
00:31:08
officer Mark rxy was filing his case report and Chip Flynn's parents were grieving the death of their youngest
00:31:23
son this is Agent demeris forvard County Sheriff's Office criminalistic unit we're at holder
00:31:30
park on the morning of April 4th 1989 hours after chipain's murder agent Debbie Demars arrived on scene at holder
00:31:41
Park shortly before Dawn it's the place where chip and his ex-girlfriend Kim HCK
00:31:47
sat and talked in his truck and where Kim says a black man approached the vehicle deamar recorded her observations
00:31:58
crime scene begins with what we believe to be suspect shoeprints that initiate at this
00:32:06
point holder Park is a popular well trampled site for local baseball games agent to Mars and the crime unit team
00:32:14
were there specifically looking at the tire tracks of Chin's truck along with shoeprints that they thought could
00:32:22
belong to the perpetrator agent dears assumed that the alleged attacker arrived at the park in
00:32:30
a vehicle and she tracks shoeprints heading in a West Direction up into the area between the trees which is where
00:32:38
the victim's vehicle was parked along with the two victims prior to the abduction but oddly dears also saw those
00:32:49
same suspect shoe prints exiting the area towards a baseball field not disappearing as they would if if the
00:32:58
wearer had gotten into a truck the shoe prints after proceeding West will then continue on around just to the outside
00:33:06
of this fence with the last shoe print being seen just north of the second cement
00:33:16
pole as agent dears continued her investigation local news crews descended on the scene about 200 yd down this road
00:33:26
is apparently where the murder occurred Sheriff's officials tell us all three got out of the truck and then both men
00:33:32
fired shots the next day April 5th the newspaper featured a photo of dear's helping another agent pull up a plaster
00:33:41
cast of a shoe print and just below that a police sketch of a black man the image
00:33:48
reflected the details that Kim H had given officers about the alleged as salent and now police were asking for
00:33:56
help as they search for a black male it didn't take long for people to start pointing fingers at Crosley green I
00:34:06
wanted a person who done it I wanted Justice done at all cost but what exactly was Justice 35
00:34:17
years ago in the small Florida communities of Titusville and Mims it's an area where racial lines have been
00:34:25
clearly drawn for Generations and where animus and fear still lived right below the
00:34:32
surface I'm 48 Hours correspondent eron morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley
00:34:42
Green episode two rumors okay first thing I just want you to introduce yourself tell me your name
00:34:55
and how long you've lived in Titusville in Bard County uh my name is Timothy Lee Curtis
00:35:02
I've lived in Titusville basically my entire life and I'd like to say that's 26 years but it's a little longer I live in
00:35:12
Titusville 63 and a half years I've been interviewing Tim Curtis off and on for 25 years most recently in late spring of
00:35:23
2024 his family ran a local Body Shop entit Ville Florida for decades it's where Deputy sheriffs would bring in
00:35:32
their cars for service so Tim was privy to a lot of Gossip around town he's a friendly guy to have a beer with but
00:35:41
I've learned over the years there's more to him then he lets on how big a story was this how big a
00:35:49
case in town I was I mean it was there was a we were a small town back then I mean and
00:35:56
we have a a young guy that was allegedly murdered by a black guy so that was very
00:36:02
very heated in the community the town of Titusville sits smack dab in the middle
00:36:08
of Florida's East Coast it's part of the state that's also known as the Space Coast since it's home to Kennedy Space
00:36:16
Center Titusville is relatively small compared to nearby Orlando Mims an incorporated area of
00:36:25
bravard county is even smaller there's no High School in Mims the entire area is assigned to Astronaut High School in
00:36:34
Titusville and that means people know each other people like Tim Curtis did you know Kim helik at all
00:36:42
back then yes I I knew the hoc family very well and Tim became close friends with chip Flynn after selling him a
00:36:50
truck the same truck that chip was driving the night he was killed I think chip was just a young ambitious boy boy
00:36:57
like most of us were that had a whole life ahead of him um that you know was very excited when I sold him the truck
00:37:06
that he had this beautiful nice truck to drive around for a young guy that's you
00:37:11
know that's back back then it was cars trucks and girls Tim had also known Crosley green and his brother o' Conor
00:37:20
since they were teenagers and you were good friends with OK Conor weren't you yeah we I admired OK Conor we admired
00:37:27
okor because he was such a a phenomenal football player and I've known Crosley many many years I mean he liked to run
00:37:35
smack from his mouth you know he he was a type of guy that would probably steal your lawnmower if you were setting on it
00:37:43
and you not know it was stolen that in particular day of the of the crime um I ran into Crossley cuz I used
00:37:53
to jog and I ran by his house and me and him exchanged some words no heated words
00:37:58
we would just his dog had run out after me and I had said some things don't let your dog bite me it ain't going to end
00:38:04
well kind of thing but and what did Crosley say back um he may have said something like you know and if I
00:38:12
remember correctly he used the word cracker cracker don't don't you hurt my dog cracker now or so you know that then
00:38:17
then I'll use some words back at him as to you know you better get your dog Crosley Tim had told me something
00:38:23
similar when I first spoke with him in 1999 um they said that the guy who done this
00:38:32
was using the word cracker a lot and I think that there alone to be honest with you stuck with me it stuck with Tim and
00:38:42
would further convince him that Crosley was a prime suspect in Chip's murder when police released a composite sketch
00:38:49
of the alleged as salent Tim posted it on the wall of his shop and some of the rumor had already been that that you
00:38:57
know they're looking for Crosley that crosley's one of the suspects oh Conor green saw the sketch posted in Tim's
00:39:05
shop I remember having some words about it and I said you know that looks like Crosley like just to see his response
00:39:11
and he was very you know outspoken going you know BS Timmy you know damn good and
00:39:18
well that don't look like my brother and I was trying to maybe like prime a little bit you know cuz In fairness I
00:39:25
like chip I'm the one that sold chip to truck you know I was very you know very concerned and I was definitely wanting
00:39:31
whoever did this to be brought to Justice you know so I was to be honest with you I was out to help any way I
00:39:39
could and so Tim Curtis decided to go to the police with a tip one that involved
00:39:45
a story that he had heard about Crosley green a story that had been pass along from this man no my name is Kerwin heer
00:39:55
Kerwin heern new ch Flynn Tim Curtis and Crosley green who was known around town
00:40:03
as Papa I spoke to Kerwin in 1999 we sat on a weathered picnic table in the front yard of the house where he
00:40:12
lived with his parents it was an early evening rumor control had it that he did it rumor control rumor control what does
00:40:22
that mean uh just gossip in the street I guess she would call it the morning after the murder April 4th keran was at
00:40:32
work cutting grass near the Orange Grove the area was roped off and full of police activity Kerwin said that later
00:40:41
that day two of Chip's relatives asked if he had any information about who killed chip and uh we got to talk and so
00:40:50
he said hey kin do you did you hear anything and of course I just you know and I told him rumor has it that such
00:40:59
and such took place you know and naming uh Papa green so you told him there was a rumor rumor that Papa green had done
00:41:09
it rumor rumor and I want to emphasize rumor I mean it wasn't it wasn't nothing that I knew for a fact or I don't think
00:41:18
anybody else knew as for a fact it was just rumor control and I guess the rumor started
00:41:24
because basically the police Poli was looking for him to question him concerning the
00:41:33
murder and I I'm assuming that's how the the rumor got started that evening two investigators showed up at kerwin's
00:41:43
doorstep and said hey you know kin we need to talk to you and I was like for what uh concerning Papa green do you
00:41:50
know him yeah I know um well we need you to we we want to talk to you concerning
00:41:56
him about about this uh murder you heard about I don't know nothing about it but
00:42:01
they insisted that I go with them to talk to them and discuss this concerning Papa in this murder case wait a minute
00:42:09
so you told these investigators clearly you knew nothing about nothing about and
00:42:13
they still asked you to come in to where Sheriff's Department exactly Kerwin had
00:42:18
been on probation at the time of Chip's murder and had not been following the probation requirements so when the
00:42:25
interview began did you feel pressured to give them something did you feel you had to well let me ask you a
00:42:32
question considering the fact that I was on probation I wasn't following the probation to the letter
00:42:42
t uh I mean you make the call you felt pressure yeah I mean yeah I read some of kerwin's statements
00:42:54
to the police back to him specific Al where he recounted something that he had heard from o Conor green look here um in
00:43:04
your statement and this is a tape statement right it says let's see um I Heard OK Conor talking about it you
00:43:13
know only thing I really heard was the fact that you know his brother was a dumb F for doing it this and that more
00:43:21
or less that kind of thing I was this you talking no you n and and and here you go what I'm
00:43:32
saying is I think they kind of take what I'm trying to say out of context and trying to say that I said that Okana
00:43:40
said that his brother make kill that person but what I'm saying is Papa wasn't willing to turn himself
00:43:46
in you understand what I'm saying he he wasn't willing to turn himself in and and his brother would saying hey you
00:43:51
being a dumb F for not doing it because you need to do it and just just go on and face up to it but why if this if
00:43:59
Papa green didn't commit this murder why was the big concern about him turning himself in well you think about it now I
00:44:07
mean it's and I'm going to make a hard statement here and and I don't want to offend nobody here cuz I'm the only one
00:44:12
here of color it's you know mean it's hard as a black person okay you being accused of committing a murder killing a
00:44:24
white person okay your best bet is just go and turn yourself in because I mean I mean reality is if you
00:44:34
you sit there and running around on the street you you subject get shot by a carop
00:44:40
period I mean that's pretty ugly and hard to say but that's reality that's that's America I showed Kerwin a copy of
00:44:50
the police composite sketch that was made from Kim H's description of the alleged as salent the morning after the
00:44:57
shooting on April 4th 1989 does this look like crossed green no it don't at all no it don't why not
00:45:06
what's why doesn't this look like crossle green first of all he got too much hair all right the nose too big
00:45:11
lips too big his Chin's not made up like his face is too fat that's not pop not at
00:45:19
all and I know darn well I could have been zooed out of my mind I would have never said that was pop because they
00:45:25
don't look nothing like him but regardless of Kerwin he's denials here it's safe to say that he had been
00:45:35
part of the rumor bill that Crosley green was involved in killing chip Flynn that rumor would jump to Chip's
00:45:42
relatives who would then pass that information on to Tim Curtis but instead of it being called just a rumor the
00:45:51
rumor became fact Crosley green had killed chip Flynn Tim who had called the police on April 5th with that
00:46:00
information just added fuel to the fire on the evening of April 5th Kim H returned to the Sheriff's Office with
00:46:10
her father to view a photo lineup of six black men when asked to identify the man
00:46:17
she claimed robbed and kidnapped her and then killed chip she pointed to a photo
00:46:24
that was darker than any of the others it was Crosley green Crosley green and his family had
00:46:36
been in the local news on and off for years since he was a young child it was Christmas
00:46:43
1966 when a fire destroyed his family's home in Mims a kerosene heater had exploded luckily everyone was able to
00:46:53
escape an Orlando newspaper reported that the family lost all of their possessions and the community rallied to
00:47:00
help the family the green siblings were always close 11 of them in total Crosley
00:47:08
was the third oldest I sat down with three of them in 20120 my name is Shirley White and
00:47:16
Crosby green is my brother and just out of curiosity where are you in the family
00:47:22
I am the oldest my name is ok caror green and I'm Crosley little brother my name is deer green and I'm
00:47:32
Crosley sister I'm the third oldest sister and where from Crosley you don't have to worry five I'm
00:47:47
the fifth D how would you describe your brother Papa was kind playful with me he was smart shirely told me the origin
00:48:03
of crosley's nickname Papa it just was a name that we just picked out when he was
00:48:10
a little boy and everybody felt in love with it and very few people called him Crosby
00:48:15
cuz everybody know him as Papa and oh Conor but there was a reason I mean he that he was called Papa wasn't
00:48:23
it I mean it fit him yeah he would though he was the favorite boy in the family when it came to dad and son
00:48:34
relationship you know you know dad always called him Papa too their father Booker T green was a truck driver for a
00:48:43
MIM Citrus firm and growing up in Mims you know my dad was the only one worked my mom most
00:48:53
stayed home and helped us in school and everything kept kept the food cooked kept everything cleaned up around the
00:49:02
house and everything and while Booker was working Crosley took on a fatherly role in the
00:49:09
family even towards his older sister Shirley and he would talk to me like a father because my father he was so busy
00:49:19
working even though we know he he loved at us but he didn't have the time to just show us and talk to us proba was
00:49:27
like he was that father and when he say something you would just look at him and and you took
00:49:34
heat to what he said he said don't do it you don't do it he put a he played a big part in my
00:49:42
life even though I was the oldest he played a very very special part in my heart Crosley played football in high
00:49:50
school but according to Crosley he dropped out to spend more time working with his father he really looked out for
00:49:59
the family and he looked out for the people were not even not people that he didn't even know you know he spent a lot
00:50:08
of time helping people do things if you needed any kind of help and he was around you know he always gave him gave
00:50:16
you a hand but there was also an intensely Dark Side to their family life the green children grew up poor and they
00:50:24
were victims of domestic VI Ence all of which culminated in their parents' horrific murder suicide in
00:50:33
1977 shortly after their parents separated Booker T green shot their mother constant twice before shooting
00:50:42
himself Crosley was 19 at the time ' Conor was 17 and this is when Crosley truly became
00:50:51
Papa of the family besides his two older sisters Shirley and Tina most of the green siblings were miners Crosley also
00:51:01
had a son schuma who was 2 years old it was really really hard and my brother just like stood
00:51:11
up as the Big Brother of the of our family you know and I'm the little brother and I go to
00:51:23
him a lot to help me do a lot of things that I didn't know how to do my dad taught him he taught
00:51:33
me his siblings said that Crosley had actually already taken on a more protective role in the family before
00:51:40
their parents' deaths due to the abuse they had suffered at home as children but that turbulent home
00:51:47
environment took a toll on Crosley and his siblings there were Runnings with police yeah how would you describe the
00:51:55
Green family reputation not very good that's Kerwin heern again it wasn't a good family last name to
00:52:04
have at that time the family was you know pretty deep in uh the drug scene and stuff like that no I I feel
00:52:15
that the cops wanted all of them off the street this place has always been pretty
00:52:23
well a drug infested area area since like the weed the mid 70s and 80s and then this crack stuff took off
00:52:33
right you didn't see police out here until you saw till you start seeing white females and white Mal start coming
00:52:44
through that place up there on that corner then all of a sudden now we got a problem and when you say whites coming
00:52:51
here to buy drugs well yeah yeah yeah but before that there was no problem see it was no problem long as you know
00:52:59
black selling the black ain't no problem but once the Caucasians start coming in
00:53:05
now we got a problem several weeks before chip fim was killed Crosley had been released
00:53:12
from prison after serving time on a drug charge and that wasn't the first time he
00:53:17
had been in trouble his legal problems had started many years earlier when he was a teen Crosley had previously been
00:53:25
charged with robbery when he was 17 he also pleaded guilty to another robbery in Upstate New York but because he was
00:53:34
18 he was categorized as a youthful offender and his conviction was vacated it would not count towards his
00:53:43
record over the years his brother OK Conor had also done time in prison relating to theft and burglary while
00:53:51
authorities would deny it ' Conor thought that after Chip's murder crosy and his family became targets they tried
00:54:00
to get me to come down to the Titusville no the sheriff department so I went I went down there and I can't think
00:54:13
of the officer who was asking me all these questions and stuff where you were just just just date um did you
00:54:23
see Crosley that date you know they just wanted to know my whereabout where I was told to hold hold
00:54:36
towards that night they want to know where I was and they finally backed up off me
00:54:43
well cuz you had an alibi didn't you yeah they backed up off me and left me alone oh Conor's Alibi was airtight he
00:54:51
was at a bar with over 60 people at the time of the murder when do you think that if you didn't have an alibi it
00:54:58
could be you sitting in prison yeah I think there was a desire to just take you off the
00:55:06
streets the the way it looked like it yes that's what it really looked like seemed like to me you know they didn't
00:55:14
care who it was as long as they got somebody that's all they were looking for [Music]
00:55:32
when did you find out you were a suspect when did I find out I was suspect M um maybe a day or two days after that was
00:55:42
the main suspect and what was your reaction what was my reaction to that was that here I go
00:55:49
again here I go again as you've already heard Crosley was no stranger to run in with the law and yet he had never been
00:55:59
convicted of a violent crime but why would people in your neighborhood I mean you grew up in Ms think you could do
00:56:06
something like this for number one it ain't what they think is what they have been told from
00:56:15
what one person been told then he takes it to another person and another person takes it to another person and in that
00:56:23
change everything get turned to around one day into the investigation things were not looking good for Crosley
00:56:33
green Crosley had been in holder Park he had gone to a baseball game earlier on the night of the killing a former
00:56:42
classmate of crosley's told police that he had been at the same game and said Crosley had been wearing a plain green
00:56:49
army jacket which matched Kim's initial description to police of what her alleged as salent had
00:56:57
worn hours after the shooting a canine unit sniffed shoe prints in holder Park and reported that the dog attracted
00:57:05
Ascent to a nearby intersection right next to a house that belonged to one of crosley's sisters
00:57:12
Tina Tim Curtis told police that he had seen Crosley at Tina's house when he was
00:57:18
jogging that afternoon Tim also told investigators that he thought the police sketch did in fact looked like Crosley
00:57:27
green after Kim H pointed to Crosley in a photo lineup police secured a warrant for his
00:57:35
arrest crosley's name and photo were released in news reports on April 7th 1989 as the suspect in chip Flynn's
00:57:46
murder the same day as Chip's funeral but before police could arrest Crosley he left the state kicking off a awide
00:57:57
search but did you know the police were looking for you of course of course what
00:58:02
I supposed to do turn yourself in oh no oh no oh no I don't get along with them people
00:58:11
down there my family don't get along with the law enforcements down there we have had
00:58:19
run-ins leaving the area certainly made Crosley green look guilty 2 months later
00:58:25
an Anon caller tipped off police that Crosley had returned to Bard County and Crosley was arrested on june8 a little
00:58:35
over two months after Chip's death 1989 this reporting is taking place in the uh Sheriff's uh homicide Squad
00:58:46
offices in Parkway Florida qualify just for the record would you state your full name and spell
00:58:51
your last name please green D okay this is crosley's original police interview it's an archival recording
00:59:03
from 1989 Crosley is sometimes difficult to understand and there are background noises later that sound like
00:59:13
tapping youve been a hard fell to find how about yeah they read Crosley his Miranda writes all right Mr Green this
00:59:23
reads as follows I crley Al Ander green have been advised and have had explained
00:59:28
to me my constitutional rights as follows okay and they are number one I have the right to remain silent do you
00:59:35
understand that and the charges um you're accused of um Robin two white kids a boy and a girl
00:59:46
up behind your sister Tina's house at holder Park as you know and um uh tying this young man up and driving his truck
00:59:54
on up to the Grove in Mim and uh taking a girl out of the truck and as you know she sort of struggled a little bit and
01:00:01
um tried to run away from you ran around the tailgate of the uh the truck in fact
01:00:08
um and then he got out shooting and you know what we don't understand all along he had the gun even though his hands
01:00:14
were tied uh he couldn't shoot at you because she was sitting between the two of you as you know and uh when the
01:00:22
shooting start she got in the truck and put the hall ass on it and of course he shows up dead and um you're accused of
01:00:30
doing that listening to the recording I'm struck by how often the officer describes the crime and then adds as you
01:00:38
know speaking as if he was sure Crosley was guilty but as far as Crosley was concerned this had nothing to do with
01:00:48
him I mean you know let's get something straight you know all right who yall looking for I don't know
01:00:55
MH I didn't do it and I'm say I a do nothing it's hard to hear clearly but Crosley was insisting I didn't do it I'm
01:01:06
saying I didn't do nothing but at this point things were not looking good for Crosley everything
01:01:14
seemed to be aligning against him perhaps a little too perfectly but upon closer examination of
01:01:22
the evidence a different picture was emerging the question was whether this New Perspective would come to light at
01:01:33
trial on the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green I I believed
01:01:43
Crosley green I said there's no jury in the world that's going to convict him based
01:01:48
on these facts he wasn't a nervous person he just kind of sat there and and he looked down and
01:02:02
he looked over and he would look at the ones that were up on the stand and then he would look down Alma Jean Bloss was
01:02:10
inside the courtroom on a Hot August morning in 1990 when Crosley green went on trial for the murder of Chip Fenn she
01:02:18
was one of the 12 jurors who would decide his fate she spent a lot of time watching him to me didn't appear nervous
01:02:27
and that was another thing that made me think maybe he thought he was getting off because they couldn't never be able
01:02:33
to prove that he actually did it now if he would have done it to me he would have been a nervous wreck knowing he was
01:02:39
going to be convicted I don't know it was touchy situation Alma Jean Bloss was right Crosley green wasn't worried he
01:02:52
later told me but not for the reasons Alma Jee loss imagined why should I feel nervous about something that I know
01:03:01
nothing about yeah you're on trial for it people are saying You Killed Someone I mean you're not going to be nervous
01:03:09
about that in a trial listen if I did something I'll be petrified if I did something like that
01:03:16
okay but if I ain't did nothing why should I be nervous why you you give me one reason to tell me why should I be
01:03:23
nervous for for a crime I didn't commit I I believed Crosley green Rob Parker defended Crosley Green in court I said
01:03:34
there's no jury in the world that's going to convict him based on these facts and Parker needed to be right
01:03:41
because what was at stake at this trial Crosley Green's life I'm 48 Hours correspondent eron
01:03:49
morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green
01:03:56
episode 3 The Trial well uh my name is Chris White I was an assistant State Attorney here in
01:04:09
the 18th judicial circuit here in Bard County Florida and I handled almost exclusively murder cases in 1990 Chris
01:04:19
White was one of two prosecutors who tried Crosley green for the murder of Chip Flynn the other was assistant State
01:04:26
Attorney Phil Williams white later told me that he had specifically asked his boss to be part of the team the reason I
01:04:35
did was because it occurred at holder Park in part uh and holder Park is where my two kids were playing baseball so I
01:04:43
had a kind of special interest in seeing that the case was handled and that it was handled well Crosley knew Chris
01:04:49
White fact he had a long Rocky history both with white and the judge handling the trial John antune II and it wasn't
01:05:00
just Crosley who had had past run-ins with the law his younger sister Sheila and brother OK Conor had been convicted
01:05:07
of Distributing cocaine and both were behind bars at the time of the trial Crosley described a kind of them against
01:05:16
us mentality that ran in his family me and my family had a lot of trouble with them but yet still we stick together and
01:05:27
that caused a confusion with them they don't they can't understand why we going to protect each other we always sticking
01:05:34
up for each other we take care of each other and ain't no way you going to break us apart on crosley's side Rob
01:05:44
Parker Crosley couldn't afford an attorney so Rob Parker was appointed by the court Parker had been a lawyer in
01:05:51
private practice for 3 years after spending four years years in the state attorney's office but this was Parker's
01:05:59
first capital murder case he could have asked for co-counsel but he didn't he was so confident in himself and the
01:06:09
evidence do you believe Crosley green killed chiplin it's possible but it's not probable based on the evidence that
01:06:18
we have jury selection began at 9:00 a.m. on Monday August 27th 199 inside The Bard County Courthouse in
01:06:29
Melbourne Florida Crosley and I sat there together and picked that jury uh so uh not that Crosley has any
01:06:37
experience in picking a jury but he was able to see the folks and and we did the
01:06:41
best we could with with what we had at that time at least that that's my opinion and that's how 53-year-old
01:06:49
Garder and grandmother Alma Jean Bloss became one of those jurors she had never served before and she took that
01:06:57
responsibility very seriously what did you know about the case before you actually sat on the jury did you know
01:07:04
anything about it no I didn't know a thing I didn't know a thing I didn't know what to expect when I went there
01:07:10
were you nervous about doing it uh yes I was at first yes why well because it was to do with the
01:07:18
blacks and the whites and that many years ago it was kind of touchy and you know it's I love them all equal it's
01:07:26
doesn't make any difference what color and to have allh jury it's not fair that's way I look at it Alma is white
01:07:35
and so is the rest of the jury Three Men and nine women there's this jury I don't
01:07:42
care what their makeup was was going to have a reasonable doubt regarding his Guild Parker is white too so were both
01:07:51
the prosecutors and the judge Crosley Green's trial began on Tuesday Morning August 28th around 10:00 a.m. there's no
01:08:00
audio from this trial but we do have thousands of pages of Court transcripts in his opening statement
01:08:08
prosecutor Chris White gave the jurors an overview of the case using the same metaphor that prosecutors often use he
01:08:16
told them that the evidence would come to them in pieces over the course of the trial and asked them to think about the
01:08:23
front cover of a jigsaw puzzle box white said quote when you sit down at a table and dump all the pieces out the
01:08:31
first thing you have to do is look at the front of the box and figure out where all those pieces are supposed to
01:08:38
fit defense attorney Parker also talked to the jurors about evidence but he said
01:08:44
that evidence would show that Kim H didn't know who committed the crime Parker then told the jurors that the
01:08:51
trial was about two tragedies the first tragedy being the loss of Mr Flynn the second being my client being hauled into
01:09:01
court charged with the most serious crime known to civilized society Crosley Green's trial lasted 6
01:09:10
days the jury heard from over 30 Witnesses but we're going to focus here on the key testimonies that addressed
01:09:18
crucial evidence used against Crosley including shoe prints bullet fragments fingerprints and dog tracking the very
01:09:27
first witness on day one of the trial was agent Debbie dears from The Bard County Sheriff's Office criminalistics
01:09:35
unit she was the crime scene technician who recorded the walkthrough at holder Park just hours after chipain's murder
01:09:44
and what is believed to be the suspect shoe print is found throughout this area prosecutor White had already told the
01:09:52
jury in his opening statement that investigator were never able to recover any shoes that matched those shoe prints
01:10:00
only that they were tennis shoes while questioning agent dears white showed a diagram of the shoe prints which showed
01:10:08
them trailing through holder Park and then abruptly ending where chip fn's truck was parked here's what white told
01:10:16
me later about that evidence they are there at the crime scene and they were leading into the crime scene to the
01:10:25
truck it was a damning piece of evidence because white was implying that the person wearing those shoes must have
01:10:32
left in Chip's truck Parker asked agent Demars if she found any shoeprints leading back towards the Roe where they
01:10:40
came from dear said no also testifying on the first day of the trial was Bard County deputy sheriff Mark rxy he was
01:10:51
one of the first officers to respond to the Orange Grove along with Sergeant Diane Clark rxy testified that he and
01:10:59
Sergeant Clark found chip conscious in the Orange Grove with his hands tied together behind his back with shoelaces
01:11:06
and that he found a 22 caliber revolver at the scene about 4 feet away from Chip
01:11:13
later in the trial the defense cross-examined the forensic firearm expert about the fragment of the bullet
01:11:19
found in chip Lin's body here's how defense attorney Rob Parker described that test testimony they found one uh
01:11:28
fragment of a projectile and as I recall it struck I think it struck chip in the upper chest
01:11:35
and traveled down and back it was just a fragment after all but the forensic expert testified that it appeared to
01:11:43
been shot specifically from a revolver not an automatic gun like Kim had initially told the police the as salent
01:11:51
used to shoot chip the only weapon found at the scene was Chip's gun a revolver and um of course my point was how do you
01:12:00
know that this fragment that you found in chip really didn't come from Chip's gun the experts said yes the bullet
01:12:07
found in chip could have been fired from Chip's own gun another expert who took the stand was the crime scene unit
01:12:16
investigator who evaluated the fingerprint evidence on Chip's truck he testified that the only identifiable
01:12:23
Prince belonged to Kim hoc no prints match Crosley green none on the outside of the car none on the steering wheel or
01:12:32
the gear shift this was key for juror Alma Jean Bloss when you don't find fingerprints that was my biggest thing
01:12:41
was the fingerprints no fingerprints when he drove a truck and no gloves mentioned did he have gloves on did he
01:12:47
put his socks on his hands but when I spoke to prosecutor white he said this fact never concerned him let me explain
01:12:54
why I did okay number one I know that fingerprints aren't always left if they were my conviction rate would be higher
01:13:02
okay number two Kim was in that truck she climbed in that truck to get away she drove that truck she touched all the
01:13:12
places where Crosley green would have touched she could have smudged every single print that he left or it may be
01:13:19
that his hands weren't placed on those places in such a way that it could leave a good print he may have moved his
01:13:26
fingers around everything he touched I don't know later in the trial the prosecutors questioned the police dog
01:13:32
handler he and his dog were called to holder Park early on the morning after the murder to try to find and track a
01:13:40
fresh scent from the crime scene they ran a dog track from the what they believe was the defendant sent along the
01:13:47
track of the the uh tennis shoe prints the defense objected to the testimony and the jury was asked to leave the
01:13:56
courtroom Parker argued to the judge that the witness was not qualified as an expert in dog handling and more
01:14:03
importantly that the state could not prove that the dog was actually following the sen of the person who left
01:14:09
those shoe Prints but the judge allowed the testimony in and the trial resumed under Chris White's questioning the dog
01:14:19
handler shared that his dog picked up a sent at the crime scene and followed the
01:14:24
shoeprints out of the park for about 2/10 of a mile until they disappeared at the edge of the pavement they continued
01:14:33
to track the sand along the road following it all the way to the house of Crosley Green's sister Tina who lived
01:14:40
just about a half mile from holder Park but perhaps the most important witness called by the prosecution was
01:14:50
none other than Kim hoc herself she was a very nervous person on the stand juror
01:14:56
Amma Jean Bloss remembered Kim's demeanor she chewed gum constantly and real loud like you know and it was uh
01:15:05
she was very jittery she couldn't really look at the courtroom she's looking at the floor Kim's testimony began on the
01:15:13
first day of the trial and lasted into the second White's colleague Phil Williams asked himim about identifying
01:15:21
her as salent on a photo lineup at the Sheriff's Department that identification was one of the most
01:15:28
damaging pieces of evidence at trial you know that's potent potent evidence potent stuff in a pre-trial hearing
01:15:37
Parker had tried and failed to keep Kim's identification of Crosley in that photo lineup out of the trial because
01:15:45
crosley's photo had been darker than the five other men the photographic lineup the procedure was was an necessarily
01:15:55
suggestive technique which would result in a substantial likelihood of in court misidentification I later asked white if
01:16:03
he agreed that that photo lineup was suggestive I I think there's an argument that it is but I think there's also an
01:16:09
argument that she looked at it and she what would she necessarily think that they're trying to point me to the
01:16:16
darkest one maybe they're trying to point her to the lightest one um you know you're you're again there's a deal
01:16:24
of speculation that goes into what effect that had the prosecution asked kimik if she could look around the
01:16:31
courtroom and see the person who pulled the gun on chip took them in the truck tied chip up and shot him Kim said yes
01:16:41
and then pointed directly at Crosley as you can imagine it was a dramatic moment Parker then had to
01:16:53
cross-examine Kim but he knew he'd have to tread carefully well you know anytime
01:16:59
you have young woman who has suffered through this kind of a nightmare you want to be very careful with that but he
01:17:06
also picked up on something in that particular moment Kim was responding to a question about seeing the black male
01:17:14
with a gun shooting chip when she was interviewed by police she had said she only heard the shots that was news that
01:17:24
came out for the first time and we pointed that out first time you ever told anybody that was now in front of
01:17:29
this jury Parker pushed Kim a bit he asked her you didn't see anything you just heard shots didn't you she
01:17:37
responded that she saw a black male standing there with a gun but admitted she didn't tell that to the
01:17:44
police for Parker creating doubt around Kim's identification of Crosley as the as salent was crucial he wanted to
01:17:52
create Reasonable Doubt in the mind of the jurors uh it was pitch dark there was a canopy of trees over the area
01:18:00
where uh this allegedly occurred Parker asked Kim if she saw what the man looked
01:18:06
like when he first approached the vehicle she said no he then asked if she got a good look at the man when they
01:18:12
left holder park for the Orange Grove she replied that her head was down most of the time and when asked if she had a
01:18:20
chance to look at his face in the Orange Grove she said she didn't never seen the person before but for the
01:18:28
photographic lineup but when we get to the courtroom she says that's him uh but still as far as description goes can't
01:18:36
really describe this person can't remember what her description was can't remember what she told the police here's
01:18:43
what jur Alma Jean Bloss thought every answer was I don't know I don't know or she just didn't know she couldn't answer
01:18:52
the questions that was asked her she didn't know in fact Kim said the phrase I'm not sure close to 50 times
01:19:01
while she was being questioned by Parker she also had changed her description of
01:19:06
the suspect's hair when talking to police that first time she described it quote thick kind of long afro at trial
01:19:16
she testified that the man's hair was styled with gel and that it came down to a little over the year actually she she
01:19:24
called him ring ringlets and they and and her description was she take her finger and she'd run them down so I
01:19:29
envisioned this kind of longer hair with ringlets to me it was this unique hairstyle and she was very clear about
01:19:37
that very clear about it and in fact then what did croset green look like at that time well as you know he had just
01:19:43
gotten out of prison he had a buzz cut um he had very short hair all the witnesses who saw him at holder Park
01:19:48
said had a buzz cut when I spoke to White about that inconsistency he was dismissed
01:19:55
might they lie about his hair if it would help him do you think all of this friends said everybody
01:20:04
else you interviewed every witness said he had short crop tears I don't know that we uh actually interviewed
01:20:11
everybody Parker also asked Kim H why she didn't seek help for chiplin by going to a nearby house or even the
01:20:18
local hospital after leaving the Orange Grove remember Kim claimed she drove Direct to David stroop's trailer after
01:20:26
fleeing the Orange Grove his trailer was 4 miles away she's from this area she knows where the hospital is she knows
01:20:35
that there's probably a police officer there because generally they have security there uh at the hospital um if
01:20:42
not a police officer armed security officer she doesn't go to the hospital and my answer to that is you know what
01:20:49
should I make of that and I have handled many cases where people have been victimized some some of them uh were
01:20:56
present when other people were killed or when robberies happened or maybe they were just raped or and beaten or
01:21:01
whatever those people don't always act very rationally when all of that is said and done I can't hold her to the
01:21:07
standard that the defense team here wants to hold her to that they should have done she should have done
01:21:12
everything the exact way they think is most logical I I refuse to hold her to that standard I'm sorry according to
01:21:19
Kim's testimony at trial she said it only took her a couple of minutes to drive to David's trailer but according
01:21:27
to her police tape statement the time between when she left the Grove and called
01:21:33
911 meant that the drive actually took her up to an hour it's an inexplicable chunk of missing time and it was crucial
01:21:44
time for Chip he was laying there dying every moment counted but at trial Rob Parker did not question Kim about this
01:21:54
time discrepancy Parker did ask him some intimate details whether she was in love
01:22:01
with chip she said yes she also acknowledged that they had been sexually involved Parker then asked if Kim was
01:22:10
aware that chip had been sexually involved with another woman named Patty lney Kim said she didn't know for sure
01:22:18
but admitted that she and Chip did discuss his relationship with Patty that evening at holder Park when Parker then
01:22:26
asked if it made her angry that chip was having a sexual relationship with Patty
01:22:31
she replied that it made her upset looking at the facts and circumstances that we had I wanted to suggest that to
01:22:38
the jury that Hey listen here's a situation where chip and her had dated they had been uh sexually involved there
01:22:47
was a break up chip was seeing someone new and uh kind of out of the blue he drives by and he in Kim go parking and I
01:22:56
thought it was I thought the jury needed to understand that that was a fact they
01:23:02
should consider Rob Parker also got Kim to admit something she had previously denied to police that she and Chip
01:23:10
smoked marijuana that night in holder park there was clothing from the truck that was strewn out in the uh in the
01:23:18
area where this event occurred in the Orange Grove um brush was p added down and matted down um what did that suggest
01:23:28
to you suggested to me that they might have been out uh Making Love on the ground or or something along those
01:23:37
lines the fact that Kim and Chip had been somewhat at odds that night that chip could have been shot with his own
01:23:44
gun and that missing chunk of time didn't quite fit inside the jigsaw puzzle that prosecutor white described
01:23:53
in his open opening statement there were some missing pieces some pieces forced into place and that might have tipped
01:24:02
the scale in crosley's favor but the state was not yet finished calling Witnesses and one big puzzle piece was
01:24:11
about to be revealed your sister comes in and says you told her that you did it oh yeah well yeah
01:24:25
so what was the evidence that convinced the jury well his sister testified against him and she came in with
01:24:33
shackles and uniform and it was sad and she had four children that's juror Alma Jean Bloss again she's talking about the
01:24:41
most shocking moment of the trial when on the second day of the state's case crosley's sister Sheila appeared in
01:24:49
court to testify against him I remember that she kind of turned she couldn't look at him crosley's older
01:24:57
sister Shirley was also in the courtroom watching how difficult was that it was very difficult the church told
01:25:06
me that if I look at her and roll my eyes they going to take me out the courtroom because Sheila was
01:25:14
afraid of me and they kept her back in the room I just want to make sure you heard that
01:25:22
shirely said that she was warned that if she rolled her eye at her sister they were going to take her out of the
01:25:29
courtroom would she look at you at all when she was testifying she hold her head down every time I try to sit so I
01:25:37
can see her and look her in the face and ask her why at the start of this episode we
01:25:44
heard from Crosley that nothing could break his family apart remember so why would his younger sister Sheila turn on
01:25:52
her flesh and blood well Alma mentioned the shackles Sheila was incarcerated and facing serious
01:26:01
prison time for drug charges well one of my charges carried 10 to life and the other one
01:26:09
carried 5 to 40 years but the overall of the sagittary um guidelines it was 97 to
01:26:16
121 months my God for drug charges yes did they promise you anything if you testified against your brother yeah
01:26:24
supposed to got a lighter sentence but what exactly did you say in court you testified against your brother in court
01:26:30
what did you say if I'm not mistaken I think I said I seen him I asked him did he do it and he
01:26:39
said yes and I cried or something to that effect I I can't remember when the prosecution questioned Sheila she
01:26:49
testified that she saw Crosley the day after the shooting at their sister Tina's house
01:26:55
she said she asked him about the rumor that he had killed chip Flynn and that at first Crosley denied it but then she
01:27:03
says he admitted that quote he didn't intentionally make it happen that way Sheila said that Crosley referred to
01:27:11
chip as the dude and said that the dude pulled a gun on him and motion for the female passenger to run for help and
01:27:21
that the two men struggled over the gun Sheila said that Crosley then told her that it was either going to be him or
01:27:29
chip Sheila told the jury quote I wanted to cry and say no papa but said that her
01:27:37
brother told her he'd be all right what did that feel like on the stand I felt horrible up until this point defense
01:27:52
attorney Parker thought the trial was going pretty well for his client but it was undeniable that crosley's sister's
01:27:59
testimony was a major hit to his case some plea deal discussions had taken place before trial but after Sheila's
01:28:09
testimony an official plea deal was offered Crosley was looking at 10 years in prison if he plag guilty so I've now
01:28:19
gotten him into a position where he does not have to face the electric chair he does not have to face the rest of his
01:28:25
life in prison I'm feeling pretty good you recommend him to take it well we talked about it and talked about it and
01:28:31
talked about it and um he said I didn't do it I okay so he turned it down turned
01:28:36
it down why should I take it why didn't you why didn't it listen I didn't kill that young man okay I'm telling you I
01:28:46
keep telling you I didn't kill that young man so why should I take that plate bargain why should I but the damaging
01:28:55
evidence wasn't over the state didn't just want Sheila to testify they wanted me to convince Lonnie Hillary my he was
01:29:05
my fiance at the time they wanted me to convince him to also testify because they felt that he would listen to me
01:29:12
Sheila's fiance Lonnie Hillary took the stand after Sheila he told the court that sometime on the morning following
01:29:20
the shooting he noticed that Crosley wasn't acting like himself that he looked shaky and scared Lonnie
01:29:28
testified that Crosley told him quote I up man I fed up Lonnie also told the jury that Crosley told him a man and
01:29:37
woman wanted to buy something from him and that he got in their truck and rode off with them he said that Crosley told
01:29:44
him quote they hustled for a bit and the woman took off according to Lonnie that's when Crosley said he fed up the
01:29:54
prosecution also asked Lonnie about crosley's clothes Lonnie said he was wearing blue jeans and looked scuffed up
01:30:02
like he had been in the dirt Lonnie went on to say that later in the week Crosley
01:30:07
told him that he got rid of the clothes and that everything was going to be all right these Witnesses against Crosley
01:30:15
were incredibly damning even though the jury was also told that Sheila was promised a more lenient sentence if she
01:30:23
testified fight against her brother and that she convinced her fiance to do the same it hurt for to hear a sister and
01:30:33
brother one testify against the other I asked Parker about how reliable this kind of testimony can be isn't that a
01:30:42
very strong incentive for that witness to lie oh absolutely to save herself absolutely no question about it do you
01:30:49
think that happened in that case um I think that is something you have to explore as a defense lawyer anytime that
01:30:55
happens and I think I pointed that out to the jury and they just didn't believe that they believe that she wouldn't say
01:31:04
that against her own brother to avoid a federal prison sentence I took a look at
01:31:10
some of the local papers from the time and realized that Sheila testified against Crosley on that Wednesday August
01:31:18
29 and then on Thursday August 30th testified against her other brother o Conor green at his sentencing hearing
01:31:28
all before she faced sentencing about a month later on September 24th that's three of the green siblings
01:31:37
facing the court system in 1 month time that stands out to me but nothing about that situation surprised Crosley
01:31:48
that's a thing that's been used in the system for so long they bringing family testify against family
01:31:54
friends test get friends but on false statements okay and that's wrong and that's
01:32:03
wrong that's very wrong someone else who came forward as a state witness was Alan Jerome Murray he
01:32:12
told the court that soon after the shooting a group of about 20 to 30 men were talking on the corner in Mims
01:32:19
referred to as 21 Jump Street Allan said was there and told them that he had just
01:32:26
killed a man and that he was going to quote disappear but Allan also admitted on the
01:32:33
stand that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time and that the group of men there was known to use cocaine
01:32:42
although Allan said he was not using cocaine at that moment Sheila green Lonnie Hillary and
01:32:51
even Alan Jerome Murray were power powerful Witnesses but they all spoke about conversations with Crosley after
01:32:59
the murder the state needed Witnesses who could place Crosley near the crime scenes on the night of like Willie
01:33:06
Hampton the Umpire of the Little League game that evening he testified that he saw Crosley at holder Park and that
01:33:15
Crosley was wearing a jacket that matched Kim's description the prosecution also called
01:33:21
a witness who knew both the green and Flynn families I mean it was a very well-known trial back then a lot of
01:33:28
people was following this trial remember Tim Curtis from the local body shop he was the one who told police that the
01:33:36
police sketch looked like Crosley green and he was the one who sold the truck to
01:33:41
chip Flynn I notice also in your testimony you said to the jury I sold chip the truck that he was abducted in
01:33:50
which I I know the defense was not happy with because making that assumption he was abducted well well at that time
01:33:58
Aaron In fairness to everyone that's that's what the story was Chip was abducted taken down the road and shot
01:34:06
during his opening statements White had told the jury that they would hear a police dog handler testify about how his
01:34:13
dog tracked the shoeprints at holder Park to crosley's sister's house when Tim Curtis took the stand white asked
01:34:22
him about the last time he had seen Crosley at his sister Tina's house Tim said he had seen him there in the
01:34:30
afternoon just hours before the murder took [Music] place Tim remembers that day like it was
01:34:42
yesterday he later told me that shortly after he testified on that Thursday August 30th the third day of the trial
01:34:50
the judge called for a break Tim says he went out to his vehicle and looked over
01:34:56
at another car and i' looked over um at the person driving and I noticed it was a male and I thought wow I think that's
01:35:06
one of the jurors the juror look right back at him he took his thumb as if it was a knife
01:35:13
and stuck it in the side of his neck and Drug it across his throat and to be honest with you I I think I look back at
01:35:20
him and may have give him a thumbs up or you know had a boy or whatever I asked him what he thought that jer's hand
01:35:28
motion meant I took it as uh crosley's guilty the next day Tim says he went back to work at the body shop and Bobby
01:35:38
cook a longtime customer came in worried about his car then Bobby brought up the
01:35:44
trial and asked you know ain't you involved in that case and I said yeah and he goes how do you think the trial's
01:35:50
going I said well I think they got him found guilty and he goes well you say that and I told Bobby that what you had
01:35:56
seen the juror do Yeah Tim told Bobby about that juror in the parking lot what Tim didn't realize was that Bobby cook
01:36:07
was a private investigator for none other than crosley's defense attorney Rob Parker and now Tim's Body Shop
01:36:15
gossip could have very real consequences for the trial [Music] this was a Six-Day trial and on the
01:36:31
first 4 days from Tuesday August 28th to Friday August 31st the prosecution called a total of 26 Witnesses the
01:36:41
jurors went home for the weekend but it wasn't just any weekend it was Labor Day
01:36:47
weekend so they had three full days off to digest the evidence they were not not
01:36:54
sequestered when they returned on the morning of Tuesday September 4th defense attorney Parker motioned for a mistrial
01:37:02
four times Oh I thought I was going to get a [Music] mistrial what do you mean what did you
01:37:09
think well there was so much going on in that trial the defense took issue with the introduction of the photo lineup
01:37:16
That depicted crosley's photo is darker than all the others the dog tracking evidence because the prosecution could
01:37:24
not prove that the scent tract belonged to Crosley and Kim's father's testimony which Parker said was quote nothing but
01:37:33
the hearsay statements of Miss Kim HCK Parker had also learned about Tim Curtis's alleged interaction with that
01:37:42
juror and Parker claimed that his client couldn't get a fair trial Tim Curtis was
01:37:48
called back to the courtroom the judge explained to him in front of the why he had been brought back he goes
01:37:57
well you had an incident in the parking lot and then it just like at that point look like my whole brain and mind just
01:38:03
like went completely numb the judge asked him to identify the juror he saw in the parking lot I I I would
01:38:15
say that in my heart I didn't even look at the juries I didn't even focus my attention on them
01:38:24
and turned and answered him and I said no I don't see this person in the courtroom even though Curtis admits he
01:38:32
did yes because afterwards I'd seen the juror sitting up there you know and I was like wow that that was a guy why
01:38:42
didn't Tim tell the judge the truth this is his explanation I was feeling pressured but
01:38:49
I think most of all it's just I think to be honest with you I was thinking of Chip and thinking man I'm not going to
01:38:54
I'm not going to see this case ruined for you in my in my thoughts you know that I was more concerned with this case
01:39:00
isn't going to be ruin because of me Tim didn't want to mist trial so he lied and
01:39:08
sure enough all the Motions for mistrials were denied it was time for the defense to
01:39:16
make its case Parker called five additional witnesses to the stand a shoe print expert who said that the shoe
01:39:25
prints at holder Park could have match more than 10 different brands the chief umpire at holder Park
01:39:32
who spoke to Crosley that evening and said he wasn't wearing a jacket and had short hair and a friend of Kim's who saw
01:39:41
her early in the morning of April 4th and testified that she had grass stains on the back of her shirt the jury also
01:39:50
heard from James K the ex-boyfriend crosley's cousin carlen who had been arguing with carlen at her house that
01:39:58
night James testified that he remembered seeing Crosley sometime before 1:00 a.m.
01:40:06
but the jury never heard from cousin carlen or most surprising to me crosley's other Alibi witness Lori
01:40:14
Reigns who said Crosley was at her house starting at about 11 p.m. Rob Parker's last Witness was
01:40:23
Crosley sister Tina whose house was at the center of so much of the prior testimony she testified that their other
01:40:31
sister Sheila never told her that Crosley admitted to killing chip Flynn Crosley himself never took the
01:40:40
stand because he says Parker advised him not to Parker said that as the trial was
01:40:46
winding down Crosley was feeling optimistic he always felt like it would work out he always told me it'll work
01:40:55
out it's that he be acquitted everything's going to work out I mean he he kind of comforted me I guess um and
01:41:02
he seemed to have a confidence that it'll work out on the sixth and final day of the trial the case went to the
01:41:09
jury they were out only 3 hours Alma Jean blah says she was the last to hold out I had my doubts and I still have my
01:41:22
doubts what made you finally give in and vote to convict him I it was most of them all and I I
01:41:36
kind of just at the end you give up the clerk read the jury's verdict alowed guilty of robbery kidnapping and
01:41:46
first degree felony murder they all had that feeling that he did it from the beginning
01:41:54
maybe that feeling also had something to do with the fact that the phrase black man or black male was said over 100
01:42:03
times over the course of the trial I asked Parker if he thought the racial makeup of the jury had any impact on
01:42:11
that verdict I mean do you think it made a difference there was this all-white jury that a young white man had been
01:42:18
killed and here is a black man who doesn't take the stand you know the the only thing I can we can all speculate
01:42:26
certainly I'm not naive enough to think that uh that there are some on that jury
01:42:31
that may have had some racial bias maybe even significant racial bias um if they
01:42:36
did they denied it when we addressed it I also asked Parker about crosley's reaction to the
01:42:46
verdict you know to be honest with you it seems to me that the impact it had on me was such that I I think was so
01:42:53
stunned that um I'm not sure I can recall how he how he handled it but Crosley remembers
01:43:06
[Music] guilty that's all that's all I can remember was guilty after that I shut
01:43:12
everything off what do you mean after that I just shut everything up just shut everything
01:43:21
out see I had to my family was there and I didn't want them to get angry or upset
01:43:27
stuff like that yeah cuz I didn't want it no scene no nothing I was angry but why let something just
01:43:40
explode but for the folks on the other side of the courtroom Justice had been served especially for chip fn's parents
01:43:49
Charles and Peggy I think we got the right man did you have any questions in your mind at all when that verdict was
01:43:56
reached no no man I would later look back at the defenses strategies and wonder is there anything else Parker
01:44:05
could have done for Crosley I asked J Alma Jean bla how would you describe his defense
01:44:13
the way it was handled well maybe his defense wasn't strong enough maybe maybe he did maybe he I don't know
01:44:22
maybe should have got got somebody else I don't know I just there may have been better out there that could have helped
01:44:30
him more I don't know it wasn't yet over for Crosley that same jury now had to decide whether he would face life in
01:44:39
prison or death by execution the jury advisory sentencing hearing took place a little over 3 weeks
01:44:50
later on September 2 7 1990 now Parker was forced to take a different approach he argued that if the
01:45:01
jury believed that Crosley was guilty of murder he had to come up with evidence that showed that Crosley didn't want to
01:45:08
kill Kim or chip that he instinctively fired back after chip fired the first shots Parker pleaded with a jury quote
01:45:19
please don't overreact but prosecutor white argued that the killing was heinous atrocious
01:45:27
and cruel he asked the jury quote what could be worse than to murder someone kill someone over money just over money
01:45:37
judge anun also allowed white to inform the jury of crosley's Prior conviction in New York for armed robbery when
01:45:45
Crosley was just 18 however Crosley was never convicted of armed robbery but had in said pled
01:45:53
guilty to a lesser nonviolent crime that plea was also expunged from crosley's record due to his youthful offender
01:46:03
status if 3 hours sounds short for deliberating the murder charges against Crosley it only took a little more than
01:46:11
an hour for the jurors to decide whether he would live or die the jury 8 to4 recommended that Crosley green receive
01:46:21
the death penalty he was officially sentenced to death row on February 8th 1991 a devastating blow to many of his
01:46:31
family members including his two sons schuma age 16 and Gaston age six once they sign your warrant to be
01:46:43
executed you going to get executed and that scared the hell out of me I wouldn't learn about crosley's case
01:46:52
until almost 10 years later and after reviewing the evidence I had doubts that Crosley committed this crime and on top
01:47:01
of that key Witnesses from The Trial were coming forward to change their stories on the next episode of Murder in
01:47:12
the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green every time I look at news and hear about individual on
01:47:20
death R I think about my brother and I knew that he's there not only for my statement but for other people's
01:47:28
statement but I knew mine was a lie got a big key are you ready on September 9th
01:47:51
1999 I walked into the Union Correctional Institution in Rayford Florida Florida's death row going into a
01:48:01
Maximum Security Prison isn't new to me I've been in dozens I've even done other
01:48:07
interviews on death row face to face with convicted Killers but this case weighed heavier on me who is Crosley
01:48:18
green hi Crosley I'm Aaron morard with CBS News 4 8 hours we've been looking at your case now it's really important to
01:48:27
meet you and have viewers meet you nervous at all today no no I'm not nervous I'm a little shy but I'm not
01:48:36
nervous it had been 9 years since Crosley was convicted for the murder of Chip Flynn and for the last 8 years he
01:48:44
had been sitting on death row confined to a 6t wide 9t long cell and that's where he spent 23 and2 hours every
01:48:56
day I want to ask you the question I think that everybody needs you to answer did you kill chip Flyin no I did not
01:49:04
kill that man I'm 48 Hours correspondent Aaron morard this is murder in the orang Grove
01:49:13
the trouble case against Crosley Green episode 4 Revelations [Music] I've been examining and Reporting on
01:49:29
crosley's case for 25 years since 1999 which is where we start this episode when I first met Crosley green
01:49:39
why should I believe that you didn't kill chiplin I'm going tell you just like I
01:49:45
tell people's my friends that was visiting me my attorneys hey I didn't kill that man all
01:49:52
right but it's already embedded in your mind I'm a criminal why should I believe you
01:49:59
initially I wondered could this be a case of mistaken identity the murder did occur on a moonless night in an unlit
01:50:07
Orange Grove Kim H said over and over again she didn't get a good look at the as
01:50:14
salant this was one of the first questionable conviction cases I had ever covered and I felt the need to find the
01:50:21
truth the real truth because the consequences were life or death the room where we met Crosley was Tiny just
01:50:31
enough space for me my cameraman and Crosley what's it like being here on death row it's
01:50:39
hell it's hell a lot in a lot of ways it's hell it's hell to me because I'm here for a crime I didn't
01:50:46
commit all right then I got to sit in my S 24 hours a day do you ever think about what you face if you don't
01:50:55
get out of here do I ever think about it no I don't think about it that is so far
01:51:01
away from my mind I didn't expect to find a man with so much hope but Crosley appeared to be
01:51:09
convinced that his murder conviction would one day be overturned if someone would just take a closer look well
01:51:17
listen do me a favor just don't take my word go look at records go look at every
01:51:24
file that they [Music] got and so we did back then in the summer of 1999 Chip's death 10 years earlier was
01:51:36
still a dark painful memory in the small Florida communities of Titusville and Mims but it was mostly unknown to
01:51:45
Outsiders like me I needed to go down there for myself to better understand the facts of the case
01:51:53
for the next few weeks I met with different members of the community from attorneys and forensic experts to people
01:52:00
who knew both crosy green and Chip Flynn people in their closest circles we spent
01:52:07
days there at a time and kept going back I started with reviewing the police records and reading trial transcripts
01:52:18
there seem to be several prosecution witnesses who placed Crosley at the first crime scene holder Park like
01:52:25
Willie Hampton a retired police officer at the time who testified that he saw Crosley wearing a jacket at the baseball
01:52:33
game earlier in the day it was consistent with the description of the bolo that's the police term for be on
01:52:42
the lookout but here's what Crosley said he was wearing that night what were you
01:52:47
wearing I think it was a tank top which you call a g shirt red jeans a pair of jeans and a pair of sneakers and what
01:52:56
about a jacket no sir listen if I had on a jacket at that time when that bolo came out why so many people that was
01:53:07
around me and I'm in sitting with them couldn't come up and say listen I remember a guy there with a army jacket
01:53:14
on he was sitting right beside me and there seemed to be inconsistencies about the as salent hair
01:53:22
if you remember Kim HCK first told police that the as salant had an afro here she's talking to a sheriff's deputy
01:53:30
on April 4th 1989 just hours after the murder okay uh what about the hair could you tell the hairstyle of the blackmail
01:53:41
just afro and there nothing fancy nothing weird was said thick long short just thick kind of long not long
01:53:56
a little bit little bit of n but later at a pre-trial deposition the description of the as salent hair had
01:54:04
changed Kim told defense attorney Rob Parker that the suspect had tight ringlets styled with a substance like a
01:54:12
gel when I asked Crosley about how he wore his hair he insisted that it had been very short almost like a buzz
01:54:22
cut as I kept pushing him for specific details you can hear him getting more and more frustrated until can I look at
01:54:32
the camera cuz I want to say this in the camera man go ahead um the way I look now is the way I look
01:54:39
in I mean so your hair was that the way I look now is the way I look then that's
01:54:49
short and she described someone with curls over the years the way I look now to you this is exactly what I look
01:54:59
like okay it may not be quite clear about what just happened but Crosley had become so frustrated with my questions
01:55:07
over and over again about his hair that he suddenly just looked away from me and
01:55:13
then looked straight into the camera lens and said the way I look now is the way I look then okay okay got it Crosley
01:55:24
that is still one of my favorite moments from that first interview and more than
01:55:29
another decade later Crosley still wears his hair pretty much the same he has short cropped hair almost completely
01:55:39
shaven I think we all have ideas of what a Killer looks like Crosley didn't fit mine you could tell when someone is
01:55:48
guarded not Crosley this was a guy who was open and eager to talk to me I got the sense that he was thrilled to
01:55:57
finally get the chance to tell his side of the story I was told not to say nothing not
01:56:03
to take the stand no not only not to take the stand but after it was over I was told by my attorney uh don't say
01:56:12
nothing I do the talking for you what did you want to say what I want to say I want to turn
01:56:18
around and tell the parent that kid that I'm sorry about their son but I didn't kill their son what
01:56:30
struck me the most about talking to Crosley is not just that he denied killing chip I mean I expected that but
01:56:39
how much he wanted to set the record straight with Chip's parents what pained him the most was that they thought he
01:56:47
murdered their son they've been fed with something that is not true they have been fed with something
01:56:57
that's not true okay and I feel bad for them I really do I feel bad for them when I
01:57:05
lost my mother and father I know what I felt and for her to lose her son I know what she
01:57:12
felt what's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of CH rarely did you see him without a
01:57:20
smile on his face just rarely that smile he always wor before I met cley I met Charles and
01:57:31
Peggy Flynn Chip's parents it's the hardest part of reporting on crime talking to parents who have lost a
01:57:39
beloved child and Chip Flyn was a beloved child after his murder the 10 years that had passed had done nothing
01:57:48
to reduce their pain they spoke to me in their rville home what's the most important thing you want people to know
01:57:56
about Chip he didn't deserve to die we sat at their dining room table with pictures of
01:58:05
Chip over the years spread across the table Family Photos School Portraits in all of them chip is smiling with
01:58:16
laughter in his eyes I'm a mom myself I don't know how anyone goes on after losing a
01:58:23
child you you want to wake up every day and say hey this has all been a bad dream it's going to go away it don't
01:58:29
chip was named after his father Charles Charles remembered Kim H's faithful call in those early morning
01:58:37
hours of April 4th 1989 she just told us that she that they had been kidnapped and that this guy
01:58:46
take them down the Orange Grove and the chip jumped out of the truck shooting to
01:58:50
try to save her and she jumped in the truck and took off do you believe Crossley green is the
01:58:58
man who robbed and killed your son yes absolutely AB I definitely do there's nothing no worse than I'd rather do than
01:59:05
see somebody go to the chair for something they didn't do but I think we would never want that to happen but I
01:59:10
agree I feel like there's enough proof um that it that it has that the case has totally been proven that he did do it
01:59:19
and that's the way I feel you're telling people you're innocent and you're still sitting here on death
01:59:28
row I'm a poor black man I don't have no money to hire no lawyer no investigators I have to do it what they
01:59:39
give me I have to I have to do with that while Crosley couldn't afford an attorney he did have a rotating cast of
01:59:49
at least five court appointed def defense attorneys at that point they had tried and failed to get his conviction
01:59:57
overturned or even get him off death row still Crosley remained upbeat convinced
02:00:04
that he would someday walk free I have one one great big hope to try to help myself by writing to different
02:00:13
peoples and ask them for help to take a look at it you know I'm not just going to sit here and give
02:00:23
and not try to help myself turns out that crosley's willingness to talk to different people
02:00:30
would prove to be a major turning point in his case in large part thanks to this
02:00:37
woman Nan Webb I just almost feel driven sometimes to help people that can't help
02:00:44
themselves cuz I think that's what we're supposed to do that's what God tells us
02:00:49
we're supposed to do in 1999 when I met n web she was a 57-year-old teacher an anti-death row activist she and her
02:00:59
husband Bill sat with me one afternoon in the kitchen of their Melbourne Florida home a flyer titled release
02:01:06
Crosley green now was displayed prominently on their fridge alongside a photo of their poodle and a Serenity
02:01:15
Prayer magnet here's bill and I just believe the man is innocent and I won't help him cu as much as I possibly can
02:01:23
and support him and his his family what if Crosley green is guilty he's not but what if he is but he's
02:01:33
not how can you know that because I've read the information and and we know Crosley they
02:01:41
wanted to hire a private attorney for him but they didn't have the money so n went to a wrongful conviction conference
02:01:48
in Chicago in hopes of meeting someone who would take the case pro bono and for the first time in nearly a decade
02:01:57
crosley's luck took a turn after talking to Nan a private detective decided to recruit a team of five other
02:02:06
investigators from across the country to re-examine the evidence against Crosley
02:02:12
for [Music] free I asked Crosley what he thought about the these investigators who were
02:02:23
willing to drop everything to look into his case you can probably imagine his answer you feeling more
02:02:33
helpful can I scream and I when I feel good I like to cry out so can I cry out you feel good that's that's what I feel
02:02:42
like and that's really how I along with a group of 48 Hours producers got involved in this story in early 1999
02:02:52
when we heard that a band of private detectives were reinvestigating crosley's case on their own dime we knew
02:02:59
there was probably a story there around the beginning of August we rolled into town with a CBS News camera
02:03:17
crew we stuck out like a sore thumb and we had to be careful it felt like everyone knew each other
02:03:25
and We Were Strangers from New York digging into a 10-year-old case that it clearly left its mark on Rural
02:03:34
Florida my first impression of bravard County was that it's like many counties in Florida rural buggy especially with
02:03:43
mosquitoes it was humid with wide open soggy spaces of overgrowth if you're traveling north nor
02:03:52
on how US1 on the right side is the area known as East Mims and that is where the
02:04:01
vast majority of black citizens live on the west side is West Ms and that is where the vast majority of whites live
02:04:13
when I started working on this podcast I wanted to know more about the racial history of Titusville and Mims and
02:04:20
that's how we found Bill Gary he's been involved in the local NAACP chapter for decades and told me about his experience
02:04:31
moving to Bard County Now 50 years ago there was segregation here my my first wife and I bought a house out in North
02:04:41
Titusville where there were no other black families and um we endured several months of people throwing citrus fruit
02:04:54
on our house driving through our yards they spray painted the inward on both sides of of the house uh Florida to many
02:05:04
people um conjures up an image of of beaches of palm trees Orange Groves but also Florida has a very dark history uh
02:05:18
when it comes to the treatment of black citizens in this state at one time Florida was the leading state in terms
02:05:27
of lynchings Bill is also board president of a cultural institution dedicated to
02:05:34
Harry and Harriet Moore the Moors were two activists who spearheaded the Florida civil rights movement right here
02:05:42
in Mims in 1951 they were murdered when their house was bombed it's important because it's a part not only
02:05:52
of the African-American history uh of the state but also of the nation we have the annual Harry Mo memorial service and
02:06:04
when we arrived there were some cluc Clan Flyers all over the parking lot and they have been uh Flyers scattered in
02:06:13
neighborhoods and stuff over different years while Bill Gary didn't know Crosley personally after crosley's
02:06:20
conviction in 1990 his brother ' Conor asked Bill to review the trial transcripts they both hoped that bill
02:06:28
would see for himself the lack of evidence against Crosley and could help rally the community to fight for his
02:06:36
release this was a big story back in '89 the people that I've talked to in the community I never heard any comments
02:06:47
or talks about uh Crosley attacking anybody or being violent at school or anything of that nature which
02:06:57
is why I think many people were surprised when he was prosecuted for this as I continued to learn more about
02:07:06
crosley's case this was a common sentiment I heard from many people even though Crosley had had run-ins with the
02:07:14
law and a conviction for selling drugs no one could imagine he was capable of murder and why why did they want that
02:07:23
conviction so badly cuz a young white man dies yes uh and based on the testamentary of a a young white woman
02:07:32
and the the state attorney that we had at that time uh was not interested in in Justice what they were interested in is
02:07:41
a conviction that State Attorney was Norm wolfinger prosecutor Chris White's boss
02:07:49
wolfinger died in 2016 but he was still in office in 1999 when I started to investigate this case from where you're
02:07:58
standing now do you believe that Crosley green is one who killed chip Flynn you know what I believe isn't important now
02:08:06
the jury has found him guilty the Florida the the judge has sentenced him to wolfinger and many in the local
02:08:12
community it was an open and shut case Crosley green had murdered chip Flynn but 9 years after the trial Crosley
02:08:21
still couldn't believe that he had been convicted I really didn't expect them to
02:08:25
find me guilty what can they find me guilty of what [Music] evidence but now there was a new team of
02:08:34
private detectives in town who were starting to pick apart that evidence that group of five men and one woman
02:08:42
from around the country who flew in to reexamine crosley's case for free they had been in Bard County since July and
02:08:51
when we caught up with them later that summer they were sunburned tired and making
02:09:00
progress all right let's rock and roll coming through the bug infested Florida Orange
02:09:08
Grove Bing got it they were pouring over oldc case documents topography maps and aerial
02:09:23
photographs of the crime scenes and they were searching for prosecution witnesses
02:09:28
who would be willing to talk to them they caught a break a big one when they found Alan Jerome Murray he was one of
02:09:37
the several witnesses who testified against Crosley at his murder trial he was the witness of trial who had been
02:09:44
part of a group of men hanging around the corner in Mims known as 21 Jump Street Allan had testif that Crosley was
02:09:52
also there and told them he had just killed a man and that he was going to quote
02:09:58
disappear I spoke to Alan myself about this experience it's a little hard to hear and understand Allan on this
02:10:06
recording so listen carefully tell me about it what what what did you say 10 years ago I sent an innoc man to prison
02:10:14
I sent an innocent man to prison Allan said Allan who was on Parole at the time of the murder told me that he felt
02:10:24
pressured by detectives to come up with a story about Crosley green any story that would connect him to the crime and
02:10:32
what did they want you to say that the black man say he killed somebody and um they told me said um if I don't say what
02:10:40
I what they want me to say I go right back to slam what did you tell the police they told me to say say he killed
02:10:48
him so I just said he killed him again in case you couldn't quite hear him Allan said they told me to say he killed
02:10:56
him so I just said he killed him and did Crosley green ever tell you that he didn't never told me that nearly 10
02:11:05
years after Allan testified against Crosley he admitted that he had lied on the stand and apparently he wasn't the
02:11:13
only one remember Tim Curtis that autoshop repair owner who to Poli the sketch of the alleged as salent look
02:11:23
like Crosley well 10 years later he had a confession to make did that sketch look like Crosley
02:11:32
green no it didn't not at all the sketch was of a a fatter type face person Crosley green had a real narrow
02:11:45
Nal bone structure of the face did you tell the police though that it looked like Crosley
02:11:54
agree I think I may have said that in the report um why say anything at all I was
02:12:05
angry I wanted the person who done it I wanted Justice done at all cost even if if the wrong person was
02:12:19
convicted but at the time I thought we had the right person or I felt that was the right person Tim had
02:12:27
also told police that O Connor told him that Crosley had shot chip even though Tim knew it wasn't true I think I may
02:12:36
have said something like that I think that was almost like you got a little fire going so you had a
02:12:45
little bit more cold to it so you added embellished I think made up no I I wouldn't go as far as to say really made
02:12:54
up I think it's almost like how rumors get started you know I seen the guy jump to De Creek by the time it gets back to
02:13:00
you he swam the creek heck he walked on water before he got to the other side do
02:13:05
you believe you made a mistake now I do and if if Crosley green is innocent and if Crosley
02:13:15
green didn't do this well like they say the Opera ain't over till the fat lady sing
02:13:21
and I think the fat L's fixing a sing on this one the investigative team was on a
02:13:26
roll they tracked down another prosecution witness Lonnie Hillary the fiance of crosley's sister Sheila he
02:13:35
told these private investigators in a videotaped statement that he felt pressured by prosecutor Chris White to
02:13:43
testify against Crosley to corroborate Sheila's account of that night at crosley's trial Lonnie corroborated
02:13:55
Sheila's story and testified that he saw Crosley in the hours after the murder and said that Crosley told him quote I
02:14:04
[ __ ] up but now 10 years later Lonnie told private investigators this wasn't true it couldn't be because Lonnie was
02:14:13
with Sheila for the entire night of the murder and the following morning and neither had spoken to Crosley about
02:14:22
[Music] anything but one of the most important Witnesses the woman whose testimony was
02:14:30
devastating to Crosley a trial well she was Elusive and kept avoiding the investigator's
02:14:37
calls that was Sheila green I asked Rob Parker crosley's defense attorney for the 1990 trial just
02:14:46
how damning was Sheila's testimony I you know basically told told Crosley I said you know she strapped you
02:14:52
in did you believe Sheila green at that time do you believe that Crosley green actually told her did no I don't believe
02:14:59
that why do you think Sheila green testified against her own brother that way why she didn't want to go to federal
02:15:09
prison the more I learned about this case the more I realized just how powerful her testimony was against her
02:15:16
brother did she also lie on the stand just like Lonnie Hillary and Alan Jerome Murray it became clear that in order to
02:15:25
overturn crosley's case the piis would need to track down Sheila and ask did Crosley really confess the pressure was
02:15:35
on to find her and we appealed to her older sister Shirley White I can only show Sheila love and
02:15:43
give her love the rest is up to Sheila but do you want her to come forward now I want her to come forward I
02:15:51
told her today to come for she will I know she will she's my sister she will I have that much confidence in
02:16:02
her somehow Shirley did her magic and later that week there she was leaning against a vehicle Sheila spoke with the
02:16:13
investigators I wasn't allowed to hear that initial conversation and I thought if she didn't
02:16:20
want to talk to them them she'll never talk to me a reporter with a camera but she
02:16:27
did what are these last 10 years been like for you it's been like hell that's something I had to live with
02:16:37
for the for 10 years every time I look at news and hear about an individual on death R I think about my brother and I
02:16:45
knew that he's there not only for my statement but for other people stat but I knew mine was a lie and I always told
02:16:54
myself one day that I was going to help him I didn't know about how to go about helping him because I was so
02:17:03
afraid of what the outcome of my situation is because I'm on probation and um I don't know the
02:17:11
judicial system you know and I was afraid of being sent back to prison it was painful to hear Sheila
02:17:21
story she's a mother and she said prosecutors promised to reduce her upcoming sentence on a drug conviction
02:17:29
if she gave information about crosley's whereabouts on the night of Flynn's murder what did they say would happen if
02:17:36
you didn't testify against your brother I would never see my kids again they said that specifically
02:17:44
yes my kids is is one of my weakness you know you use my kids as like like you stabbing me in my heart
02:17:52
with a knife and I never been a separated from my kids and I felt that I wanted to see him again so I
02:18:01
cooperated with the DEA and the State Attorney office are you telling me Sheila then that your entire testimony
02:18:08
against your brother was a lie was a whole lie what did that feel like on the stand felt
02:18:22
horrible it was wrong but I felt I had to do it do you think Crosley had anything to do with
02:18:32
the murder no have you talked to Crosley at all in all these 10 years no I haven't do you want
02:18:43
to yes what would you tell him he will understand he you think he will yes he will he know I
02:19:03
did it's okay he he wouldn't be mad with me and Sheila was right when I asked him about
02:19:12
this terrible betrayal Crosley didn't seem to be mad or even holding a grudge against his sister
02:19:21
I'm not no rookie with jce system okay um I'm I was 31 she was what 23 24 okay and she never went through a system
02:19:38
before they Shu her up pretty pretty good things change when they start to really mess with and start talking about
02:19:46
taking her kids and stuff away from them come on crowy no I don't hate my sister
02:19:52
man cuz it ain't Sheila fault no it ain't Sheila fault she testified against you
02:20:00
listen when I saw my sister in trial that wasn't my sister okay and it hurted me to my heart
02:20:08
to see her like that that wasn't my sister Sheila did not receive the lighter sentence she was
02:20:16
promised she ultimately gained nothing from testifying against Crosley surprisingly Crosley didn't have
02:20:25
anger towards the people who testified against him because he knew the system he knew prosecutors and investigators
02:20:34
can and sometimes would divide families just to convict someone I'm a lawyer and
02:20:41
still this was shocking to me you've had what 10 years at least to think about what happened that night
02:20:51
what do you think happened what I think I think it's terrible that a young man got
02:20:58
killed okay but who killed him how he got killed and all that I don't know but do you think that
02:21:13
there is man out there a black man by think there another man out there a killer I don't know this young
02:21:22
lady okay I'm not going to call her a liar maybe it wasn't no one maybe it was someone I wasn't there I can't tell you
02:21:32
that I cannot tell you that I had my doubts and I still have my doubts this is Alma Jean Bloss one of
02:21:47
the jurors on that 12 person all white jury that convicted Crosley of murder on a hot Florida summer day in
02:21:57
1999 I sat at her kitchen island a scan of the local paper floored today between
02:22:04
us it was the first article that the paper had written on the murder of Chip Flynn 10 years
02:22:11
ago Alma was composed but she was troubled all these years later she was still haunted by her decision to vote
02:22:20
vote for a guilty verdict and seemed to want to get it off her chest from the very beginning you yes from the very
02:22:28
from the very beginning yes the evidence was lacking pieces from the puzzle were
02:22:32
gone there was no proof of this and that what worried you the most well no fingerprints in the truck that's was
02:22:39
that was my biggest thing no fingerprints when he drove a truck and no gloves mentioned did he put his socks
02:22:45
on his hands remember the only identifiable prints found on chip truck belonged to Kim HCK no prints anywhere
02:22:55
on that truck were traced back to Crosley Alma had other concerns too they never found crosley's gun so did he have
02:23:04
one and how did they know what color cloes in an Orange Grove was pitch dark the fact that there was only one
02:23:12
eyewitness a young white woman identifying a black man did that concern you well to me actually I'll tell you it
02:23:19
was like a madeup story you thought that at the time in my personal opinion down deep in I thought
02:23:26
it was a madeup thing and then she said she saw the shots it was like she saw the shots
02:23:32
after dark how could you see them you might hear them and that bothered me it's bothered me for all these years
02:23:41
and yet even with all these questions and yes doubts during the trial Alma voted to convict Crosley along with the
02:23:50
11 other jurors did you feel pressure in the Jury Room to convict him yes I did because he had a previous past he had
02:23:59
just got out of prison or the jury they just kept saying he did it he did it he did it and I held out till the end what
02:24:06
made you finally give in I just they're all against me and I was the only one and it was down to the
02:24:16
Grits so that's what you do Alma could have hung that jury and maybe saved Crosley from Death
02:24:26
Row after talking to Alma and thinking more about the evidence I began to consider really for the first time a
02:24:34
completely different theory of the crime and it's something that Crosley himself
02:24:39
had alluded to in his interview what if this wasn't a case of mistaken identity of a third-party as
02:24:49
salent what if there was no third person at all just Kim and chip in that Orange
02:24:58
Grove I asked State Attorney Norm wolfinger why wasn't in this particular case Kim hoc ever considered a
02:25:06
suspect well I'm not getting into the investigation I can't say she was or wasn't I that was uh something that
02:25:13
happened in the investigation I went through the entire investigation I went through the entire file I went read
02:25:21
through all the court transcripts at no time did the police question her story they never tested her hair to see if a
02:25:27
gun had been held up against her head they never tested her clothing they never tested her hands why wouldn't that
02:25:33
be done wouldn't that be standard procedure well again I'm not going to get into the
02:25:37
investigation back in 1999 there was nothing in the police records or court documents to indicate that law
02:25:45
enforcement or prosecutors ever question Kim's story wanted to hear directly from
02:25:51
her about what happened that night but she denied 48 Hours multiple requests for an
02:25:59
interview we don't really know what Kim thinks she's never agreed to talk with us but Kim did provide us with a
02:26:06
statement that read in part quote for the last 10 years I've had to live with the memories and nightmares of that
02:26:13
horrific evening the fact is there are only two surviving Witnesses from that evening myself and Crosley and I'm sure
02:26:23
deep down inside Crosley knows that he's right where he deserves to be I took another look at the physical
02:26:32
evidence presented at trial the prosecution had shown the jury a diagram of holder Park the first crime scene
02:26:40
that showed shoe prints that stopped where Chip's truck was reportedly parked but reviewing the crime scene videotape
02:26:48
again with a private detective we noticed a discrepancy here is Agent dear's talking
02:26:55
on the video taken hours after the murder we heard some of this recording in past episodes and I think it's
02:27:03
important to Play It Again crime scene begins with what we believe to be suspect shoe prints that
02:27:11
initiate at this point agent dears assumed that the alleged attacker arrived at the park in
02:27:19
a vehicle because the shoeprints appeared to start on the side of the road heading in a West Direction up into
02:27:27
the area between the trees which is where this victim's vehicle was parked along with the two victims prior to the
02:27:36
abduction this so far matches the police diagram presented at trial but in the videotape crime scene Walk Through dears
02:27:47
continues you shoe prins after proceeding West will then continue on around just to the outside of this
02:27:58
fence with the last shoe print being seen just north of the second cement pole the shoe prints at dears is
02:28:07
following the one she believes belongs to the alleged as salant left the park along the fence so how could he have
02:28:15
gotten into the truck with chip and Kim [Music] the investigative team and I examined
02:28:23
another important piece of evidence Chip's truck it was a hulking 82 Chevrolet Stepside 4x4 pickup it was
02:28:33
massive the tires were so big that the only way to get into the truck was by grabbing along the window frames and
02:28:41
Hauling yourself in I asked Tim Curtis who had once owned the truck and then later sold it to chip if it was as hard
02:28:50
to drive as it looked yeah if you look at Kim's statement she never mentions any problem with the driving I mean with
02:29:00
is that possible from what you know about this truck no way I drove that truck I know exactly how that truck
02:29:06
drove 100% without a shadow of a doubt at all you could not get in that truck and take off without it stalling that is
02:29:14
a fact even if you knew a lot about driving stick I heck I own the truck and at times when I pull away from a
02:29:20
stoplight I would even stall it and I've driven it for who knows how long and got
02:29:25
a lot of experience driving trucks like that if even a career auto mechanic has had issues with stalling Chip's truck I
02:29:34
wondered how someone like crosly could have driven it for the first time that night steering and shifting and don't
02:29:42
forget with the added challenge of pointing a gun at Kim and Chip all at the same time
02:29:52
crosley's trial attorney Rob Parker never asked Crosley back in 1989 if he knew how to drive a stick
02:30:00
shift and the new team of piis told me they hadn't asked him either but I was raised driving cars with standard
02:30:09
transmissions and it came up in my conversation with Crosley we were talking about the morning after Chip's
02:30:16
murder when Crosley said he was helping his cousin carlen with her car and did you try and move the car oh yeah I tried
02:30:25
I tried to drive a car but you know she don't like me to drive it because I can't drive a car what do you mean you
02:30:30
can't drive a car I can't drive a car why not why can't you drive a car it's a stick shift and I get I have trouble
02:30:36
driving a car okay and what do you mean you have trouble driving okay I have probably shifting a car shifter and it
02:30:43
jerks when I tries to drive it to be sure we checked later with carlen and she corroborated that Crosley tried to
02:30:50
move the car but as she put it he kept quote jerking it Crosley help me out here if you have trouble driving stick
02:31:01
Shi and standard transmission I mean you knew that truck that chip Flynn owned was standard transmission why didn't you
02:31:08
tell your lawyer that I didn't do that what do you mean how how I supposed to know that man got a standing shift or
02:31:17
automatic how I supposed to know you tell me how I supposed to know what kind of truck that man
02:31:24
got such a simple detail that somehow fell through the cracks at trial the fact that the truck had a standard
02:31:32
transmission with a clutch was part of the evidence at trial and yet no one thought to ask Crosley if he could even
02:31:41
drive it I asked defense attorney Rob Parker to clarify for me more details of the
02:31:48
case did the pr uters ever find any Fingerprints of cros grits no did they find any bloody clothing
02:31:55
no did they find this ass salance weapon no did they find any weapon that Crosley
02:32:01
green owned that could be connected to that shooting no ma'am did they find any evidence at all physical evidence that
02:32:10
Crosley green was there quite to the contrary they found evidence um fingerprint evidence Laten fingerprints
02:32:18
that are not crosly green and are to this day unidentified by the end of our time in
02:32:24
Bard County I felt like I was leaving with more questions than answers why was there a man sitting on
02:32:32
death row for nearly a decade when there was no direct physical evidence tying him to the
02:32:39
crime my crew and I headed home to New York to work on our broadcast and thought we might be dealing with a
02:32:47
wrongful conviction 48 hours we take you [Music] there on November 1st 1999 48 Hours aired its first broadcast
02:33:02
on Crosley green Dan Rather introduced our story a condemned man is waiting to die he insists that he's innocent and
02:33:13
perhaps he is back in the 90s CBS and Broadcast News in general had a lot of power news networks were the only game
02:33:21
in town and there were very few wrongful convictions reported on the air still reversing a death sentence can be an
02:33:30
impossible mission our report gave national attention to this small town murder but it also Shook Up rard County
02:33:39
the investigative team turned up four people who had testified against Crosley who then later recanted their stories
02:33:47
even at the risk of being charged with Pur y this was a Monumental Revelation for
02:33:53
the community there and one for me too what happens if they don't get you a new trial what happened he from this day
02:34:03
forward like I say if I make it or don't make it it's always going to be a question about this case it's always
02:34:12
going to be something about this case that people's going to wonder about [Music]
02:34:21
on the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green you have tons of
02:34:30
circumstantial evidence against Kim now I don't see how how it could have gone the way it did you actually believe chip
02:34:38
came up with this story along with her absolutely there's no he have to he'd have to and if it was some stranger who
02:34:43
abducted him and shot him I think the first words out of his mouth would be he went that way it was a black man he went
02:34:49
that way you know but he would never say it's always just get me out of here get
02:34:54
me out of here get me out of here that's all he would ever [Music] say so this this was an unusual case did
02:35:14
it ever occur to you or anyone else that maybe Kim HCK was wasn't telling the truth well of course it did I mean it
02:35:22
always does I don't accept what everyone tells me at face value that's former assistant State
02:35:31
Attorney Chris White he was one of two prosecutors who tried Crosley gream for the murder of Chip Flynn back in
02:35:40
1990 back in 2015 I asked him why Kim hoc was never investigated as a possible suspect
02:35:49
what do you mean I mean what no GSR taken of her hands why not I don't know if there was or wasn't there was it why
02:35:58
weren't her clothes collected um again why pictures they weren't why weren't pictures taken up of
02:36:09
her hands her arms to see if she had any injuries well those are all interesting
02:36:13
questions but I'm not really quite sure that you ought to ignore all the things that uh that were done and do exist but
02:36:21
what I've been told is that it's just standard practice that you investigate the person who's calling 911 one of the
02:36:30
last people to see chip Flynn alive that you would investigate her but your own investigator said she was never ever
02:36:37
investigator as a suspect and I wasn't the only one who wondered why beginning in 1999 the private investigators
02:36:45
forensic experts the media and the state re-examined and questioned the validity
02:36:52
of crosley's conviction after four state Witnesses recanted and said they lied at
02:37:00
trial I'm 48 Hours correspondent Aon morard this is murder in the Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley
02:37:09
Green episode 5 life or death row 48 hours we take you there on September 5th 1990 an allwhite
02:37:27
jury eight women and four men convicted Crosley green of kidnapping robbery and first-degree murder the judge then
02:37:35
sentenced him to death since then Crosley green has been on death row nine years waiting to die after 48 Hours
02:37:44
aired impossible mission on November 1st 1999 other news outlets picked up the story
02:37:52
about the four Witnesses who had recanted their testimonies we got letters from viewers who were outraged
02:37:59
and wanted to know more several different attorneys stepped up and offered to represent Crosley and even
02:38:06
before our report aired crosley's case had already grabbed so much attention that Florida State Attorney Norm
02:38:13
wolfinger requested the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also known as the f dle to review the case you must
02:38:23
have been concerned about some of these questions that the detectives have raised for you to call in the Florida
02:38:28
Department of Law Enforcement you know this is an investigation we have somebody on death row so we want to do a
02:38:34
fair independent review and that's what we're going to do in 1999 I met with wolfinger to discuss Crosley Green's
02:38:42
case and I asked him if he's ever had four Witnesses in one trial recant a decade later later have you ever had
02:38:51
that I don't know that we've ever had that accusation uh made of four P persons recanning I asked the same
02:38:58
question of prosecutor Chris White you know I never have I I never have that doesn't trouble you not coming from
02:39:08
those people with those ties to the Green family and the Green family being what it is no it doesn't trouble me a
02:39:17
great deal and I think virtually every one of those folks had prior criminal history th those people are not
02:39:24
law-abiding honest people that you can trust to tell the truth about something like that and that's the way I took it
02:39:31
I'm sorry but that's the way I took it those people that white now called unreliable and dishonest were the same
02:39:40
ones that he used to build his case a trial and told the jury to trust why did you use people that you say have no
02:39:51
credibility and you offer them deals help them out if they would say that crle green confessed you say you used
02:40:01
people that had no credibility mhm I was pretty much convinced that if they had watched this happen they would have
02:40:11
never told us about it unless they found themselves in a situation where it was of benefit to them to actually tell us
02:40:18
what I can consider would be the truth and State Attorney wolfinger's response to the
02:40:25
recantations is that a concern that's why FDLE is looking at it the Florida Department of Law
02:40:32
Enforcement or the FDLE was set up to support state agencies in preventing investigating and solving crimes in the
02:40:40
State of Florida for crosley's case inspectors were asked to review the crime scene details again reinie
02:40:48
Witnesses collect all available forensic evidence and then break down Point by Point their investigation I have all the
02:40:57
confidence in the world they're going to do a good job and we'll go from there if
02:41:00
they find these things in fact happen that's going to be embarrassing for this office isn't it it's not embarrassing if
02:41:06
somebody lies on the stand you can't control people lying on the stand but if it involved some questionable tactics by
02:41:14
the prosecution's office well those are matters that that obviously F will look at and you know and we'll have them
02:41:21
resolved Crosley and his team of private investigators knew that this could be a
02:41:26
turning point in his case so crosy was not concerned when the FDLE indicated as part of the
02:41:34
investigation that two human hairs would be submitted for DNA testing that evidence never used at
02:41:42
trial came from a vacuum collection of Chip Flynn's truck Crosley was willing to to submit a blood
02:41:51
sample why weren't those tests done earlier well at the time of the murder the use of forensic DNA technology to
02:41:59
test evidence like human hairs was still very new but by 1999 in the 10 years since Chin's murder the forensic
02:42:09
technology had Advanced it would take over 11 months for the FDLE investigators to compile
02:42:18
their findings and on July 25th 2000 they released their report in the more than 80 page report
02:42:28
investigators admitted that no evidence was found in either holder park or the Orange Grove to implicate Crosley green
02:42:37
but they also concluded that the prosecution did not pressure Sheila green Lonnie Hillary or Alan Jerome
02:42:45
Murray to testify against Crosley although all three Witnesses recanted their testimonies investigators said
02:42:53
their credibility was questionable but the most significant finding of the report came at the end
02:43:01
investigators determined that the testing of the two human hairs that they identified as quote negroid body hairs
02:43:09
found in the vacuum collection of Chip's truck connected Crosley green to the victim's vehicle and that meant
02:43:17
according to the report report that the DNA results corroborated Kim's identification of
02:43:26
Crosley the report was devastating newspaper headlines read drive to free death row inmate backfires and DNA test
02:43:37
puts convict at murder scene Norm wolfer told the press and I quote the DNA match
02:43:44
puts Crosley Green in that truck obviously we don't have an innoc man on death row we have the right man but
02:43:53
crosley's investigators called the state's DNA testing bad science and the media's coverage shameful for acting on
02:44:02
a press release that was quote untruthful and misleading I know I haven't been in that
02:44:08
truck it's not mine that's not my hair I can't explain it to you other than tell you that I was
02:44:18
nowhere around at the time that crime was committed and I never been in that truck I I myself PR agree never been in
02:44:26
that truck I still remember reading the FDLE report for the first time and that sinking feeling I had and yet I knew
02:44:37
enough about DNA testing to realize that there was something wrong with the reports conclusion it said quote lab
02:44:46
coure test found that the negroid hairs were consistent with the hair samples as
02:44:52
originating from Crosley Alexander green or a maternally related individual no other maternal relation of greens has
02:45:02
been identified as a suspect in this case in the early days of DNA analysis when when juries were presented with
02:45:10
this evidence I think they were given the impression that it was a lot more definitive than it really was this is
02:45:16
Nathan lent a biology professor and forensic scientist at John J College in New York City we spoke earlier this year
02:45:25
and he agreed to help me understand how DNA testing has evolved since the time of the FDLE
02:45:32
report mitochondrial DNA can eliminate someone but it can't confirm identity it it it does it doesn't really implicate
02:45:40
someone mitochondrial DNA unlike nuclear DNA only contains genes from your mother's side which means it's not as
02:45:51
precise and that can complicate identifying someone because anyone who has the same mother any two individuals
02:45:59
with the same mother will also have the same mitochondrial DNA and then of course their mother as well so you can
02:46:06
extend that out to first cousins second cousins third cousins if you can imagine
02:46:10
a family tree going back looking only at mothers and you will find that the number of relatives you have you know
02:46:18
expand exps exponentially every generation are you saying then just so I understand millions of people could
02:46:25
share the exact same mitochondrial DNA exact same yes you could go back to the Middle Ages nuclear DNA is better at
02:46:34
identifying specific individuals because it's a mixture of genes from both parents but in this case the FDL Le
02:46:42
commissioner said that the two hairs from the truck were just so small that they wouldn't contain enough new nuclear
02:46:49
DNA for forensic testing mitochondrial DNA was their only option and it's worth restating here what Professor lent
02:46:59
pointed out as the weakness of mitochondrial DNA testing mitochondrial DNA can eliminate someone but it can't
02:47:07
confirm identity it it doesn't it doesn't really implicate someone so the two hairs don't definitively Place
02:47:15
Crosley in the truck could they belong to someone else like his brother well it turns out you
02:47:24
know Conor had been in that truck probably maybe a half a dozen times prior to me ever selling the chip
02:47:32
remember Tim Curtis he's the guy who owned a local body shop and he sold chip Flynn his pickup truck he was also one
02:47:41
of the four Witnesses at trial who recanted Tim had been friends with crosley's little brother okan growing
02:47:50
up here's what OK Conor green had to say I know the truck well because I used to
02:47:56
drive the truck I used to take the truck to lunch sometime and come back and sometime I used to ride with Tim Curtis
02:48:07
in the truck and come back to the shop cuz I used to be up to a dad Body Shop all the
02:48:14
time if Crosley green cannot be excluded and his brother can't be excluded how many more people can't be excluded if
02:48:22
you're talking about the area of that region in Florida I would bet dollars to Donuts you're talking about dozens of
02:48:28
people in his you know within a 100 miles we'll say and here's something else to
02:48:37
consider in the vacuum collection investigators found several other types of hair along with what they called
02:48:45
quote negroid body hairs that they link to Crosley but the forensic lab was only
02:48:53
asked to check for the presence of negroid hairs I asked Lance why they didn't test all the hairs and whether he
02:49:02
thought that implicit bias might have played a part in this investigation you can't tell the the
02:49:09
racial or ethnic background by looking at a hair either you of course there are textures and colors that are more common
02:49:14
in some groups than others uh calling it a negroid hair we just don't do that anymore I mean that that was also the
02:49:20
language that was used at that time uh but we don't you we don't say that anymore because it's suggestive and
02:49:25
that's why subjective determinations you know really aren't allowed in court or shouldn't be allowed in court and and
02:49:31
frankly it seemed pretty clear that they were on the lookout for a negroid hair what tells you that I mean that's called
02:49:38
bias right and there's a an expression you only find what you look for and so if you're not if you're looking for a
02:49:45
particular kind of hair to implicate a particular type of person and you're vacuuming a truck you're going to find
02:49:51
that or potentially and how many other hairs did they just sift through because they weren't looking for that kind of
02:49:58
hair so when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says this testing has placed Crosley Alexander green inside
02:50:06
the V victim's vehicle you agree with that I I don't think that that's a defensible
02:50:11
statement I really don't and I think that um I think that Crosley deserves uh much
02:50:19
he deserves a new trial at the least this case to me looks like they were trying to find evidence that aligned
02:50:26
with what they thought happened and pointing at Crosley green mhm the mitochondrial DNA test result
02:50:34
was a major setback for Crosley and what's worse the hairs were destroyed during the test because forensics used
02:50:44
100% of the hair evidence collected for the investigation so even if Crosley had
02:50:50
dreamed of doing another DNA test another time when DNA technology evolved to give a more definitive answer he
02:51:01
[Music] couldn't the fd's findings may not have exonerated Crosley green but they did
02:51:19
confirm the inconsistencies in Kim H's story about the night that chip Flyn was murdered like how the bullet recovered
02:51:27
from Chip's body may have been fired from his own 22 caliber revolver not a semi-automatic weapon like Kim
02:51:36
described or how although Kim said the suspect's gun accidentally went off at holder park there were no shell casings
02:51:45
found there and casings that were found at the Orange Grove were old and had been there long before the murder and
02:51:54
there was this that the main shoeprints in the park which the prosecution said belonged to the suspect actually showed
02:52:01
someone coming in and out of the area not disappearing where the truck had been parked which contradicts the
02:52:10
prosecution's diagram that was shown at trial to bolster Kim's story that the suspect drove off with her in chip these
02:52:18
were serious inconsistencies that I never saw mention in the Press coverage about the FDLE
02:52:26
report the series of events as she described them do not align with the evidence that's on
02:52:36
the scene Mark rxy is now retired from The Bard County Sheriff's Office it wasn't
02:52:43
easy to get him to talk initially but I've interviewed him since many times over the years covering this case he was
02:52:51
one of the first two responders on the scene of Chip's murder I asked him what he thought when he heard Kim's account
02:52:58
of the events the night of the murder I thought it was totally Preposterous totally this truck is high
02:53:06
off the ground for someone whose hands are tied behind his back to get a hold of a gun jump out of this jacked up
02:53:13
truck and start shooting from behind his back does not seem credible me whatsoever you have tons of
02:53:22
circumstantial evidence against Kim one thing against Crosley 20 things against Kim you know I don't see how how it
02:53:31
could have gone the way it did there's a lot rexie says he still doesn't understand about that Knight like why it
02:53:39
took him so long to call 911 why she gave the police the wrong directions multiple times and why the ti fire
02:53:48
tracks from the truck showed no signs of hurry on the way out of the Orange Grove
02:53:56
I followed the same path that uh the truck left the orchard in and I noticed that the tire prints were
02:54:08
perfectly detailed if you leave a Sandy area or a dirt area in a hurry you're going to
02:54:16
have some Tire spin there's not going to be perfectly detailed tire tracks and these were perfectly detailed and what
02:54:24
did that say to you at that moment nothing cuz I didn't know the the story of what supposedly happened there but
02:54:33
later on that morning after we were released from the crime scene it seemed extremely unusual because she was
02:54:41
supposedly leaving that area in a in a big hurry you know and there's the evidence didn't support that former Bard
02:54:49
County Patrol Sergeant Diane Clark was also on the midnight Patrol shift the night of the murder she was working with
02:54:56
brixie to locate chip and secure the crime scene Clark had her own suspicions if the shooter had what she said was a
02:55:09
small flat weapon flat black would have been most likely a pistol versus a revolver
02:55:18
they had would have had been shell casings because a revolver the casings stay in the weapon with a semi-automatic
02:55:25
they discharge when the slide comes back the casing pops out the side and they never found any casings out there what
02:55:32
does that say to you tells me that there wasn't a semi-automatic and in the in as
02:55:37
dark as it was unless he took the time to scour the area and pick up the casings or casing
02:55:45
or whatever and I high doubt that happened then where were they was there ever a
02:55:54
semi-automatic out there I don't see that that makes a case that Kim committed this murder I brought
02:56:02
up Clark's and rx's theory about Kim's story to prosecutor Chris White I'm not I'm not saying that well yes you are and
02:56:10
you know that's the only reason I'm here because I think it's an atrocity that this woman was put through being accused
02:56:16
of this at trial and it was tried let me tell you I I was there and the only thing that happened in the course of all
02:56:23
of that was that a jury got to listen to All of the evidence live from the mouths
02:56:29
of the witnesses and they got to see all of the exhibits and they made a determination as to what they believed
02:56:35
happened I TR talk a little bit okay when you're I know you're offended that anyone rais the possibility that Kim H
02:56:43
might have had something to do with this so let's talk about this based on evidence I'm
02:56:46
offended now brixie told me something else I believe that she accidentally shot him I actually I believe they were
02:56:54
sitting at holder Park got into an argument she pulled the Glen out of the glove box and shot him accidentally I
02:57:01
don't believe she intentionally wanted to kill him or shoot him panicked they both panicked concocted this story and
02:57:09
drove him out there and dropped him off and said I'll you know we'll come back to protect her so she wouldn't go to
02:57:15
jail once he died then the Stakes were raised tremendously and she could never go back on her story because then she'd
02:57:22
be even in more trouble so you actually believe chip came up with this story along with her absolutely there's no he
02:57:28
have to he'd have to because he it was it was apparent when I got there that he did not want to tell us who did it he
02:57:37
there's no way and if it was some stranger who abducted him and shot him I think the first words out of his mouth
02:57:43
would be he went that way it was a black man he went that way you know but he would never say it was always just get
02:57:49
me out of here get me out of here get me out of here that's all he would ever say
02:57:54
did you tell anyone your suspicions oh absolutely that that morning I told everybody I talked to you know all of
02:58:01
them I said I said she did it Mark believes that he knows what chip told her out there when he wasn't there
02:58:10
huh but I think we ought to stick with the facts all right this was not the first time White
02:58:17
had heard about about rxy and Clark's doubts about what happened that night he knew about it long before Crosley green
02:58:24
ever went on trial it turns out that white never disclosed to the defense a critical piece of evidence he had notes
02:58:33
that he had taken at a meeting with rxy and Clark who went to his office in August of 1989 over 4 months after the
02:58:43
murder but a year before the trial this is what you're you know what this is this is yeah those
02:58:50
are the notes that I took when I was speaking uh to them in the notes that white took during that meeting he wrote
02:58:57
that rxy and Clark suspected the girl did it and that she changed her story a couple of times and he also wrote quote
02:59:06
didn't see any footprint didn't see any casings she wouldn't go down there to the scene why wouldn't the guy say who
02:59:14
shot him just said I want to go home I asked Chris White if Clark and rxy disclosed then that they believe that
02:59:23
Kim HCK was involved in this shooting they did and why didn't you then take their
02:59:31
word seriously and investigate to see if in fact they were correct I reviewed all
02:59:36
the evidence that we had with that hypothesis in mind okay um I'm not sure what investigation you think uh could
02:59:46
have been accomplished at that point in time when they told me that by the early 2000s Crosley was
02:59:54
being represented by attorneys from a Florida state agency that represents people on death row after getting wind
03:00:01
of the withheld evidence his new attorneys filed a motion and fought to get Chris White's file but the
03:00:08
prosecution pushed back refusing to hand it over claiming attorney client privilege why weren't these notes handed
03:00:18
over to the defense your notes they're my personal work notes there's a reason why crosley's lawyers wanted those notes
03:00:24
so badly and that reason goes back to a decades old US Supreme Court case known as Brady versus Maryland that case
03:00:35
requires prosecutors to disclose to the defense all material evidence all of it regardless of whether that evidence
03:00:44
supports the defendant's guilt or innocence with holding that evidence is now known as a Brady violation and can
03:00:52
lead to a conviction being thrown out and that's when Crosley began his yearslong battle to prove that
03:01:00
withholding those notes denied him a fair trial the problem he had to convince the court that those notes were
03:01:08
in fact material or crucial to the defense wouldn't this have been helpful for the defense to be able to ask more
03:01:20
questions about what they saw and heard at the scene well my recollection is that they have presented this argument
03:01:27
that this is exculpatory evidence that the defense was denied and that it would have made a difference the judge found
03:01:33
no it wouldn't and that's exactly what happened crosley's appeal was denied by a judge who ruled quote the purported
03:01:41
opinion of deputies rxy and Clark would not have been admissible at trial rxy and Clark's opinion were not considered
03:01:51
material under Brady and now an answer to something that might be troubling you it certainly bothered me why didn't mark
03:02:00
rxy or Diane Clark on their own go to the original defense lawyers and share their
03:02:06
thoughts well unless you're involved in a complete investigation you really have
03:02:12
to kind of stay out of it and once we did our job and turned it over to to the investigators were kind of pushed aside
03:02:21
once we talked to him and and gave him everything we could give him you know was kind of like
03:02:28
okay you can go now kind of thing and you know unless they call you and ask you to come in you really kind of keep
03:02:36
you keep your nose out of it because they don't even bothered prosecutors didn't just withhold information from
03:02:43
crosley's defense I asked prosecutor white about misstated evidence in the trial like the dog tracking evidence you
03:02:53
have been to the scene where the crime started and you have seen the shoe impressions of that person who came to
03:03:00
the truck who robbed them who abducted them who took them to that Grove and who shot chip you've seen those shoe
03:03:06
Impressions it wasn't just her and chip out there Mr White those shoe Impressions have never been connected to
03:03:14
Crosley green the defendant in this case ever remember Crosley admitted that he walked through the Orange Grove in
03:03:20
holder Park the night of the murder but holder Park was a well-traveled area and
03:03:26
there was a baseball game that night and yet the FDLE report found nothing at holder park or the Orange Grove that
03:03:34
implicated Crosley including those shoe prints in the hours after the murder in 1989 officials brought in a canine dog
03:03:44
named Zar to track the scent that led along the shoe prints left in the sand of the park if this was a
03:03:52
trailing dog that was trained for specific scent and they had uh Crosley green clothing in the Dog trail to the
03:04:00
murder site that would be potentially a compelling piece of evidence but following just fresh scent from one
03:04:07
location to another I would say has very limited um forensic uh value admittedly I knew
03:04:16
close to nothing about dog tracking and police cases so as part of our investigation for this podcast I wanted
03:04:23
to talk to an expert Professor Kenneth fton is the executive director of the global forensic and Justice Center at
03:04:31
Florida International University Professor fton is an expert in what is known as K9 old faction old
03:04:40
faction meaning sense of smell he told me in an investigation like this canines can either trust track or Trail ascent
03:04:50
and there's a difference the the tracking piece is really following um any uh person's scent so
03:04:59
it's just following human scent and it's typically the k9's trained to follow the
03:05:04
freshest uh set now Trail is often more often used for specific human set so dogs can be trained to follow a scent
03:05:13
article and so then if you have a article like a missing person or you have an article from a suspect you
03:05:19
present that to the dog and say uh was that person here and that's a separate trailing component because there was no
03:05:28
scent article available for Zar to Trail a specific scent the police dog handler
03:05:34
just had Zar track the freshest scent available they saw Footprints they follow them working towards the the tip
03:05:44
of the toe to the heel so they call it like backtracking following whether the assuming that person walked that way
03:05:51
will the dog follow the scent and the dog picked up a scent and followed it um and on soft ground it's pretty easy to
03:05:59
follow the scent and then it went onto harder surfaces onto concrete which becomes more difficult Zar was shown the
03:06:06
shoeprints and started tracking them South out of holder Park he followed the shoeprints from a dune area in the park
03:06:14
to the edge of the pave road but the shoeprints and Ed there so Zar continued to follow that scent until it led him to
03:06:22
the front of crosley's sister Tina's house where Crosley often stayed it was one of the most damaging pieces of
03:06:30
evidence presented at crosley's case during the 1990 murder trial the defense pointed out that the dog handler
03:06:39
stopped Zar because there were two dogs in Tina's front yard and that Zar never finished tracking the scent the dog
03:06:48
handler admitted that they stopped Zars tracking to prevent a conflict with the two dogs I asked Professor Fon if it was
03:06:56
proper procedure to stop tracking because of the presence of two dogs yeah I believe so it is appropriate
03:07:03
to stop because you don't want to get into an engagement um with a a well-trained police dog fighting with
03:07:11
two other dogs even if the even if Zar is not aggressive you don't know if those dogs are aggressive so I would
03:07:18
have stopped my dog at that point as well so we have no clue if Zar might have kept going if Tina's dogs weren't
03:07:26
in the front yard and not only that it's not clear what scent Zar was tracking yeah I mean he tracked asent the dog
03:07:35
tracked asent but it's not uh it's not descent after Zar tracked holder Park he was taken to the Orange Grove the side
03:07:43
of the murder and where the main struggle took place but zar was unable to pick up the holder Park scent in the
03:07:51
dog Handler's report they said quote the Orange Grove in the area was checked and
03:07:57
nobody had walked in the Grove in the last couple of days what if I tell you Dr fton that
03:08:04
they were never able to no matter how hard they tried to connect the suspect the defendant to those particular shoe
03:08:14
prints that they were following does that conc you yeah that would because canines are a great tool
03:08:22
to connect other pieces of evidence but not as the primary evidence that fresh scent could be anything right correct
03:08:30
the Kine wasn't following Descent of Crosley green they were following sent of somebody who could have been Crosley
03:08:38
green or another person it wasn't um there they're you know the canines are not used as a identification tool in
03:08:46
that role [Music] what is it going to take for people to understand that I didn't kill this young
03:09:01
man what is it going to take for me to get a fair Hearing in lower courts while crosley's attorneys were
03:09:11
fighting to get him a new trial the days stretch into weeks weeks evolved in into
03:09:17
months and months turned into years Crosley had been on death row since he was 33 years old now at the age of 49 he
03:09:29
had been living with a very real possibility of death by either lethal injection or the electric chair for 16
03:09:38
years life outside was moving on without him Crosley had long dreamed about the day he'd be reunited with his two sons
03:09:48
who are now grown men there's a lot of things I want to do but the first thing I want to
03:09:56
do is to get my sons take off and go somewhere just where we'll be together no one
03:10:07
else when we went and seen him he was on death row that's schuma Stokes crosley's
03:10:14
son and they just like you know just like it wasn't enough time in the day you know me and him my brother Gaston
03:10:24
Gap and my aun Tina we went and seen him and it just like when we got ready to leave it just was like you know sad you
03:10:33
know I ain't want to leave schuma was 16 and his brother Gaston who they call Gap
03:10:38
was six when their father was sent away I just ain't want to see him in that position did you worry that your dad
03:10:46
might be ex I mean yeah yeah and it's like wow this actually happening we hear these stories every day and we like oh
03:11:03
man a worri about but until it happened to yours then that's when you take notice and that's when you know it's for
03:11:08
real and then you find out there's really being some injustice being done and that's how it was you know I was
03:11:15
like I went off on the D in for a while and what about his brother Gaston my brother took it he took it to heart cuz
03:11:25
he was he he was young he was real young and for him to uh what he had to go through going through school being
03:11:32
picked at and not only him my cousins they went through it the downstream or collateral consequences of one person's
03:11:43
incarceration on his immediate and extended families on communities and even on society cannot be
03:11:52
understated it just it was rough for us to go through that you know cuz you got people calling your parent a murderer he
03:12:01
should die I mean killing I mean man we went through some sh we went through some
03:12:08
stuff and my brother man he man that messed him up yeah I mean that messed him up pretty bad even as an
03:12:21
adult schuma says he struggles to control his emotions alternating between anger loss and
03:12:31
despair by the mid 2000s Crosley Green's legal battle had spanned nearly two decades he was running out of options
03:12:40
but his luck was about to change crosley's attorney went before the Florida Supreme Court determined to get
03:12:48
Crosley off death row in the hearing his attorney told the court that during crosley's sentencing phase in
03:12:56
1991 the prosecution while seeking the death penalty wrongfully used a prior conviction for robbery that conviction
03:13:05
when Crosley was 18 had actually been vacated but Chris White still presented that prior felony to the jury and
03:13:13
Crosley was sentenced to death now crosley's attorney argued that the conviction should have remained
03:13:20
sealed because the judge ruled him a juvenile since he was younger than 19 and had erased the charge from his
03:13:28
record after years of appeals the Florida Supreme Court finally issued a ruling in 2007 upholding his conviction
03:13:38
but agreeing that there was an error in sentencing and that Crosley should be resentenced Crosley was now entitled to
03:13:46
a new hearing on sentencing but if he was going to get off death row he needed the best of the best the first moment I
03:13:56
met Crosley you know I met him and he came out in a orange jumpsuit Shackled hand ankle and around the waist meet
03:14:05
defense attorney Keith Harrison and we got we went into a little room that was it was probably
03:14:14
about 4T by 8T and I told him that we would do everything we could to get him out of
03:14:23
prison I didn't know it at the time but our 48 Hours report had caught the eye of officials at the American Bar
03:14:31
Association in 2008 the aba's death penalty project sent a copy of our report to Attorneys at cran Morin an
03:14:40
international law firm renowned for its diversity among its lawyers their mission to get get Crosley green off
03:14:48
death row on the case was Jean Thomas and Keith Harrison both Partners at crw and morningin in Washington
03:14:57
DC we looked at the record um and as a lawyer it it just made me so angry and we were just so offended that you know
03:15:06
such a gross Injustice had been done that we really wanted to really wanted to work on it Thomas has had a long
03:15:12
history of litigating postconviction death penalty cases Keith Harrison a former New York prosecutor focuses on
03:15:21
complex trials arbitration and investigations it's worth noting that Harrison is a black man and possibly the
03:15:30
only black lawyer to Ever represent Crosley green it was pretty clear to the lawyers on our team that this wasn't
03:15:40
just a case about the death penalty this was a case about actual innocence um so first we pursued what's
03:15:47
called habus relief in State Court postc conviction relief in State Court where you challenge the
03:15:54
constitutionality of the the trial uh and and the sentencing then on August 31st 2009 after 19 years facing
03:16:04
execution Crosley green attorneys won a major victory Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit Court resentenced Crosley to
03:16:15
life in prison when we got him off death row you know was was really a big high because that's
03:16:22
what we that was our number one goal when we took on the case most of us don't know how we're
03:16:31
going to die but we also don't have to live with death hanging over us at any time after Years of Living inside a 6ot
03:16:40
wide 9 foot long cell on death row crosy green finally could begin thinking of about a future how did he feel about
03:16:51
that for number one I felt relieved I felt relieved when I say I felt relieved I felt relieved for the fact that I do
03:17:00
not have to worry now about them signing my warant my warrant and I have to March
03:17:05
over there and be on Death Watch so I felt real good at that time that that was over with but I know
03:17:17
I have another 100 yards to go how optimistic are you now that you will ever get out of
03:17:26
here how ofous I am I've spent money quite a few years on death row so my best answer is that is
03:17:41
that I still got hope that one day I'm going to go free and I knew I'm going to go free in the
03:17:50
past Crosley told me that his State appointed lawyers rarely talked to him but over the course of fighting for his
03:17:58
release from Death Row Harrison and Thomas really got to know Crosley the man not just the inmate the first time I
03:18:07
met Crosley on death row you I told him you know what we were trying to do and that we were going to try to you know um
03:18:12
get him off death row and introduce myself uh and uh he said I'm just excited to see you and I'm I'm so glad
03:18:21
you're here and and I was like well you know he's had other postconviction lawyers and stuff I wasn't sure what he
03:18:28
was talking about and he said you know look you know I've I've been praying for God to send me you know somebody that's
03:18:37
going to you know help me I I prayed to God Send Me an Angel and I know you're that
03:18:45
angel um um and when somebody says something like that to you you know it's a it sets you back a little bit which is
03:18:56
why they all stayed on crosley's case even after getting him off death row and are now working on it pro
03:19:05
bono this is uh the only case I pray about and I pray about it almost every day i' look at this case as not a weight
03:19:16
but an opportunity an opportunity to do justice to do the right thing for someone who really really deserves you
03:19:24
know everything I can and my firm can give him so um I just look at it as an opportunity and I'm just going to keep
03:19:32
trying to press every button pull every lever and do everything I can to um you know to win his
03:19:41
freedom Keith Harrison thinks and has told the court that we're witnessing a case of what is known as a racial hoax a
03:19:50
racist narrative as old as time this is not just a simple case of mistaken identity that the wrong person got
03:19:58
picked out of a lineup on the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green
03:20:06
all of the evidence points to the fact that there was no third person at the scene of the crime there was an accident
03:20:14
it would be fair to conclude and she made up a story after the fact it's unfortunately a classic case of what is
03:20:25
often referred to as a racial hoax which is a black guy did it something went wrong a witness said oh a black guy did
03:20:34
it and the prosecution pursued that theory of the case when Crosley green was released from
03:20:56
Death Row in 2009 it was a major victory but it didn't erase almost two decades of trauma death row had taken a toll on
03:21:06
crosley's Mental Health when I say I was a mess I was a mess I got bad nerves behind it I got the shakes behind it
03:21:15
because that wasn't no joke that wasn't no joke it affected his relationships with the family members he
03:21:25
had left behind I missed him so much not being there to see him grow up you know
03:21:33
and having them to see me in that position at times was painful to me it was painful still behind bars with a
03:21:42
life sentence he spent a lot of time thinking about his situation and said his case was not unique what I mean that
03:21:51
there have been cases where innocent people have been accused of crimes that they didn't
03:22:01
[Music] commit all of the evidence points to the fact that there was no third person at
03:22:08
the scene of the crime that's one of crosley's lawyers Jean Thomas to the contrary it suggests that the these two
03:22:17
teenagers were alone they were exboyfriend and girlfriend there was an accident it would be fair to conclude
03:22:26
and she made up a story after the fact remember that Kim and Chip were exes and Chip had a new girlfriend Kim testified
03:22:36
that she and Chip discussed Chip's relationship with that new girlfriend the night of the murder and that the
03:22:42
relationship made her upset here's CR other lawyer Keith Harrison this is not just a simple case
03:22:52
of mistaken identity that the wrong person got picked out of a lineup this is a case um it's it's uh unfortunately
03:23:00
a classic case of what is often referred to as a racial hoax which is a black guy
03:23:06
did it I'm 48 hours corespondent eron morard this is murder in the orang Grove the
03:23:15
troubled case against Crosley Green episode 6 the other [Music] men Crosley you were in court when Kim
03:23:30
looked at you in that courtroom pointed her finger at you and said this is the man who robbed and kidnapped me what was
03:23:38
your reaction she points to you what's what was my reaction was that uh why who told her to say something
03:23:46
like this and a ain't true why would she get up there and say it the way she said
03:23:51
and it's not true our society is really guilty of this perception that just because a a white female says a black
03:24:06
man has committed a crime we take that as gospel this is Bill Gary the president of the north Bard County
03:24:16
branch of the NAACP we introduced him to you in episode 4 I asked him about the possibility that Crosley could be a
03:24:25
victim of a racial hoax I think you can go back and and look at any number of U situations where that was the
03:24:37
circumstances and what happened to those persons there I mean I could go down the
03:24:42
line of different cases a racial FES is when a person is accused of a crime often falsely because
03:24:51
of the person's race one of the best known examples the case of 14-year-old EMT till who in 1955 was lynched after
03:25:01
being accused of wolf whistling at a white woman her claims in 1955 led to Till's kidnapping his murder and really
03:25:09
became a pivotal moment in the modern civil rights movement and Susan Smith up in uh South Carolina who claimed that a
03:25:17
black man had uh hijacked her car in a tragic ending to a 9-day ordeal authorities pull Susan Smith's car and
03:25:25
the bodies of her two small children out of a nearby lake bed and now officials have confirmed that Susan has
03:25:34
perpetrated a cruel and tragic hoax the situation in New York when the man was in the park bird watching there
03:25:44
is an African-American man I in he is recording me threatening myself and my dog and
03:25:53
my I'm sorry I can't hear who either I'm being threatened by a man in the ramble
03:25:58
please send the cops immediately if you are poor and black or brown you are much
03:26:05
more likely to be caught up in that justice system and not receive justice so could have Crosley ended up
03:26:14
behind bars as a result of a racial hoax it it certainly appears that that Mr Green has
03:26:22
been uh one falsely accused and two is that the criminal justice system has not been fair to him it certainly seems that
03:26:35
there is uh an amount of meanness that uh has permitted that case from beginning to present day
03:26:47
Bill's not just talking about racial hoaxes now but specific issues with the state attorney's office in bravard
03:26:54
County remember bill has lived in Bard County for 50 years he's actively involved in community nonprofits and is
03:27:03
not just familiar with crosley's case but many of the cases that have passed through the state attorney's office go
03:27:11
back in the history of prosecutions and cases here here in bid County and I think it becomes apparent that there has
03:27:20
been questionable methods used to uh exact convictions in many cases questionable methods also played a big
03:27:29
role in the wrongful convictions of three other Bard County men Juan Ramos Bill Dylan and Wilton
03:27:38
dege in 1983 Juan Ramos was convicted of a rape and murder in Bard County Ramos was prosecuted by Christopher white the
03:27:49
same assistant State Attorney who prosecuted Crosley green Ramos was also sentenced to death for the crimes based
03:27:58
in part on testimony from a jailhouse informant who offered his testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence on a
03:28:07
series of crimes he had been accused of there was also evidence from a dog handler who was later discredited as a
03:28:15
fraud although this was not the same dog handler used in crosley's case Ramos's conviction was reversed in
03:28:24
1986 and he was acquitted in a retrial less than a year later bill Dylan had a similar story it was a nightmare it was
03:28:34
horrifying and I don't use that word lightly it was horrifying in 1981 8 years before Crosley was arrested Dylan
03:28:42
was a 20-year-old athlete whose biggest concern was trying to land a spot on the
03:28:48
Detroit Tigers a professional baseball team but before he was able to go on his second try out he was accused of
03:28:56
murdering a man in a wooded area near Kenova beach in Bard County the killer in that case was described by witnesses
03:29:05
as around 510 with a mustache and how tall are you I'm 6'4 and I never ever had a mustache when I met Bill Dylan I
03:29:16
couldn't help but feel there was a deep sadness in him almost like he couldn't believe or accept what had happened to
03:29:24
him once a rising star in baseball maybe even a contender for the major leagues his murder conviction irreparably
03:29:33
damaged him and completely changed the trajectory of his life I also couldn't help but noticed
03:29:42
that a pattern seemed to be emerging here the same discredited dog handler who testified in Ramos's trial also
03:29:51
testified at Dylan's claiming that his dog was able to track Dylan scent across the highway to the crime scene even
03:30:00
after a hurricane had come through the area and like in crosley's case prosecutors found Witnesses who said
03:30:08
they saw Dylan wearing clothes that match those worn by the killer a bloody yellow t-shirt and again like in
03:30:17
crosley's case someone close to Dylan testified against him at trial for Dylan it was an
03:30:26
ex-girlfriend Donna Parish eventually came to my trial and said that she saw me standing over the body
03:30:34
putting on a pair of pants I guess because some reason the killer had supposed to be had long pants
03:30:41
or something or whatever I'm not sure how devastating was that testimony uh it was it was really to me in my mind it
03:30:48
was very very devastating when she dropped that bombshell on me in that courtroom I was highly upset I'll tell
03:30:53
you that right now first of all she was lying and second of all my lawyer didn't
03:30:57
seem to see what was coming there and which really irritated me to a point and I what I really couldn't understand Aram
03:31:04
was how were they able to just lie like that and just get away with it Donna Parish recanted her testimony less than
03:31:12
a month after the trial she said that she had been pressured to lie in her own mind because she had been
03:31:20
threatened with 25 years for murder accessory to murder but Dylan still served more than 27 years in
03:31:29
prison before Tess showed the DNA found on that Bloody yellow shirt belonged to someone else he was released on November
03:31:39
18th 2008 I used to think while I was in prison sitting there what did I do or what what went wrong or who tried to
03:31:47
cross me up in this and then I realized it was like a program to me it was like that some certain person had sort of
03:31:55
turned a switch and just said okay convict him it doesn't matter we just need to get some people or him off the
03:32:00
street no matter whether I was innocent or guilty and then there's the case of Wilton dege in 1982 20-year-old dedge
03:32:10
was convicted of committing a brutal rape in bravard County despite the fact that the victim described her attacker
03:32:17
as 6 feet tall dege was only 5'5 that same discredited dog handler claimed that his dog detected de's scent
03:32:29
in the victim's home and Christopher white prosecuted that case they got me and they started building a case around
03:32:36
me they pull off the dog off the shelf well we really don't have any evidence let's bring in this guy he'll he'll make
03:32:43
the evidence for us you know and it seems that they've they've become a habit of doing it and it it really needs
03:32:50
to stop and again it was DNA evidence that finally proved de's innocence over two decades later he was released from
03:33:00
prison in August of 2004 um it was a lot of anger I mean and then the stuff I had to deal with in
03:33:10
there the people the atmosphere the guards the confinement uh uh I lost a lot of course hindsight is 2020 but it
03:33:27
seemed peculiar to me that so many cases in a relatively small County would later
03:33:33
be overturned for problematic evidence I feel that it's a terrible thing that an
03:33:39
innocent person would be put behind bars in 2015 I asked former prosecutor Christopher white how he felt about
03:33:48
helping to put Wilton Edge behind bars for years only to find out later that he was the wrong man and I don't like being
03:33:58
a part of that if that occurred but we presented the evidence it laid out like it did and it went the way it did and
03:34:04
all I could do is uh tell him that I was sorry that it worked out the way it does
03:34:09
I pressed white further but what about the fact that Wilton's Edge didn't even fit the original description of the are
03:34:17
we going to talk about will de because if we are going to leave I mean this is about I thought it was cros leering it
03:34:22
is but but you do know that the Innocence Project of of Florida has accused bravard County and your office
03:34:32
the office you worked in of creating a culture of corruption including they have probably accused most every office
03:34:40
in the United States of something similar Wilton Ed Bill Dylan and Juan Ramos were all wrongfully convicted and
03:34:51
exonerated years later but all three men also have another thing in common they were not black this is Bill Gary again
03:35:02
they were wrongly accused and prosecuted and thankfully they were able to get the
03:35:10
kind of legal representation that they needed to prove their innocence but many black men have not been able to do that
03:35:18
and and and that continues [Music] today in June of 2009 crosley's new lawyers from the DC firm croll and Morin
03:35:35
retained a private investigator to go down to bravard county and do some digging on crosley's case the
03:35:43
investigator tracked down two new two witnesses who claimed to have seen Crosley the night of the murder and
03:35:50
backed up his Alibi that he was at the house of his ex-girlfriend Lori Reigns his lawyers argued that Crosley was
03:35:58
entitled to a new trial based on newly discovered evidence including those two new Alibi Witnesses okay is everybody
03:36:08
ready to go yes sh are we're ready to proceed yes Ma on May 27th 2011 Crosley and and his lawyers arrived at a bravard
03:36:17
County Courthouse for an evidentiary hearing now 53 years old Crosley appeared thin and frail in this hearing
03:36:27
the judge would not be looking at the case in its entirety just the New Evidence raised by crosley's
03:36:35
lawyers up first to testify 36-year-old Brandon Wright good morning Mr Wright if
03:36:41
you come right over here to be warn that's good Brandon was currently serving over 21
03:36:48
years on a drug conviction and wore shackles around his wrists and ankles as he gave his testimony on the stand but
03:36:57
back in 1989 Brandon Wright was just a 14-year-old boy living in Mims Keith Harrison questioned him about seeing
03:37:05
Crosley at Lori Rain's house the night of the murder beginning approximately what time
03:37:12
did you see Mr Green at Lori Reigns's house on the evening of April 3rd 1989 uh I think it was uh about 11
03:37:23
1115 Brandon corroborated what Lori Reigns had always said that Crosley could not have committed the murder of
03:37:31
Chip Flynn because he was at her house at the time it took place what were you doing at lloy Reigns's house at around
03:37:41
11 11:15 on the evening of April 3rd well I was at Lor R's house because that's where we sell drugs
03:37:48
from um now were you selling drugs that evening yes sir I was he testified that he saw Crosley
03:37:56
leave Lor's house a few times that night but only to walk back and forth to his cousin caren's house which was close by
03:38:06
this was new and important information no witness at crosley's original trial had shared that he was walking back and
03:38:14
forth between the two houses so yeah I seen him constantly throughout the night you know being there cuz it's a straight
03:38:22
shot you can see Colleen back door from Lor's front door so you know can you describe for the court approximately how
03:38:30
far the distance is from Lorie rang's house to um Carling Brothers house just approximately I'll say about 50 60 yards
03:38:39
so they're in very close proximity yes Harrison wanted to emphas EMP iiz that even with Crosley walking back and
03:38:48
forth between the two houses Brandon had eyes on Crosley for most of the night he
03:38:54
was never out of my sight for that long to go to no hold Park let alone kidnap somebody and kill him Brandon testified
03:39:04
that the last time he saw Crosley was at 300 a.m. and that just a few hours later
03:39:10
he had seen police in the neighborhood with a sketch that they were saying match Papa green and were asking where
03:39:18
to find him like ain't nobody back then would really just even talk to the police cuz that's just how it was you
03:39:24
know I mean the police Wen there to help they was there to you know to hurt in his cross-examination
03:39:31
Christopher white asked Brandon about his history with selling drugs how was it that you at the age of 14 could run a
03:39:41
drug business what how did that work uh I mean to be in the streets and the sell drugs
03:39:49
is not hard like it sells itself and he pushed Brandon on why he didn't come forward back in
03:39:56
1989 with his information well that day when the police came the day after the murder the police came of course you
03:40:05
were scared of the police so you didn't help them find Crosley you didn't tell them anything about knowing anything
03:40:10
about Crosley right no they never asked right and you and you saw him there and you knew it they were doing but you
03:40:16
weren't about to go volunteer any information uh they never asked me Brandon said the
03:40:25
police never asked them about Crosley green so he never told them what he had witnessed the second new Alibi witness
03:40:34
to testify was 39-year-old Reginal Peters like Brandon Reginal had been convicted of multiple felonies in his
03:40:43
lifetime he was currently in the custody of The Bard County Jail Lori Reigns was his aunt and he had
03:40:52
been living with her in the spring of 1989 Keith Harrison's colleague Robert Road question Reginal about the night of
03:41:00
chipain's murder when did you first see Mr Green uh that evening approximately what time
03:41:07
did you say prob 11: 11 at night 11: 10 11 10 or 11: p.m. re testified that he was also
03:41:17
walking between Lori Reigns and carlen brothers houses the night of Chin's murder and that he saw Crosley at both
03:41:26
locations between 10 or 11 at night and 4:30 a.m. the next morning was Mr Green there um that
03:41:36
entire time period when I say there I'm referring to either Miss Reigns's home miss brother's home are in the field in
03:41:41
between yes sir like Brandon Reginald didn't share what he had witnessed with police back in
03:41:48
1989 because he said he was never questioned the state also called a witness James scrag a former police
03:41:57
chief who was currently employed with the state attorney's office James testified that he and Christopher White
03:42:04
had met up just a few weeks earlier to establish timings between key locations from the night of the murder we we spent
03:42:12
the morning in the Mims Titusville area we approximately eight routes and I kept
03:42:17
times for those routes James said that he and Christopher white drove several routes including the distance from the
03:42:24
ball field at holder Park to crosley's Sister Tina's house how long did it take for us to drive that actually one minute
03:42:32
they also drove from Tina's house to the intersection near the Orange Grove where
03:42:36
chip fim was shot white ask grg about how long the drive took the elapse time was 5 minutes and 27 seconds
03:42:45
white was highlighting that these key locations holder Park Tina's house the Orange Grove and Lori rain's home were
03:42:55
only a few minutes Drive apart but in his cross-examination Keith Harrison pointed
03:43:02
out a key detail you don't know whether Mr Green even owns a vehicle do you no sir now um
03:43:12
in your work um with Mr White did you ever walk any of these distances no sir why wouldn't they walk any of the
03:43:24
routes even if the as salent had arrived at holder Park in a car Kim said that they the asent Kim and Chip had all
03:43:33
driven to the Orange Grove together in Chip's pickup truck which Kim then drove off to escape at the very least the as
03:43:42
salent would have had no choice but to walk out of the Orange Grove and but you don't know how long would have taken him
03:43:49
to walk any of the distances in any of the exhibits that um that you've prepared for us today no sir I would
03:43:58
have no idea about a month after the final session after reviewing all the evidence
03:44:04
as well as an affidavit submitted by crosley's lawyers from a third new Alibi witness Randy Brown who also said he saw
03:44:12
Crosley the night of the murder the judge made his ruling Crosley green would not be granted a new
03:44:23
trial here's some of what Christopher white later told me about why the judge reached that decision what he said was
03:44:31
that the testimonies of Wright Peters and brown do not establish the defendant was somewhere else when Flynn was
03:44:36
murdered the defendant could have committed the offenses in the above styled case and still been seen by
03:44:42
Wright Peters and brown at Lori Brown's house he meant Lori Reigns given the proximity of the crime scene to the
03:44:49
mim's housing project the testimonies of Wright Peters and brown arguably even further support the state's case because
03:44:55
they plac the defendant near the crime scene around the time the crimes were committed just a few weeks after that
03:45:02
ruling Christopher white retired he was quoted in a press release from the state
03:45:08
attorney's office as saying I enjoy a challenge and this work has certainly been that but more than that
03:45:15
I've had the privilege of Seeking Justice for people who were wronged Keith Harrison had always
03:45:25
planned to take his case to the federal level if unsuccessful in state courts in
03:45:30
Florida so in November 2011 Harrison went to federal court and filed what is called a petition for habius Corpus
03:45:39
seeking to get crosley's conviction overturned if you haven't realized it by by now appealing a conviction is a
03:45:47
tedious frustrating timeconsuming process the federal court dismissed crosley's Federal petition as premature
03:45:57
because at the time he was still in the midst of State Court proceedings so crosley's attorneys had to wait another
03:46:05
3 years until the state filings and motions were complete before refiling the habus petition in 2014
03:46:15
here's attorney Jean Thomas about why she felt so strongly about crosley's case the first sentence of our petition
03:46:26
is this is a case about innocence and what we really want the court to do is to you know have the judge roll up his
03:46:32
sleeves and read into this case and take a hard look at the evidence and and you
03:46:38
know make a decision that there that there were dramatic constitutional violations here and uh order a new trial
03:46:45
for Crosley as a former prosecutor it's incredibly difficult to write a brief um that suggests
03:46:57
prosecutorial misconduct it's the last thing that really I or any of us wanted to
03:47:04
do the problem with this case is that whether you view it in isolation just the facts of this case or put it in the
03:47:12
broader context of the Ramos D and Dylan cases it's hard to ignore the pattern the prosecution and the police seem to
03:47:23
do the wrong thing again and again and again at the heart of the habius petition those notes taken by
03:47:32
Christopher white at his meeting with officers Mark rxy and Diane Clark notes that he never turned over to crosley's
03:47:40
original defense those notes came up in our last episode in an appeal at the state level that appeal was denied but
03:47:50
now there was hope that the federal appeal would have a different outcome what was your reaction when you first
03:47:57
read those notes I I was shocked my jaw dropped um I really couldn't believe it I knew
03:48:09
immediately that this was a game Cher I mean there are a lot of things wrong with this case
03:48:15
but this the notes really stood out to us right from the start as um something that it would be hard for a court to
03:48:27
ignore the state has an obligation a constitutional obligation to turn over any materials that might be considered
03:48:35
exculpatory that might help Crosley in his defense those notes certainly are considered exculpatory material and the
03:48:43
prosecutor failed to turn them again crosley's attorneys are referring to that requirement established by the
03:48:50
US Supreme Court that prosecutors hand over quote exculpatory material to the defense evidence that showed Crosley was
03:48:59
not guilty of the crime it's probably the most important document in the entire case um because it's a document
03:49:08
that points the finger at someone other than crley as being the person who committed this heinous crime instead it
03:49:15
was buried it was withheld and it was only uh came to light 20 years later crosley's attorneys argue that by
03:49:23
withholding crucial evidence those notes Christopher White had committed a Brady
03:49:29
violation but while their habus petition might sound promising crosley's lawyers
03:49:34
were quick to tell me that it was no golden ticket out of prison it's a huge uphill climb and we've told Cy this and
03:49:41
he he recognizes it um but the overwhelming majority of habus petitions are denied U many of them are denied you
03:49:52
know just out of hand but the odds are stacked against anyone who is trying to overturn their conviction so why is that
03:50:01
because appeals court judges don't go back and look at the entire case they only look at whether the trial judge or
03:50:09
the prosecutors did something that denied Crosley a fair trial it's a very high bar to meet and there are many
03:50:18
hurdles to clear along the way there's this old saying it's easy to get in and it's hard to get
03:50:26
out you understand and that's what I'm going through it was easy to get in but look how hard it is for me to get
03:50:34
[Music] out I met with Crosley for a second time back in 2015 this time at Hardy Correctional
03:50:45
Institution he had been a model inmate at Hardy since being transferred there over 5 years earlier and had picked up a
03:50:53
job in maintenance we had written to each other over the years but it had now been over 15 years since our last face-
03:51:01
to-face meeting on death row it was also now 25 years since his murder conviction
03:51:09
crosy was 57 years old with grain hair and a closely crossed beard did you think we'd forget you no I
03:51:17
knew you didn't forget me all right come on have a seat over here we were preparing a second broadcast on Crosley
03:51:24
story as a reporter I try not to get too close to anyone I want to be able to view the information with a clear and
03:51:32
impartial lens but I admit that this was the interview I was most looking forward
03:51:38
to I was finally back in Florida to see Crosley I showed him some old pictures of his family they don't look that way
03:51:47
now they full of great I bet I bet well we've all gotten older Crosley I hate to
03:51:54
say there was a notable difference in Crosley this time around a lightness well it's interesting you know
03:52:02
when I saw you 15 years ago you said to me you were really angry yes how do you feel now how it feel now I'm
03:52:11
joyful I'm hopeful I'm happy I'm not sad or nothing like that how do you explain
03:52:22
that my family my sisters my brother a few people WR me Christian peoples or what not could you
03:52:33
hear what he said clearly crosley's lawyers and family were no longer the only ones in contact with him Crosley
03:52:41
was hearing from a lot of people including other Christians he attributed the change I saw in him to his faith
03:52:50
that's what carried me through a lot of this by by me accepting God at an early time real hard and I just changed at
03:53:02
that time you know and that change been ever since then until now on May 30th 2015 the second 48 Hours broadcast on
03:53:12
the Crosley green case air telling a new generation of viewers about his story I'm Aon morti tonight on 48
03:53:26
hours last chance for Freedom the broadcast also featured crosley's latest hope for his case that
03:53:36
habus petition filed in federal court the federal court could uphold Crosley Green's conviction overturn it or
03:53:45
declined to review it it's his last chance for freedom and all Crosley green can do now is
03:53:54
wait that broadcast made more people aware and invested in crosley's case I began receiving mail and more
03:54:03
importantly so did Crosley and finally on January 22nd 2016 more than a year and a half after
03:54:13
the hius corpus petition was filed US District Judge Roy Dalton Jr made his ruling he denied the
03:54:24
appeal on a technicality he said the petition was filed too late that it should have been submitted
03:54:35
back in 2011 which if you remember was when Keith Harrison originally filed the petition but was told then it was
03:54:47
premature too early and then too late crosley's case was stuck in an aggravating legal Quagmire of red tape
03:54:57
and technicalities crosley's lawyers fought the judge's decision for almost a year
03:55:07
finally arguing in front of a federal court of appeals that the petition was properly filed
03:55:14
after so many disappointments I feared this hearing would not go any differently for Crosley so you can
03:55:22
imagine my shock when I read that the appeals court this time reversed the lower Court's ruling opening the door
03:55:31
for crosley's appeal to finally move forward in 2018 Crosley was finally able to file a
03:55:40
case in federal court a victory in itself although the odds that a judge would overturn crosley's conviction were still
03:55:50
slim well it's extremely rare there are thousands of petitions filed by people seeking to overturn
03:55:59
their convictions every year and it's only a very small percentage um that ever get
03:56:07
granted but Against All Odds crosley's petition was one of them denial after denial one loss after
03:56:18
another Crosley Green's murder conviction was finally overturned we had a federal judge rulle
03:56:29
that Crawley green had been wrongfully and unconstitutionally convicted over 30 years ago it was a miracle that finally
03:56:37
there was a court that actually looked not at the procedural hurdles but actually looked at the merits of
03:56:44
crosley's case and what went wrong in the trial court and said yes his constitutional rights were violated your
03:56:52
right this evidence was critical to the defense it should not have been withheld
03:56:57
from the defense team it should not have been withheld from the jury and that um
03:57:02
in light of all of that uh he's entitled to a new trial crosley's lawyers called him impr
03:57:08
prison to tell him the news I was choked up it was through a phone call and I was
03:57:13
choked up I couldn't believe it really and I I was at lost words finally won uh a point of of
03:57:23
getting a trial that's what you've always really wanted isn't it that's all I really
03:57:29
wanted a new trial yes Ma'am why I just want to I want you just want the truth to come
03:57:38
out okay I just want the truth to come out I had seen many versions of Crosley over the years on death row he had been
03:57:48
an angry man during his decades in prison he had aged and become a man of faith and now at 60 years old I am the
03:57:59
real CR de green the one that very humble and love peoples love being around peoples you
03:58:09
know a person that can get along with anyone the state had n 90 days to either appeal this decision or retry Crosley if
03:58:19
it didn't either Crosley could finally be released from prison Justice and freedom it seemed were right around the
03:58:29
corner every day since I've had that that ruling from the judge I've been thinking about going
03:58:37
home be my family I'm just hoping and praying that they comes soon [Music] in the next episode of Murder in the
03:58:48
Orange Grove the troubled case against Crosley green I called his brother OK Conor who couldn't even speak he was
03:58:58
crying and we let the family know they hit the road they had to drive all the way across the state about 5 hours and
03:59:07
then Jean and I decided Well you know there's one chance one flight that might get us there in time so we rushed to
03:59:14
make that flight and it was really [Music] surreal hey long time OC how you doing
03:59:29
I'm good how are you I'm fine you're going you look good you look really good thank you thank you you know mhm in
03:59:36
February 2020 I made yet another trip to Florida my third to catch up with Crosley green it had been 5 years since
03:59:45
I had last seen and spoken to him face to face I couldn't let go of crosley's case I couldn't get it out of my head it
03:59:54
had been 21 years since I first started reporting on it and here I Was preparing
04:00:01
another installment for 48 hours you and I have been seeing each other a long time 99 I think 99 yeah so a little over
04:00:11
20 years see I was really looking forward to this yes I wish too it was hard to believe but almost 2
04:00:20
years have passed since crosley's murder conviction had been overturned by a federal judge in
04:00:27
2018 overturned thrown out I'd hope that by now I'd be catching up with Crosley maybe at a cookout with his many family
04:00:37
members and maybe Crosley would show me around Mims Florida his hometown and we could check out his
04:00:45
church Crosley should have been out celebrating his freedom but instead we were meeting again in a Florida prison
04:00:55
this time Calhoun Correctional Institution a long 5-hour drive from his home what do you want people to know
04:01:03
about Crosley green the Crosley Green in 2020 30 years 31 years that's enough to break a man
04:01:21
that's enough to destroy a man but I want the people to know that I'm not destroyed I'm not down I'm still
04:01:32
[Music] alive that was really important to Crosley to let me know he wasn't a Broken Man even after all the
04:01:42
heartbreaking disappoint o ments over the last 31 years this podcast Series has delved deeply into many of them when
04:01:51
I went to see Crosley in 2020 he was 62 years old and he had spent half his life
04:01:58
in prison and in some ways this was the cruestv devopment of all crosley's prayers had been heard and Against All
04:02:08
Odds his conviction had been overturned and yet he remained Behind Bars how is Crosley not free
04:02:18
already I'm 48 Hours correspondent Aaron Mor yardi this is murder in the Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley
04:02:27
Green episode 7 free at [Music] last in 2018 Crosley green finally won a rare bu but major victory when a federal
04:02:46
judge overturned his conviction the judge had agreed with crosley's attorneys that former assistant State
04:02:53
Attorney Chris White who handled crosley's 1990 trial had violated crosley's constitutional rights when he
04:03:02
withheld crucial notes from the defense information like that is very powerful and it it would be explosive to
04:03:10
introduce it into court this is Kenneth nun he's a visiting law professor at Howard University who also served on the
04:03:18
Florida innocence commission a group that suggests changes to Florida law to avoid wrongful convictions I would
04:03:26
assume there are people sitting in prison right now actually Innocent but because they can't prove that either the
04:03:34
prosecutor made an error or withheld evidence or the judge did they're just going to sit there for the rest of their
04:03:40
lives yes or their defense attorney because they may have been the one to make the error as well so if you can't
04:03:46
show there was an error that was made by somebody then you can sit in prison for
04:03:50
the rest of your life Professor nun knows crosley's case well and we met up recently to talk about its NeverEnding
04:03:58
twists nun said that prosecutors are obligated to turn over evidence like the notes in this case he said it's
04:04:06
fundamental to our criminal legal system which hinges on due process finally he got his convict
04:04:14
overturned how unusual is it to get that kind of ruling well that's if you have a
04:04:19
federal court after many many levels of State review to look at the case and say
04:04:28
there was a conviction it happened 30 years ago but it shouldn't have happened and to correct that that is not an
04:04:34
everyday occurrence in the criminal legal system so it's a big deal a really big deal because with that
04:04:45
ruling in the eyes of the law Crosley green was once again an innocent man and yet he remained Behind Bars nearly 2
04:04:54
years later in 2020 Crosley wasn't released immediately why not judges want to make sure that
04:05:04
the community is protected and that people who committed a crime actually receive the punishment that they are due
04:05:11
so they're going to give the prosecution an opportunity to show that there was a
04:05:17
problem in the case after the federal judges ruling the state had 90 days to decide whether to retry crosley's case
04:05:26
which is what Crosley was hoping for or to appeal the decision the state decided
04:05:33
to appeal all Crosley green has wanted through all these years is a new trial correct I mean we have seen everything
04:05:43
that went wrong wrong with his trial including this very questionable photo lineup all the witnesses who recanted
04:05:52
their testimony contradictions in the only eyewitnesses testimony why wasn't he given a new
04:06:01
trial at that point it's a very big hurdle for the prosecution to win a case after 30 years if they're
04:06:10
thinking we're going to have a new trial then we have to call witnesses that may
04:06:16
not be alive at this point 30 years later we might not be able to find whose memories may have dissipated and they
04:06:24
have the burden approved it's much easier for them to say okay we'll just have an appeal we're going to kill some
04:06:29
trees and send some papers up and have another Court look at this and then that will make a decision it just seems like
04:06:35
there's so many obstacles to have someone just take another look at this case Congress and federal courts are
04:06:43
more concerned with preserving convictions than they are concerned with making sure that innocent people get
04:06:50
released from prison while the state pursued an appeal everything was put on hold
04:07:00
including crosley's release the same federal judge who overturned his conviction also ruled that Crosley had
04:07:07
to stay in prison for the appeals process even though I should point out here C cley was a model prisoner the
04:07:15
assistant Warden at Calhoun Correctional told me that Crosley had a near perfect
04:07:21
record and yet he remained in prison it was a devastating blow to Crosley and his family and for his
04:07:31
attorneys Keith Harrison and Jean Thomas it was perpetuating the wrongful incarceration of an innocent
04:07:40
man I actually think it's a tragedy um that he remains in prison Crosley at this point is innocent until proven
04:07:50
guilty if it were the original trial there's the Speedy Trial Act which guarantees that the trial must take
04:07:57
place within a certain amount of time but on appeal and on these postconviction proceedings there's no
04:08:04
clock running so now the fact that we have a decision that he was wrongfully convicted and he is entitled to a new
04:08:13
trial it's incredibly frustrating that there's nothing to make the process happen faster since he's
04:08:21
been sitting there waiting for his day in court again what has he lost well he's lost family members and it was very
04:08:30
hard on him in part because he had historically played the role of a father figure in their family he still thinks
04:08:40
of himself in that role and it was extremely hard for him not to be there for uh his family at you know their time
04:08:49
of grieving the the the closest two are my two sisters you know both of them Brenda
04:08:58
and Tina and they was like back to back within two years of each other you know couldn't go to their funeral couldn't go
04:09:07
to F that's been tough that's been tough you've lost a lot yep while Crosley remained in prison and
04:09:27
separated from his family his case still inched forward in March 2020 the lawyers
04:09:34
on both sides argued in front of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Jacksonville
04:09:41
Florida how much is right on that hearing literally everything if the court rules in our
04:09:51
favor and says the district court got it right when it ruled that Crosley had been wrongfully convicted then we will
04:10:00
immediately move for his release and the state will have a limited period of time
04:10:05
to retry him or or decide not to retry him um which is certainly the state's option
04:10:15
but there's also the chance that the appeals court would side with the state of Florida and reinstate crosley's
04:10:23
conviction keeping Crosley in prison for a life sentence there was so much writing on
04:10:31
this hearing and yet Crosley himself was not allowed to go to Jacksonville to witness the oral arguments but his
04:10:40
family showed up in full force including cluding his younger sister Sheila who had once testified against him at trial
04:10:48
and his sister Shirley they had gone after work driven through the night to get there in time for the morning
04:10:55
hearing surley led the family in a prayer ask for our brother Freedom oh heavenly father in the name of Jesus
04:11:03
amen amen the focus of this hearing those crucial notes that former prosecutor Christopher white took at after meeting
04:11:14
with First Responders Diane Clark and Mark rxy 31 years ago when they told him that they question Kim H's story from
04:11:23
the start we're going to be focused on what the impact would have been if the government had not
04:11:32
hidden these notes 13524 Crosley Alexander green versus the secretary of the Florida Department of
04:11:42
Correction on March 12th 2020 the hearing opened with Assistant Attorney General Kelly
04:11:49
nean addressing the 11th Circuit Court we are here appealing an order where a district court granted a new trial to Mr
04:11:57
Crosley green based on an alleged Brady violation by the state you listening to a court recording of some of the hearing
04:12:05
we believe that the District Court's factual findings are clearly erroneous nean argued that the notes withheld from
04:12:12
crosley's defense team pointing to Kim HCK were simply opinions of First Responders not evidence they
04:12:20
administered first aid to the dying victim they collected a firearm they roped off the scene and that's all they
04:12:27
had to do with this case she added that both Clark and rxy had been deposed before the trial and they hadn't
04:12:35
disclosed this information either but defense attorney Keith Harrison argued that the notes were crucial to crosley's
04:12:42
defense and would have changed the course of the trial they were all deposed but those depositions would have
04:12:49
been completely different if these notes would have been disclosed these notes would have been a game changer in this
04:12:56
clip you'll also hear the voice of visiting Circuit Judge William Traxler are you saying that prior to trial
04:13:03
defense council did not know what the two detectives thought absolutely these officers in these notes were trying to
04:13:11
paint a picture for the prosecutor that they had the wrong man and that the investigation was going in the wrong
04:13:17
direction defense had no idea about any of that after the hearing crosley's family was hopeful I asked attorney
04:13:25
Keith Harrison if he was as optimistic what's the best case here the court rules in our favor and at that point we
04:13:35
would move for cr's immediate release from prison [Music] [Music] crley green had won a big decision in
04:13:53
federal court but because the State of Florida appealed it his future dependent on what the court of appeals decided his
04:14:02
attorneys as I mentioned went before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 12th
04:14:09
2020 but there was no timeline for when the appella Court needed to make a ruling and in this case the timing
04:14:18
couldn't have been worse for Crosley green we are going to begin right now with breaking news because the World
04:14:25
Health Organization has declared the Corona virus outbreak a pandemic citing alarming levels of of all the ups and
04:14:32
downs in crosley's case a global pandemic was truly something no one could have [Music]
04:14:42
predicted no one wants to get sick in prison even if you have picture perfect health but by 2020 Crosley was in his
04:14:50
early 60s and had developed some health issues here again is defense attorney Keith Harrison so while in prison
04:15:00
Crosley uh was tested and it was determined that he had latent uh tuberculosis which means it's not active
04:15:07
but it does pose an increased risk if he were to contract covid getting crosy out
04:15:14
of prison was no longer just about Justice it was about saving his life at the time the State of Florida published
04:15:22
the number of covid deaths that happened within its Prison Walls and I remembered
04:15:28
reading those reports anxiously as the numbers kept going up and up on April 18th 2020 48 Hours released
04:15:40
its broadcast on Crosley green we had hoped that our report would push his case forward but remember we were in the
04:15:48
middle of a pandemic and everything had stopped but when the pandemic dragged on
04:15:54
yet another year crosley's attorneys took action in March of 2021 they filed an emergency motion asking for crosley's
04:16:06
immediate release due to the threat of covid-19 while they waited for the decision they asked the secretary of the
04:16:14
Department of Corrections to act due to quote increased risk of serious illness or even death from
04:16:22
covid-19 and added quote if Mr Green should meet that same fate while awaiting the 11 circuit's decision it
04:16:31
will be a miscarriage of justice of unconscionable proportions on April 7th 2021 phone
04:16:42
started ringing and pinging at the croll and moing law firm in Washington DC it was a whirlwind of a day my phone
04:16:52
started just blowing up and I looked at it and you know it was a text that said we did it crosley's going to be released
04:17:02
the court directed us to inform the warden to release Crosley as quickly as possible I have never seen an order like
04:17:10
that even though attorneys Keith Harrison and Jean Thomas had worked toward Crosley Green's freedom for 13
04:17:18
years this was such a surprising development a moment they both dreamed of and now it was happening Crosley
04:17:27
green was finally going to be released from prison and they had to act quickly I called his brother OK Conor
04:17:36
who couldn't even speak he was crying we let the family know they hit the road they had to drive all the way across the
04:17:44
state about 5 hours then Jean and I decided Well you know there's one flight that might get us there in time so we
04:17:52
rushed to make that flight and it was really surreal I remember hearing the news and immediately getting on the
04:17:59
phone afterward furiously searching for a camera crew that could get to Florida Crosley was going to be stepping out of
04:18:07
prison in just a few hours the gates opened and Crosley stepped out and he had two bags in his hand one bag was
04:18:16
filled with books and the other was filled with all of his uh court papers later that day at 1 p.m. in a dimly lit
04:18:25
parking lot crosley's family Harrison along with Thomas and other members of crosley's legal team stood outside of
04:18:34
Calhoun Correctional Institution waiting and watched a familiar figure walk out of the gate
04:18:43
Crosley was finally leaving prison and he stepped out and he paused for a moment um and he kind of looked up at
04:18:52
the sky and he looked around I mean he was trying to take it all in and then he looked at me and he dropped his
04:19:00
bags and we embraced we didn't say a word we both shed some tears um but eventually we we released
04:19:11
and I said Cy there's some other folks here who want to hug [Music] you a local cameraman we hired was there
04:19:26
to capture this big moment What's going through your head okay okay okay um I can't wait to see the rest of my family
04:19:34
that's what's going my here get to see my I want to see my kids my grand kids after nearly 32 years behind bars
04:19:45
Crosley green was released from prison due to concern over his age and health issues but it was only a temporary
04:19:54
release the appeals process was still underway and if Crosley lost the appeal there was still a looming chance he
04:20:03
would have to return to prison but the federal judge who had overturned his conviction decided that for the time
04:20:10
being he could wait at home home with his family crosley's Freedom had been decades in the making but his actual
04:20:19
release happened over the course of just a day I knew this day was going to come
04:20:24
but I couldn't tell you when I just gave it to the Lord and let him do I was on his wheel having faith and uh I had a
04:20:31
lot of faith in that I he was going to do this for me tell me glad you're home we glad to see this
04:20:39
day Lord thank you Jesus thank you it was it was incredible I mean tears were flowing the the family was you know just
04:20:50
screaming and crying and um it it was just uh glorious it it it was so joyous it was like a clash where Crawley
04:21:01
just basically ran into the arms of his screaming family it's a moment that I'll
04:21:07
never forget this day this is the day that we long for God we thank you Father God right now in advance for you
04:21:16
bringing our brother home Crosby green father crosley's famili stood in a circle with Crosley in the middle and
04:21:23
Keith right next to him all holding hands they set a prayer in Jesus name we pray amen amen amen amen thank you Jesus
04:21:36
amen the next day crosley's legal team held a press conference first of all uh I want to thank
04:21:47
God I want to thank God that I'm standing here today as a free man I want to thank my
04:21:57
La for being the possible it's hard to really put in the words of my feeling at right now but my
04:22:10
feelings are so so strong as of being a free man today Crosley was released on a
04:22:19
Wednesday night and was staying at his brother-in-law's house I got there 3 days later for his first interview as a
04:22:27
free man daddy how you doing it was a sunny day a bit windy and his family was all around us having a big barbecue the
04:22:35
food was plentiful music was playing in the background and everyone was feeling good a especially Crosley as I walked up
04:22:45
to him he looked the most relaxed and happy that I had ever seen oh my God hey can I hug you can I hug you I
04:22:59
have have this time oh my God thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank
04:23:06
you I can't believe this I cannot believe this you know that first time when I met you yeah you were in a very
04:23:14
different place do you remember that yes oh my God you look great you look great
04:23:19
thank you you look great though you're still looking good girl remember the first time I met Crosley he was on death
04:23:25
row but this time we were in the fresh air it was such a good feeling to finally be sitting in a lawn chair under
04:23:34
a Florida Sky across from a man I had only seen previously in shackles and instead of a prison uniform Crosley was
04:23:44
dressed in a t-shirt and shorts I started the interview the same way I did for the past 21 years by asking Crosley
04:23:53
to introduce himself ah cley been 32 years for Crime I didn't committ and now I'm free for a
04:24:03
little while at least but I'm free and what does that feel like so sweet so so sweet
04:24:13
when you were sitting in calhon and you were imagining getting out what was the first thing you wanted
04:24:21
to do had me a painting out ice cream really I got it for years Crosley had craved
04:24:33
something that most of us take for granted a scoop of strawberry ice cream so on his first full day of freedom
04:24:42
Crosley went to an ice cream parlor with him were some of his grandchildren he my
04:24:48
two favorite babies here I'm glad to be home with how you feel bu good you feel good
04:24:56
okay okay and what did it taste like oh man so good was that really the first time that
04:25:08
bean free sunk in yeah I was able to get what I want I don't think I fully appreciated
04:25:17
what Freedom really meant until I spoke with Crosley that day for over three decades he was unable to make any
04:25:25
decisions for himself what to eat or when to eat it when to take a shower or for how long but on this day Crosley was
04:25:35
finally able to do what he wanted when he wanted to do it he finally had the power to choose something for himself
04:25:45
I've also been interviewing several of crosley's relatives for decades but until this moment I hadn't had a chance
04:25:53
to meet his extended family and it's a big one tell me who every you know who everybody is here this is uh my great
04:26:02
nephew this is my great niece this is my granddaughter I got another granddaughter here Crosley was meeting
04:26:12
some of his relatives for the first time you did miss a lot didn't you yeah I missed a lot how old are
04:26:20
you 13 how old are is 11 she's 11 that's that's 13 years already gone I can't get
04:26:27
that's 11 years already going that c gear you know what else what else has just struck you that is different in
04:26:36
just these days have you noticed I still wake up at the same time around 3:00 3:30 and you know what I do
04:26:46
I walk outoors sit on that back of that pickup truck you know what I'm saying and look up and say thank God I'm free
04:26:55
you know man I get me a cup of coffee sit out and smoke me a cigarette I you know listen this is a
04:27:03
wonderful thing it's a wonderful feeling to be free I really is see I'mma show you I'm now this is just a little joke
04:27:13
okay suddenly Crosley stood up and he started to uncp his microphone he began walking away I wasn't quite sure what
04:27:23
was happening and you can actually hear the confused voice of Dennis my cameraman who thought that Crosley was
04:27:31
abruptly ending the interview and then Crosley started to laugh no oh oh my bad but but yes de I'm going to do this here
04:27:43
no don't worry about it don't worry about it we're not going to be able to hear it I I don't want you to hear me oh
04:27:49
take hit this here I don't want you to hear me I have no idea what he's going to do
04:27:54
here you don't know I don't what are you going to do what you don't know no I ain't got to do this
04:27:59
interview you understand what I'm coming from now I I do you now can choose I can
04:28:05
Cho I make this Choice that's the thing about this whole interview I am able to make a choice now
04:28:13
to be with my family this moment really caught me off guard Crosley was showing me what his
04:28:22
Newfound Freedom meant to him in the past when I interviewed him in prison someone else told him where to sit and
04:28:30
how long he could talk today he could call the shots he could stand up during the interview or he didn't have to talk
04:28:39
to me at all I started to laugh but luckily for me Crosley did put his microphone back on and sat down to
04:28:48
continue our conversation if it wasn't for my family I I wouldn't be here my sister celese
04:28:57
she always told me don't give up your day going to come I used always say all right girl
04:29:05
when I get out we going to do things you know but that day never came she died crosley's sister celestie known as Tina
04:29:16
was buried in a cemetery just down the road from where we were sitting and this was when Crosley described the
04:29:23
boundaries of his freedom during his temporary release Crosley couldn't visit Tina's grave or go most anywhere else
04:29:33
without special permission from his probation officer he was free but within limits show me where where can you go I
04:29:42
can't go on that sidewalk what would happen if you went on the sidewalk well that's that's my
04:29:47
borderline he walked up to an invisible border a property line between his brother-in-law's house and the neighbors
04:29:56
that he couldn't cross show me take me a little bit where you can go how far here
04:30:01
about right about right here Crosley stood on the grassy edge of the yard right along the sidewalk I was
04:30:11
told I couldn't go to the mailbox and I want to be out here I have this Freedom here if it ain't it was 12 yards I like
04:30:22
I take them 12 yards of Freedom he walked across his 12 yards of freedom and then showed me his
04:30:32
new Jailer here it this right here this ankle b b right here Crosley pulled down the sock on his right leg
04:30:42
and revealed an ankle monitor a constant reminder that his movements were limited
04:30:47
in his home confinement crosly though does that ankle bracelet also remind you that your time home might be temporary
04:30:57
that it does it does I I got to be honest with you it does [Music] a week later on April 17th 2021 48 Hours
04:31:17
aired our fourth broadcast on Crosley green case and for the first time since I started reporting on his case back in
04:31:32
1999 I finally got to say the words Crosley green is out of prison but as we've already discuss
04:31:42
Crosley was not truly a free man he was living in a legal limbo waiting for the appeals court to make its decision still
04:31:53
he moved on with life he was allowed to get a job as a machinist at a local tech
04:31:58
company while on Sundays he was permitted to go to [Music] church with me you walk with
04:32:15
father with Crosley knew he was living on borrowed time and he Faithfully followed
04:32:23
the rules of his temporary release still he dreamed of the open road he asked around if anyone was selling a used
04:32:32
motorcycle that he could buy and he was put in touch with a woman named Kathy spikes one of his friends caught me
04:32:40
asking if I was selling my motorcycle and I said I didn't have it but I would help them look for one if
04:32:47
they were serious and then about two weeks later we talked to the phone and we talked about bike a little bit we
04:32:56
talked for about six hours um he told me about being incarcerated but didn't tell
04:33:00
me full details um just told me that he was recently um released and he was on house arrest so he couldn't go anywhere
04:33:10
and he just wanted to see a different side of life I mean did you have some hesitation that you're talking
04:33:18
to this man and you enjoy talking to him but he's admitting he's under house arrest and he just got out of
04:33:25
prison uh didn't that make you little nervous yeah yes um but also I'm told not to judge they hit it off on the
04:33:35
phone talking over the next few weeks finally Crosley took a chance and asked Kathy if she would meet him in person I
04:33:44
was in a place to where I said you know I wanted to be with someone and I did not know who or when or what but I was
04:33:52
kind of open at that point to meeting different people so I just said okay Kathy decided to take a leap of faith
04:33:59
and meet this mystery man she was suddenly drawn to um he wanted a root beer that night so I took him a root
04:34:08
beer it was uh June 30th and then then I text my sister I think I met my husband
04:34:15
you're kidding that's why I know the date like exactly the feeling was Mutual for Crosley it was love at first sight
04:34:25
too someone I meet someone that that's going to be a a perfect partner for me and matter of fact since that first
04:34:35
day she's been right there by my side Kathy is a c ified nurses aid quick to smile and laugh she works at a
04:34:46
hospice center caring for the sick and those facing death she had moved from Ohio to bravard County after visiting
04:34:54
Florida on vacation Kathy had always put her career first but when she entered her 40s she wanted to find love she
04:35:04
appealed to a higher power I wrote a letter to my grandmother who's in heaven asking her whenever she
04:35:11
speaks with God let her know um what kind of man I want what I want as a husband and two weeks later he
04:35:21
calls and how did you describe the man you wanted when I'm weak he's my strength
04:35:28
when he's weak I'm his strength I had prayed and really asked the Lord to put somebody in my life you know what I'm
04:35:38
saying and I've told her that I said listen the best thing that ever happened to me was that you got in my life I said
04:35:45
because I that's the one thing I did I go for if I ever get set free give me somebody that I'm going to settle down
04:35:54
with you know enjoy life with so both of you separately had prayed that you would
04:36:01
find love yeah and you found each other yeah this was a development I never expected I later asked Kathy about the
04:36:12
moment she learned that he had been in prison for murder and if that caused her to have any second
04:36:18
thoughts I went home and I Google and I'm thinking oh my goodness you you this cannot be true and call my sister and
04:36:27
totally like I I was ready to jump ship but at that time I've already invested probably three months of just talking
04:36:36
and just being around him and then I was like okay the person that I was with was
04:36:41
a person had compassion a person of much Faith a person that would give somebody
04:36:47
the shirt off their back you know the more him and I have spoken about it I don't believe it at all even though
04:36:55
Crosley remained under house arrest at his brother-in-laws that didn't stop him and Cathy from dating like a typical
04:37:02
couple with Netflix and chill Netflix and chill ain't that what we did for the first weeks why you why I tell her that
04:37:13
that's the truth my brother-in-law get a kick out of her and me always enjoying our laughing having fun
04:37:24
it's like to him little teenagers just fall in love is that kind of the best way to describe
04:37:33
you like two teenagers in love in a sense we act just like little teenagers at times at times we really do but it it
04:37:43
go farther than that with me you know I think it does with her too that teenage love turned into a strong
04:37:52
unshakable bond Crosley asked Kathy to marry him I would have never thought that I would first of all fall in love
04:38:03
with someone that was accused of such a crime but let alone you know being in love with them to know that that's my
04:38:14
husband and willing to stand by that neither Crosley nor Kathy wanted to talk about it but the threat of going
04:38:24
back to prison loomed over the couple like a rain cloud by the beginning of 2022 Crosley was still waiting for the
04:38:33
appeals court to make a decision would they side with the state and reinstate crosley's conviction or rule rule in
04:38:42
crosley's favor and even that could present a risk because if the court were to side with Crosley the State of
04:38:50
Florida would have 45 days to decide whether they would recharge and retry him for the murder of Chip
04:38:59
Flynn what I've been telling you for the last 20-some years that I was innocent I want my day Court to prove
04:39:10
that okay give me my shot to prove that you still have faith in the system after your first Tri why your now the
04:39:21
court sister didn't put me in here people all put me in here I really believe that deep down in my soul I'm
04:39:28
not going back to prison and then in March 2022 the appella court finally handed
04:39:36
down its decision after almost 4 years and cross 's fate would change yet again on the finale of Murder in the
04:39:48
Orange Grove the trouble case against Crosley green when I first heard about it you
04:39:54
know I was I was shocked why so much is going against me me do you feel that sometimes that
04:40:01
just as soon as you make a step forward there's something that come step backwards you know make a step forward
04:40:08
step backwards [Music] since his temporary release from prison in April 2021 Crosley green was trying
04:40:25
to make every minute count okay no all right you know I always wanted this not probably I always
04:40:34
wanted this he met a beautiful woman named Kathy spikes who turned out to be the love of his life
04:40:41
I mean we wake up in the morning laughing who laughs at 5:00 in the morning besides us you know it's a whole
04:40:48
thing of the genuine that he has in his heart it won't do anything but gravitate
04:40:53
me to him more and with faith in the face of uncertainty they decided to get engaged she crazy about kissing you know
04:41:03
what I'm saying boy it's okay hey come on do it come on every moment seemed special Crosley was
04:41:14
spending time with over 10 grandchildren most of whom he had never met until his
04:41:20
release he had a good job as an advanced machinist working with co-workers he liked and he became an active member in
04:41:29
his church where he enthusiastically sang with a choir to walk with me walk with my father
04:41:42
you are with freedom however limited was looking good on Crosley green how long would it
04:41:52
last on March 14 2022 almost a year after his release the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in
04:42:01
Jacksonville Florida ruled in crosley's case the 11th circuit essentially decided that the
04:42:11
evidence of Innocence that was withheld would not have made a difference at his trial it was the worst possible decision
04:42:19
for Crosley as crosley's attorney Keith Harrison explained it the 11th Circuit Court sided with the state of Florida
04:42:28
ruling that the prosecution's failure to disclose those withheld notes would not
04:42:34
have made a difference in crosley's trial crosley's conviction would be reinstated
04:42:41
which meant Crosley could once again be taken from his family and returned to prison I can't say what going to happen
04:42:52
can't no one say what going to happen all I do I get up and pray for another day for more hours to be with my family
04:43:03
but crosley's fight wasn't over yet his attorneys decided to appeal this time to
04:43:09
the highest court in the the land well we'll keep fighting there are a number of uh um additional appeals we can file
04:43:18
but we will take the case to the Supreme Court um but we certainly we're certainly not going to stop I want
04:43:28
you to with me I'm 48 Hours correspondent eron morard this is murder in the Orange
04:43:39
Grove the trouble case against Crosley Green episode 8 keep the [Music] faith when I heard that the 11 circuit
04:43:54
court of appeals had ruled against Crosley I was first just shocked intellectually I knew it was a
04:44:03
possibility but I had never let my mind go there I mean how does a man who spent
04:44:10
more than 30 years years imprisoned and then freed returned to a life behind bars
04:44:17
there are certain rules that have to be met in order for a case to be granted relief at the federal level and those
04:44:27
rules make it very difficult to do so Professor Kenneth nun a visiting law professor at Howard University sat down
04:44:35
with me later to try to make sense of the 11 circuit Court's decision as Professor nun explains the circuit
04:44:44
judges found a procedural error they ruled that the issue of the prosecutor's notes should have been properly heard
04:44:53
first at the state level that sounds like a technicality it was a technicality and the problem is that he
04:45:01
can't go back now to the state courts to present this this way and it sounds like
04:45:05
he's pretty much finished in the federal court too there's just one other court left which is the US Supreme Court
04:45:14
that's it and how often does the US Supreme Court take a case like this the US Supreme Court doesn't have to take
04:45:22
any case most of the cases that appear before the US Supreme Court go there by what's called a rid assary or cert
04:45:29
petition you have to file aert petition with the US Supreme Court and ask them to take your case and you have to say
04:45:37
look the reason why you should take this case is because it's important crosley's lawyers Keith Harrison and
04:45:44
Jean Thomas knew their last shot to get Crosley a new trial was to petition the highest court in the land and they
04:45:53
didn't go alone Harrison said that over 100 prominent law professors five former
04:46:01
state supreme court judges from States like Texas Missouri and Mississippi along with a group of current and former
04:46:10
pro prosecutors wrote amas briefs in support of Crosley green these are legal documents filed by people and
04:46:19
organizations who aren't actually part of the case but who feel strongly that a case like crosley's presents issues that
04:46:27
should be heard by the US Supreme Court a lot of people were aware of whose case
04:46:33
and they kind of understood what issues were at stake one of those prominent law
04:46:39
professors was Prof Professor Nan he feared that the 11th Circuit Court decision would make it easier for other
04:46:46
prosecutors to withhold evidence from defendants it's a real serious problem that we see when cases come up and there
04:46:57
is prosecutorial misconduct and it appears as if the courts do not enforce those rules against the prosecutor that
04:47:07
makes our criminal legal system unfair and it harms our society as a whole and it undermines the rule of
04:47:18
law the Supreme Court says it receives approximately 7,000 to 8,000 petitions every year hearing only about 80 of
04:47:28
those cases almost two years after Crosley walked out of prison he got his answer Keith Harrison Jean Thomas and
04:47:38
the crow and Morin legal team did didn't want Crosley to hear it over the phone and they didn't want him to hear it
04:47:45
alone on February 27th 2023 they asked Crosley and his family to meet in a conference room at the
04:47:54
Holiday Inn in Titusville Florida good to see you cley good to see you it was a somber Keith Harrison who
04:48:03
shook crosley's hand that morning and then led him to a table draped in a black tablecloth with several chairs
04:48:11
around it Crosley took a seat and his legal team who recorded the discussion filled in the chairs around
04:48:19
him sh how you doing to crosley's sister Shirley White his brother o Conor green
04:48:27
and his son schuma Stokes then entered the conference room and took their seats that's when Harrison broke the news all
04:48:36
right well look thank you for for coming in I will just get right to it the Supreme Court is not going to hear
04:48:44
our case so they have denied our petition what happens next is that notice will go to the 11th circuit and
04:48:55
at some point the 11 circuit will issue a mandate reinstating Cy your conviction
04:49:01
MH I was not in the room for this meeting and looking at crosy on video it's hard to read his facial expression
04:49:10
here he seemed focused just trying to absorb what he was hearing he slowly nodded his
04:49:17
head in understanding why do my brother have to continue going through this crosley's
04:49:23
older sister Shirley White took the news hard is y'all going to send him back to
04:49:28
prison for a crime he didn't commit y'all going to take him away from his family again you took him 33 years
04:49:37
you're going to do it again to my brother it's un Fair it's a justi it's not right you're right it's not right
04:49:45
who to say I'm live another 5 or 10 years who is that any of us going to live another the system failed
04:49:54
us and in that difficult moment Crosley assumed the role of Papa again he stood up behind Shirley rubbing her back to
04:50:04
console her I truly believe that we all going to be together one day we all going to be together one day
04:50:18
not like this brother Shirley said not like this brother Crosley then looked over at his
04:50:26
little brother OK Conor who was sitting next to Shirley crying and wiping tears from his eyes as well Crosley always the
04:50:37
stoic Strong One cracked you have show me a lot since I'm in home don't let this get to
04:50:59
you it was very difficult to watch crosley's family deal with yet another blow for crosley's son schuma the
04:51:08
thought of losing his father again to the system was inconceivable he didn't hold back his
04:51:15
anger and frustration as he left the table and stood by the conference room door you ain't the only one doing time
04:51:24
we doing time right with you we doing the time with you you know what I'm saying it's a
04:51:31
family thing and now it's getting torn apart again now we got to open these scabs and all of this oh we know it was
04:51:37
you know was a possibility but now it's here know my kids grandkids all of that everybody got to go back through this
04:51:45
again got to go back down this road man that hurt man that hurt as Crosley went over to embrace schuma schuma started to
04:51:55
cry let me baby there was no time to fall apart Crosley his family and the lawyers had a
04:52:09
public press conf conference to get through good afternoon and thank you for joining with us today it was live
04:52:16
streamed on Facebook from this same room at the holiday in several people joined
04:52:21
the press conference in person seated in chairs facing a Podium Crosley and his family were seated at a table behind the
04:52:31
podium crosley's fiance Kathy was there in the crowd supporting Crosley and his siblings and son during this hard time
04:52:41
Professor Kenneth nun was present as well as Wilton dge and William Dylan the two men wrongfully convicted in Bard
04:52:50
County by Florida prosecutors in the 1980s Keith Harrison broke the news to the public this is a tragic day not just
04:53:00
for Crosley green not just for the Green family but for all of us all of us who will not hear any more about his case
04:53:12
and then Crosley stepped up to the podium to give his thanks and an emotional speech
04:53:21
now right now I feel a little weak because it's the love that I get from my family from peoples in general like you
04:53:31
guys it hurts me to see you hurt that's what's hurting me the freedom I had in the last two years is it's been
04:53:41
wonderful believe me I don't want this Tak him from me I want to continue going on like I'm going on I'm willing I'm
04:53:49
able to keep fighting never give up fighting for my freedom to my family I love you all of you thank you
04:54:03
for now am [Applause] a lot of people ask me all the time and they'll say he's not angry I mean you're
04:54:17
not angry about having to go back you've already served so much time God knows I'm not angry I continue to have hope
04:54:25
faith and all I just move forward truthfully you know I feel like the only judge I'm
04:54:33
facing now is the three judges that I always faced the father Son and the Holy Ghost
04:54:40
I can't say much about [Music] [Music] man we woke up at 4:30 I think he might have said a couple
04:55:06
of prayer silently that I prayed for us both as a reporter I had seen several people
04:55:13
walk out of prison I had never seen anyone go back in when I sat down with Kathy spikes a few months ago she
04:55:23
described the final hours before her fiance surrendered himself back to the state on April 17th
04:55:32
2023 the attorney's called and my stomach went into nuts um they were going to pick him up at 6:00 a.m. that
04:55:39
morning um I don't think we even ate we sat around we talked family came over you'll be all
04:55:50
right you'll be all right be a good girl the Sun was shining on crosley's last day as a free man I
04:56:00
was standing with his friends and family as they gathered outside his brother-in-law's home to say their final
04:56:06
goodbyes I just want you to know that I love you I really really really appreciate all you have done for
04:56:13
me Crosley spoke to his cheerful brother o' Conor while they leaned on the hood of a car he was as usual being Papa the
04:56:24
patriarch giving words of advice and sharing his wisdom I really want you to pay more attention to your health
04:56:34
though you hear me I will always love you brother I know this I know this why watching Crosley he didn't look like a
04:56:42
man about to go back to prison he wore a Buffalo Bills t-shirt a pair of jeans and oddly a furry raccoon tail hat he
04:56:53
was clearly trying to add a little levity to a dark day he walked around with his hands in his pockets as he
04:57:01
conversed with other family members up here well she'll before he headed out everyone got together for a group photo
04:57:09
with Papa green get up here M get up here and y'all get up here little people get
04:57:17
the little peoples up in front two it work hey I love y'all man listen listen y'all be strong
04:57:30
man eventually it was time to go a massive black Cadillac Escalade courtesy of the lawyers was parked on the curb
04:57:40
waiting to take Crosley to the Florida Department of Corrections Kathy stood with Crosley
04:57:46
after his goodbyes to his family and they got into the Escalade together Keith Harrison and Jean Thomas were
04:57:54
there too and rode over to the facility with them I follow behind in my own vehicle during the drive Crosley and
04:58:10
Kathy held on to each other in a tight Embrace and shared Tender Kisses savoring the last moments of physically
04:58:19
being together when they arrived at the Florida Department of Corrections Harrison and Thomas got out first
04:58:28
Crosley and Kathy followed it was almost like um I'm not going to cry um prep preparing yourself for like
04:58:38
a funeral it was one of the saddest moments to witness as a reporter hand in hand with
04:58:56
Kathy Crosley walked with his attorneys into the Florida Department of Corrections to turn himself in it was
04:59:04
more or less like walking through a door or never knowing when you're going to come back
04:59:16
out and to have somebody tell you you only have pretty much 4 seconds to give a hug and to say your
04:59:26
goodbyes um I'm having everything in my mind of how I wish I had have stayed up for work
04:59:33
longer um I wish I had a couple more days with him I wasn't going to cry it's okay it's
04:59:43
okay it's understandable I just know that April became a very hard month for me and I
04:59:50
got told him April this seems like a reoccurring tragedy over and over again you know the crime happened in
04:59:59
April he was released in April which was a happy moment but then he was re-incarcerated in April just to think
05:00:07
of the hours that go by the phone doesn't ring the phone call of saying what do you want to eat today that would
05:00:15
never happen as far as he's incarcerated crosley's three deade long journey through the court system was
05:00:25
over but not his chance for Freedom Crosley is a perfect candidate for parole I can't think of frankly a reason
05:00:36
why he wouldn't be paralled that's Keith Harrison they can't point to his his being a model inmate they can't point to
05:00:46
anything he did when he was out for two years it's almost like a trial parole you know so there's really as far
05:00:54
as I can see no basis no reasonable basis upon which he would be denied parole his attorneys now turned to his
05:01:03
parole board as the next step to getting him out but to their shock they were hit
05:01:10
with another blow the parole commission has essentially miscalculated his eligibility Keith
05:01:20
Harrison and Jean Thomas discovered that back in 2015 the Florida parole commission had
05:01:27
made a mistake when calculating the date when Crosley would become eligible for parole according to the lawyers Crosley
05:01:37
should have been eligible to apply for parole in 2014 but somehow the commission
05:01:45
incorrectly set it to 20159 a difference of 45 years how did they make that miscalculation well it had nothing to do
05:01:58
with Crosley Green's actions in the prison system he had been a model prisoner instead the Florida commission
05:02:06
set crosley's parole eligibility B based on his original 1990 conviction when he
05:02:13
had been found guilty of robbery kidnapping and first-degree felony murder but Harrison said that under
05:02:20
Florida rules only the felony murder charge not the additional charges of robbery and kidnapping should have been
05:02:29
considered it's part of the same crime it's what's called a lesser included offense part of the same crime so it's
05:02:37
like essentially double counting and in fact the rules say that the amount of time for those underlying offenses
05:02:45
should be zero that's what the rules say zero what's more the parole commission made its calculation back in
05:02:55
2015 without notifying crosley's attorneys they were unable to represent Crosley at the time to correct the
05:03:04
error Crosley was not present Crosley was not represented by Council we were never informed this was going on
05:03:12
did Crosley know it was going on Crosley knew that somebody from the parole commission staff came to talk to him in
05:03:21
prison but he did not understand what was going on nor is there any evidence that he ever received their
05:03:29
decision and what did Crosley think about all of this when I first heard about it you know I was I was shocked
05:03:36
man you mean tell me I was Edge for parole back in 2015 2014 and I didn't know nothing about it
05:03:42
I really was just dumbfounded okay why so much is going against me do you feel that sometimes that just
05:03:51
as soon as you make a step forward there's something that step backwards you know make a step forward
05:03:57
step backwards and we immediately you know filed essentially an administrative appeal um we got a very quick hearing on
05:04:07
it and that's how on June une 21st 2023 crosley's legal team appeared before the parole commission asking for
05:04:16
a correction for crosley's parole date but someone else had earlier told the same commission she didn't want that
05:04:25
parole date to change the voice you just heard was none other than Kim hoc now going by her
05:04:37
married name Kim Landers thank you for allowing me to give a statement hopefully this will keep
05:04:43
behinds for the duration of theight Kim said she hoped that quote this will keep Crosley green behind bars
05:04:51
for the duration of his life the teenager who is with chip Flynn in that Orange Grove before he died was
05:04:59
now 53 years old and for several years had work for Bard County in her statement Kim said Crosley had used the
05:05:08
media to quote manipulate people to think he's innocent this is the first time we're
05:05:16
hearing Kim's voice since her police interview on April 4th 1989 hours after the Murder She was
05:05:24
never willing to talk publicly about that night the recording of her statement to the commission is difficult
05:05:31
to understand so listen carefully I genuine believe he remains a danger to society and should never be given the
05:05:39
opportunity to hurt me or anyone else in the future probably had a chance to be a
05:05:43
law abing system before he has current ineris but chose to be a career criminal and in the end a coldhearted murder as
05:05:51
you can hear Kim sounded frustrated and rushed in her statement at this point an
05:05:57
unidentified voice in the recording Cuts in if you need to take a breath that's fine I'm all right okay I'm all right
05:06:09
okay there is no reason to believe that this at this point in his life probably to be
05:06:14
anything other than he's always been a complete Min of society in closing I request that she that this board uphold
05:06:21
the 2015 Paro decision and Lead this in the end the commission reduced crosley's parole eligibility by five
05:06:33
years based on quote positive conduct while on release which brought the original calculation down from year
05:06:43
2059 to 2054 if that calculation stands Crosley will not be eligible for parole until
05:06:53
he's 97 years old I sometimes go back to the fact that he was originally offered 10 years in
05:07:02
prison as a plea deal to save them from having to try this case and he turned it
05:07:08
down because he was was innocent and he's been in prison for 33 of the last 35 years and they're
05:07:18
fighting to keep him in until he dies when 10 years was enough to protect their interest from the
05:07:25
beginning the commission said it will review crosley's case again in March 2026 I asked Professor none why
05:07:34
authorities in Florida remain so adamant about keeping Crosley green behind behind bars I think there are some
05:07:42
people who believe that it is a deterrent to to Crime because what you want is you want the prison experience
05:07:49
to be as uncomfortable as possible and I think that most of the actors in the State of Florida have what I see is an
05:07:59
old-fashioned view that is more punitive than it is rehabilitative the whole issue of
05:08:07
whether someone is a threat to society or not anymore is not even a question they're concerned about I think that's
05:08:15
unfair and I think it's mean-spirited and I think it undermines public confidence in the criminal legal
05:08:33
system from technicalities to miscalculations it seemed like everyone one could make a mistake but Crosley was
05:08:42
the one paying for it this is Kenneth nun people tend to believe the charge that a black person
05:08:50
committed a crime because we created a society that ties black people black communities the things that black people
05:08:57
do to criminal activity and when criminal charges are laid at the foot of a black person it's very difficult to
05:09:05
shake them off as of the recording of This podcast in 2024 crosley's legal team petitioned Florida's courts to
05:09:14
compel the parole commission to recalculate crosley's parole dates the lawyers are now waiting for a response
05:09:23
if they don't win this time they will ask for clemency from Florida Governor Ronda
05:09:30
santz that is probably a long shot you right now as we speak there are almost 60,000
05:09:39
signatures on a change.org petition I mean does that what it kind of comes down to at this point how
05:09:47
important then is public interest in this can that make a difference well I I think it can make a difference I think
05:09:53
it's important because it does keep the pressure on it makes uh officials go back and look at the case since all of
05:10:02
his Avenues of relief are in the political realm and not in the legal realm per se I mean politics boils down
05:10:11
to what the people want and so if you can show 60,000 or 600,000 people who support this case then I think that's a
05:10:20
positive and it could inure to his benefit since the first airing of Crosley story on 48 hours back in
05:10:31
1999 through to our most recent story in April of 2023 there have been people who don't
05:10:38
know Crosley personally but who are so convinced of his innocence they've shown up time and time
05:10:44
again to support him in court they've started petitions in his honor sold t-shirts that say free Crosley green and
05:10:53
made their own calls to provard County demanding crosley's freedom I think what matters about Crosley Green's case is
05:11:01
what it says about us are we a society that really cares about Justice or do we just pay lip service to it is it okay
05:11:10
for a person who hasn't committed a crime to spent decades in prison for something he didn't do I think that many
05:11:20
Americans would find that to be probably the most terrible thing to happen to them and it tells about who we are as a
05:11:30
people who we are as a country uh what kind of justice system we have and what our Legacy is going to be for future
05:11:39
Generations if we don't do something to correct a problem that occurred in this case and we just let Crosby green sit in
05:11:47
jail when there's no justification for it we want to think that the legal system works for everyone that it
05:11:54
doesn't matter if you're poor or black or without resources when the system doesn't work
05:12:01
our job is to shine a light and so here I am still reporting on the troubled case against Crosley G
05:12:10
GRE hey how you doing hey Crosley hey hey good to see you again it's great seeing you I told you I would be here
05:12:19
soon this wasn't quite as soon as I hoped it's soon enough is really soon [Music]
05:12:28
enough I knew I needed to talk to Crosley again now back in prison I visited him on June 19th or what is
05:12:38
better known as juneth 2024 it's June 19th it's a day in which it's about Justice you know it's about Justice it's
05:12:50
about people supposed to get together pull together and figure something out the irony wasn't lost on either of us
05:12:58
that this was a day to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US and here Crosley was back in prison
05:13:09
Crosley is housed at the Sumter Correctional Institution in Bushnell Florida this minimum security prison is
05:13:17
around a 2 and 1 half hour drive away from his family over the years I had seen Crosley on death row I had seen him
05:13:26
serving life and I had seen him living his life I wasn't sure what to expect on this trip but I was anxious to let him
05:13:36
know that he had not been forgotten you started telling me that this time is a little harder than it's been in the past
05:13:46
yes it is you know you have to understand that I was out for two years and it felt good it really felt good to
05:13:52
be out there and doing the things that a normal person does in life and uh just coming back here you
05:14:01
know you you sit back you think about that and you think about the people that you love people that love you Crosley
05:14:09
looked thin but healthy he was allowed to talk with me in a conference room without any shackles or
05:14:18
restraints what is the toughest time of the day what is the toughest time of the
05:14:24
day there's a few tough times during the day you know the afternoons it's tough in the afternoons it's tough in the EA
05:14:34
this you know because normally I come home after work when I was out my sons come over my sister them
05:14:46
might come over we all sit out eat the ice cream or s store get some pizza chicken or whatever I miss that okay I
05:14:54
really do miss that a great deal but what he misses most is what so many of us take for granted what he misses every
05:15:04
single day is what he felt when he was with Kathy and uh I ain't never experienced a lot
05:15:12
of stuff because of the time I've been locked up and stuff like that I never experienced having to sit or be
05:15:23
around a person that that always made me laugh made me happy you know love me and
05:15:30
stuff like that that I'm getting to do stuff that was pretty much what I never thought I would be doing and it felt
05:15:37
good I mean that's what a lot of people take for granted that having a woman who
05:15:42
loves you and having dinner at home that's your idea of freedom I never thought I'd have a life like
05:15:48
that okay and for me to have start to have a life like that that was special to me a lot of times C to come to
05:15:58
visit and she she do it on a regular basis and it bother me because she doing a lot of Travy it's not quite the life
05:16:06
Kathy had prayed for but she told me she isn't giving up on the man she loves I'm
05:16:13
a a certified nurses aid and I work night shift so usually when I get off work at night I'll come home and on
05:16:21
Thursday mornings and change and then I take a 2hour drive to go visit him for lunch and make sure that we keep at
05:16:29
least that normalness in our lives what's your biggest fear at this moment Kathy
05:16:40
that he will never probably get released what do you pray for what do you pray about I I pray for a lot of different
05:16:54
things I pray for just two people to hear crosley's case on the commission board and come to like minds and see
05:17:04
that he can be released it should be released I pray for governor desandis and to STIs to have a heart and to
05:17:12
understand that they can also make a difference in his life and in this case I pray for Kim HCK the most um that she
05:17:21
will be able to go and have peace and say that the story happened this way and that's the
05:17:29
[Music] truth Crosley has not given up hope what are you working on while you're here
05:17:37
well my my my goal is right now is to get my GED if you remember Crosley had dropped
05:17:45
out of high school to work with his father and now he's back in school he's created a busy full life inside prison
05:17:54
he tends to the prison grounds he's involved in a faith-based program and he's made a lot of friends we got a
05:18:03
prayer group at night and in our prayer group we prayer for others for ourselves but we pray for others as
05:18:11
well we pray for sickness healing marriages and everything you know and for your freedom
05:18:20
and for for our freedom not just for my fre for our freedom we don't lead no one
05:18:27
out every in that Circle we hold hands we pray for each and every one of us and for those that are not in our
05:18:36
Circle I was allowed an hour and a half with Crosley and when my time was up all
05:18:42
right so I'm going to I have to let him go right yes I know just it's hard you know I'm sad yeah you sad I know you sad
05:18:50
but see you know what though uh the sooner the better though cuz you make me feel real sad to see you like that well
05:18:58
I don't want to I know I know I know but it's just that me and you got this spond
05:19:03
that we had ever since all them years back then you know I hope that next time I see you you're back I'm sure
05:19:12
I I'm kind of like pretty much I I really feel that things going to go my way this time good things are here
05:19:22
thanks for coming all right you know that let me get this in I got to get my school
05:19:31
work because crosing gree never got a new trial we'll never know what really happened on April 4th
05:19:39
1989 but Crosley green is not the only person who didn't get Justice neither did 22-year-old Chip Flynn who died that
05:19:50
early morning in an Orange Grove how and why did chiplin die why did it take so long to get him
05:20:00
help throughout this podcast you heard about the cops who failed to thoroughly investigate the story told by Flynn's
05:20:09
ex-girlfriend you heard her inconsistent stories you heard about the lack of evidence and you heard Witnesses admit
05:20:18
they lied to authorities before and during Crosley Green's trial and of course you've heard a lot about the
05:20:26
prosecutor who failed to turn over exculpatory evidence none of these people have faced
05:20:33
serious consequences for what they did or failed to do but Crosley green has before he went back to prison in
05:20:46
2023 Crosley green preached one last sermon to his church congregation I got a verse I want to
05:20:55
read out of this Bible I'm going to read Matthew 25 okay and it says do not worry all right all right you hear me do
05:21:12
not worry and this is what I be trying to tell my sisters my family do not worry I don't worry when I'm by myself
05:21:30
but when I get with you guys and I see your expression even with friends or supporters I see their expression I see
05:21:37
tears fall from there they bother me and I tell them don't worry man I'm okay I'm
05:21:42
always telling y'all don't worry I'm okay I can do this let me show y'all be strong with me I'm in God's hand amen
05:21:50
amen I am in God's hand yes you understand believe me when I tell y'all everything will be okay amen I love
05:22:00
y'all and thank you for listening to me [Applause] murder in the Orange Grove was reported
05:22:11
by me Aaron morard alongside producers Alan Pang Annie Cronenberg and Allison Bailey Kiara norbitz is our coordinating
05:22:20
producer and Florence brough Adams is our story editor additional production support from Dylan Gordon Marlon
05:22:29
polycarp Caroline Casey and Christine Driscoll Judy tigart is the executive producer of 48 Hours Gail Zimmerman a
05:22:38
basak Mark goom Charlotte Fuller Judy Ryback and Steven McCain produced the original 48 Hours episodes associate
05:22:48
producers were Michael Loftus and Shaheen Toki Patty aronowski was the senior producer special thanks to Megan Marcus
05:22:57
Jamie Benson Nick poser and Gail spru [Music] [Music] what I've been telling you for the last
05:23:22
20 something years that I was [Music] innocent we don't know what happened that night all we know is that chip Flynn
05:23:36
picked up his ex-girlfriend they had sex they smoked marijuana then chip Flynn got
05:23:45
shot in the early morning hours of April 4th 1989 the police received a 911 call from
05:23:53
Kim HCK I was dispatched almost immediately they did eventually find chiplin lying in an abandoned Orange
05:24:01
Grove he's been shot I get a call shortly after 2:00 that he has died there was a statement taken from Kim HCK
05:24:11
the black guy stepped out with a gun and I heard about five or six gun shots you don't see anybody else around
05:24:20
shots were fired you don't see any shell casing and just makes you wonder I don't
05:24:25
know the black guy told me how was a [ __ ] I don't believe words she says it's unfortunately a classic case
05:24:33
of what is often referred to as a racial hoax which is a black guy did it so you get then called in by the
05:24:42
prosecutor I told him I thought she did it I said to him you know I think you need to take a a close look at Kim
05:24:50
HCK were you at all surprised when crosy green was charged with chip Flynn's murder it was a total shock this this
05:24:57
was like picking a name out of a [Music] hat we finally had a federal judge judge
05:25:08
ruled that Cy green had been wrongfully and unconstitutionally convicted we did it Cy's going to be
05:25:24
released baby brother and we thank you Father for opening up doors that men have shut for
05:25:32
us father it was so joyous love love you too all right it's going to be okay Y is y'all
05:25:50
going to send him back to prison for a crime he didn't commit yall going to take him away from his family
05:25:57
again what was your reaction when the court of appeals ruled against Crosley reinstated his
05:26:05
conviction it was it was pretty devastating really I got to turn myself in tomorrow
05:26:14
I don't think I'm going but that's that's me cuz it's always a miracle God always sends out a miracle to someone
05:26:23
you never know when how where [Music] [Music] 48 Hours has been covering the questionable conviction of Crosley green
05:27:19
for 24 years crosley's attorneys say that race was a factor from the beginning the evidence that Crosley
05:27:28
green is innocent is literally overwhelming crosley's ordeal began in April of 1989 Charles Flynn better known as chip
05:27:40
was found shot in a Florida Citrus Grove he had been with his ex-girlfriend Kim HCK that night she told investigators
05:27:48
that they had been robbed and hijacked by a black man in holder Park as they sat in Chip's truck a little after 11:00
05:27:56
p.m. told Chip there's a black guy on your side and he Ed up the window real quick 20 minutes later Kim says chip
05:28:06
stepped out of the truck and she heard him say hold on man did you see that uh the black male was armed at that time
05:28:14
yes I did Chip had a gun in his glove box I took the gun out of the glove box and stuck it under some jeans that were
05:28:22
next to me she says the man tied Chip's hands with a shoelace ordered her to hand over
05:28:29
money from Chip's wallet and then with everyone in this truck she says the as salent drove them to the Orange Grove
05:28:36
steering shifting years and somehow holding a gun on them all at the same time Kim H told police that when they
05:28:47
got to the Grove the man yanked her out of the truck and then chip his hands still tied behind his back somehow
05:28:55
managed to get a hold of his gun that Kim had hidden on the truck seat he leaned out of the truck and somehow shot
05:29:03
at the guy and the guy stepped back chipped him out of the truck jumped in the truck and I heard about five or six
05:29:12
gunshots she said she then drove to a friend's home for help Sheriff Deputy Mark rxy and
05:29:19
Sergeant Diane Clark were the first two officers on the scene Kim H says that this as salent took both chip and came
05:29:29
to the Citrus Grove at 1210 and yet you're not dispatched till 1113 it's over an hour
05:29:38
there is approximately an hour that is missing and unexplained how crucial was that time that night matter of life and
05:29:48
death why is she not stopping someplace and making that phone call where could she have called right here from payone I
05:29:57
think there was three along the way convenience store convenience store and the hospital's right there the
05:30:04
directions Kim gave were so vague that even after Clark and rexie were dispatched it took another 30 minutes to
05:30:11
find chip get the call at 113 I respond to this area there's nothing there had to notify my dispatch
05:30:20
to get better directions I drive to this new area here where they informed me to go again
05:30:26
there's nothing there why then were you first sent to the wrong location that's a good question CU she didn't tell us
05:30:34
where to go she gave the wrong direction sergeant and Clark ended up sending another deputy to pick him up so she
05:30:42
could better guide them she wouldn't get the car we say can you show us where yeah nope not going down there what did
05:30:52
that say to you what did you think there's something wrong something is not ringing true I would want to know is he
05:31:02
okay they found chip laying on his stomach with his hands tied behind his back bleeding from a single gunshot wound to
05:31:11
his chest he was in pain but I seriously thought he'd be okay first words out of his mouth were get me
05:31:20
out of here I want to go home did he mention anything about an as salent nope no did he mention anything about being
05:31:27
robbed no no did he mention anything about being kidnapped no no I'm thinking what's going on here my feeling about it
05:31:34
at the time and still is that he was protecting her [Music] chip Flynn stopped breathing twice as
05:31:43
they waited for an ambulance Sergeant Clark tried to save his life he didn't have to die there wasn't anything he
05:31:51
didn't like to do Chip's parents Charles and Peggy Flynn now both deceased rushed
05:31:56
to the Orange Grove when they got the word chip had been hurt but police wouldn't let them near the
05:32:02
scene I should have been able to go back to see the flynns who spoke with us in 1999
05:32:11
were shocked to learn that chip had been with Kim HCK that night chip had a new girlfriend that's all he talked about he
05:32:19
didn't mention Kim anymore or anything Chip's parents said Kim had become too possessive and overbearing chip liked
05:32:26
his freedom she wanted him to be with her all the time Kim was upset about the breakup according to Chip's friend David
05:32:34
Stroop who also spoke with us in 199 9 I do remember they just that she didn't want to let go and it was David's home
05:32:43
where Kim H went for help I wondered why she came to my place as opposed to just
05:32:48
stopping at the first potential telephone you know even a a a home with a light on or anything if you know so
05:32:55
it's always bothered me Kim H was not and has never been a suspect homicide detectives from Bard
05:33:04
County Sheriff's Office seemed to take her at her word despite her delay in calling for help and her inability to
05:33:11
describe the as salent very well I really didn't get a real good look at him I was really
05:33:18
scared investigators claimed that almost immediately they got a tip that a small
05:33:23
time drug dealer Crosley green was involved he had recently been released from jail the description that she had
05:33:30
given for the sketch didn't match him they showed Kim this photo lineup and chose number two Crosley
05:33:41
green his picture is smaller and darker than any of the other pictures and it's right in you know what is often referred
05:33:52
to as the bullseye point of a photo array crosy green admits he was no angel but he had no history of violent crime I
05:34:01
think he was just an easy pick we're going to put somebody in jail for this green was was arrested in charg
05:34:09
with kidnapping robbery and murder despite no direct evidence linking him to chip shooting there were no
05:34:17
Fingerprints of Crosley green or any third person on the uh the truck not one single fingerprint
05:34:46
there was no case against Crosley green there was no case it was a one witness ID case in August of 1990 Crosley green
05:34:56
went on trial for the murder of Chip Flynn the case hinged on the testimony of Kim HCK the state star witness who
05:35:06
identified green as the black man who attacked the couple defense attorney Keith Harrison that's the weakest kind
05:35:13
of case where the only evidence you have is somebody said that guy did it the state claimed there were also
05:35:20
shoe prints found at holder Park prosecutor Christopher White NOW retired said a dog followed the scent of those
05:35:28
prints to the vicinity of a house where one of Green's sisters lived white spoke
05:35:33
with us in 2015 the shoe Impressions were were followed from the site where the truck
05:35:39
was parked supporting what Kim said about there being a third person there a black male who abducted them and did
05:35:47
these things those shoe prints however were never linked to Crosley green but the prosecution also had three Witnesses
05:35:57
all with criminal problems of their own who claimed Crosley confessed one was crosley's own sister
05:36:06
Sheila the defense argued that Crosley couldn't have killed Flynn because he had an
05:36:11
alibi Crosley says he was seen at the time of the Murder by multiple Witnesses at a party 2 miles away but his former
05:36:20
attorney only called one to testify and on September 5th 1990 an all-white jury convicted Crosley green of kidnapping
05:36:30
robbery and murder he was sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair hi Crosley I'm Aaron morard with
05:36:42
CBS I first met Crosley Green in 1999 what's it like being here on death row it's hell it's hell to me because
05:36:51
I'm here for a crime I didn't commit a team of lawyers from crowl and moin led by Keith Harrison and Jean
05:36:59
Thomas took crosley's case pro bono they say jurors never heard the real story when you look at all of the facts you
05:37:07
see that the state wanted to achieve a certain result and they manufactured evidence they coerced witnesses to lie
05:37:16
even before the trial Kim H's account had serious inconsistencies she told police that the
05:37:22
as salant had managed to steer Chip's truck shift gears all while holding a gun on them and yet she told Chip's
05:37:31
parents a very different story she was having to shift the gears for him he would just master clutch and she would
05:37:38
shift the gears he was making her do that Kim changed other parts of her story as well according to this police
05:37:46
report from the night of the shooting she told a deputy that the as salent told her to tie Chip's hands but just
05:37:55
hours later in her taped interview the black man was tying chip hands those inconsistencies would that have
05:38:02
concerned you we're talking about who tied him yes and who shifted the truck of course it would if she was
05:38:10
inconsistent any inconsistencies and yet another serious inconsistency Kim's description of the
05:38:17
as salent gun matched a semi-automatic she said that when she drove away leaving chip at that Grove
05:38:24
she heard five to six gunshots but no shell casings were recovered at the scene and the only bullet found was the
05:38:32
one that killed chip your own experts said that in fact the book bullet found in chip Flynn could have come from his
05:38:40
own gun did you find another weapon well no did you ever find another shell casing to match that weapon no and we
05:38:47
wouldn't if in fact he was shooting a revolver you understand that did you find any other bullet holes bullet holes
05:38:55
um not that I'm aware of just about then sh his hands were behind his back he leaned out of the truck and somehow shot
05:39:03
at the guy but that statement was contradicted by the evidence investigators found no gunshot residue
05:39:10
on Chip's hands the fact that his were tested and did not show any gunshot residue contradicts her story and I
05:39:18
totally don't believe someone could actually jump out of that truck and shoot a gun behind their back with their
05:39:22
hands tied anyway when you look at this case it is all circumstantial I would love to have had a stronger case but it
05:39:30
is what it is as for those shoe prints at the park criminalist Lisa Deo who who helped
05:39:37
crosley's defense team told us that the diagram shown at trial contradicts the actual crime scene video shoeprint after
05:39:46
proceeding West will then continue on around just to the outside of this fence if these were the tracks of the as
05:39:55
salant they should end where the truck was parked around here but in fact de Mayo says they continue past the truck
05:40:03
along the fence as you just heard and appear to leave leave the park how could they belong to the as
05:40:10
salent if in fact he got in the truck back here they couldn't no no they couldn't
05:40:18
the trail of Prince leaving holder Park is missing from the diagram this diagram
05:40:24
supports Kim H's story but this diagram doesn't match the evidence at the scene correct this was necessary to make her
05:40:35
story fit what what's more every one of the three Witnesses who testified that Crosley green confessed recanted after
05:40:44
trial there's a pattern that supports the fact that these folks were coerced when a sister testifies against her own
05:40:55
brother and says he confessed it's hard to believe that could be coerced absolutely um she
05:41:04
recanted almost immediately how we Tracked Down Sheila Green in 1999 what did they say would happen if
05:41:13
you didn't testify against your brother I would never see my kids again she told
05:41:17
us she had no choice but to lie on the stand did Crosley ever tell you that he killed chip I never even talked to
05:41:25
Crosley he never told me that basically they told me that this was my last chance to help myself because I was
05:41:33
already convicted but this is your own brother Sheila he will understand you think he will
05:41:44
yes he will he know I'm [Music] did what do you make of Kim H's account Chip's parents recorded Kim's account of
05:42:00
the night chip was shot hear what she said happened on Facebook at 48 hours [Music]
05:42:15
Florida had a long history of being engaged in uh slavery in the plantation economy that has passed itself on to the
05:42:23
criminal justice system here in this state Kenneth nun now retired law professor from the University of Florida
05:42:29
says the odds were stacked against Crosley Green in that Florida courtroom I would say that Crosley Green's case is
05:42:37
a miscarriage of Justice if you read the trial transcript the prosecutor was using
05:42:45
race to fill the gaps in the evidence during trial the defendant's race was referred to 140
05:42:55
times and I told Chip there's a black guy on your side she accuses a black person of
05:43:03
committing this crime who are they going to believe and what has defined this case from the
05:43:10
very beginning is that Kim HCK was treated as a victim never as a possible shooter everybody on the scene is a
05:43:18
suspect until they're not every single person is tested for gunshot residue that's not what happened here to this
05:43:26
day First Responders Diane Clark and mark rxy question why bravard County detectives failed to do even a basic
05:43:35
investigation of halik Kim H was taken in and questioned at 4:30 but not recorded until 8:20 and
05:43:46
what does that say to you well she had time to get a story the way she wanted it she was not a suspect did it ever
05:43:54
occur to you or anyone else that maybe Kim HCK wasn't telling the truth well of course it did I mean former prosecutor
05:44:02
Christopher white then why wasn't she ever investigated why was she never a suspect what do you mean no GSR taken of
05:44:12
her hands why not I don't know if there was or wasn't at this point was why weren't pictures taken of her hands her
05:44:19
arms to see if she had any injuries I guess I could have done more examination I'll give you that okay Crosset green
05:44:26
lawyer Keith Harrison finds it mindboggling chip Flynn had broken up with Kim HCK he was seeing another woman
05:44:34
Kim HCK was very upset about that that's the the oldest motive in the book jealousy jealousy still white took Kim
05:44:42
hallik at her word you've got to understand it's kind of a small community here in Titusville Kim HCK uh
05:44:50
lived at the in the area where I lived I don't see how there's anything here concrete to tell anybody that Kim HCK
05:44:58
lied but there were those obvious red flags with her story there was no moon on the night
05:45:07
chip fim was shot it was completely dark in that Orange Grove based on her testimony she said she didn't get a
05:45:15
really good look at him yet Kim H chose green out of this photo lineup a flawed lineup Professor nun says that is no
05:45:24
longer allowed under Florida's current laws you can't tell the witness that the the suspect is in the batch and that
05:45:33
happened in this case you have to make sure that the f photograph matches all the other photographs his head is
05:45:41
smaller than the other ones so he stands out would you do this today well no no ideally I would not
05:45:49
could she have picked the wrong person I don't think she did you know uh was she guessing more than she was sure
05:45:58
I couldn't tell you for sure that still leaves you with the issue whether or not
05:46:01
it's Crosley and you have arguments pro and con about that but the one thing I'm
05:46:05
sure of based on the evidence in this case it wasn't Kim HCK she was the only other one there who else would have done
05:46:11
it the only way all the facts are reconciled is if she shot him I told everybody I ran into who had
05:46:18
any interest in it I thought she did it I told the homicide Sergeant I told the homicide
05:46:26
investigator and four months after the shooting both brixie and Clark met with prosecutor Christopher white they wanted
05:46:33
to make sure he knew of their suspicions of Kim Howen and how did Chris White take that
05:46:39
information he was dismissed dismissive I said to him she is involved and I don't believe was a person you arrested
05:46:46
I never heard anything else about it afterwards I think that they got into an argument she pulled the gun out of the
05:46:53
glove box and either intentionally or unintentionally shot him they freak out I I don't want to get in trouble we got
05:47:00
to come up with a story let's make up this story why didn't you take their words seriously I reviewed all the
05:47:07
evidence that we had with that hypothesis in mind do they give me cause to believe that Kim HCK may have
05:47:15
committed this murder my answer is no Kim hoc has not responded to our repeated request for an interview but
05:47:23
she did tell the Washington Post I'm tired of being beat down by the media and she said I've been told I'm the one
05:47:31
that did it and I did not kill anybody you're that sure that cros the green is innocent I would bet my life on it yes
05:47:40
but in 201 11 years after chip Lin's murder the state claimed it had more evidence against
05:47:49
Green two tiny body hairs allegedly found inflence truck they tested them for DNA matter of fact I wanted them to
05:47:58
test it I knew I haven't been in that truck I never been that Tru there was sufficient DNA there to
05:48:05
obtain a result using MTA DNA that DNA mitochondrial cannot be used to identify a specific person it can only identify
05:48:15
broad family relations and crosy green could not be excluded from that group it's not a match the mitochondrial DNA
05:48:24
test cannot definitively say this DNA is this individual's DNA crosley's maternal
05:48:32
uh relatives for example would be in this group that is not excluded in fact crosley's brother o' Conor
05:48:39
believes the hairs could be his he happened to be a friend of the original owner of the truck it's possible cuz I
05:48:47
drove the truck kind of regular I I'm not saying I drove the truck one or two times I don't drove the truck several
05:48:53
times are you at all troubled by the fact that croset green could not be eliminated that's nothing that's not
05:48:59
evidence that is not EV it does not tie him specifically to that truck you have that one hair that could
05:49:08
have come from someone else his brother uhhuh is there any other physical evidence any other physical evidence
05:49:15
anything that connects Crosley green to this case well I I guess the simple answer to that is
05:49:24
no in 2009 after 19 years facing execution crosy greens attorneys won a major victory because of an error in sentence
05:49:36
scene green was taken off death row I felt real good at that time but I know I have another 100 yards to go but
05:49:49
Crosley Green's request for a new trial was denied even though some of the evidence was now in question and all
05:49:56
those Witnesses who testified against him said they lied on the stand have you ever had a case where three Witnesses
05:50:04
have recanted and lied have you ever never had a case three you know I never have that doesn't trouble you not coming
05:50:11
from those people with those ties to the Green family and the Green family being
05:50:18
what it is no it doesn't trouble me a great deal but in an odd twist of fate Christopher white provided just what
05:50:27
Crosley Green's defense team had been waiting for I was shocked I knew immediately that this was a GameChanger
05:50:38
[Music] I'm ready to go home hopefully I get that chance to go home I've been without my family for
05:50:55
quite some time now Crosley green was just 19 when his parents died and he assumed the role of Papa to his large
05:51:02
family which is why crosley's murder conviction was so deeply felt by his oldest child schuma his brother o' Conor
05:51:11
and sister Shirley and DEA I worried about him a lot and it's breaking the family it's
05:51:20
breaking the family down watch yall go over that way son schuma was 16 and his brother Gaston was six when Crosley was
05:51:28
sentenced to death it damaged us I got rebellious I just would have get in trouble no sense of direction cuz my dad
05:51:39
was gone I never was with my sons when they grew up you know and I got grandkids now
05:51:46
I don't know how much time I got left on Earth myself but the little time I I will have
05:51:51
left if I'm out there it would be with them but Crosley green will never be able to make up lost time with two of
05:51:59
his sisters they died while he's been in prison Brenda and Tina that's been tough that's been
05:52:12
tough they have been with me all until the time to die you miss him as for Sheila the sister who helped
05:52:27
put him on death row he forgave her years ago does she feel a lot of guilt of course she do but but that's my
05:52:38
sister and I want her to know that I love her and no matter what I'm not angry at
05:52:55
her with the witness recantations the only person who still connects Crosley to the crime is Kim HCK did you sit here
05:53:04
today do you believe Crosley green is the man who shot yes I do yes I do but as it turns out Christopher White made a
05:53:12
decision in 1989 that would ultimately turn the tide for Crosley green Mark and Diane suspect
05:53:20
the girl did it she changed her story a couple of times white took these notes after his meeting with Mark rxy and
05:53:27
Diane Clark when they told him their suspicions about Kim HCK one thing was she tied his hands
05:53:36
behind behind his back she never asked how the victim was while at the homicide she wouldn't go down there to
05:53:45
the scene why wouldn't the guy say who shot him white never turned those notes over to crosley's original lawyer this
05:53:54
is the evidence of Innocence that was hidden by the prosecutor what was your reaction when you first read those
05:54:03
notes I was shocked um I really couldn't believe it they can't just hide that evidence they can't cover it up they
05:54:12
have to disclose it to the defense defense attorney Jean Thomas says those notes which included inconsistencies in
05:54:21
Kim H's story would have been crucial at trial it goes to the heart of the defense theory of the case that there
05:54:29
was no black man at the scene of this crime that it was these two teenagers that there was an accident and then
05:54:38
there was a story that was made up after the fact those notes would have had a tremendous impact on the case and for
05:54:47
that reason in July 2018 a federal judge ruled that by withholding those notes prosecutors
05:54:55
violated Crosley Green's right to a fair trial his conviction was overturned it was a miracle that finally
05:55:04
there was a court that said yes his constitutional rights were violated when his conviction was overturned what did
05:55:10
you think would happen man I I thought my brother be home but Crosley didn't come home because the state appealed
05:55:18
arguing that the notes that prosecutor white withheld wouldn't have changed the outcome of the original trial Crosley
05:55:26
was held in prison waiting for the court of appeals to decide honestly I did not think it would
05:55:34
take this long but then the Corona virus invaded the prison where Crosley green was held his
05:55:41
situation became even more precarious after he was diagnosed with latent tuberculosis in March of
05:55:48
2021 crosley's attorneys filed a motion for his immediate [Music] release this is the day that we long for
05:56:02
God and we thank you Father for opening doors that men have shut for us father we thank you for those that
05:56:09
you gave us favors with Father God for you bringing our brother home cross with green I can't tell you where I was
05:56:15
thinking or what I saw or how I felt oh that's right hold your head up Pap Pap your head
05:56:22
up thank you I was just looking around wondering is is this real she a big baby no and at one point now I really
05:56:38
wonder is it for real thank you Jesus thank you thank you [Music] brother now that crosy green is home his
05:56:57
very large and loving family has descended upon him everybody wants a piece of the man they know as Papa green
05:57:07
I thought maybe it would be the kids that really want to be with me or want to talk with me the grownups beat making
05:57:14
them kids get out the way they push the kids to the side they want to be first son Crosley has a lot of catching
05:57:23
up to do so many relatives weren't even born when he went to prison if it was for my family I I
05:57:31
wouldn't be here my sister Celestine She always told me don't get give up your day going to come I used to always say
05:57:40
all right girl when I get out we going to do things you know but that day never came she
05:57:48
died crosley's sister Celestine is buried in a cemetery just down the road from where he's staying but he can't
05:57:56
visit her grave or go most anywhere else without special permission from his probation officer I was told I couldn't
05:58:03
go to the mailbox he's free but right now without that special permission he can't Venture Beyond his
05:58:11
brother-in-law's property line show me take me a little bit where you can go how far here but
05:58:18
right right here crley calls it his 12 yards of freedom and showed me his new Jailer here it is right here this ankle
05:58:28
break bra right here it's challenging for him Crosley has many many grandchildren most of whom he's never
05:58:36
met he wants to take them to a park and go fishing and teach them how to fish and you know sit under a tree uh and
05:58:46
tell stories and he he can't uh he can't do that at least not until the US court of
05:58:53
appeals hands down its decision there is a chance the court will side with the state reinstate crosley's conviction and
05:59:02
send him back to prison does that Ang bracelet also remind you that your time home might be
05:59:10
temporary it does I I got to be honest with you it does but uh I really don't believe I'm going back I really believe
05:59:18
that deep down in my soul I'm not going back to prison but less than a year later in
05:59:25
March of 2022 the US court of appeals came back with a decision that caught everyone off
05:59:32
guard it was unexpected and it was it was pretty shocking the Court ruled that those notes Christopher white failed to
05:59:40
turn over to crosley's defense would not have changed the outcome of his trial his conviction was
05:59:50
reinstated crosley's Last Hope to ask the US Supreme Court to take his case but in February of 2023 come on in have
05:59:59
a seat the attorneys gathered the Green family together to break the bad news the Supreme Court is not going to hear
06:00:08
our case Crosley has run out of legal options which means he has to go back to prison his sister surely took the news
06:00:18
hard is y'all going to send it back to prison for Crime D you're going to take him away from his family again you took
06:00:26
him 33 years there was a fair amount of anger why do my brother have to continue
06:00:31
going through this it was very emotional it was raw it's not right there was a lot of deep deep
06:00:40
sadness um you could almost feel like the family was kind of coming apart right right there in front of you they
06:00:48
failed us the system failed us but we just got dropped and the they last round for crosley's son schuma the thought of
06:00:55
losing his father again was inconceivable you ain't the only one doing time we doing time right with you
06:01:02
it's a family thing and now it's getting torn apart again they just miss him terribly he just is such an important
06:01:10
patriarch among that family a role model um but he he keeps that family together
06:01:17
I can feel what they feel and in that difficult moment Crosley assumed the role of patriarch again you have sh me a
06:01:26
lot since I [Music] me but we get this together we going to be all right if we stay together I can't
06:01:40
be hurt cuz I uh I still got faith I got the Lord on my side I'm happy I am happy
06:01:50
love you baby on his last weekend as a free man Crosley seemed almost hopeful I'm on
06:02:00
religious person and I have a lot of faith and trust and most importantly I still believe in
06:02:09
the system I don't have no no hatred I don't have no sadness I can't dwell on that couldn't sleep I would start
06:02:17
getting angry and that's not me Crosley has made the most of the time he spent at home this year has been a
06:02:26
remarkable year I got a job I never missed a day on he made Hightech metal parts and left a big impression Crosley
06:02:34
says his co-workers called him PPE and what does PPE stand for Pure positive and energy that's what it stand
06:02:46
for Crosley also fell in love and got engaged his fiance Catherine spikes when we did meet it was butterflies but at
06:02:56
the same time it was excitement how soon did you know that this was the guy you wanted to be with after our first phone
06:03:05
call what man these days sit on the phone for 6 hours I think just the compassion that he showed
06:03:13
me um that it was just a simple the sound and tone of his voice that made everything like oh my God you can make
06:03:22
everything all right for me does it make it tough to go back yes and no no because I've always tried to
06:03:32
prepare her for the worst like myself let's just say if I do not get that Miracle
06:03:40
tomorrow but it's coming you know I'm not going to have to tell her goodbye or anything like that I'm
06:03:49
going always love her on his last Sunday just like every other Sunday since he's been out with
06:03:58
me Crosley went to church brother Crosby up this time he said goodbye do not worry and this is what I be trying to
06:04:10
tell my sisters my family do not worry I see tears fall from there they bother me I'm okay I can
06:04:19
do this let me do this let me show y'all be strong with me I'm in God's hand amen
06:04:25
amen I am in God's hand [Music] yeah on Monday April 17th 2023 two years after crosley's
06:04:37
conditional release I love you baby he said a goodbye to his family I love you love you too love
06:04:45
you love you too he left each one of them with a few words of wisdom I love you I want you to continue doing what
06:04:54
you doing we just take one day at a time everything going to be okay on what could be his last day outside Prison
06:05:02
Walls hey I love y'all man listen listen y'all be strong man then he joined his fiance Kathy and
06:05:09
attorneys everything be okay for the drive to the correction center she's been right there by my
06:05:21
side more family members arrived okay say see you later last two years been some of the
06:05:32
greatest time I ever had all these memories I got those are my memories I think I'm going to be free
06:05:42
sir it ain't about the case it's about me it's about a human being that wants his freedom want to be able to be around
06:05:51
his grandkids his little nieces nephews his brothers his sisters family and friends you know this is what this
06:06:03
is about they need me I need them to but they need me [Music] more what do you think should happen in
06:06:23
the crossle green case chat now with the 48 Hours team on Facebook and Twitter I was startled
06:06:32
awake I started screaming A 55-hour Reign of Terror I did Tire up and he was hurting mom and I said please I'll do
06:06:43
anything please don't kill me 48 Hours next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus
06:06:50
[Music]