00:00:01
This episode may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion. Nobody was there to witness uh the car
00:00:11
going into the water. Uh there was no surveillance video there at the lake. Um there was a boater who came upon
00:00:21
uh the accident um before the for first responders arrived. He tried to call 911
00:00:29
on his cell phone from his boat, but he's probably the closest person there was um to an eyewitness to what
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happened. On September 2nd, 2003, a 911 call was placed from a pay phone at Clinton Lake
00:00:45
in Clinton, Illinois. We're hearing about it from Edith Brady Lunny, courts reporter for the Panagramraph newspaper
00:00:53
in Bloomington, Illinois. I went to the hospital which is um right there in the in the center of Clinton. Um and we
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really didn't know at that point exactly what had happened. We knew that three children had drowned. Um but it was not
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clear what the circumstances were uh surrounding the drownings. >> A 1997 Oldsmobile Cutless had been
00:01:21
recovered from the lake. The driver was 28-year-old Maurice Lrron. In the passenger seat was his girlfriend,
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27-year-old Amanda Ham. They survived. In the back seat, Amanda Ham's three children, ages 6, 3, and 23 months, did
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not. According to Maurice Lrone and Amanda Ham, they'd gone out to dinner and then gone to the lake. Maurice
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parked close to the edge of the water on a sloped boat ramp with the nose of the
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car facing the water. So he parked just a matter of a few feet from the water on
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the boat ramp. The kids and the two adults got out and played for a while. After they were done playing, they all
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got back in the car and instead [music] of backing the car up the boat ramp, it went into the water and sank. [music]
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The next day, Dwit County Sheriff Roger Massie told a local newspaper, [music] "We don't want to blow this up into
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something that it's not, but on the other side, we've got three children who are dead. None of us know exactly what
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happened. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is criminal. [music] >> [music] >> Maurice Lrron and Amanda Ham said that
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it was a horrible accident. [music] Maurice Lrron told police that when he put the car in reverse to back out and
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took his foot off the [music] brake, the car rolled forward more than he had expected. He said that when he put his
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foot [music] on the gas pedal, the tires began to spin. The car moved into the water [music] and began to float.
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When the police pulled the car out of the water, it was indeed in reverse. [music] But once it was in the water, um
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it's it went out about uh 30 ft into the water, took a nose dive [music] with the
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hood of the car in about 8 ft of water, the rear bumper in about 4 ft of water. Here's Maurice Lrron at the scene of the
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drownings 3 days later doing a walkthrough of the scene with county investigators.
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>> Okay, Maurice, I'd like to point out something real quick. You're standing on
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the same ramp today. You notice that the condition of the ramp is very dry. Is it
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not? >> Yes, sir. >> Is it slippery at all, Maurice? >> So, it is. >> Okay. What takes place inside the car?
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Do you recall if Amanda said anything? >> She said the car was the car's going in
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the water. Something to that effect. I'm not sure exactly. >> I said you went for the window.
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>> Yes, sir. >> Can you explain that to me? >> I went to roll down the window. Okay.
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And cuz I knew if the car was sub submerged, the chances of of me getting out the
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door to help get them out would have been slammed. Okay. >> So I figured with that window rolled
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down, you know, I would have had a better chance. >> Okay. So you rolled down, sir. I was
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just trying to figure out the best way to deal with this situation as possible. You know, cuz like I said,
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I was I was panicking. I was terrified. >> Maurice Lrone later testified that he
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was able to open his driver's side door and get out of the car. He testified that Amanda, a ham, appeared behind him
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in the water. He said he was unable to open the back door or reach the children through the car window.
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According to the owner's manual for the make and model of the car, the doors lock automatically when the ignition
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switch is on and the car is in reverse. Amanda Ham got out of the water and called 911 from a nearby pay phone. On
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the 911 recording, she's hysterical. The operator can't understand her. And then
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Maurice Lrron appears on the recording and gives the operator their location. He asks repeatedly what other
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information the 911 operator needs in order to find out where they are. You can hear that he's agitated, but he
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seems to be trying to remain calm. At one point, he yells at the 911 operator because he doesn't seem to think she's
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responding fast enough. And with a within about 4 minutes, the first responders were there. Um, and they were
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able to pull the children out of the car within just a couple of minutes. Um, but
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the kids were in bad shape when they got to the hospital. The two boys who were ages six and three died at the hospital.
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Their little sister, who was just a little uh shy of her second birthday, uh, died the next day at another
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hospital. One of the doctors at the hospital asked Amanda Ham what happened at the lake.
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The doctor later testified that Amanda Ham said, "We were getting ready to leave and he got confused on which way.
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He put it in the wrong gear and hit the gas and we sped into the lake. He got mixed up."
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In the days and months that followed, Amanda Ham was interviewed by the police seven times without a lawyer present.
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Most of the interviews were recorded. When an investigator asked Amanda why she did not save her children, she said
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that she was trying to, but quote, "The water was coming in so fast. The best thing I could think of to do was call
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911, and that's what I went and did." At times, investigators are shouting at her. They asked Amanda Ham when Maurice
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Lrron first suggested that life would be easier without the children. He never has. She said he's never said anything
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like that to me. Here's a clip from a September 10th, 2003 interview, one week after the death of her children. So man,
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when you walk out of this place, everybody from the local Clinton newspaper to CNN has been covering this
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case. Now you can leave her one way or the other. You're going to go out with this was a
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cold, calculated, murderous fish that went out there with the intent to murder these three little kids because they
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were excess baggage. because they weren't fixed. Listen to me, Amanda. Listen to me.
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>> Because they're excess baggage. Okay? Cold, calculated, heartless, murderous [ __ ] That's one end of the spectrum
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we're looking at. All right? Or we're talking about maybe the other end of the spectrum. We've got a young
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mother. We've got a young mother in financial trouble. We've got a young mother with high stress trying to raise
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three kids on her own. We've got a young mother with a living boyfriend and his boyfriend is very possessive. He's very
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controlling and these kids are an obstacle to him and I think maybe took advantage of this mother and persuaded
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her to do something that she didn't want to do. Oh my god. >> You cannot walk for your children.
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>> And no matter how much financial situation I had, no matter how much baggage I've had for my past, I would
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never hurt these kids. >> In a subsequent interview, Amanda Ham told investigators that Maurice Lrone
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cheated on her and that he would sometimes get frustrated with her children. She began to agree with police
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when they suggested that Maurice had wanted to drive into the water that night. She was admitted to a psychiatric
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hospital. Police interviewed her at the hospital for 7 hours. Doctors had administered three psychotropic
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medications. This interview was not recorded, but police testified that when they asked
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her if she knew Maurice planned to harm the children, she nodded yes. When Maurice Lrron was interviewed by
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police, he maintained that it had been an accident. In December of 2003, Maurice Lrron and
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Amanda Ham were charged with nine counts of first-degree murder and each held on
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$5 million bail. In announcing the charges, Sheriff Roger Massie said there were quote some similarities between
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this case and a case 10 years earlier in South Carolina. In 1994, a woman named Susan Smith
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called 911 and said that a man had stolen her car and driven off with her two young sons. She was all over the
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news, pleading for the safe return of her children. But nine days later, she confessed that she'd driven to a lake,
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parked on the boat ramp, got out of the car, and released the brake while her two sons slept in the back seat. The
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prosecution's um theory was that um Amanda and Maurice wanted to eliminate her three children so that they could
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move to St. Louis where she was going to go to school. and um life would be much
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easier without these three pesky uh children around to take care of. The thing about that theory though that
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really didn't make sense to the defense and to a lot of people was was this. Um Amanda and Maurice had an apartment that
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was subsidized with public funds because she had three children. uh much of their support for uh their
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finances and their utilities and things like uh rent and food came from the fact
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that she had three children. And so it and their only vehicle that they had to go anywhere with was her car that was
00:12:07
put into the lake. And you put that together with the evidence that she had applied for housing in St. Louis um as
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part of her plan to go to school and she was accepted into public housing and that application included herself and
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the three children. Amanda Ham and Maurice Lrron were tried separately. Maurice Lron's trial
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happened first. During jury selection for Maurice Lron's trial, potential jurors were asked if
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they had any water traumas in their lives and how they felt about biracial relationships.
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The prosecution argued this is not a who done it. This is a how case. The prosecutors told jurors that Amanda
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Ham's children got in the way of Maurice Lron's life of quote smoking marijuana,
00:13:03
having sex, not working, and living off his girlfriend. Maurice Lrron's defense attorney told
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the jury, "The guy who allegedly planned this incident is the same guy who got demoted because he could not operate a
00:13:18
cash register and he couldn't count change." His ex-girlfriends testified that he'd
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been good with their children. One said he had the patience of 10,000 men. Amanda's mother testified that Maurice
00:13:32
and the children had been close. Maurice testified. He admitted to slapping Amanda once. The police were
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called. He admitted that he cheated on her often. He testified that he wasn't in love with her, but that he stayed
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because I didn't have anywhere else to go. He said he played pranks on Amanda's children. He once pretended to put one
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of them in the oven. The oven was off. He said that night at the lake, I was playing around with the kids, acting as
00:14:03
if I was going to drive into the water, and that's how I ended up on the boat ramp.
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Did you ever hit the brake as the car was going into the water? His lawyer asked. Maurice Lrone said he did not. I
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panicked, he said. I can't tell you why. I didn't. I just didn't. The judge in that case would not allow
00:14:25
the jury to consider involuntary manslaughter as a lesser included offense. So in
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other words, for that jury, they had one option, murder or nothing. So they convicted him of murder and the judge
00:14:40
immediately [music] sentenced him to life in prison. Um because uh that's the law in Illinois. he had killed um more
00:14:48
than uh one person. So it it he is serving a life sentence. [music] After the verdict, one of the jurors
00:14:58
told reporters, [music] "We didn't believe there was intent, but he was put in a situation that got out of hand and
00:15:04
didn't save them." And what about Amanda? And then uh later that same year in 2006, [music] she has
00:15:14
her own murder trial in yet another county. But in that case, the judge [music] allowed the jury to consider child
00:15:23
endangerment charges, which is of course a far less serious uh criminal offense.
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[music] Uh the jury deliberated over about 3 days and the jury took that option and convicted her of child
00:15:37
endangerment and she was uh incarcerated about 5 [music] years. >> Hello. >> Hi. This is Phoebe Judge calling you.
00:15:48
>> Is that an alias or a stage name or are you really a Phoebe? >> And I'm really a judge too. I My real
00:15:54
name is Phoebe Judge. >> Okay. Well, I'll treat you with uh difference and respect then.
00:16:00
>> Well, I'll do the same to you. Um, could we just start with you introducing yourself?
00:16:05
>> Um, my name is Steve Skelton. I'm an attorney in Bloomington, Illinois, uh, who has specialized in criminal defense
00:16:12
for uh, roughly 40 years at this point in time. And I represented uh, Amanda Ham at a murder trial that took place
00:16:23
several years ago here in central Illinois. We were not able to reach the lead prosecutor, but Steve Skelton remembers
00:16:31
that the prosecution emphasized how Amanda Ham reacted after learning her children were dead.
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>> The the 600 lb gorilla in the room was we've got three dead children. Uh and even though my client uh was profoundly
00:16:47
affected by it, uh she according to the state did not react in the way that one quote unquote should react uh when
00:16:57
confronted with the stark reality of the fact that her three kids were dead. >> What's she like?
00:17:04
>> She she's a a nice person. Uh she's not overly bright. She's not uh well educated.
00:17:13
Um she's um there's nothing outstanding about her. I mean, she is about a million miles from
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being an evil person. Um, I mean, it's just u just a regular run-of-the-mill um [clears throat]
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[snorts] someone who who doesn't have a great employment history. I mean, she works
00:17:41
hard uh and trying to make the best of her situation. >> Amanda Ham declined to speak with us for
00:17:49
the story. Do I think she bears any culpability um either morally or legally for the deaths of her child children?
00:17:58
Excuse me. No, absolutely not. 300%. >> Why was Maurice convicted and not she of of murder, do
00:18:08
you think? >> [sighs] >> I I I don't enjoy uh saying that uh the race and the background of a defendant uh comes into
00:18:29
play. But uh based on my knowledge of his trial uh and you know the equivalency of the evidence that was
00:18:38
presented at both of the trials uh and I have to draw the conclusion that the fact that he was an undermployed or
00:18:49
unemployed young black man uh who uh was dating a white woman and living with her
00:18:56
three white children. uh played at least to some degree a role in the process that led to his conviction of murder.
00:19:05
>> What was your defense strategy? >> Uh to try to explain uh the totality of the circumstances
00:19:14
leading up to uh her children's deaths uh in a reasonable and informed way. uh rather than just
00:19:26
jumping to the conclusion that since three young children were dead that somebody necessarily has to be
00:19:32
criminally responsible for that. >> In both trials, there was a lot of confusion about whether Maurice and
00:19:40
Amanda's clothes were wet or dry when the first responders arrived at the lake. Witnesses testified to both. A
00:19:48
doctor at the hospital testified that Amanda's hair was dry. A first responder testified that Amanda's sweatpants were
00:19:56
so wet that they were falling down. Someone else testified that Amanda was wearing a skirt. In his closing
00:20:04
argument, prosecutor Roger Simpson told the jury that they could learn about Amanda's priorities in life just by
00:20:10
looking at her first name. He said the first four letters of her name are a man.
00:20:17
At her sentencing hearing, she read a statement. I regret that I formed a relationship with Maurice Lrone, not
00:20:25
because he was an evil person, but because he was immature, selfish, and unwilling to be a responsible partner.
00:20:32
And she pledged not to make similar mistakes in future relationships. After serving nearly 5 years for child
00:20:40
endangerment, Amanda Ham was released from prison on September 9th, 2008. She moved to Chicago and um she um wanted to
00:20:52
start her life over there. She got married to a man named uh Leo Wear and they decided to have uh more children.
00:21:03
She changed her name to Amanda Wear. She has said, "What happened in 2003 is something I'll never get over, but I
00:21:13
have to try to move forward. and having a home, a husband and a family is the biggest part of that.
00:21:22
She and Leo Wear had a daughter and two years later a second daughter. [music] On February 28th, 2014, she went to
00:21:31
Present St. Joseph Hospital to deliver [music] her third child, a son. The hospital staff comes in, approaches her
00:21:38
and says, "Are you Amanda Ham?" [music] She tells them yes, she is. They then place a hotline call [music]
00:21:49
to child welfare people and tell them Amanda Ham is in the hospital [music] and she has children.
00:21:59
>> [music] >> The next day, members of the Illinois DCFS, Department of Children and Family
00:22:05
Services, appeared at the hospital [music] and began to ask questions about the 2003 drowning. And while they're
00:22:12
having that conversation, that very same day, another staff person is going to [music]
00:22:18
the war's uh home, and Leo is there with one of the girls. The other girl is out
00:22:24
[music] with her maternal grandmother at an outing. And when they return to the home, that's when the girls are taken.
00:22:32
[music] So, their baby brother is just one day old when the girls are taken. Amanda isn't allowed to see the baby for
00:22:40
several days after that. [music] Um, because DCFS also takes custody of the baby.
00:22:50
>> [music] >> The basis for taking uh the children was the 2003 drowning case [snorts] when um
00:23:06
Amanda was convicted of child endangerment. Uh it's called uh anticipatory neglect. Um we we may not
00:23:16
have a complaint against you today. In other words, but because of what you've done in the past, we're going to
00:23:25
anticipate and decide whether or not you might be a future danger to your children.
00:23:35
>> I'm limited in what I can say. But yeah, that's what brought the case in. When Amanda and Leo Wear's children were
00:23:43
taken into state custody in February of 2014, Carol Casey was appointed to be the children's attorney. She's the
00:23:51
attorney supervisor at the Cook County Public Guardians office. What does the public guardian's office do? We have a
00:24:00
number of different divisions, but I'm in the juvenile division and we function as attorney and guardian adidum for all
00:24:07
the children, pretty much all the children involved in child protection cases. We currently represent over 6,000
00:24:14
children. >> What are the conditions for the state to intervene in this anticipatory neglect
00:24:21
scenario? If there's been a finding, generally if there's been a finding of a abuse or
00:24:26
neglect as to another child, the concept is is that you don't have to wait for the second child to be hurt.
00:24:34
So, um sometimes you can have, you know, all the kids in the same environment. One
00:24:41
kid is hurt and the other kids aren't hurt. Generally, you're going to say, "Well, we're not going to take the risk
00:24:47
with those with those other children." Right? But then take it out to the next level which is there is a child who is
00:24:56
then born after the experience in that home. And so the question becomes is like okay
00:25:06
are the parents able to care for the kid safely? The issue was not the immediate health
00:25:12
and well-being of the wearer children but rather was Amanda herself a danger. Did the events of 2003 constitute
00:25:22
grounds for anticipatory neglect? >> The one thing that I think really um is important [music]
00:25:29
in to remember in this case is uh number one they there were no allegations of abuse or neglect regarding these three
00:25:39
children who were born to Amanda and Leah [music] wear. Uh the children were doing uh really uh really thriving with
00:25:49
their two parents in their apartment there. The Wear children were placed in the care of Leo Wear's sister. In
00:25:58
September 2015, Amanda and Leo Wear went to court to ask for their kids back. So
00:26:04
the judge uh said initially, we just want to make sure that the children are safe and that you have um
00:26:14
basically that you have healed from that experience. That's that's what we're looking to do here. And that that was
00:26:23
the first uh sort of commentary that the judge had in this. But as the case moved
00:26:32
forward, the state was um it was obvious the state was going to be very very aggressive in this. And the first thing
00:26:40
they did was order all of the court documents from the Dwit County Courthouse. Their
00:26:49
plan was to try to show the judge that because she was convicted of the child endangerment that she should not be
00:27:00
allowed to care for her three new children. Law enforcement involved in the 2003
00:27:10
drowning were brought to Chicago to testify. The Chicago Tribune reported that it was
00:27:16
quote mostly a repreeze of Ham's 2006 murder trial as investigators, some long retired, recounted the horrific events
00:27:26
of that day in September 2003. The state also presented Leo Wear's criminal record, felony convictions in
00:27:36
the 80s and 90s for delivery of a controlled substance and theft. They introduced Amanda Wear's history
00:27:43
with drugs and alcohol and presented evidence that she had called the police in 2012 because Leah Wearer hit her. In
00:27:52
2013, she took out an order of protection against him. In a written statement, she said, "He's been abusive
00:27:59
in the past, and I know what he's capable of doing to me." She dropped the petition 2 weeks later.
00:28:06
The assistant state's attorney said she has a pattern of choosing relationships that are abusive in different ways.
00:28:14
Leah Wer told reporters, "We raised my kids for 3 years before they decided it was a problem. We all make bad decisions
00:28:22
in life. This is about moving on." [music] Amanda and Leo Wear were instructed by
00:28:30
the judge to go to counseling. Amanda to drug and alcohol counseling [music] and
00:28:35
Leo to domestic violence courses before the case was reviewed again. Leo and Amanda went back to court frequently to
00:28:43
have the case reviewed. For the most part, they did complete the court's requirements, but there were slip ups.
00:28:51
Leo failed a drug test. But as time passed, it seemed that what mattered most to [music] the judge was what
00:28:58
happened in 2003. The judge said that Amanda was quote dishonest with herself and cut off
00:29:06
emotionally from [music] the deaths of her children. He said that she had quote conned her therapist. The judge said in
00:29:13
his order that he wanted most of all for Amanda to admit that she had played a role in the murder of her children. and
00:29:24
that she was not uh willing to do because she claims her innocence of murder and she claims Maurice's [music]
00:29:34
innocence of murder. The judge said Mrs. Wear has put on blinders to that event [music]
00:29:41
in order to survive her everyday life and go on. That may serve her well as an individual, but the court's focus
00:29:48
[music] is on the minors in this case, their well-being, their survival. This court will not put on blinders.
00:29:57
Here's Carol Casey. >> My job isn't to think about the parents. Um, this is a little Carol on life, but I
00:30:05
think you have to recognize the dignity of everybody who comes into the court. Not simply being polite, but recognizing
00:30:13
that they're human beings with their own challenges. And it's easy to disregard the people
00:30:21
around you. um to say, "Oh, that's just somebody who whose kids ended up dead because of what
00:30:27
they did." Um but that's my client's parent. Um my clients look in the mirror and
00:30:33
they see at some point, as you would do, as I do, their parents, you know, I still hear words that my father say
00:30:40
coming out of my mouth. You can't disregard that person. It the process falls to heck and it's just not good and
00:30:48
it's not healthy. That having been said, um, I think recognizing that you may be causing a
00:30:57
person pain doesn't mean that you not do what you have to do for the benefit of your of of my child client, but it's
00:31:07
important to recognize that they have huge challenges and their life hasn't been easy and this is hard.
00:31:17
>> [music] >> Edith Brady Loney has been covering this case since that first night nearly 16
00:31:22
[music] years ago. For her, what continues to be so interesting about this story is that Amanda Wear was
00:31:30
essentially tried [music] twice. Once in criminal court and once in a child welfare court. She [music] wonders
00:31:37
whether Leo and Amanda Wear's children are better off now than [music] they were when they were living with their
00:31:43
parents. These were not two perfect [music] people, but you know what is our standard for allowing people to keep and
00:31:53
to and to raise their children. In February of 2018, [music] the Wear's returned to court and the judge ruled
00:32:02
that Leo Wear's sister would be [music] the children's permanent legal guardian.
00:32:08
Amanda and Leo Wear have [music] separated. They visit their children often. Leo has been granted unsupervised
00:32:16
visits, but Amanda's [music] visits must be supervised at all times. [music] [music]
00:32:36
Criminal is created by Lauren Spore and me. [music] Nadia Wilson is our senior producer. audio mix by Rob Buyers.
00:32:44
Special thanks to Susanna Robertson. [music] Julian Alexander makes original illustrations for each episode of
00:32:50
Criminal. You can see them at thisiscriminal.com [music] or on Facebook and Twitter
00:32:55
@criminal show. If you'd like to learn more about the case, [music] Edith Brady Lani has written a book
00:33:01
along with Steve Vogle. It's called [music] The Unforgiven. Criminal is recorded in the studios of
00:33:07
North Carolina Public Radio WUNC. We're a proud member of Radiotopia from [music] PRX, a collection of the best
00:33:15
podcasts around. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal [music] >> Radiotopia [music]
00:33:29
from PRX.