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[Music]
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this man ray krohn was known throughout
00:00:09
arizona as the snaggletooth killer
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an unusual bite mark on a murdered woman
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resulted in his conviction and death
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sentence
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a forensic expert told the jury that he
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was 100 certain that it was crohn who
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bit the victim he knew he was wrong but
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he had already committed and his comment
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to me was i'm in too deep
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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the cbs lounge is one of many
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neighborhood bars in downtown phoenix
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arizona
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[Music]
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hank arredondo owned the cbs lounge
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kim and kona managed it for him
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in the bar business you have to have a
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nice personality you have to be honest
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and all those qualities kim had
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on december 29 1991
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kim closed the bar at the usual time
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shortly after 1 am
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as was his custom hank called to make
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sure there hadn't been any problems
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kim answered i asked her i said is
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everything okay do you have any problems
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and she said no she said hank
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i know you're tired go to sleep rest
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i'll take care of it
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when hank arrived the next day to open
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up
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he noticed the door was ajar
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i know my bartender didn't leave the
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door open i know i didn't
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so something's wrong he first checked
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the safe
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but none of the bar's money was missing
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he went to the kitchen
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no one was there
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then
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he checked the men's room
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i can close my eyes
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and still see that that scene
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i saw her laying in the bathroom
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her eyes fixed
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dead
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i can still remember that to this day i
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probably will the rest of my life
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but
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the girl was beautiful even in death
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[Music]
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the evidence suggests the killer grabbed
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the knife from the kitchen forced kim
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into the men's room
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and stabbed her to death
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[Applause]
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he placed the knife in a trash can
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under the liner
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on his way out
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he left a shoe print on the freshly
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cleaned kitchen floor
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forensic experts identified the print as
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a converse brand sneaker size nine and a
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half
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hairs were found on kim and kona's body
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they were black and not hers
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it appeared that the killer had bitten
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through kim's tank top leaving a bite
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impression on her skin
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two drinks were sitting on the bar
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apparently poured after closing time
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forensic scientists found kim's
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fingerprints on one glass
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the other had prints not clear enough
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for identification
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working theory then became she must have
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known who the person was it allowed them
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into the bar against company policy but
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nonetheless
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and thereafter was killed by that person
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robbery didn't appear to be the motive
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there was no money missing from kim's
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purse but inside her purse
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police found an address book with the
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name and telephone number of one of the
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bar's regular customers
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a postman named
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ray krohn
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he was not not well liked you know he
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was just uppity or something there was
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something different about him that
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people that didn't sit well with people
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some of the bars employees told police
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that kim had expressed a romantic
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interest in crone
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if the bite mark the shoe impression and
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the hairs could be tied to him
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police were sure
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they had their killer
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[Music]
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during kim and kona's autopsy forensic
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photographers took numerous photographs
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of the bite wound on her upper chest
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[Music]
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the photograph showed the killer had a
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distinctive bite pattern
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his left front tooth pointed outward
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beyond the line of his other front
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kim's address book contained the name
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and telephone number of a man named ray
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krohn someone she had often spoken with
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at the bar
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kim and kona had told several friends
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that she was interested in rey that she
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liked him you know that she thought
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maybe something could happen
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and those friends in turn relayed that
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to detectives
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ray krohn was 35 years old an air force
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veteran with no prior criminal record
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several bar employees told police that
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kim had a date with crone planned for
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the night of her murder
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when police talked to kim's friends the
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last person that they expected kim and
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kona to meet that night was ray crone
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to
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he was supposed to meet her to help
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close up the bar
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when questioned ray krohn said the two
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were just acquaintances he denied there
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was any romantic relationship
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she was always a nice congenial person
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and very friendly and outgoing and so
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you know
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i i uh
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liked her personality i liked you know
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her bubbliness and things like that
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there wasn't a relationship and crone
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denied that he had plans to meet kim at
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the bar as her friends claimed
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he also had an alibi
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he shared a house with the co-worker who
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said crone was home the night of the
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murder
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but as police questioned crone they
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noticed that his left front tooth
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protruded slightly in a way that looks
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similar to the bite wound found on kim's
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chest after looking at the bite marks on
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kim and kona's body detectives pretty
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readily jumped to the conclusion that
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his teeth matched kim and kona the bite
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marks found on her body
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krone willingly agreed to provide an
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impression of his teeth by biting into a
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piece of styrofoam which is commonly
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used since it's soft but still stable
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forensic odontologists examined a series
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of bite impressions from men who knew
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kim and kona
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they found only one in which the left
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front tooth was clearly extended just
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like the bite mark on the body
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it was ray krones
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i hear you know brakes squealing doors
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slamming i look over and here's a police
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van unloading with officers all armed
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guns pointing at me telling me to freeze
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i was throwing the ground handcuffed and
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taken off and i was charged with murder
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kidnapping sexual assault that was the
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day of my arrest new year's eve of 1991.
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crone maintained he was innocent but he
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had no explanation for why his bite
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impression looked like the wound on kim
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and kona
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it was a
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a very frustrating aggravating
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belittling uh um
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[Music]
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situation where you're just saying why
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what why why won't somebody listen why
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would somebody take a minute and look at
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this intelligently responsibly you're
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going to see that there is a definite
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problem here but the bite wound wasn't
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the only evidence against crone
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[Music]
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the perpetrator left his saliva on kim's
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clothing
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dna tests of that saliva sample were
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inconclusive
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but test revealed the perpetrator had
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type o blood the same blood type as ray
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krohn
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he was arrested and charged with murder
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at his trial prosecutors believed the
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bite impression evidence was the most
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convincing they hired a nationally known
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bite mark expert from las vegas nevada
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to testify that it was a 100 percent
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perfect match better than a fingerprint
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that expert was dr raymond rawson a
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forensic odontologist and also a senator
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in the nevada state legislature
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at the trial
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dr rawson used this video in which
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photographs of the bite wound from kim
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and kona's body were superimposed on ray
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krohn's bite impressions
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[Music]
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based on that evidence
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ray krohn was convicted the first degree
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murder
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and was sentenced to death
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i didn't care if i was going to be in
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prison for something i didn't do it you
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might as well kill me i mean what was
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life my whole life everything i worked
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for everything i stood for 35 year old
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man was gone
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the press called crone
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the snaggletooth killer
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that judge believed the bite marks were
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a form of torture
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um
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and
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because of that he sentenced him to
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death
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but if crone was innocent as he claimed
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how could a nationally known forensic
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odontologist
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be wrong
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ray krohn had spent three years on death
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row for the murder of 35 year old bar
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manager kim and kona
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during that time he formed his own
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opinions about the bite impression
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evidence used to convict him
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i mean you basically could take a sharp
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object stick it in skin a couple places
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and have somebody say oh yeah that's a
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bite mark and uh and it matches him and
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you could get if you showed it to enough
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people you'd have you know somebody
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saying it yeah it's a match
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that's junk
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all death penalty cases in arizona are
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automatically appealed to the state
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supreme court and fortunately for crone
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this bite marked videotape made by the
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prosecution provided grounds for an
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appeal
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the court ruled that the defense team
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wasn't given enough time to review the
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tape before the trial
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for crohn's retrial his family asked
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chris plourde to represent him
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lord specializes in difficult forensic
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cases
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i heard the story you know that ray
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krohn's on death row as a result of a
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bite mark
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i didn't know whether other evidence
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supported his conviction or not i was
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originally kind of skeptical because i
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hear these stories all the time forensic
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experts hired by plourde discovered that
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the hairs found on kim's body were
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[ __ ] hairs meaning they were from
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someone of asian or native american
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descent
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[Music]
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they also discovered that ray krohn wore
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size ten and a half shoes
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the shoe impression found on the kitchen
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floor of the bar was a size nine and a
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half
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the defense brought in dr skip sperber a
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past president of the american academy
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of forensic odontologists to look at the
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bite-wound evidence that more than
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anything else convicted crone in his
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first trial
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what dr sperber told them
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came as a shock he said
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he'd seen this evidence before
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it had been sent to him before the first
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trial
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a good friend of mine john piacus in
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phoenix arizona called me and he asked
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me to look at this particular case the
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people versus crone when i first viewed
00:12:01
that case
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thought there were too many
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inconsistencies
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for that to be a
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positive comparison between the teeth of
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ray crone
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the suspect and the victim's wounds
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dr sperber told his colleague working
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for the arizona prosecutors that this
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evidence was exceptionally weak
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we say on a range of one to ten
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with ten being very good
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i would have rated this around three or
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four
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on the low side
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here is a bite mark considered on the
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high end of the scale
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a nine or a ten
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all of the teeth have made clear marks
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and the relationships between the teeth
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can easily be seen
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the bite wound on kim and kona had very
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few distinct markings
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dr sperber took the cast of ray krohn's
00:12:56
teeth
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and using a low-tech but time-tested
00:13:00
method made a styrofoam impression and
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then
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traced the teeth patterns onto a
00:13:06
transparency
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he then
00:13:10
placed the transparency over the top of
00:13:13
the photo of the bite mark on kim and
00:13:15
kona's body
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although the left front tooth in both
00:13:21
marks was jutting forward
00:13:23
ray krohn does not have any separation
00:13:26
between his front teeth
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the bite mark on the victim's body shows
00:13:31
an obvious separation between those
00:13:34
teeth
00:13:36
for dr sperber
00:13:38
the results were clear
00:13:40
if it's a good bite it will really jump
00:13:42
out at you and you will see immediately
00:13:44
similarities in the crohn case there
00:13:47
were no similarities so this was the key
00:13:49
evidence and and to get the initial
00:13:51
report back that a bite mark expert said
00:13:53
it's not me it was like oh wow you know
00:13:55
something something good can happen in
00:13:57
the second trial dr raymond rawson
00:14:00
the same bite mark expert from the first
00:14:03
trial repeated his testimony he said
00:14:06
there was no doubt the bite mark was
00:14:08
from ray krohn
00:14:11
a team of defense experts disagreed i
00:14:15
could positively exclude ray krohn as
00:14:18
being the biter i wasn't the only one
00:14:20
there were three other forensic dentists
00:14:22
that are all board certified highly
00:14:24
qualified guys
00:14:25
and they excluded them but the jury
00:14:28
disagreed
00:14:30
they sided with the prosecution's expert
00:14:33
and found ray krohn
00:14:35
guilty
00:14:36
again
00:14:38
what does it take
00:14:40
what is this uh beyond reasonable doubt
00:14:41
what is this innocent until proven
00:14:43
guilty it don't exist in in in the just
00:14:46
system the one that i've seen it did not
00:14:47
exist for me we knew that there was
00:14:49
another person in that bathroom at the
00:14:50
time of death there were unknown
00:14:52
fingerprints that came back to somebody
00:14:54
uh there was a person who had shoes that
00:14:56
were inconsistent with the defendant the
00:14:58
hairs were inconsistent with the
00:14:59
defendant you know the fbi
00:15:01
uh forensic people testified that these
00:15:03
hairs were not mr crohn's they were not
00:15:05
the victims to me logic and common sense
00:15:07
told me it wasn't mr cronin committed
00:15:09
this crime and the jury found the
00:15:10
opposite result when i heard the verdict
00:15:12
in the second trial i really couldn't
00:15:14
believe his total disbelief it was an
00:15:17
absolute dog and pony show the likes of
00:15:19
which i've never seen before
00:15:21
ray krohn tried to reconcile himself to
00:15:24
a life behind bars
00:15:26
but then
00:15:28
he got help from an unlikely source
00:15:31
the very system
00:15:33
he had grown to despise
00:15:35
[Music]
00:15:40
ray krohn
00:15:42
languished in prison for a crime that
00:15:45
some of the country's top forensic
00:15:47
experts said he didn't commit
00:15:52
just before krone's second trial
00:15:54
dr richard suveron one of his defense
00:15:57
experts sat next to the prosecution's
00:16:00
forensic expert dr rawson at a
00:16:02
scientific conference
00:16:05
his comment to me was i'm in too deep he
00:16:08
knew he was wrong but he had already
00:16:10
committed and if that isn't a scary
00:16:12
thing
00:16:13
uh i don't know what is
00:16:16
and i hated to see him get sucked in on
00:16:18
something like this and told him you
00:16:19
know
00:16:20
get out of this deal just say i don't
00:16:22
want to do it anymore or i've changed my
00:16:24
opinion or there's i've listened to
00:16:26
everybody else and you know i've
00:16:27
rethought my position anybody can make a
00:16:29
mistake i mean we're not none of us are
00:16:31
above making mistakes
00:16:32
but he said i mean too deep
00:16:35
and that was the end of that
00:16:36
conversation
00:16:37
through a spokesperson dr rossen denies
00:16:39
that the conversation described by dr
00:16:41
seuveron ever took place
00:16:44
it wasn't until 2001 that a new law
00:16:47
offered crohn's some hope
00:16:50
arizona one of the first states in the
00:16:52
united states passed a
00:16:54
new bill for post-conviction dna testing
00:16:57
which allows convicted offenders access
00:17:00
to evidence and post-conviction dna
00:17:02
testing if they contend that they were
00:17:04
innocent
00:17:05
so crohn's defense team asked the state
00:17:07
of arizona to test every piece of kim
00:17:10
and kona's clothing for dna the saliva
00:17:13
on kim's blouse had already been tested
00:17:15
and the results were inconclusive but
00:17:18
her genes had small blood stains
00:17:22
the prosecution believed the blood was
00:17:24
chemenconas
00:17:25
the genes were sent to the state crime
00:17:27
lab for a new dna test that analyzes 13
00:17:32
different genetic markers
00:17:34
the test yielded
00:17:36
unanticipated results
00:17:38
the blood on the genes
00:17:40
wasn't kim and kona's
00:17:42
and it wasn't ray krohns
00:17:45
but whose was it
00:17:47
to find out
00:17:49
forensic scientists entered this new dna
00:17:52
evidence into a national dna database
00:17:55
with genetic profiles of more than a
00:17:57
million convicts from across the country
00:18:00
profile after profile was checked and
00:18:03
cross-referenced
00:18:05
and the database came up with a match
00:18:08
to this man
00:18:10
a 35-year-old native american kenneth
00:18:13
phillips who was currently in prison for
00:18:16
child molestation
00:18:18
at the time of kim ancona's murder
00:18:21
kenneth phillips lived just 600 yards
00:18:25
away from the cbs lounge he lived right
00:18:28
behind the bar
00:18:30
and his nationality was an american
00:18:31
indian which which was consistent with
00:18:33
some of the other dna results we had in
00:18:35
the hairs it was found at the scene the
00:18:36
crime when interviewed by police
00:18:39
phillips made a startling admission
00:18:42
he said on the morning after kim's
00:18:45
murder he woke from an alcoholic
00:18:47
blackout to find his hands
00:18:50
covered with blood
00:18:52
then he saw news of the murder on tv
00:19:06
his fingerprints were among the unknown
00:19:08
fingerprints found in the bathroom where
00:19:10
the murder took place
00:19:12
[Music]
00:19:13
his shoe size
00:19:15
matched the print from the kitchen floor
00:19:18
and his bite impression had the same
00:19:21
left front tooth protruding from the
00:19:24
rest of his teeth
00:19:27
for ray kron
00:19:29
the ordeal was over
00:19:32
after serving ten years and four months
00:19:34
for a crime he didn't commit
00:19:37
he walked out of prison
00:19:38
a free man
00:19:40
i'd spent over 10 years in prison
00:19:44
i would never forget that day i got out
00:19:46
in fact i commemorated it
00:19:48
so i won't ever forget it
00:19:51
[Music]
00:19:55
forensic odontologists say that the
00:19:57
problem with the crohn case was that dr
00:20:00
rawson told jurors bite marks could
00:20:03
match like
00:20:04
fingerprints but that is rarely possible
00:20:08
the best that a forensic dentist can
00:20:11
give is reasonable certainty and that
00:20:13
means that that's the highest level we
00:20:16
give there is always
00:20:17
a remote possibility that there's
00:20:19
someone else that has teeth similar that
00:20:21
could have left the pattern
00:20:24
ray krohn
00:20:25
is trying to resume his life
00:20:28
experts say the lesson of his case is
00:20:31
that bite marks are rarely definitive
00:20:34
and should only be used to exclude not
00:20:37
include suspects
00:20:40
above all they say
00:20:42
bite mark analysis is more opinion than
00:20:45
fact
00:20:46
and that this should always be made
00:20:48
clear to jurors
00:20:50
what was allowed in mr crone's case was
00:20:52
bad science scientific explanations
00:20:55
given by people who were
00:20:58
unscientific in their methods
00:20:59
interpretation of a bite mark is what
00:21:01
convicted me nothing scientific not the
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fingerprints that didn't match me not
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the they even had footprints that they
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couldn't match the shoes the hair not
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the not the uh the dna none of that
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stuff they used an interpretation of a
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bite mark to convict me that has no
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place in the courtroom any more than
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perjury has a place in the courtroom we
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shouldn't allow witnesses that lie no
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matter what they say whether it's
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regarding a scientific issue or any
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other issue and in this case it was
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clear that some of the scientific
00:21:27
experts were actually misrepresenting
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their data and the scientific validity
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of what they were talking about
00:21:34
[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you
