00:00:01
hey babe I'm Ash and I'm Molina and this is dark sided it's morbid [Music] [Music]
00:00:32
we can't get enough of uh babe on Tick Tock baby think about it every night and day it's so good it really is it's so
00:00:42
good if you're listening we love you if you can't tell we love you so much I'm on the show let's talk about Sinister
00:00:47
[ __ ] on the show yeah we are going to talk about some Sinister [ __ ] I would have babe on the show the app so [ __ ]
00:00:55
talk about something sinister manifest it by we're gonna get her oh we're gonna get it
00:01:02
bye bye everybody's like what the [ __ ] are you talking about if you didn't listen to our last episode which was a
00:01:10
crazy [ __ ] tale truth a Survivor tale um we were talking about this Instagram that Elena and I are I have to give
00:01:17
credit where credit to do Elena found it and now it's just become an integral part of our Lives it is and it's called
00:01:24
um at Sinister Pond babe and she's hilarious and I just I Gotta Give I gotta give credit when somebody
00:01:30
makes me laugh and brightens my day yeah I want him to blow up and not in like a
00:01:36
bad way like in a good way like I want I want her to get a billion followers and
00:01:39
get paid you want her to get what the kids call clout there you go clout I just wonder I hope she's getting paid
00:01:46
because she's she's doing a service get that it's like Mama Todd I'm like I hope
00:01:52
she's getting paid because she makes my day better I hope mama is getting all the Bounty lips that the Earth has to
00:01:59
offer truly truly all right well that was all very wholesome and happy bag and this is Sinister babe oh no it's it's
00:02:07
dark side it's really dark-sided this is honestly this is a this is a tough one um so I think we should just get ready
00:02:14
okay there you go we should get right into this though so I have it out of that I
00:02:19
don't know this one so I know the name okay I've heard the name I just have not heard details about this it was actually
00:02:26
pretty requested in our inbox really yeah I would shout everybody out but there's a lot of you that wanted this
00:02:30
story shout out to all of you shout out to anyone who suggested this so this story takes place in how Elena and Kevin
00:02:39
from Tick Tock would say the 90s um and it takes place on March 4th 1999 but this was more than just the 90s the
00:02:49
murder of Cordell Richards which we're going to talk about today is truly one of the most brutal cases I think I've
00:02:55
personally covered oh not like we have covered but that I've covered okay so Cordell was an okay County restaurant
00:03:02
worker and father of two and his body was discovered on this day like I said March 4th 1999 he was burned beaten and
00:03:10
found chained to a tree oh my God yes his remains were left in an isolated wooded area just outside of some land
00:03:18
that was going to be soon turned into houses I think there was a couple houses on the plot but it was like a newly
00:03:23
built neighborhood okay cordell's body was discovered by a 12 year old boy oh just playing in that
00:03:31
wooded area in Fort Walton Beach Florida and when he found the body he immediately ran home to tell his parents
00:03:37
what he had seen they immediately contacted the sheriff's department and the police headed out there ASAP
00:03:44
so they found the remains actually partially skeletonized intensely charred and again like I said
00:03:50
bound to the tree by a very heavy chain now upon closer inspection there was a thick
00:03:57
cord tied around the victim's wrists which were behind his back and there was duct tape covering the remains of his
00:04:03
mouth the County Medical Examiner at the time Dr Michael burkland was obviously called
00:04:08
to the scene as soon as possible at first he wasn't even able to identify the gender of the victim he had because
00:04:16
he was so beyond any recognition whatsoever that's awful couldn't even determine a cause of death other than of
00:04:23
course the body had been lit on fire now the body was not only burned past the point of recognition but also
00:04:30
significantly decomposed the body had been out in the elements for quite some time there was actually barely even
00:04:37
Flesh on the bones anymore and there were no organs left to be tested I actually didn't realize how quickly
00:04:44
organs decompose so when I first read that I was just like oh so there's no like healthy organs to test but then I
00:04:50
looked it up because I was like were there no organs left at all or just none to to test wait a second so and I knew
00:04:57
you would love this according to a BBC future article quote soon after the heart stops beating cells become
00:05:04
deprived of oxygen and their acidity increases as the toxic byproducts of chemical reactions begin to accumulate
00:05:10
inside of them enzymes start to digest cell membranes and then leak out as the cells break down this usually begins in
00:05:17
the liver which is rich in enzymes and in the brain which has a high water content so those are the first to go
00:05:24
eventually though all other tissues and organs begin to break down in this way cell death I didn't realize how quickly
00:05:30
it happened that they just are gone that your heart is keeping everything going it's so freaky when you really start to
00:05:38
think about it it's a delicate process yeah seriously so the first observation that Dr Brooklyn was able to make made
00:05:45
me feel like I was reading the butcher in Ren all over again the part where Ren explains the presence of blow flies as I
00:05:52
was reading this I was like the butcher in the run so Dr birkeland was able to determine that the body had been left
00:05:58
chained to this tree for at least two weeks because he found the presence of maggots however there was something
00:06:04
strange about the presence of these maggots some of them were also charred not all of them some of them so excuse
00:06:13
me this told him that whoever had left this body in the woods had come back at least two weeks later than to burn it
00:06:20
wow so now it was time to bring the body back to his office to carry out a full-blown examination but it would be
00:06:27
quite the feat to do so because of the advanced state of decomposition and also the fact that the remains were so
00:06:33
considerably damaged already the crime scene technician and Dr birkeland had to be super careful with these remains and
00:06:41
they had to keep them in the same exact position that they were found while they
00:06:44
were transporting which I can't imagine the pressure wow because they didn't want to disturb any potential evidence
00:06:51
so they just this is the way they had to do it yeah now once the remains were carefully transported the examination
00:06:57
started Dr Brooklyn found that the victim had suffered multiple skull fractures evidence of blunt force trauma
00:07:04
to the shoulder blade sternum and ribs and also what appeared to be defensive injuries on the hands and arms and he
00:07:12
also noticed what he explained as a quote probable chop injury to the left neck oh
00:07:20
yeah so the victim was believed to be a man in his early to mid 30s and Dr Brooklyn
00:07:25
believed that he had been killed about one month earlier meaning that he would have been dumped
00:07:31
in the woods close to February 4th of that year now because of the circumstances a
00:07:37
precise cause of death really couldn't be determined because there was just so much going on here but Dr Brooklyn
00:07:43
concluded that quote the manner of death was homicidal violence with combined features of blunt force trauma to the
00:07:49
head body and upper extremities and a probable chop injury to that left neck she's and he believed that the victim
00:07:58
was likely beaten with some kind of Club he said God now what was stumping him though was the charred maggots the body
00:08:05
had been discovered like I said with bindings on the wrists and tape covering the mouth so the man was presumably
00:08:11
alive when he was transported to this area and then killed most likely after being chained to that tree and beaten
00:08:18
so why did the killer or the killers come back two weeks later and further destroy the Remains by burning them yeah
00:08:25
what was that about so anyways iding this man was incredibly difficult at first but then the doctor
00:08:32
noticed and I thought this was crazy the only reason why Cordell was ever able to
00:08:37
be id'd is because of there was enough soft tissue on the right thumb to get a partial fingerprint what isn't that nuts
00:08:46
my God forensic science man forensic science is crazy unbelievable it really is so the doctor got that partial
00:08:55
fingerprint and handed it handed it over to detectives and he was like do what you can
00:09:00
now back in the woods investigators were combing through this scene they sifted actually through a significant amount of
00:09:06
evidence there were empty cans there was a roll of duct tape that matched the one
00:09:10
that had been used to cover the victim's mouth various clothing items that seemed
00:09:15
to belong to the victim and there were Tire Impressions that were left in the dirt at the side of the road near the
00:09:21
site automatically we're going to get excited about that but unfortunately none of these things
00:09:27
would give them any evidence that they would there's something on nothing so but nonetheless obviously they went back
00:09:34
to the station and they start sifting through all the missing persons reports they could find from early to
00:09:40
mid-February yeah and they're able to narrow down their search based on Dr Brooklyn's approximation of the age and
00:09:46
the confirmation of the sex and their pool was pretty small at that point and the most likely victim they believed was
00:09:52
31 year old Cordell Richards Cordell was a military veteran he had served in the U.S Air Force for almost
00:09:59
10 years from 1985 to 1994. he'd been recently divorced and had two young daughters at the time and at the time of
00:10:08
his death he was living in an apartment in Fort Walton Florida and working at a local IHOP
00:10:13
he'd been actually reported missing by his friend Martin Stone Martin realized on February 13th that he hadn't heard
00:10:20
from Cordell in over a week he called him on the phone he emailed him a couple times he actually even made several
00:10:26
trips to his apartment during that week but just couldn't get in touch with his friend oh man so Martin actually went to
00:10:32
the IHOP and checked in with some of the co-workers he was like have you seen Cordell at all they're like we actually
00:10:38
haven't seen him since the beginning of the month oh and that was super super out of character for him yeah he was a
00:10:45
very reliable employee so after doing everything he possibly could to locate his friend Martin went to the police and
00:10:51
asked them to do a welfare check so the welfare check was conducted that same afternoon actually by officers Josh
00:10:59
Duma I hope I'm saying that right and Mike Nichols they pounded on the doors they pounded on the windows but they got
00:11:05
zero response officer Nichols noticed that there was one window though that was slightly open and he was able to
00:11:12
push it completely open and crawl through it and once he was in he looked around to find to find himself what
00:11:19
seemed to be in a storage room like inside of the apartment so then he located the front door and
00:11:25
was able to let the other officer in as well as Martin and Sergeant brune who had shown up just behind them so they
00:11:32
searched room by room by room by room called out for Cordell called out for anybody but got zero response and then
00:11:39
they finally reached a bedroom door and it seemed to be locked with a deadbolt and there was a towel stuffed under the
00:11:45
crack between the door and the floor sketchy yeah I would say so just a little it was a little bit so they knock
00:11:52
on that door and ounce themselves and finally the door opens but it was not opened by Cordell instead
00:11:59
seventeen-year-old Ronald Bell answered the door and identified himself and then
00:12:04
identified his girlfriend fellow 17 year old Crystal maestus 17 years old both of
00:12:10
them 17 years old she appeared to be just waking up from a nap she was wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the
00:12:16
floor just sleeping oh okay just snoozing yeah just sneezing now they explained that they had actually been
00:12:21
subletting the room from Cordell Crystal had been living there a couple of months
00:12:25
now and because she had been kicked out by her parents Ronald didn't live there he said and he claimed he actually
00:12:31
really didn't know much of anything about Cordell and Crystal told the officers that she hadn't seen Cordell in
00:12:37
the past week she said said the last time she saw him he had gotten some court papers and left in a hurry without
00:12:43
saying anything to her interesting yeah so soon it would be concerned uh confirmed excuse me that the body
00:12:50
discovered in the woods was Cordell Richards because he was a member of the Air Force his fingerprints were on fire
00:12:57
and were a match for that partial thumb print taken by the medical examiner what
00:13:01
luck like that's in my opinion like a one in a million yeah that really is now so now that they had a positive ID it
00:13:08
was time for the investigators to really start ramping up here who killed this guy and why did they do so yeah by all
00:13:15
it counts that's the thing Cordell was really well liked he was really hard-working he really seemed to have
00:13:20
few if any enemies all of his co-workers at IHOP told the investigators that he was quote good-natured and popular he
00:13:28
had a house cleaner who insisted quote he would have done anything for anybody in the world
00:13:33
even his ex-wife had only good things to say about him she told the investigators
00:13:38
that he was a quote reliable hard worker and a good dad oh that's really sad it is I forgot he was a father to two young
00:13:46
daughters the only thing she could think of that was going like slightly poorly in his
00:13:51
life was that he was having some money problems she said but that was really the only thing she
00:13:56
could think of yeah and as the detectives dug deeper into cordell's life all their findings seemed to
00:14:02
confirm what they'd been told that he was a good guy they didn't hear from one person at this point that he was a
00:14:07
shitty person and that's rare yeah like you're gonna find someone who's like um actually if I'm being honest like
00:14:15
yeah and the ex-wife for the ex-wife to say I got nothing bad to say about him like he's a good dad he's a hard worker
00:14:22
yeah the only thing I can think of is he's got money problems right now and she didn't even make it seem like they
00:14:27
were like major she was like she was just like that could be that's something right
00:14:33
foreign [Music] this show is sponsored by betterhelp I love feeling like I'm at like the top of
00:14:46
my game like I'm the best of the best and I feel that way when I'm less stressed out when I make more time for
00:14:51
myself and when I am really honoring the things that make me me but when you're at your best you can do great things
00:14:58
that's the thing but sometimes life gets you bogged down and you'll feel overwhelmed or like you're not showing
00:15:03
up in the best way you want to maybe you're not being as kind as you'd like to maybe you're not giving yourself the
00:15:08
you time that you need but working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you because when you
00:15:13
feel empowered you're more prepared to take on everything that life throws at you I am always my best self when I am
00:15:19
in say it with me therapy I love therapy just having like a little allotted time
00:15:27
just for you and your therapist to catch up on all the things that have been stressing you out all the things that
00:15:32
you don't necessarily know how to cope with or do they're a licensed professional who can help you and that
00:15:37
is always going to make you feel lighter if you're thinking of giving therapy a try better help is a great option it's
00:15:44
convenient flexible affordable and it's entirely online just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a
00:15:49
licensed therapist and switch therapist anytime for no additional charge if you want to live a more empowered life
00:15:55
therapy can help get you there visit betterhelp.com today to get 10 off your first month that's betterhelp help.com
00:16:02
morbid at the start of the year I always always always have the best intentions I'm like new year new me baby I'm gonna
00:16:10
cut down screen time I'm gonna eat better I'm gonna go to the gym every day not all of those things happen but one
00:16:16
thing I know I can check off my New Year's to-do list is eating well thanks to Daily Harvest Daily Harvest is
00:16:21
keeping me in check baby because they deliver delicious Harvest bowls soups flatbread snacks smoothies lattes and
00:16:27
more all built on organic fruits and vegetables with nourishing and easy to prep options I literally never have to
00:16:34
think twice and that's my favorite thing if I have to think twice I'm probably not going to make a good choice
00:16:37
everything stays fresh in my freezer and it just like looks nice and there until
00:16:41
I'm ready to enjoy it which helps me reduce food waste and makes me feel like a better person right now I'm really
00:16:46
really loving the broccoli and rice Dill peel off Harvest Bowl ever since I was like five years old I've been a sucker
00:16:52
for pilaf and Daily Harvest does it right Daily Harvest is committed to human and planetary Health which means
00:16:58
they do their absolute best to ensure transparency and integrity when it comes to their ingredients and the humans who
00:17:04
grow them by supporting farmers who invest in practices that increase biodiversity and improve the health of
00:17:09
our soil and by delivering food and recyclable and compostable packaging where possible Daily Harvest does the
00:17:15
work so that I can eat and enjoy it's kind of like a win-win it's exactly like that if eating well is a goal for 2023
00:17:22
let Daily Harvest support you on your journey go to dailyharvest.com morbid to get up to forty dollars off your first
00:17:28
box that's dailyharvest.com morbid for up to forty dollars off your first box dailyharvest.com morbid
00:17:40
they also found out that he spent a lot of time caring for his elderly grandparents who weren't doing so well
00:17:46
around the time of his death they were pretty much getting by his grandparents due to his physical and financial aid oh
00:17:53
wow yeah now the comment about his money problems led the detectives to believe that maybe it was some kind of factor in
00:17:59
his death so they went down that Avenue a bit longer but they eventually ruled it out because it turned out the money
00:18:05
issues really weren't that serious oh he was just kind of trying to make ends meet yeah it just wasn't like great yeah
00:18:10
exactly so next they turn to the area where Cordell had been discovered they canvassed a neighborhood that was
00:18:17
adjacent to the scene and were able actually to connect with a couple that gave them a pretty strong lead oh boy
00:18:24
Donald and Robin burden lived in a cul-de-sac in that housing subdivision where Cordell was behind where Cordell
00:18:31
was found okay and the two of them told detectives that in early February they had been out for a walk they always went
00:18:37
out for a walk daily and they said this day they saw three young people in a car
00:18:42
they'd never seen those young people and they'd actually never even seen that car
00:18:45
so it kind of made alarm Bells go off when it's that kind of neighborhood mm-hmm people notice things on a
00:18:52
cul-de-sac neighborhood we always be knowing we always know a dead end street we always be nowhere everyone is looking
00:19:00
at the cars going through a cul-de-sac and if we don't recognize them we say oh damn it it's Diamond so tired it's
00:19:11
dark-sided it's dark side giving Sinister by this car actually was kind of darksided it's given Sinister Vibe it
00:19:17
truly was Vibe they described the car as being a small brown or tan hatchback and
00:19:23
they said the rear uh right window appear to be broken and covered by some kind of board
00:19:28
Donald the man said that he believed the car's occupants were a young black male
00:19:32
a young white female and another person in the back seat that he believed was a white male but he wasn't completely sure
00:19:39
about that one so the detectives saying to the couple for their information but because they
00:19:44
had no leads or suspects all they could do really was go back to the apartment with a search warrant and then that was
00:19:50
when they carried out a search of the home now according to a forensic specialist
00:19:54
the apartment was unusually sparse but quote there were some items left behind that the average person wouldn't leave
00:20:01
behind and one of those items was cordell's bicycle it was really weird that it would be found at the apartment
00:20:07
because he didn't drive and he used that bicycle to get around everywhere hmm so
00:20:12
like that that that's a big red flag too that's huge because the fact that it was
00:20:17
left behind LED detectives to wonder if he'd been forcibly removed from his apartment because if that's how he got
00:20:22
around exactly so because this was now a suspicion the detectives had the apartment sprayed
00:20:28
with luminol when they did so they found evidence of blood spatter in the living
00:20:33
room and among the blood spatter were various bloody fingerprints and a bloody handprint oh yeah and they did testing
00:20:42
on the spatter patterns to determine what kind of attack would have created such a pattern and it was consistent
00:20:48
with blunt force trauma to the head oh God just like the medical examiner Dr burkland had noted on the autopsy he's
00:20:56
got a spot on with his autopsy hell yeah medical examiner and to be that spot on
00:21:00
with a body in that condition that says a lot about this medical exam yes like that's the thing practice you know I
00:21:08
mean the fact that they could only get fingerprints off of like the tiniest bit of soft tissue on a thumb right a
00:21:14
partial print and he was able to get that and then able to tell all this stuff like chef's kiss doing your job bringing
00:21:22
Justice to someone like that's all we ask for like we out here that's all we want that's all we need so while
00:21:29
technicians were busy processing the evidence over that at the apartment the detectives were working on interviews
00:21:35
with cordell's housemate Crystal and her boyfriend Ronald oh boy Crystal told the
00:21:40
detectives that she had been dating Ronald for the last few months and that they were very much in love 17 year olds
00:21:46
you know how it'd be very much in love now she explained that about a month prior she had been kicked out of her
00:21:52
parents home and Ronald was the one to help her find the sublease at cordell's apartment he had seen an ad Cordell put
00:21:59
in the paper about looking for a housemate and the rest was history so the detectives asked how the living
00:22:03
situation had gone and crystal said at first it was fine but then cordell's Behavior toward her started making her
00:22:11
feel uncomfortable okay and it was inappropriate she said in a number of ways for one thing she was 17 years old
00:22:18
and he was 31 so if he was making advances that was a very inappropriate absolutely and for another thing
00:22:25
according to her she was not interested whatsoever she alleged that he made inappropriate comments toward her and
00:22:31
sometimes would come into her room wearing quote only bikini underwear allegedly just to talk
00:22:36
okay we don't know if this is true or not this is what Crystal's saying I would really take it with a grain of
00:22:44
salt because everybody else in this man's life co-workers house cleaner like people that really are barely even
00:22:51
connected to him or completely connected to him all agree that he's a great person yeah so this is interesting and
00:22:57
I'm assuming this person that's talking is not uh the most credible of humans I wouldn't call them trustworthy I'm just
00:23:05
I'm just like guessing out how the end of this goes yeah yeah so she said at first he would leave when she told him
00:23:11
that she wasn't interested but there was one occasion recently where she said he
00:23:15
grabbed her pushed her against the wall and hit her head and her head had hit the wall behind her with like the force
00:23:21
of the attack I guess you could yeah that would be [ __ ] up if that was real that'd be super [ __ ] up and you know
00:23:26
we weren't there we don't know does it justify murder no no absolutely not I don't think much many things do nope so
00:23:32
she said this was the second time though that Cordell had become physical with her and in another room Crystal's
00:23:38
boyfriend Ronald told the detectives that he actually had only just learned about the altar altercations between
00:23:43
Crystal and Cordell and it was because he saw bruising on Crystal's back from the last altercation he said he asked
00:23:51
her about it and she told him everything and after he learned what happened he bought her that deadbolt for her door
00:23:56
and told her that she should have a friend sleepover more often to make her feel safe like on nights that he
00:24:01
couldn't be there yeah and that friend would end up being Renee links now as the two were explaining their
00:24:07
stories to Detectives ah the detectives were all thinking amongst themselves that something about
00:24:14
this story just didn't seem right they said to them Crystal and Ronald both seem to be being disingenuous
00:24:21
they were already pretty skeptical of this couple when they found out that Ronald's car had a close resemblance to
00:24:27
the one that Donald and Robin had told them about a couple from earlier and that was right about the time of the
00:24:35
disposal of the body remember so they had been able to do a search of Ronald's car after getting a warrant for it but
00:24:41
it actually didn't turn up much of anything but detectives weren't ready to give up on this lead yet and that was
00:24:46
smart questioning staff and fellow classmates at their High School where they were both students would prove to
00:24:52
be more than productive it turned out Ronald had been absent from school from February 2nd to
00:25:00
February 5th and a classmate told detectives that Ronald had asked him to borrow his truck
00:25:07
within that same time frame a separate student said that in early to mid-February Ronald and Crystal asked
00:25:14
him for help getting into a computer that they didn't have the password to huh and he said that when he went to
00:25:20
Crystal's apartment which he knew belonged to a man named Cordell after he said that after he attempted to get into
00:25:26
the computer Crystal and Ronald had driven him home and along the way they threw out multiple trash bags full of
00:25:32
stuff from the apartment uh yeah I'm I always wonder in these situations high school students no one's
00:25:42
question ing no none of you like even when I was 17 years old and if I got a ride home from somebody that was
00:25:49
throwing trash bags out the window I'd be like hey what are you what are you doing I'd ask like I would just throw it
00:25:55
out always ask or I don't know observe yes quietly observe see what's happening there if you don't feel safe asking yeah
00:26:01
write that down somewhere just go huh just tell your mom tell your dad tell your adult I don't know like even then
00:26:08
even then and now when I drive by a trash trash bag on the side of the road I'm like well is that a body is that
00:26:14
body parts I'm like I always wonder so I feel like it's like that that would be on my mind trash bags you'll be like
00:26:21
what are you throwing out this one what's happening but so the detectives tried to search the dump the dumpster
00:26:26
excuse me in those areas but the trash from that period was long gone at that point because remember it's been a month
00:26:31
at this point so it's like in a landfill yeah but they were not far from their big
00:26:36
break in the case yes on March 17th somebody placed an anonymous call to the Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers hotline and
00:26:43
said that they actually had information about the murder of Cordell Richards the
00:26:47
caller was very nervous and frightened about any repercussions that would be involved if they did give information
00:26:52
and they said that they would only come forward with their information if they were allowed to remain anonymous
00:26:58
throughout the process this person was granted that on anonymity and then he told the detectives that
00:27:06
around early February a friend of his Renee links remember her name she was the friend that slept over ah told him
00:27:13
that she and her friends Crystal and Ronald were planning to kill Crystal's roommate Cordell because he made
00:27:20
advances toward Crystal I just came right out and said it okay mm-hmm it turns out that Renee links had been
00:27:30
interviewed prior to this tip actually in the presence of her mother because she was a minor both women the mom and
00:27:37
Renee denied knowing anything about cordell's murder but luckily the evidence police had already taken in was
00:27:43
plenty to arrest all three teens at this point Ronald Bell Crystal maestas both 17 years old and Renee links
00:27:51
on March 18th police officers arrested that 17-year-old couple at their high school and Renee links was arrested at a
00:27:57
local animal shelter where she was doing community service for a previous parole
00:28:02
violation wow now when Renee was able to speak with her mother her mom was able to break
00:28:08
down how serious the situation was and she was like you need to make a plea deal because you're in a deep here
00:28:15
Renee was 15 years old at the time of cordell's murder 15 . holy [ __ ] but she was able to make
00:28:24
that plea deal wow she would be able to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder if she confessed to helping
00:28:32
Crystal and Ronald and explain what the whole story was so she told the detectives that she had
00:28:38
met Ronald earlier that year and that she had been spending more and more time with him and Crystal as of late at the
00:28:44
time she wasn't getting along with her mom and so she kind of moved in with Crystal and Cordell at one point
00:28:49
she too said that Cordell had made comments to her that made her feel uncomfortable for some reason she said
00:28:56
that he was under the impression that she and Crystal were in some kind of relationship and he suggested that they
00:29:02
should all sleep together she said okay she said that she was made so uncomfortable by this actually that she
00:29:08
the first night that she was there after he made this comment she ended up leaving and spending the night somewhere
00:29:13
else okay now the next night was February 2nd and Renee went back to the apartment because Cordell was planning
00:29:20
to be out pretty much all night and she knew that so Ronald came over to hang out with the two girls and Renee alleged
00:29:27
that he was the one to bring up the idea of quote beating up or killing Cordell Richards those are two very different
00:29:34
things yeah both very wrong and both two completely different things yeah but he
00:29:39
said he was pissed off about the advances that he'd made to Crystal and he needed to learn a lesson so Renee
00:29:45
said At first she didn't think that Ronald was serious and she especially didn't think that Crystal was going to
00:29:49
go along with this but she was wrong Jesus Crystal agreed and added on to this that if they were to kill this man
00:29:57
they could stay in the apartment for the rest of the month because the rent had already been paid oh my God and if they
00:30:03
needed extra money they could just sell off some of his stuff she said oh okay this kind of
00:30:10
like this to me there's a different motive here totally like that that's that's a lot of
00:30:17
thinking that's a lot of planning yup that's not just I'm angry because you did something that made me feel
00:30:23
uncomfortable so I'm gonna go off in a rage and like a crime of passion kind of thing I mean obviously this wasn't a
00:30:29
crime of passion anyways because of the prolonged torture of it all exactly but even if that something like that had
00:30:34
happened and like they were pissed and all that like this doesn't make sense no that you would come up with oh you know
00:30:41
what yeah I'm really pissed that uh this happened so we should uh kill him because I'm so mad about it and I'm so
00:30:47
like uncomfortable here but you know what's cool is we can stay in this apartment for the rest of the month and
00:30:53
if we need extra money we can just sell off his stuff like all of that doesn't just come together in a moment no that's
00:30:58
not your if you're really sitting there going something's wrong here we need to get rid of him which is a wild way of
00:31:05
thinking anyways like just get a [ __ ] different apartment you're also not going to be thinking of like other
00:31:10
things that you can do to make this better you're just thinking of the one focused we need to rid ourselves of him
00:31:16
100 I mean no we will not know because obviously nobody was there except for the people that are involved here but
00:31:24
like to me this is um it's not semen semen right the Math's not math yeah the math is not math no
00:31:31
not at all but Renee said she knew for sure that they were really going to do it when the couple went to Walmart and
00:31:37
came back to the apartment with a rope a chain and a lock which they said would be used when they killed Cordell my God
00:31:46
now Renee told detectives that that same evening Ronald called his friend Calvin
00:31:52
Smith and asked if he could be of assistance in the murder but Smith told him that he couldn't sneak out that
00:31:57
night so he wasn't going to be able to do that so then they called Renee's friend Demetrius and she had actually
00:32:03
stayed at his house she said the night before when she had been made uncomfortable his answer was along the
00:32:09
lines of quote he might help some be uh he might help beat someone up but not kill them oh okay well everybody's gone
00:32:16
either way you know he said that if he changed his mind maybe he would page them
00:32:21
my God yeah this is so callous and so like if I change my mind about helping you murder that man I'll shoot you a
00:32:28
beat like what he never ended up uh beeping them that night or paging them wild so since they
00:32:34
couldn't find anybody to help they said they gave up on their plan for that night it just it wasn't really panning
00:32:39
out not for tonight you know so Ronald headed home but told the girls to page him if anything went down the 90s Renee
00:32:48
said that something did happen after he left I guess the two or she says that the two girls got a call from somebody
00:32:53
who identified themselves as Heather and said that they were cordell's girlfriend
00:32:57
the woman said that she oh yeah I was just I was gonna tell you that all over it but one more time I was just
00:33:03
rereading my same line but then she told the two girls that they should kiss each
00:33:06
other they said they then realized that the collar was actually Cordell calling from the Next Room
00:33:13
like I don't know okay so one of them went to confront him something went poorly and they ended up backing
00:33:20
Crystal's room and they had locked themselves in they paged Ronald and he showed up soon after that and as soon as
00:33:26
he heard what was happening he went into the living room to confront Cordell and
00:33:31
as they were arguing Cordell started to move toward the front door they said like almost like he was just gonna like
00:33:36
dip because he was like what the [ __ ] yeah that was when Ronald grabbed him shoved him and got him into a headlock
00:33:43
and as Ronald was holding Cordell he told Crystal to go get the baseball bat that he had brought to the apartment
00:33:49
that night oh boy that's the other thing it's like this is uh this is very planned very prepared for
00:33:58
very we know what we're gonna do if you don't bring a baseball bat somewhere thinking you're not gonna kill someone
00:34:04
I'm sorry you hit someone with a baseball bat that's attempted murder that's exactly like this the math is not
00:34:11
mathing not at all so she was the one to hit him first take Cordell first as Ronald was holding him
00:34:17
in a headlock that doesn't Shock Me Crystal started hitting him in the legs she said Renee said weekly at first but
00:34:24
then eventually she hit him in the temple area of his head my God that hit knocked off his glasses and split his
00:34:31
skin Oh up near his Temple at which point he obviously started bleeding she said Renee said as she walked she saw
00:34:39
the man lose Consciousness from the beating and the intensity of the headlock and once he lost Consciousness
00:34:44
she said all three of them so she was very much a participant in this tied him up with ropes and wrapped him in a
00:34:51
blanket he's not dead at this point they then placed him into the back of Ronald's car and drove to that wooded
00:34:57
area behind that cul-de-sac in Fort Walton now after they dragged his unconscious
00:35:03
body into the woods Renee said it was actually Crystal that suggests they kill him by lighting him on fire
00:35:11
that's how she wanted to kill her Crystal Crystal suggested that they light him on fire as a means of
00:35:16
murdering him Crystal needs to be and bye for like forever like you like throw away the key like that's a that's
00:35:24
diabolical like that is real cold cold I want to watch someone suffer kind of [ __ ] and your brain like I know people
00:35:34
who have been abused before or like been in horrible situations and I've never heard any of them say that they want to
00:35:40
light their abuser on fire well and that's the thing and it's like and if somebody says that that's one thing like
00:35:45
I want to light this person on fire you know what I mean like totally like like I'm sure somebody has said that like I'm
00:35:50
hyperbole you know hyperbolically but to be standing there with the action actually able to be
00:35:56
carried out and be like let's go let's light this man on fire while he's still alive it's like
00:36:02
whoa like pump the [ __ ] breaks and at this point again they've already purchased a [ __ ] chain like that's he
00:36:11
brought a baseball bat they got a lock for the chain like yeah that's the thing if this was a let's beat him up and
00:36:17
teach him a lesson kind of thing he wouldn't buy a chain for that well and it would have already been over exactly
00:36:22
it would have been over there wouldn't be a second location no there wouldn't be a let's light them on fire while he's
00:36:27
alive there wouldn't be a let's tie him up and bring him somewhere else there wouldn't be a bat involved there
00:36:33
wouldn't have been any of that you would have beat him up with your fists you would have left and never come back
00:36:37
exactly this was something very different the intention was very different this was fulfilling a
00:36:42
different void foreign [Music] it is hard to stick with working out I think we can all agree personally it's a
00:37:00
thing it's like a real perfect storm for me it's like a scheduling issue and it's
00:37:05
also because I can't stay motivated like I just get bored and I don't want to do
00:37:09
it anymore but the one thing I have found is that with Peloton I am always motivated it's the coaches it's the
00:37:17
different Landscapes that you can do like the music keeps me motivated and the fact that the classes can be 10
00:37:23
minutes 15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes you can do a full hour it can literally
00:37:27
Bend to your schedule and it's more than just a bike Peloton also makes treadmills and has tons of other classes
00:37:34
like yoga strength training Hill and boxing and like I said Peloton instructors are the best they have a
00:37:40
variety of different training backgrounds and styles of motivation that work for people of all Fitness
00:37:45
levels and I'm coming here talking to you from the bottom of the fitness level bin they work for me I'm telling you
00:37:51
they can get you moving whether that's a 10 minute power hour walk or a 30 minute
00:37:55
endurance ride work out when it works for you this is a big one Peloton offers thousands of on-demand classes so you'll
00:38:02
always find a workout whether you exercise daily or you're new to working out Peloton can help you achieve those
00:38:08
fitness goals I love seeing the little calendar that they show you on the screen that says hi Elena you're on a
00:38:14
three-week streak of working out I'm like hell yeah I am try Peloton risk-free with a 30-day home trial new
00:38:21
members only not available in remote locations see additional terms at onepeloton.com home Dash trial
00:38:31
[Music] so she said Renee that they used uh the can of cigarette lighter fluid that
00:38:40
Ronald had in his car Renee said it was actually her idea to get the man to give
00:38:45
them his ATM pin so that they could steal his cash before they lit him on fire God they removed the blanket from his
00:38:54
head and he actually agreed to give them the number and begged them not to kill him oh Ronald was angered by his
00:39:00
pleading and started hitting the man again with the baseball's awful eventually all three of them had taken
00:39:06
multiple swings to this man now in the woods after chaining him to this tree I don't I don't understand this I don't
00:39:15
understand somebody getting a lesser sentence either for giving this information like you took swings at them
00:39:20
you're a different kind of individual if you can look at a man tied to a tree and
00:39:25
hit him with begging for his life while he's begging for his life and you sit there and say oh we should get his ATM
00:39:30
pin while we're out here beating the [ __ ] out of him while he's seen to a tree wow what the [ __ ] is wrong with you
00:39:36
yeah and I think this would have happened regardless of any of the circumstances yeah going on at play here
00:39:42
because if you're capable of doing that you're capable of doing that no matter what the circumstances absolutely oh
00:39:49
it's it's so oblique while this was happening Renee said that Ronald hit Cordell so hard that he ended up making
00:39:56
a comment that he was Babe Ruth oh my God that is so beyond the callousness involved in this the
00:40:06
callousness here and how nobody none of that registered for any of them as like what the [ __ ] like that's your man oh
00:40:15
this is someone's Dad yeah like this is somebody's son wow after they were done hitting him they dragged him even
00:40:22
further into the woods so I'm sorry he actually wasn't chained up at this point this was elsewhere this was just out of
00:40:27
the car exactly so at this after they had all done that and Ronald had his Babe Ruth moment according to him they
00:40:34
dragged him further into the woods and then excuse me chained him to that tree where he would eventually be found
00:40:39
Ronald was the one to chain him up and Crystal was the one to like light him on fire
00:40:46
[ __ ] and then they just left in Ronald's car I mean this girl our parents kicked
00:40:52
her out of the house obviously something is going on yeah she was having a lot of
00:40:55
problems before this so once the sun came up that morning they went back to the woods and Crystal and Ronald went
00:41:02
back to check on the body Renee said that she waited in the car Crystal and Ronald assumed that they would find
00:41:08
Cordell dead but they were actually shocked to find him still alive and faintly calling out for help are you
00:41:15
kidding me after being lit on fire he was still and beaten brutally left out in the middle of the night chained in
00:41:23
the middle of like nowhere basically still alive wow now when they found him like this they were actually worried
00:41:30
because there was a construction crew working on a house in that cul-de-sac nearby so they were like oh no he's
00:41:37
gonna alert the construction worker someone's gonna call the police and we're all going down yeah they're gonna
00:41:43
try to save this man how dare they yeah exactly we gotta stop that mm-hmm this is really [ __ ] up I mean all of
00:41:50
this is really [ __ ] up and it it's only gonna get more and more grisly as I don't know how that happens Ronald
00:41:55
actually at this point attempted to break cordell's neck but wasn't able to Renee said that when they got back to
00:42:03
the car they immediately drove to a local store where they purchased a large meat cleaver for 9.99 oh my God then
00:42:13
they went back to the woods and Ronald used the meat cleaver to cut cordell's throat that was that that was what the
00:42:20
chop was exactly holy [ __ ] then they drove this is going to send you to the Moon Alice
00:42:28
they drove back home to clean the meat cleaver and then returned it to the store for a refund are you [ __ ]
00:42:38
kidding me they cleaned it and returned it after cutting a man's throat with it like I have what no words
00:42:49
the [ __ ] detectives were actually able to locate the store where Renee claimed
00:42:54
they bought the knife they got surveillance all three teens are on surveillance not only purchasing the
00:43:00
knife but then returning it to the store for their 9.99 refund my God and then they ended up being able to locate the
00:43:08
woman who had bought the knife like imagine the police knocking on your door and being like hey did you purchase
00:43:16
a meat cleaver recently uh it was the murder weapon in a recent brutal homicide so we're gonna have to take
00:43:23
that back and imagine if you're like um I just cooked dinner with it like what the [ __ ] yeah
00:43:30
so they were able so not only are they like these kids are [ __ ] demons demons to go through
00:43:40
all of this you have to be a demon and then to add on to it these different layers of like let me just return to the
00:43:48
store I want my 10 bucks I don't give a [ __ ] that somebody else is gonna buy it
00:43:51
and use it to cook dinner for their family you really needed your 10 bucks after
00:43:55
you stole that man's pin and you were gonna take all his money you needed your 10 bucks and you needed to terrorize the
00:44:01
life of somebody else who's gonna buy that meat cleaver holy [ __ ] can you [ __ ] imagine no obviously not but
00:44:07
like I think that's like just what I always say I need to come up with something else I just I can't
00:44:13
it's hard I my brain doesn't compute that's horrible none of this holy [ __ ] and that woman absolutely had to have
00:44:22
used that meat cleaver because remember he wasn't discovered for a month yeah so
00:44:26
she had that Cleaver in her possession for a month and she bought it for a reason you don't buy a meat cleaver when
00:44:31
you don't need one no you buy it because you hear me because you need to cook something so they took the the police
00:44:36
took the meat cleaver into evidence but unfortunately they couldn't get any traces of blood because it had probably
00:44:42
been washed ten times over at that oh my God after Crystal Ronald and Renee were
00:44:47
all certain that Cordell was dead they went back to the apartment and Calvin Smith that friend from earlier who
00:44:53
wasn't able to sneak out and help them came over that night and helped them all Forge checks in cordell's name and Pawn
00:45:00
off some of his belongings including a TV and his violin oh my God I don't know why the violin just got me
00:45:09
no it's like the glasses got me like when they were knocking on me when you said the glasses were knocked off I
00:45:15
don't know what it was but I got a pit in my stomach it's just like I don't know what it is it's I think it's you
00:45:19
know what it is it's a unique part about someone it's a unique part about someone
00:45:23
and it's also I feel like bullies always use glasses with their tactics like so knocking them off feels like a very like
00:45:30
helpless it does moment and it is it's like oh he has glasses like he's the guy with the glasses and it's like I don't
00:45:37
know when they get knocked off it feels very like something's being ripped away I don't know what it is but then the
00:45:42
violin it's like that's a part of his identity he played the violin you know what I mean you're just pawning it off
00:45:49
like it's nothing because you just brutally tortured and murdered him ridiculous oh it's insane now Crystal
00:45:57
actually also confessed to her participation that's nice of her yeah how kind and actually much of what she
00:46:03
told detectives lined up with what Renee had already told them the only difference in the two girls story
00:46:07
stories excuse me was that crystal said she was the one to have waited in the car and Ronald and Renee went back into
00:46:14
the woods and that was when Ronald placed duct tape over cordell's mouth and cut his throat Now isn't that
00:46:20
convenient that they they both can't decide who was in the car well and isn't it convenient that Renee didn't have the
00:46:26
bit about putting the duct tape over his mouth but Crystal did but Crystal did interesting because it really didn't
00:46:30
tell us anything about that so who really was out there exactly [Music] um she told them that about a week later
00:46:37
they all worried that they had left too much evidence behind in the woods so she
00:46:41
Ronald and her 14 year old sister April all went back to the woods where Ronald covered cordell's body a second time
00:46:50
with lighter fluid and set it on fire again so that was why when he was discovered
00:46:57
that there were maggots but then there were other maggots that were charred because he was set on fire twice two
00:47:03
times and why are there so many kids a 14 year old just completely fine with this I'm sorry if my [ __ ] 15 year old
00:47:13
friend was like do you want to come out and light a body on fire that we murdered a couple weeks ago I wouldn't
00:47:19
be like yeah sure of course what the [ __ ] is going on with these kids like Jesus Christ yeah like someone
00:47:27
questioned something please you're like what is happening what is happening at home what is happening wow
00:47:35
it's insane and she said that anytime she or her sister Crystal was nervous throughout this night she said Ronald
00:47:42
assured them it was okay and reminded them what Cordell had done to Crystal and because he had done whatever he she
00:47:48
claimed he did he deserved this wow so between all the information they got from Crystal and Renee police were
00:47:55
actually also able to arrest Crystal sister April she was charged with accessory to murder after the fact but
00:48:02
the charges later ended up being dropped um because witness testimony couldn't against her couldn't be corroborated
00:48:09
so Ronald Crystal and Renee however were all held in a juvenile detention center
00:48:14
in Pensacola a judge then ruled that all three of them would be tried as adults and they were all subsequently brought
00:48:21
to the Okaloosa County Jail to await their trial I personally believe that they should 100 me too this is an adult
00:48:28
crime this is beyond yeah so on April 1st 1999 a grand jury convened to hear assistant state attorney Bobby elmore's
00:48:38
arguments which were in favor of trying all three as adults and after two days of arguments they all ruled in favor but
00:48:45
because the Florida Supreme Court had previously ruled that anybody under the age of 16 would not be able to be tried
00:48:51
as an adult Renee would have to be tried as a juvenile so essentially she got off with a
00:48:57
shorter sentence on a technicality but it's like you were very much their girlfriend absolutely you very much
00:49:03
participated that's awful this man died not only at your friend's hands but at yours too but you had every hand in it
00:49:09
absolutely your hand was on the bat [Music] now because she was offered a plea deal
00:49:28
for her cooperation an agreement to testify against both Crystal and Ronald she pleaded no content uh excuse me no
00:49:35
contest to that lesser count of manslaughter as well as false imprisonment and she was sentenced to
00:49:40
the maximum at the time which was 15 years in prison that's it 15 and she was released after
00:49:48
12 years in 2012. holy [ __ ] so she's just out there somewhere oh yup okay now Crystal went
00:49:58
to trial in mid-February 2000 a year after the murder the prosecutor and the uh and the defense were said by the
00:50:04
media to have quote sharply contrasting views of her involvement in cordell's Murder crystal sobbed in court while the
00:50:12
prosecutor described the full extent of cordell's injuries which had it been inflicted in part by her that would make
00:50:19
me so angry just starting there starting if cordell's like family or friends watching her SOB I'd be like shut the
00:50:26
[ __ ] up were you sobbing while you did it nope you said we were stopping while
00:50:30
he was sobbing begging for his life did that make you SOB no you were swinging harder because you're being shamed in a
00:50:36
public place right now for doing what you did the latter yeah the latter the prosecutor called her quote an enraged
00:50:42
enraged killer seeking revenge for a sexual advance and he told the jury that although it was Ronald Bell who set the
00:50:49
plan in motion Crystal had not only partooked book but mocked the man as he was dying and asked him how does it feel
00:50:55
oh God like she's a monster yeah Crystal's defense attorney painted a picture of a girl who was simply caught
00:51:04
up in a situation she just couldn't control of course calling her a crying passive bystander
00:51:10
she didn't testify in her own defense but the jury was shown a video of her interview with detectives in which she
00:51:16
places pretty much all of the blame on Ronald Renee did the same thing during her
00:51:21
testimony she said that Ronald was quote very angry that Richards had touched Crystal
00:51:26
but in his closing arguments the prosecutor stated that Ronald had always planned on more than just beating
00:51:31
Cordell he brought he brought a rope he bought a chain before Cordell had even gotten home that evening and the
00:51:38
prosecutor ended by saying quote they wouldn't have chained him to a tree if they intended to let him live exactly
00:51:44
there was only one reason they got the meat cleaver because Cordell Richards excuse me Cordell Richards continued to
00:51:50
defy the odds exactly now the jury deliberated for just about three hours before returning with a
00:51:57
guilty verdict for the armed kidnapping and first-degree murder of Cordell Richards the D.A made the decision not
00:52:04
to seek the death penalty and Judge Thomas Remington sentenced Crystal to life in prison without the possibility
00:52:10
of parole which is the mandatory sentence for first degree murder in Florida so she went away she went away
00:52:17
she went away now Ronald Bell's trial was next and that started on March 13 2000. the
00:52:24
prosecutor's argument in that case was pretty much the same as in Crystal's case they argued that the uh Cordell was
00:52:31
murdered quote as revenge for making sexual advances toward Crystal the defense argued that it was a
00:52:37
situation that had gotten tragically out of hand that's always my favorite thing
00:52:42
is when they're like yeah it's wild it just got out of control and it's like no out of control is when you buy a
00:52:51
moment too many shoes during a sale yeah and and whoops I spent the money I was supposed to use to pay my phone bill
00:52:59
like that's out of control out of control is when I finish an entire tub of Ben and Jerry's rather than the half
00:53:05
that I intended on eating exactly out of control is not brutally torturing and murdering someone I hate when the out of
00:53:12
control thing it's like we are not we're supposed to be humans here right we're supposed to be a higher species of like
00:53:20
on this Earth you're just equating us to a full-on jungle animal that like has no
00:53:26
knowledge of anything and it just goes off of hunger the other thing is okay so this was a situation that got out of
00:53:32
control so then why did they go back multiple times they were out of control that entire time they were out of
00:53:39
control still a week later when they went back and burned him even further yeah what sense does that they were it
00:53:45
doesn't make a very long period of out of control yeah huge out of control is a brief moment of being out of control
00:53:52
that control is not like a sustained state of being for that long of course it's not no but luckily the prosecution
00:54:00
was able to remind the jury of how kallus Ronald Bell had been they showed the video of the teens returning the
00:54:06
meat cleaver and all of the evidence that shows that this murder no matter what if it was a moment out of control
00:54:12
which it [ __ ] wasn't was premeditated yeah they bought all of the things used in this murder aside from the meat
00:54:20
cleaver before any of this had even gone down before last night was even happening exactly that's what bothers me
00:54:28
they knew what they were gonna do there was even further testimony given by Ronald's old friend Calvin Smith I'm
00:54:34
sure they're probably not friends anymore probably not Smith testified that Ronald had on more than one
00:54:39
occasion tried to get Smith to help him to murder someone he said that this is just something he wanted to do 100 and
00:54:46
this wasn't a person yeah hundred percent he said that on those occasions he just lied and said that his mom
00:54:52
wouldn't let him out because remember we're talking about 17 years old God sorry I actually can't help you murder
00:54:57
someone tonight my mom's cooking Brussels sprouts for dinner and she says I can't leave my mom said I can't come
00:55:02
out with you to murder tonight sorry maybe next time yeah I'll try again he also stated that the day after Cordell
00:55:09
was murdered Ronald had told him quote that they had beaten the man chained him to a tree and tried to burn him and
00:55:16
finally cut the man's throat Jesus now another friend Thomas Baldwin testified that he had been given that TV and the
00:55:23
violin and multiple other items that turned out to obviously belong to Cordell he didn't realize it at the time
00:55:29
and he pawned them at Ronald's request just days after the man had been murdered oh my God
00:55:35
so on March 17 2000 the jury found Ronald Bell Jr guilty of one count of armed kidnapping and first degree murder
00:55:43
and the penalty phase was held the next day during this phase the jury were shown
00:55:48
school records and jail records that showed he was a good student and a model in mate oh good like that's going to
00:55:54
change my opinion of you you chained a man to a tree and burned him alive and then went back and cut his throat open
00:56:01
and then went back and burned him again yeah it's like but I'm so glad you're doing great in there that's awesome yeah
00:56:07
good for you bud very glad both his father and his grandfather which is really sad that like they even had to do
00:56:13
this absolutely testified on his behalf and both men told the jury that he was a
00:56:18
good man who had been involved in both his church and his community the judge and jury were also presented with a
00:56:24
petition urging Mercy signed by 200 members of his church where his father was the pastor
00:56:30
the prosecution called one single witness during this phase who was detective Stan Griggs and he was able to
00:56:37
remind the jury how kallus Ronald had been and how he ended his friends again returned to meet Cleaver that they used
00:56:44
to kill a man just to reclaim 9.99 and I don't give a [ __ ] that he goes to church
00:56:51
people who go to church do a lot of bad things guys just like people who don't go to church do a lot of bad things BTK
00:56:59
went to church yeah plenty of them went to church most of them blame like God talking to them or somebody talking to
00:57:05
him yeah like it's that doesn't mean anything it doesn't mean it goes both ways people who don't go to church do
00:57:10
shitty things people go to church do shitty things and people who go to church don't do shitty things the people
00:57:15
who don't go to church don't do shitty things like so it has no basis in reality that's just another part of his
00:57:21
life that's cool that he goes to church has nothing to do with anything that's out not pertinent yeah not at all but
00:57:27
the jury holder the jury heard both sides and in the end they voted unanimously in favor of the
00:57:36
death penalty and on May 15th uh same judge judge Thomas Remington sentence Bell to death for what he called an
00:57:43
unspeakable horror committed against coordinator it was that's exactly what it was that's exactly what it was and he
00:57:49
was the ringleader the judge actually acknowledged the petition that had been signed by the members of the church and
00:57:55
said the defendant abandoned his religious training to commit a crime into of an Indescribable brutality and
00:58:03
unrelenting torture yeah that's the thing this is not it's bad enough when somebody stabs
00:58:09
someone or somebody shoots someone it's murderous murder yeah but this is so far
00:58:16
beyond and it's like you want to say carry on and say like he was a good church going boy okay he might have been
00:58:22
but exactly what this judge said he Abandoned Ship well and honestly when this took place that's honestly not even
00:58:28
helping the case because it's like honestly that scares me more yeah that you have the fear of God and wet and
00:58:35
still did this and that he sat in a church and and like did whatever he did in there and then he comes out and this
00:58:42
is what he does like that's even scarier you think about it okay so his dad is that the is the pastor at this church
00:58:47
his grandfather is involved in this church there's this huge Community remember Cordell Richards wasn't found
00:58:54
for a month yeah so a month went by where he sat in that church and pretended to be a good church going boy
00:59:02
knowing full well that he had lit a Man on Fire Two Times and tortured him tortured him and sliced his neck because
00:59:10
he couldn't break his neck when he tried to and it's like that so that's even scarier in church knowing that you did
00:59:17
that that's so much scarier that's the thing I'm like you guys probably hurt the case yeah that didn't that didn't
00:59:23
help not at all now in 2002 Ronald appealed his death sentence on the grounds that Judge Thomas Remington had
00:59:30
not given his age due consideration when the sentence had been imposed I think he
00:59:34
did and he was like wow that's even scarier yeah no during the sentencing the judge had concluded that Ronald's
00:59:39
age at the time of the murder was of little consequence he noted that Ronald had no history of
00:59:45
abuse and had come from a loving supportive family and on appeal Ronald's attorney argued
00:59:50
that the judge was laboring under a misapprehension of what the legal principles were that he was to take into
00:59:57
account at the time of the weighing process all right so Ronald's age he said was not given consideration but the
01:00:04
Supreme Court ruled four to three in Ronald's favor saying that even though a killer will
01:00:10
become eligible for the death penalty youth remains an important consideration in deciding whether punishment should be
01:00:16
life in prison or death so the death sentence was reversed and now Ronald is serving life in prison without the
01:00:22
possibility of parole just like Crystal I would take that yeah now in 2019 actually both Ronald and Crystal
01:00:30
appealed their sentencing based on that 2012 U.S Supreme Court ruling about no life sentences about the possibility of
01:00:38
parole yep I feel like I could I think I say that in my sleep yeah truly but the appeals
01:00:44
court reviewed both sentences and upheld oh good okay I was like don't you dare effectively re-sentencing both
01:00:52
of them to life in prison good now one of cordell's daughters commented on this resentencing saying the only thing I can
01:00:59
say is my family and I are just still in shock that we had to go through this in
01:01:03
court I thank God the judge found the wisdom to rule the way he did it's like those two little girls had
01:01:09
their father taken from them in the most horrific way exactly for no reason and I
01:01:15
had their father's reputation like ruined after his brutal murder after his brutal murder because of what this girl
01:01:21
says about him which is like now that we know what this girl did right like we're
01:01:25
really gonna take that I'm not taking anything she says without a grain of salt this one person who said that there
01:01:31
are three kids who said this happened but every adult in his life his ex-wife the mother of his children his
01:01:39
grandparents his co-workers at IHOP his house cleaner all agreed that he would have done anything for anyone yeah and
01:01:46
had never made them uncomfortable in any way that's a truly horrific and tragic tale truly and all that to say even if
01:01:54
he did make some kind of advances that made her uncomfortable that's [ __ ] up you don't tie someone to a tree and
01:02:00
light them on fire because they are acting like that like no no no no no I think we can all agree no no you don't
01:02:09
do that not at all you go to the police yeah exactly you let the law do what the
01:02:13
law needs to do that's the thing it's like you do not that this is not justified in any way shape form on any
01:02:20
Galaxy nope this is truly one of the most yeah that is truly one of the worst things I've ever heard mind-boggling oh
01:02:28
and it just feel so hard so bad for his family I know but yes that is the case of Cordell Richards and the three
01:02:35
teenagers who brutally murdered him that's horrific so without being said geez we hope you
01:02:43
keep listening and we hope you keep it weird bye yeah bye [Music]