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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
00:01:48
with me as always is a man that wants you to know that what he does with his pumpkin pie is nobody's business but his
00:01:54
own here is the captain it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a
00:02:01
[Music] friend this week we are very thankful to be sipping on some BBA Jesus loves fall
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Bourbon Barrel AED pumpkin Stout from the brilliant Brewers at Holy Trinity Brewing where else but here in beautiful
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downtown Columbus Ohio this is the first Bourbon Barrel Age release from Holy Trinity Brewing and it's a great example
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from Watershed Distillery smooth they help to smooth out this already smooth coffee flavor that just leaves you
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with this week's beer run first up a big thank you to Amber Stout and Spokane Washington and a big we like your jib to
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Sherry D and Maple Valley Washington and a big shout out and thank you to Heather
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all the way over in southernland Scotland everyone we just mentioned helped us out this week and if you would
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like to help out the show go to True Crim garage.com and click on the Donate button or pick something up from our
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store Page yeah sing it with me B we e r you in beer run and that is enough of the business all right all right
00:03:30
everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music]
00:03:55
crime we were all teenagers once we all all remember being young Carefree having
00:04:02
fun with our friends and doing stupid things things that were pointless done just for the fun of it pranks that
00:04:12
caused no harm but were a nuisance and annoyance to others teenagers do these things to Buck
00:04:21
against the rules to rebel against authority to give the middle finger to the authority but they don't mean for
00:04:30
anyone to get hurt but unfortunately sometimes people do get hurt sometimes pranks go wrong and
00:04:41
property gets damaged or someone ends up injured most of the time the prankster feels guilty and likely learned a
00:04:51
valuable lesson I'm sure we all have had moments when we remind ourselves man I still got
00:05:01
a lot of growing up to do but in our story today a harmless Prank Went very wrong and it
00:05:12
backfired a light-hearted teenager having fun with his friends was shot by an enraged victim of the
00:05:22
prank a bright charismatic young man was senselessly killed for what his involvement in a stupid
00:05:32
prank valuable lesson learned I think not this is true crime garage and this is the true crime story
00:05:44
of the still unsolved homicide of Garrett [Music] [Music] Burton [Music] in 2008 Garrett Burton was a 16-year-old
00:06:07
Junior at wesland high school in Columbus Ohio his parents Patty and George were divorced at this time
00:06:15
Garrett lived with his mom on the far west side he had two brothers his mom Patty was a first grade teacher at
00:06:24
Highland Elementary Garrett's father George was a career Columbus police officer officer when this happened he
00:06:32
retired in 2013 with 33 years of service at school Garrett participated in golf swimming basketball and bowling so as we
00:06:43
can see this is a very active kid on top of sports and school Garrett held down a
00:06:49
part-time job at Kroger's on West Broad Street this is a large grocery store where Garrett stayed busy stocking
00:06:57
shelves and so on Garrett was universally described as nice polite and friendly after he was killed other kids
00:07:05
reflected that he was always smiling kind and helpful he always sensed when someone was down and tried to boost
00:07:13
their spirits to help them out there was not one whisper that Garrett was the type of kid that was going down the
00:07:20
wrong path or a troubled youth that was not the case here Garrett had a loving family he had positive role models he
00:07:29
had everything going for him quote he was a good boy growing up to be a good man said Patty Burton to
00:07:37
10TV she admitted that Garrett's youthful exuberance and good nature meant that he sometimes was late for
00:07:44
class and failed to complete his schoolwork but no one not friends teachers School administrators no one
00:07:51
suggested that Garrett was anything other than a funloving mischievous teen Garrett's High School nickname was
00:07:59
Winnie the Pooh yes he was the kind of kid that bought other kids a lunch or helped a teacher carry her things even
00:08:07
though he was just 16 Garrett was a big dude he was 6 foot one inch tall 240 pounds so he was the big teddy bear type
00:08:17
his favorite cars were Mustangs and Hummers he loved rap music and was a big sports fan cheering on the Buckeyes
00:08:24
Bengals Cavs and Spurs on Labor Day 2008 eight there was rumors that a student had been killed texts were flying among
00:08:34
the students at wesland high school they were all saying that Garrett Burton was
00:08:38
dead the students were reeling Garrett was a good kid popular and well-liked throughout the school but everyone was
00:08:46
hearing that he had been shot which really made no sense to his classmates Garrett wasn't in a gang he didn't
00:08:54
fraize with those who were he didn't do drugs and he certainly didn't sell them so everybody was wondering one could
00:09:02
this be true and if so how could this be yeah and you don't get the nickname Winnie the Pooh unless you're a big
00:09:08
teddy bear a gentle giant is how I picture Garrett now the kids were saying that Garrett had been involved in a
00:09:15
prank that had gone horribly wrong now normally Captain when kids hear about others pranking people and things not
00:09:23
going as planned they expect to hear that someone's property got damaged or maybe someone was in injured possibly
00:09:30
that the kids got caught by the police and had to pay for repairs or restitution the result
00:09:37
usually when a prank goes wrong is that kids get grounded or they get community service yeah or they get caught by the
00:09:45
school so they get detentions or suspended no one expects to hear that the kid got killed police knocked on the
00:09:52
door of Patty Burton in the we hours of Saturday morning August 30th it was still dark outside the police asked for
00:10:02
a photo of Patty's son Garrett then the officers had to tell Patty that the unthinkable had happened later Patty
00:10:10
told 10TV quote they said you need to sit down I said sit down for what they said ma'am your son has been murdered
00:10:18
end quote of course this horrible news is beyond belief Patty called the officer's Liars saying she refused to
00:10:26
believe them but sadly it was true then police went to the home of one of their own to notify fellow officer George
00:10:36
Burton that his son had been murdered hundreds of people attended Garrett's funeral at Trinity United Methodist
00:10:44
Church Garrett was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery and a marble bench was installed as a memorial there was a
00:10:54
moment of silence observed in honor of Garrett at the next high school football game and the band dedicated their
00:11:01
performance to him as well students were shocked and horrified many of them knew
00:11:06
Garrett and his sudden death was very traumatizing to all of the kids to say the least yeah it's a situation that
00:11:14
just doesn't make a lot of sense so let's dive into the timeline of the events as we know the timeline is so
00:11:22
important to any of these investigations we're going to start off on the Friday which would be kicking off the Labor Day
00:11:30
weekend on this Friday this is August 29th Patty Burton dropped her son Garrett off at school now she's unaware
00:11:38
at this time that this would be the last time that she would see her son alive knowing her son was too old for
00:11:46
public kisses she patted his arm told him to have a blessed day after school Garrett was picked up by an older kid
00:11:57
the Burton Family said was a a trusted friend the family didn't know what Garrett was up to that evening but they
00:12:05
would tell tentv that his curfew was 11:30 p.m. and that the friend had promised to get Garrett home by that
00:12:14
time now in full disclosure here Captain there is another article that says actually that Garrett had planned to
00:12:21
stay over night at the friend's house right but either way if Garrett was coming home or whether he's staying at a
00:12:29
friend's house teenagers curfew in Columbus Ohio would be in the house by midnight so that was supposed to be the
00:12:37
events for that evening but later Garrett's family found out that the friend took Garrett to a house party
00:12:44
with other young adults that's how this group of people's described other young adults people that were older than
00:12:52
Garrett whom he likely did not know regardless of what went down or what was supposed to go down Garrett did not make
00:13:02
it home that night this is going to lead us to 2:45 a.m. on Saturday August 30th
00:13:10
when a man named Romero he's opening up his door because he's woken up to police pounding on his
00:13:19
front door he opens up the door police ask him hey have you heard any gunshots he says no the officers then leave they
00:13:28
return about a half hour later they knock on the door again this time they're telling him don't go outside
00:13:34
because there's a dead body in your backyard the police had been summoned to the scene by a 911 call from a young man
00:13:42
who was with Garrett that night that said quote I have to report a murder the voices clearly panicked on
00:13:51
911 he was calling from the house where Garrett had been hanging out with the older teens so
00:14:00
we got to break this down a little bit and give a little bit of reference here there was the house party where Garrett
00:14:07
Burton is later shot and killed is not at that house party they had left that party and the party was somewhat
00:14:17
nearby but one of the individuals that Garrett left with returned to that house to make the call to 911 to get officers
00:14:27
in an ambulance to the scene seems funny to me that if he's out with a few other
00:14:32
teenagers committing pranks that one of the individuals would have a cell phone on them and could have made a call from
00:14:40
where they're making the pranks from if that if that makes any sense the first Clues police responding to the scene
00:14:46
noted were eggshells on the road this is Hillyard Rome Road the cops learned that
00:14:52
the boys had been throwing eggs at passing cars on Hillyard Rome Road it's been reported pretty consistently that
00:15:00
Garrett was with a group of boys by some reports the group was Garrett and three
00:15:05
young men who were in on the prank together Garrett from my understanding from the reports that we have seen
00:15:13
Captain says that he is the only juvenile in the group so basically Garrett's hanging out with a couple
00:15:21
older guys they decide to leave the party okay hey let's get some eggs and let's throw them at cars passing by on
00:15:30
Hillyard roome road which is a pretty busy road it is pretty busy but again Columbus is the kind of city that as
00:15:40
large as it is late at night you don't see a lot of traffic on some of these roads especially the ones that are out
00:15:48
in the suburbs and this would have been the hour of these events to me are very much key and we're going to circle back
00:15:57
to those in just a minute Garrett's body was removed by the coroner's office this
00:16:02
at 8:30 a.m. that morning by that point it's now broad daylight presumably police were searching the area for shell
00:16:11
casings tire marks broken eggshells shoeprints and so on they would be trying to reenact what happened based on
00:16:19
the statements of Garrett's friends about where they were standing where they found the eggshells they want to
00:16:26
piece this whole scene together get a better idea of what went down that night leading up to this murder now tentv or
00:16:35
wbns did quite a bit of reporting on this case and we are using them as one of our main sources for our information
00:16:43
that we're delivering here today on this week's True Crime case their piece on the day after the shooting says Garrett
00:16:51
Burton and some friends were throwing eggs at passing cars near Hillyard Rome Road when someone approached the group
00:16:59
and shot Burton in the head killing him okay so that makes me think that the person that approached them is
00:17:06
approaching these individuals on foot the scene itself and the way everything goes down is a little confusing
00:17:15
because surprisingly to me Captain the police have been a little Hush Hush on what happened now I have some questions
00:17:23
and concerns about that and we'll get into those as we go but the the location is also very key here right so
00:17:32
Garrett was actually shot to death in the backyard of a home that is located in a neighborhood on a quiet call toac
00:17:41
the address is 542 Ripple me Road this is south of I70 of Interstate 70 so this is technically I believe Galloway Ohio
00:17:52
by this point right the home belongs to that Romero person uh who I'm only going
00:17:59
to give out his first name as he likely does not live there this to this day and
00:18:07
doesn't have much to offer in this case as far as information as we said he was sleeping at the time and said he didn't
00:18:15
hear any gunshots so the home belongs to this Romero person he's the guy that was
00:18:20
awakened by the police his backyard backs up to Hillyard Rome Road and it was separated from the roadway with a
00:18:30
white fence and a line of evergreen trees picture this look we're we have a wonderful audience the True Crime garage
00:18:40
Army deputies whatever we're supposed to be calling them I I I haven't been told
00:18:45
lately what to call them uh but the wonderful people that that tune into our show the filthy animals they're great
00:18:51
people they're sexy I don't believe that all of them have been Saints their entire life I'm sure somebody has thrown
00:18:58
a a roll of toilet paper at some point or maybe has done something that they regret as as an adult but picture this
00:19:11
this is kind of the perfect setup as the captain said this is a busy roadway it would be less busy at this time of night
00:19:19
but if you were looking to egg some cars this is almost your perfect setup you have the fence you have the evergreen
00:19:27
trees you can hide behind them of course if you're going to throw eggs at motorists which is dangerous for many
00:19:36
many reasons it's a it's a stupid act but again he's 16 we've done we've all done a lot of stupid it's a stupid act
00:19:44
but it's not terribly uncommon and it doesn't mean that he's a bad person but you can see this setup where this is a
00:19:53
an ideal spot for this type of activity because you can hide you could launch your eggs at the cars that you see
00:19:59
coming down the road and then you can duck and hide as they get close and then you probably you know you have the kids
00:20:06
snickering and laughing and and really kind of just yucking it up as the cars go by if I was driving down Hillyard
00:20:14
Rome Road and I got hit by a couple eggs I'd be a little pissed off but not that
00:20:20
big of a deal drive your car through the car wash and it's not the biggest deal but I also want to point out for the
00:20:27
younger listeners out there that this is dangerous because you could potentially
00:20:31
the motorist could be shocked scared Disturbed enough to lose control of their vehicle and now we're talking
00:20:38
about a whole different situation that nobody wants to be a part of so just it is it's a very dangerous a very
00:20:46
dangerous thing to to surprisingly dangerous thing to be doing well and also the the difficult thing here is if
00:20:52
you're hit with like a water balloon or something the water is going to wash off
00:20:56
the car so if you get hit let's say say on the windshield not so with a egg that egg
00:21:02
could smear and basically blind their vision for a minute so that's another reason why this is also dangerous so
00:21:10
this spot as I said to me sounds like an ideal location for this type of activity
00:21:16
the house party that Garrett and The Trusted older friend were at this was across hilard Rome Road a couple of
00:21:24
hundred feet away so up the road the the address was 300 Smith Road so this is in
00:21:30
within walking distance but just to be clear here The Party location and where the eggs were being thrown from two
00:21:39
different locations within walking distance a couple of hundred feet away right it appears that the boys had
00:21:45
crossed Hillyard roome Road and hidden themselves among this tree line bordering the fence selecting that area
00:21:51
because again it's ideal vantage point for egg throwing there was also a wide open area
00:21:58
behind a neighborhood of hes so there was plenty of space for the boys to make use of so it seems the boys were
00:22:07
standing in this open space near this man's home probably hiding behind the trees watching for headlights to come
00:22:15
down the road and then hurling eggs at the vehicles in the dark the drivers would almost certainly not see the
00:22:23
projectiles launched at their cars until they're hit yeah I agree with you that this is um a convenient spot to throw
00:22:31
eggs but it's also possible that they weren't hiding in the tree line and that they were closer to the road and so that
00:22:38
the people driving by might have actually seen these individuals throw the eggs well and as we said this was
00:22:46
all reported by Word of Mouth to his classmates and friends that Garrett was killed in a prank that went horribly
00:22:55
wrong all right we're going to we're going to have to lead up up to that because look all across America throwing
00:23:02
eggs at houses and cars kids do this and they don't end up dead but I I do want to point out I read a a disturbing
00:23:11
article that that unfortunately it's not so terribly uncommon for someone to end up getting
00:23:19
killed in this type of situation and that's why we want to point out how dangerous this type of activity actually
00:23:26
can be well but think about this when you're a kid and and we we both did this you know You' sneak outside your house
00:23:33
with a couple of your buddies and maybe it was just to roam the streets well if you're roaming a
00:23:39
neighborhood and let's say you you decide to play dingdong ditch you know where you ring the doorbell and take off
00:23:46
running you could startle somebody and they're on their property they're at their house this is happening in the we
00:23:56
hours of the morning where people are going to be on higher alert you know what I mean so just doing any of these
00:24:04
pranks or you know the common prank where they take a a a bag of dog [ __ ] and light it on fire and put it on you
00:24:11
know and ring the doorbell what but what you're doing because of the we hours of the morning
00:24:16
you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation well and I think anytime we talk about property damage too you're
00:24:22
putting yourself in a dangerous situation you don't know how the person's going to react the article I
00:24:27
read and I'll reference it earlier or I'll reference it later it's in my notes here and I'll find that so that people
00:24:33
can go and find it and read it for themselves but the article basically states that here's a here's a handful of
00:24:41
cases where an egging situation went horribly wrong where either the a motorist lost control these are aren't
00:24:48
all situations of throwing eggs at cars most of them are but the motorist lost control and had an accident and died in
00:24:56
the vehicle or the person who got egged reacted very violently and killed the person who was egging them or a scuffle
00:25:05
broke out between the two and the person that was throwing the eggs killed the person they were throwing them at
00:25:11
there's also a situation where one person started chasing the person that was throwing eggs in their vehicle and
00:25:19
that ended up in a vehicular deaths this is dangerous stuff you know you don't when you go and decide to do something
00:25:25
that nobody likes to somebody the reaction you don't know what you're getting it's you're spinning the wheel
00:25:32
of what could this reaction be and you're playing a a bit of a dangerous game yeah and and let's go back to the
00:25:40
idea that Garrett's a good kid he has good parents he's involved in a lot of activities and sometimes or in this case
00:25:51
Garrett made a bad decision by by getting involved with this prank but that doesn't mean that he deserved to
00:25:59
die oh clearly not clearly not now Garrett's parents stated that they were told by police based on statements from
00:26:08
the other kids that were with Garrett that the shooter first scolded Garrett and then shot him in the head tentv
00:26:16
quoted George Burton as saying about the shooter quote he said get your hands up
00:26:22
or I'm going to blow your face in Garrett put his hands up and said okay and barely got out a third okay and the
00:26:30
guy just pulled the trigger end quote this information came from an eyewitness as we said the witness was one of
00:26:37
Garrett's friends who was according to this article about 20 feet away from Garrett when he was shot but
00:26:46
unfortunately this friend did not get a good look at the shooter and then we get
00:26:51
some more details in 2019 again a piece from 10TV that said police say Garrett was with friends and
00:26:59
throwing eggs at passing cars near Hillyard Rome Road when someone reportedly mad about the prank
00:27:05
approached the group with a gun Patty Garrett's mother says what happened next is a firsthand account from one of
00:27:12
Garrett's friends who was hiding behind a tree about 10 feet away and he said to
00:27:18
me he saw Garrett put his hands up and say I did not throw any eggs at your car but he said I can help you wash it off
00:27:27
Patty goes on to say the person persisted and demanded Garrett who was 6'1 in tall 240 lbs get down Garrett
00:27:35
because of his size was having a hard time trying to get down on one knee and the shooter put the gun right on
00:27:42
Garrett's neck the dispatch reported that Garrett's father George did not know the other youths his son was
00:27:50
reportedly with that night and he did not know anything about egg throwing activities in the past it wasn't like
00:27:58
this was a regular thing for Garrett he implied but somehow Garrett had ended up
00:28:04
paying for it with his life quote it was basically an execution as far as I'm concerned end quote this is what George
00:28:12
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plus content via Hulu learn more at hulu.com [Music] [Music] all right we are back cheers
00:32:09
mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you as well Captain so we can see how this plays out right the boys are hiding
00:32:18
behind some trees it's very dark outside at that time it's nearly 3 in the morning there was no moon that at night
00:32:27
question for you cuz I I don't see it reported anywhere but do we know how many people were out with Garrett the
00:32:36
reports state that it was a total of four three people plus Garrett so it's very possible that Garrett isn't even
00:32:43
responsible for hitting this murderer's car correct and we have that statement from earlier where one of the boys
00:32:51
reported that he heard Garrett tell the person I did not throw eggs exit your car but I'll help you wash it off the
00:33:00
the problem here with some of these statements by the people that are with Garrett is I think that once they were
00:33:07
aware that somebody else was there they might have all been quite frightened and
00:33:12
again we have the statement two different statements one where we have uh another individual that's 20 feet
00:33:20
away and then another statement that says there was an individual 10t away neither of them are able to describe the
00:33:29
shooter or or as it's believed neither of them got a good look at the shooter yeah and it doesn't seem like anybody
00:33:37
has a good eyewitness report of the vehicle either exactly and so that's the problem here with this case if the
00:33:45
police have this information and they're holding it back I don't know what the hell they're doing here because this is
00:33:51
the kind of case that you're going to need the help from the public and now this was 2008 when Burton was killed
00:33:58
it's 2022 today right and if they have additional information this should have been released throughout that period of
00:34:06
time to lead to who this killer was we need to keep in mind regardless of some kids throwing eggs or
00:34:13
whatever that night this person walked up and In Cold Blood shot a 16-year-old right in the head this is
00:34:24
this is a very dangerous individual even though they may have been victimized leading up to this and again we don't
00:34:32
even know if this person's car was was actually hit like I said is it possible that these kids were were doing
00:34:40
something and uh they throw something and so he sees that the guy sees that they're throwing something but his car
00:34:47
is not hit himself and he just gets out and then decides to take the law in his own hands or is it possible that he was
00:34:54
one of the neighbors and saw these kids doing that and then you know went around
00:35:00
the corner to see what was going on and and then lost control or something I I I
00:35:05
I don't know it's just seems so ridiculous well and you're going to see where the possibilities of who our
00:35:13
suspect is opens up and gets a little more difficult as we go through this information because as you said you can
00:35:22
see a situation where these kids are hiding in the dark hiding behind trees and a fence and they are not spotted by
00:35:30
any drivers but it looks like in this case at least one of the drivers may have seen them stopped and pulled over
00:35:38
or stopped and pulled over and figured out where the eggs were coming from it's not clear though based off of the
00:35:46
information and the reports that we've seen if the kids if the boys had any idea that there was someone coming after
00:35:54
them right because we don't have in within those statements there's nobody saying oh we saw this guy approach us or
00:36:03
we saw some guy Park his car and here here's what kind of car it was and we started to flee it doesn't
00:36:11
sound like anybody was in the in in flea mode at that point it sounds to me like
00:36:15
they were all still kind of standing around or do we have a situation where yes they
00:36:22
spotted this guy in route to them and they decided to hide and be quiet right and I wish the
00:36:30
reporting was better but also I I still think it's a possibility that if these individuals are 10 feet away 20 feet
00:36:38
maybe even further away from each other and they're hiding on this tree line that backs up to properties is it
00:36:47
possible that somebody that lived in those properties comes out because they hear some rucket and hear some people
00:36:54
talking I mean if I'm in my house house and I start hearing some people talking at 3:00 in the morning outside of my
00:37:02
house and they sound like they're coming from my backyard I'm going to go and check that out you know what I mean and
00:37:10
so is it possible that it was one of these neighbors that went to check out to see what was going on and and then
00:37:17
this uh horrible tragedy happens not only that think about this too if you look at the lay of the land here and you
00:37:25
look at a road map with Hillyard Rome Road and where this neighborhood is that backs up to Hillyard Rome Road keep in
00:37:32
in mind the time of night yes this is a busy road but at 2:33 in the morning I would argue that the overwhelming
00:37:42
majority of people traveling on that road are traveling on that road to get to their destination they're not just
00:37:48
out driving around right they're they're not out looking to go pick up some fast
00:37:53
food the probability of the person traveling on Hillyard roome Road in that direction at that time of night and them
00:38:02
living in that neighborhood that backs up to Hillyard Rome Road I would think that probability would be fairly high
00:38:09
right and so you may have a double whammy situation where it's not just a driver on Hillyard roome road but it's
00:38:16
also somebody that was driving to that neighborhood anyway yeah and like you said their car is hit with an egg they
00:38:25
drive back to their house they're in their driveway then they hear some kids talking behind their house and they go
00:38:34
oh going to go inside and get my gun and teach these kids a lesson well you nailed it and of course we have
00:38:40
Garrett's parents who are grief stricken as any parents would be but they also Express the sense of disbelief that any
00:38:48
logical person would have such an incredible overreaction to to the situation and
00:38:58
Garrett's father George said to the media quote it was a dumb juvenile prank you get your car washed don't kill my
00:39:05
kid right we have Garrett's mother Patty she's saying something very similar that
00:39:12
you were saying here Captain she told 10v quote it wasn't something they should have done talking about her son
00:39:18
and the boys but they certainly did not deserve to be shot in the head over some
00:39:23
eggs this is a sick person end quote she goes on to say if I could just reverse this I would much rather go downtown and
00:39:31
take my son out of jail yeah and this person easily could have just walked away and I guarantee you old Winnie the
00:39:42
Pooh Garrett it shows you what kind of kid he is hey I one I didn't throw the egg at your car I'm you know I'm sorry
00:39:52
uh but but I'll wash your car I I'll help make this right for a kid to say that and you have
00:40:00
to look straight at that kid and pull a trigger and take that kid's life there's
00:40:08
something really wrong with you I think gun or no gun I think the appropriate response
00:40:16
is okay kid which house is yours because we're knocking on your door and telling
00:40:21
Mom and Dad right what you and your buddies have been out doing I think that's the appropriate response but
00:40:27
again or I'm going to call the cops yes when you're and you can do some community service but again when you do
00:40:36
these types of things when you are they are you know let's not sugarcoat it too much they are
00:40:43
victimizing random people and when you do that you do not know nobody can calculate what the reaction will be and
00:40:51
speaking of what we don't know there is a lot that we don't know about this case
00:40:56
most things in fact for example the police have never released the following information where Garrett went and what
00:41:03
he was doing in the approximately 10 hours or 11 hours between the end of school that day and when he was found
00:41:10
shot we don't know the range at which Garrett was shot other than we have the statement of that the gun one of the
00:41:19
boys believes that he saw the shooter put the gun right to Garrett's neck or more one shot was
00:41:27
fired we don't know if the bullet was recovered it could have been recovered from Garrett or elsewhere at the scene
00:41:35
right whether shell whether shell casings were found and we also don't know whether Garrett died instantly or
00:41:42
was he able to say anything we know he died at the scene but was he able to say anything to one of his friends or to a
00:41:51
first responder or what were the actions of it of the guys he was with because it's hard to say that these guys
00:42:01
were even friends with him because we have no report of this vehicle and I know that they're probably in a huge
00:42:07
State of shock but that would be my first thing oh my God they just killed my buddy for us doing this stupid prank
00:42:16
and what's his vehicle what's the license plate what does this guy look like well
00:42:23
and I don't want to come down too hard on Columbus Police Department because I do believe that they do as a whole they
00:42:29
do a great job they keep us safe Captain so we can't be too strict with them but
00:42:36
this to me I'm a little disappointed because this to me looks like a solvable case or at least it would have been in
00:42:43
2008 all of these years later I don't have a lot of confidence that this case is getting solved but in 2008 2009 I
00:42:52
would have had a lot of confidence that this case would have been solved but again we should throw out the reminder
00:42:59
and remind ourselves as well that the egg throwing portion of this story is totally random right they are tossing
00:43:09
eggs at random passerbys right and then the person that shot Garrett is a little random itself so you
00:43:19
throw in all of those variables and the randomness of those variables and you can see how complic you can see how
00:43:26
complicated and convoluted this case gets from Jump Street yeah but well let's let's go back to the road for a
00:43:33
second this Hillyard Rome Road okay even if Garrett's and you can call them buddies or whatever you want to call
00:43:42
them I don't think their buddies not not because they didn't do any it seems to me that they did nothing to figure out
00:43:48
who shot their buddy but there's not a lot of cars on this road so you'd think if they put this out blasted it all over
00:43:56
the news hey this kid was shot for throwing eggs we believe that the person that killed him the murderer had their
00:44:05
car parked on Hillyard roome Road during this time so during that time there would have had to be a handful of cars
00:44:16
that passed that vehicle parked on the side of the road probably with their lights on who knows right MH and so to
00:44:23
see this car you know at almost 3:00 a.m. parked on the side of the road you're going to have cars you know
00:44:31
passing them on northbound or southbound you know what I mean so you're going to
00:44:34
have some other person that could come forward and say well I saw this type of vehicle parked on the side of the road
00:44:42
because at least if you have that that starts narrowing it down a little bit I I get it I actually I wish it there was
00:44:50
more information by the three dudes that were with him that night but I I kind of
00:44:55
get it I see it playing out like when we say when the papers say this was a party
00:45:00
a house party that was full of young people that that's that's the words that they chose to use and they're TR they're
00:45:07
purposely being vague the media and police on some of this because we are talking about a child victim essentially
00:45:15
with a 16-year-old Garrett Burton being the one who's killed right and the report in the paper is that he was the
00:45:22
only juvenile out of that group of four but what I'm guessing here an inference I'm choosing to make is that those other
00:45:30
three dudes are likely 18 maybe 19 at most and I can picture the situation as if I were there myself I think these
00:45:39
other dudes they're hiding and they either here this person approaching them or at the very least they're going to
00:45:46
hear the person scolding Garrett right we know that from witness statements and then they hear
00:45:52
the gun go off again we don't know how many shots were fired but I'm picturing a situation where these other three
00:45:58
dudes are hiding in the trees or hiding nearby and they're probably [ __ ] bricks they are probably [ __ ] and bricks
00:46:06
and so but you bring up some really good questions here and again this is things
00:46:12
that I think look Deli is a case that's on everybody's mind right now and has been for 5 and A2
00:46:21
years and we all have looked at that case and looked at many other cases in questioned how much of a strategic
00:46:29
Advantage is it to not release information and when is it a strategic advantage to release certain information
00:46:37
and in this case in Garrett Burton's case we don't know very much you know again we don't know these would all be
00:46:45
things that would help the public help the police we don't know did the car stopped do we know for certain that a
00:46:51
vehicle stopped because as you pointed out it seems to me like somebody would have an idea if a vehicle stopped is it
00:46:59
possible that it was a neighbor who saw the boys and what they were up to so if you don't see a car no one see a car or
00:47:06
or says hey we don't know where this guy came from there's a chance he may have come from the neighborhood can you tell
00:47:11
us what the I Witnesses claim that the shooter said well that's very interesting because we have two
00:47:17
different reports and again we have three guys there so maybe that is the reason for having different eyewitness
00:47:24
reports but what makes it to the paper is one where the individual says I was standing about 20t away I heard the
00:47:33
shooter scold him and it sounds like Garrett was trying to reason with this person and then he shoots Garrett right
00:47:43
and then the other statement is that Garrett again trying to reason with the person but the shooter is ordering
00:47:52
him to get down on the ground and based off of the statement it sounds like the witness was one close enough
00:48:00
and could see Garrett attempting to get down on one knee or getting down on 1D but he's not getting down fast enough
00:48:07
for the shooter and then the shooter reacts puts the gun closer to Garrett and pulls the trigger the other thing
00:48:12
too there is a possibility some of these guns have a hair trigger and it may have
00:48:18
just gone off on the person I tend to believe that that's not a high probability
00:48:27
but it certain of possibility but it Beyond a car par not they would know what kind of
00:48:35
gun he was shot with right so that's information that could help the public two yeah maybe you didn't get a good
00:48:42
look at the shooter but did you get a look good look at anything he was wearing was he wearing dark clothing
00:48:48
light clothing did he appear to be tall or short we know that they heard the person's voice because the Witnesses are
00:48:55
are describing or trying to relay almost Verbatim what they believe they heard the shooter say what did the the guy's
00:49:04
voice sound like right because if you you start there and go was it male or female oh well it was male okay was he
00:49:12
was he black was he white could could you tell and again did a car park because I
00:49:20
could like I said I could see a situation where you hear these kids laughing and and making noise and all
00:49:27
this stuff it's 3:00 a.m. and and the guy comes out and and again very irresponsible because there is a big
00:49:35
possibility that this guy comes out and just says you guys are throwing eggs at cars do you think that's funny you know
00:49:41
what I mean and because and like you said hair Trigger or whatever but there is a possibility
00:49:49
because of Garrett's size that this individual goes out he gets his gun he he's he's
00:49:57
nervous and then he accidentally pulls the trigger you know what I mean because he because he put himself in a situation
00:50:05
he shouldn't have been in if you are approaching a 6'1 240 lb individual in the dark that
00:50:13
you do not know I think you're going to be nervous gun or no gun so that's certainly a possibility here and the
00:50:21
other thing too with his voice did he have a high voice did he have a low voice voice did he sound like he was out
00:50:27
of breath you know there's a lot of things that we could we could learn or be told by police and possibly help out
00:50:35
back in the day here's another idea I wonder did they track Garrett's phone according to his parents he had a cell
00:50:43
phone and he had his phone on him did they did they retrace his movements that afternoon that evening leading up to the
00:50:51
shooting and maybe that's of no useful information at all but it it's something that I'm wondering if they did here's
00:51:00
the big thing did they look at surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses yes it's 2008 so you
00:51:08
don't have as many ring doorbell cams or um Simply Safe cameras on people's homes
00:51:14
but we have businesses in that general area we also have traffic cameras in that area on Hillyard Rome Road 100% 200
00:51:25
they would have had traffic cameras right this is a major thoroughfare with commercial businesses most of which of
00:51:33
those businesses would have cameras so Columbus as what's reported on the national scale Columbus has more cameras
00:51:41
than most American cities I would wager that surely police pulled the footage and wrote down every
00:51:47
car that they saw on hilard Rome Road that night between the hours of 2 and 3 a.m. did they look look for tire tracks
00:51:56
to try to identify the shooter's vehicle or where it possibly pulled over well and also you have to deal with the fact
00:52:03
that these people that he was with his quote unquote buddies are they telling us the truth did they go out to throw
00:52:13
eggs at cars and then did it escalate were they throw in branches at cars were they throw in rocks at cars did they do
00:52:21
something that escalated the situation even further I mean who knows it's very suspicious to me that your friend is
00:52:30
shot you have kids that probably have cell phones and there's no call that's made at the scene of the crime you
00:52:38
should be calling 911 right from there but they go back to the original location to make the phone call to
00:52:45
police well and police seem to possibly be working with the theory that maybe the shooter was someone
00:52:53
holding a grudge from from a previous incident so this is from The chikoy Gazette in an article dated September
00:53:01
25th 2008 so not terribly long after the shooting it says the group of teenagers
00:53:07
may have thrown eggs at cars prior to that night that Burton was killed investigators think it is possible that
00:53:14
someone that teens hit with eggs may have come back and shot Burton this is because it was reported
00:53:23
that other residents who live near by said eggshells were found along the road earlier in the week as well now we're
00:53:30
not saying that Garrett was a part of these other possible situations yeah but it's it's
00:53:38
possible that his buddies that he was with they did this a week before and then they said hey let's go out let's go
00:53:46
out and do this again Garrett just happened to be with them and you know what when we talk about a house party
00:53:52
with young adults or young people there you might have a situation where Mom and
00:53:59
Dad go away for a whole week or longer they leave their 18-year-old 19yearold son or daughter at home who has a party
00:54:08
or has friends over regularly during that time period that the parents are gone and maybe this is an activity that
00:54:15
they had done once before leading up to this or twice before leading up to this and maybe you had somebody who was
00:54:22
driving around hoping to be hit one more time because this was you know a vigilante type of person who was going
00:54:31
to take justice and take the law into their own hands almost a i liken this case to that of a road
00:54:40
rage situation you know where somebody loses their mind goes off the rails and does
00:54:49
something so terribly overboard and out of bounds in reaction to something that happened to them right I think that's
00:54:57
one of the problems with even solving this case is it could be really a very normal guy that was just a little pissed
00:55:08
off a little nervous shouldn't have brought a gun into that situation and made a horrible mistake
00:55:17
but here's where I think the public can still help here Captain because this this is what I'm gleaning from this
00:55:24
situation if the if the gun accidentally goes off or the the shooter was terrified scared
00:55:31
shaking in his boots shaking in his Nikes and accidentally pulls the trigger I feel like we have a situation where
00:55:38
this guy is turning he's he's learning the next day or two oh my God I killed a 16-year-old and maybe he's turning
00:55:46
himself in or or getting a lawyer and going to police and saying hey I was that guy that
00:55:53
night because again I think Garrett's parents are absolutely spoton with their evaluation of the shooter this is not a
00:56:02
normal person a normal person even with this overreaction would have come forward they they the guilt would kill
00:56:10
them the guilt would kill them they would not be able to sleep at night they would slowly go crazy and have to
00:56:17
relieve themselves of that pain and that Misery by turning themselves in what I think we might have here is somebody
00:56:26
that is the opposite of that and if they were seeking out some type of vigilante
00:56:31
type Justice or if this was a oneoff road rage type situation I would believe that you have a guy that would
00:56:40
be almost bragging on on rare occasion but bragging to somebody that says oh he this would be the type of guy that that
00:56:50
when you're discussing different situations or you see something on TV or hear something in the news this this is
00:56:55
the type of guy that says not me if that happened to me oh I'd teach those boys a
00:57:01
lesson oh I'd straighten that kid out or I'd straighten that guy out you know what I'd do with him I'd stick my gun
00:57:07
right in his face you know I think that that's the type of individual that we might be dealing with here and if people
00:57:15
know somebody like that or this there's a chance that somebody could have told a
00:57:20
story that is Vaguely Familiar to this story you know what happened to me one night I was
00:57:27
driving home minding my own business and these this gang of kids gang of of dudes
00:57:33
started effing with me oh I straightened those guys out I got out of the car I went up and I found one of them right
00:57:40
you know it's I think that this person may have told somebody I think that there's also a certain probability that
00:57:47
this individual may have lived in that neighborhood and if that person if the shooter did live in that neighborhood
00:57:55
then there's a chance that they were hit previously that week if there were other
00:58:01
egg throwing incidents that were going on yeah if I'm law enforcement my first thing is do I believe the individuals
00:58:09
that were with Garrett because their actions afterwards to me seem suspicious so I want to know their actions
00:58:16
beforehand and afterwards and do I believe them but here in Columbus in December of 2006 we had a similar
00:58:23
incident where a young boy 14 years old Danny Crawford he and two of his buddies
00:58:32
they were out egging cars on West Broad Street this in the hilltop area of Columbus they splattered This SUV with a
00:58:42
couple of eggs and it wasn't a situation where the vehicle's owner flipped them off or hit
00:58:49
the horn and drove on no this person instead pulled behind North Terren Avenue and chased the kids
00:58:58
and opened fire on the teens and Danny in that group of three was shot and killed and it
00:59:07
took till February of 2010 when they finally arrested an individual that lived on East 11th
00:59:16
Avenue in South Lyon which is also part of Columbus the shooter at the time was just 19 years years old and so that's
00:59:27
just another situation now these two situations are not related in any way at all they happen in the same city couple
00:59:37
years apart but this is another situation to show you that this is not completely out of the realm of
00:59:45
possibility when this type of behavior is is going on yeah and again just to reiterate this G was a good kid yes but
00:59:57
he made a mistake and and his parents say that too but again have him arrested or you know have his parents
01:00:08
come pick him up I mean and the thing that really bothers me is like if it's a true statement hey I'll
01:00:20
even wash your car this kid is showing remorse for something that maybe he he didn't even do that actual you know what
01:00:28
I mean he didn't throw that actual egg but he's he still knows that hey I'm in a bad situation or doing a bad
01:00:36
thing and he's showing remorse right away and it it's just it's such a it's such a loss because this kid was
01:00:48
16 years old and um you know and his mother was a teacher and his father was a a police officer look he he might have
01:00:56
grown up to become one of the finest police officers on on on CPD Force you know but we'll never know what he would
01:01:05
have become because he he made a bad decision that night and then this person took the law into their own hands and
01:01:14
that's not okay Garrett's case stalled and in 20110 the family pled for any information to be called into Crim
01:01:23
Stoppers they reminded the public that tips can be anonymous there is no call tracing or caller ID no names need to be
01:01:30
given and computer IP addresses are not visible to those taking the tips and then let's fast forward another year in
01:01:40
2011 three years after the shooting Central Ohio Crime Stoppers announced that they were renewing a $2,000 reward
01:01:48
for information in the case this is interesting though to me here captain this renewed reward was available only
01:01:58
until September 10th of that year which I I don't know if that was a Crim Stoppers thing or if
01:02:05
that was a strategic thing because this is in August late August of 2011 and they make an announcement this this
01:02:12
reward money is still available we're renewing this reward money but it's only available for basically 10 11 days so I
01:02:23
don't know if they were hoping to really get a push for information or if that was something significant to their
01:02:29
investigation that time frame right there one thing I've note in my opinion in the Crim Stoppers write up is the
01:02:36
following language it says quote on Saturday August 30th 2008 at approximately 3 a.m. several teens were
01:02:46
throwing eggs at Vehicles driving on Hillyard Rome Road north of West Broad Street 16-year-old Garrett Burton was
01:02:54
one of of the teens as a result of one vehicle being struck a yet unidentified male suspect pursued and shot Garrett
01:03:03
16-year-old Garrett died at the scene so that language is interesting to me because it sounds like there's
01:03:11
confirmation that the shooter was in a vehicle that was hit by one or all of the teens now they could just be making
01:03:19
leaps right of their own based off of what they believe the intera action was between Garrett and the
01:03:27
shooter but the interaction is Garrett saying I did not hit your car so it's all very confusing I again I think this
01:03:35
language to me indicates that indeed police have information possibly from well presumably it have to be from
01:03:41
Garrett's companions the ones that were with him that night that one of them did
01:03:45
hit this person's car and the shooting was a direct result of that event this would definitely be a difficult case to
01:03:52
investigate but if they know know the make and model of this vehicle police should release that information exactly
01:04:00
and the thing is too if if this vehicle was hit by an egg this would set up a likely situation that one of the
01:04:09
survivors that was with Garrett that night could have possibly if even if they didn't get a good look at the
01:04:15
shooter did they get a good look at the gun did they get a good look at the vehicle it well that goes back to my
01:04:22
theory that if you're law enforcement you have to figure out if you believe these guys or not are they changing the
01:04:29
story to benefit themselves was it an SUV was it a sedan was it a pickup truck I mean the the questions are endless
01:04:38
here to trying to lead us to get some more information about who is responsible for this now I know that
01:04:45
everybody's different but one thing that me and a couple of my buddies we kind of
01:04:48
prided ourselves on when we were teenagers and even in our early 20s was the ability to identify a vehicle
01:04:57
making model in year roughly year based off of a vehicle's headlights uh because they have specific
01:05:06
types of headlights and that was something that we were able to do at a probably a 90 to 95% success rate so
01:05:14
it's one of those situations where you just go we need more information the public needs more information to see if
01:05:21
we can help here in this situation help Garrett's parents out help solve this case and any information would be good
01:05:29
information makes me sad for the city of Columbus because this is a case that should have never went away from the
01:05:36
public Spotlight this is a case that we should have been outraged about a 16-year-old kid being
01:05:45
executed it's just it's it's very sad and as I had referenced earlier there's plenty of history of pranks like the one
01:05:54
Garrett and his buddies were engaged in going bad going horribly wrong specifically egg throwing has resulted
01:06:01
in some serious payback the lethal kind the article that I cited earlier Captain
01:06:07
was from a New York Times article in 2010 that states Halloween eggings have left a violent Legacy in New York City
01:06:17
since 1984 at least 24 people have been seriously wounded or killed in stabbing shootings beatings or accidents sparked
01:06:27
by egg throwing confrontations around the Halloween holiday all 24 cases played out in roughly the same way a
01:06:36
group of boys hurled eggs at pedestrians cars or houses the targets confronted the throwers and then violence erupted
01:06:46
and it goes on to site 24 such examples of this in this 2010 New York Times article what articles like these tell us
01:06:59
is that sadly fatalities directly resulting from egg throwing are much more common than one would think these
01:07:07
incidents highlight the total lack of regard for human life and total loss of perspective similar to road rage that
01:07:15
can escalate from mundane teenage pranks Garrett Burton may just be another casualty of a bad egg throwing decision
01:07:25
but his life mattered and he in no way deserved to be snuffed out just because someone's paint job was
01:07:32
tarnished a cross marks the spot where Garrett was shot it's a reminder to Pastor by of the senseless murder of a
01:07:41
young man filled with promise hopefully it also serves as a reminder to his killer that his evil actions destroyed a
01:07:50
young life and hopefully his killer is a haunted [Music] [Music] man want to thank you guys so much for
01:08:14
joining us here in the garage Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
01:08:19
listeners we'll give you some recommended listening this week we are recommending solving the Black Dalia
01:08:25
available on Audible this is a case that has fascinated the captain and I for many many years and the solving the
01:08:33
Black Dalia from audible was the shot in the arm that I needed to restore my Fascination in this case and regardless
01:08:41
if you have Audible or not you should check out my interview with Douglas LS on our other show off the Record
01:08:48
available on Stitcher premium Douglas not only narrates solving the Black Dalia but spent years conducting his own
01:08:55
investigation which is a breakthrough as Douglas is a former case officer with the CIA check out solving the Black
01:09:05
Dalia only on Audible and check out our interview with Douglas LS on off the record this week you can find that title
01:09:12
and many more on our recommended page at true Crim garage.com until next week be
01:09:19
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