Coerced Confessions

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Merry Christmas, everybody! Merry Christmas everybody!

Merry Christmas!

She was the type of person that no matter where she went, she made friends.

She was always on the go.

I was driving her everywhere.

She was caring and loving.

She sacrificed herself.

She helped others all the time.

Stephanie knocked on my bedroom door and said she was going to bed. She said she loved me, and I said, I love you too.
That's it. Went down the hallway to see why she wasn't up yet, and I pushed the door the rest of the way open, and I stepped into the room, and her body was there on the floor.
Cheryl's mom was yelling that Stephanie was laying on the floor and she was covered with mud. It wasn't mud, it was blood.
And I picked her head up. 911.
My daughter. What's the problem? Can you wait on the floor? She's not breathing.
How old is she? She's 12. There's blood all over her body.
Please, I was. I'm not breathing.
I'm not breathing. I'm not breathing.
I'm not breathing. I'm not breathing.
I'm not breathing. His painful cries were just almost unbearable to listen to.
She was murdered. She was stabbed to death.
At this time, we have not been able to discover signs that would indicate that there was forced entry. The possibility is that it could be a family member or an acquaintance or a stranger.
I picked the phone up and said that they made an arrest in the case. And I said, who? And I just said, what? That was the biggest shock I ever got in my life was that phone call.
Dozens of young people from all over San Diego came out to collect trash and clean up a canyon often used for drug-related activities. It gets you to not do stuff like watch TV all the time.
It gets you out there. I wonder what Stephanie would look like.
How old would Stephanie be? 19. 19.
She would be in college as well, already graduated high school. It's been more than six years since Stephanie Crow was murdered, but her parents, Stephen and Cheryl, finally have hope that justice is on the horizon.
We're back on the record in the Tuitt case. Today, this man, Richard Tuitt, a drifter, a felon, and a diagnosed schizophrenic, is going on trial for her murder.
People will show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant murdered Stephanie Crow. Just try to get justice for her.
And if we could do that, that's, there'll be a little bit off our shoulders, but it's been a long road, very long. So is there any doubt in your mind that he killed your daughter? No.
After her funeral, we went back to the cemetery to make sure everything, you know, was done right and everything. And who do we see walking a couple blocks away from the cemetery towards the cemetery but Richard Tuitt.
The Crows have never had a doubt that Richard Tuitt did it. Stabbed Stephanie nine times in her bed after sneaking into their house while the rest of the family slept.
Do you think about that night? Every day. I wish that we would have heard something.
I'd give anything to be able to go back. That doesn't happen.
Stephanie's big brother, Michael, was 14 years old when it happened. He has grown up in the shadow of the murder and despises Richard Tewitt.
I can't stand looking at him. The whole reason all this happened is all because of him and his choices and the choices of his family and everyone who's just enabled him to just get by.
Michael Crow may be convinced that Richard Tewitt killed his sister, but the authorities haven't always been so certain. In fact, even today, after all these years, there are still those who believe others did it, others who remarkably confess to the crime.
Yet Tewitt is the one on trial now because there is also dramatic evidence against him. There is one thing no one disputes.
Richard Tewitt was here in the hills of Escondido on that terrible night in 1998, the night Stephanie Crow was murdered. 911 emergency.
We just had like a transient type knocking on our doors. He's got a red shirt on.
The night of the murder, police received numerous reports about a stranger in the Crow neighborhood. I don't know what he's doing.
They say he appeared disoriented, knocking on doors, looking for a girl named Tracy. He had those Charlie Manson eyes, you know, he looked really crazy.
I said, he gave me the creeps. Is this the man who knocked on your door? Yeah, that's him.
The Crow's next door neighbor at the time, Reverend Gary West, told us he saw Richard Tuitt that night. You go to the door and he says what? He says, I'm looking for the girl.
And I said, well, there's no girl here. You have no business here.
You just need to get out of here. When did you first meet Richard Tewitt? How old were you? I was 15 years old.
At the time, Richard Tewitt was obsessed with this girl, Tracy Nelson, who resembled Stephanie.

I could see maybe resemblance because my hair was a different color when I was younger.

At that time, I was into drugs, and so we would get high together.

After doing the drugs, he would start, he started getting a little paranoid.

That's what he did.

He would start thinking people were following him.

Would you point out the various sort of landmarks in this area here?

That's Reverend West's house, and our house is over here to the right.

You can see houses are spotted in all through here, all these trees.

Thank you. Would you point out the various sort of landmarks in this area here? That's Reverend West's house.
And our house is over here to the right. You can see houses are spotted in all through here, all these trees.
He was in a bunch of them over here. It wasn't like just some guy knocking on the doors.
I mean, every place where this guy went, they actually called 911. But if Tewitt was the killer, he was either very careful or very lucky.
The crime scene was bloody. There were no fingerprints or DNA, and the murder weapon was never found.
The morning after the murder, Tuitt was picked up and his clothes were confiscated. But he was let go because authorities said they had no incriminating evidence and didn't think he was capable of sneaking into the house undetected.
He's been interviewed. He's not in custody at this point.
There is nothing to indicate that he went to the Crow residence that night. The evidence we're going to present to show you that Mr.
Tewitt, this gentleman, has a weapon of choice, and his weapon of choice is a knife. But today, authorities have done a 180.
Prosecutors Dave Drewliner and Jim Dutton are confident he is the right man. He does a, what we call a blitz attack on Stephanie.
It only takes a matter of seconds, literally. And then he exits.
There's not a lot of planning. It's essentially a straight shot.
And yet, he leaves not a single fingerprint. Well, you know.
No hair, no fibers, no footprints? Luck plays a big part in a lot of murder investigations.

Record reflects the presence of the jurors,

the attorneys, and Mr. Tewitt.

What's it like being in the same room with Richard Tewitt?

It's kind of fighting the urge to run away

and the urge to just climb over a table

and hit him over the head with something.

With the trial of Richard Tewitt finally underway,

it is Michael Crow who is perhaps the most anxious about the outcome. Back in 1998, authorities were convinced that this 14-year-old planned and carried out the brutal crime.
All I know is I'm positive I killed him, but all I know is I killed him. Back then, Michael Crow, Stephanie's big brother, confessed to police.

I'm not sure how I did it. All I know is I did.

Back then, in this courtroom, it was Michael Crow and his two friends

who were preparing to go on trial for Stephanie's murder. Everybody that came in contact with her loved her.
She was just a very, very special young lady. Terrible tragedy.
Stephanie Crowe's funeral was on a Tuesday. Her parents and friends were all there.
In our hearts, you will remain. She was like an angel.
I can't believe that somebody would want to kill her. But someone was missing.
Her big brother, Michael. Michael, you have the right to remain silent.
Not only had the Crows lost a daughter. Anything you do say, canon will be used against you in court.
They were now being told their son was her killer. I just asked him, did you do this? Did you have anything to do with this? Michael was crying and just said he didn't know.
That's all he said was he didn't know. The vinci's we put in? When we first talked to Cheryl and Stephen Crow back then, they said Michael was a bit shy.
But otherwise, a typical 14-year-old. I tend to be quiet, have just a few friends.
I like to read. Play around with video games, computers.
But authorities saw Michael differently. A bright kid with a dark side.
The morning Stephanie's body was discovered, they say, Michael seemed distant, quiet, even preoccupied. The behavior of the brother seemed to be in contrast to the behavior of the rest of the family.
Former prosecutor, Summer Steffen. He was playing with some handheld game while the rest of the family was grieving.
But it was Michael's alibi that really made investigators suspicious. I woke up at 4.30 in the morning with a headache.
I went and had some Tylenol, glass of milk, drank it. And then he walked back from

the kitchen, walked back into his room. But according to the police, even in the dark,

Michael should have seen something. His room is directly across from Stephanie's.

The evidence shows her door was open because her body blocked the doorway.

You say you didn't see anything that night.

No, I didn't.

Just because a person does something bad.

Oh, God.

Police began interrogating Michael.

At first, he denied killing his sister.

Why are you doing this to me?

I didn't do this to her.

I couldn't.

I, I... God, God.
Let's hear it, Mike. So it's either Shannon or it's your grandma.
But after two days of questioning... Or it's your mom.
Or it's your dad. Or it's you.
Michael finally told the police... That night.
... what they had suspected all along all i know is

i'm positive i killed him and she was a threat to me everything i did she could match it wasn't right

every time i was gonna be in the spotlight she grabbed it right away from me a few times i was

gonna win something she had to go ahead and win something even bigger. She made me feel worthless.
Sibling rivalry was Michael Crow's motive for murdering his sister, according to police. They say Michael deeply resented Stephanie because she was more popular and got better grades.
And they say he didn't act alone. Instead, he recruited two of his friends, both of them also in the ninth grade.
I'm trying to feed him a little cricket, seeing if he's going to actually eat it out of my hand. Oh, and he actually is.
This was Josh Treadway back then, a shy, artsy kid. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
What kind of guy are you? I don't know. A normal guy, I would hope would be a good description.
And this was Aaron Houser. More bookish, analytical.
Up to this point, the worst trouble I've ever gotten in is being late to class. Aaron also had an impressive collection of knives.
The knives were given to me as a present from my grandpa. I'm not particularly fond of knives.
Michael, Josh, and Aaron loved fantasy, especially video games. I made up my own fantasy world.
What is your favorite game? Final Fantasy 7. Final Fantasy 7.
For most kids, it's harmless fun. But investigators believe these boys decided to bring their dark fantasies into the real world and find a real victim.
Michael's little sister. The motive started out as this hate, but then it turned into a sort of a game of let's plan this out.

Let's see if it can be pulled off.

When authorities went to see Josh, the suspicions grew.

What'd they find?

They found two knives under my bed.

Under this bed?

Mm-hmm.

Police thought one of those knives looked like the one used to kill Stephanie.

So they brought Josh in for questioning.

Who gave you the knife?

Or I'll give you the knife.

Thank you. One of those knives looked like the one used to kill Stephanie.
So they brought Josh in for questioning. Who gave you the knife? Aaron gave you the knife.
What were you told? Told to get rid of it, to hide it. Don't let anyone find out about it.
Police questioned Josh for 12 hours. He didn't say much more, but when he came back for another interview two weeks later, he told the police how the murder was planned.
I was going to sort of make sure, you know, kind of look out, you know, make sure everything's okay and dispose of the knife when it was done. Josh told police Michael had the motive, but Aaron was the mastermind.
What were Aaron Hauser in for questioning. He never confessed.
Instead, he gave a chilling hypothetical scenario of how someone would inflict knife wounds on someone like Stephanie. If Michael were to stab her, what area would he utilize? What targets? I'd say probably the...
Just in them. Maybe the someone.
He has to make sure that she can't scream. He has to make sure that she can't make any noise.
Why would you hypothesize about a situation like that, especially to a seasoned homicide investigator? Why would you do that? This is the hearing where Josh... Chris McDonough was one of the detectives who interviewed Josh and Aaron.
Aaron is a very methodical young man. He knows what he says and why he says it, and he's very, very specific.
Aaron tells you that Michael had said he really wants to kill his sister, and Aaron says, I'll help you do it. And then they plan it.
That's what they told him. And that is another thing that really, really, really scared me about Aaron.
That's why I don't ever want to be alone in a room with Aaron. When Josh told you he was afraid of Aaron, did you believe him? Yes.
Definitely. Once they had their confessions, detectives believed they had made their case.
But shortly after the boys had given those detailed statements, they recanted, took it all back. Now Michael and his friends were saying they had made it all up under intense pressure from the police.
You didn't conspire with your friends to kill your sister. No.
You didn't take part in it in any way. In any way.
Why wouldn't you just stick to your guns and say, I didn't do this, I didn't do this, there's no way in the world I'm going to confess to something I didn't do. It's to eventually they wear you down to where you don't even trust yourself.
You can't trust your memory anymore. Why in the world an innocent person would ever confess to a crime as serious as murder? I had a lot of pressure on me at the time.
And again, you'd have to just be there. Did you stab Stephanie Crowe? No.
Come all the way back to this. And Michael's family believed them.
Number one, it's kind of ridiculous. What did they have to gain to? I mean, what, are they bored or something? Let's go kill someone.
It doesn't make sense. But the district attorney's office was convinced they were guilty.
So, six years ago, it wasn't the drifter Richard Tuitt on trial, but the three boys. Their lives were on the line.
Tonight, new evidence is pointing toward another suspect in the murder. Until...
It is a sealed bag. A stunning piece of evidence came to light.
Out of nowhere... The most shocking news of all is that police may have had this evidence all along.
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So who do you think stabbed Stephanie?

I believe I heard this. Just because that's, you know what, how they just planned it and that's what, you know, he said after the fact.
He said things weren't according to plan, you know. The confession of Josh Treadway gave the most details about the murder of Stephanie Crow.
The confession tells us that two people went into the room and one stayed out. two people cooperated to commit this murder.
And then Aaron came out, told Michael, you know, okay, everything's okay. Everything's taken care of.
Joshua has always been the pivotal defendant in this case. He's a kid.
He really doesn't understand a lot that's going on. No one believed more in Josh's innocence than his public defender, Mary Ellen Attridge.

Joshua is not Mr. Sociopathic.
That kid is an open buck.

She was relentless in her belief that the police set the boys up.

There is absolutely no physical evidence in this case that shows any of these three kids had anything to do with this at all.

The main thing the prosecution has are the two confessions. They're not confessions.
They're false. They're lies.

And they were manufactured out of whole and coercive cloth by the police department. Mary Ellen Attridge's plan was to dispute the boys' so-called confessions.
But she was also planning to revisit the questions about Richard Tewitt and paint him as the likely killer. One thing she had always wondered about was the clothing police took from Tewit the morning Stephanie's body was discovered, clothing the police said contained no incriminating evidence.
She wanted to have a closer look. I was given the impression that all of the clothes were sent to their DNA lab.
She discovered that only Tewit's white t-shirt had been tested for DNA evidence. When we went to see the evidence, I looked at Richard Tewitt's clothing, and I thought, this stuff is a cesspool of biological material.
And then she saw something on the red sweatshirt. I didn't know what it was.
I suspected there had to be some sort of DNA on there somewhere. Richard Tewitt, a known paranoid schizophrenic...
Attridge demanded that prosecutors send all of Tewitt's clothing for DNA testing. Five months later, on the first day of Josh's trial, there was still no word from the lab.
And then... The phone call came in and I hung up and I just started to cry.
The DNA lab had found three spots of Stephanie Crow's blood on Richard Tuitt's red sweatshirt. We got a phone call from Mary Ellen.

Woohoo!

How long does it work?

It's over.

I'm like, after all this time, it's almost one year.

I don't know what the district attorney's going to say at this point, you know, how

they're going to react to all of this.

I like the way that looks, don't you?

I thought, this is it.

Bombshell.

This is the slam dunk.

Lock him away.

Richard Tewitt killed Stephanie Crow absolutely positively, no doubt about it.

Thank you. I thought, this is it.
Bombshell. This is the slam dunk.
Lock him away, Richard Toit killed Stephanie Crowe. Absolutely, positively, no doubt about it.
Summer? The prosecution was stunned. How come no one spotted this blood before? The shirt is heavily stained.
It's a transient shirt. It has stains everywhere.
These are small stains of blood. Forgive me for saying this, but this is a prosecutor's nightmare, isn't it? It is a nightmare.
You really need to figure out how that blood got onto its shirt before you can go anywhere, right? That's excellent. That's exactly, I think that is the primary thing that we have to do.
It's about time that these kids got their names back, their lives back, and the Crow family was allowed to grieve for their daughter because they were deprived that opportunity by an unjust system. The judge put a freeze on the trial.
Six weeks later... We're in the hallway.
Charges against the three boys, who had been incarcerated for six months, were dropped. With the provision, they could be filed again.
They could not go in front of a jury with a straight face and ask that they find these kids guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a true mystery right now, and I want to look at it that way, and I don't want to make up my mind.
I don't want to say, they did it, he did it. I want to find out what the truth is.
The DA was reluctant to charge Tuitt, who was in jail for a burglary. Three years in state prison.
There were just too many unanswered questions, mostly about the confessions and how the Escondido police handled the evidence. Something's vastly wrong somewhere.
When the police arrest somebody, you think they must have the goods on them. I had a lot of trust and faith in police and it's getting very difficult to retain that.
A year went by, still no arrest. Summer Steffen and the Escondido authorities were off the case when the state attorney general's office took it over.
Every once in a while in a detective's career you get a case that stays with you all your life and for me it would be this case. Vic Caloca, a senior investigator with the San Diego Sheriff's Department, was in charge of the new investigation.
Either the boys did or Mr. Tua did it.
It wasn't a whodunit, it's which one done it. Caloca started fresh, quickly focusing in on the interrogation tapes.
I only know I did it now because she said... I did try to be objective, but something that we were told never to ever do in interviews was being done in front of me, and it was very upsetting, very shocking.
Please talk to my mom before we continue any conversation. I just need to hear words from her, please.
He noted that the boys had no lawyers with them and were isolated from their parents for extended periods of time. They were interrogated for hours on end.
You've got unsophisticated boys, 14, 15 years of age, no criminal sophistication, that have faith in the system. He keeps telling me all this stuff, and I don't know if it's true or not.
It was clear to Coloca that police lied to their suspects, which is legal. The question he had was, did they promise leniency, which is illegal? I think we have ways of helping this situation.
What? I'm not really sure that locking you up is cancer. The amount of stress they were under, I mean, this was brainwashing as far as I was concerned.
Tell us the story. It was a lie.
I'll have to make it up. Tell us the story.
Kaloka was becoming convinced the boys were innocent because their stories did not fit the facts of the crime. It's going to win your ass.
It's a complete lie. Apparently, the police believed that Stephanie Crow had been moved from her bed.

Is she heavy?

They had been pressuring Michael, asking him,

why did you move her?

Can you feel the weight of her body in your arms?

I don't remember anything.

But then Michael admitted to the police

that he had moved her body.

Because there was also a drop, too.

That, to me, was critical, because Michael admitted

to something that we could prove factually never happened.

Did Michael Crow actually confess to the crime in this interrogation?

No, Michael never confessed. He just gave the police what he thought they wanted to hear.

I think the Escondido Police Department acted within the scope of their responsibilities, absolutely.

Though he wasn't there for the most grueling part of the interrogations, Chris McDonough sees things differently. Do you think those detectives crossed the line in those moments? What's your definition of crossing the line? Doing what you're not supposed to in an interrogation.
I think not being there, so I don't know what they were thinking, so I'm not going to, you know, guess. I don't think it was an intentional thing on their part, but something happened that they went too far,

and I think they did cross the line.

I did.

I must be so constantly blocking it out

or something like that.

Knowing what you know now,

do you think the boys killed Stephanie Crowe?

I think there's reasonable doubt on Richard Tewitt

Thank you. Knowing what you know now, do you think the boys killed Stephanie Crowe? I think there's reasonable doubt on Richard Tewitt and the three boys.
I think the pendulum can swing either way. The only thing that works is the truth.
Caloca spent two and a half years investigating the case, and he interrogated Richard Tewitt. I ask you again, think about it.
I'm making myself clear to the house, but I walked out. Tewitt admitted he went into the Crow House, but denied killing Stephanie.
But in the end, for Detective Kaloka, it was the DNA blood evidence that was irrefutable. In any other case, it would have been more than enough to get a conviction just that alone during the evening kaloka went to his boss the sheriff who made the dramatic announcement on live tv this morning sheriff's homicide detectives arrested richard raymond to it for the murder of stephanie crow four and a half years after police first questioned richard to it he was finally arrested for the murder of stephan.
Four and a half years after police first questioned Richard Tewitt, he was finally arrested for the murder of Stephanie Crow. I was happy that they'd finally taken the next step in the process and that we might finally actually get some justice here.
He enters a plea of not guilty and denies all allegations. But just when Tewitt's trial was about to begin, there was another bizarre twist.
A massive search is underway downtown right now for 34-year-old Richard Tewitt. He escaped during the lunch hour just as jury selection began in his murder trial.
A massive search is underway for 34-year-old Richard Tewitt. He was last seen wearing a white shirt, gray pants, and he's now clean-shaven.
He escaped during the lunch hour just as jury selection began in his murder trial. And next thing they know, the lunch and Richard Tewitt were gone and the handcuffs were still there.
He walked out a door and probably into the hallway of the courthouse and out. Our number one priority right now is finding Richard Tewitt.
Just three hours after slipping away from the San Diego courthouse, Richard Tewitt was finally captured. Accused murderer Richard Tewitt is caught a few hours after escaping from the county courthouse this afternoon.
For prosecutors, his escape on the first day of trial is just more proof that he killed 12-year-old Stephanie Crow. This guy's got to be brought to justice.
We've got to fix things that were broken. Prosecutors are in an unusual position.

They must also play defense attorneys, because to convict Tewitt of murder, they must exonerate

the boys.

Pointing towards this idea of innocence are these ten main points.

There's no way that these kids could have done it at the time.

Are there two reasonable interpretations? Brad Patton is one of Richard Tewitt's defense attorneys. The evidence that is being proffered against Richard Tewitt is not reliable and does not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Is this going to be more about defending Richard Tewitt or proving that the boys did it. This is a trial within a trial in the classic sense.

We're back on the record in the Tewitt case.

Let the record reflect the presence of the ladies and gentlemen,

jury, the attorneys, and Mr. Tewitt.

It's hard to believe the man in the mugshot

is the same man the jury would see.

A subdued, clean-shaven, handsome man

who has the support of his family.

Did Richard murder Stephanie Crowe? Absolutely not. No, never,

never would he have done anything like that. This picture was taken on his first birthday.

Richard to its mother, Linda, and sister Carrie say he is harmless, a sad case of a young man

once full of promise. He was just very outgoing and just fit right in wherever you took him.
He was a people person, animal person. He always liked to wear a Santa hat and help with the gifts.
In his 20s, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The family says they took Richard to the hospital at least 30 times.
They'd help him short term and that was it. They released them.
And so Tewitt wandered the streets of Escondido. He used to tell me, I know it's not your fault, Mom.
I'm like this. And he felt bad and he felt like he was a burden.
Please raise your right hand as best you can. He was no stranger to police.
His criminal record includes arrests for drug use, attempted burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon. That it was an organized crime.
And yet, says his other attorney, William Fletcher. There is not any trace evidence that connects Mr.
Tuitt with the Crow residence. Richard Tewitt did not go into that house, and Richard Tewitt did not kill Stephanie Crow.
There may have been no evidence left by Tewitt in the Crow home, but there was evidence on Tewitt. In fact, after Stephanie's blood was found on his red sweatshirt, a crime lab eventually found her blood on Tewitt's white t-shirt, too.
How significant to your case are those blood stains on those two shirts? Part of the case. Right at the center of the case.
Because, according to prosecutors, there's only one way blood could have gotten on his clothes. He killed Stephanie.
The most likely means of delivery was from blood, which was wet at the time that it was applied. But the defense was about to present its theory.
Showing you the red shirt. That Stephanie's blood was transferred to its clothes by's clothes by the police.
There was blood on your knee, wasn't there? It wasn't. Well, I couldn't tell if it was red or not.
But yes, there was moisture on my knee and I assume that it probably came from blood. Who got blood on themselves at the crime scene.
I tried to avoid stepping into the blood. Based on photographs that you've seen, saw what she called was transfer? Yes.
The defense claims that Stephanie's blood got onto its white t-shirt after investigators tracked it into a holding cell where Tewitt was being questioned. When Tewitt sat on the floor of the cell, blood tracked in on the shoes of the policeman and got smeared onto its shirt, which was soaking wet from the rain.

Showing you a sleeve with areas where they found blood.

But what about the red sweatshirt?

In the past, I have placed my camera tripod in a bloodstain.

In this particular case, I don't believe that I did.

I would have tried everything possible to not do so. But that's exactly what the defense claimed happened, that a police investigator photographing the crime scene using a tripod like this set it down in Stephanie's blood.
Later, back at the lab, the police used that same contaminated tripod to photograph Tewitt's red shirt. According to this theory, some of Stephanie's blood, now dried, somehow flaked off the tripod and onto the shirt.
And when that shirt was later tested using wet chemicals, the dried blood turned into a blood stain. Do you think the jury will buy that? Honestly, no.
I don't. I really don't.
And then the defense presents its strongest argument to exonerate Richard Tewitt, the boys' own words. All I know is I'm positive I killed him.
Most of the confession tapes had been ruled coerced and inadmissible back when the boys were facing trial. But now those tapes can be used as evidence to defend Richard Tewitt.
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. facing trial.
But now, those tapes can be used as evidence to defend Richard

Tewitt. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
I do. Michael Crow, Stephanie's older brother, would now take the stand to defend himself.
Maybe I need to be a little specific here or maybe Maybe if I change the question, do you know who killed Stephanie? It is the first time Michael, now 20, has seen what he told police when he was 14. Michael, why this is going on? What's going through your mind?

Just...

Don't like remembering that.

I just wish they wouldn't have done that to me. You were quite emotional on the stand.
What was it that sort of pushed you past the brink? I think a lot of that came just from me wanting to know, you know, what the hell were those cops doing? Why were they doing that to me? And just every time they'd ask a question, I'd just be thinking to myself, why didn't one of them step in and say, you know, maybe this is wrong? What were you supposed to do? Disposed to the audience. Then it's Joshua Treadway's turn to testify.
You were talking to the detectives about the fact that you were in the kitchen, and Michael had come out alone, not with Aaron, but alone, with the knife. Do you recall that? It's all subjective to whatever they wanted to hear.
I didn't want to say any of it. But you clearly did, right? You did say all that? Yes.
Mr. Hauser, did you used to call up Michael Crow on the phone and ask if he had killed his sister yet?

Not that I remember.

Aaron Hauser is the last of the boys to take the stand.

So as you sit here today, you have no recollection of having called Michael Crow and made that statement?

Correct.

Even though it's Richard Tewitt on trial for murder, in the two weeks of the boys' testimony, the defendant's name is hardly mentioned. No further questions? Any further? Nothing further, thank you.
Finally, after listening to three months of testimony, the jury must decide. Is Richard Tewitt the killer? That's Stephanie's blood on this shirt.
No question about it. Or as the defense claims, are these boys

getting away with murder?

Who had the motive to kill in this case?

Was it Richard Tuitt in this theory

that the prosecution is woven together?

Or is it Michael Crow? This is Stephanie. I think about Stephanie every day, no fail.
Just imagine everything that you love in your life, everything that you get your strength and your stability from, and just imagine that being torn away from you. After six years of living under suspicion for the murder of his little sister, the moment of truth is about to come for Michael Crow.
Just kind of feels like you've been running a marathon, and it might be over, but you never know. A jury is finally deliberating the fate of the man who is on trial now for her murder.
There are only two possibilities on the planet Earth for the cause of Stephanie Crowe's death. One would be the three boys, the other is Richard Tewitt.
In the end, would the jury believe a mentally ill transient could kill a young girl in her own home without making a sound or leaving a trace? Would they know is I'm positive I killed him.

Would they believe a brother and his friends could confess to a murder they didn't commit?

Some people just don't want to believe that, you know, 14 or 15-year-old kids are capable of killing.

And what about the blood?

Could police mistakes have contaminated key evidence?

It's the only case I've ever known of where DNA wasn't enough.

It would take eight long days of deliberating. But finally...
Any thoughts today? Not right now, thank you. All right.
Mr. Crowe, what are your thoughts? I don't know right now.
Madam Clerk, please read the verdicts. A verdict is reached.
We, the jury, in the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Richard Raymond Tewitt, guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter.

The jury has found Richard Tewitt guilty

of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter,

concluding that he killed Stephanie Crow,

but without malice or premeditation.

What'd you say about Ms. Crow?

What's the first thought that went through your mind

when the verdict was read?

Disbelief.

Absolute disbelief.

Thank you. What did you say about Ms.
Crowe? What's the first thought that went through your mind when the verdict was read? Disbelief. Absolute disbelief.
I'm just thankful for the prosecutors that they did such a wonderful job. They took a lot of time to do what was almost impossible, and they did it, found justice for Stephanie.
Finally, the community has seen this case, understands this case, realized that Mr. Tuitt is the guilty person, and the boys had no boys had no involvement at all and they're finally, the cloud is finally lifted from them.
Michael Crow chose not to be there for the news. Three months after the conviction, the judge is ready to sentence Tuitt.
At issue, whether his mental illness will affect his punishment. The state just does not have the proper facilities to take care of those people who are mentally ill and who present a danger to the community.
Should we feel sorry for Richard Tuitt? Yes. He's a victim.
I think he's a victim. He is a victim.
However, the judge rules that Tewitt's extensive criminal record cannot be ignored, and he sentences him to the maximum term. For these reasons and others, probation is denied.
The defendant shall be committed to the Department of Corrections for the total term of 13 years. For the Tewitt family, it's a bitter disappointment.
For the Crows, it's the end of a recurrent nightmare. For Detective Vic Coloca, the cop who turned this case around, it's justice, plain and simple.
Coloca is the hero of this case, is the best way of saying it. He's just what a cop should be.
I know that I can hold my head high, that I did the best I could for this little girl. Stephanie is the reason.
Stephanie is the motivation behind this. So I feel good about that.
We'll always be grieving. Unless they can find a way to bring her back, she's going to be a part of our lives from now on in.
I'm moving on with a different life. Whatever life I had then is completely gone at this point.
Michael Crow is now married. He hopes to finish college and is desperate to leave behind the whispers of Escondido.
Justice for me would be admissions and apologies from the people who just tortured me and broke my life because they could. I think Stephanie got what justice this world has to give her.

We can only hope that if there is something in the next world that justice will be given

to her then.

This world doesn't have any justice for either of us.

In 2012, Richard Tuitt's conviction was overturned,

and he was acquitted in a 2013 retrial.

Stephanie Crowe's murder remains unsolved. Now streaming on Paramount+.
Name's Conrad Harrigan, family man. And if you cross my family, well, you'd better pray.
From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. We shake the right hands, break the wrong ones.
Comes the next great crime series. And when someone forgets their place, I've got a man for that.

Pull himself.

Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren.

We've got everyone where we want them.

Mobland, new series now streaming on Paramount+.