Coerced Confessions

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Speaker 1 Merry Christmas everybody!

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 3 She was caring and loving. She sacrificed herself.

Speaker 3 She helped others all the time.

Speaker 4 Stephanie knocked on my bedroom door and said she was going to bed. She said she loved me.
I said, I love you too.

Speaker 4 That's it.

Speaker 4 Went down the hallway to see why she wasn't up yet, and I pushed the door the rest of the way open. I stepped into the room, and her body was there on the floor.

Speaker 7 Cheryl's mom was yelling that Stephanie was laying on the floor and she was covered with mud.

Speaker 2 It wasn't mud, it was blood.

Speaker 6 And I picked her head up.

Speaker 6 Line on one. Stop it!

Speaker 6 That's the problem. Can you lay on the floor? Stop breathing! How old is she?

Speaker 6 She's 12!

Speaker 4 His painful cries were just almost unbearable to listen to.

Speaker 2 She was murdered. She was stabbed to death.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 2 I picked the phone up, said they made an arrest in the case.

Speaker 6 And I said, who?

Speaker 2 And I just said, what?

Speaker 2 That was the biggest shock I ever got in my life was that phone call.

Speaker 13 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.

Speaker 15 It gets you to not do stuff like watch TV all the time. I mean, it gets you out there.

Speaker 7 I wonder what Stephanie would look like.

Speaker 6 How old would Stephanie be?

Speaker 4 19.

Speaker 7 19. She would be in college as well, already graduated high school.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 18 We're back on the record in the Tuitt case of the...

Speaker 6 Today, this man, Richard Tuitt, a drifter, a felon, and a diagnosed schizophrenic, is going on trial for her murder.

Speaker 20 The people will show beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant murdered Stephanie Crowe.

Speaker 21 They just try to get justice for her. And if we could do that, that'll be a little bit off our shoulders, but it's been a long road, very long.

Speaker 5 So is there any doubt in your mind who killed your daughter?

Speaker 22 No.

Speaker 24 After her funeral, we went back to the cemetery to make sure everything was done right and everything.

Speaker 24 And who do we see walking a couple blocks away from the cemetery towards the cemetery, but Richard Toitt?

Speaker 6 The Crows have never had a doubt that Richard Toitt did it.

Speaker 6 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?

Speaker 4 Every day.

Speaker 2 I wish that we would have heard something. Not give anything to be able to go back.
That doesn't happen.

Speaker 6 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 Toitt.

Speaker 3 I can't stand looking at him. The whole reason all this happened is all because of him and and his choices and the choices of his family and everyone who's just enabled him to just get by.

Speaker 6 Michael Crowe may be convinced that Richard Tuitt killed his sister, but the authorities haven't always been so certain.

Speaker 6 In fact, even today, after all these years, there are still those who believe others did it. Others who, remarkably, confessed to the crime.

Speaker 6 Yet Tuitt is the one on trial now because there is also dramatic evidence against him.

Speaker 6 There is one thing no one disputes. Richard Tuitt was here in the hills of Escondido on that terrible night in 1998.
The night Stephanie Crow was murdered.

Speaker 24 911 emergency.

Speaker 25 We just had like a transient type walking on a red shirt on.

Speaker 6 The night of the murder, police received numerous reports about a stranger in the Crow neighborhood.

Speaker 26 I don't know what he is doing.

Speaker 6 He was they say he appeared disoriented,

Speaker 6 knocking on doors, looking for a girl named Tracy.

Speaker 14 He had those Charlie Manson eyes. You know, he looked really crazy.
I said, he gave me the creeps.

Speaker 6 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 Toitt that night.

Speaker 6 You go to the door and he says, What?

Speaker 27 He says, I'm looking for the girl.

Speaker 27 And I said, Well, there's no girl here. You have no business here.
You just need to get out of here.

Speaker 6 When did you first meet Richard Toitt? How old were you?

Speaker 28 I was 15 years old.

Speaker 6 At the time, Richard Tuitt was obsessed with this girl, Tracy Nelson, who resembled Stephanie.

Speaker 28 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.

Speaker 28 After doing the drugs, he would start, he started to get a little paranoid.

Speaker 13 That's what he did.

Speaker 28 He would start thinking people were following him.

Speaker 6 Would you point out the various sort of landmarks in this area here?

Speaker 18 That's Reverend Wes's house, and our house is over here to the right. You can see houses are spotted in all through here, all these trees.

Speaker 11 He was in a bunch of them over here.

Speaker 30 It wasn't like just some guy knocking on the doors. I mean, every place where this guy went, they actually called 911.

Speaker 6 But if Tuitt 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.

Speaker 6 The morning after the murder, Tuitt was picked up and his clothes were confiscated.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 11 He's been interviewed. He's not in custody at this point.
There's nothing to indicate that he went to the Crow residence that night.

Speaker 31 The evidence we're going to present to show you that Mr. Tuitt, this gentleman, has a weapon of choice and his weapon of choice is a knife.

Speaker 6 But today, authorities have done a 180. Prosecutors Dave Drewliner and Jim Dutton are confident he is the right man.

Speaker 20 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.

Speaker 6 And yet, he leaves not a single fingerprint.

Speaker 6 No hair, no fibers, no footprints.

Speaker 20 Luck plays a big part in a lot of murder investigations.

Speaker 32 The record reflects the presence of the jurors, the attorneys, and Mr. Tuitt.

Speaker 6 What's it like being in the same room with Richard Tuitt?

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 6 With the trial of Richard Tuitt finally underway, it is Michael Crowe who is perhaps the most anxious about the outcome.

Speaker 6 Back in 1998, authorities were convinced that this 14-year-old planned and carried out the brutal crime.

Speaker 25 All I know is

Speaker 25 I'm positive I killed him, but

Speaker 25 all I know is I killed him.

Speaker 6 Back then, Michael Crowe, Stephanie's big brother,

Speaker 34 confessed to police.

Speaker 25 I'm not sure how I did. I don't know if it's.

Speaker 6 Back then, in this courtroom, it was Michael Crowe and his two friends who were preparing to go on trial for Stephanie's murder.

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Speaker 11 Everybody that came in contact with her loved her.

Speaker 5 She was just a very, very special young lady. Terrible tragedy.

Speaker 6 Stephanie Crowe's funeral was on a Tuesday. Her parents and friends were all there.

Speaker 15 In our hearts,

Speaker 12 you will remain.

Speaker 16 She was like an angel. I can't believe that somebody would want to kill her.

Speaker 6 But someone was missing. Her big brother, Michael.

Speaker 37 And Michael, you have the right to remain silent.

Speaker 6 Not only have the Crows lost a daughter.

Speaker 37 Anything you do say, Cannon, will be used against you in court.

Speaker 6 They were now being told

Speaker 6 their son was her killer.

Speaker 11 I just asked him, did you do this?

Speaker 24 Did you have anything to do with this?

Speaker 2 Michael was crying and just said he didn't...

Speaker 6 he didn't know.

Speaker 2 That's all he said was he didn't know.

Speaker 6 When we first talked to Cheryl and Stephen Crowe back then, they said Michael was a bit shy,

Speaker 6 but otherwise a typical 14-year-old.

Speaker 3 I tend to be quiet, have just a few friends.

Speaker 6 I like to read.

Speaker 3 Play around video games, computers.

Speaker 6 But authorities saw Michael differently.

Speaker 6 A bright kid with a dark side.

Speaker 6 The morning Stephanie's body was discovered, they say, Michael seemed distant, quiet, even preoccupied.

Speaker 8 The behavior of the brother seemed to be in contrast to the behavior of the rest of the family.

Speaker 6 Former prosecutor Summer Stephan.

Speaker 8 He was playing with some handheld game while the rest of the family was grieving.

Speaker 6 But it was Michael's alibi that really made investigators suspicious.

Speaker 3 I woke up at 4.30 in the morning, morning, the headache. I went and had some Tylenol, got some milk, drank it.

Speaker 8 And then he walked back from the kitchen, walked back into his room.

Speaker 6 But according to the police, even in the dark, Michael should have seen something.

Speaker 6 His room is directly across from Stephanie's.

Speaker 8 The evidence shows her door was open because her body blocked the doorway.

Speaker 6 You say you didn't see anything that night.

Speaker 3 No, I didn't.

Speaker 39 Just because a person does something bad.

Speaker 40 God.

Speaker 6 Police began interrogating Michael. At first, he denied killing his sister.
Why are you doing this to me?

Speaker 12 I didn't do this to her.

Speaker 26 I couldn't.

Speaker 12 I. I.

Speaker 22 God.

Speaker 26 God.

Speaker 6 But scare it, Mike.

Speaker 6 So it's either Shannon.

Speaker 37 Or it's your grandma.

Speaker 6 But after two days of questioning.

Speaker 25 Or it's your dad,

Speaker 25 or at you,

Speaker 6 Michael finally told the police

Speaker 6 what they had suspected all along.

Speaker 25 All I know is

Speaker 25 I'm positive I killed her. And she was like a threat to me.
Everything I did, she could match. It wasn't right.

Speaker 25 Every time I was going to be in the spotlight, she grabbed it right away for me. The few times I was going to win something,

Speaker 25 she had to go ahead and win something even bigger.

Speaker 25 She made me feel worthless.

Speaker 6 Sibling rivalry was Michael Crowe's motive for murdering his sister, according to police. They say Michael deeply resented Stephanie because she was more popular and got better grades.

Speaker 6 And they say he didn't act alone. Instead, he recruited two of his friends, both of them also in the ninth grade.

Speaker 42 I'm trying to feed him a little cricket.

Speaker 11 Seeing if he's going to actually eat it out of my hand.

Speaker 43 Oh, and he actually is.

Speaker 6 This was Josh Treadway back then, a shy, artsy kid. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
What kind of guy are you?

Speaker 43 I don't know.

Speaker 7 A normal guy, I would hope would be a good description.

Speaker 6 And this was Aaron Hauser. More bookish, analytical.

Speaker 7 Up to this point, the worst trouble I've ever gotten in is being late to class.

Speaker 6 Aaron also had an impressive collection of knives.

Speaker 43 The knives were given to me as a present from my grandpa.

Speaker 43 I'm not particularly fond of knives.

Speaker 6 Michael, Josh, and Aaron loved fantasy.

Speaker 6 Especially video games.

Speaker 25 I made up my own fantasy world.

Speaker 44 What is your favorite game?

Speaker 33 A Final Fantasy?

Speaker 39 Final Fantasy VII.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Michael's little sister.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 6 When authorities went to see Josh, the suspicions grew. What'd they find?

Speaker 38 They found two knives under my bed.

Speaker 6 Under this bed.

Speaker 6 Police thought one of those knives looked like the one used to kill Stephanie.

Speaker 6 So they brought Josh in for questioning.

Speaker 25 We gave you the knife. I don't give you the knife.

Speaker 45 What were you told?

Speaker 25 Told to get rid of it, to hide it. Don't let anyone find out about it.

Speaker 6 Police questioned Josh for 12 hours.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 25 And I was going to sort of make sure he's going to kind of look out, you know,

Speaker 25 make sure everything's okay.

Speaker 12 And

Speaker 25 dispose of the knife, but it was done.

Speaker 6 Josh told police Michael had the motive, but Aaron

Speaker 6 was the mastermind.

Speaker 25 What were they going to do? They were going to kill Stephanie.

Speaker 33 Okay.

Speaker 25 Michael was supposed to go in there and sort of take care of keeping Stephanie quiet, holding her mouth and whatnot.

Speaker 25 And Aaron was supposed to go in and take care of the business.

Speaker 6 Police brought 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.

Speaker 25 If Michael were to stab her, what area would he utilize? What targets? I'd say probably the

Speaker 12 just to be there.

Speaker 25 He has to make sure that she can't make any noise.

Speaker 42 Why would you hypothesize about a situation like that, especially to a seasoned homicide investigator?

Speaker 42 Why would you do that?

Speaker 42 This is the hearing where Josh...

Speaker 6 Chris McDonough was one of the detectives who interviewed Josh and Aaron.

Speaker 42 Aaron is a very methodical young man. He knows what he says and why he says it, and he's very, very specific.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 25 That's what they told him.

Speaker 38 And

Speaker 22 that

Speaker 25 is another thing that really, really, really scared me about Aaron. That's why I I don't ever want to be alone in a room with Aaron.

Speaker 6 When Josh told you he was afraid of Aaron, did you believe him? Yes.

Speaker 42 Definitely.

Speaker 6 Once they had their confessions, detectives believed they had made their case.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 You didn't conspire with your friends to kill your sister. No.
You didn't take part in it in any way.

Speaker 3 In any way.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 3 Just eventually they wear you down to where you don't even trust yourself. You can't trust your memory anymore.

Speaker 6 Why in the world an innocent person would ever confess to a crime as serious as murder?

Speaker 38 I had a lot of pressure on me at the time, and again, you'd have to just be there.

Speaker 6 Did you stab Stephanie Crow?

Speaker 43 No.

Speaker 25 Come all the way back to that. Check it out.

Speaker 6 And Michael's family believed them.

Speaker 2 Number one, it's kind of ridiculous. Why did they have to gain two?

Speaker 11 I mean, whether they board or something?

Speaker 2 Let's go kill someone.

Speaker 24 It doesn't make sense.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 13 Tonight, new evidence is pointing toward another suspect in the murder.

Speaker 6 Until

Speaker 6 a stunning piece of evidence came to light out of nowhere.

Speaker 13 The most shocking news of all is that police may have had this evidence all along.

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Speaker 25 So, who do you think think stabbed Stephanie?

Speaker 25 I believe Aaron did.

Speaker 25 Just because that's, you know, what, how they planned it, and that's what, you know, he said after the fact. He said things weren't according to plan, you know.

Speaker 6 The confession of Josh Treadway gave the most details about the murder of Stephanie Crowe.

Speaker 8 The confession tells us that two people went into the room and one stayed out, and two people cooperated to commit this murder.

Speaker 25 And then Aaron came up, told Michael, you know, okay, everything's okay.

Speaker 25 Everything's taken care of.

Speaker 15 Joshua has always been the pivotal defendant in this case. Oh, he's a kid.
He really doesn't understand a lot that's going on.

Speaker 6 No one believed more in Josh's innocence than his public defender, Mary Ellen Attridge.

Speaker 15 Joshua is not Mr. Sociopathic.
That kid is an open buck.

Speaker 6 She was relentless in her belief that the police set the boys up.

Speaker 15 There is absolutely no physical evidence in this case that shows any of these three kids had anything to do with this at all.

Speaker 6 The main thing the prosecution has are the two confessions.

Speaker 15 They're not confessions. They're false.
They're lies. And they were manufactured out of whole and coercive cloth by the police department.

Speaker 6 Mary Ellen Attrich's plan was to dispute the boy's so-called confessions, but she was also planning to revisit the questions about Richard Tuitt and paint him as the likely killer.

Speaker 6 One thing she had always wondered about was the clothing police took from Toitt the morning Stephanie's body was discovered. Clothing the police said contained no incriminating evidence.

Speaker 6 She wanted to have a closer look.

Speaker 15 I was given the impression that all of the clothes were sent to their DNA lab.

Speaker 6 She discovered that only Tuitt's white t-shirt had been tested for DNA evidence.

Speaker 15 When we went to see the evidence, I looked at Richard Tuitt's clothing and I thought this stuff is a cesspool of biological material.

Speaker 6 And then she saw something on the red sweatshirt.

Speaker 15 I didn't know what it was. I suspected there had to be some sort of DNA on there somewhere.
Richard Tuitt, a known paranoid schizophrenic, went to...

Speaker 6 Atridge demanded that prosecutors send all of Tuitt's clothing for DNA testing.

Speaker 6 Five months later, on the first day of Josh's trial, there was still no word from the lab.

Speaker 15 And then... The phone call came in and I hung up and I just started to cry.

Speaker 6 The DNA lab had found three spots of Stephanie Crowe's blood on Richard Tuitt's red sweatshirt.

Speaker 2 We got a phone call from Mary Ellen. Woo!

Speaker 19 How hard is it work? It's over. Hey, Mike.

Speaker 30 After all this time, it's almost one year.

Speaker 38 I don't know what the district attorney's going to say at this point.

Speaker 18 You know, how they're going to react to all this.

Speaker 15 I like the way that looks, don't you? I thought this is it. Bombshell.
This is the slam dunk. Lock them away.
Richard Toitt killed Stephanie Crowe. Absolutely, positively.
No doubt about it. Summer?

Speaker 6 The prosecution was stunned.

Speaker 6 How come no one spotted this blood before?

Speaker 8 The shirt is heavily stained. It's a transient shirt.
It has stains everywhere. These are small small stains of blood.

Speaker 6 Forgive me for saying this, but this is a prosecutor's nightmare, isn't it?

Speaker 8 It is a nightmare.

Speaker 6 You really need to figure out how that blood got onto its shirt before you can go anywhere, right?

Speaker 8 That's excellent. That's exactly, I think that is the primary thing that we have to do.

Speaker 15 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 of that opportunity by an unjust system.

Speaker 6 The judge put a freeze on the trial. Six weeks later, decision tracked clean the hallway.

Speaker 6 Charges against the three boys who had been incarcerated for six months were dropped with the provision they could be filed again.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 47 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

Speaker 8 they did it, he did it.

Speaker 47 I want to find out what the truth is.

Speaker 6 The DA was reluctant to charge Tuitt, who was in jail for a burglary.

Speaker 11 Three years in state prison.

Speaker 6 There were just too many unanswered questions.

Speaker 6 Mostly about the confessions.

Speaker 48 Something's vastly wrong somewhere. When the police arrest somebody, you think they must have the goods on them.

Speaker 49 I had a lot of trust and faith in police, and it's getting very difficult to retain that.

Speaker 6 A year went by, still no arrest. Summer Stefan and the Escondido authorities were off the case when the state attorney general's office took it over.

Speaker 50 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.

Speaker 6 Vic Coloca, a senior investigator with the San Diego Sheriff's Department, was in charge of the new investigation.

Speaker 50 Either the boys did or Mr. Tuitt did it.
It wasn't who done it. It's, you know, which one done it.

Speaker 6 Coloca started fresh, quickly focusing in on the interrogation tapes.

Speaker 25 I only know I did it now because she said.

Speaker 50 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, very upsetting, very shocking.

Speaker 25 Don't please talk to my mom before we continue any conversation. I just need to hear words from her, please.

Speaker 6 He noted that the boys had no lawyers with them and were isolated from their parents for extended periods of time.

Speaker 6 Well, I'll show you. They were interrogated for hours on end.

Speaker 25 You're going to tell the truth.

Speaker 50 You've got unsophisticated boys, 14, 15 years of age, no criminal sophistication, that have faith in the system.

Speaker 26 He keeps telling me all this stuff.

Speaker 12 And I don't know if it's true or not.

Speaker 6 It was clear to Koloka that police lied to their suspects, which is legal. The question he had was, did they promise leniency, which is illegal?

Speaker 25 I think we have ways of helping this situation.

Speaker 12 And you know what?

Speaker 6 I'm not really sure that locking you up can't.

Speaker 50 The amount of stress they were under. I mean, this was brainwashing as far as I was concerned.

Speaker 25 Tell us the story.

Speaker 12 But it will, I'll, I'll lie.

Speaker 25 I'll have to make it. Tell us the story.

Speaker 6 Kaloka was becoming convinced the boys were innocent because their stories did not fit the facts of the crime.

Speaker 50 Apparently, the police believed that Stephanie Crowe had been moved from her bed. Is she heavy? They had been pressuring Michael, asking him, why did you move her?

Speaker 37 Can you feel the weight of her body in your arms?

Speaker 26 I don't remember anything.

Speaker 50 But then Michael admitted to the police that he had moved her body.

Speaker 50 That to me was critical because Michael admitted to something that we could prove factually never happened.

Speaker 6 Did Michael Crowe actually confess to the crime in this interrogation?

Speaker 50 No, Michael never confessed. He just gave the police what he thought they wanted to hear.

Speaker 42 I think the Escondido Police Department acted within the scope of their responsibilities, absolutely.

Speaker 6 Though he wasn't there there for the most grueling part of the interrogations, Chris McDonough sees things differently. Do you think those detectives crossed the line?

Speaker 42 In those days, what's your definition of crossing the line?

Speaker 6 Doing what you're not supposed to in an interrogation.

Speaker 42 I think not being there, so I don't know what they were thinking, so I'm not gonna

Speaker 27 guess.

Speaker 50 I don't think this was an intentional thing on their part, but something happened that they went too far.

Speaker 50 And

Speaker 50 I think they did cross the line.

Speaker 33 If I did,

Speaker 25 then

Speaker 33 I must be so constantly blocking it out or something like that.

Speaker 6 Knowing what you know now, do you think the boys killed Stephanie Crowe?

Speaker 42 I think there's reasonable doubt on Richard Tuitt

Speaker 42 and the three boys. I think the pendulum can swing either way.
The only thing that works is the truth.

Speaker 6 Koloka spent two and a half years investigating the case, and he interrogated Richard Tuitt.

Speaker 44 I ask you again, think about it.

Speaker 24 Can I make myself clear the house if I walk?

Speaker 12 I walked out.

Speaker 6 Tuitt admitted he went into the Crow house, but denied killing Stephanie.

Speaker 25 What do I tell CA? I didn't see the murder.

Speaker 6 But in the end, for Detective Coloca, it was the DNA blood evidence that was irrefutable.

Speaker 50 And any other case would have been more than enough to get a conviction, just that alone.

Speaker 6 During the evening, Coloca went to his boss, the sheriff, who made the dramatic announcement on live TV.

Speaker 19 This morning, sheriff's homicide detectives arrested Richard Raymond Toitt for the murder of Stephanie Crowe.

Speaker 6 Four and a half years after police first questioned Richard Toitt, he was finally arrested for the murder of Stephanie Crowe.

Speaker 3 I was happy that they had finally taken the next step in the process and that we might finally actually get some justice here.

Speaker 29 He enters a plea of not guilty and denies all allegations.

Speaker 6 But just when Toitt's trial was about to begin, there was another bizarre twist.

Speaker 16 A massive search is underway downtown right now for 34-year-old Richard Tuitt. He escaped during the lunch hour just as jury selection began in his murder trial.

Speaker 16 A massive search is underway for 34-year-old Richard Tuitt.

Speaker 16 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.

Speaker 52 And the next thing they know, the lunch and Richard Tuitt were gone and the handcuffs were still there.

Speaker 22 He walked out a door and probably into the hallway of the courthouse and out.

Speaker 11 Our number one priority right now is finding Richard Tuitt.

Speaker 6 Just three hours after slipping away from the San Diego courthouse, Richard Tuitt was finally captured.

Speaker 5 Accused murderer Richard Tuitt is caught a few hours after escaping from the county courthouse this afternoon.

Speaker 6 For prosecutors, his escape on the first day of trial is just more proof that he killed 12-year-old Stephanie Crow.

Speaker 50 This guy's got to be brought to justice. We've got to fix things that were broken.

Speaker 6 Prosecutors are in an unusual position. They must also play defense attorneys because to convict Tuitt of murder, they must exonerate the boys.

Speaker 20 Pointing towards this idea of innocence are these 10 main points.

Speaker 11 There's no way that these kids could have done it at the time.

Speaker 49 Are there two reasonable interpretations?

Speaker 6 Brad Patton is one of Richard Tuitt's defense attorneys.

Speaker 29 The evidence that is being proffered against Richard Tuitt is not reliable and does not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaker 6 Is this going to be more about defending Richard Tuitt or proving that the boys did it?

Speaker 29 This is a trial within a trial in the classic sense.

Speaker 32 We're back on the record in the Tuitt case. At the record, reflect the presence of the ladies and gentlemen, the jury, the attorneys, and Mr.
Tuitt.

Speaker 6 It's hard to believe the man in the mug shot 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 Crow?

Speaker 53 Absolutely not.

Speaker 54 No.

Speaker 17 Never.

Speaker 17 Never would he have done anything like that.

Speaker 53 This picture was taken on his first birthday.

Speaker 6 Richard Tuitt's mother Linda and sister Carrie say he is harmless. A sad case of a young man once full of promise.

Speaker 17 He was just very outgoing and just fit right in wherever you took him.

Speaker 5 He was a people person, animal person.

Speaker 17 He always liked to wear a Santa hat and help with the gifts.

Speaker 6 In his 20s, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Speaker 6 The family says they took Richard to the hospital at least 30 times.

Speaker 9 They help him short-term, and that was it. They released them.

Speaker 6 And so, Tuitt wandered the streets of Escondido.

Speaker 53 He used to tell me, I know it's not your fault, Mom. I'm like this.

Speaker 9 And he felt bad, and he felt like he was a burden.

Speaker 16 Please raise your right hand as best you can.

Speaker 6 He was no stranger to police.

Speaker 6 His criminal record includes arrests for drug use, attempted burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.

Speaker 44 That it was an organized crime.

Speaker 6 And yet, says his other attorney, William Fletcher, there is not any trace evidence that connects Mr.

Speaker 44 Toitt with the Crow residence.

Speaker 44 Richard Tuitt did not go into that house, and Richard Tuitt did not kill Stephanie Crow.

Speaker 6 There may have been no evidence left by Toitt in the Crow home.

Speaker 6 But there was evidence on Toett. In fact, after Stephanie's blood was found on his red sweatshirt, a crime lab eventually found her blood on Tuitt's white t-shirt, too.

Speaker 6 How significant to your case are those bloodstains on those two shirts?

Speaker 31 Heart of the case.

Speaker 31 Right, right at the center of the case.

Speaker 6 Because, according to prosecutors, there's only one way blood could have gotten on his clothes.

Speaker 6 He killed Stephanie.

Speaker 20 The most likely means of delivery was from blood, which was wet at the time that it was applied.

Speaker 6 But the defense was about to present its theory.

Speaker 10 Showing you the red shirt.

Speaker 6 That Stephanie's blood was transferred to its clothes by the police.

Speaker 22 There was blood on your knee, wasn't there?

Speaker 6 It wasn't.

Speaker 11 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.

Speaker 6 Who got blood on themselves at the crime scene?

Speaker 11 I tried to avoid stepping into the blood.

Speaker 44 Based on photographs that you've seen, saw what she called was transfer?

Speaker 6 Yes.

Speaker 6 The defense claims that Stephanie's blood got on Tuett's white t-shirt after investigators tracked it into a holding cell where Tuett was being questioned.

Speaker 6 When Tuitt sat on the floor of the cell, blood tracked in on the shoes of the policeman got smeared on Tuitt's shirt, which was soaking wet from the rain.

Speaker 44 Showing you a sleeve with

Speaker 44 areas where they found blood.

Speaker 6 But what about the red sweatshirt?

Speaker 40 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.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Later, back at the lab, the police used that same contaminated tripod to photograph Toitt's red shirt.

Speaker 6 According to this theory, some of Stephanie's blood, now dried, somehow flaked off the tripod and onto the shirt.

Speaker 6 And when that shirt was later tested using wet chemicals, the dried blood turned into a blood stain.

Speaker 6 Do you think the jury will buy that?

Speaker 31 Honestly, no, I don't. I really don't.

Speaker 6 And then the defense presents its strongest argument to exonerate Richard Tuitt. The boy's own words.

Speaker 25 All I know is

Speaker 25 I'm positive I killed him.

Speaker 6 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 Toitt.

Speaker 36 The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Speaker 20 I do.

Speaker 6 Michael Crowe, Stephanie's older brother, would now take the stand to defend himself.

Speaker 25 Maybe I need to be a little more specific here. Or maybe if I change the question, do you know who killed Stephanie?

Speaker 6 It is the first time Michael, now 20,

Speaker 6 has seen what he told police when he was 14.

Speaker 20 Why is this going on? What's going through your mind?

Speaker 20 Just

Speaker 20 Don't like

Speaker 51 remembering that.

Speaker 51 I just wish they wouldn't have done that to me.

Speaker 6 You were quite emotional on the stand. What was it that sort of pushed you past the brink?

Speaker 3 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

Speaker 3 be thinking to myself, why didn't one of them step in and say, you know, maybe this is wrong?

Speaker 25 What were you supposed to do?

Speaker 25 Dispose of the idiots.

Speaker 6 Then it's Joshua Treadway's turn to testify.

Speaker 41 You were talking to the detectives about the fact that you were in the kitchen and Michael had come out alone.

Speaker 37 Not with Aaron, but alone, with the knife.

Speaker 41 You recall that?

Speaker 31 It's all subjective to whatever they wanted to hear.

Speaker 6 I didn't want to say any of it.

Speaker 41 But you clearly did, right? You did say all of that.

Speaker 24 Yes.

Speaker 22 Mr.

Speaker 41 Hauser, did you used to call up Michael Crowe on the phone and asked if he had killed his sister yet?

Speaker 43 Not that I remember.

Speaker 6 Aaron Hauser is the last of the boys to take the stand.

Speaker 41 So as you sit here today, you have no recollection of having called Michael Crowe and made that statement?

Speaker 33 Correct.

Speaker 6 Even though it's Richard Tuitt on trial for murder, in the two weeks of the boys' testimony, the defendant's name is hardly mentioned.

Speaker 20 No further questions.

Speaker 43 Any further? Nothing further thank you.

Speaker 6 Finally, after listening to three months of testimony,

Speaker 6 the jury must decide.

Speaker 6 Is Richard Tuitt the killer?

Speaker 31 That's Stephanie's blood on this shirt. No question about it.

Speaker 6 Or as the defense claims,

Speaker 6 are these boys getting away with murder?

Speaker 5 Who had the motive to kill in this case?

Speaker 44 Was it Richard Tuitt

Speaker 32 in this theory that the prosecution is woven together?

Speaker 48 Or is it Michael Crowe?

Speaker 6 This is Stephanie.

Speaker 3 I think about Stephanie every day.

Speaker 30 No fail.

Speaker 3 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.

Speaker 6 After six years of living under suspicion for the murder of his little sister, the moment of truth is about to come for Michael Crowe.

Speaker 3 Just kind of feels like you've been running a marathon and it might be over, but you never know.

Speaker 6 A jury is finally deliberating the fate of the man who is on trial now for her murder.

Speaker 31 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 Tuitt.

Speaker 6 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?

Speaker 25 All I know is I'm positive I killed her.

Speaker 6 Would they believe a brother and his friends could confess to a murder they didn't commit?

Speaker 42 Some people just don't want to believe that, you know, 14 or 15 year old kids are capable of killing.

Speaker 6 And what about the blood? Could police mistakes have contaminated key evidence?

Speaker 50 It's the only case I've ever known of where TNA wasn't enough.

Speaker 6 It would take eight long days of deliberating.

Speaker 2 But finally.

Speaker 14 Any thoughts today?

Speaker 33 Not right now.

Speaker 33 All right.

Speaker 22 Mr. Crowe, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 48 I don't know right now.

Speaker 23 Madam Clerk, please read the verdicts.

Speaker 6 A verdict is reached.

Speaker 15 We, the jury, in the above entitled Cause, find the defendant, Richard Raymond Tuitt, guilty of the crime of voluntary manslaughter.

Speaker 6 The jury has found Richard Toitt guilty of the lesser charge charge of voluntary manslaughter, concluding that he killed Stephanie Crowe, but without malice or premeditation.

Speaker 22 What'd you say about Ms. Crowe?

Speaker 6 What's the first thought that went through your mind when the verdict was read?

Speaker 9 Disbelief.

Speaker 9 Absolute disbelief.

Speaker 21 I'm just thanking for the prosecutor that they did such a wonderful job. They took a lot of time to do what was almost impossible, and they did it, got justice for Stephanie.

Speaker 20 Finally, the community has seen this case, understands this case, realized that Mr. Tuitt is the guilty person, and the boys had no involvement at all.

Speaker 20 And they're finally, the cloud is finally lifted from them.

Speaker 6 Michael Crowe chose not to be there for the news.

Speaker 6 Three months after the conviction,

Speaker 6 the judge is ready to sentence Tuitt. At issue, whether his mental illness will affect his punishment.

Speaker 23 This 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.

Speaker 18 Should we feel sorry for Richard Tuitt?

Speaker 13 Yes.

Speaker 4 He's a victim. I think he's a victim.
He is a victim.

Speaker 6 However, the judge rules that Tuitt's extensive criminal record cannot be ignored, and he sentences him to the maximum term.

Speaker 32 For these reasons and others, probation is denied.

Speaker 23 The defendant shall be committed to the Department of Corrections for the total term of 13 years.

Speaker 6 For the Tuwitt family, it's a bitter disappointment. For the Crows, it's the end of a recurrent nightmare.

Speaker 6 For Detective Vic Kaloka, the cop who turned this case around, it's justice, plain and simple.

Speaker 3 Kaloka is the hero of this case. It's the best way of saying it.
He's just what a cop should be.

Speaker 50 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.

Speaker 50 So I feel good about that.

Speaker 55 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.

Speaker 3 I'm moving on with a different life. Whatever life I had then is completely gone at this point.

Speaker 6 Michael Crow is now married. He hopes to finish college and is desperate to leave behind the whispers of Escondido.

Speaker 3 Justice for me would be admissions and apologies from the people who

Speaker 3 just tortured me and broke my life because they could.

Speaker 3 I think Stephanie got

Speaker 3 what justice this world has to give her.

Speaker 3 We can only hope that if there is something in the next world, that

Speaker 3 justice will be given to her then.

Speaker 3 This world doesn't have any justice for either of us.

Speaker 34 In 2012, Richard Tuitt's conviction was overturned and he was acquitted in a 2013 retrial. Stephanie Crowe's murder remains unsolved.