Wade Williamson: Still Arrested: How a Detective Tried to Make Me a Killer | DSH #1601

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Speaker 2 When I watched my daughter graduate, this is right after it happened, watching her walk across the stage. And immediately, I'm thinking, am I going to be around to watch my son walk across the stage?

Speaker 2 And it was every birthday, is this the last one? Wow. Every Christmas, is this the last one? Thanksgiving, etc.

Speaker 2 So it's like you don't even really get to enjoy the moment because you're so worried, is that going to be the last moment?

Speaker 2 And it weighs on you, man. It really, really weighs.

Speaker 5 Okay, guys, Wade Chip Williamson here today. One of the craziest stories and journeys I've seen in someone's life.
So thanks for coming on, man.

Speaker 2 Well, that says a lot coming from you because you talked to a lot of people. Yeah.

Speaker 5 Well, your life was on the line, right? You were facing a lot of time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, life in prison, essentially.

Speaker 2 You know, and to see your name on a piece of paper where it's saying state of, you know, wherever you reside versus, you know, yourself and life in prison is in the balance, dude, let me tell you, there is nothing that can put things in perspective quicker than seeing your name name on that piece of paper and i'm not a criminal it's not like i've you know beat a million other cases or i've been in and out of jail like this was the only really time i'd ever been arrested and it was just it was a big one so your first arrest you were facing life yes that's pretty crazy right yeah and it was for basically a self-defense case right yeah self-defense shooting and the the details behind it are really kind of what convolutes the case is uh you know me and my wife were together and we had decided that we were going to split up and once we had decided we were going to split up she went her way i went mine we were both doing our own thing and then a few months later we were talking around christmas time trying to figure out what we were going to do with the kids because we had kids and it was obvious there was still a little something there you know something we could maybe hold on to but we still weren't sure if we wanted to jump right back into it but we did did make the decision that we were going to reconcile

Speaker 2 and what the actual plan was was we was going to go through a divorce be done with it date for a little while kind of of restart you know restart from the beginning work our way forward if it worked great you know if it didn't then you know we could go our own ways and ultimately when she told the guy that

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Speaker 2 She was seeing, he got a little upset.

Speaker 2 The girl that I was seeing didn't really care, but the guy she was seeing got a little upset and he wanted to talk to me, but he he was clear in his message of like, hey, that's not, I'm not coming over there to, you know, go at you.

Speaker 2 He was like, I just want to talk man to man.

Speaker 2 And we did that. And then what had ended up happening was while we were in the middle of talking, you know, everything was going fine.
We were actually talking the subject of tattoos.

Speaker 2 And I pulled my shirt down to show him this tattoo right here. And you can kind of see it right here.
I got an open heart surgery scar.

Speaker 2 And so when he's seen that, he grabbed the bottom of my shirt and like lifted it up. It was like, wow, that's gnarly.
And was like looking at the scar.

Speaker 2 And he's like, you know, under different circumstances, you and I could have probably been pretty good friends. And I'm like, you know, maybe so.
You know, who, who knows?

Speaker 2 So he goes to the bathroom, he comes out, and then I'm standing like with my my back to the stove, and he comes straight up to me and boom, left hand up under my throat.

Speaker 2 I went, it was so hard, like I went up off my feet onto the stove. I managed to get back down and he looked me dead in my eyes and he said, I'm going to kill you.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 And I told him, I was like, dude, if you don't get off me, I'm going to shoot you because I had my gun on me.

Speaker 2 I'd had it on me from earlier that day. When we went back to my house, we were actually together.

Speaker 2 And so the way my house is, it's a two-story house, but all the bedrooms are upstairs. So I've had all people always ask me, why'd you have a gun in your kitchen? That's strange.

Speaker 2 I had a gun in my kitchen because it was on me when I come in the house. I take it off when I go upstairs, but I never went upstairs because me and him stayed in the downstairs area.

Speaker 2 So when I shot, it was three shots.

Speaker 2 And then I immediately called 911.

Speaker 2 And they came. And it was a wild scenario, man, because they could still hear him breathing in the background.
And they got there. And in my mind, I'm not thinking I've done anything wrong.

Speaker 2 You know, he said he was going to kill me. You know, when he had me like that, he swung.
When he swung, I tried to lift my head up just a little bit. So he kind of clipped my chin.

Speaker 2 And when he clipped it, he let go with that left hand. And that's when I fired.
And so in my mind, I'm thinking he threatened to kill me. He assaulted me.
He hit me in my home.

Speaker 2 I've got a weapon, a legally weapon I was licensed to carry. I had an CWP.
So I'm not thinking I'm doing anything wrong.

Speaker 2 And, you know, ultimately that led me being charged with, you know, they were looking to give me life in prison, 25 to life.

Speaker 5 And which state was this?

Speaker 2 South Carolina. Wow.
Which is odd.

Speaker 5 Yeah, that sounds surprising for South Carolina.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we're very lenient with gun rights and gun laws. And we have the castle law there, self-defense, which all these things fell into.

Speaker 2 But what I think it was, Sean, is there was a newly promoted detective on the case.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I'm not disparaging women in any means by saying this, but it was a woman. And I was her first murder case.
And I think there's women that can be good police.

Speaker 2 This was just not one of them. She had what's widely referred to as tunnel vision.
She tried to spin a narrative that I was trying to, you know, maybe get rid of him because he was with my wife.

Speaker 2 And I'm like, look, lady, you're six months behind. Like, we have been split up for a while.
If this was something I wanted to do, like what you're saying, there was plenty of time to do this.

Speaker 2 Why would I get her back and then do it? And she just, I think she was just trying to make something where there was nothing.

Speaker 2 And unfortunately, when she charged me, you know, I was locked up. I had no prior record.
So the great thing about it was I was able to get out.

Speaker 2 Even with a murder charge, that's not easy.

Speaker 2 How much was the bill? It was $150,000. Damn.
That was the lowest for everything. So it was $100,000 for the murder, and it was $50,000 for the weapons charge.

Speaker 2 So that was the lowest they could go across the board. And once I got out, you know, you're able to fight stuff a lot better when you get out.

Speaker 2 And I got a really good criminal attorney in the area. His name's Andy Savage.
And let me tell you, that last name fits.

Speaker 2 Like he, watching him work was unlike anything I'd ever seen. You know, the day they came,

Speaker 2 they did not arrest me that day. My lawyer, the current lawyer that I have, who was at the time my divorced lawyer, called, this happened early Sunday morning.

Speaker 2 He called me Tuesday after we had given him a statement. We gave him a statement on Monday.
He calls me Tuesday. He's like, I got some bad news.
They're charging you with murder.

Speaker 2 They want you to be there tomorrow. Turn yourself in at 12 o'clock.
So I started calling around everybody I knew. Who do I need to call? What lawyer? And everybody said, Andy.

Speaker 2 And so I called and they're like, can you be here at one? I was like, I'm supposed to be in jail by one. And they said, well, you can't be here at seven.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I'll come now and sleep in the parking lot. I'll be there at seven o'clock.
And ma'am, as I'm telling him, you know, everything that's going on, kind of like I'm telling you.

Speaker 2 He's got teams like we were discussing earlier. He's got teams pulling stuff, pulling records, you know, everything.
Just boom, boom, boom. It was like something out of a movie.

Speaker 2 So you can see why some of those top-notch defense attorneys make the money they do because they're worth it and it's just stuff that a public defender can't give you that's one of the issues with the legal system yeah you you pay for the what you can afford exactly and that's why most cases you know you hear these lawyers say they got a 98 conviction rate or something most times they just force people into plea deals right because even if you have money they can run you dry money 100 you know i mean it you can run you dry money and then if someone doesn't have the money to fight it if you're looking at 15 years right and they can say well we can give you a deal for seven seven or eight, that's a lot appealing.

Speaker 2 That's a lot more appealing than possibly doing the 15. So

Speaker 2 they'll take the time because it's a win for the, you know, the lawyer, it's a win for the state. I mean, they don't care.
They get to go home there every night and go to bed.

Speaker 2 They don't care that, you know, you're guilty, not guilty, or whatever, because you're going to be in prison for a while.

Speaker 5 Who did your ex-wife side with?

Speaker 2 She sided with me because we were, like I said, we were getting back together and she knew, I guess, I didn't know this because I didn't know this gentleman. And it's actually still current wife.

Speaker 2 We never went through with a divorce because we were in the process of doing it. And when that happened, obviously I wasn't putting no more money into that.
It was all going into this.

Speaker 2 So we're actually still together, as a matter of fact. So just to throw that out there.
But

Speaker 2 yeah, she knew that his tendencies could get a little out there. And so she was trying to tell them, like, look, you know, I don't know what happened in that case.

Speaker 2 She wasn't, we were the only two people there. But she said, I don't know what happened in there.
But she said, I do know. My husband wouldn't hurt nobody unless he absolutely had to.

Speaker 2 So she had my back 100%. As a matter of fact,

Speaker 2 when it came time to talk about money and how much this case was going to cost, there was like his $50,000 to take the case and then another $15,000 for retainers and this, that, and the other.

Speaker 2 And, you know, she pulled out two credit cards and charged up 30 grand. Wow.
No questions.

Speaker 5 That's a real one right there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 And that's, you know, to me, people might say, well, you wouldn't be in a situation with her. Look, I...
was the one that wanted to break up. I had some things going on.

Speaker 2 I had lost a friend, you know, who had unalived himself. I was going through a lot.
I thought that was the answer, and I was wrong. So I don't blame her for moving on.

Speaker 2 Like, we were both seeing, nobody cheated. You know, we were both openly seeing other people.

Speaker 2 We just decided to reconcile. So I don't blame her for any of this at all.
You know, how many times in the spotlight, you see, you know, J-Lo and Ben Affleck. They were together a long time ago.

Speaker 2 She left A-Rod, went back to him. I mean, it happens.
People break up. They get back together.
It happens all the time. Yeah.

Speaker 5 I love that, man. So how long were you actually in prison for?

Speaker 2 So I was only in jail for two days. So I had to go, I was supposed to go Wednesday.
When I went and met with the lawyer, the stroke that he had with a phone call, he got it pushed back to Sunday.

Speaker 2 So now it's been a week since the incident. So I go in on Sunday.
I caught a huge break because on a murder case like that, you can't get seen by the, you know, a magistrate.

Speaker 2 You got to get seen by the circuit court.

Speaker 2 So the circuit court. rotates county to county.
They just happened to be in my county that week.

Speaker 2 And so he was like, he said, typically, I don't even like trying to get bond for my clients right off the bat. He's like, but in this case, I believe we got a strong argument.
So we had bond Monday.

Speaker 2 They approved it. And I got out on Tuesday.
Wow. I really only had to do slightly over two days.
Not bad. Yeah.
I mean, all things considered, not bad. And then I get out.
And I go to go back to work.

Speaker 2 And wouldn't you know it, work fires me. 14 years with the company, not guilty of anything, only charged, and they fire me as soon as I get out.

Speaker 2 And so that's why I had a gentleman outside I was speaking with, you know, he was like, how did you deal with it mentally, knowing that you had to make that decision and it resulted in a life being taken?

Speaker 2 And I was like, I didn't have time to deal with that one thing

Speaker 2 because you had that happen. You know, then I find out the next, I go to give a statement the next day.
Then I find out I'm being arrested. Now I find out I'm being arrested.
I'm looking for a lawyer.

Speaker 2 Now I'm worried about Bond. I get Bond.
I get out. As soon as I get out, now I ain't got a job.
Now I got to find a job. While I'm finding a job, we got to figure out how

Speaker 2 to get a lot of money. I never really had a chance to go back and deal with that one incident.

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Even after the, you spent five years fighting this case.

Speaker 5 Did you want to go back after them after that?

Speaker 2 So, what do you mean like the state?

Speaker 5 Like the company that fired you for wrongful termination?

Speaker 2 Well, I'm in South Carolina. It's a right-to-work state, so it's very difficult.

Speaker 2 You know, I talked to a few lawyers, and, you know, it's a company called New Corps Steel.

Speaker 2 They got deep pockets, and, you know, most of them told me this, and it would be a hard case to fight and try to win to because the right-to-work, they can really fire you because you're wearing a black shirt if they want, and there's not really much you can do about it.

Speaker 2 Wow, yeah. And I called and talked to other people, and I was like, Look, you know, this case got dropped.
He's like, Well, you can reapply. And I'm like, What about, you know, seniority?

Speaker 2 I was there 15 years. He's like, Yeah, I'll let start over.
And I was like, You know what?

Speaker 5 I'm going to podcasting.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.
I still do work in that field. I work for a company that actually builds submarines now for the Navy.
But the interesting part is like, I didn't even listen to podcasts.

Speaker 2 You know, I may be a rogue in every now and then.

Speaker 2 And then once this happened, I got sucked into the rabbit hole of, you know, wrongful conviction podcast because I'm now in a situation where I know I didn't do anything wrong, but I'm staring in prison, prison time.

Speaker 2 So I'm looking and I'm like, do innocent people really go to prison? Yes, they do a lot, a lot more than people think.

Speaker 2 You know, I started looking at like the Central Park 5 and, you know, the Bronx 6 and all these cases. And that really kind of sucked me into the podcasting world.

Speaker 2 And then I started listening to to like other mob podcasts and, you know, wrestling podcasts and different things. And then when COVID hit, you know, keep in mind on this time, I'm on house arrest.

Speaker 2 I can't go anywhere but to work, church,

Speaker 2 lawyers, and doctor's visits. And that's it.
So I'm very bored. And around that time, the whole world was on house arrest because nobody could leave.
So I had this idea to start a podcast.

Speaker 2 And originally, I wasn't going to interview anybody. I was just going to talk about different things.

Speaker 2 And then it kind of of got rolling. I got some legs up under it and I started doing in-person interviews.

Speaker 2 And when I started doing that, that's when I really noticed like how many people really are, you know, or have been wrongfully convicted. And then I talked with everybody.

Speaker 2 You know, you and I have interviewed a lot of the same people, like John Sarasani, Matt Cox, who's a great friend of mine.

Speaker 2 Matt was one of the best, one of the first people that I ever told my story on once it got cleared. Because when these people met me, they had no idea I was going through this.

Speaker 2 You know, I never talked about it because it was still pending.

Speaker 2 And, you you know, they were even giving me access to go to New York and stay for like weeks at a time. And so that's what this is the weirdest case I'd ever seen.
I got the lowest bond possible.

Speaker 2 You know, I was on house arrest, but I didn't have a monitor on. I never got an ankle monitor.

Speaker 2 And, you know, for a while, like I was just, you know, I didn't even know how to, how that happens because everybody else I've talked to has a monitor on. And then they're letting me go to New York.

Speaker 2 you know, for two or three days at a time. And, you know, I didn't even really have to check in with nobody.
It was a very strange case.

Speaker 2 And I don't know if the lawyer I had had something to do with that, because sometimes I know if you've got public defenders, you got to check in and stuff.

Speaker 2 But it's just opened my eyes to how really crazy and flawed the judicial system is.

Speaker 5 I mean, I've lost a lot of faith in that.

Speaker 5 I firmly believe you pay for the justice you can afford.

Speaker 2 100%. That's without a doubt.
I just interviewed a guy. Well, I'd interviewed him in 2022.
His name was Andre Brown. He got locked up for an attempted double unaliving back in like early 2000s.

Speaker 2 The key thing was his leg had been shot, so he's unable to run. The key witness said she's seen him running away from the crime.
They gave him 40 years.

Speaker 2 His lawyer, Oscar Michelin, was able to get him out due to ineffective counsel because the lawyer never even used the fact that he could not run. They let him out at the end of 2022.

Speaker 2 He's been out three years. He worked for a judge.
He worked for nonprofits, for judicial-impacted youth. I mean, just like a model citizen, productive productive member of society.

Speaker 2 End of the year last year, they said they were going to recall him back to prison and do the rest of his 17 years. Jeez.
We have been fighting that thing.

Speaker 2 I actually went to New York like two weeks ago because they originally wanted to turn himself in on the 27th.

Speaker 2 Luckily this past Monday, we got the word that Kathy Holkler, the governor, put it down that he got re-sentenced to time serves that are saying his 27 years.

Speaker 2 is served that he don't have to go back to prison. He's still not exonerated.
He's going to work on that, but at least you don't have to go back to prison.

Speaker 2 But that's how crazy this system is, is they were going to put him back in prison after being out for three years and being a good person. Like, you know, not being in trouble or nothing like that.

Speaker 5 I wonder if that was random or if him speaking out just pissed him off.

Speaker 2 Well, he didn't really speak out. Like, largely, he was quiet.
He didn't start speaking out until after they said he had to go back to prison.

Speaker 5 And then they probably got a ton of negative PR from that.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, yeah. Like, I actually, the studio that I was in, he was interviewing with another podcaster because there was multiple rooms, but it was a former New York City councilman.

Speaker 2 And when he heard that, was my guessing, he's like, man, I'm waiting. He's like, I want to talk to him.
He's like, we're going to cut a little, you know, clip or a short.

Speaker 2 I'm going to put some pressure on there. And he was telling the governor and the, you know, the DA, like, look, y'all got to do the right thing here.
You know, this man is innocent.

Speaker 2 Y'all already took 20, you know, 23 years.

Speaker 5 New York's the highest conviction rate out of any state, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 And most of the time, when you talk to people that's got wrongful convictions, it's from New York. Like a guy named Eric Glisson, who was a member of the Bronx 6.

Speaker 2 He done 17 years, I think, wrongfully convicted. Jeez.
Jeffrey Deskovic done another 17 years. He got out and became a lawyer.

Speaker 2 Once he became a lawyer, Andre, the gentleman I was just talking about, that was the guy that he's the first person that he helped get out to be part of his legal team.

Speaker 2 Yeah, Jeffrey's an awesome dude, man. He went to jail when he was 17 years old.
You know, basically got hosed by the cops into false confession. And, you know, luckily, DNA evidence, you know,

Speaker 2 proved him to be innocent, and he was exonerated. And he got a lot of money.
They said he almost bankrupted the county. He got so much money.
But, I mean, that's good. They deserve that.

Speaker 2 17 years, man. 17 years at 17 years old.
Those are his prime years.

Speaker 2 The prime of your life. And now all that's over.
And when you get out, you still have that stigma. I still have it.

Speaker 2 Even though I didn't necessarily do time in prison, but I still have that stigma as the guy that shot somebody, the guy that was charged for this.

Speaker 2 And no matter what, because you get a good lawyer and you beat the case, people are going to think that's the only reason you beat it when really you were innocent to begin with.

Speaker 7 Yeah.

Speaker 5 And that's the stigma you have to do. They'll always follow you, right? There was probably a ton of negative PR about you, too.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah. And, you know, not one person reached out when I was dropped.
Really? None of them.

Speaker 2 Man, I had, it was wild because when I got out of prison, or when I got out of jail, county jail, when I pulled in, there was like two news vans right outside my house.

Speaker 2 There was news vans at the jail and there was news vans at my house. And, you know, they would stay in there throughout the week, just camped out at the end of the road.
And then it finally died off.

Speaker 2 But everybody run stories on it, you know, all the local news.

Speaker 2 And then once it got dropped, now, granted, it was five years later, but once it finally got dropped and dismissed, nobody reached out to me at all.

Speaker 5 To be fair, they probably don't get as many views.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Oh, no, those kind of stories don't.

Speaker 2 They like the bad ones. And that was, you know, when this thing wound up, you know, I told you I was doing the podcast, doing work.

Speaker 2 And, you know, mind you, I had to go from like a job where I was making like $100,000 a year plus, depending on overtime, you know, it fluctuated down to about 40,000 a year yeah because it's you know the that pending murder charge really kind of dampens your ability to get a job

Speaker 2 and you know I had that happen quite a few times where my record got run and they seen that and they didn't you know they didn't offer me the gig so I had to take way less money which is even harder to try to fight this thing because every time you do something and every time something's got to be done in a case costs money yeah you know they money for this money for that money for forensics people we had a forensics investigator fly down, and he set up like the lasers that you see on CSI, and it proved that where I told them I was standing was right where I was.

Speaker 2 And it was a key point because when two of the bullets entered him, they exited. One stayed in.

Speaker 2 When they exited, one hit a bottle of water, which is right or a whole 24-pack of water, which is right next to my refrigerator. The other one hit the refrigerator door.
and ricocheted and hit a wall.

Speaker 2 I never covered none of that up. I never covered the hole up on the wall.
The dent in the refrigerator stayed there.

Speaker 2 I had a feeling somewhere down the line, all that was going to be really important to this case.

Speaker 2 And when this thing wrapped up, when it finally ended, my lawyer told me the solicitor had changed two or three times. It had been five years.

Speaker 2 COVID played a part in that because it slowed everything down.

Speaker 2 But he said, you know,

Speaker 2 I got a plan to get this done. He's like, but it's a risk.
He said, your case is so strong. He said, we can share, tell them everything we got.
And he he said, I think they'll dismiss it.

Speaker 2 He said, but if they decide they want to fight it or if they, you know, decide they want to go anyway and just test their luck or try their hand, they know everything we got.

Speaker 2 And I was like, you know what? I'm a gambling man. Let's do it.
Wow. And we did it.
So we brought the head solicitor and his number two and another investigator person from the police.

Speaker 2 I don't really know who they were. And they actually came to my house.
And we stood in my kitchen and we laid everything out.

Speaker 2 And I told him, I said, they keep trying to say that we were farther apart. That was their whole narrative is that he was way over here and I was way over here.

Speaker 2 I said, look, I said, these bullets had a chance to travel and V apart.

Speaker 2 I said, if he was further back, I said, not only when he fell down, he would have been laying up against the refrigerator because he was a pretty tall cat, about 6'2 ⁇ .

Speaker 2 I was like, he would have been laying up there, not in the floor.

Speaker 2 I said, because he was closer to me when they come through, they had the chance to V out, which is why you got one over here in the 24-pack of water and the one on the right side of the refrigerator.

Speaker 2 Had he been further back, they'd have been side by side. Right.
And, you know, their evidence was like, well, he said there was a struggle and we didn't see any signs of a struggle.

Speaker 2 We pulled up the officers arriving body cam footage. You can see there was knocked over glasses on the ground.

Speaker 2 There was knocked over glasses on the counter where when he, you know, first hit me, I knocked onto the counter. But they said there wasn't any signs of that.
So we laid all that out for them.

Speaker 2 And it took about three months. And then that was in

Speaker 2 2022 that was in August and we didn't hear anything back from him for a while and then finally it was October the 30th

Speaker 2 my lawyer called me which was not unusual he would call me but you know so I didn't think like oh this is it And he calls me like, how you doing? I actually had the flu that weekend.

Speaker 2 I said, man, I'm not doing good. I said, I'm getting sick.
And he said, oh, I got some news going to make you better. He said,

Speaker 2 case is dismissed. Everything's dropped.
You're a free man. They're working on your expungement right now.
He's like, it's over.

Speaker 7 Wow. I can breathe.

Speaker 2 That's crazy. And, brother, when he said that, I dropped to my knees.
And I'm not going to tell you a lie. I cried.
And I called my wife. I called my mom.
I called my dad.

Speaker 2 I called everybody that was down for me because, like you said earlier, you find out who's there for you when you're in shit like that. Yeah.
And

Speaker 2 there was a lot of people that surprised me with how they were. But the ones that stuck by me, I called all them and let them know.
And

Speaker 2 it was a relief like you can't imagine. Because I try to tell people, I'm like, put it like this.
You go to a doctor and you say, okay, you know, you're getting tested for terminal cancer.

Speaker 2 Because this is pretty much terminal. It's 25 to life.
That don't even mean you're getting out.

Speaker 2 And, you know, you go into the doctor, you get tested, and they said, all right, we'll call you. And you don't hear anything for five years.
Imagine what that would do mentally.

Speaker 2 You know, you're just going to be waiting, looking. And that's kind of of how I was.
I'm like, you know, I didn't know whether they were going to do anything with it or press it.

Speaker 2 And, and I'll be honest with you, the more time that goes by, I was worried they were going to do something to plant evidence or try to, you know, fabricate something that didn't happen.

Speaker 2 I mean, it was, it was a word. I mean, I'm bald now because of it.
I had hair when this happened. Damn.

Speaker 5 That stress is a hair killer, you know?

Speaker 2 It is. It really is.
I mean, I probably didn't have a lot back then, but I definitely had more than I do now.

Speaker 2 But, I mean, and, you know, and that affects every other thing or your life, you know, your, how do you get along along with people? How do you get along with your loved ones? How do you treat people?

Speaker 2 And, you know, I couldn't even enjoy a moment. And I feel so bad saying this because I know some people are in prison.
They can't enjoy anything.

Speaker 2 So, you know, I do have to appreciate the fact that I was able to be there for it. But, you know, when I watched my daughter graduate, this was right after it happened.

Speaker 2 I'm watching her walk across the stage. And immediately I'm thinking, am I going to be around to watch my son walk across the stage? And it was every birthday, is this the last one? Wow.

Speaker 2 every christmas is this the last one thanksgiving etc so it's like you don't even really get to enjoy the moment because you're so worried is that going to be the last moment yeah and it it weighs on you man it really really weighs on you i just had on a guest last week he was serving a life sentence and he got out but he was saying there's different types of prisons yes there's actual physical prison that we're talking about but there's these mental prisons that could be almost as bad for some people Oh, 100%.

Speaker 2 I believe that. And, you know, that's, I've never really heard that term before, but that's spot on because because you're in a mental prison.

Speaker 2 You know, people is like, everybody will tell you, you know, don't worry about it. You're good.
You know, there's, they don't have any.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you can say that, but you're not the one with this hanging over your head.

Speaker 2 And it's rough, man. And then, like I said, that affects your job.
So you can't really get good employment. You know, luckily.

Speaker 2 The job I went to to start with, I just wanted something to be able to bring income coming in. It was a very low-paying job.
Luckily, I wound up catching on with another guy who was from Texas.

Speaker 2 And see, the first job I had, I didn't tell him about anything. That dude hired me on the spot.
No background or nothing.

Speaker 2 Well, wouldn't you know it, about three months into that job, they got a call to do a sign at my old job where this happened. No way.
And he's like, you want to go for the install?

Speaker 2 I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm good right here.

Speaker 2 Sure enough, guy goes out there, gets to talking. He's like, yeah, we got one of your old employees with us.
Who's that? Wade. Oh, Wade, how's everything going with his case? Case?

Speaker 2 Yeah, you know, he had a murder case pending or something like that. So they found out.

Speaker 2 The dude never, the owner never said anything to me.

Speaker 2 But I knew they knew because whenever anything would come up where they would send you to like a base, a military base, you had to have a clean record, they would never send me to those.

Speaker 2 So I know they knew, but even that was like anxiety ridden because I didn't know what day I was going to come in. He's like, man, you should have told me.
We're going to let you go. And so I...

Speaker 2 I went to work every day with anxiety. I was worried about the case with anxiety when I was off.
It was a constant state of paranoia.

Speaker 2 So when I finally did leave, they cut back manpower when COVID happened. And so I caught on with this guy who was starting a business.
He was from Texas. We talked.
We had a good little conversation.

Speaker 2 And I just told him, I said, look, man, I got to be, you know, straight with you on something off the rip. I said, this is what I got going on.
I broke it down for him.

Speaker 2 And I said, so I might have to leave from time to time to go see a lawyer. I was like, you know, there might be a time when I'm gone, period.
You know, I don't know how this is going to play out.

Speaker 2 And he's like, man, he said, it took a lot of balls to tell me that. And he said, I'm from Texas.
He said, you didn't do nothing I didn't do. He said, you ain't got no problem with me.

Speaker 2 You ain't got to worry about nothing. He said, I'm goofy.
I'm cool with it.

Speaker 2 And, you know, I don't work there anymore, but I'm always going to be indebted to that guy for giving me the opportunity to grow. And I grew in that company.
I grew into leadership and management.

Speaker 2 And, you know, he gave me a shot, and he'll forever be in my good graces.

Speaker 5 Shout out to him, man. That's dope.
How's your anxiety these days? Is it gone?

Speaker 2 It's definitely settled down.

Speaker 2 You know, now it's more, it's turned into focus because like altogether, you know, that that whole incident cost me around about $120,000, you know, between the, and that's just on financial point, just with between the lawyer and the bond.

Speaker 2 That's not even counting the money that I lost that I, you know, from the jobs. I went from making, you know, 40,000 or went from making 110 to 40.
You know, that's, that's not even counting that.

Speaker 2 And so when it finally got dropped, now I'm like, all right, I got to get on this back.

Speaker 2 I got to get get back everything I lost because now I can get jobs that are good paying, what I'm accustomed to making, what my skills bring, you know, allow me to make.

Speaker 2 And so now it's just kind of turned into like a grind and a nonstop thing. So I have another job other than the podcast, but I still do the podcast too because the podcast was really

Speaker 2 my way of going and doing things or having these conversations. while I was on house arrest because I'm a very outgoing person.
I love to talk. I love to conversate.

Speaker 2 So this kind of opened the door for me to meet people, interesting stories, and I loved it. And people thought whenever the case got dropped, I was going to stop it.
And I didn't.

Speaker 2 It's going to keep going. I'm going to keep doing it because I enjoy it.

Speaker 5 I bet it feels fulfilling for you because you have on people that are wrongfully convicted, right?

Speaker 2 It does. And we interview everyone.
You know, we've had old gangsters on, old drug smugglers, but we do have a lot of people on that have been wrongfully convicted.

Speaker 2 I had Jeffrey on, whom we spoke about. I had Andre on twice.

Speaker 2 You know, a guy named Russ Faria that was arrested and did three years. They did a show about him called The Truth About Pam on the Peacock Network, I think.

Speaker 2 You know, it happens way more than people think. And Jeffrey told me a stat, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but I'll paraphrase.
He said, you know, the stat is there's probably about 17%

Speaker 2 of prisoners in the world that are innocent. Wow.
I think they only have proof that it's like eight. But he said the true number is probably about 17 to 15.

Speaker 2 He said, but even if you went lower than that, just say 13, go in the middle.

Speaker 2 Which nowadays is not far off, but if 13% of the planes are falling out of the sky, are you going to feel safe flying? Hell no. Exactly.

Speaker 2 So when you put it like that, you know, you think, God, I think before people were so like, well, if they rest you, they must have done something wrong.

Speaker 2 Or if they charge you, they must have something.

Speaker 5 That's how I used to think when I was younger.

Speaker 2 That's how I used to think, too. And when this happened with me, it changed my whole worldview.

Speaker 2 I remember like two days after I got out, I'm watching TV and they're looking for a son for shooting a dad.

Speaker 2 And I'm reading these comments on Facebook and everybody's like, I hope they get him. I hope they get this, you know, hand him off the street.
And I'm like, all right, why did he do it?

Speaker 2 You know, was he getting beat? Was he getting, you know, was he getting bad stuff done to him? Was bad stuff being done to his sister or his mom? You know, I started thinking outside the box.

Speaker 2 And I never used to do that because I want to put this out there. Just because you were charged and arrested by the police does not mean you're guilty.
It just means you were charged.

Speaker 2 You know, most times, a lot of times, cases get dropped, you know, charges get dropped but that's what puts the stigma on you because people will always remember that you got charged they won't remember because they've forgotten about you they don't remember that five years later up no they they said he was innocent they dropped the charges they just remember you were charged they just remember the arrest and the charge and that's you know because that's what makes the the spotlight exactly that's what's the headlines that's the clicks that's the you know the news at nine or news at five or whatever that's that's what sells for them and it's a lot of power because they they work together i feel like yeah oh 100 100 they're

Speaker 2 narrative yeah and that's what's so hard about fighting it because you know you got a cops

Speaker 2 the cops called me a murderer the neighborhood that i lived in is called cane bay i heard one person reference me as the cane bay killer i'm like jesus did my did i kill nine more people this is one guy and i mean you know i knew The people in the neighborhood that didn't know me, like, I don't know how well known I was in there, but after that, it seemed like everybody knew me.

Speaker 2 Everywhere you walked. And it was just, you know, people had different reactions.
I don't think I had a trick-or-treater at my house for four years.

Speaker 2 You know, I didn't even have to worry about buying candy in October. You know, you go to the Publix, go to the, you know, the pharmacy section or something.
People just get out of the way.

Speaker 2 You know, they're looking. You can tell they're talking about you.
Damn. And, you know,

Speaker 2 luckily, my son was in a younger grade at the time. So they didn't really grasp the level of what was going on.
My daughter graduated, like I told you earlier, right after that.

Speaker 2 So by the time my son got to like early teenage years and junior high years, it had kind of been forgotten about, but it would still get brought up from time to time.

Speaker 5 How tough was that on the daughter? Did all her friends leave her and stuff?

Speaker 2 No, her friends were really supportive. And like I said, this was literally a month afterwards she graduated and then she actually moved to Seattle, which was her plans anyway.

Speaker 2 But her, her friends stuck by her.

Speaker 2 For the most part, my wife's friends stuck by her too. She lost a few and I lost a few.
But, you know, I like to say that thin the herd.

Speaker 2 You know, we know the ones we got now that's been with us through all that. You know, those are the ride or dies, day one, day ones.
you know how it is.

Speaker 2 And, you know, those people will always hold, even if I don't talk with them every day or if I don't see them every day, months, years go by, they're always going to hold, you know, a special place in my heart because of what they've done for me.

Speaker 2 Because when you're down and when you're out, those who step up for you in those times, you will never forget it.

Speaker 5 100%.

Speaker 5 What a story, man. I can't believe it.

Speaker 2 Well, I appreciate you having me on like this kind of platform to be able to share this because that's the thing that I think everybody's under the assumption that it can't happen to you or whatever.

Speaker 2 But listen, if you have a gun and you choose to defend yourself, I was within my right. I was within my home.
I was licensed to carry. That was my own personal gun.
I had a CWP.

Speaker 2 I went through the class. I was attacked.
My life was threatened. I was assaulted.
Everything laid out. If you was to tell that to a cop, they'd be like, no, he did nothing wrong.
I was still charged.

Speaker 2 And as a tidbit to this, the cop that charged the detective, so one of the bullets that went into the water that we talked about, they never found that.

Speaker 2 I found that after I got out on bond, I found the bullet. So I had to call them back and say, hey, look, your bullet is, or my bullet, your evidence is still floating in a water bottle.

Speaker 2 If y'all want to come pick it up,

Speaker 2 apparently that wasn't a hit around the police station. She got demoted from homicide detective down to property crimes.
Damn. Then from property crimes, she is currently a

Speaker 2 elementary school resource officer, which is pretty much like the last stop you get before you're out the door. Wow.

Speaker 2 So you talk about a fall from Grace, and actually there's a TV show from my neck of the woods called Southern Charm, and apparently it's pretty popular.

Speaker 2 One of the ladies from that show actually hit her while she was, you know, doing cross traffic or whatever like that. And she banged her knee up pretty good.

Speaker 2 And she done an interview with the police or somebody, some sort of

Speaker 2 news outlet and she's like you know i just can't believe that the police you know work like this and you know i used to i was a part of them but you know that there's just so much injustice and i'm thinking to myself you bitch

Speaker 2 you know the the the gall on this lady but you know i think she's she's where she needs to be she's not a she's not a homicide detective i don't even think she really should be in law enforcement either but if you got to put her somewhere maybe an elementary school uh school resource officer is about the best place for her did you ever talk to her one-on-one no never she just had it out for you.

Speaker 2 I don't even know if she had it out for me or if I was just what she thought was going to be her stepping stone to kind of up her career because I didn't know her, didn't know her personally.

Speaker 2 I did see her right after it got dropped.

Speaker 2 Me and my son were in a Buffalo Wild Wings right by my house. And this man and woman come in, and I looked at the woman, but I didn't recognize her.
You know, I ain't even going to sugarcoat this.

Speaker 2 She put on a little weight. And I was like, I thought I knew her, but I didn't really know her.
You know, it was kind of shaky.

Speaker 2 But she comes in, she sits down, and like like eight kids come in that have teenagers, high school kids, that have these like, you know, South Carolina police trainees or some shirts on.

Speaker 2 And I called my wife and I was like, hey, what is this? And she's like, that's a class where they, you know, teach them if they got interest in law enforcement.

Speaker 2 And I looked back and I locked eyes with her again. I was like, that's the detective.

Speaker 2 And she was looking dead at me. And she didn't say anything.
And I didn't say anything.

Speaker 2 Like everything wanted, everything about me wanted to get up and say to them kids, look, if you want to be in law enforcement, God bless you.

Speaker 2 We need good ones, but you don't need to take training from that one. I'll tell you that right now.
But I kept it quiet, man. I mean, she's going to have to deal with what she done.

Speaker 5 You're a big man because a lot of people would have made a scene there, I think.

Speaker 2 Yeah,

Speaker 2 trust me, I wanted to, but then at the same time, I do that. You know, now everybody's talking about it.
Now that, you know, it could blow back on my son.

Speaker 2 And had I been alone, maybe I might have would have done it. But he would have been in there with me.
And her being a cop, she'd probably tried to arrest me for doing it too. So, you know, no telling.

Speaker 2 But she's got her karma, man. And I think it's going to get worse for her.
I really do. Because

Speaker 2 the evidence was there for her to look at. The evidence was there for her to go through.
She ignored it. She had tunnel vision.
She tried to spin and create a narrative that didn't exist.

Speaker 2 And at the end of the day, she tried to put me in jail for 25 years to life, and she didn't need to. Wow.

Speaker 5 I wonder if it was tunnel vision mixed with just she was new to the job and didn't have experience.

Speaker 2 I think that had a lot to do with it. I mean, common sense ought to tell you, Sean, look here.
If I'm, if I shoot somebody, right, there's three entrances and there's two exits.

Speaker 2 So there are going to be two bullets somewhere in the house. How in the world did they not even see right after that that you only come back with one bullet?

Speaker 2 They got the bullet that went into the wall. They didn't even get the other bullet.
I didn't know where it was, so I figured they got it.

Speaker 2 You know, I heard after the fact that there was two exit wounds and, you know, three entrants and two exits.

Speaker 2 How do you miss that?

Speaker 5 You might have a case against the police department.

Speaker 2 I'm telling you, how do you miss that?

Speaker 5 No, I'm for real. Like, you should look into that.

Speaker 2 That's crazy.

Speaker 2 But the low country man it's it's hard you know you got those uh the backwood stuff and you know I'm sure you probably heard of the Murdoch case that was pretty popular about a year ago the lawyer and the judge I mean they pretty much run the town and you know it's like that in small towns it is like that and this wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily consider this a small town but it definitely runs on what's referred to as the good old boy system so not many lawyers want to go up against the police because you know they have to work with them and they don't want to be the ones that you know combats it and all that and you know I went with a lot of people i went i talked with a lot of lawyers to go up against the police i did i talked to probably 10 of them and every one of them said you know that the problem with it is they didn't fabricate any evidence you know it's it's more incompetence and he said unfortunately you can't sue somebody for being stupid really yeah you think for something like that where you spent five years of your life finding a case well like i say even that one particular thing like whether she found the bullet or whether she didn't that wasn't like impacting the evidence for me that's just her being not a good cop.

Speaker 2 Got it. You know, whether it would have, whether she found it or whether she didn't, I was still going to be charged.
It just shows that the lack of, you know, good police work that she did.

Speaker 2 If you're a detective and you know you'll be looking for two bullets, why the hell would you even leave that house until you find them? For real. You know, so it just showed incompetence.

Speaker 2 And he told me, he's like, unfortunately, he said you can't sue for incompetence. He said, if you could, everybody in the world would be rich because there's a lot of stupid people around you.

Speaker 2 So I said, well, I get it.

Speaker 5 What's next for you, Wade? Where can people watch the pod and keep up with you?

Speaker 2 Yeah, so I'm on crime and entertainment. It's It's on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes.
We do one a week at least, if not two.

Speaker 2 And like I said, we interview everybody from mob guys, drug smugglers, writers, actors, authors, wrongfully convicted,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 wrestler. We had a few wrestlers on there.
I had some OnlyFans ladies on there. We literally interview everybody.

Speaker 2 And, you know, we've shared some of the same guests, like I mentioned, John Sarasani, Matt Cox. I just recently had Janelle Gordon on the show.
Oh, nice.

Speaker 5 Shout out to her.

Speaker 2 Yeah, she's a very interesting lady. So we're going to probably do some more stuff together.
But yeah, check us out on Crime and Entertainment, pretty much anywhere you get your podcast.

Speaker 2 And yeah, we appreciate you having me.

Speaker 5 Thanks for hopping on, man. Thanks for inspiring people.
Thank you.

Speaker 5 I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe.
It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.

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