The Girlfriends S3/E1: Hell's Gate

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.

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Speaker 3 This is Andrea Gunning from Betrayal.

Speaker 4 Are there two sides to every story?

Speaker 3 Academy Award nominee Robin Wright stars in The Girlfriend on Prime, a psychological thriller that will make you question everything. Laura has the perfect life and a son she'd die for.

Speaker 3 But when he brings home his new girlfriend Cherry, played by Olivia Cook, something feels off.

Speaker 3 Also starring Lori Davidson, The Girlfriend is a twisted game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems. Don't miss the girlfriend, streaming now exclusively on Prime.

Speaker 4 Sometimes the truth is just a matter of perspective.

Speaker 5 Not all group chats are the same, just like not all Adams are the same.

Speaker 5 Adam Brody, for example, uses WhatsApp to plan his grandma's birthday using video calls, polls to choose a gift, and HD photos to document a family moment to remember, all in one group chat.

Speaker 6 Makes grandma's birthday her best one yet.

Speaker 5 But Adam Scott grouped messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp. And so the photo invite came through so blurry, he never even knew about the party.

Speaker 7 And grandma still won't talk to me.

Speaker 5 It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone.

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Speaker 1 Hey you, it's Anna here. I just wanted to give you a heads up on what to expect in this series, because this story has some pretty dark moments.

Speaker 1 It's going to include addiction, domestic and sexual abuse, and murder. And a lot of it takes place within the prison system.

Speaker 1 But also, like every series of The Girlfriends, this is a story all about sisterhood and solidarity.

Speaker 1 Along the way, I'm going to introduce you to a cast of women who've been through the most incredible, complex, and at times even tragic experiences, but have managed to come out the other end.

Speaker 1 If you feel impacted by some of the themes in this show, you can reach out to Know More. They're a domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to help you or your loved ones.

Speaker 1 You can search knowmore.org and we've also put a link to their website in the episode description.

Speaker 1 So do take care and get ready for one hell of a story. And more than a few swear words.

Speaker 1 If you happened to be strolling near Queens, New York in the late 80s, you might have found yourself passing by North Shore Gymnastics.

Speaker 1 Inside, there's a smell of chalk and sweat in the air. Small feet are running across the crash mat covered floor, sending echoes that bounce around the room.

Speaker 1 The room is bustling with girls of all ages, each in a brightly colored leotard straight out of an 80s workout video.

Speaker 1 Standing at the side, with a sassy little expression on her face, is a seven-year-old girl with a point to prove.

Speaker 1 Kelly Harnett.

Speaker 1 At only seven years old, Kelly's just been told she's not big enough to do real gymnastics. She can only play games in the sponge pit with the other little kids.
Boring.

Speaker 11 This is not what I signed up for.

Speaker 13 I don't want to jump into a huge,

Speaker 16 like, it almost looked like a pool of spongy things and play cat and mouse. It was basically like tag.

Speaker 12 That's not gymnastics.

Speaker 1 Kelly should She's already built her own DIY balance beam at home, and she's been somersaulting off the sofa for years.

Speaker 1 So, playing tag in the sponges with the babies? No, thank you.

Speaker 17 I was getting really irritated about this.

Speaker 1 Kelly hatches a plan. Looking up into the stands, scanning through the sea of proud parents, Kelly makes sure her mum is watching.
And then, it's go time.

Speaker 17 Okay, one, two, three, and everybody would run.

Speaker 1 Kelly, the coach, and the rest of the little kids start running towards the sponge pit. But after a few conniving strides, Kelly makes a break for it.

Speaker 1 She's heading straight to the balance beam, a proper one, which is currently surrounded by a gaggle of big girls who do real gymnastics. But Kelly isn't phased.

Speaker 19 I just grabbed it, the balance beam, and I started doing cartwheels and round offs.

Speaker 20 I remember looking up at my mom and she was proud of me.

Speaker 21 She was happy.

Speaker 1 The other moms? Well, they're not so happy. Actually, they're freaking the fuck out, pounding on the glass, screaming bloody murder, trying to get the coach's attention.

Speaker 22 I felt like saying you snitches.

Speaker 1 The snitching works. Kelly's coach turns around to see her mid-maneuver.
He starts booking it across the gym.

Speaker 11 Although he's running, I know I have a few seconds left.

Speaker 23 I did like a cartwheel without hands, did the dismount, boom.

Speaker 1 And my feet were together.

Speaker 16 And that's always what they mess up on.

Speaker 13 They back up a little bit.

Speaker 16 My feet were together.

Speaker 24 And he was like, oh my God, are you crazy? What is wrong with you?

Speaker 14 You know how hurt you could have gotten?

Speaker 1 I was like, but I didn't get hurt.

Speaker 15 So yes, I got in a lot of trouble for that.

Speaker 1 This memory, it means a lot to Kelly. She'll spend her life repeating it over and over again in her head.
How proud her mother was and how special she felt.

Speaker 1 How she stuck it to the man and stuck the landing at the same time.

Speaker 1 Kelly says she keeps doing gymnastics and after a while, her coach even lets her back on the balance beam.

Speaker 1 But soon, that all changes.

Speaker 15 My mom told the head coach that she has to take me out.

Speaker 20 She said, no, no, you can't take her out.

Speaker 11 And my mother said, I don't have a choice.

Speaker 1 And she said, your daughter isn't natural at this.

Speaker 26 This is the type that goes to the Olympics.

Speaker 1 And it made my mother cry

Speaker 11 because she didn't have the money.

Speaker 1 It's about 30 years later. And Kelly's walking out of a maximum security prison.

Speaker 1 She's in shackles with a chain around her belly and cuffs on her wrists. She's being escorted to a hospital appointment via a prison transfer van.

Speaker 1 To pass the time, Kelly gets chatting to a prison guard.

Speaker 1 He started talking to me about previous jobs because I was talking to him about how rough it must be to get stuck there and to have a home life and whatnot.

Speaker 11 And he said, yeah, like I missed like the good old days.

Speaker 18 I said, what'd you do?

Speaker 17 He says to me that he used to be a coach at North Shore and that's where I used to go.

Speaker 21 And I said, what?

Speaker 22 Really?

Speaker 16 And he goes, oh, gosh, I'll never forget the time.

Speaker 15 And I don't know, something in my heart just told me, like, don't tell me he's going to tell my story.

Speaker 16 He said, so, as the coach, I led them all to the pit.

Speaker 22 And apparently, one didn't make it with us.

Speaker 17 She ended up over by the teenagers.

Speaker 16 I guess I missed half of her.

Speaker 22 And then he did the air quotes routine, like still a little bit angry.

Speaker 30 And he goes, but I saw you, she did such a damn good job.

Speaker 21 I couldn't tell her that though.

Speaker 30 I said, you just did.

Speaker 17 And he looked at me and he was like, no.

Speaker 21 And then I started to cry.

Speaker 1 Thinking.

Speaker 15 About seven-year-old Kelly

Speaker 26 and how crazy life is.

Speaker 1 It was one of those what went wrong moments.

Speaker 17 You have a lot of them clearly in prison, but not to that extent.

Speaker 13 But

Speaker 29 he looked at me differently after that.

Speaker 18 And he was just like,

Speaker 1 what happened?

Speaker 1 I'm Anna Sinfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts. This is The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Speaker 1 Episode 1, Hell's Gate.

Speaker 1 When you see a long ramp for the wheelchair accessibility along with a regular staircase, that is my courtyard. Don't listen to the sign.
They got it wrong. I am so not kidding.

Speaker 1 Just walk straight upon entry. To your left, you will see another ramp.

Speaker 1 I can't see you.

Speaker 32 This is great. Is that Kelly's house?

Speaker 32 Hi, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 Good, how are you, Anna?

Speaker 1 It's so nice to finally meet you.

Speaker 1 Hi, Jay. This is Kelly Harnett, now 43 and still with a point to prove.

Speaker 1 It's late 2024, and she's waiting for me outside her apartment in Astoria Queens.

Speaker 1 Kelly's wearing a red top with Bebe bejeweled across the front. When she hugs me, she smells like a mix of rose perfume and the king-size cigarette she's smoking.

Speaker 1 She's got big, wide eyes. Her hair is vivid blonde, pulled back into a high ponytail.
She's sporting a headband that perfectly matches her eyeshadow, which she says it always does.

Speaker 1 This is my first time seeing Kelly in person. And up close, I can see how she got the nickname Jailhouse Barbie.

Speaker 1 Kelly got out of prison three years ago. She spent almost 12 years behind bars for murder.

Speaker 1 Kelly says she's innocent of all charges. But in the eyes of the justice system, Kelly was a villain, a perpetrator of a terrible crime who deserved to be punished.

Speaker 1 As the reporter behind The Girlfriends, I've always had a victim-first philosophy. In fact, I've said more than once that we don't interview perpetrators on this show.

Speaker 1 And through that philosophy, through telling the stories we have, The Girlfriends has unwittingly reinforced the the idea that you have a victim, generally a woman, and then there's a bad villain, often a man, who hurts them.

Speaker 1 A bad guy who thankfully gets locked up in the end with the key thrown away.

Speaker 1 And in these stories, it's clear who to root for. The victim.
A woman who is, a lot of the time, let's face it, dead.

Speaker 1 Who then becomes forever memorialized. frozen in a state of perfect, almost sainted victimhood.

Speaker 1 But real life is rarely so neat, especially for the women who survive.

Speaker 1 One good thing about Kelly, at least from a journalist's perspective, is that she is not at all withholding. I don't even need to ask her that many questions.

Speaker 1 She's a boiling pot of beans ready to spill.

Speaker 1 Kelly's the type to wear her heart on her sleeve and on her front door.

Speaker 12 We have the shamrock here on the door. It represents my ethnicity.

Speaker 12 I'm 100% Irish, but we always have to keep the two American flags here to establish that I am Irish American and that we're proud supporters of the powerized veterans of America.

Speaker 1 Thank you. You're welcome.
Oh, it's your piano program. Yes, that is.

Speaker 1 As I walk into Kelly's apartment, I'm struck by how much of a shrine it is. To her life, sure, sure, but I actually mean a literal religious shrine.
It's full of roses, like so many roses.

Speaker 1 Real fake jewelry pictures. They're everywhere.

Speaker 11 Oh, but today is a very significant day.

Speaker 34 I don't know if I ever told you about my story about St.

Speaker 32 Therese. October 1st, today is her feast day.

Speaker 1 Saint Therese is a Catholic saint. Kelly's been praying to her since a rainy day about 40 years ago when she was around four years old.

Speaker 17 My mom, she was driving to the rectory.

Speaker 1 She parked the car.

Speaker 15 I opened the car up and I stepped into a puddle.

Speaker 11 Inside the puddle was a rose.

Speaker 30 For some reason, I don't know why, I picked the rose up.

Speaker 17 My mom got out of the driver's seat and came around and she saw me with the rose in my hand.

Speaker 11 She said, Kelly, put that down.

Speaker 16 It's dirty.

Speaker 18 So I threw the rose down.

Speaker 35 I go into the rectory, and my mom had to go in the back, and the nuns were sitting there, and they had this whole wall of pamphlets of about 50 different saints.

Speaker 21 Randomly, I just picked this pamphlet.

Speaker 12 It was a picture of a saint holding a crucifix and holding roses in her hand.

Speaker 18 As I started to read the prayer,

Speaker 35 it said she will send a message of love and a shower of roses from the heavenly gardens.

Speaker 11 I just kept thinking of that rose outside.

Speaker 35 I wanted that rose.

Speaker 25 When we got back to the car, I waited until my mom got in the driver's seat, grabbed the rose, and put it in my pocket.

Speaker 16 Throughout my whole life, I had been praying to St.

Speaker 18 Therese and finding roses constantly.

Speaker 15 I had shoe boxes upon shoeboxes, and then I started marking each one.

Speaker 1 Sitting in Kelly's rose-adorned apartment, I'm watching her as she speaks.

Speaker 1 I'm listening,

Speaker 1 but simultaneously trying to get the measure of her, looking for hidden context in between her words. I guess it's a reporter and me.

Speaker 1 Kelly's eyes light up when she speaks about Saint Therese, which she does a lot.

Speaker 1 This saint, she's one of the most important figures in Kelly's life. I'm imagining Kelly, barely four years old, reading a prayer pamphlet, a sodden rose in her tiny pocket.

Speaker 1 It's just beginning to dawn on me how extraordinary this story is.

Speaker 1 And that's when I'm interrupted by the other most significant person in Kelly's life.

Speaker 28 Here's my brother Ronnie.

Speaker 1 Well good, I hope you're not.

Speaker 10 Terrible.

Speaker 1 I know it. I know it.
I know it.

Speaker 13 Yeah, that's Ronnie.

Speaker 15 That's my best friend in the whole wide world.

Speaker 13 Ronnie and I, I mean, we have.

Speaker 1 Kelly and Ronnie live in the same apartment they've called home for nearly three decades.

Speaker 1 Before it was just them, they shared it with their mom, dad, and their family dog, a cocker spaniel named Casey.

Speaker 1 You can feel that family history here. It's soaked into the walls alongside the nicotine.

Speaker 11 This is my shrine that I made for my mother.

Speaker 34 I know you're probably thinking, why is there a cigarette on top of that?

Speaker 15 My mother's last words, not to be funny, God forgive me, was give me a cigarette.

Speaker 1 So I gave her her last cigarette.

Speaker 1 These are rose petals, of course, because of my love for roses.

Speaker 32 Oh, these are the rosary beads that were found clamped in her hand when she died.

Speaker 1 So when Rega Mortis sets in, it's Kelly's mom's name was Kathleen.

Speaker 1 Before she died, she had been sick for a long time.

Speaker 1 Kelly and Ronnie still keep her sick bed in the living room. Currently, it's covered in teddy bears and a blanket with a poem printed on it about how special brothers are.
A gift from Kelly to Ronnie.

Speaker 15 Yankee pillows because we're Yankee fans.

Speaker 34 We used to be Met fans, but we were sick and tired of rooting for a losing team.

Speaker 16 But I guess you know.

Speaker 1 Scanning my eyes around the room, I spot a dresser next to the bed. On it, a pair of 1980s Barbies, still in their original packaging.

Speaker 1 One's a dentist and the other is a lawyer. Both are blonde.
obviously.

Speaker 1 Also in the living room is a makeup table with lights around the mirror like something from old Hollywood. It comes complete with a pink and white heart-shaped chair.

Speaker 1 But right at the center of the room, in front of the TV, is one of Kelly's most prized possessions, her electronic keyboard.

Speaker 1 Some evenings, Kelly and Ronnie sit in here on the old sick bed converted into a sofa and listen to DJ sets on YouTube.

Speaker 1 They dance and sing along. Sometimes Kelly jams on her sims.

Speaker 18 Honestly, I'm an aspiring DJ. My favorite DJ is Paul Van Dyke.

Speaker 18 However, I haven't gotten the money to get the turntables yet, the Pioneer turntables. I don't have that much experience in this.

Speaker 16 However, I go crazy on my keyboard.

Speaker 15 And so,

Speaker 18 yeah, I'm just freestyling

Speaker 1 setting.

Speaker 25 Excuse me, freestyling. I had nothing planned, honestly.

Speaker 1 Kelly's apartment here in Astoria is a safe haven for her and Ronnie. But I'm shocked to learn that it's barely three blocks away from the scene of the murder that put Kelly behind bars.

Speaker 1 I know I wouldn't want to stick around so close to the place where my whole life fell apart.

Speaker 1 You could have left New York if you wanted to, but you haven't. I know.

Speaker 1 Home is wherever Ronnie is.

Speaker 18 If Ronnie's here, then this is home.

Speaker 16 If Ronnie moved,

Speaker 17 then that would be home.

Speaker 16 Wherever Ronnie would have moved to, I would have been going there.

Speaker 18 And I'm glad Ronnie was still here because this is the place that I left.

Speaker 32 We've lived here for 32 years.

Speaker 26 I mean, that's home.

Speaker 11 And I could tell you, there's no place like home.

Speaker 1 Well, I think it's a very brave thing to stay in the same place.

Speaker 33 It's easier to run.

Speaker 29 Yeah, yeah, but I don't run from my problems.

Speaker 1 Other than Ronnie, the one other very important reason why Kelly has refused to run is because she's always maintained her innocence.

Speaker 33 I was just wondering how important it is to you that the people who listen to this podcast come out of it believing you.

Speaker 1 You know, everyone's jury, everyone's going to have their own opinions. Yeah.

Speaker 14 I mean,

Speaker 14 what can happen to anyone is a wrongful conviction.

Speaker 18 Nobody could really sit there and say what they could definitively do in any situation until it happens to them.

Speaker 18 It would be nice if people would be open-minded. I was put away for 13 years wrongfully.
I'm not asking for a retrial here.

Speaker 18 All I need is the chance.

Speaker 1 Next, I'm going to give Kelly the chance to tell her side of the story about the terrible night that would change her life forever.

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Speaker 36 There's a lot going on in Hollywood.

Speaker 32 How are you supposed to stay on top of it all?

Speaker 37 Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.

Speaker 38 Where do you see the business actually heading?

Speaker 37 Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

Speaker 39 The only constant in Hollywood is change.

Speaker 37 Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now.

Speaker 5 Not all group chats are the same, just like not all Adams are the same.

Speaker 5 Adam Brody, for example, uses WhatsApp to plan his grandma's birthday using video calls, polls to choose a gift, and HD photos to document a family moment to remember, All in one group chat.

Speaker 6 Makes grandma's birthday her best one yet.

Speaker 5 But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp. And so, the photo invite came through so blurry, he never even knew about the party.

Speaker 7 And grandma still won't talk to me.

Speaker 5 It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone.

Speaker 40 Top reasons advanced manufacturing pros want to move to Ohio.

Speaker 41 So many advancement opportunities for technicians, machinists, managers, operators, and more.

Speaker 43 How about a powered-up paycheck and an amped-up career?

Speaker 4 Plus, the energy of big-time sports.

Speaker 44 An afterwork, plenty of ways to unplug.

Speaker 45 The career you want and a life you'll love.

Speaker 10 Have it all in the heart of it all. Build your future at callohiohome.com.

Speaker 1 Why don't we we move on to the actual night itself? Do you want to start us from earlier on that day, like what you'd been doing?

Speaker 1 Sure.

Speaker 1 I just want to warn you that I'm not going to be holding back on the grisly details in this series, like I've tried to in previous seasons of The Girlfriends.

Speaker 1 The brutal details of the murder Kelly was accused of, and what she went through either side of it, are just too important.

Speaker 1 It's in the details that someone like Kelly is found guilty or innocent. It's in the details that her culpability is decided.
And it's in the details where Kelly come more from victim into villain.

Speaker 1 It all started on July 6th, 2010.

Speaker 1 Kelly's 28 years old. She still lives at home, but she and her mum have been arguing a lot recently.
Mostly about about Kelly's new boyfriend, Tommy.

Speaker 1 Kelly's mother, Kathleen, doesn't approve of him. Thinks he's bad news.

Speaker 1 More than once in their short relationship, Kelly has turned up on her mum's doorstep horrifically beaten, bloody and bruised.

Speaker 1 Before long, Tommy usually turns up too, yelling vile abuse at their windows for all the neighbours to hear. And Kathleen's explosive reactions put Kelly between a rock and a hard place.

Speaker 1 So So Kelly's staying away from home.

Speaker 1 She's with Tommy instead. But by July 6th, Tommy's gotten into a fight with his roommate and says he can't go back to his apartment.
Now he and Kelly are sleeping under a bridge in Astoria Park.

Speaker 16 I don't know, I guess you could say that I was transient by choice and also out of fear.

Speaker 1 And out of love, honestly, because I didn't want to leave him in the park by himself.

Speaker 1 so i was like that's a terrible thing for a girlfriend to do leave her boyfriend in the park by himself i said i don't want to do that so all day july 6th they're hanging out in the park but kelly is suffering she's been addicted to prescription pain pills since she was 17.

Speaker 1 she and tommy actually met at a methadone clinic and right now kelly is withdrawing hard vomiting, feeling terrible.

Speaker 1 Tommy has stopped her from getting her methadone dose for the past three days, which just seems like a cruel act of control to me.

Speaker 12 So, right now, we're actually standing

Speaker 1 at

Speaker 11 the scene of the crime.

Speaker 15 I would say I was standing right over here.

Speaker 1 I've asked Kelly to come back to Astoria Park. I want to try and make some kind of sense of what happened that night back in July 2010.

Speaker 18 It's difficult to really say what the scene of the crime was because

Speaker 13 the drinking like began

Speaker 28 over here.

Speaker 1 Kelly, still jonesing for her methadone fix, has spent the day with Tommy drinking four loco.

Speaker 1 A single can is the equivalent of four cans of beer.

Speaker 1 And as if that wasn't enough, to top it all off, it also includes roughly a metric fuck ton of caffeine.

Speaker 23 The caffeine being in it, what it would do was wake you up so you keep drinking it, and then the caffeine wears off, and boy, does that alcohol hit you. It sneaks up on you.

Speaker 1 By about 3 a.m., Tommy and Kelly are wasted, exhausted from the rough sleeping and withdrawal. They lay some blankets down under the bridge that cuts right through the park.

Speaker 11 It just so happens to ironically be named the Hell's Gate Bridge.

Speaker 23 And

Speaker 26 boy, oh boy, was that given the correct name because it really was the gate to hell for me.

Speaker 1 Tommy notices a man sat on a park bench across the way from him.

Speaker 1 He yells over to him.

Speaker 21 The guy says, hola.

Speaker 11 I know now he speaks Spanish, right?

Speaker 21 And I speak Spanish fluently and Tommy knew that

Speaker 28 and

Speaker 21 he asked me to ask him if it would be okay for us to join him.

Speaker 18 And he said yes.

Speaker 1 Tommy and Kelly walk over to sit with the man, who introduces himself as Angel.

Speaker 15 And that's when he told me that his brother threw him out of the house because he had been drinking. He said he beat him up.

Speaker 31 And that's when he pulled out some type of, I don't know if it was a keychain or a charm, that he was in Alcoholics Anonymous.

Speaker 1 Angel is drunk, like falls over when he tries to stand up drunk.

Speaker 1 But Tommy doesn't care. He just sees an opportunity.

Speaker 12 He tells me to ask him if he's ever drank for loco.

Speaker 30 And I asked him, and he said no, but that he would love to try.

Speaker 21 So the man gave Tommy, I think it was $6.

Speaker 30 And I got up.

Speaker 26 I had this little book bag.

Speaker 11 I put it on and I thought I was going with Tommy, except Tommy grabbed the bicycle of the man. And I said, what are you doing?

Speaker 17 And he said, oh, I'll be right back.

Speaker 1 I said, what are you crazy? Don't leave me here.

Speaker 18 He just took off.

Speaker 1 So here Kelly is, temporarily abandoned by her boyfriend, stuck in a dark park with a very drunk man.

Speaker 1 At some point, while Tommy is still gone, Kelly says Angel goes way over the line with her.

Speaker 1 She doesn't want to go into the details about it, which I respect, but she does describe it as a sexual offence.

Speaker 1 Before too long, Kelly spots Tommy riding back into the park, and she bolts towards him.

Speaker 31 I wanted to get to Tommy on bike before he got to Angel.

Speaker 31 I didn't tell him exactly what transpired. I just kept telling him, I'm not comfortable.
We have to leave. We have to leave.
We have to leave.

Speaker 1 And because you were. Tommy's not listening.

Speaker 1 He's focused on the drinks.

Speaker 16 So I blurted it out.

Speaker 29 I told him what happened.

Speaker 26 That's when he said,

Speaker 1 I'm going to F and kill him.

Speaker 1 Let's be real.

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Speaker 36 There's a lot going on in Hollywood.

Speaker 32 How are you supposed to stay on top of it all?

Speaker 37 Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes minutes out of your day and listen to the new Daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.

Speaker 38 Where do you see the business actually heading?

Speaker 37 Featuring the iconic journalists of Variety and hosted by co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton.

Speaker 39 The only constant in Hollywood is change.

Speaker 37 Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Daily Variety, and listen now.

Speaker 5 Not all group chats are the same, just like not all atoms are the same.

Speaker 5 Adam Brody, for instance, uses WhatsApp WhatsApp to pin messages, send events, and settle debates using polls with his friends, all in one group chat.

Speaker 6 Makes our guys' night easier.

Speaker 5 But Adam Scott group messages with an app that isn't WhatsApp, which means he still can't find that text from his friends about where to meet.

Speaker 1 Hang on, still scrolling.

Speaker 7 No, the address is here somewhere.

Speaker 5 It's time for WhatsApp. Message privately with everyone.

Speaker 40 Top reasons advanced manufacturing pros want to move to Ohio.

Speaker 41 So many advancement opportunities for technicians, machinists, managers, operators, and more.

Speaker 43 How about a powered-up paycheck and an amped-up career?

Speaker 16 Plus, the energy of big-time sports.

Speaker 44 And after work, plenty of ways to unplug.

Speaker 45 The career you want and a life you'll love.

Speaker 10 Have it all in the heart of it all. Build your future at callohiohome.com.

Speaker 1 It's about three in the morning on July 6th, 2010. After telling her boyfriend Tommy what just happened between her and Angel, Kelly is watching on helplessly as Tommy races through the park.

Speaker 1 He's headed straight for Angel,

Speaker 1 who's none the wiser about how much danger he's in.

Speaker 31 I'm still 50 yards away now. From a distance, I see him throw the bike down and

Speaker 31 he is pommeling this guy.

Speaker 46 Now I ran.

Speaker 31 You know, first it was a fight, and I figured that's what was going to happen. So I pulled Tommy's arm.
He threw me down and said, bitch, stay out of this. You're fucking next.

Speaker 23 Then I lost it.

Speaker 31 And I'm saying, should I run?

Speaker 31 Because he's 20 yards from me. Should I run in that direction?

Speaker 31 If he turns around around and sees me running, he's going to catch up to me in a second.

Speaker 1 Kelly stays put, frozen in fear, under Hellsgate Bridge. Watching on as Tommy's attack goes from violent to murderous.

Speaker 1 He begins to choke Angel.

Speaker 11 If I try to stop him again, he's going to kill me. If I run, he's going to kill me.

Speaker 16 So he comes over to me.

Speaker 19 He grabs my foot.

Speaker 17 All he did was take my shoelace.

Speaker 21 I thought he was pulling my leg to kill me.

Speaker 1 You think, oh shit, now it's my turn.

Speaker 30 I saw him go over to the man,

Speaker 27 put the shoelace around the man's neck, and it snapped instantaneously.

Speaker 27 So he screams out,

Speaker 30 Why won't this motherfucker die?

Speaker 30 Now I realize he he really is going through with this. He really is going to kill this man.

Speaker 1 Then

Speaker 30 he took off his own belt.

Speaker 1 Tommy strangles Angel with his belt until he stops struggling. Until his body.
goes limp.

Speaker 15 It was at that point that

Speaker 26 I was the most scared and he came over to me.

Speaker 29 It would look like a person stalking their prey, not a person, rather an animal.

Speaker 31 And it was then that I made it my point to walk to him literally as I'm doing right now with my hands out.

Speaker 1 Kelly's still terrified she'll be next. She goes into pure survival mode.
doing whatever it takes to stay alive.

Speaker 46 It was right next to Angel, this poor poor man, laying on the ground. But I had to try to manipulate Tommy, and I put my hands out, knowing he's an atheist, and I said, Pray with me.

Speaker 47 Oh, glorious Saint Therese, whom Almighty God has raised you to aid and counsel mankind, I implore your miraculous intercession.

Speaker 47 So powerful are you in obtaining every need of God, Savior.

Speaker 1 He

Speaker 22 screams

Speaker 24 while holding my hands, Saint Teresa, please help me.

Speaker 47 And to carry out your promises of spending goodness upon earth and letting fall from heaven a shower of roses.

Speaker 47 Amen.

Speaker 1 Then he looks at me and goes, oh my god, I just killed somebody.

Speaker 46 So like he went back to normal, but it's too late, because the poor man is on the ground now.

Speaker 1 If I didn't know what had happened here in Astoria Park all those years ago, I just think it was a nice normal park.

Speaker 1 You know, it's got winding paths, a huge variety of trees, somewhere you can lounge out in the summer months and read a book or kick a ball.

Speaker 1 On the surface, it certainly doesn't seem like the kind of place where a man could lose his life.

Speaker 28 Now,

Speaker 13 even though whatever happened happened

Speaker 18 towards what he said to me or did to me, being that his name was Angel, I always,

Speaker 18 due to my faith, felt that he was in some strange way my angel because had it not been for

Speaker 18 this is terrible to say and I don't mean that his life should have been taken to save mine obviously you cannot bring someone back to life I wish you could I would do that for that man in a heartbeat however being that it happened I always try to find a purpose for it I try to find the good in it

Speaker 13 I was addicted to Xanax, to Clanipan, to this, that, you know, many things.

Speaker 13 And I had no intentions of getting off of any of them and honestly when I got to Rikers I was sick for five months it got me off of it so that's the good in it so I feel that the man that was standing right where we're standing right now I feel that he was my angel

Speaker 1 There's something that makes my stomach flip at the idea that this could have all been part of God's plan. I do like the idea that someone, something, intervened in Kelly's life.

Speaker 1 But I guess it just doesn't sit right that in order for that to happen, Angel had to become some kind of sacrificial lamb who had to die for Kelly to break free of addiction and of Tommy's abuse.

Speaker 1 I guess as a one-time Christian, now-time heathen, I just don't think a true God would have let Kelly go through any of this.

Speaker 1 But then again, I'm sure if I'd gotten caught up in something so chaotic and senseless and awful, I'd be looking for meaning too.

Speaker 1 So where do we go from here?

Speaker 1 Well, the first thing you need to know is that this series is not a whodunit. I'm not going to be proving Kelly's innocence or guilt.
That was decided in a courtroom years ago.

Speaker 1 And as we tell this story, you can decide for yourself whether that was a right or wrong decision.

Speaker 1 But I do want to know how this all happened.

Speaker 1 How did Kelly, the sassy little gymnast who was apparently once destined for the Olympics, end up with someone like Tommy?

Speaker 1 How did she end up in the park that night? And finally, with the story she just told me, How did she end up in prison for 12 years?

Speaker 1 I'm going to peel back the layers of Kelly's life to try and understand how she got to where she is today and learn how a victim of domestic violence ends up being seen as a villain in the eyes of the law and maybe in the eyes of many of you too.

Speaker 18 I'm being penalized because of the fact that I chose to survive.

Speaker 31 chose life over death.

Speaker 16 What do you want, my blood?

Speaker 18 This is the way it it seems.

Speaker 29 That's what everyone would have preferred. That was the better outcome.

Speaker 16 A dead girl in the park.

Speaker 1 Coming up on the girlfriends, jailhouse lawyer.

Speaker 37 Kelly, she got arrested for murder.

Speaker 18 This is the justice system?

Speaker 48 I said, I know my sister, she didn't do this.

Speaker 16 You have to think of the domestic violence aspect and not the truth-finding aspect.

Speaker 1 I was afraid of Tommy.

Speaker 18 It was like Kelly was his possession.

Speaker 30 The trial, it was awful, and the verdict was guilty.

Speaker 1 Our sisterhood, we've called ourselves the Shaudis.

Speaker 2 You shaudy!

Speaker 26 She goes, Harnett, you need to get your ass to that law library.

Speaker 30 You gotta start fighting your case.

Speaker 19 It became the love of my life.

Speaker 1 I said, She has made your name, Kelly.

Speaker 19 I said, were you a victim of domestic violence? And she was like, yeah.

Speaker 1 I said, can you please help me? And I just started crying.

Speaker 11 I was giving a lot of people hope.

Speaker 18 I said, how many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here? He said, Nobody's ever done that. I said, I'm going to be the first one to do that.

Speaker 19 He goes, Oh, God, Harnett, jailhouse lawyer.

Speaker 1 The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart podcasts. For more from Novel, visit novel.audio.

Speaker 1 The show is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield, and is written and produced by me and Lee Meyer, with additional production from Jayko Tayvich and Michael Ginnow. Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr.

Speaker 1 The editors are Georgia Moody and me, Anna Sinfield. Production management from Cherie Houston and Joe Savage.
Our fact checkers are Dania Suleiman and Fendel Fulton.

Speaker 1 Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by me, Alice Infield, Lee Meyer, and Nicholas Alexander.

Speaker 1 Original music composed by Nicholas Alexander, Daniel Kempson, and Louisa Gerstein. Story development by Willard Foxton, creative director of Novel.

Speaker 1 Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers for Novel. And Katrina Norvell and Nikki Itor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts.
And the marketing lead is Alison Cantor.

Speaker 1 Thanks also to Carrie Lieberman and the whole team at WME.

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