Soothe and Steady: Calm and Empathetic Voice for True Crime
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Young Adult (18-35)Accents
Spanish (Latino)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
from thriller. Digital Welcome to Secrets, Lies and alibis. I'm your host, James lee episode six evidence. Reexamined Professional conduct, administrative review conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Laboratory in 2007. After Clementi's conviction concludes. In fact, no latent prints of value for identification purposes were noted on the knife handle. Berks admits under oath in a deposition after Clemente was convicted and sentenced to death that she never examined the knife. The actual print on the knife, the latent lift from the knife handle or compared any of these to the print actually taken of clemente is palm. This was a flagrant violation of the minimum standards for latent print examiners. In 2004 as well as a fabrication of the palm print evidence. Furthermore, the positive identification was of his left palm print. But Clemente is right handed. Donna Burke's resigned. Soon after Sheriff Don Eslinger informed her that she was about to be fired. Clemente files a motion for a new trial based on this disclosure, but it was denied. Clementi's convictions and death sentence were upheld by the Florida Supreme Court in 2009. Let's rewind back to 2004. A lot can happen in five years. In fact, to put it into perspective, five years is equivalent to over 1800 days and in 2009 at the age of 29, 5 years is more than 15% of Clementi's life behind bars. S. C. S. O. Crime analysts Grossi. Craig and Olson collect 89 pieces of physical evidence, 150 blood samples and 67 bloody shoe prints from the crime scene. At 1 21. Vagabond way. Over the course of nearly a week, from june 17th 2004 to june 24th 2004. The lead crime scene analyst, Jacqueline Grossi spends a total of eight days processing the crime scene and collecting blood evidence. During that time, hammered and Grossi meet to decide what evidence should be collected and tested. They failed to turn over their meeting notes to the Seminole County State's Attorney's office based on the complaint filed on behalf of Clemente. Hammered and grosses failures to collect and or test evidence included but was not limited to the following. Christine craig collected hair that was found in the hands of Cheryl and carol and on Cheryl's knee. Could it have been hair? They were pulling out of their murderer in the fight before their death. Could it have been hair? They were pulling out of the murderer in the fight before their death out of the murderer in the fight before their death. Samantha's DNA was never collected and therefore never tested a third DNA profile on the cisco knife. The murder weapon was never tested. Blood drops on the doorframe at the crime scene were never tested. Only Mr Aguirre's buccal swabs were sent for testing swabs of blood found on the mirror in Samantha's bathroom were submitted into evidence but never tested none of the swabs collected from the concrete or carpet of the entryway where Cheryl's body was found were tested the bloody door knob from the entryway collected by C. S. A. John Olson was never swab or processed for D. N. A. In fact, once the door knob was collected, C. S. A. Christine craig, never saw it again. None of the items collected and packaged from the area inside the front door near Cheryl's body were sent for testing. Only swabs from Mr Aguirre shoes were sent for testing a third DNA profile that did not match Mr Aguirre. Cheryl or carol was never investigated, although C. S. A. Craig stated she observed cuts on Mark Manson's right hand and lower leg. These areas were never swapped swabs taken from the bottom of Mark Van Sant's feet were never sent for testing. Palm prints from Mark Van Sant were never taken for comparison And of the 26 partial footwear prints at the scene of the crime, 18 of them were not made by Mr Aguirre or any deputy at the scene. These footwear prints were never investigated. Further. Samantha's shoes were never collected or tested for comparison to the 18th prince not made by Clemente, neither were marks, despite the fact that he arrived at the crime scene without shoes. In 2010, 6 years after the murder, Clementi's lawyer sits down at the bar at pretzels at around 11 30 asks the bartender for bob bun truck. The owner of pretzels. They say they want to speak to him about Clementi's case A bartender named Jamie Bernard says she was so glad someone was finally trying to help him and said that she knows he's innocent. Jamie claims she was across the street from Samantha's house until five a.m. And she knew Clemente hadn't returned home yet. She was his alibi until 5:30 a.m. She says she was with Peter at his house who lived across the street from Samantha having a couple of drinks that night and Clemente was still at his friend's house and hadn't made it home yet, bartender. Jamie Bernard testifies at the post conviction hearing that Aguirre had been in the bar until 3:15 a.m. On the morning of june 17th and that he had been friendly and nice and polite as he always was. Bernard also testifies it was common knowledge within the community that Cheryl and Samantha's relationship was strained. The reason that Samantha hated her mother so much, Bernard explained was because Cheryl made Samantha have sex with her drug dealers. Monica Jorge, a co owner of Pretzels at the time of the murders, testifies the Clemente was well liked, easy going and very friendly among the staff. She also testifies that she knew Samantha both as a patron and as a former employee of pretzels and that she fired Samantha after six months for being dishonest and stealing tips from the other waitresses. Samantha had a reputation for dishonesty according to Monica George. She also testifies that she saw Samantha and Cheryl arguing in the six months leading up to the murders sometimes while Cheryl was drunk, she and Jamie were never called to the witness stand to give their testimony because no one ever came to pretzels to investigate. In 2010. Clemente has now been incarcerated for six years and on death row for four during his time in jail he struggles quite a bit. He has beaten up early on for not speaking english some black and white correctional officers who don't speak spanish ask him to do things and because he doesn't understand what they're saying, he refuses to do them. They think he's just acting like he can't speak english when he really can. So they start beating him up. They think that by beating him up he'll admit that he can speak english and that he was just acting but he never caves because he literally couldn't. This is one of the things that motivates him to learn english while in jail clemente would take newspapers from the garbage but had no idea what he was reading. So he asked for an english bible because he already had a spanish bible and could learn to translate that way. But the guards denied his request according to Catholics across the aisle, they told him that bibles were for the streets and that jail was **** on earth. So no, he couldn't have a bible instead. The inmates sent him penthouse letter book number 4, 417 pages because they thought it would be funny to give him that instead of a bible, He learned to read and write in English and he wrote 175 letters hoping to try to get more people to fight for his innocence. Among those was one to Oprah, he had no idea who she was, but everyone told him she was the queen of television. Another was to the innocence project. The Innocence project was founded in 1992 and is now an independent nonprofit that works to free the innocent, prevent wrongful convictions and create systems of justice that are fair, compassionate and equitable for all. Reaching out to the Innocence project was easily one of the best moves Clemente made because in 2011 Clementi's team receives a response and they helped. Clemente is legal team in seeking DNA testing of more than 80 pieces of evidence. Over the course of eight days, the Seminole County Sheriff's office had collected over 197 pieces of evidence from the crime scene. At 1 21 vagabond way and trial counsel failed to test critical pieces of evidence that were capable of proving Clementi's innocence. The team has a list of items they asked to be tested, shorts, panties and tank top of Cheryl Williams, two white towels, one with suspected blood from the southeast bathroom swabs from the southeast bathroom sink and tub, cotton swabs with blood from different parts of the knife. Blood drops from the kitchen table, kitchen floor and kitchen counter. Pieces of carpet with suspected blood from the Northwest living room, foyer and south living room, as well as the Southwest bedroom. Mark Van Sant's clothing, interior and exterior door handles and a white sock, white shorts and black tank top, all with suspected blood found in the Southwest bedroom. None of these items had ever been tested Nine years after the murder and seven since Clemente was sentenced to prison and death row. The results of the DNA. Tests are presented at an evidentiary hearing. The results exclude Clemente as the source of the D. N. A. At the scene Of 150 crime scene blood stains that were tested. None contained Clementi's d. n. a. By contrast, eight bloodstains all taken from areas close to the victim's bodies in high traffic areas or the bathroom where the state argued at trial that the killer would have cleaned up do shockingly contain the DNA of Samantha Williams, the victim's daughter and granddaughter. If law enforcement had tested the 150 blood samples collected from the crime scene for D. N. A. They would have discovered Samantha's D. N. A. In key locations. For example, one swab of blood taken from the kitchen contained her D. N. A. And it was also found in a swab of blood taken from the southeast living room in an area with blood drops identified as belonging to Cheryl Williams. The southwest bedroom was Samantha's bedroom and contained a small half bathroom. Samantha's DNA was in blood swabs taken from the bathroom floor. Additionally, blood belonging to Cheryl was found in that bathroom on a Nicoderm pack that Samantha told police she had purchased on the evening before the bodies were discovered. Additionally, law enforcement would have discovered Cheryl's blood outside of Samantha's bedroom window, A window that police should have known. Samantha had a habit of climbing out of prior to the murders. The untested evidence also showed there was a third D. N. A. Sample not matching Clemente or the victims located in multiple spots throughout the crime scene, including the tip of the knife used in the murders. None of the blood at the crime scene, Not even one drop belonged to Clemente, including in the bathroom where the state argued, Clemente had cleaned up after the murders, but guess whose DNA, the blood samples found there did contain Samantha's the same Samantha who had a history of mental illness and violence, including violence against her own mother who had even threatened her mother's life and had a seeming motive to kill her. Let's take a quick second to recall episode one. Do you remember how we learned that Mark Van Sant had told law enforcement about how Samantha had been Baker acted. Clemente is new legal team presents evidence that Samantha had a history of mental illness and had been involuntarily taken to the hospital about 60 times for psychiatric evaluations. The records they present reveal surprising details about Samantha's life, including her long history of mental health issues, substance abuse, blackouts and previous violence towards her parents. She has been under psychiatric care since she was 14 years old. Samantha has a long and well documented history of mental illness, including diagnoses of I C. D I E. D, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and psychosis, N. O. S. The Seminole County Sheriff's Office had committed her involuntarily to psychiatric hospitals in September 2001 and again in June 2002, she began abusing alcohol when she was 12 years old and stopped in 2012. She has a history of blackouts but is unsure exactly when they began. Samantha also has a long history of conflict with her mother. Cheryl, which has resulted in numerous calls to the Seminole County Sheriff's office. Cheryl had told the Sheriff's office at least five times that Samantha had run away from home and was missing. Cheryl also called the Sheriff's office to the Williams home on at least two other occasions because of Samantha's violent outbursts and she involuntarily committed Samantha to a mental hospital as a result of what Cheryl described as Samantha's psychotic behavior. Trial Counsel also has in their file. A 2001 police report describing involuntary commitment proceedings against Samantha. The report explains that officers found Samantha intoxicated banging her head against the wall and shouting, I wouldn't care if I die. The underlying baker act records describe a threat to kill her mother on one occasion after the murders while being transported by police, she is recorded saying that her mother and grandmother had quote, died for me In August 2010, just over six years since her mother and grandmother's murders, authorities respond to the Williams home after Samantha sets fire to a blanket inside. They learned she attempted to set herself on fire. Records show that Samantha was experiencing homicidal ideations at the time that she threatened to burn down the hospital where she was taken and that she told others that the demon caused her to try to burn down her house. The records note a history of violent behaviors in which she had hit her mother, shoved her father busted windows out of cars and knocked holes in the walls. Two months before she had busted her ex boyfriend's auto windshield. Samantha is committed involuntarily in October 2010, after she strikes her wheelchair bound father, the responding officer noted that there was a substantial likelihood that Samantha would cause harm to others and heard Samantha say that she deserved to effing die. Samantha testified and she denied being the murderer. She admitted to having a violent temper and having previously been treated for mental illness, She also admits to arguing with her mother the night before the murders. However, in August 2013, Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler denies the motion for a new trial. She rules that the evidence would not have convinced a jury to acquit Clemente. The case was remanded to allow the defense lawyers to present additional evidence. While the appeal of the denial of the motion for a new trial was pending. The evidence they present is shocking. Samantha has made a confession. We'll find out more on the next episode of Secrets Lies and alibis. In our penultimate episode of season one of Secrets Lies and alibis, bombshell statements and disproven alibis will change everything. Samantha's past and confessions shed new light and hopefully prove Clementi's innocence.