Von Stein Family Tragedy Part XXI: Inside the Trail Testimony

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the murder book. I'm your host, Kara. And this is another episode of the Von Stein Family Tragedy. Let's begin. The second week of testimony began on Tuesday with problems. A juror had an eye infection and had to go to a doctor. Another juror had to be dismissed for reading news accounts of the trial, and an internet took his place. It was mid-afternoon before Mitchell Norton was able to call his feature witness of the day, Gerald Neil Henderson. Neil took the stand wearing the same gray suit he had worn in earlier court appearances with a humble expression in his face. And after Neil acknowledged his identity, Judge Watts asked him to speak louder. And he said it's obviously important that all these folks hear what you have to say. It's important that I hear what you have to say. And I have a terrible cold. Norton took Neil through his years of school, his fast advancement, his year at the School of Science and Math, his two years as a senior at Barlett Yancy. And Neil answered in a monotone sounding rehearsed to some in the courtroom. Why had he remained a senior for two years after all of that acceleration in earlier grades?

Welcome And Trial Disruptions

SPEAKER_00 1:24

That's a question that Norton asked. And he said that his parents and himself decided that he wasn't ready to go to college at that point. So he wanted to stay around another year to catch up on some aging. And he said, What do you mean catch up some aging? He said, Well, academically, I was ready to go, but I wasn't mature enough at the time to deal with college.

Neil Henderson Takes The Stand

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Neil went on to tell about meeting Bart, about his first two years in college, about moving off campus. He talked about getting together with Bart in the spring of 1988 to start another Dungeons ⁇ Dragons campaign. He described meeting Chris and went on to tell about the DD games that they played. Norton asked if there had been any discussion of Chris's family, and he said, quote, James and I discussed it at once after a trip he had made with Chris. He mentioned that Chris's parents were quite wealthy. That's the only time Chris's parents were mentioned up until the conspiracy. End quote. That's for you to ultimately to determine, so strike it from your mind. Had Bart told exactly how much money Chris's parents had, and his answer was, well, he said millions, perhaps as much as 10 million. A short time later, Norton got to the meeting at Neil's apartment when Chris and Bart first brought up the plan to kill Chris's parents, which took place two or three weeks before the murder. According to Neil, not the day before, as Chris had testified. So they asked him to describe what happened. And he said, Well, James and Chris came in. We chatted for a couple of minutes about Dungeons and Dragons. Then James said that he and Chris had an idea, a plan for Chris to come into his inheritance early. I remarked to them, Oh, you're going to rob the place. And James shook his head and said, No, we're going to murder his parents so that he inherits. And I asked, What did you say? And Chris started laughing. And James said, My exact words were, Isn't that a little extreme? And they said, No, no, we're serious. Here, let me show you. And they started outlining a plan. Most of the talking was being done by James. Neil described the plan and explained why he was needed as driver. And the answer was, well, at this time, at the time that you agreed to do this, what were, you know, what were you getting out of it, Neil? And he said, Well, I remember it. It was either 2,000

The First Murder Proposal Revealed

SPEAKER_00 4:23

or 20,000. To this day, I'm not sure exactly which it was. So, so was anything said about $50,000 in Ferrari? And he said, No, sir, I don't remember that. Later, Norton asked about the second time that Neil talked with Chris and Bart about the murder. And then came two or three days later. And Neil said, when he stopped by Bart's dorm room in the afternoon, and Chris was there. And Neil said, Well, I just dropped by. They were sitting around talking. When I got there, the conversation turned toward the plan. Not much as was discussed about the actual plan at that point, more it was discussed about what would happen afterwards. He told about Chris saying he would have to be depressed after the murders and that he would go to the beach to cheer himself up and buy cars for all of his friends. And so it was asked, how did the business about buying everybody cars come up? And he said, Well, James was concerned that if only he received a car, people would wonder why he was getting a car. And they said, Well, Chris said that there was no problem. He would go ahead and buy everybody cars. Neil said that he left that day with no timetable set for the murder, no plan for another meeting. Three or four days later, he went up by Bart's room again. This time Bart was alone and he pulled a baseball hat from the closet. And he said, Neil said he laid the hat on one of the beds in the room. He said he said that he thought about how he was going to do it and the bat as the primary weapon. He said that he wanted something that would at least knock someone out in one hit. He was not at all sure that he could use a knife and quickly do anything. He said one could hit from a bat should do what he wanted done. And so they asked him, What was that the first time that you had ever seen the bat? And he said, No, sir. For about as long as I have known him, he always had a bat with that. And Bart scrolled on his legal path, That's not true. That is, and he wrote, you know, BS. Neil continues saying that Bart showed him a hunting knife and he planned to use, then pull out a pair of black and white batting gloves and began putting black shoe polish on the white parts. He said that we were going to try for a day in the upcoming morning. I think this meeting was on a Thursday or Friday. He said that Chris has neither already left to go home or was going to go home the next day to find out the family's plans for the upcoming week. He said, I think to get a house key. I'm not sure whether he had one with him at that state or not. He asked me about my schedule if it was right. If it was for the coming week, and he told him that he had Sunday night off. So he told me to keep it open, that that would probably be the night we were going to go. So on Sunday morning, according to Neil, Bart came to his apartment, gave him the map, told him to meet him at the parking lot about midnight, and that's what that was what he did. So now they're gonna ask him, did he have anything with him at the time? And the answer was, yes, sir. He had a green book bag or backpack and the baseball bag. The qu the asked the question was, and what, if anything, did he say to you when you arrived? And he said the answer was let's go. That's about it. So Norton retrieved the knife sack that had been introduced as evidence, handed it to Neil, and asked if he recognized it. He said, Yes, sir. Neil went on to describe how Bart had the bad stuff into the bag along with the knife and clothing. Always before, Neil said Bart had used the bag to carry school books or Dungeons and Dragons books. Norren got Neil to describe the Dungeons and Dragons books and asked over Frank Johnston's objections why Bart would need them. And he said he would have to have access to the books frequently as he was the Gamesmaster.

Weapons, Timing, And The Midnight Meet

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Is that why they was called the Gamesmaster? He said its technical term would be dungeon master. Despite all of the defense efforts to keep it out, Bart, the Dungeon Master, with all of his sinister connections or connotations, was finding informally an evidence. Neil went on to describe the route he took to Washington and how Bart had changed clothes, shirt, and pants in the car as they neared the town. He said, I believe he changed shoes. I think he was wearing boots when he arrived at the car, but he changed into tennis shoes. And so they asked him, Do you recall anything about his tennis shoes? And he pointed out, right, at them. And he said, I think they were black. Jim Upchurch shook his head. To him, all of Neil's testimony sounded planned and practice. Neil carefully described the route he took to Smallwood, passing to identify photographs of landmarks. The district attorney submitted into evidence. They arrived about 2:30. He drove past the subdivision without noticing it at first, and then turned and went back. He then he said, quote, James asked me to pull into Lawson Road. He wanted to see the area in front of the house. So I'd pull in. You know, when we went back by Chris's house from the front, I didn't identify it. James kind of counted down five hours and said, There is the plan. They drove on around the block and found the wooded lot that Jesus had marked, sorry, Chris's had marked at the spot for James to get out, according to Neil. And he said, We didn't stop, we kept on going. He wasn't ready. We were just looking around and seeing what things looked like. The judge, however, was ready to stop. And it was well after five, and he valued uh he called the attorneys to the bench and declared a recess. Neil returned to the stand Wednesday morning to finish his story of the murder mission, telling it just as he first had told it so to the police months

The Drive To The Von Stein Home

SPEAKER_00 11:59

earlier. He identified the baseball bat present when Bart drew black triangles on it with a magic marker, he said, and identified the burned remnants of clothing as being the sweater and jeans Bart had worn that night. He told of talking with Bart about the murder in the weeks after it happened, then not seeing him again for months until Bart came asking for a place to stay the previous spring. He described Bart's reaction after John Taylor brought the NASA around to ask if they would ever seen it. He he said, Leo said he admired to me that he had forgotten the bag and had left in the house. He then said that the police were closing in on him and he was heading out of town. He told me that I didn't have anything to worry about, his exactly his exact words

Aftermath, Fear, And Confession

SPEAKER_00 13:11

were look, you just drove the car. If worse comes to worse and Chris confesses it's your work and stiss, and no one's going to believe Chris or you. Don't worry about about it. But he said, But I'm getting out of town. After leaving the apartment, Bart called him at work rather than at home. And Neil said he was afraid of the phones being tapped. He asked me to get together as much money I could and to get it to him as fast as possible. I think he that he was going to get out of town. So Neil went on to describe his confession and to explain that no deal was offered beforehand. He told this this the making. Because he was afraid that the phones were being tapped, he asked me to get together as much money as I could and get it to him as past as fast as possible that he was going to get out of town. Neil went on to describe his confession, to explain that no deal was offered beforehand. He told of making his plea bargain with the state in December. Norton, as specifically Bonnie van Stein, Angela Pritchard, Budget Mitchell, or Quincy Blackwell had anything to do with the plot of the two murder. So of course, Leith and and Rob Leith and robbed the house. Neil answered no in each case. Okay, so he and Bart and Chris were involved, he said. So Norton handed him a color photograph of Leith's body. And he said, I want you to look at the photograph. Do you do for that? Do you do that? And he uh tears came from Neil's eyes and he choked. And he said, No, sir. And so the lawyer asked, the prosecutor asked, You participated in seeing that it was done though? He said, Yes, sir. Neil, why? Why did you get involved in the murder of Leith von Stein? And the judge what overruled the objection. He said, Well, at that time I really didn't feel very good about myself and I needed friends. James Upchurch and Christopher Pritchard were my friends. What they proposed to me, it seemed like an adventure just to go off in the middle of the night and come back. Yeah. The plan was there for somebody to get hurt, but up until he actually got out of the car with the weapons. I really didn't fully believe that he would do it. I kept myself, yeah, he's just going to go in and come back out, and it would be all the big joke, and he would all go back and show about it about it for years to come. Only he didn't come back and say it was a big joke. He came back and said he had killed somebody. So they asked him, did the money have anything to do with agreeing to participate in or driving the car? He said, No, not really. He said if you didn't do it for money, Neil, why did why did you do it? And he said, Well, it's like I said, my friends wanted me to help. So I didn't really think anybody would get hurt, so I helped them out. So the judge asked, is there any cross-examination? And just as Weyland's sermons have done with Chris, Frank Johnston began with gentle questions for Neil, asking about his years in school. But Neil had been warned about sharp and vigorous cross-examination, and he was braced for it. And a vigorous cross-examination was done, and the hard questions were not long in coming. Johnston quickly C rode in on the description in Neil's and Chris testimony. He says that Johnston handed a Nazi a Nazi to Jim, a Nazi calendar for July 1988, along with a uh a red pen, and asked him to mark the day, the Bart and Chris came to him with a plan. We'll be right back. So Johnston went on to bring out other discrepancies that Neil had identified Chris's car as black instead of white, that he originally told the police that he and Bart said little on the way back to Raleigh, that they just turn up the music

Cross-Examination And Timeline Disputes

SPEAKER_00 18:49

on the radio and listen to it. So he asked him, Isn't it true that Chris Pritchard's car didn't have a radio in it? And he said, I don't know. So isn't it true that his radio had been stolen the weekend of July 4th, 1988? He said, I don't know. Isn't it true that when you made your statement to the officers on June 9th that you have been told that someone had told the officers that you were involved in this matter? And at that, it would be better for you to go ahead and tell what happened rather than to remain silent. He said, no, sir, that's not what happened. And so he said, now you have told us that you were celebrated through school, skipped several grades, that you were recommended to the School of Math and Science because of your academic abilities. Isn't it true, Mr. Henderson, that you were termed by many as a genius? He said, some might say that, some might not. It depends on who you ask. He said, isn't it true that you had from the time that this incident occurred until June the 9th, approximately 11 months before you ever made any statement to any officers that you now say is the truth about the matter? He said, 11 months sounds about right. Said, okay. And before you make the statement, you in fact had several denials of any involvement in this matter. He said, no, sir. I said once that I did not recognize a book bag. He said, isn't it true that there has been an additional period of six or seven months since you say you first came forward to the police with this information? He said, yes, sir. During all this period, you have certainly had ample opportunity to think about your situation and what would be in your best interest, have you not? Yes, sir. In recognition of your plea, is it not true that the state reduced charges against you and has agreed not to prosecute other charges? That was the plea bargain, yes, sir. And isn't it true that by your plea you are not facing the death penalty? Yes, sir. And how do you how you did in court and what you said may have a significant impact on what type of sentence you might receive? Isn't that true? I was told that it would be entirely up to Judge Watts. Were you told, Mr. Henderson, if you got on that stand and verified the facts that the state wanted you to verify that it may help you in sentencing? Say no, sir. I was told to give truthful testimony. It said so on my piece of paper, and that's all I am doing. Isn't it true that in order for you to testify in this case that you came down to Elizabeth City on Monday and spent some time with the District Attorney's Office going over your testimony and reviewing the maps and other pieces of evidence? Said yes, we we have talked. And you have talked for several hours, didn't you? A couple of hours, probably. Okay, so after receiving permission from the judge, Johnston. He rose from the defense table and handed Neil this photograph of Leif's bloody body that Norton had shown Neil earlier. And then he said, Isn't it true that the last time you saw Mr. Von Stein was that you saw him in that condition or put him in that condition on July 25th, 1988? Say, no, sir, that is not true. I did not do that and I could not do that. Isn't it true that none of these occasions that you have testified to that James Up Church was with you? No, sir, that's not true. He was with me and he did do what I said he did. So I don't have any further questions. Lauren Mitchell did have more questions. Did Neil have any plea agreement when he made his statement to the police? A lawyer? No to both questions. Did he tell the truth? Yes. Was he concerned about the colour of the car? Not at all. Had he described the bath to the police before they found it? He said, I think so. I can't remember. Any doubt that it was Bart's bath? None. Was the bathroom in Chris's suite in Lee Dorm where Neil put the car's car keys after returning to Raleigh actually in Chris's room? No. That's all I have. So anything else, Mr. Johnson? asked the judge. So he said, just one question, Mr. Henderson. Isn't it true that you had no reason to be in Lee Dorm the morning of July 25th, 1988? He said, no, sir, I have to take the keys back up there. Didn't James have to go right up there within two floors of Chris's room? He said, he told me to put the keys there. I put the keys there. Said no further questions. Bart had grown increasingly upset as Johnston's cross-examination had gone on. He had won his sermons to cross-examine Neil, but the lawyers had planned and prepared for sermons to take Chris, Johnston to take Neil. So Bart thought that he could have done a better job than Johnston. So Neil handled more than Frank handled Neil. And this is what he said later. After Neil's testimony, or in the courtroom, were aware that the state had finished the essence of its case, the rest would be anticlimatic. The big remaining question of the trial was whether Bart would take the stand to defend himself against his two formal friends. We'll be right back. Jim Upchurch was the first witness in his son's behalf on Friday morning. He testified that on Tuesday, July 19th, 1988, the day before Chris, according to his testimony, first brought up the subject of murder with Bart at the Golden Corral. He picked his son up on Hillsborough Street at about 5 30 p.m. and took him home at to Caswell County. Joanne's grandfather had died in Gaston County and Joanne wanted Bart to attend the funeral. Jim said that he and Bart drove to Gastonia Wednesday morning. So William Sermon asked, And was your son present at the funeral? He said yes. He was there with his sisters and brother and mother. Jim said that he attended a business meeting in Charlotte after the funeral, then drove back to his job in Raleigh, leaving Bart with his father in Gastonia. Joanne dropped Bart off at Carolyn's house on Thursday and Jim said that he picked him up there after work and took him to the farm, where Bart spent the night with him. He dropped Bart off on the campus on his way into work Friday morning, Jim said, but from Tuesday night until Friday morning, the time during which Chris maintained they were planning the murder, Bart had not even been in Raleigh. Severin asked if Bart ever had a baseball bat. He said no. Did you ever see one around the house?

Defense Witnesses And Reasonable Doubt

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Say no, sir, not to my knowledge. Did your son ever have a green knapsack? Say no, sir. Did you go by his room and rally on occasions? He said yes, sir, a number of times. Did you ever see a wooden baseball bat in the room? No, sir. On the cross-examination, Norton showed that Jim knew little about Bart about what Bart did in Raleigh. Jim had heard of Hank and Chuck, but didn't know their last names or anything about them. He had never heard of Chris until after Bart was charged with murder. He had not seen Bart much at all after dropping him off at the campus after the funeral. He said, I talked to him on the telephone occasionally from my office. I didn't know he was home Thanksgiving. I don't recall exact times that I may have seen him during that time. He said, Of course, you don't know where he was or what he did on the weekend of the 24th and the 25th, do you? He said, No, sir. Do you know a person by the name of Christy Newsom? Yes, sir. Do you recall telling Mrs. Newsom that you didn't know where your son was, didn't know how to contact him or get up with him? Yes, sir, I told her that. In fact, Mrs. Newsom contacted you on several occasions, did she not? Yes, sir. Trying to locate your son, wasn't she? Yes. And do you recall over what period of time Mrs. Newsom or others were contacting you trying to find your son? Said I I spoke with Mrs. Newsom's several times. I don't recall the exact time frame, but it was in the spring of 1989. How long a period of time was it that you lost track of your son? He said, I made contact with him by telephone from time to time. I don't recall the exact I may have been, I may have spoken with him one time and then it may have been several weeks before I spoke to him again, usually by telephone. Sometimes he would call me and ask to borrow $5. He was running short. His job, he didn't pick up a paycheck or something. And I would drop up $5 or $10 on Hillsborough Street. We will meet up there. Was that during the same period of time that you told Mrs. Newsom that you didn't know where he was or how to contact him? He said, off and on, yes, sir. Did he play ball when he was a young man? Or child? He said, play basketball with his friends. Never play baseball. He said, no, he wasn't that athletic. Never played baseball? Not to my knowledge. Where was he supposed to be living in June of 1989? He was staying with friends. I don't know where in Raleigh exactly. He said, did you know that he was supposed to be living with Neil Henderson in June of 89? He said at one point he called me and said he was moving in with Neil. But you never went around then. He said, no, sir, I didn't know where Neil lived. This was the same period of time where you lost track of him, couldn't find him. He said up to that uh up until that point, I had lost track of him. After that point, when Mrs. Newsom called you, you didn't know where he was, did you? He said no. She called during the spring a couple of times. I told her at the time I really didn't know where he was living. Okay, so specifically after the 9th of June during 1989, didn't Mrs. Newsom contact you on several occasions then trying to find out where your son was? Oh yeah, she called me a number of times, but I don't recall what the dates of those calls were. Do you know when the last time was that you had contact with your son prior to his arrest? He said it was sometime early June, but I don't recall the date. I honestly don't. He said, okay. An uncle of John's followed Jim to the stand, confirming Bart's presence at his great-grandfather's funeral, offering photographs as evidence. Bart's high school friend, Koi Odong, who had introduced Bart to Neil years earlier, was next to testify. He described himself as being close to both Bart and Neil, but closer to Bart. He said, Me and Bart has had have pretty much been brothers, you know, pretty much. He said, Do you recall throughout high school Bart having a wonderful baseball bat? Sorry, a wooden a wooden baseball bat. And he said, no. Said, do you ever recall Bart having a green army knapsack? He said, no, sir. Coy testified that he had visited Bart's dorm room and NC State three or four times and had twice spent the night there with him, but he had never seen a battle or green army bag in the room. Coy said that he had not talked with Neil since the arrest, but he had talked with Bart three times. Did he suggest anything for you to testify to or say? He said no, sir. Do you ever play baseball? He said no, sir. Or have I ever played baseball? Yes. Said yes, I have played baseball. Have you ever been convicted of any criminal offense, Mr. O'Done? He said, no, sir. Norton asked if he had seen martial arts, weapons, and Bart's dorm room. And he hadn't. And then said, did you look in his closet? He said, no, sir. Look in his drawers while you were there? Say no, sir. So what are you saying is you don't know what was in the closet or in the drawers or other things in the room, do you? He said, I don't really think he had much of anything. He had a bicycle that I knew of. I think he had a sofa that, you know, he pretty much carried around with him. A sofa that he carried with him. Say, you know, different places that he travel. I ain't for sure, but it seems like to me two or three places. Said, you don't know what he had other than the bicycle to you, Mr. Oldon. Isn't that the truth of the matter? He said, no, sir. I don't really think he owned much of anything besides the clothes on his back. The next witness was a window glass manufacturer who had been sent to the Von Steinhouse to examine the glass in the door to the back porch after Chris's testimony. It was not plexiglass, he said, but standard point double paned window glass. Sherman said for a photograph of Burch Mitchell into evidence so the jurors could see what he was, that he was black, and it was passed to them. He said, Any other evidence for this defendant? asked Judge Watts. He said, Your Honor, that's the evidence for the defendant. Reporters in the audience were surprised. They had expected, certainly had hoped, that Bart would testify in his own behalf. It was not that he didn't want to, but for he for he did, he was certain that he could convince the jurors that he had nothing to do with any murder. But in this instance, his lawyers had prevailed. Bart could testify to nothing that his plea didn't already say. His lawyers told him that. Also, if he got on the stand, his entire record would be bared or barred for the jurors. They would know that he was under house arrest, had cut his leg banned, and fled after John. John Taylor. So Taylor came showing the army knapsack. He could invest that, his lawyers warned. What they didn't tell him was that his cockiness, his eagerness to argue with the district attorney, his smirking expression surely would alienate the jurors beyond scope. Silent with his parents and grandmother behind him, he has at least maintained the appearance of one newspaper report that had described him as a clean cut, quintessential, upper class college student, an image the jurist might find sympathetic. It would be that image, combined with the discrepancies in testimony and an appeal to reasonable doubt that Bart's fate would rest. Bart had been busy himself working on final arguments for his attorney to present. He had written on his legal path the following. These two gentlemen developed and followed through on a plan to get rich by murdering an entire family. And now the state would ask you to believe them when they testify against a third party to avoid going to death row. Acting in their own self-interest, CP and NH have caused the death of one man. Don't let them succeed in doing it to another. There is as much evidence that each of you committed this crime as did the defendant. The defendant gave an alias when questioned by a campus police officer. Is this strange a strange thing for college students to do? When the SBI came and told the defendant that he was under arrest for murder, he ran. Damn right, he ran. If he had gotten away, maybe he wouldn't be here accused of murdering somebody he would have never even met. The defendant did not run when questioned by campus police. He did not even run when brought to the station house. He ran when he was told he was being charged with murder. If the defendant was the brutal murderer the DA says him to be, why didn't he strike on fight or fight against Aiden Young when he was dragging him off balance for about 10 feet? If you were charged with murder and knowing were you innocent, would you come along with you know peacefully and be in the defendant's shoes right now? Neil's plea bargain was to testify against me and Chris. Chris' plea bargain was to uh was to testify against me. Chris could have testified that. I didn't have anything to do with it, but the DA would have said that he was just covering for him. The DA thinks Neil's uh testimony is truthful, even though there's no evidence to support it. Chris made a bargain to save his life. Of course, he's going to yes man Neil. They ask him, Do you have enough faith in the testimony of CP and NH to send Bart Upchoe to the gas chamber? And he said, all the facts, evidence, testimony, medical testimony says that CP and NH are lying. The judge decided there would not be time for final arguments this day, however. And he reaches court for the weekend.