Sure, Blame it on the Boyfriend

Join Casey and Sarah as they discuss the case of Tara Baker. Years after a law student is murdered, renewed attention leads to an arrest and a courtroom twist.

Source: Dateline

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

You're like, I am willing to sacrifice the quality of this audio. To not die. To not melt into a pile of goopy. Hello, everybody. I'm Casey Forbes. And I'm Sarah Cuvia. And welcome to Let the Good Crimes Roll. Disclaimer: it is a thousand degrees. Like apparently, we live on the sun. Yes. We've just moved there inside my podcast room, despite my husband's best efforts. It's very hot in here. So we have a silent fan. That's not so silent. That's not super silent. So we apologize in advance. Last week I apologize for the kind of staticky. Yo, I can literally not change anything. And it just screws up a need some sort of technician to come in and like take this over.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

This is like a recurring thing with us. Like nothing in here changes. No. But it's like a toss-up whether everything's gonna work right or not, week to week.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Because I hit record and sometimes it's like, yeah, hello. And then other days it's like, what just happened? We got a fan mail through Buzz Sprout. We do not know how to reply.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

I think I'm locked out of Buzz Sprout. Not locked out, but I don't think I remember my email.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

I'll give it to you to take a look in there. Like surprisingly, people are actually still listening. Like we, it's like in the past 30 days. I'm like, who is listening to us?

SPEAKER_02 1:31

We not put out a new episode in a few years. People still download even when we don't put out new stuff because I'll still get the stats on it. Yeah. And even when we haven't published in a while, like we have like all these downloads.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

And I'm like, what where are you people at? Y'all are fabulous. It's amazing. The question was where can you get my book? Yes. Right now, nowhere. It is set to be available to purchase the first Tuesday in August. It is done. The editor has signed off on it, everything. I just haven't been happy with the cover. And so I was telling Sarah that my high school geometry teacher, who retired and has taken up watercoloring, asked if she could make a cover for me. And she's one of these people that just brings out the artists and everybody. I don't know how she became a math teacher. She should have been an art teacher. And so she read the book. She read it in a day. She loved it. Look at you. You said, I thought I turned mine off.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Do you know that canon?

SPEAKER_03 2:27

He's Can Man, yeah. He's like the biggest, he's been like the biggest person to say, why don't you have a new episode out? I love that kid.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Because you call me while I'm recording. Livvy loves him. He's like so hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 2:37

He's such a he's something. Let me tell you. But yeah, so she's gonna work on this book cover. But I have a cover. It's it's kind of this generic cover. I'm gonna print out some ARC advanced reader copies. Okay. The whole point of them is not for you to give me negative feedback. Okay, because the book is done. Yeah, there will be no more editing. No more edit. If you are interested in being arc reader for me and getting some like cool stuff, like I'm gonna print out some bookmarks and stuff. Yeah, send me an email. It is caseyforbes1120 at outlook.com or send a message through Facebook or TikTok. Not TikTok, because I don't like I pretty much stay on my my bookshop TikTok. You can message me through the bookshop TikTok. Reach out to me, and if you're close by, you can come to the shop and pick it up. If you're far away, I can mail it to you. But you have to promise me that you're gonna read it and you're gonna go on good reads and you're gonna give it a good review. Oh, nice. Yeah. I don't want bad reviews. Okay. Even if it's terrible, I just keep it to yourself because I put a lot of time and energy into this and I'm not changing it.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

It would really hurt my feelings. I mean, you're like so much like you're tougher than me because I I cry in the shower. It's okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:51

I just hold it in and go with a shower go. Just sing to myself, and I need you now tonight. Yeah, yeah. No. I just laugh, I just laugh at the stupid. You know what I mean? Like, I'm just like, okay, I deal with stupid all the time. Yeah. Not at my bookstore. That's I that's delightful in my personal life, I guess. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Oh, wait, so give people an update on the bookstore.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

So we had a soft opening this past weekend. If you didn't hear about it, it's because I literally announced it mid-inventory. I'm like, you know what? I'm really bored. If y'all want to come in, come check it out. We did so good. Opened for two hours today, and we we had such a phenomenal turnout. Oh my gosh. The community in central and even locally, like we had a lot of people from Livingston Parish that came. They're wonderful. Everyone has been wonderful. I'm so grateful to you all. So we are doing a red ribbon cutting. Is that right? Ribbon cutting? Why'd I say red? Red ribbon week. I mean the carpet is red. Red carpet. I don't know. The ribbon is red. Anyway. Oh my god. What is this? Look, we installed a ring.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Oh my lord. Oh yeah, I saw that.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

So we're having a ribbon cutting on Tuesday. But as of Tuesday, I'm officially employed full-time again.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Ooh, Casey. But I actually like my job now.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

So yes, I love it. So come and see me. I am at 12. I'm gonna tell y'all right. Y'all gonna end up at the wrong place. 13623 Hooper Road, sweet D is and dog. Dog. Dog. Like deputy dog. Sweet D is and deputy dog. Baton Rouge, 70818, even though it's not Baton Rouge, it's in Central. Yeah. If you're familiar with the area, we are next to Old Pets. One lady say, I thought you said old pets. So I went to track your supply. I said, honey, I'm so sorry. I'm old peths. I'm gonna enunciate the end of the happy scoops. Happy scoops, yes. Yes, we love so how cool is this? The people that own happy scoops we've gotten together next Saturday. I haven't figured out how this is actually gonna work, but I'm gonna try. If you come to my store and you have a receipt from their store, I'm gonna give you five percent off of a your purchase to celebrate. And then if you go to their store and you have a receipt from us, they're gonna give you a five percent. But then nice. I told my husband, like, you gotta start somewhere. So where are you not getting five percent off? So go to theirs, go to me first, get your stuff, then go get you an ice cream, and then bring me the receipt back, and I'll I'll give you a five percent like refund. It might take me a minute to do the math. Yeah, you know, I might have to whip out a calculator, but we're gonna do it. It should do it for you on your POS. It does, yeah. Yeah. Or just be like, look, I heard on your podcast. If you say I heard on your podcast that I will give you a 5% discount off your purchase, just because that means you're listening to our podcast.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

Seriously.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Oh, yeah. And we're gonna start hosting probably in August or September, we're gonna start hosting book clubs at Happy Scoops. Oh, nice! And depending on because we're gonna do it by genre. So depending on the genre, they're gonna pick out a one of their ice creams and they're gonna give it a cool funky name.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 7:08

That's so sweet. So you can come in, we can talk books. I'm gonna try and make it where we're not just generically talking, we're but we're actually discussing the books. Yeah, like guided questions and such. Yes, yeah, and maybe activities or something. So if you're interested in that, just again send me an email or direct message me. I check it from time to time. From time to time. Can you tell? I keep losing my phone and I didn't want to lose it again. It's bright pink now. The brightest pink phone cover. Okay, y'all are all here to listen to some true crimes, so let's get started. Sarah was like, you have to watch. Oh my goodness. No, we're not covering it today. Sorry if you thought if I make you think we are. Sarah's like, you have to watch this show Maternal Instinct. I saw a TikTok. Did you watch that TikTok? I sent you.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Oh yeah, because I had seen it before, and then you sent it to me. I was like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

I cannot wait to discuss this case. Sarah's gonna take the lead on it.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

If y'all haven't watched it on Netflix, please, it's called Maternal Instinct. Please watch it. And so we can all just like be mind-blown by the craziness. Yeah. Because like I kind of figured where it was going, but I had no idea it was gonna go that far.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Me either. And normally I say you don't necessarily have to watch what we talk about because we're gonna tell you. It's a full spoiler. No, go watch this.

SPEAKER_02 8:23

Yeah, just I mean, I really I don't know. I think there would be some added benefit on this one if you go and watch it beforehand.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

You have to watch it first. It is like wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Yeah.

unknown 8:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

But we're not gonna say any more because we don't want to do any spoilers, but you know, yeah, everybody like on social media is talking about it, it's and that there's a reason for it.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

It's something. So let me get my source. We're I'm actually covering today a Dateline episode. I did not realize that Dateline was like back at it. I thought they were like off for the season, but they've been back at it for a hot minute now. Oh, nice with the new episodes out, and so I stumbled upon this one because what better way to do inventory than watch murder shows? You know what I mean? That's the best way. So this is Dateline. This is season 34, episode 23, A Window of Time. And if you want to watch it, you can stream it on Peacock tonight on Date Live.

SPEAKER_05 9:19

She was the light of our family. I can't tell you the pride I had in her. Why would anybody harm her? You just hear there's a house fire, there's a body.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

Yes. Went into the bedroom, and she was laying on her back. I could smell the shampoo in her hair.

SPEAKER_05 9:40

They said we're considering this a homicide. I'm just sobbing. Saying no, Tara, no. It was unbelievable that somebody did this on purpose. Your roommates who were close. What were they asking you about? Just the people in her life. At the law school, at work, and of course, her boyfriend.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

They take pictures of my body, they take pictures of my hands. I just lost it. Five or six persons of interest. And nothing quite fit.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

More than two decades. Finally, you have a name. And like everybody get to headquarters.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

It's painful. I felt like I was the one on trial.

SPEAKER_03 10:20

Okay, so I did all the show notes, but I didn't like go back and write them as if I'm writing a term paper. So we're just gonna go with it, okay? Okay. It's Thursday night in Athens, Georgia, on January 18th, 2001. Tara Baker is studying at the law library at the University of Georgia or UGA. Around 9:30, her friend leaves to walk back to her dorm. And Tara tells her, I'm gonna stay until 10, but call me as soon as you get home. And of course, the friend forgot. I always forget. Same. You walk in and get distracted by something. Yeah. At 9 45, Tara called her friend and was like, Why didn't you call me? And she's like, I'm sorry. It's like I made it home safe. And she said, Okay. Around 10 o'clock, she left the library and she drove. She lived in a little house outside of Athens. She had two roommates who were out of town. The next morning, Tara's house is engulfed in flames. The burners were turned on high and the knobs were pulled off and resting on the counter. Inside Tara's room, the roof had caved in and there was a body on the floor. It looked like she'd gotten out of the shower. There was an electrical cord around her neck. The police were then notified because initially it was just the firefighters on the scene. Right. And once they realized this was a homicide, they contacted the police. The only car that was in the driveway was Tara's. And so police assumed that it was her that was the body on the floor. And so they contacted her mother named Virginia. Virginia lived 80 miles away. And so she called Tara's boyfriend, Chris, who also lived an hour away. They both took off to go to Athens to talk to police. Chris was at a plumbing job. He got there first. And when he arrived, police said, We need someone to identify this body. And at first he was like, I can't do this. If that's her, I cannot see her. But then it occurred to him that if he didn't do it, her mom would have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

And he said, Okay. And so he was provided a picture, but he couldn't make heads or tails of who was in the picture. So he told her that for their anniversary, he had given her some earrings and she always wore them. They were like diamond earrings. And just like in a movie, one of the police officers went in and he came back to Chris and he opened his hand and there were the earrings. It was her. The bedroom was a mess, and gathering evidence was nearly impossible because remember, this is 2001. We've made some pretty significant changes since then. Tara's body had stab wounds and other injuries. The cord around her neck was from her printer, and a knife was found near her body. She had been raped, but there was no evidence of by who. Tara's family arrived at the police station. It was her mom and her sister and her stepdad, and she had a little brother named Kevin. Kevin was 11 years old. Even today, because Kevin is an adult now, he's in his 30s, he still struggles with this as an adult. Can only imagine. Yes, he was heartbroken. They tell the family that they believe this was a homicide. But they don't go into detail. I mean, the only detail they really have is that there was blunt force trauma to her head. I mean, there were multiple things that caused her to die. It was the day before her 24th birthday. Oh. So Tara was the oldest of four. She had a younger brother named Adam, a sister named Meredith, and like I said, Kevin. All had very close bonds with her. And she had this really strong sense of justice and a great sense of humor. And that's kind of what led her to want to become a law student. She met her boyfriend Chris in undergrad. I put in underground. Like wearing underground. And they maintained a long distance relationship when she moved an hour away to go to law school at the University of Georgia. The crime scene technician recalls smelling her shampoo, and he says to this day he can still smell it. She was clearly killed after she got out of the shower early in the morning. And the reason why is because she had a towel kind of wrapped around her, her hair was still wet, and her roommate said she had a very strict routine. Like she would get up at 6 a.m., take a shower, she would make cheese grits, and the bowl of cheese grits was in the sink. And then she would go back in her room and she would fix her hair. So she hadn't gotten to the point where she fixed her hair. She had eaten breakfast. The heat from the fire stopped a clock in her bedroom at 9.32. So she had like a did not a digital, like a clicky clock, you know, click, click, click.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Like an analog clock.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

I guess. I don't know what that means. But the heat caused it to stop at 9.32. So the window of time had to be between 7.30 and 9.30 a.m. that she died. The only thing that was taken was her laptop. There was melted fabrics on the burners. This person had taken a blanket, caught it on fire with the burners, and threw it on top of Tara's bed to start the fire. The roommate was really upset because, like, it was her blanket. And the odd thing was, not long before, there were two other homes less than a block away that had been caught on fire weeks before. Could this be related in some kind of way? But there was no really nothing else to connect everything. Yeah. There were tips that had come in of seeing a man walking alone in the rain around the time of the fire. The doors were locked when firefighters arrived, but a window screen had been taken off of a window and set to the side. Could the killer have snuck in through the window? The crime was incredibly violent, resembling more of a crime of passion than a break-in. Police heard of a law school student called Suit Boy. He was called this because every Friday he would come to class wearing a suit and he would ask women out on dates. And Tara was one of them. Okay. So she died Friday morning. It was like that Thursday night, and she died the Friday morning. He came to class having a head injury. So that looked a little that looked pretty suspicious. Three weeks after she was killed, a memorial was held at the university for Tara. She died before her second semester. Her stepfather gave this tearful speech. Tara's mom believes that it could potentially have been her biological father. She doesn't, but she doesn't know about the rape. All she knows about is there was she was hit in the head really hard. That's all she knows. Tara's parents divorced when she was eight years old. Her father was not a good guy, and Tara completely cut off communication with him and even dropped his last name. And previously, he had discovered her address and he sent her a letter, and she was very upset. And so her mom believed that maybe he came to her house and confronted her, and things turned violent. She doesn't know. The police take that into consideration, but when they investigate him, he's got an airtight alibi. There's no way he did this. They were also looking at her boyfriend Chris, who let me tell you, Chris was hot back then. Yeah, Chris is hot now. Still. Because as a 40-year-old women woman, I'm attracted to like 40, 50-year-old men. I mean, if I in my 20s, I'd be like, ew, he's old.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

But he had like that square jaw. He had a beard. He was kind of bald, but you know what? That's okay. I like it. That's all right. He was smoking hot. Yeah. He aged well. Yeah. Okay. Chris voluntarily gave his fingerprints, blood samples, hair samples. They took pictures of his bodies, and they pretty much told Tara's friends and her family to like stay away from him. He is dealing with the loss of his girlfriend, and he can't even talk to her family because they completely cut him off. Nothing at the crime scene could rule Chris in or out because there was just so much damage to the crime scene. Yeah. A year came and went with no arrest. The family really struggled. The police wouldn't tell them anything. The investigation kept changing hands, and they became very frustrated because the police were like, I'm gonna solve this case. And it's the same generic questions over and over again. Yeah. No headway, nothing. Police would give information, then come back and say, Oh, sorry, that didn't happen. They repeatedly questioned her boyfriend, and he had an airtight alibi. Yeah. So let me tell you about his alibi. He spent the night at his parents' house. They said spent the night, so I don't know if he didn't live with him. I don't know. But he was at his parents' house. His dad said he woke up. Remember, he's an hour away. His dad said he woke up at like 5:30 in the morning and Chris's truck was in the driveway. And then at nine o'clock, Chris is on camera at a bank an hour away, making a deposit or doing withdrawal. The branch manager remembers him because he's so hot. And he is on video. So he hasn't he there, he has an airtight alibi. So despite all of this, he should have been cleared. It should have been made public he was made cleared, but none of that happened. Of course not. Chris tried to move on with his life. He built a very successful plumbing business. And despite his frustration, he always answered questions, answered his phone when the police would call him. Four years after the murder, a new investigator came in. He wanted to get the case solved. Initially, he did suspect Tara's boyfriend. When he looked at the evidence they had for Chris's boyfriend, he officially cleared him. And he says, I don't know why he wasn't cleared. Yeah. This poor man had this shadow, this cloud just over his head all these years. And there was no proof that the two of them had a bad relationship. They were very much in love, but he had an ironclad alibi. Like there's just nothing that tied him to this. There was evidence to prove he he had nothing to do with it. So he officially cleared him, and he tells the family he did not do this. Yeah. And so they're able to kind of like reach out to him and make peace with him and apologize for all those things. Yeah, I was gonna say I bet they felt bad. Yes. So this is where things get a little wonky. As the detective was digging through the stack of evidence, he noticed something. There was a maintenance man who had a key to Tara's apartment. While looking at the crime scene, this maintenance man shows up at the scene. He is on camera by media, like standing outside of the crime scene tape, just like looking everything. Police even talk to him and he gives them an example of how someone could have broken in by taking the screen off. Okay. Like if ever you were if ever you were like just shut up.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Yeah. Quit talking. It's basically telling them how you did it.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Right. But nothing came of it because there was no evidence to tie him to it. Right. He was just a nosy ass maintenance man who could not keep his trap shut. Police never interviewed him. Like ever. So he was brought in by this new detective. He volunteered information that only the killer would probably know. You would think, but he didn't confess to the murder. And unfortunately, again, there was not enough evidence for this detective to arrest him, but he was like, This is highly suspicious. Like, how did you even know this? You creep. Okay, so in 2019, when the detective was about to retire, he called Tara's family and he told them everything because they really withheld a lot of information. Yeah, so all this time they didn't know like those that she was raped. They didn't know the significance of her death. Yeah. And her mom was like, Well, now I feel like a dumbass because I'm like, look at my ex-husband. And they're all looking at her like, why would he rape his own daughter? Yeah. Because she didn't know. She didn't know. So after 18 years without any answers, it's time for the gay podcaster to take the stage. Okay. Okay. So we meet Cameron J. Cameron J reaches out to Virginia Baker. He tells her he is a UGA student. Did is that right? UG Yeah, UGA University of Georgia. Okay. That he is a UGA student and he is going to make a podcast. And he wants to just bring to light this case. And she's like, what the hell's a podcast? He's like, after I explained it to her. So She agreed and she brought in Meredith, her daughter, who was now in her 30s, married with children. Meredith asked Chris, the boyfriend, if he would be involved. He agreed as well. And the podcast was called Classic City Crime. His initial goal was to bring a light to Terra's case. Unlike our podcast, Cameron's blew up. He then started receiving tips. And after two years, he eventually ended the show because there was nothing else. Like he didn't want to he didn't want to like continue to bring this stuff up to this family when there was no closure. Yeah. But by the spring of 2022, the new detective who was only a rookie at the time Tara was murdered, he was asked to stand guard at the initial scene. He then became the chief that was over it. Okay. So he knew this case like from the first day. Meanwhile, Cameron, the podcaster, noticed a similar case in another town, and he united that family, they were the Colemans, to the Bakers so that they could petition or rally Georgia to allocate funds to a cold case unit for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. So they get five million dollars allocated to the cold case unit to the GBI, and like these two FBI agents who are really, really good at their job have unlimited resources.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Yes. And they can focus solely on not just this case, but like other cases, but like there are unlimited, they have like state-of-the-art laboratories where they can test things that maybe in 2001 wouldn't have gotten them anything. Cameron J really came in and he he's the unsung hero, in my opinion, of this whole case. So the two agents it was assigned to were Liz and Jeremy. And for the first time in a long time, the Baker family truly felt hope. It'd been 22 years since Tara was murdered. Enough time, technology, and resources were available to solve the case. A new cutting edge lab was available for additional testing. The knife that they found, the cord that was wrapped around her neck. Tara also had a sexual assault kit that initially had no clues, but two decades later it was retested. The family prepared for a really long process. That's what the FBI told them. Like it takes time. The average waiting period for this could be up to nine months.

SPEAKER_02 24:21

To test the rape kit?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

Yeah, for to get results back. Okay. But two and a half months later, unknown male DNA was found in the rape kit. That's huge. Tara's boyfriend's DNA was found, but there was also unknown male DNA.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:35

Despite the fact that they had an ironclad alibi, they did their due diligence and they brought Chris in.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:41

Now, remember, this has been almost a qu like this is 25 years. Okay, so his memory is crazy. He got confused. They asked him, like, when was the last time that you and Tara had been together? He said, I think it was 10 days. And when they interview him, he's like, all I remember was it was the Sunday before. So I he's like, it's like his brain, he's like, I just got confused about the number of days. I just remember it was the Sunday before, which was five days. And he's like, I just I it's been so long. But originally he had told him it had been five days because it had been five days. I mean, this was a Thursday, they were together Sunday. So that makes more sense. But the unknown male DNA, they found a match to a man, and it is a name we have not heard this entire time. His name was Edric Fost. He had a rap sheet a mile long and he lived 585 feet from Tara's home at the time of her murder. He was a neighbor. Oh my gosh. After doing some investigating, police concluded there was no reasonable explanation for Edric's DNA to be found inside of Tara. Yeah. And also, remember, there were witnesses who saw a man who fit Edric's description walking away from the house wearing a hoodie at the time of the fire. Multiple. In May of 2024, Edric was arrested in a Walmart parking lot. When they brought him in, he himself said, No, I had no connection to Tara. We, you know, I didn't even know her. And so they're like, Well, then why is your DNA inside of her? And he couldn't give them an explanation. He immediately stopped the interview and requested a lawyer. And let me tell you, the lawyer he gets is the stupidest lawyer I've ever seen on TV. So he's arrested. No one in Tara's life knew who this man was.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

I mean, nobody. They really thought it was the maintenance man. That's who even police. It was the dumbass maintenance man who's like, I could have easily gotten him by just taking the screen off. You know, it's like, just shut up. That's what you get for being freaking nosy. I'm telling you, that wouldn't happen to my dad. He would be arrested.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Number one suspect in a murder.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Yeah, because he's nosy. You gotta be coy about it, dad. So after seeing his rap sheet, and y'all, his rap sheet was a mile long. Tara's sister and myself were floored that this man was even walking around. I mean, I'm talking assault. He stabbed someone in the face. Oh my god. Violent crimes. So when the case went to court, the defense attorney's only logic was to put Tara's boyfriend at the time on trial, Chris. Wait, what? The defense, their whole defense was the boyfriend did it, and they are setting my client up. Okay, okay. That was the whole defense. Like literally. And it was so bad. So the prosecution calls in the witnesses from 2001. Edric was a black man, and these witnesses testified that he fit the description of, they couldn't say for sure it was him, but he fit the description of Edric that they saw. So let's put this all together, y'all. His DNA was found in her house. He lived across the street from her. He was seen possibly leaving her house at the time of the murder. He has a rap sheet a mile long that is very violent, especially violent to women. He's a pretty damn good suspect. And then you have Chris who has an ironclad alibi. Yeah. So for everything that they accused Chris, the defense accused Chris of the prosecution would debunk it. So like they brought in the branch manager of the bank who saw him, who served him, who had the backup to show that he filled out and signed video footage. Like, there's no way this man could have done that. Right. Probably one of the stupidest things and the saddest things was that they showed Chris, Chris was on the stand, they showed him a picture of Tara's body on the autopsy slab. He had never seen it before.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

And you can just see the blood like leave his face. And the defense attorney's like, Well, why aren't you crying? Uh-uh. I'm sorry, what? Maybe because he's in shock. I was gonna say he's probably shocked. Like everybody's just like, oh my god, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. And then he even told the jurors. So Tara was found with hair in her hand. And the defense attorney said, Well, the hair in her hand was a Caucasian person's hair. It was her hair. It was her own hair. It was her own hair. So she lied, he either didn't know that or he intentionally lied to the juries. Yeah. To the jurors. This is just something I'm gonna say, and some people might get their feathers ruffled. This man was guilty of sin. Guilty of sin. But there were people protesting outside. And I'm like, y'all, we have to quit. We have to quit making villains heroes simply because of the color of their skin. Were they like protesting because he was because he was a black man? That was their whole thing, is he was a black man and that he was set up by the police and that this handsome white man did it. Y'all, come on, come on. Like, no, no, he didn't. We know what time the clock stopped because of the fire. It was 9 30 a.m. At 9 a.m. He was an hour away. Right. There was no way he could possibly have made it there from killing her. Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

It's not Chris the boyfriend.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

Chris the boyfriend. Also, why of all the human beings on planet Earth would Edric Faust's DNA, his sperm, be inside this woman?

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:07

And he lived across the street from her. So we we've got to stop this. We've got to stop this. You can be mad at me for saying this. Right is right and wrong is wrong. And it just, I don't understand. Like it got so bad. The fan Terrace family were like people online were just destroying it, were being awful. Chris had to like take his website down for his business because his business, they were like attacking his business. Yes. And I'm like, y'all have to look at the facts and go by the facts. And again, I might get in trouble for saying this, but I'm so sick of this. It's like, no, like right is right and wrong is wrong. I mean, like, if this case was put in front of you and you did not see anyone's skin color, you didn't see anyone's skin color. You just looked at the facts. What's the truth? You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, we have to look at the truth. We have to look at the truth. It doesn't matter if you're white, black, whatever. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Yeah. And that's all I'm gonna say about it. Because the family of this victim, a woman died, who was minding her business, was in her home, not doing anything to anybody, and she died. She was brutally murdered for no reason except for a deranged man walking the street and he broke into her home and he killed her. And that's wrong. I mean, that's not right. I mean, like, stop turning bad people into martyrs. I mean, he's not a martyr. I don't know. I could just go on this round page for days because it's like, I'm just so sick of this. I'm so sick of it. Like, nobody looked at this man and said, Well, because of your skin color, we're going to like he was on nobody's radar.

SPEAKER_02 31:46

Yeah, I wonder what the the the media frenzy was like for. A lot, apparently.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Apparently, it was a lot. Because I mean, this happened like just two years ago. I don't recall it, but like I they said it was a lot of backlash, and there were protesters saying he should be let go, he's being framed. No, he's not being framed. He murdered this woman. He's savage. There is undeniable, indisputable evidence. It's been 25 years. If this man was on the radio.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Are you still protesting even after like the verdict? Oh, yeah. Like after all the details have been released, he's still protesting. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 32:19

And even like I can some maybe I can understand a little bit his family being in denial. Because if my child was convicted of something like that, like obviously like there's no way he could have done that. But let me remind you, this man had a rap sheet a mile long. He was violent. Yeah. He he was I mean, it's is it that shocking that he I mean he stabbed a person in the face? In the face, in the face, and they didn't die, so he didn't get murder charges. So is it really that hard to believe that he is capable of this? Like, why would you want this man walking amongst you because he's a danger to you as well? Yeah, you know, I just I don't get it. I just I don't oh it just mm anyway. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 45 years. He is appealing the conviction, and his bul his followers truly believe he's gonna it's gonna be overturned.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Really?

SPEAKER_03 33:11

Yeah, yeah. I'm just like, huh. Can we please stop? Can we all just come together as one unified human unit?

SPEAKER_02 33:20

So are they implying like his supporters are implying that the police like planted evidence? Yes, in like implicating him.

SPEAKER_03 33:28

Yeah, because he's a black man. That that's what that's what the implication was according to Dateline. Now, if there's something different, I'm sorry, you know, but that was my inclination. And I'm just like, again, if if that was the case, they would have done it 25 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

I was gonna say, I feel like if that had been the case, then he would have been the scapegoat from the very beginning, not right, not all this time later.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Well, especially now in the 2020s, when you know, we're really considerate of that, like we're really we're like, no, you know, but I I just y'all got to quit being so stupid and gullible, quit quit defending bad people just because it fits a narrative, you know. And I'm I'm sorry if you don't turn me off. We don't have that many followers anyway. Turn yourself, but like, you know, just stick with the truth. And if Chris didn't murder her, he should not be condemned for her murder, for her murder.

SPEAKER_02 34:21

I feel so bad for him to have lost his girlfriend, to have lived years under suspicion, and then to have like at this trial, have all of these people he said it was a he was like it was horrible, not only rooting for the bad guy, but like so against you when you know in your soul you didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Well, to be shown a picture of your once love that's awful, a picture you'd never seen before because it wasn't what it wasn't the picture he was shown like initially of her body, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Because he didn't like see her in he didn't identify her in person, it was through pictures, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:00

And then he had to say, Well, I you know, she was wearing these diamond earrings, it's her. Yeah, that's traumatic. Yes, and then for the for the oh, and like the defense attorney brought in no witnesses, he did nothing, he just basically said, Oh, my my client is innocent. This is one big setup. And he's like, look at him, he's not crying 25 years later, after I show him this picture where he should be crying.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

So he didn't introduce any evidence that would nothing that would implicate police in in fix okay. He just that's just like his his scenario of what what his plausible idea could be.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

If anything, I could see maybe this man winning an appeal on like a bad attorney. Like, what's the rule where if your attorney is not efficient? Like he probably could win an appeal on that, he'd still have to go back and be retried and get found guilty, but his attorney was horrible. Wow, and I don't understand why the appeal should be on inefficient like representation, because you can't go that. I mean, like the dude had an ironclad alibi, yeah. And they said that he said the defense attorney said Chris's name a hundred times. Really? It just point pointing the finger at Chris, and it's like you're beating a dead horse. Like, do you want to die on the seal? Because you're you're going to. Like you're not the you're not gonna win because he didn't do it. So and he didn't even go in there like they don't have sufficient evidence. You know, I mean, he provided nothing. Yeah, so he he I mean, this man really did have inadequate yeah representation. Well, that's his grounds for appeal, I guess. Um yeah, I mean that that really could be a grounds for appeal. I mean, again, he's gonna have to go back to trial and he's gonna be found guilty again because there's overwhelming evidence of his guilt, but you know, what do I know? I'm just a podcaster, just a podcaster. But tune in next week when we talk about I cannot wait to get to the maternal instinct. I'm gonna post that thing I sent you on.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Yes, please do. I was laughing so hard. I really was. It was who's the biggest dumbass?

SPEAKER_02 37:15

Like bless it. We'll get into it next week. I can't even because if I start now, I won't stop. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Oh yeah. Well, y'all wish us luck. We are our debut. My debut for the my store is this week. If you want to come visit me, come visit me. Yeah, I'm excited. We've got some really fun things coming. So we're gonna keep pumping out episodes. Woo! All right, we'll see y'all next time. Bye guys.