Original subtitles

I'm being accused of murdering my mom by my dad,

my sister, and my brother.

Murder in the first degree

in Iowa carries a sentence of life

without the possibility of parole.

Right away, Jason Carter became my primary suspect.

Every time he would cry,

I chuckle at his lack of drama skills.

Ludwick absolutely used the affair against me.

Jason wasn't honest with me.

But having an affair doesn't equal murder.

If you can show that somebody has lied in the past,

it brings the question to the jury's mind,

"well, are they lying now?"

We've received audio recordings

that may help US solve this murder case.

Holy moly.

You're putting your life in the hands of 12 jurors.

Win or lose,

I want to lay it all out there like it really is.

Hi, guys.

Hey, guys. How are you?

This is our friend, agent ludwick.

So how can we use that?

Well, that's what we were debating right now.

How we could use it is the question. How we could use it.

Keep going.

I can unequivocally say

the wrong person has been charged in this murder.

And we don't have a report from him.

I think the response of my entire team

shows that we were all truly surprised,

not just by the content of the recording,

but by the lack of follow-up.

For US, this is certainly information

that calls into question the investigation,

calls into question the statements about Jason,

calls into question

the analysis of what really happened on June 19th, 2015.

We have a pre-trial hearing tomorrow.

I really hope that

information that we've obtained today

can be admissible in the trial.

The judge and the jury really need to know

everything that we know,

and for them

to be denied that

will never bring justice.

Cases are often made before you go to trial.

You learn what evidence is going to come in and what isn't,

and that really shapes how the trial is going to go.

The state wants to exclude

almost all or all of the evidence

of these other suspects and anything pointing to that.

We obviously think that's something

the jury should be allowed to consider.

We're presented with an issue here in terms of admissibility,

because typically these kinds of statements are hearsay,

and they're not admissible in court

for the truth of the matter asserted.

However, that's not why we're offering it.

We're offering it to show

that law enforcement did absolutely nothing with those reports,

that law enforcement did a really bad investigation.

If the judge rules against US, it would be a big blow to US.

So the outcome of this hearing could make or break the case.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone.

We will just start at the top.

Ms. Branstad.

Your honor, in this case,

we have statements by law enforcement showing bias,

and we have statements

showing an unwillingness

to pursue leads.

There is one recording in which the witness says,

"I've heard a..."

I think it's, "a lot from a lot of people."

And the officer's response is,

"well, that's just all speculation and hearsay,"

and ends the interview without asking anything else.

We wouldn't be offering it to prove that that witness

knew a lot of things from a lot of other people,

it's to show the bias

that this officer didn't even ask the question of,

"who told you what?"

This is hearsay.

How is this going to be admissible?

Your honor,

truly most investigations like this start with hearsay testimony.

One person heard something,

and then the investigator has to follow through

and go to the next person,

and go to the next person.

Your honor, I can say that I have no intention

to stand up in closing argument and say,

"Joe sedlock is absolutely responsible,"

or, "John followill is absolutely responsible."

What I do intend to say,

if this evidence is admitted is,

"we don't know,

"because these leads were not followed through."

It sounds like we're all accepting the fact it's hearsay.

There is no permissible way to get this evidence in

for the truth of the matter asserted.

They're talking sloppy police work.

Okay. So the defense can say over and over

that this was a surface investigation.

They maybe even believe it.

But it doesn't make it true.

The jury is entitled

to be able to make a decision

based on what weight to afford a particular piece of testimony.

But, judge,

that piece of testimony or evidence

still has to be admissible under our rules of evidence,

and the defense has yet to give you a cognitive reason

under the Iowa rules of evidence.

Anything else on behalf of the defendant?

No, your honor.

Very well.

I will consider the arguments,

and I'll get a ruling on file.

See you all a week from tomorrow.

Thank you, your honor.

Thank you, your honor.

It is really important for the jury to understand

the lens through which law enforcement was viewing this case,

which was solely focused on Jason Carter

to the exclusion of everything else.

If the jury is presented with that information,

it will have to raise a question in their mind

of, "can we really find this guy guilty

"if law enforcement didn't do its job?"

Two-zero.

Hey, it's the operator.

Dang it! Nine-zero.

Wait. Whoa, it's my bat.

McKenna's class made a book,

and I just...

I just wanna share with you McKenna's page.

Um...

She said, "I want to be a lawyer when I grow up.

"I want to make a difference

"by helping people prove themselves innocent.

"By McKenna."

It just makes me so proud of my daughter.

It makes me realize that

this has been harder on them

than I even know sometimes.

Both the kids mean the world to me.

You know.

I don't know what I'd do without 'em.

Murder brings a life sentence

without parole.

A life sentence is as long as you live

until you die.

You will die in prison.

It's a pretty scary deal.

Okay.

I'm fighting for my life...

For my family and my mom.

My attorneys said that information

that's been provided to US could be considered hearsay.

That's the only reason

it may not be put in front of a jury.

The judge has ruled in our favor,

and so we get to bring in the hearsay statements

to show what wasn't done in the investigation.

Yeah.

That's probably the biggest win for US.

That ruling is essential to our case,

because a great deal of this case revolves around

leads that we believe weren't followed,

information that wasn't pursued

and our criticisms in this case of the investigation.

We needed an impartial judge, and we got one.

It's great. It's exactly what should have been done.

Nate went down to the Marion county sheriff's office yesterday

to look at the physical evidence before they bring it down for trial.

They found a box that ludwick dropped off this month

full of 90 discs

that were labelled blank, but weren't blank,

or labelled as something that they weren't.

Absolutely UN-freaking-believable.

Yeah.

Special agent Mark ludwick dropped off this box of evidence

to the Marion county sheriff's office

several weeks ago,

and we're just now receiving it

three days before trial starts.

We don't know what is on these discs.

The box says there's 93 discs in it.

There's only 80.

The discs are mislabeled.

Some of them are blank.

Some of them say they're blank, and they're not blank.

It's just a total organizational disaster.

I don't know if special agent Mark ludwick maliciously withheld evidence.

I don't know if it was simply an oversight.

But most certainly

we should have been given all of this evidence

months and months ago.

We're not aware of anything that harms US in the case,

but we don't know if there is substantially helpful

information in there.

And so that is just...

It's disheartening,

and it makes it hard to go to trial

feeling less than fully prepared.

This is so hard because I promised Jason early on in this case

the one thing that he could count on

is if I went into trial,

I would know every detail of every bit of evidence.

That was my promise.

Yeah. I said, "that's what I will do."

And if we go into trial now,

I'm not keeping that promise.

I feel like we're at an advantage right now,

but I also wonder if it's irresponsible to go into trial

without having a thorough understanding

of everything that's on these discs.

There is a certain part of me that just feels

so ready for this trial...-

...despite not having aspects that I want

in the structure behind US. -Yeah.

Man, I just wanna get in front of a jury,

and I've got a lot of emotional...

I just want it right now.

Here's my plan.

Full steam ahead like we're going to trial on Tuesday.

Yeah.

Man, I gotta really trust in her

that she's making the right decision.

I have no choice other than to keep fighting.

You can't give up now.

We've decided that we are going to go ahead with this trial.

It's a risk.

It's definitely a gamble to some degree.

But that's what we're gonna do, we're gonna do trial.

A note from Kenny...

"You are the best!

"You're awesome, dad."

I'm very worried about what might happen.

The kids would be beyond devastated

if their dad didn't come home.

What?

Are you gonna say goodbye to chase?

Yeah.

If things aren't made right,

I don't know what I'll do.

Okay.

Give me a hug, chase.

Bye, Katie.

Make sure you take care of mom.

And be nice to your sister.

No family should go through what we've had to go through.

We just want peace,

peace for our children,

peace for our family,

Okay.

I've got a tag I can't get off this new suit.

I might have to use a knife.

Opening statements are today and...

Well, I've had some friends tell me that opening statements are

the make it or break it type thing.

Um...

You know, I guess I don't know. We'll find out.

Scared as hell.

It's always just incredibly scary

to go up in front of a jury,

and there's a lot on the line in this case.

First day today, so...

Um...

Gonna be a big day.

Opening statements are always difficult,

because nothing comes in exactly as you plan.

You may be seated. Thank you.

The prosecutor is ed bull.

Our styles are very different.

He's incredibly theatrical.

Sometimes that goes over well with juries,

sometimes it doesn't.

It happens in the kitchen

of her home.

Somebody

fires a high-powered .270 caliber rifle

at Shirley Carter.

The bullet strikes her in the side.

It carves a path through her chest,

shattering ribs

and punching holes in her lung and heart.

With Shirley Carter lying flat on her back,

the shooter racks another round

into the chamber of that rifle,

aims dead center

at Shirley Carter's chest,

and pulls the trigger again.

The evidence will establish that somebody

acted maliciously

and with the specific intent to kill.

What we will prove to you

is that there are clues that lead to only one conclusion.

We will ask that you return a verdict

finding Jason Carter guilty

of murder in the first degree.

Thank you.

What I'm going to ask of you

is, over the course of this trial,

to look and see if you think this was

a normal and perfect investigation,

or if very significant parts of this investigation

weren't followed through.

The timeline doesn't make sense.

There was no motive.

One investigator in particular

went after Jason Carter

and ignored all the other clues.

And at the end of this case,

I will ask you

to enter a verdict

of not guilty.

Thank you.

Now, the state of Iowa calls Michael halverson.

The first week of trial's

always stressful for the defense,

because the prosecution gets to go first.

It can be really frustrating, because you do feel like

you're just getting hit after hit,

and there's really very little

that you can do about it until the state is done.

I'm employed as a criminalist

for the Iowa division of criminal investigation.

The prosecution is going to use him as a foundational witness,

someone to say,

"yes, this is a photograph of the kitchen,

"facing this direction.

"This is why we took this photograph.

"This is why we think it is significant."

When you entered the bedroom,

was there anything specific that you observed?

Yes. The chest of drawers

had two drawers pulled out.

We fingerprint dusted

the top of this chest of drawers.

Did the crime scene team

process the living room of the residence?

Yes, we did process it.

But it did appear uninvolved,

undisturbed,

so it was not examined with the same vigor

that the kitchen was, for example.

To your knowledge,

there is no forensic evidence

that implicates Jason Carter?

That statement is correct.

I would...

I would like to say that

what I said was...

I would say I had no forensic evidence

that I was aware of,

no DNA, no fingerprints,

no ballistic evidence

that said Jason Carter was responsible

or not responsible for this death.

I have no further questions.

That's the only question that matters

when it comes to forensic.

Does any of this link Jason Carter to the crime?

No? Okay, we're done.

The state will call Laurie goff.

Laurie goff was the first person with a medical background

to look at Shirley's body that morning.

She originally said Shirley had died several hours

before Jason arrived at the crime scene.

Do you swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes.

Please be seated.

The state is alleging

that Jason had the time to do this in ten minutes.

So the timeline is extremely important,

because if we can show

that she was killed hours before,

there is simply no way that Jason did it.

Now, while you were in the residence,

did you observe any blood?

Yes.

Was that blood dry?

No.

This was the report that you wrote immediately after

being on the scene. Is that correct?

Correct.

When you wrote it,

you wrote that it was dried blood.

Yes, inadvertently that it was dried.

It was not dried, it was wet.

At that time it was your finding

that it didn't happen minutes ago,

it had probably been two or three hours.

Correct.

You found the coagulation of the blood

means that it had time

to start the clotting process,

so you knew that she hadn't been there for 12 hours,

but you knew that she had been there longer than an hour?

Possibly, yes.

That's the time frame I gave, yes.

I do think that we were able to show

Laurie goff's inconsistencies

very clearly.

Anything beyond ten minutes

excludes Jason as being a suspect,

because he couldn't have been there for that to happen.

Jason's family will be on the stand tomorrow.

The family interactions

are one of the toughest parts of this case.

To have my family take the stand and say that I killed my mom,

pretty low.

I feel nervous...

Scared.

Most of the time in a criminal case

your family sits behind you and supports you and, in this case,

he's got his family on the other side of the courtroom.

It's gonna be very hard for Jason

to have to sit there as his family members testify against him.

They won't be able to directly state to the jury

that they think Jason

is responsible for Shirley's death.

I think it'll just be clear by the fact

that they're testifying that they believe that Jason is guilty.

Good morning. You can come right up here. Good morning.

I'm sure everybody's gonna think,

", that is one messed up family."

Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do. Please be seated.

I wanna talk about June 19th.

Did you receive a phone call from your brother

a little after 11:00 A.M.?

Yes, I did.

He said,

"mom is laying on the kitchen floor

"and she's dead."

And...

I said immediately...

"No!"

I... and I said, "Jason, did you call 911?"

And he said, "no, it's too late.

"She's cold. She's stiff. She's dead."

And I said, "you don't know that."

I said, "Jason, you gotta call 911."

And that's... You know, it was...

He still wouldn't call 911.

So I hung up, and I called my dad.

Why did you call your dad?

Because he wasn't calling 911 anyway, and so I thought,

well, dad...

Dad would know. Dad could do it.

Sir, if I could get you to come right up here, please.

Dad is taking the stand.

I can only imagine what he's gonna say.

Raise your right hand for me, please.

Do you swear to tell the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I got a phone call from my daughter.

She said,

"dad,

"mom's dead."

And then I took off for home

as fast as I could get there.

Jason was talking on the phone.

I didn't even stop,

I just went running in the house.

What did you see?

I found Shirley on the floor,

and she was dead.

And then I picked her head up

and I kissed her on the forehead,

and she was cold.

What did you do?

I said, "Jason, look how she's laying.

"You don't die that way."

How would you explain your emotional state?

I was a mess.

It was terrible.

They say your life can change in an instant,

and it did.

It changed.

And it'll never be the same.

Out of all of the days of trial so far,

this has been the worst.

None of these people offered anything

that tended to show that Jason was responsible for this crime.

But because they're family members

who believe that Jason is responsible,

and that comes off as they testify,

is something that the jury could take into consideration.

To have my family testify against me

is terrible.

They're not allowed to say that I murdered mom,

but basically, by them taking the stand

for the prosecution,

shows the jury

whose side they're on.

Any kind of loving relationship that we would have had

was completely shredded by agent ludwick.

He did his utmost

to tear the family completely apart.

I am looking forward to seeing agent ludwick take the stand,

because he is going to be their demise.

The state didn't call their lead investigator.

I don't recall any trial

that I've been involved in

where the lead investigator wasn't called,

and certainly not in a murder trial.

We now need to decide whether to call ludwick.

This is a decision that could make this case

or that could be an absolute disaster.

We need to talk about the strategy

for this trial again.

I didn't anticipate the state wouldn't put on

any detective or investigator.

If we bring in ludwick,

we've got all sorts of great information there.

But if he comes in and says, "shucks, I tried,

"but everything points to Jason."

I've been told for so long

that these people are gonna come in

and make a big difference

that's really gonna cast a shadow of a doubt.

And now you're telling me

we're not gonna bring any of it in?

Right now, there's no face on this investigation.

No face other than me,

and I catch those jurors looking at me

non-stop all day long.

There's a lot of risk

in putting them on.

But is there a lot of risk in not sharing

with them what we know?

I mean... -Yeah.

I made some promises, not anticipating

that the state wouldn't put on their investigator.

If we go this road,

I'll go after 'em,

but it's your case, and the final decision has to be yours.

Because if we lose,

you will always decide that that was the wrong decision.

We know you are going above and beyond.

And we do trust you.

It's just we're scared.

I get that.

We have two kids that he has to come home to.

The entire case has led up to today.

Ludwick's taking the stand today.

We'll see if...

If he's gonna fess up to all of his wrongdoings.

Man, he's lied his ass off the whole way through,

so I just keep waiting for horns to sprout out of his head,

so that people can really see how he is.

Jason is excited for this evidence

to be in front of the jury.

Like always, I'm just nervous.

There are two possibilities with the state not putting on their lead investigator.

Either they knew it was a weakness,

or they're trying to bait US into doing it.

My name is Mark ludwick,

spelled l-u-d-w-i-c-k.

All interviews and reports

are supposed to come back to you

for management of the investigation, aren't they?

That's correct.

I have hundreds and hundreds of documents

and pages of interviews.

Most of these interviews occurred

after there were questions posed

by Jason Carter's defense attorneys

about what happened.

That's correct, yes.

Okay.

Many, many people implicate

Joel followill,

John followill,

or Joe sedlock. Correct?

Their names come up by multiple individuals.

There are multiple reports

alleging that Joe sedlock, John followill,

and Joel followill were involved in the homicide.

Yes, I believe we were told that.

Um...

Charity rausch said

they were supposed to be getting medication

that was coming in the mail, but something went wrong.

Joel got startled,

and the gun went off accidentally,

but that Joe sedlock went back

and fired a shot to kill the woman.

Is that correct?

Yes, I believe that's correct.

To this date,

are you aware

of any alibi evidence

for either of those three individuals?

Regarding the, the... On June 19th?

For the morning of June 19th, 2015.

No. I... I do not know where Joe sedlock was.

I do not know where John followill was.

And I do not know where Joel followill was.

Agent ludwick.

Yes, ma'am.

Many, many people

say that it was a burglary gone wrong.

Yeah, burglary gone wrong

was something that we knew

by noon on the day of the homicide

was going around the small community.

John followill and Joel followill

were known to be involved

in a number of burglaries, weren't they?

They had been, but they aren't violent individuals.

That's not in their nature or character that I felt.

You testified

that neither of the followills

had a history of violence.

Were you aware that Joel followill

has convictions for four assaults,

two domestic assaults,

and burglary second?

Yes, ma'am, I'm aware of that.

And that John followill

has at least two convictions for assault?

I remember he had assaults on his record, yes,

but I... No further questions.

We've decided to rest.

It is always a difficult decision to rest your case,

but we feel very good about where we ended.

The testimony from agent ludwick

really provided a clear picture, and we hope the jury sees that.

So, no more witnesses.

No me. No Shelly.

I kinda feel like I'm in limbo.

Jason would like every single bit of the story to be known.

And it's tough for him not to have

every single detail in front of this jury.

But he also understands

that we've reached the point

where it may be in our best interest

to just end on our strongest notes.

We start closing arguments today.

Hopefully the jurors can see right through all the , but...

We only spent two days with our side.

That makes me really nervous,

'cause we kinda cut a lot of our stuff short.

We give our closings,

and then it's all up to the jury.

Ed bull, he's a skilled litigator,

but there's no amount of skill that overcomes facts.

This was a case built against Jason Carter

instead of a case

trying to solve a crime and look at all the clues.

You gotta believe someone went downstairs,

found a gun in that basement,

came back upstairs, shot her,

instead of walking out the door.

The state's own criminalist said,

"I'm not aware of any forensic evidence."

There are only two people who know what happened that day,

one of them's dead,

and the other one's sitting in that chair.

Find him guilty as charged.

Jason Carter couldn't possibly be guilty.

I ask you to return a verdict of not guilty.

With that, take the 12 members of the panel

into the jury room.

Well...

Jury's in deliberation,

eating their dinner,

and,

they'll start to decide my fate.

Kenny sent me a message this morning, and so did chase.

And I'm just sending them a message back.

"Daddy loves you both,"

"and your brother very much."

I said, "you take good care of mama."

"Just in case."

Okay, we'll be right there.

They've got a verdict.

I need to call...

You guys need to get here right now,

they've called a verdict.

Are they done? Yeah.

What can that mean?

Okay. Sam, we've got a verdict.

We do whatever you say.

Okay?

How can that be?

They didn't look at anything.

Maybe because they already know, Jason.

Come on.

How can that be, Sam?

Ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict?

Yes, we have.

"We, the jury, find Jason Carter

"not guilty."

Is that your verdict,

ladies and gentlemen?

Yes, it is.

Mr. Bull, do you care to have the jury polled?

No, sir.

Very well.

I know. I know.

Hi, Cecil.

I am so glad.

I can't believe it.

Finally.

I'm so happy.

Let's go home.

Yeah, we're going home.

It's just a huge weight

lifted off all of our backs.

My mom can rest a little easier.

It doesn't feel like I finally got justice,

because whoever did this to my mom is still walking around.

I'll never give up on trying to figure out

who did this to her.

My mom deserves that.

My kids deserve that.

My wife deserves that.

And as much as I dislike my dad and my siblings,

they deserve it too.

I guess it's up to me to try and figure out

What happened to mom.