Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Previously on Murder on Songbird Road. The trial transcripts and Julia Beverly's interrogation video provided incredible insights into the prosecution's case against Beverly.
Always who I've left shirts you there for?
I should have just take her with.
That speaks to her innocence. It does.
Beverly voluntarily agreed to be questioned without an attorney. She also consented to the collection of her DNA.
There was a lot of red flags.
Let me say that if I was training here, I would have stopped him and said, you need to change your gloves.
They're not going to test everything. They're just not.
But all the critical things, which had they been brought up on cross examination, would have absolutely laid waste to the state's case.
None of Jade Beasley's electronic devices were forensically tested none.
Why that they didn't even look at any of those devices to find out if Jade was active in order to build a timeline, a real timeline is unbelievable to me.
I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is Murder on Songbird Road. As I began writing this episode, I received an email from the Investigation Secretary of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office approving my request for survey aolence footage from Huck's gas station. The video showed Beverly driving up, depositing something in one of the waste containers, and then leaving. After watching it, Bob and I compared our thoughts.
The thing that concerned me the most is did she drive around to the back to go to a dumpster? Because we had started hearing rumblings that she had gone to the.
Back either first or last.
And that she had dumped things in that dumpster as well as this this small receptacle that is in between the pumps. So that concern in terms of if I'm thinking Julie is not guilty of this crime, that concern has been obliterated. She clearly did not go to any dumpster. What we were told that she did is exactly what it appears that she's doing, which is she pulled up to that receptacle in between the two pumps like you
see it. Ninety nine point nine percent of all gas stations she's in there for I don't know, fifteen twenty seconds gathering whatever garbage is in the car, and then you see her step out.
And then you have Mudge giving her hypothesis of what Beverly was throwing away. From the trial transcript, here's Special Prosecutor Jennifer Mudge hypothesizing what Julie Beverly was discarding at Hucks. Quote there goes the knife, there goes the real shoes she was wearing.
Unquote.
Keep in mind the prosecution also bundled into their speculation of what that small plastic bag contained a shower curtain and utensils recovered at the dump, none of which could be traced back to Hucks, let alone the murder scene back to Bob.
In theory, we're talking about clothes that would more likely than not be absolutely saturated in blood, and the bag would be heavy theoretically, if you're talking about one of those small plastic grocery bags, I mean, aren't you worrying about like blood dripping out onto like you're leaving traces of blood droplets on the ground or smearing it on the they like when you watch the video, it looks like somebody who's pulled up to a receptacle and a
gas station that's throwing some shit out of their car.
In that video, you see Beverly pull up between gas pumps, pause for a second as she appears to partially prop the passenger door open while rummaging about before stepping out and tossing a loosely gathered bag in her right hand. With that one hand. Beverly then gets back in and drives off in the same direction she came from.
And nothing more like. She doesn't get out and look around.
She's not having to re you know, reconfigure the bag in her hand.
There's no pushing it into the can.
It looks to me like she's got it in one hand and she just drops it. There's no Oh, should I maybe put some other garbage on top of this garbage so that the next person doesn't see a bag of bloody cloth, none of that extent.
It doesn't even look like it's fastn't it doesn't.
It looks like it's the other handle because those typically those plastic bags.
Have too Again, remember what the prosecution contends was inside that bag. It's the clothing she was wearing, the shoes that she was.
Wearing, and the murder weapon.
And then you go to what they retrieved at the dump, and they inferred was tossed as well, which would have been the shower curtain. Bob and I have discussed how the defense could have but did not push back. I would have had all of those things and ask someone to put them into a comparable sized plastic bag so people could get the idea of what it would look like to have shoes, clothing, towels, murder weapon, shower curtain.
If they could even fit it. I'll go step further.
I would have tried to pack a bag that size with all of those things, and I would have shown that it probably wouldn't have fit in that eighteen inch opening.
Yeah, not without pushing it in.
No, bring a comparable sized garbage can into the courtroom and have somebody do it with one hand.
You wouldn't have been able to just toss it.
Right.
She's dropping it in. Yeah, she literally just kind of leans over and just drops it in. Everything that you would think about what would be going through a normal person's mind if that is what they're disposing you do not see in this video. Imagine that you are driving up to a gas station and you are disposing of bloody clothes that link you to.
A murder that just occurred, that you.
Committed spoiler alert, I wouldn't have done it at a gas station with cameras everywhere.
There's not a chance.
There's not a chance in terms of a trial, the fact that there was no resistance. Not only am I testing the theory out that it's impossible to shove that much stuff.
And you have to take into consideration.
Bloody towels or rags that were used to also clean up. You can see what you're throwing out and where you're doing it, and there's no way that that is a bag of bloody clothes a murder weapon and shoes and.
Rags or whatever you use into shower.
Like, does that mean that she didn't do it? Not necessarily in and of itself. Does it mean that I don't think there's any way in hell that that's what she was disposing of? There absolutely one, Like I would die on that hill.
Special Prosecutor Mudge also contradicted the claim Beverly was wearing flip flops. Quote so she tells police she had on flip flops. It's December, she just went to Walmart flip flops, No, and that they fell off her feet while she is walking or pacing around the kitchen. Have you ever paste around your own kitchen and your flip flops just fell off of you.
I can't tell what kind of foot where she's wearing. Does it look like she's wearing the flip flops to you?
Yeah, because it doesn't look like she's wearing shoes. You can see the color of her arms, and she looks like she's wearing cropped leggings, so you can see that it doesn't appear that she's wearing shoes, which is right in keeping with what a flip flop would look like on a foot. Keep in mind that Special Prosecutor Mudge scoffs at the thought that she would have been wearing
flip flops to Walmart. But it's interesting if you groll the footage before Beverly even pulls up multiple people, there's a guy who gets out and he's wearing a cutoff like T shirt with the sleeves completely removed. It's December, but it was unseasonably warm. I also think that if you had just murdered someone, and you know, remember the prosecution contends this was after the murder, she would have been covered with bloody scratches and bleeding hands.
Why would she.
Have been out and about in a T shirt, and so again we have the magically clean then bleeding again hands. So her hands were bloodied, the prosecution contends when she was murdering Jade, then meticulously and miraculously they are cleansed because she goes back to the office and types without any blood anywhere for another fifty one minutes.
Then she further cleans.
Up and goes to hawks to dispose of everything comes back in her hands are bloody again.
It's a magic bullet theory. I mean, it doesn't add up to me.
The whole time frame of the state just never made any sense. And the main reason is for what you pointed out, which is that the fact that she got back on the computer and worked for damn near an hour which requires.
Her to type.
She's not on a mouse just clicking, she's having to draft emails.
She's using the keyboard.
And if you've got an active bleeding wound on your hand, the concept that there's not one iota, not one speck of blood anywhere in that office, anywhere, on that keyboard, anywhere, on that desk nowhere is implausible to me. That is a really really bad fact for the state, which again should have been absolutely highlighted by the defense in this case.
And speaking of blood, there's something else. Beverly's friends claim she was triggered by the side of it. My name is Katie, and your relationship to Julie.
I would consider her best friend.
How long have you known Julie? And how did you guys first meet school?
About second or third grade. She was very squeamish. She didn't like blood. She didn't like violence, so I never and I never saw her around it. I mean, her brother's rustled around and we messed with her sometimes, but I never saw her in violent situation. She just tried to avoid it.
Wouldn't you say that she didn't like blood?
Are there any specific examples that you remember.
Just like movies like Nasty Story movies and stuff like that. She was just not into it.
Even if Beverly didn't have a history of avoiding blood and gore, her gender also places her as somewhat of an anomaly in terms of stabbing murder. According to this man.
Name is Arthur Larigio.
I am a professor of criminology and of psychology at Laola University of Chicago.
Stabbing murderers if you use the term murderer, you're going to be talking about a man nine out of ten times, at least in the United States.
The agent of the.
Socioeconomic background can vary, but it's usually a younger rather than older man, and socioeconomic background is usually at the lower end of the continuum rather than the higher end of the continuum. If the person who is the perpetrator of a stabbing is successful in killing the person, there's likely to have been some forerunners. That's not going to be the only incident in which there's been a perpetration
of violence. Mental illness is usually not a factor in stabbings or any other kinds of killings.
Usually as at doesn't mean that it's not. It's just as in as common as people imagine that it is. Stabbing offenders typically have prior violent criminal histories. I think that they probably have some prior acts of violence in their record, but that's.
Not always the case.
Alcohol and drugs absolutely influence the likelihood of a stabbing.
Attack in terms of the demographic patterns among stabbing murderers. In terms of gender, particularly, what do you attribute that nine out of ten likelihood of it being male?
Too?
Part of it is the biological nature of being male, as well as the manner in which none are socialized from boyhood on. There's less restrictions placed on their engagement of violent behavior. Violent and aggressive behavior is sometimes rewarded or is sometimes not discipline in the way it might be in a girl. And so it's a combination. There's a strong biological component to violence, and it has to
do with the presence of testosteron. There's violence that's instrumental, that's conducted to accomplish a goal, that would be premeditated violence, and then there's a motive violence that comes about with an increasing escalation, and many times the mode of violence involves drugs or alcohol. More alcohol than drugs. There aren't many drugs that cause people to become violent in the way that alcohol does.
It's interesting because in this case there is a belief that meth could have played a role.
Oh sure is a drug that also is related to violence. Not would be a drug that I would not at all be surprised to hear played a role.
Murder on Songbird Road will continue after the break. Now back to Murder on Songbird Road. Going back to the trial, we want to address a misconception that many people following the case at the time, even people who attended the trial had or continue to have regarding what was actually found at Hucks as opposed to the Southern Illinois Regional Landfill.
And it likely involves this exchange from trial between the prosecution and Lee Stewart, a special agent to the Illinois State Police, which we'll read verbatim, what was the reason you were wanting to excavate a portion of that landfill?
Investigators use phone records through Miss Beverly's Verizon cell phone and combined that data with various surveillance video footage to see that a vehicle matching the description of her.
Vehicle drove to a Howks and Marion.
When the vehicle pulled up into the Howks parking lot, it pulled up next to a pump, and the driver of the vehicle pulled out an object out of the vehicle and put it into a trash can at.
The gas station.
Okay, so you were searching for trash.
We were searching for trash. They could be involved in the commission of this crime.
As the testimony continues, note how the word trash morphs to also cover not just what was discarded at Hugs, but what was excavated at the landfill?
Okay?
So were there any items of evidence collected through the trash?
Yes?
What were they?
So?
There were two broken knife blades, one with serration on one side and one with serration on both sides, and then a curtain, a multi colored curtain.
Okay.
And these items were as you previously testified too, Were they compacted with medical waste and contaminated soil like the process that you previously testified to, yes, all right, Looking at people's exhibit three sixty five, is that the curtain you described?
Yes?
And three sixty six? What is that?
It's a knife blade with some serration.
And three sixty seven the other one.
Is a knife blade with serration on the bottom side there.
Okay, those items would have been collected and turned over to the investigating agency, is that correct?
Yes?
And in the photographs of the knives, I notice some well did you notice anything in the photograph of the knives on the knife blades?
Some discoloration in this area here down here on that one and it's broken off.
They also have some soil on them, yes, right there? Nothing further, you're honor all right? What do you make of that? Exchange.
It's ridiculous.
It's the thing that upsets me the most about this entire trial that any of this evidence was admissible in any way, shape or form to allow them to bring it in under the guys that well, look, we're not going to allow them to say that it's the murder weapon or that the curtain is from the house. But they did all this work, they had twenty people out.
There for hours.
That concept that they allowed that to come in to this trial and the impact that that had on the jury is to me going to be one of the major factors in the appeals. I will not be surprised if this is one of the reasons that this case gets overturned, that the conviction gets overturned and it's remanded.
It is that big of a deal that.
They allowed these knives to come in that had nothing to do with this crime, this shower curtain which was not from that home, which like, what is the implication from it, Well.
There's also a very slippery transference of the use of the word trash.
Yeah, that's how they did it.
So in terms of kind of the fiering aspect of it, when you're putting together that particular cross examination in conjunction with what Mudge had described it happened. They're combining the thought of what trash is from trash that's being thrown in a garbage can, that it's the same thing as trash that was pulled from a landfill. It's slick loyering to make it sound like they're one in the same to that jury is what's so scary and disingenuous.
What's also interesting is there was this disconnect. We couldn't figure out why so many people thought that these things were found at the trash from Hucks. That's why, because you could have been sitting in the same room. And it's just clever wording. It's wordplay, and it's deceptive.
It is.
When we spoke to Brenda and Bailey, very very very sincerely and authentically, there was a very real disconnect about what was found at hops.
How could there not be having.
Seen the video, you and I were waiting to see the cargo out of frame and circle back to where there's some other dumpster.
Right, there was no dumpster involved.
They thought in their minds that they saw her go to a dumpster. That's how impactful that one little portion of testimony was in terms of planting a seed that did not exist. That concept of that's her disposing of the murder weapon as well.
As the bloody clothes is huge.
It's huge evidence for them, and it was done in a way that the judge made a horrific mistake allowing that evidence to come in at all. And then it was compounded by the way that they used some word salad trickery to get the jury to think that they were talking about something that they weren't, which is the
garbage can. Again, I will be surprised if, in fact, this case is remanded that that will not be one of the major factors that cause it, because that has a massive impact when you're kind of lacking any kind of other physical evidence in the case like this, there just isn't really any physical evidence like that becomes smoking gun type evidence.
It's also interesting to note that Officer Sloan, the same officer who claimed on the stand to have questioned a woman walking a dog or looking for a dog in a black hoodie but didn't get her name or address but knew she was a resident, also testified about observing a bitemark on Beverly's arm. Here's that testimony as it appears in the trial transcript.
I was later called to transport her to the Williamson County Sheriff's office.
And did you do that?
Yes?
I did.
Did you ask her any questions along the way, No, I did not.
Did she say anything to you along the way.
She didn't make any statements. I believe she inquired of Jade's status at.
One point when you were transporting her. Did you notice any wounds to her?
I did.
I noticed a bite mark on her forearm.
And here's the cross examination by the defense. When you came back to drive Julie up to the sheriff's department, she.
Went voluntarily correct.
Yes, she wasn't handcuffed or anything like that.
No, I don't believe so.
But she was wearing a large black sweatshirt at that point.
I do not recall what she was wearing.
You don't recall No, did she have the blanket on her?
I believe she left the blanket there.
But you don't know if she was wearing a full long sleeve sweatshirt at that point.
I do not recall what she was wearing.
All right, what are your thoughts on that?
You know it's selective memory.
Right.
So the thing that Thiene's getting at is that you can't tell me what she was wearing, but I have it on good authority she was wearing a long sleeve black sweatshirt, which means that you wouldn't be able to see her forearm. And again, like, this is the same cop that we're dealing with that dealt with that either critical or not critical person dressed in black walking the dog. And this is like a low key, really big point because either this guy's completely fabricating what he saw while
he's driving, or he's got a really bad memory. We know that she was wearing a pullover hoodie, So the question then becomes, how is this guy noticing a mark on her arm?
Does he have X ray vision? See Superman?
And there's another interesting cop connected testimony. The neighbor who happened to supply the second video reference to car footage used in the building of the prosecution's timeline also happened to know one of the responding officers, one who happened to stop by his house on the way to responding to the nine one one call. Here's that neighbor's testimony.
I actually went to the correctional academy with officer Ward from the mary And.
Police Department, and that's who it was. So he stopped and he.
Told me that they too were looking injection for a male suspect.
Here's no I withdraw that, and here's how the exchange continues. Okay, after that, were you made aware that the police were no longer looking for a male in black?
Yes, my wife, she's my ex wife now, but my wife at the time she worked for the Marriyan Police Department.
I already find it suspect that the second camera footage comes from somebody who went to the academy with one of the officers and his wife works for the Marriyan Police Department.
That's just too convenient that.
Then that's a pretty cozy It's also pretty convenient that the footage obtained from the home was deemed to be forty four minutes off so as to sync with the also off time of the Hucks footage and sell tower pings. But none of that was challenged. We'll be right back with Murder on Songbird Road. Here again is Murder on Songbird Road. Do you have any thoughts that you just want to add about Leah being removed from the courtroom because she made jurors uncomfortable.
It's really really problematic.
As alluded to in our last episode, one of Beverly's close friends, Leah, who had traveled to support her during trial, was asked to leave the courtroom because members of the jury found her problematic.
Do I look threatening to you? I was removed from the courtroom because I was threatening the jury by sitting in the front row.
What were you doing?
She was sitting looking I was behind her, I was looking around. I was the darkest person in that courtroom or her trial. And they did everything they could do to get me out of that courtroom expeditiously, including asking Julie to ask me to leave, which they did.
They allowed Julie to walk over to her.
And because Julie asked me to leave, I stepped out. They were worried that they were going to have a mistrial because I was intimidating the jury.
That's what by sitting there, thing said that the jury members.
The all white jury, they were intimidated because I'm black, the all white jury.
They had called the bailiff over and so we took a recess. And during the recess, so I.
Said I was taking pictures of their vehicles, and they were worried that I was going to follow them home and or have I took pictures of their license plates. And then I was sitting there downs that I was staring them down and giving dirty looks. I'm not in there smiling. It was Julie's trial. I was distraught. But they said that I was a threat, that I was threatening the jury. How many out of.
Twelve said that I was a threat? I think four.
Four out of the twelve jury members had a problem with me, specifically just sitting there for the trial.
Back to Bob, this isn't a situation where she's out of order. She's not screaming, yelling, saying, and she's merely looking at the jury trying to figure out the same way that I am every time I'm sitting in there, are they buying this? Are my points hitting home? She's allowed to look and observe at anything that she wants to this whole concept of staring, staring into someone's soul.
From out in the gallery. But like the reality Lauren is is that is how the jur that we spoke to felt.
We have indeed spoken to a juror whose anonymity we will protect. They shared their side of the Leah situation. Here's the jur It.
Was when we were leaving at the end of the day one day, but there was somebody sitting in a car with a big Justice for Julie's sticker on it that was taking videos or pictures of must walking out.
At least that's what it looked like. It was a I mean, it was a black Ford car.
So for us, it was scary, you know, like you hear stuff sometimes on TV, like people following jurors homely killing the whole family type stuff, and you don't know what anybody's like. Did we necessarily think that? I don't know what anybody else.
Thought, But I don't know why I was scared.
Without consulting the parties, the trial judge privately questioned four jurors and chambers. Though unrelated during the process, concerns about the black car and the jurors observations of Leah in the courtroom appear to have merged into a single issue.
The bigger point about the whole Lea situation is that it really does kind of illuminate the mindset that you're dealing with down there. It's like Leah can't been the only person who's looking at the jury. Recently, I went and watched a trial from beginning to end. It was three weeks long, and I spent an awful lot of time looking at the jury hard. I'm trying to figure like they're the only people that they're the only people that matter in that courtroom. They are the twelve people
that are sitting there deciding somebody's fate. I'm I'm watching them. Are they paying attention? Are they making faces? How are they reacting to that evidence?
It's just what you do.
They are kind of mandatory viewing if you're sitting in on a trial, like you watch the jurors because they are the beginning and the end of it all.
Yeah, the power rests with them.
The bigger question then becomes is what is going on extemporaneously around them that's making them have this fear? What else is going on that's making them feel like, man, is my life in danger?
Here?
Beverly was asked to have Leah removed because it was going to prejudice the jury against her. Ironically that it was a reflection on Beverly that it was her friend who was making the jurors uncomfortable, and when you go back and you actually read that portion, they were originally talking about a black car, not a black woman. Also problematic our reports we've received about what the court clerk allegedly sent back with the jury foreman as the jurors went back to deliberate the verdict.
You and I have been trying to kind of nail down the concept of what was sent back to the jurors. To compound this even more, what they were sitting with in that deliberation room, and we know that they're sitting there with that box and knives back there, the knives that have nothing to do with the crime. Wrap your mind around that.
I cannot wrap. It's so judicial, and the fact.
That it is common practice that while deliberating, a jury can ask for more things, for more clarification. But we now have multiple sources confirming that the jury foreman was handed by the court clerk a box that contained those random utensils retrieved from the dump and autopsy photos as they were heading into deliberation. Multiple people who were in the courtroom have expressed they witnessed the box of evidence
being sent back with the jurors prior to deliberation. Here's Renee High Tower.
I remember the box going to the foreman and they were still in the jury box when it was given to them, and they were sitting there.
For a moment, and then he carried it out as.
They left, and who handed it to the foreman the clerk. So the court clerk handed the jury foreman a box before they.
Went into deliberation.
Correct.
Did you know what was in the box at the time?
I assumed it was evidence, but I couldn't see in it.
I could see things sticking out of it, but I couldn't see in it. What were you told? It was after the fact.
As they were taken out for deliberation, we were all walking out, and that's when Beane told me. She said she had never seen anything like it, that they gave the jury the whole box of evidence.
This is Beverly's friend Katie's recollection.
I do remember.
I think it was the bailiff, I'm not really for sure who it was, somebody handing one of the men in the jury something and he kind of just sat there and looked at it with a dumbfounded look, and then they got up to leave to go deliberate. I just remember him just loo looking at it, just downfounded, like what am I supposed to?
What is this?
What am I supposed to do with it?
And this is what we were told by an anonymous juror. What do you remember about the jury being sent into deliberation and what do you remember being sent back to deliberate with in the room.
A box of all the pictures? And then there was k lives in a box.
When you say a box of all the pictures, what were the pictures.
Of Drew's autopsy photos?
How is that not prejudicial?
Well, it is when you're sending them back and pretending as if they are the murder weapons.
It's unbelievable.
How is that allowed though? And what does that mean?
Wait?
Are we trying to figure out how Judge Green was operating here?
Like I can't crawl into that man's brain.
I have formally requested an interview or statement from Judge Green regarding the so called evidence sent back with the jurors for deliberation and the removal of Leah from his courtroom. Additionally, I have asked the judge to address any connection to the immediate removal of Julia Beverly's son while she was a pre trial detainee in Williamson County, as well as
other potential conflicts of interests. This includes his affiliation with the same church attended by the Beasley family and allegations that he wore pink widely associated with the Justice for Jade movement on at least three of the six days of trial. Furthermore, despite denying having a social media presence at Beverly sentencing, Green does indeed have a Facebook account
that shares mutual connections with the Beasley family. While I copied the Williamson County State's attorney on my request, it is gone unanswered.
We looked at the transcripts of this trial. It's paper thint. There is no actual evidence of guilt here. They just never could prove that she was the person who actually did it, other than by her own misstatements and lies. When you look at everything else in the totality of the circumstances, you can see how shaky they thought their case.
Was, something that is very much underscored by an exchange from the end of Beverly's three hour interrogation the day of the murder and how the prosecution had it edited for trial.
So do you think when Jade was getting stabbed.
Was it like this?
Was it kind of off to the side, because you.
Know some people swing lower direction, some kind of go from the side somes over like this.
Which way do you think it was?
For what I could see on her back?
It definitely okay, it.
Was definitely up and down like this.
Was it kind of real quick? Was it like go in kind of wiggle a little bit? I mean, which way did you do it?
Okay, here's here's the thing.
Okay, we know you've been through a lot, you are.
There's some things that we're gonna.
Have to pull it out. Then help us through it.
Okay, help us through it.
Wish anymore.
It's one thing to hear it, but I want listeners to understand how difficult.
It is to watch it.
Is Meier is is really over gesticulating every single move as he makes a stabbing. What's interesting to me about her reaction. You can see how she's trying to hold it together, honestly thinking she's being helpful, and in that moment where she realizes he shifts gears to how did you do it? Not how did he do it? But how did you do it? And immediately she reacts with sincere shock and horror is what it sounds like.
Well, she breaks she breaks down immediately. It really speaks loudly to innocence. To me, that whole last minute that I watched was that's not somebody who did it.
What I find so interesting about that exchange is what they chose to cut out before it got to trial. The last line that they cut out is she may not have been my blood, but she a daughter to me. The intention of cutting that out if you think the person is one hundred percent guilty, what are you trying to right?
What are you afraid of? Yeah? Why are they cutting that out?
You know, it's like there there is no reasonable explanation for it other than they're trying to have everything fit into their narrative, and their narrative has to be that Julia did not feel that way about Jane.
And it's just not how it was.
Sentiments that made this next exchange, taped at the end of January twenty twenty four, even more impactful for everyone involved. Without further ado, Renee High Tower, Jason Flomm.
Hello, Renee, it looks like you're in your car and nice to meet you. Sorry for what you're going through Your family. It's awful, but hopefully we can together we can fix it, at least make it better.
So Renee's been up since before six.
In the back seat you will see Julie's eldest son, Jaden Wave Jayden awesome. And next room is Jaden's cousin and they all made the three hour drive this morning at the break of dawn to visit Julie.
Oh, it's so nice, except for it's not.
Because yeah, so Renee, I called Jason. Jason had had dinner several weeks ago with Kathleen Zelner, and I expressed that you had reached out and that the firm had responded saying that they were not taking any more pro bono cases this year a quick aside. Pro bono work is when lawyers provide free legal services to people who can't afford them. The term comes from the Latin phrase
pro bono publico, which means for the public good. Chicago based attorney Kathleen Zelner is one of the most formidable forces in wrongful conviction advocacy. Notable client Zelner has represented includes Stephen Avery, Kevin Fox, Ryan W. Ferguson, and nineteen Exoneries, who were listed in the National Registry of Exonerations. Renee had already reached out to someone in her office.
I kind of gave a brief story of her case, and he called me back and he said that unfortunately her pro bono has maxed out, but he gave me a flat fee of twenty thousand for the appeal alone, just the appeal, And he said that they did call the appellate court down here and they found out exactly where it's at, and that no public defender has been assigned just yet. So they're still waiting on all the
transcripts to come in. And I believe she has like twenty five and she's got nine of the twenty five so far, and the most important one of the trial is not ready.
A year later.
Yeah, administrative, bureaucratic nonsense. But yeah, So I don't know what Lauren.
I call her.
LBP told you or didn't tell you.
So I spoke with Kathleen.
I mean, twenty thousand dollars for Kathleen's owner is an incredible price, obviously, but not if you don't have twenty thousand dollars obviously, then it doesn't matter. But I did talk to her. We've recently connected and we really hit it off. I don't know how we didn't know each other before, but she's a force of nature and she's
really interested in this case, which is great. I confirmed that when I spoke to her, so I told her, look, if it's twenty thousand dollars, I'll put the bill for that, because I think she If anyone can get Julie out, it's her, and I think she can and she probably will.
Thank you so much, I don't even know what to say.
No, I'm happy to do it. This is what we're here for, and I'm lucky to have the access to those kind of funds, so I'm excited to get Sorry. I mean, if this would be the best deal of the century, if this is what it is, and if it works, that'll be the best money ever spent.
For real.
I so appreciate it so much. Thank you so much, thank you so much, all of you. I can't even begin to say thank you enough.
I swear I would take a little of the burden off of you for a change.
So that's good.
And like that, in an incredible gesture of generosity and compassion, Renee high Tower and Julia Beverly had something they desperately needed. Since December of twenty twenty, hope on the next Murder on Songbird Road, minds are changed.
This zero chance of somebody just wandering around back here.
Yeah, and unfortunately this is not the kind of neighborhood where you would have ring cameras or no way as knocking on doors, and Marion leads to a major breakthrough. Oh my gosh, he has tattoos, he would be identifiable, and the concept of beyond a reasonable doubt is revisited. Oh my god, Oh my.
God, that's huge.
Murder on Songbird Road is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Taylor Chaqoine and Lauren Bright Pacheco. Research writing and hosting by Lauren Bright Pacheco. Investigative reporting by Bob Matta and Lauren Bright Pacheco, editing, sound design and original music by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chaqoine. Additional music by Asher Kurtz. Please like, subscribe, and leave us
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Thanks for listening.