The Final Countdown Begins

I'm David Sanger I cover the White House and National seecurity at the New York Times, and I try to explain what decisions made in Washington mean for you wherever you live This is why the Times sends me to the Oval Office when the president is making a major decision or has me ride along on Air Force O on critical trips. And I talk to foreign leaders exploring why they're so often at odds with the United States We live in a world of misinformation and disinformation It's never been more important to have reliable sources of on the ground reporting If you want firsthand reporting on how U. S. policy affects the world Consider subscribing to the New York Times In the fall of twenty twenty four, a criminal defense lawyer got the kind of phone call that most lawyers can only dream about It concerned a client of his, a guy named David Wood onene of Texas's most notorious serial killers He was sitting on death row. months away from his execution G G were call and u, I would like to discourage you comp from about David Wood What? C down what has happened in that case The man on the phone, George Hall I thought something corrupt had gone down in David Wood's trial. It had happened more than thirty years ago But for thirty years, he'd said nothing Mostly because he was afraid to For those thirty years, he'd been on parole. He worried if he aggravated the authorities, they might find some way to send him back to prison But now his parole had ended, and George Hall was ready to tell his story, which he'd eventually put into a sworn declaration That story goes like this Back in the late eighties, George Hall and David Wood were locked up together with the Eastam Unit in Texas. George Hall was in for murder. David Wood was in for rape. They weren't particularly close. David Wood was quiet, didn't talk much. But when he did, George says, it was mainly to complain about how the police in his hometown of El Paso were harassing him, investigating him for a series of murders. Basically what he said was El Paso was trying to pin it on him. David Wood insisted he had nothing to do with those murders George thought maybe he didn't, maybe he did. Either way, he didn't really care Eventually, George and David Wood were separated, moved to different facilities hundreds of miles apart One day, George says he's in the prison library, ready to go to lunch when two officers come in and tell him to pack his stuff. I said, Wellere am I going? they wouldn't tell me So next thing I know, I'm on a bus ride down to El Paso A few hours later, George finds himself in a holding cell in the El Paso County jail. Two other guys join him in there George recognizes them both as guys who had seelled with David Wood And one of them says to the group They have an opportunity. They can all get money maybe, or less prison time All they have to do is snitch on David Wood Soon enough, they're escorted out of the cell and into a car. And George says that's when the cops start rolling out the red carpet. They give us the tour obscenic drive up the mountainside, look across the Rio Grande, look into old Mexico and this and that. Whatever, you know, and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, we're not handcuffed well if we jump out and run. What are they gonna do then, you know He said State George says they're taken to a hamburger joint for lunch, and then ultimately to a police station The guys are offered coffee, snacks, cigarettes And then they're ushered into a room with detectives. Of course they got files everywhere. They got David Woods's name pastard all over thing. They got arrows and lines going to this, this, dates wrpe down. Files are sitting there. They've started handing us files. Look live We got this on him, we got this on him. He did this. We know this, this, this, this ain't going through all facts and stuff' this narrative driven shit and you're reading what they got And then after that they goes You know anything? Well, I don't know a goddamn thing all they had to do is ask me to prison unit. I was mattering shit about it. As for the other two guys They go back. They're talking to each other, but it's in real low tones. And they basically don't want talk to me about nothing So I kn to myself right then and there They're gonna say whatever they want them to say They're gonna tell the police that David would confess to multiple murders But George is sure these guys don't actually know anything about David Wood He would have heard about it already Plus, he knows they're not above lying George returns to prison Not long after, he writes to an El Paso prosecutor about quote improprieties that I am aware of He says he knows the informants are fabricating their stories The prosecutor never writes back, but the letter does make its way into David Wood's case file Eventually, David Wood does go on trial for the murders George is never called to testify. But the two other guys become the star witnesses for the prosecution. The jury convicts David Wood, and he's sentenced to death Court documents show that after the trial, one of the informants received thirteen thousand dollars in reward money The other got his own capital murder charge dropped I identified more than a dozen officers, detectives, and supervisors who were involved in David Wood's case. I wanted to ask them about George Hall. Some were dead, one had dementia, one hung up on me, and others never responded. But the one detective who did speak to me extensively about the case called George's whole story, quote, prereposterous It's pretty well documented in court records and a media account that George and the other two men were brought in together and interviewed by the El Paso police But the detective said he couldn't imagine his colleagues taking prisoners out for a joy ride and showing them case materials in order to get them to snitch For more than thirty years after Davidood's trial, George kept tabs on the case. Googled it from time to time. In two thousand nine, he read that David Wood's execution was called off. There'd been a question about his intellectual capacity y twenty twenty four, George saw that David Wood was again scheduled for execution this time, George figured it would actually happen And this time, he was finally off parole So if he was going to speak up. It was now or never I don't know if it's gonna make a difference whether they gets executed or not. That's not the question. That's not what I got to live with What I have to live with is Can I live with myself? Kning that I know two people fabricated testimony to get a guy executed And I don't say anything about it Not long after George Hall called David Wood's lawyer, David Wood's lawyer emailed me asking me to write about the case I wasn't surprised. I'm a journalist at a nonprofit called the Marshall Project, where we cover the criminal justice system I'm the death penalty guy on stuff. As gloomy as that sounds. But I was surprised by who was asking Greg Warchuck I know Greg Wordchuck is a big deal in capital defense work He's been defending people on death row for decades. and even stopped one execution by winning at the Supreme Court I'd asked him for an interview years ago for a book I was writing on the death penalty He said no He rarely spoke to reporters The now here he was in my inbox His email was polite and panicky Davidood's execution date was only seventeen weeks away He wanted me to write about the case and all the problems he saw with it I was pretty skeptical. I did the hard hitting research of reading the Wikipedia page about David Wood and woof Six women and girls, one as young as fourteen killed and buried in the desert outside of El Paso David Wood even got one of those spooky serial killer nicknames, The Desert Killer Greg wrote to me that David Wood was innocent that he didn't commit any of these murders And sure, I did find George Hall's story compelling But even if those informants were lying at the trial, that doesn't mean David Wood didn't do it. Plus, in order to do the story Greg was pitching, I'd have to reinvestigate it from scratch. All six murders in a matter of weeks That sounded impossible But I was curious about what Greg was up to. hisis overall project trying to sow enough doubt at the last minute in order to save his client's life. I'd seen executions get stayed for procedural claims about execution methods or a defendant's mental fitness But this wasn't just a claim about an unfair trial. Greg was saying David Wood didn't do it at all And now somehow he's supposed to prove that in a few months In death penalty circles, many smart and knowledgeable people are critical of Greg's line of work prosecutors, judges, victim family members, they say that capital defense lawyers like Greg are just ideologically opposed to the death penalty Zealot even, who will do anything and everything to stop or delay an execution And their work wastes time and money, harms the justice system And worst of all, denies victims' families the closure they deserve All of that could be true. O Greg could have just four months to stop the state from killing an innocent man. So I told Greg. I'm not going to do the big feature story on David Wood you're imagining But what if I follow you around Be there with a microphone as you strategize with your team hunt for witnesses and try to persuade people of David Wood's innocence with the clock ticking Greg had a million reasons to say no I'm still kind of shocked. But he said yes From Serial Productions, the Marshall Project, and the New York Times, this is the last twelve weeks I' Maurice Schma This week on the Wire Cutter S showow The Cost of consumer tech products, laptops, phones, gaming consoles is climbing We have built a world. that makes people need this stuff. and increasingly, it's going to be very difficult for a broad category of people to afford. What's driving it and what can we do about it? Find out wherever you get your podcasts. leadading up to his execution date David Wood's lawyers didn't just contact me. They tried some of the other usual suspects who often bring attention to death row cases The Innocence Project, Kim Kardashian, among others None of it worked And it's not hard to see why. You can ask me Is there any doubt in your mind that this is the man that committed this heinous crimes against these little girls. None whatsoever. None, None This is Detective John Gurero, formerly of the El Paso Police Department, now retired Johnny if you talk to him for five minutes I'm gonna to let him lay out the basics of David Wood's case. This was one of the biggest cases of his career, so it's a story he likes telling It starts in the late summer of nineteen eighty seven call came in Two county employees said they'd been working out in the desert, northeast of the city, when they saw something pretty disturbing. They saw something protruding out of the sand and one of them said, Hey it looks like a damn, it looks like a leg. And then so they went up there and as they got closer, they went, o hell, it is a leg, you know, sticking out. So they made the call then and then here we go and it started from there It was the body of a woman named Roso Maria Casio. She was twenty three or twenty four in from out of town to visit family They search the area and pretty quickly, about fifty feet away. they find a second body. Karen Baker. She's twenty from El Paso, a mother of three young children. So the police start looking into both of these deaths And then a month and a half later, a canine team finds a couple more bodies, not far from the first two These belong to Desie Wheatley and Dawn Smith, both middle school aged girls. A few weeks later, a fifth body, Angelica Frasto, seventeen And then in the same area of desert, they find twenty three year old Ivy Williams So now Johnny has six victims in a matter of a few months At that point, you know, we're going like holy crap, man, you know, We have a fucking serial killer here somewhere, you know Deserts don't preserve much, so finding evidence in cases like these can be especially difficult Mostly police are finding skeletons out there But as Johnny investigates, clues start coming in from a surprising source Middle school kids They were all friends with one of the victims. We started getting information from several people. aboutb this white guy that was going around in a bait truck and also in a motorcycle El Paso is majority Hispanic, so this detail, a white guy, stood out to Johnny Kids say this guy was always around Giving weeds to them and buying them beer and that kind of stuff. And then also we were told that he was real focused on these young girls, you know, real young girls, fifteen, sixteen year old little girls. And I don't remember who it was, but somebody gave us this nickname Skeeter. In old tapes from this investigation, you hear this name come up a lot Skeeter Did you ever hear any of the kids mention? A guy by the name of Seter. that offered him some marijuana or something like that? You knew him by a nickname? by Ser S. How long had you known him? And then we started asking people about this guy Ser, Ser, skoter. A Ser or a scooter I think that was that guy in the truck. There was a guy in the truck Yeah. Somebody said, Well, Skeeter is a guy that just got out of prison. Skeeter is who? And his name is David Wood, Iess? No, David Wood. Of course, we run his name the mechanics of how Skeeter and David Wood get linked are hazy. In the recordings I listened to, most of the kids had no idea who Skecoeter was. And the ones who say Scoer was David Wood, it's not clear if they put that together themselves or if they were repeating the connection that the cops made In any case, when Johnny learns more about David Wood's criminal record, He discovers a wrap sheet that's long and egregious multiple sexual crimes against girls. One as young as twelve and the timeline tracks David Wood had been released from prison less than a month before the first of these victims disappeared So you know, I mean, right away, the antennas go up, you know, the red lights start blinking and what have you, you know By this point, David Wood is Johnny's prime suspect A nickname in a history of crimes, no matter how unsettling aren't enough to put him away for six murders. But then Johnny gets his first big break So this patrol officer calls in and says, Hey, look, I don't know if it's related or not, but this girl I use the ainaculular.'s hooker. She she works downtown. She's, um, a heroin addict, um, But she's telling people that she was taken out to the desert in northeast El Paso. and this guy was gonna rape her And u She was able to escape u and, um, a trucker picked her up Her name was Judith Kelling. She died in twenty fourteen, but Johnny interviewed her back when it happened Is it detective John Guerrero, prison or Detective Jh Guerrero, Officer Ben Yala Today's date is Monday, november sixteenth, nineteeny seven. Judith Kelling is in her mid twenties at the time. She tells Johnny that she was out by a circle K convenience store and was trying to hitchhike to a friend's house when a white guy picked her up in his truck Instead of taking her where she wanted to go, he has to make a stop She was annoyed, but also not in a hurry She says he parked outside an apartment and went in. Five ten minutes came back out. and when he came back out, I noticed he had a rope in his pocket hanging out, but I didn't think nothing at the time. And when he got back in truck, he said, he asked me if I want to do some coke with him. The guy told Judith Kelling the cocaine was stashed by the side of the road But then he drove out to a pretty remote spot in the desert and stopped the truck She describes how the guy grabbed a rolled up blanket and a shovel out of the truck bed And he took the shovel and he started digging. and he came back, he got the blanket and he told me he too me he made me get out the truck. I didn't want I told him just take me back. He kept calling me a bitch. He goes, Don't turn around, bitch. And I was getting panicked, he scared becausecause I thought he was going try something with me. Kelling says the guy tied her up, threw her down on the blanket, and raped her. Also, he kept ordering her to say that she was fourteen years old Then the guy heard some voices nearby Kelling says he got spooked and sped off in his truck, leaving her tied up in the middle of nowhere After the interview, Judith identifies David Wood in a photo lineup and takes police to where she was raped Johnny says it's around fifty yards from where the murder victims were found Within a few weeks, the police arrest David Wood for Kelling's rape David Wood denies ever having raped Judith Kelling, but he's convicted and sent to prison Meanwhile, Johnny continues trying to prove that David Wood is also the desert killer. It ends up taking him and the prosecutors more than four years Their main piece of physical evidence is a collection of orange fibers, threads posossibly from a blanket The police find some near one of the victim's bodies in the desert They find similar ones in a vacuum cleaner at David Wood's apartment The other big thing that helps Johnny Testimony from those two men who had been in prison with David Wood When Wood is finally put on trial for the murders, they both swear, under oath, that David Wood confess to them that he was the desert killer Nearly five years after the rape conviction, a jury finds David Wood guilty of murder. He's sentenced to death So yeah, this is the case that Greg Worchuck is trying to fight a hideous case in which the jury needed less than ninety minutes to hand down a death sentence A case that over the course of three decades, numerous appeals courts have found no reason to question. But Greg is adamant that the cops, the prosecutors, the jury, the judges, they all got it wrong My producer, Ovin Mellith and I meet Greg for the first time in mid december twenty twenty four at the El Paso County Courthouse. Greg looks a little like a younger Dick Van Dyke, if you know that reference, which Greg would tall and wiry white hair, trimed beard. Greg is a law professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he just flew in from. There's a nervous energy wafting of them. I mean, should I start from the top orould we just start with what's important to you right now? Yeah What's important to me right now is I'm hoping to see The incoming district attorney of El Paso who was elected in. Greg took on David Wood as a client back in two thousand nine. The first time Wood was scheduled to be executed. Greg managed to get a stay back then, no small feat in Texas, but eventually another execution date got set. So now he's got exactly eighty seven days to stop it If you ask Greg, he could rattle off a bunch of holes he sees in the case, including that story from George Hall about the jailhouse informants. But an even bigger issue, he tells me has to do with DNA After he took the case, he asked the courts to allow the retesting of a few pieces of evidence with newer technology A piece of a victim's clothing turned up male DNA, and it was not David Wood's DNA Since then, Greg has been on a mission to get more evidence tested. There are more than a hundred other pieces of evidence But the state of Texas has repeatedly said no So that's what Greg is focused on today His plan is to meet with James Montoya, the incoming DA, and convince them to support more DNA testing And that's not all. There's this other thing I won't bore you with the details of why this happened, but just know that years ago, the El Paso DA handed this whole case off to the Texas atttorney genereneral A very pro death penalty Republican So what Greg really wants is for Montoya, a Democrat, to ask for the case back. thenen ask the courts to halt the execution and then test the DNA Three huge asks That's Greg's plan. But maybe it's not accurate to call this a plan There's no meeting scheduled In fact, it sounds like Montoya might not even know who Greg is I left him the longest text message I've ever sent to anyone about David Wood's case asking for an opportunity to speak with him while I was in El Paso D didnn't hear back from him. That was about two weeks ago. I left him a voicemail message this morning, told him I'm in El Paso, I flew in from Madison, Wisconsin.onna be here for a few days. and I hope that he will speak with me for just a few minutes about David Wood's case The DA's office is on the second floor of a courthouse, so we take the elevator up to a waiting area. There's a flat screen TV playing the show Cake Wars Grag announces himself to a receptionist and we sit. Greg has invited us here, but he's not completely sold yet on'm being followed around with microphones orr maybe not sold enough to let us tape him ambushing the next District attorney of El Paso. So I'm just gonna to tell you what happens next We wait for about ten minutes, and then a figure sweeps by, a sort of boyish young man in a suit, trailed by an aid. And Greg leaps from his chair and I realize This is Montoya The mood turns cringy very fast Montoya apparently does know who Greg is after all and says pretty quickly Sorry, but we're not going to get involved They don't have the bandwidth. That's the word he uses Greg says, couldouldn't we just talk for five minutes Montoya says he has another meeting Greg says he came all the way from Wisconsin And Montoya gets blunt says I'm telling you, it's not happening So Greg changes tack, talking faster now, diving right for the bullet points There's DNA from someone else. The execution date is just a few months away They're talking over each other now, like they're performing monologues from two different plays I'm staring at my hands, fiddling with my wedding ring. and I look over at my producer, Alvin, and he's doing the exact same thing. Greg asks if he can come back in a few weeks, A Montoya says, sure, but his answer will still be no Greg says he'll come back anyway This all takes less than two minutes, but it's like the awkwardness ripped a ho in the spaceetime continuum. It might as well have been a week. We take the elevator back down, go outside, and turn the recorder back on for a debrief That was u Very discouraging, very disappointing. I had higher hopes that he would be willing to get involved. I wish he could give me ten or fifteen minutes and that I could go through the case in a very calm and logical manner. I mean, I do understand he's taking over an office that's been in a lot of chaos over the last few years and they also have a huge case coming up ro probablyably the biggest case in Stavid Woods, and this's the Walmart shooting, which is The Walmart shooting where twenty three people were killed. So yeah, maybe the newly elected DA has enough to do and wouldn't want to mess with the long awaited execution of El Paso's most notorious serial killer But there are only eighty seven days left for Greg to find some way to get Montoya on his side. I ask him if considering how that interaction just went, he had any realistic hope that Montoya would ever talk to him. So I'm an optimist. I'm not a naive optimist, but I do hold out hope that Lucy will not pull away the football when I run up to kick it this time Charl Bown's my hero Charlie Brown, who keeps trying no matter what Greg tells Alvin and me he sees wisdom in that approach in death row cases like this. The second you let yourself get discouraged and give up, you're doomed. If you're not ready to kick the football with all you've got, then one time Lucy doesn't pull it away and you get cynical about the legal system and its ability to deliver justice then when the planets align You're not going to be ready I actually was surprised that he said I could come back after january first to talk with him again. He did follow that up by saying you're going to get the same answer. getting rid of you if. That was my take. Well, maybe so, but I'm going to come back after january first Cly run. That's right. That's right The next morning, Alvin and I meet Greg in the lobby of a very beige hotel near the airport. Joining us is another lawyer who got in last night, Jeremy Shppers. Greg, how are you?? How you feeling? My knee feels like fucking shit from running the marathon, but other than that You ran the marathon? Yeah, I ran the Dallas marathon Sunday. Work is not punishing enough so I have to crank out a marathon on my off time on the weekends. Jeremy, if you can't tell already, is pretty much a photo negative of Greg. They both grew up in Michigan, but that's where the similarities stop Jeremy is sarcastic, where Greg is earnest, a millennial in flannel and jeans, where Greg opts for the jacket and tie Jeremy is essentially Greg's co captain on this case. He works at a federal public deffender office, where he runs a Cital habeas unit chew for short Chs often get involved in the final run up to an execution Bringing a whole team of lawyers and investigators on board Today's plan is to try to get the local press interested in their mission to test the DNA Greg thinks if there are news stories about the problems in David Wood's case, maybe that will push Montoya to meet with him Should we all get in the same car? So we head to KVIA, El Paso's ABC station, and it's there talking to the nightly news anchor that the lawyers get their first glimmer of good news. They gave me a That's after the break Hi, this is Andy. I've been a New York Times subscriber for years and years and I'm trying to get my teenagers interested in reading it. If they were to have their own logins and we could share articles, I think that would help get them interested. It would also then allow us to discuss them with the dinner table or wherever Thank you very much Andy, we heard you. It's why we created the New York Times Family suubbscription. One subscription up to four separate logins for anyone in your life Find out more at nYimes d. com slash familyamily We get to KVIA in the early afternoon. The place is decorated for Christmas, garland and tinsel everywhere. The nightly news anchor here is named Stephanie Vae, and she greets us with a big camera ready smile and walks us into a conference room Stephanie already knows David Wood's case pretty well. A F few years ago, she covered the desert murders on her podcast called Borderland Crimes Greg heard it and was not a fan He thought it made his client sound stone cold guilty Greg asked for this meeting anyway, so he must think he can sway Stephanie to at least consider his side Greg wants Stephanie to do a story where she interviews Montoya and asks him pointed questions like Why won't he take on the case? And why hasn't DNA been tested Greg himself doesn't want to go on camera He doesn't want to risk personally antagonizing Montoya But Stephanie seems skeptical I can't even suppose to like think for him, but just as a person, I would think, the last thing that the district attorney would want to do is not only have to restructure an office. It's been in turmoil for the last Four years but also reopen one of the oldest death penalty cases in El Paso, But I do feel like if you were to apply that pressure In other words, if Greg were to go on camera and ask the tough questions himself. You raising the question allows me to then turn and ask that question. And so I just feel like if you're the one raising the questions, it would sound better coming from your mouth and mineure. Greg seems open to this idea, only there's a wrinkle Stephanie tells us she's leaving the Nightly newews Roughly two weeks from now, she'll no longer be at KVIA Sure, the new anchor could maybe take the story, but there's no guarantee As they talk about timing, Greg suddenly veers into trying to sell Stephanie on what he sees as the problems in the case So George Call was in prison with David Wood. Greg whips out the Manila envelope with George Hall's signed declaration inside. He starts quoting from it A lot of it is pretty dry. Details about George Hall's interractuctions of the authorities, the terms of his parole, at the capital murder trial and Hall and. I realize this is a version of the pitch he might have given Montoya if he'd gotten a meeting yesterday. It's just a torrent of raw information exxhausting Yeah It's There' a lot There's a lot wrong with this case I think the fact that DNA has not been tested and that it's pretty clear that they were using jailhouse witnesses to corroborate a story is is a little it makes me a little uneasy but I guess I was actually talking about this case with a colleague of mine in another news operation, and he was saying, well, what do you say to the fact that there were no more deaths? That's not true is what you say. O Well, I mean, obviously there were deaths. I mean, everywhere, but doing bodies buried in the desert. And in fact, during the Cital Murder trial, the police discovered a body buried in the desert. And they had an in chambers discussion about whether or not this is an important point. Greg is saying, I know people believe this about the case The David Wood must have done it because after he was arrested, the police didn't find any more bodies in the desert But it's not true They actually did find at least one body, while David Wood was on trial As I'm listening, I realize this is what Greg's up against Double barrel problem People think they know it happened, but they're missing crucial information And while Greg himself has mastered that information He spent less time figuring out how to distill it into a good story. About a half hour into their conversation, Stephanie seems ready to wrap this whole thing up. Yeah, yeah sure. Sorry because the four o'clock producer is asking me to help her with something. Do you have to be on air in a second or two? I probably need to go in about fifteen min. Okay, All right. As everybody starts packing up, Greg seems to suddenly remember his real goal He wants to talk to Montoya directly, and a question just pops out of his mouth. Can you get to meet with him I probably could.Q a second. Are you ser? You must talk to Greg Worshop and Jeremy Shepherard. Yes, I can definitely I can try and get a meeting with you. and him. Yeah, I could probably try and do that. I've been working in this town a long time. Yeah I can try. I can't promise anything. that's wonderful. Yeah, I'll do what I can. I'll talk to him. We're pulling at any string we can. So here is my question. Could Stephanie really get Greg a meeting with Montoya? or was that just her polite way of getting rid of them? When we meet up with Greg and Jeremy in the hotel lobby the next morning, it looks like they already have an answer. Okay, so the background is that Stephanie Valle spoke with James Montoya last night And she was going to send him the podcast, Borderlands podcast. M not be the most helpful did David w his guilty podcast take on take let's listen to this. But in any event, she did talk to him and texted me that he seemed well, let me just read the text here He seemed open to listening. I'm not saying I changed his mind, but he will at least listen to an argument They're both buzzing, still in shock that Stephanie did this for them Getting Mantoya on board would be huge. It would mean halting the execution was just weeks to go There would be time to finally test the DNA Greg wants to text Montoya immediately. Jeremy says, Maybe don't text yet. Give Montoya some space. Maybe send them something to read. But Greg wants to strike while the iron is hot. In these little disagreements, Greg, the long timer, gets the final say. So he begins typing Hunts and pecks with one finger When Greg said we could follow his team around, I didn't anticipate just how much time we'd spend watching them scrunch around an iPhone If he splinted, it kind of looked like Alvin and I were documenting two buddies trying to get a second date It was surreal to think that someone's execution might depend on this 's going to be the highlight of the podcast. says, mister Montoya, after I met with Stephanie Balle yesterday, she told me that she reached out to you to discuss David Wood's case. Would you be willing to meet with me and my coounsel Jeremy Shepers later today or tomorrow before noon? We only need five ten minutes of your time Sounds great. All right Hendy off it goes. W group. I might be something else Montoyia does not text back The lawyers leave El Paso As the year ends, Stephanie's last day at KVIA is coming up. The holidays are approaching whichich means realistically, Greg and Jeremy are going to lose precious days of work before the execution Greg wants to keep pushing ahead and decides he might as well do the interview Stephanie sets it up, and they tape an interview over Zoom two days after Christmas. A week later, Alvin and I joined a weekly video call with the whole defense team around ten people There's some chit chat about the holidays, and then Greg jumps in with the first agenda item. can probably give everybody an update on Stephanie Vae in the interview. So Uh, I gave this u Zoom interview Greg reports that the interview seemed to go, you know, okay, pretty well But then Stephanie sent him a text J just an hour ago or so saying that the file was corrupted that she was doing on her computer where she was doing. Apparently, the video recording of their interview got messed up somehow She was going to ask the IT department to look at her computer, but now, quote, they're saying since it's my last week, they have to wipe it and take it back anyway as part of the offboarding process she adds quote I'm sorry I couldn't help. Greg writes back Oh my goodness, I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do He offers to redo the interview There might not be enough time to get it on TV, but maybe she could talk about it on her podcast. And she said at this point, I can't redo it because I'm in professional limbo And I'll let you know So I assess Greg's reaction to all of this as twenty percent disappointment and eighty percent befudtlement Jeremy, on the other hand, is one hundred percent not buying it. Did you Greg, did you ask Stephanie if her dog ate her homework too while she was busy making shit up about why she couldn't air this This feels like one of those zones where the eternal optimist is gonna to agree with her and the ternal oessimist thinks this is complete and total fucking bullshit. she feet about this st. It did strike me as a bit odd. I will admit to that, Jeremy U, And maybe maybe she got a better offer than her own podcast after she did this interview. You know, she's not leaving for another week think they'd be able to fix her computer in the meantime before wiping it. Yeah, I wonder if the local ABC station might have more than one laptop computer failing. could be wrong about their computer outlay, but I mean I think kind of like piecing it all together, she probably has some job offer And she thinks she can't run a story on David Wood right now. A few days later, Stephanie says goodbye to the Nightly News And then the other shoe finally drops in the form of an Instagram post Hi everyone. A lot of you have asked me what I'll be doing now that I'm no longer anchoring KVIA's evening newscasts. Well starting on Monday, january sixth, I'll be working with the newly elected District attorney James Montoya. James wants to bring trust, integrity, and transparency back into the district attorne'sice We reached out to Stephanie later on to ask if the file of the interview with Greg really was corrupted. We ran by her Jeremy's less generous version, that it was an excuse We also asked if she ever really reached out to Montoya on Greg's behalf She declined to comment We did get an emailed statement from DA Montoya, saying his office had not been involved in this case in more than thirty years. And so, quote, it would be ill advised to insert ourselves into the case now It's now January. Almost three weeks have passed since we first met Greg. The legal team has sixty seven days to stop David Wood's execution The idea of getting James Montoya on board and testing DNA feels more remote than ever The lawyers can't even get a face to face meeting with them. So now, with two months left, they're going to launch a fresh round of investigation. They have to track down new witnesses. Did your sister tell you a little bit about why we're reaching out? Pursue other suspects Claiming k' be found I a lawyer and try to convince the courts that David Wood really could be innocent. People gonna hear about me. They're gonna hate me. I get it. I'm just a convict in prison saying I'm innocent and they're going, ye, right, you lying piece of crap That's next time on the last twelve weeks