Number 8.
Witness shot to death
21-year-old Kelsie Schelling was pregnant when she went missing in 2012.
Her ex-boyfriend and the child's father Donthe Lucas had asked her to drive from Denver to
his hometown of Pueblo in Colorado.
He told her that he had a big surprise planned for her.
Schelling didn't turn up for work the next day and after a worried co-worker called her
mother, a 8 year-long ordeal began for their family.
When Lucas was contacted he told her mother that Schelling had called from a private number
and that she would be contacting them soon.
Lucas was questioned by the police but his story didn't match up to the CCTV footage
found in the Walmart parking lot where he said he met his girlfriend.
For the first couple of years into the investigation, Schelling was thought to be missing.
Her mother still hoped for her return after years and even set up a Facebook page to help
spread the word.
In 2017, when the authorities had enough evidence against Lucas, they charged him with first-degree
murder.
In 2021, his trial began but the case faced a major setback.
31-year-old Roxann Martinez was all set to testify against Lucas.
Martinez's testimony was especially important for the case because, according to the District
attorney, Lucas had confessed to her about the murder.
But, on February 25th, Roxann was found dead from a gunshot wound.
The Denver police department said that her death wasn't related to the case but Martinez's
cousin believes otherwise.
According to the cousin, there was a big possibility that Martinez was murdered because of the
ongoing case.
It can’t just be a coincidence, right?
Despite Martinez’s murder, Schelling's family got their justice.
29-year-old Donthe Lucas was found guilty of murder by the jury in February 2021 and
sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Number 7.
Witness faked a story
Witnesses are a crucial part of any trial, especially eyewitnesses.
There's nothing better than getting a witness who saw the crime take place.
But sometimes things can get out of hand especially when the witness turns out to be the villain.
In 1994, George Radcliffe was found dead in his pickup truck in North Carolina.
A year later, Montoyae Dontae Sharpe was charged with the murder.
Years later in 2019, Sharpe was pardoned by a judge after authorities found that a witness
had completely made up the story leading to Sharpe's sentence.
When the trial for Radcliffe's murder was going on, the prosecutors called 15-year-old
Charlene Johnson as a witness.
Johnson testified that she saw Sharpe and Radcliffe in an argument.
According to her statement, the two were fighting over a drug deal.
Johnson claimed that she saw Sharpe with another man, trying to hoard Radcliffe into a truck.
The two then crashed the vehicle in a vacant lot and threw away the key.
Johnson said the altercation was face to face and that's when Radcliffe was shot.
However, that doesn't hold true since the medical examiner's notes say the bullet was
fired from far away.
The examiner hadn't heard Johnson's testimony during the trial and couldn't highlight the
mismatch.
A few weeks after the ruling, Johnson took back her testimony but that didn't mean Sharpe
could change his sentence.
It took him 24 long years to finally get freedom from the wrongful conviction.
Johnson's statements weren't just exaggerated, they were completely false.
She wasn't present at the time of the murder but could give her story in such detail because
she just made it up based on television shows.
This grave mistake took two decades of Sharpe's life.
Number 6.
Parrot witness
Some criminals leave evidence, some criminals leave witnesses, but what about the ones that
leave none?
How do you find the culprit and, more importantly, how do you solve the case?
Real-life is not like those movies where a detective conveniently finds important clues
that lead to the crime.
Well, sometimes it is though.
In this case, a crucial witness was left behind who had seen the gruesome crime but the court
couldn't use their testimony.
In 2015, Martin Duram from Michigan was shot dead and his wife Glenna was injured from
a gunshot.
Other than the two, nobody else saw what actually went down.
But, their pet, an African grey parrot named Bud, saw more than he should have.
Martin's ex-wife Christina took the pet and realized that the parrot was repeating the
conversation Glenna and he had on the night of the murder.
The parrot repeated the argument they were having and it ended with the words "Don't
shoot".
Martin's mother also believes that Bud might have picked up on the heated argument.
"That bird picks up everything and anything, and it's got the filthiest mouth around,"
she told the BBC news.
Using Bud's statement would have made the case against Glenna stronger.
A prosecutor in the trial even considered using Bud's squawking as evidence but the
plan was dismissed.
Bud was never called to testify during the trial and his recording wasn’t used either.
Fortunately, the other evidence in the case was enough to prove that Glenna had shot her
husband 5 times before trying to kill herself.
She was charged with first-degree murder in 2017 and was sentenced to life behind bars.
Number 5.
Witness in murder trial found dead
In 2011, Michaela McAreavey was on her honeymoon in Mauritius.
She was the daughter of a well-known football manager Mickey Harte.
Sadly, she was found strangled to death in her hotel room.
Her death caught widespread media attention.
It was also the first murder of a tourist in Mauritius.
But the case got even more twisted when a key witness of the case was also found murdered.
On the 10th of January, Michaela and her husband John finished lunch at their hotel.
After the meal, Michaela decided to head back to the room to get some biscuits for their
tea.
According to the investigators, when she entered the room she was pinned to the ground and
strangled.
Michaela was found in the bath with the water still running.
When she didn't return to the table, John went to check on her and found her lifeless
body.
Three male workers of the hotel were arrested and the trial began in 2012.
Avinash Treebhoowoon and Sandip Moneea were charged with murder and Raj Theekoy was charged
with conspiracy to murder.
According to a DNA test by a forensic expert in England, no DNA traces of the subjects
were found on Michaela's body.
More controversies arose when Avinash alleged that the Major Crime Investigation Team had
"beaten a confession out of him".
A nine-member jury found the men not guilty.
In June 2021, the Mauritius government agreed to take another look at the murder.
This time, one of the main accused Raj Theekoy had agreed to be a witness.
He was reported missing by his wife and a day later on the 3rd of October, his dead
body was found near a junk yard.
His mysterious death was speculated to be a suicide but the investigation is ongoing.
What do you think happened?
Was it suicide or another homicide?
Let us know in the comments below.
Make sure to give us a like and share the video.
For more interesting stories, stay with us till the end...
Number 4.
Key witness killed
In September 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Shem Jean was in his apartment when
off-duty Dallas cop Amber Guyger entered and shot him to death.
Guyger lived in the same building but on the floor above Jean.
In her defense, she said that she mistook Jean's house as hers and thought he was an
intruder.
She was initially charged with manslaughter but the conviction was later changed to murder
when her racial biases came to light.
Guyger was found to have an intent to kill, especially because she didn't follow police
protocol of not entering a building if there’s a potential burglar.
The correct order would be to call for backup.
During the trial, Jean's across-the-hall neighbor Joshua Brown was a key witness.
Brown was returning from a football game and was in the hall of the building when he heard
two people talking.
It was followed by gunshots.
Brown ran to safety and later returned to his apartment.
He stated in his testimony that he saw Guyger talk on her phone before the officers arrived.
His testimony was one of the key factors that put Guyger behind bars for 10 years and the
reason justice was actually served.
But only a few days after the trial, Brown was also shot dead.
It sparked a huge outrage and people started speculating that his murder was revenge for
the testimony against Guyger.
"I just spoke with Joshua Brown’s mother.
She is devastated.
We all are.
Joshua Brown was a key witness in the murder of Botham Jean that helped put Amber Guyger
away.
We need answers."
Jean's lawyer Lee Merritt said.
The murder caught the attention of many politicians as well.
In December 2019, 3 men were charged with Brown's murder.
According to police reports, it was a drug deal gone bad.
The murderers were an uncle and nephew pair who drove 300 miles (482.8 km) to Dallas.
The trio wanted to kill Brown but met up with him on the pretext of buying drugs.
They are truly heinous criminals.
Number 3.
Missing before trial
Christopher James Loiselle, a former stockbroker from Largo, put himself in dangerous waters
when he decided to borrow money from loan sharks.
Loiselle had borrowed $40,000 from the Basha brothers that owned a water scooter business
in Florida.
The men also had ties with the Lucchese, a prominent crime family from New York.
The deal was that Loiselle would return the money in 45 days at a 50% interest rate.
Loiselle failed to return the money and the lawless family sure wasn't pleased with that.
The 30-year-old was later kidnapped from his home by 4 men in 2004.
They threatened him and assaulted him in an attempt to get the money back.
When they let him go, Loiselle went straight to the cops and filed a kidnapping case against
the Bashas.
However, things took a grim turn right before the trial.
Loiselle was supposed to stand as a witness in the extortion and kidnapping case.
But on the eve of the accused kidnappers' trial, Loiselle was nowhere to be found.
Initially, it wasn't clear whether Loiselle had left on his own or if he was kidnapped...
again.
A warrant was issued against Loiselle for failing to turn up on the day of the trial
but not long after, Tampa police found his car with its windows open and the key still
in ignition.
On March 15, 2005, Loiselle was found murdered in Manatee County.
He had five gunshot wounds in his chest.
Loiselle's death meant that he couldn't give his crucial testimony for the case.
But, the recorded statements he gave to the investigators about the kidnapping along with
taped calls between him and the Bashas were still used as evidence.
Based on that, the jury found two of the men innocent of kidnapping.
The jury couldn't reach a verdict on the other two accused.
All of the men denied any ties with Loiselle's murder and even passed polygraph tests.
The investigators stated that there were no other leads in the investigation and today
the blood-thirsty criminals roam the streets free.
Number 2.
Made up testimony Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter
Nishonda were found dead in their home back in 1991.
The firefighters found their bodies on the bed of their burning home.
A year later, Angela Oliver's statement became a key testimony that put suspect Darryl Howard
behind bars.
Howard had always maintained that he didn't murder the mother and daughter and that someone
else was responsible.
Now, almost 26 years later Oliver has stated that she never actually witnessed any murder.
She recanted her statement and said that she was forced to say it by the lead detective
Darrell Dowdy.
During the trial in 1995, Oliver declined to answer questions and was treated as a hostile
witness.
Since she refused to help, a recording of her statement was played to the jury.
In the recording, Oliver said Howard had threatened to kill Doris Washington if she didn't come
up with his drugs or money.
She described how Howard and his brother went back to Doris's house and beat her.
Oliver revealed that Howard said he had to burn them since he didn't want to leave behind
any evidence.
In a federal civil trial that began this November Howard stated that Dowdy's evidence tampering
violated his right to a fair trial.
He also stated that Dowdy fed Oliver the information that was used in her recorded testimony.
Dowdy refused all the allegations against him.
New evidence revealed traces of semen on Doris's body.
The DNA matched that of Jermeck Jones, who was 15 at the time and was associated with
the New York Boys.
This group was a violent gang that used young boys for their crimes since they were less
likely to face harsher sentences.
Dowdy had allegedly received a tip about the gang but ignored it.
Howard was pardoned in April 2020 after serving more than 2 decades of jail time, for a crime
he did not commit.
Talk about a failure of the system.
Number 1.
Testifying from the grave
As always, we save the best for the last.
How can a dead person be a witness?
It sounds impossible, right?
Well, not in this case.
It was not some spooky trial with a ghost, the reality was actually very practical.
Nicolas Quintanilla from California had allegedly shot and killed his girlfriend.
A day after the murder he was arrested from at his home and the trial began soon after.
During the proceedings, the prosecutor called many witnesses to the stand who testified
against Quintanilla.
They spoke of the abusive relationship he had with his girlfriend.
There were no eyewitnesses and most of the statements revolved around past conversations.
The victim had complained about his abusive behavior to many friends.
And this was the main evidence the prosecutors used.
The victim was the main witness of the crime and she was dead.
So the prosecutors had to resort to using conversations she had about Quintanilla.
Was she speaking from the grave?
Technically no but also, in a way, yes.
Such testimonies are called hearsay.
Usually, hearsay is not accepted in courts because there is no way the testimony can
be examined for accuracy.
The witnesses who spoke about Quintanilla's abusive behavior gave hearsay evidence since
they were providing statements from the deceased victim that could not be examined.
But, Quintanilla's case was different.
The prosecutors came up with an idea to use forfeiture by wrongdoing, another rule in
the court of law.
Under this rule, the lawyers managed to convince jurors that he killed the girlfriend so she
couldn't testify against him in court.
The dead victim's statements were recorded and Quintanilla was found guilty of murder.
But his lawyer appealed that the statements shouldn't be taken into account.
He argued that since there's not enough evidence to prove that Quintanilla killed her to keep
her from testifying, the forfeiture by wrongdoing rule couldn't be used.
The conviction against him was reversed.
What do you think, should they have used the victim’s conversations as evidence?
Do you know of any other court stories?
Let us know in the comments below.
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