Brendan Dassey's Court Victory #makingamurderer
Brendan Dassey finally won in court. He must be retried in 90 days or the State of Wisconsin must appeal to the Supreme Court, but they have no evidence because he is 100% innocent, so he will be freed this year barring unforeseen legal trickery. All of the dominoes are falling!
From the Seventh Circuit Court decision:
"To be sure Dassey's confession was not a smooth and consistent story. There were holes in the narrative. Dassey waffled and backtracked. The sequence of events was not always clear. The majority, reviewing the interview with its defense-friendly 'key' in hands, takes these inconsistencies as proof that Dassey was not recounting real memories but only telling the investigators what he believed the wanted to hear."
"To be sure Dassey's confession was not a smooth and consistent story. There were holes in the narrative. Dassey waffled and backtracked. The sequence of events was not always clear. The majority, reviewing the interview with its defense-friendly 'key' in hands, takes these inconsistencies as proof that Dassey was not recounting real memories but only telling the investigators what he believed the wanted to hear."
Did Ryan Hillegas Kill Teresa? #makingamurderer
Unmaking a Murderer Chapter 11 (Revised June 2017)
Writing for the Daily
Mail, Chris White referenced a Facebook poll of more than 1,200 people: 62%
thought that Teresa’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan Hillegas, was guilty of her murder and
17% blamed Manitowoc law enforcement for the crime. In June 2017, Kathleen Zellner
filed a 1,272-page notice for post-conviction relief. She named Ryan as the
lead murder suspect and accused Kratz of fraudulent conduct. In response, Kratz
called Zellner deplorable for blaming Ryan.
Zellner believes that
Teresa was not murdered at Steven’s property. After her appointments at
Steven’s and the Zipperer’s, Teresa returned home. While she was standing at
the rear of the RAV4, Ryan bludgeoned her to death. He burned her body, planted
evidence on the Avery property and manipulated the police into going after
Steven. Having found appointment details in the paperwork in the RAV4, Ryan
learned that Teresa had visited Steven earlier that afternoon. From local news,
he knew that Steven was a famous exoneree who was suing Manitowoc County. To
shield himself from becoming a murder suspect, Ryan devised a plan to move the
body and the vehicle to Steven’s property.
Here are some of the main
points in Zellner’s motion as to why she suspects Ryan, which touch on issues raised
in this book:
1.
Ryan was abusive towards Teresa and jealous
Having met as freshmen in high school, Teresa and Ryan
had dated on and off for approximately five years in a farming community called
Hilbert. During that time, Teresa was subjected to verbal and physical abuse. After
she ended their relationship, Ryan continued to exercise control over her by
living nearby and frequenting her home. In emails to friends, Teresa complained
that Ryan was still checking her out years after they had broken up.
Ryan became aware of
Teresa’s sexual relationships with a married man and her housemate, Scott
Bloedorn, who was also one of Ryan’s closest friends. Just months before her
disappearance, Teresa became involved with Scott. Jealousy was the motive for
the murder.
After refusing to sit for
an interview about false statements he had made to the police in 2005, Scott Bloedorn
was informed that the post-conviction counsel planned to name a suspect in
Teresa’s murder. Scott immediately blurted out, “You mean Ryan Hillegas.”
The married man Teresa
had become involved with was a client of her nude photography business. Taking
nude photos of Mr Czech and his wife led to Teresa’s sexual relations with him.
Teresa kept nude photos of the Czech couple in the bedroom of her home, which
Ryan frequented. The discovery of the photos and the relationship with Mr Czech
may have been another point of jealousy for Ryan. Prior to her disappearance,
Teresa had broken off her relationship with Mr Czech. On November 3, 2005, Ryan
called Mr Czech for the first time. The reason for the call is unknown.
2.
Ryan deleted Teresa’s phone records after she had disappeared
Deleting messages required someone to access Teresa’s
voicemail from another phone by using her password. Her phone records show that
her own phone was not used to access her voicemail after 2:12 pm on October 31,
2005. This means that the person who accessed her voicemail prior to the
authorities realising she was missing on November 3 had to be the killer who
knew the password required to delete her voicemails. To know her password, the
killer had to be extremely close to Teresa. Clearly, this was not Steven.
Ryan wanted to buy time before
people noticed that Teresa was missing. After her death, Teresa received
multiple phone calls, which filled the 20-minute capacity of her voice mailbox.
Knowing Teresa’s password, Ryan deleted messages to prevent Teresa’s loved ones
from noticing that her voice mailbox was uncharacteristically full, which would
have alerted them to her disappearance. Although Ryan had delayed the
inevitable, on November 3, Teresa’s loved ones noticed that her voicemail was
full and contacted the police. At Steven’s trial, his lawyers asked Ryan how he
had accessed Teresa’s phone records. He testified that he had guessed her
username and password.
“There is evidence that
voice messages were deleted from Ms Halbach’s voice mailbox after her death and
before law enforcement initiated their missing person investigation,” stated McCrary
– a retired FBI agent hired by Kathleen Zellner. “Mr Hillegas is one individual
who knew Ms Halbach’s username and password and assisted law enforcement in
accessing her Cingular Wireless account to obtain a list of her phone calls
during the relevant time period.”
By deleting Teresa’s
messages, Ryan had extra time to dispose of her body and personal items, and to
frame Steven.
Familiar with the area, Ryan planned to put Steven’s
DNA in the RAV4. As Ryan drove the RAV4 onto the Avery’s property, Steven – who
was driving at the time – spotted the RAV4’s taillights, turned around and
drove back to investigate. Ryan was forced to retreat to Kuss Road. Unable to
ascertain the source of the taillights, Steven left the property.
Evidence from the scent
and cadaver dogs indicates that Ryan drove the RAV4 onto the property from Kuss
Road and across a field to the vicinity of Steven’s trailer. Finding a door to
Steven’s trailer unlocked, Ryan entered with the intention of obtaining
Steven’s DNA to plant in the RAV4. Inside the trailer, he noticed fresh blood
on the bathroom sink. Due to his knowledge of science, he knew that if the blood
were found in the RAV4 then Steven would become the only suspect. After
collecting the blood from the sink, he deposited it in several spots throughout
the RAV4, mindful of having to plant it quickly before it coagulated.
In the late afternoon of November 4, Ryan drove the
RAV4 into the Radandt pit, aided by an accomplice in a second vehicle, which
was used to transport Ryan off the Avery’s property. Ryan planted the vehicle
on the south-east corner close to the car crusher. A new witness saw the RAV4
enter the property followed by a white Jeep, and only the jeep leave.
In the evening of
November 4, Ryan told the police that he was willing to search the Avery’s
property. As the police did not yet have a warrant based on probable cause,
they could not perform a search. Accompanied by law enforcement, Ryan went to
the property and led the police to the vehicle in the south-east corner of the
salvage yard. After looking into the RAV4, Ryan yelled, “It’s hers.” He claimed
to have recognised the vehicle and Teresa’s personal items inside it. The
discovery of the vehicle focused the investigation exclusively on Steven.
Having being duped by Ryan, the police felt justified in planting additional
evidence to frame Steven.
5.
Ryan volunteered to lead the citizen search
To further steer the investigation towards Steven,
Ryan volunteered to run the citizen search. To make his role credible, he did
not initially tell law enforcement that he had been in a relationship with
Teresa. He gave the impression that he was only a concerned friend. “Mr.
Hillegas injected himself into the police investigation by taking an active
role in the volunteer search,” McCrary wrote.
On Saturday morning,
November 5, Ryan coordinated a volunteer effort and sent dozens of people into
the surrounding area to search for Teresa and her vehicle. After most of the
searchers had left the property, a former private investigator, Pam Sturm, arrived.
Pam spoke to Ryan and Scott Bloedorn. “He [Ryan] gave a female volunteer
searcher (Pam Sturm) a camera and a direct phone number to the sheriff (Jerry
Pagel),” McCrary wrote. Clearly, he knew that Pam would discover the RAV4.
Pam drove to the Avery’s
property, walked to the back and quickly found the RAV4 covered with tree
branches. Finding it was a true statistical improbability considering it was on
40 acres of uneven topography and amid 4,000 other vehicles. “It appears that
he [Ryan] directed her to the area where the victim’s vehicle was located,”
McCrary stated.
Heading the search team
gave Ryan unlimited access to the Avery’s property, which was closed to the
public. This enabled Ryan to plant Teresa’s burned bones and electronic
equipment in Steven’s burn pit and burn barrel.
6.
Ryan used a fake name to access the salvage yard
“On at least one occasion,” McCrary stated, “Mr
Hillegas had misidentified himself as Mr Kilgus to gain access to the Avery
property. Regardless, the authorities allowed Mr Hillegas multiple entries to
the Avery property while it was under police control.”
During the weekend of November
5-6, law enforcement officials recovered no major physical evidence to suggest
that Steven was the killer, despite a massive police presence meticulously
canvassing the 40-acre property soon after the RAV4’s recovery.
“On November 7, 2005, the
day before the victim’s burned bones and electronic devices were found in Mr
Avery’s burn pit and burn barrel, Mr Hillegas entered the property without
signing in at the command post,” McCrary stated. “There is no way to know
exactly when he entered the property, or how long he had remained, but it might
explain how, despite previous searches of that property, that the victim’s
bones were not discovered until November 8, 2005. At the very least, this type
of unauthorized entry to a restricted crime scene violates proper police
practices and risks contaminating the scene.”
7.
Ryan gave the police and the court false information
On November 3, during his police interview, Ryan
learned that law enforcement was entirely focused on Steven. He was not asked
about his relationship with Teresa, why he had scratches on his hand or why he
knew Teresa’s voicemail password. He wasn’t even asked for an alibi.
The discovery of a broken
blinker light on the driver’s side of the RAV4 became an overlooked clue due to
false information provided by Ryan. McCrary wrote that Ryan “also appears to
have misled police when he told them that Ms Halbach had damaged the front
driver’s side of her vehicle months before her disappearance, had filed an
insurance claim for that damage and had taken the cash pay-out without
repairing the vehicle.”
Zellner ascertained from
Teresa’s insurance company that she had never filed an insurance claim for the
front-end damage. It seems that Ryan had fabricated the story to hide that he
had caused the damage while attempting to plant the vehicle on the Avery’s
property by hitting a 2½-foot metal post protruding from the ground between the
Avery’s property and a cul-de-sac at Kuss Road.
At the trial, Ryan
committed perjury by claiming that Teresa’s relationship with Scott Bloedorn
was platonic and never sexual or romantic.
Dr Blum, a pathologist from Rockford, Illinois,
reviewed television footage showing Ryan with several scratches on his hands as
he was organising the citizen search. “It is my opinion, to a reasonable degree
of scientific certainty in the field of forensic pathology that Mr Hillegas’
right hand… appears discoloured… the abrasions I observed on the back of Mr
Hillegas’ left hand are consistent with scratches inflicted by fingernails.” Dr
Blum used photos of Teresa to confirm that her fingernails were long enough to
have caused such scratches.
9.
Ryan has no alibi
Trained as a nurse, Ryan was unemployed in October and
November 2005. He testified that he last saw Teresa on October 30, when he
dropped something off for her at her house. Suspiciously, he could not recall
what he had delivered nor could he remember what time of the day it was when he
had supposedly last seen Teresa alive.
“I have seen no evidence
that he offered an alibi or any sort of statement regarding his activities from
October 31, 2005 to November 3, 2005. Nor have I seen any evidence that the
authorities ever asked him to do so,” McCrary stated.
Ryan’s cell-phone records
show suspiciously large gaps during time periods in question. From 9:41 am to
3:48 pm on Halloween, there were no incoming or outgoing calls. It is most
likely that Teresa was killed during this time. After she had departed the
Avery’s and the Zipperer’s, she would have arrived home at approximately 3:45 pm.
Teresa’s day planner indicated that she wanted to “get Sarah’s stuff from mom,”
at about 3 pm, and, “do biz paperwork,” at approximately 4:30 pm. From 3:50 pm
to 6:01 pm, there was another gap in Ryan’s phone activity. A gap of over 17
hours, from 7:47 pm on Halloween until 1:31 pm on November 1 corresponds to
when Teresa’s body was transported and burned.
To get Steven released, Zellner does not have to prove
that Ryan committed the murder. Her motion shows that Ryan had a motive,
opportunity and a connection to the crime. Such evidence would cause a jury to
doubt that Steven had committed the crime.
From T-Bone (Letter 67)
T-Bone is a massively-built spiritual ex-Marine, who uses fighting skills to stop prison rape. T-Bone’s latest letter from Arizona prison:
My public defender is a joke. He doesn’t
want to go up against the state, and he traded some other case for mine. Now I
really need help, ask people online for help so I can get a lawyer in Arizona
who will plead my case. I’m in here because someone said I did something with
no evidence at all, none. Just hearsay, which is like saying a man in Texas
heard you did something and reported it to the police, but you were in England
when he said it. I have a copy of a call that went to the police and it said that
I had some gold coins that I was selling and trading. Where’s the robbery?
Where’s the crime? There is none.
Yes, I have a record, and that is one
reason they did this to me. Another reason is me being a big, black man! They
look you in the face and pretend that they don’t see the color of a man’s skin.
But honestly, that’s the first think they look at, along with how much money
you have! You know the police need to gather evidence because without evidence,
people can make any claim they want! They can say anything, make up any story
against anyone.
The public needs to know the truth. I was
convicted based on testimony alone and made-up stories and my lawyer asked the
prosecutor to read what she had said previously, but she was not to read it
aloud. So the jury never heard anything she said before, and the judge never
told them that there was no hard evidence, yet the judge wouldn’t grant my
motion and said there was “sufficient evidence” to go forward knowing full well
that everything they did was calculated and done for the state.
They knew then and know now that everyone
in this country who makes an allegation must have proof to back up their
assertion. There must be collaborating evidence to prove what was alleged. The
judge looked down on me because of my record that isn’t pretty, but that’s not
their job.
Looking down on a defendant is wrong
because they must be impartial. They must go by the law. They cannot allow
personal thoughts or feelings to interfere with their judgments, but the
prosecutor did, and allowed fake testimony to be shown to the jury. I know
people look at me and think, “Karma got him”. But no, it wasn’t karma: it was
racism, plain and simple, because if I had taken the 40 years, I would have
signed the plea bargain!
Each one
Teach one
Strength and Honor
Steel Embrace
T-Bone
Shaun Attwood
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
