The Confession Tapes (2017) s02e01 Episode Script
Gaslight
If you would look at that camera and say, "I regret what has happened.
" I do regret what has happened.
And you feel sorry in your heart for that, don't you? You feel sorry for the death, don't you? And someday when you're ready, you'll talk with us about it.
Is that correct? - Yes, sir.
- Okay.
For the record, everything you've just told Agent Boshears and myself, Kenny, you did that on your own free will, didn't you? - Right.
- To get it out of your heart.
- Yeah.
- Didn't you? Yes, sir.
Okay.
The time is 7:35 p.
m.
, and Agent Newton is turning off the recording.
- It's still rolling.
- Yeah, sorry.
[reporter 1.]
Police say 17-year-old Casey Crowder called her mom Sunday morning to say she had run out of gas on her way home from Dumas.
Police found Crowder's vehicle, but still no sign of the missing teen.
[woman.]
I just want her to come home.
It's like a nightmare, and I want to wake up.
It's not real.
[woman 2.]
They were putting up posted signs at my work of this girl missing.
[woman 3.]
It was shocking because it's such a small town.
It was shocking to everyone.
And then when you really found out what happened, you were really shocked.
[reporter 2.]
With the latest information on this new development is Jim Snyder.
He is from the Desha County Sheriff's Office Elect.
Can you tell me what has happened? Yes.
This afternoon, we have located a body.
They walked up on Casey laying up against a ditch bank with a zip tie tightened around her neck.
She had been clawing at her neck, trying to get her fingers under that zip tie to get some breath of air.
It was just a murder.
A brutal murder.
[reporter 3.]
The family of a murdered teen have waited for the day when justice was served.
Desha County trucker Kenneth Osburn was arrested in the case.
Step back.
Let's just start from the point to where her vehicle was broke down and you picked her up.
How did that happen? Kenneth told us that his body was here and he was out of his body doing these things.
I've never had anyone tell me they've had an out-of-body experience.
Never.
In 50 years, I've never had that told to me.
[birds chirping.]
[Snyder.]
It may be a small town, but we have the same crime, the same serious issues that you do where you live.
Burglaries, thefts, murders, extortion.
We have it all.
She was a sweetheart, really.
Well liked and loved.
I think just knowing that I'll never see her again, that I'll never be able to talk to her again You know, that'll be the toughest part.
[Snyder.]
It's hard on her mother and daddy.
That little girl went through pure hell that morning.
And I'm sorry for that.
And I can tell you right now, Kenneth Osburn is too.
He's sorry for it too.
[woman.]
He was a big truck driver which he came home on the weekends.
And when after my mom passed away in '05, I ended up taking my momma's place and taking care of my brother while my dad was working.
I was more closer to my mom than I was to my dad, but, I mean, after Mom died, we got closer.
We went and done things as a family.
[frogs croaking.]
I've heard so many people talk about this case.
But my dad didn't do it.
He has never been violent.
My dad woke me up.
I got up and got dressed, and we left the house probably around 5:40.
Went into town probably about six o'clock that morning.
We went to Matthew's and had breakfast biscuit and gravy and then we left there.
I remember seeing a vehicle on the side of the road, and if I'm not mistaken, the flashers were flashing.
He took me and dropped me off at work and then he went back home.
[truck accelerates.]
[reporter.]
It's a busy highway, 65, that she ran out of gas along the highway and was attempting to walk to a nearby Exxon station.
That's at least what she told her mother when she made the phone call, that she had her car in distress and that she was going to walk for help.
[Snyder.]
Her car was abandoned just to the edge of the city limits, south to the area where we found her.
Sonic had one camera going out toward the highway.
This one truck came by and then came back.
It was in that time frame where she was last seen.
That in itself really stepped out at you.
[reporter.]
Investigators are looking for this 2002 white Chevy Silverado sport regular cab truck with designs on the side.
This vehicle also has an Arkansas license plate.
Everyone knew that it was Kenny.
So when they saw him go by with that decal on and then saw the same vehicle come back three minutes later at 6:45, law enforcement suspected that that was him picking up Casey on the side of the road and then returning back past the Sonic to where he supposedly killed Casey that morning.
There's just no way.
There's just no way that happened.
There's just no way that Kenny Osburn drove by the Sonic at 6:42 a.
m.
, drove to the area where Casey Crowder's vehicle was, somehow convinced Casey Crowder to get into his vehicle, or dragged her into the vehicle and then drove her back so that his vehicle would be on the Sonic videotape within that three-minute period.
[woman.]
I've been knowing Kenny all my life.
He was a nice guy.
I just never would dream that he did what he did, and I just felt bad because I saw him coming out of town.
Well, I was coming into town when I passed him, and I waved because everybody knew him, but he didn't wave.
I seen somebody in there.
It just looked like someone like this Asleep, you know? Just kind of slumped over towards him.
[birds chirping.]
[electric whirring.]
[man.]
Okay.
- You know who I am.
- [man 2.]
Yeah.
Rick Newton, State Police, and Boyd Boshears of the FBI.
We told you that you're not under arrest, that you can get up and leave anytime you see fit.
- Remember I told you that? - [Osburn.]
Yes, sir, you did.
I want to be able to help - [Boshears.]
I appreciate that.
- [Newton.]
Okay.
[Osburn.]
If that were my daughter, I know I'd be pulling my hair out.
[Newton.]
Okay.
When he came in that first time, [Benca.]
he goes down there voluntarily to talk to law enforcement.
He offered up his truck.
He said, "You can go in there and take a look at it.
" They tried to find DNA in the truck.
They tried to find zip ties.
It was his community.
It affected a victim in his community.
I think he wanted to help.
And the more he helped, the more he was looked at as a suspect.
[Boshears.]
Tell me why your arm's so scratched up.
[Osburn.]
A little dog I got gets real hyper.
He'll bite at you.
He'll get rough with you if you play with him rough.
[Boshears.]
You know what I think, Kenny? I think she scratched your arms up and she fought you too bad.
[Osburn.]
Well, if she done that, she'd have my skin under her fingernails.
[Newton.]
You have constantly repeated over and over again that "DNA is gonna prove I didn't do it.
" [Osburn.]
Well, with the technology that y'all got, I don't see why it wouldn't.
[Newton.]
I guess you watch too much murder mysteries on TV, you know.
They solve 'em by DNA.
All of 'em solved by DNA.
They don't solve 'em all by DNA.
There are some red flags that come up, Kenny.
[Boshears.]
We're just trying to get it squared away.
- You see all these little bitty streets? - [Osburn.]
Yeah.
[Boshears.]
That's the city of Dumas.
You see this little red mark right here? That's a cellular tower.
When your telephone's on, it's doing what's called communicating with a tower.
From 7:04 Casey's phone was making connection with sector one.
- We ran your records.
- [Osburn.]
Yeah.
[Boshears.]
And we've got you a little bit before seven, about the time you say you're there, in sector two drinking coffee.
But at seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, your phone is registering in sector one.
You tell me how that phone's in sector one that morning.
You can't tell me, can you? I think you saw that vehicle, and she's an attractive young girl.
She had on a T-shirt and she didn't have on a bra.
Your wife died a year ago.
You've gone through some problems.
[Osburn.]
I ain't killed her.
- [Boshears.]
Huh? - I ain't done nothing to the sort.
[Benca.]
It's pretty intimidating.
He is sitting in between an FBI agent and Rick Newton, who is an agent with the Arkansas State Police, and Agent Newton.
He was obviously getting frustrated.
[Newton.]
You're looking at going before 12 people in a box in Arkansas City and going to trial for capital murder and be sentenced to death.
[Benca.]
All of the things that you are taught that you're not supposed to do, these officers were doing it.
[Newton.]
They're gonna cook your ass.
Do you understand where I'm coming from? Man, they're gonna burn ya.
They're talking about the death chamber, talking about being put to death.
I mean, these are the things that you just don't go into.
[Newton.]
They're gonna pump the needle in your arm, Kenny.
The prosecutor will go for your jugular vein.
Thomas Dean will try to rip your head off and shit down your neck.
[Boshears.]
But if you work with us now and we can sort through some of this, it won't go that way.
Tell us what happened.
[Osburn.]
I want to get a lawyer, and then I'll talk.
[Newton.]
You want to get a lawyer, and then you'll talk? [Osburn.]
Right.
[Newton.]
I'm gonna tell you this.
The next time we meet, I'm gonna be nice to you at first, but then I'm gonna get nasty.
[Osburn.]
That first interview is so humiliating.
Uh Boshears, the FBI agent, was trying to play good cop while Newton was trying to act like he was the bad cop, which both of them really was.
I didn't trust neither one of them.
[train horn bellows.]
It's just the way they kept threatening me, kept threatening me with the needle and kept threatening to kill me.
At that point, I realized that these suckers are really teeing in, like I done this.
But I still tried to cooperate with them.
That's why I volunteered my own DNA.
I mean, I figured that would be all I needed to clear me.
But I've found out now that you don't need nothing down there.
If they want you, they gonna get you, whether they've got evidence or not.
[birds chirping.]
Dumas, Arkansas.
It's full of drugs and corrupt policemen.
[Lisa.]
Law enforcement, I have no trust at all in them.
Crooked as a barrel of snakes.
[Snyder.]
Right now, we're keyed down, taking our time, doing a slow investigation so we can do it right.
So we're in really no big rush to make an arrest.
[Lisa.]
I think they're covering for somebody.
I mean, I have no proof of that.
It's just my opinion that they are covering for somebody else and they knew we didn't have the money to hire a lawyer and Kenny was a scapegoat.
[Snyder.]
Kenneth was bad.
Bad on drugs.
I mean, it had him It consumed him.
Drugs consumed his whole consciousness, his whole actions.
They itching like worms crawling on him, bugs crawling on him, and that's what they do.
He'd claw his face.
During the interview, he would just claw himself and bleed.
Those sores, he'd take scabs off them.
That's drug use, honey.
I never thought I'd ever see Kenneth Osburn in that mess.
No.
No.
No drugs, ever.
No.
You told me you had filters.
You told me you were gonna make me 80 pounds lighter and beautiful.
- [laughing.]
It is! - Do you hear this? [man.]
The beautiful part's already That's good.
[woman laughing.]
Don't pee on my back and call it rain, honey.
Don't do it.
[laughing.]
I know when this happened, it wasn't drugs.
I know that for a fact because the morning that he was supposed to have done this, he was at my house two hours after this happened for a barbecue.
How do you do that and go to a barbecue and act like you're supposed to be at a barbecue? - [interviewer.]
How was he acting? - Just like he always did.
He cooked.
He came in.
I remember laughing at him because of what he wore.
Hillbilly clothes.
He had on a white V-neck T-shirt, blue jean shorts to his knees.
Okay, are you ready? White socks and sandals.
[laughing.]
Isn't that crazy? That's what he had on.
He was always kidding back and forth.
But it just Everything was normal.
Everything was as it always was.
He was just as nonchalant as any day of the week.
[Osburn.]
When I got to McGehee and parked my truck, I was on the phone with Holley, telling her to come get me, and I'd just hung up with her when Rick Newton drove up.
He placed me under arrest right there.
But they allowed me to call Holley.
[Holley.]
He called and said, "Stop where you're at.
They're arresting me.
" And I'm panicking going down the road, and I almost turned around and come back up the road, up the wrong side of the road.
I had to collect myself and come here and tell Meemaw.
And we went straight to police headquarters, which he was not there.
And that's where they took me, into the interrogation room.
[Osburn.]
He said, "Well, remember what I told you last time, don't you? I told you that I was gonna be nice to start with, but now things are fixing to get ugly.
" They bypassed four or five law enforcement centers, sheriff's departments, police departments to get him to the backyard of the sheriff at the time so that they can do the interrogation or the interview in his shed in his backyard.
[Osburn.]
When they took me to that shed out behind his house, I didn't know what to think.
I was totally scared to death.
[electricity whirs.]
[Snyder.]
They felt like he'd be a lot more comfortable interviewing him out here in a very calm atmosphere.
[Boshears.]
Just start off where it went wrong, Kenny.
[Osburn.]
Call my lawyer.
I told you, the girl ain't been in my truck.
[Boshears.]
We got the evidence that she was in your truck, Kenny, and I'm gonna show you.
They have satellites that are over our head right now that keep constant 24-hour surveillance of everything that goes on.
And I've got these photographs in this package that the United States Air Force provided to us of where her body was located.
At the time of the 28th, the day that she disappeared, and it's got a white truck on 43 Canal Road.
And Kenny, it's your truck.
So what they did is they took a vehicle that was similar to Kenny's, parked it out there, and somehow were able to get an overview shot of that crime scene, suggesting that his vehicle, by way of a satellite, was able to be pictured during the purported crime.
And that was untrue.
[Osburn.]
I didn't know what to think after that.
I mean, that's when I just kind of just sulked into myself.
I mean, the law down there, when they get in that position and start threatening you like that, you ain't got a lawyer right then, you're just screwed.
[Newton.]
Are you protecting somebody else that we need to go look at? 'Cause I know she's in your truck.
[Osburn.]
I need to call my lawyer.
Every time I asked for a lawyer, he would turn the tape off, walk out the door, and then he would stick his head back in the door like he was on the phone to the State Police talking to Holley.
He would tell her, "Well, if you ain't heard from me in 15 minutes, lock her up.
" Why is it about my daughter? [Newton.]
We're going to get into that.
- We're going to get into that.
- [Boshears.]
You know what? After we talk, we're probably going to cut her loose.
[Newton.]
Cut her loose.
[Holley.]
They wanted me to tell them what he did to her, that I could be held as an accessory.
I mean, at one time, they kept trying to say I was with my dad when all this took place, which I knew I was at work that morning because I I mean, you clock in every morning.
I'm kinda slow at certain things, of getting certain questions, and they, you know, pretty much belittled me there.
And then I started getting, you know, nauseated and would not let me leave the room.
I ended up vomiting all over the floor in there.
[Benca.]
They indicated to Kenny that they were gonna charge her, and I think that that went to him confessing because he felt that if he were to take the heat off of her, just for a moment, that she'd be okay.
[Newton.]
It's 7:25 p.
m.
, and we're out here at Jim Snyder's shop.
And uh - Dumas, Arkansas.
- Dumas, Arkansas.
- I'm Special Agent Rick Newton.
- I'm Special Agent Boyd Boshears.
And who are you? - Kenneth Osburn.
- Kenneth Osburn.
You stated to us this afternoon that you'd like to go ahead and tell us something.
Is that correct? - Yeah.
- Is that correct? - Yeah.
- Okay.
Let's just start from the point to where her vehicle was broke down and you picked her up.
How did that happen? - I picked her up.
- Was she already out of the vehicle, - or was she still in her vehicle? - Out.
And you made the U-turn, and you pulled over there, and she told you she ran out of gas? And you told her you'd take her to get some gas? Right.
Yeah.
Was she calm when she did that, or was she sort of apprehensive about getting in your truck? - Real calm.
- Real calm? He's still in the shed in the backyard, and he looks absolutely defeated.
Upon the urging of the agents, he kind of walks through loosely, without much detail, this confession of him killing Casey Crowder.
When did you put the wire tie on her neck? You don't have to tell us the specifics of it.
Just Just tell us when.
That's all we want to know is when in the travel did you do that? Out there.
- You what? - Out yonder there.
- At 43 Canal? - Yeah.
Okay.
- Out where her body was found? - Yeah.
That's where you put the wire tie on her neck? - Yeah.
- Okay.
Okay.
[Lisa.]
I seen the videotape, and it just doesn't seem like my brother on the videotape.
No, he looked like he was drugged out or something down there.
Well, I know he had no sleep because he'd been up all night and trying to drive and But it just I don't know, he just didn't seem like him.
Supposedly, they took him to the shed to hide from the media, but the media knew nothing about it at that time, so why would you have to hide? [Osburn.]
When they kept threatening to lock Holley up, that's when I knew.
I knew that the only way I had to get up there to her was to say whatever they was telling me to say.
Them kids was my life.
After Rhonda died, I put them before God Himself.
At that point, as long as I could make sure my kids was okay, I decided to go be with Rhonda.
That was exactly the way I was thinking.
Detectives come up with theories of crime all the time, and that's how they conduct these investigations, but the more we interrupt somebody and the more we interject with further questions, we're actually potentially changing the accuracy of their story.
Your mind just sort of went in another direction.
You know? You can't understand why It's like I'm looking at somebody else.
It's like a whole different person.
Personality? Person? Like a whole different A whole person.
Like the devil was in you? I don't know.
- It just wasn't me.
- Just something possessed you? - I understand.
- It just wasn't you, was it? When it comes to the confession, Ken seems to become emotionally withdrawn a little bit.
We don't hear a lot from Ken, but we do hear a lot from the investigators.
[Newton.]
Something went wrong.
It got out of hand.
That's basically a good way to put it, Kenny.
Look.
Look at me, buddy.
It got out of hand.
Okay? What he's telling Ken is, "This got out of hand.
That's basically a good way to put it.
" And really what he's telling Ken is that's the way that you should put this.
"It got out of hand.
It wasn't intentional.
" When Ken eventually confesses, really that's what we hear.
"I don't know what happened to me.
It must have got out of hand.
I was outside myself.
" We essentially hear that same reasoning for why he did what he did or he claims to have done what he did.
Did she try to get out of your truck or anything? It's weird.
I just didn't mean for it to happen.
Okay.
When you mean you just didn't mean for it to happen, something happened.
In your words, you're saying you just didn't mean for it to happen.
I don't know really in my mind what did really happen.
What Yeah, what really did happen.
It's kind of fuzzy still.
I just really don't know.
- Okay.
- Okay.
He's acknowledging it, he's acknowledging regret for what happened, but we don't really get any further details from Ken to go out and further corroborate or validate.
Could it be somebody who committed the crime that's just really trying to detach themself, which is possible, or is it somebody who's just come to the decision that, "I just need to get this over with and tell them what they want to hear.
" He doesn't have that true emotional attachment to the crime if he was never involved in it.
I want to know so when anybody sees this, the prosecutor or whoever it may be, I want them to know that the only reason why you're telling us this is because you want to get this off your shoulders.
- Okay.
- And that's why you did it, and that's why you're telling us now.
- Isn't that correct? - Yeah.
[clicking.]
He told the whole story up to the death part.
He could not for the life of him He wanted to say, "Yes, I did," but he had a hard time saying it.
He'll tell you everything except "I killed her.
" [Snyder.]
I knew Kenneth well.
I've known him a lot of years.
He used to work for me.
He drove trucks for me.
So I interviewed Kenneth.
People step up to the plate and tell you what you need to know because you have that kind of rapport with them.
You know? Can you tell me how you picked her up, how that conversation went? I just pulled over and asked her what was her problem.
She told me her truck quit on her and she was out of gas.
She asked if I had a gas jug.
I told her no, but I could get one.
Was she awake and conscious when when the zip ties went on her neck? I know you didn't You said you didn't intend to do that at all.
What I'm asking you, I guess, did you get that zip tie on there and just couldn't get it off? I don't remember.
A lot of it, I just don't remember.
I don't know what it is.
It's just blacked out of my mind.
What do you think happened to you? I don't know, Jim.
Hell, basically, she was out there - It was just like a normal day.
- Yeah.
I mean, I just don't really know.
Do you think losing your wife and what you've done now has anything to do with that? I don't know.
- I honestly don't.
- I know you've had a hard time.
I understand.
I know you've had a hard time with that.
I know there's a lot on my mind, but I just That's something I just It's probably going to take me a long time just to understand it myself.
[Osburn.]
I was just at the point where I was just at a loss.
It felt hopeless.
I ain't hardly slept in 36 hours when they arrested me.
They kept me up for the rest of the night.
It felt like there wasn't nothing going to be able to help me.
Did she fight you when you were trying to put it around her neck? Did she ever swing at you or hit you? No.
But she did fight you a little bit when you were trying to put it around her neck? Not really.
[clicking, beeping.]
She was feisty.
She can handle her own.
[interviewer.]
You think that she fought back? Oh, hell, yeah.
I know for a fact she did.
She ain't gonna just lay down.
[creaking.]
We dated.
[sighs.]
We were together for a few years.
I guess the love of my life, the very first one.
We'd get on the four-wheeler, and drive in a big ol' mudhole, and I would stop and I'd just throw her off the four-wheeler and she'd come right back at me.
And then we'd end up off the four-wheeler, just rolling around in it.
It was fun.
I mean, we was kids.
[interviewer.]
After y'all broke up, what happened? She started dating Adam.
Yeah, I don't like him.
Apparently, he beat her, hit on her and She was scared of him and she really wasn't scared of nothing, really.
So for her to be coming to me and telling me that she's scared of him, something had to have been going on.
Well, I mean, she showed me her arms, the bruises.
You know, she never said anything like he'd kill her or anything, but if a man would put his hands on her, there ain't no telling what else he'd do, you know what I mean? I was raised not to.
I can't stand that.
[interviewer.]
Did you ever investigate the boyfriend? Yes, we did.
- Yes, I did.
- Is that a common Yes, sure it is.
And she had spent the night with some guys that I know that lived on the Pickens plantation, which is just a couple of miles south of here, - and - What guys? - Pardon? - Who were the guys? Do you remember? Yes, ma'am, I do.
- That she spent the night with? - Yeah.
No, ma'am, I won't go there.
I won't go there.
Why would I want to hurt these people just because they spent the night with her? You know, it's over.
It's done.
They had nothing to do with her disappearance whatsoever.
[Benca.]
We don't know how the car got out there.
Our assumption was that the vehicle ran out of gas, she made a phone call to someone, and then someone picked her up.
Picked her up to go back to her boyfriend's house, picked her up to go to a party that was supposed to be that night that some people have actually put her there.
Um, I think Personally, I think the car was on the side of the road, it ran out of gas, and that her and her friends were gonna take care of it the next day.
There was rumors that there was a party, that it was in some apartments behind Exxon.
I don't know who all was there.
[interviewer.]
Do you know what happened at the party? No, I do not.
Nobody gonna tell you that.
[laughing.]
Nobody's gonna tell a sheriff that.
[Benca.]
The investigation of the party? There was no investigation of the party.
Supposedly at that party, Adam and Casey got in a fight.
[Southerland.]
Adam, he needs to be dealt with 'cause I really think he had something to do with it.
But, I mean, if you can't prove it, you can't prove it.
[reporter.]
Do you feel confident you've got your man, - or are you still looking? - Oh, yes.
[woman.]
The police have told me that they're sure they have the right man, and I believe them.
[Benca.]
Under the prosecution's theory of the case, Casey Crowder was out there at 5:30.
She made phone calls to her mother.
The problem is that there were about five or six witnesses through the course of the night were seeing Casey's vehicle with the flashers going on all throughout the night.
[Lisa.]
If she ran out of gas at six o'clock, why is her car being seen there the night before? [Ruth.]
There were two nurses that worked at the hospital down there, and they had to go out to the highway to smoke.
So they were smoking, and they said at two o'clock in the morning, her car was sitting there then with the blinkers on.
[crickets chirping.]
[Benca.]
Why is she out on the side of that road from two in the morning till 5:30 in the morning? If not her, why is her vehicle out there? And where is she at during that period of time? Where's Kenny at two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock in the morning? He's home in bed.
It couldn't have taken place in the timeline that the State was putting forward.
That's the most compelling thing for me.
[Snyder.]
She could have sat in that car that long that night.
She really could have.
But at this point, it's kinda immaterial, you know? Right now, it's kinda immaterial.
[Benca.]
Knowing what I know about Casey Crowder, there's just no way that she would have sat out there for that length of time before she decided that she was gonna get into a car or a vehicle with someone that she didn't know.
There's just no way that that would have happened.
[birds chirping.]
[cameras clicking.]
[Ruth.]
I know my son is innocent.
I hope they find the one that is guilty, but I know he is not the one.
[Benca.]
The prosecution called Nancy Dunn.
Witnesses like that can be devastating.
I was kind of nervous about seeing Kenny.
It was kind of bad that I testified against him.
Quite like being in a funeral home.
I just told 'em what I saw.
[Lisa.]
Nancy had seen Kenny going out towards the river.
And she says there was a black-haired girl slumped over the seat.
I can actually show you what I think she's seen, if you'll hand me that thing over there.
This was in Kenny's truck.
- It goes over the back of the seat.
- It goes over the back of the seat.
And that's what we think she's seen as a black-haired girl.
Casey has blonde hair.
How would it be Casey if it's a black-haired girl? [interviewer.]
What color was the hair? Black.
Like coal black? Yes.
[reporter.]
Jurors watched a taped interview of Osburn, where he admitted to placing wire ties around Crowder's neck after reaching 43 Canal, where her body was later discovered.
The only thing that they had was the confession and the videotape of him going from 6:42 past the Sonic and coming back at 6:45 past the Sonic.
That's it.
[reporter 2.]
This is day four of the trial, and the jury just adjourned after about three hours of deliberation.
It's at the Ashley County Circuit Court Well, it just tore my heart out.
We just cried and hugged one another.
Because we lost my mom in '05, and then in '06, we lost our dad to this.
[Cherry.]
How do you ask for a death penalty when there's no evidence? How do you do that? I don't know.
It just makes me upset that it was all a farce.
I'm sure they don't think it was, but they didn't know Kenny either.
[Benca.]
After he's convicted of capital murder, the only options for a jury is either life or death.
So they have to go back and deliberate that.
And one juror, she was the only one that would not vote for death, so based upon that, the judge was forced to go ahead and impose a life sentence afterwards.
And I remember him calling me up to the judge's bench, and he showed us the verdict form where it was 11 to one.
Hey, Pawpaw! [Osburn.]
Hey, girl.
What you doing? Nothing.
Just got back from church.
He's fixing to eat some ice cream, he said, in a little bit.
We ate a lot of ice cream too.
[Holley.]
Sometimes he feels his spirits are up, and sometimes his spirits are down.
I mean, all I can do is hope.
[Lisa.]
The first trial was reversed and remanded from the Supreme Court, so it got tossed out, and then it went to talking him into doing a plea bargain.
Kenny didn't really want to do a plea bargain, but Jim Wyatt, the lawyer for Kenny, called me and told me that, you know, yeah, if he takes the plea bargain, he would only have to spend, like, seven, seven and a half years.
[Osburn.]
I can't get no one to explain to me the way it works.
He told Lisa that I would only have to do another seven and a half years if I would accept it.
He kept saying the death penalty was in place, and, "Well, you know if you go to trial, they're gonna just convict you again.
" They knew I wasn't gonna get a fair trial.
Oh, my gosh.
I see it every day.
You know, someone used to tell me, "You wouldn't have pled guilty unless you were guilty.
" Let me tell you, that is not how it works.
He wanted some sure thing.
He wanted to know that one day he'd get out, and he's got that opportunity now.
[Osburn.]
You can't blame Ms.
Crowder and them for being mad 'cause no father or mother should have to bury their own children.
That should never happen.
But I'm not the one that done it.
I'd be lying if I sat there and said that I didn't think about death a million times.
When they give you life without, that's the first thing that pops into your mind.
I couldn't give up hope.
There's always hope of being able to prove that I didn't do it.
" I do regret what has happened.
And you feel sorry in your heart for that, don't you? You feel sorry for the death, don't you? And someday when you're ready, you'll talk with us about it.
Is that correct? - Yes, sir.
- Okay.
For the record, everything you've just told Agent Boshears and myself, Kenny, you did that on your own free will, didn't you? - Right.
- To get it out of your heart.
- Yeah.
- Didn't you? Yes, sir.
Okay.
The time is 7:35 p.
m.
, and Agent Newton is turning off the recording.
- It's still rolling.
- Yeah, sorry.
[reporter 1.]
Police say 17-year-old Casey Crowder called her mom Sunday morning to say she had run out of gas on her way home from Dumas.
Police found Crowder's vehicle, but still no sign of the missing teen.
[woman.]
I just want her to come home.
It's like a nightmare, and I want to wake up.
It's not real.
[woman 2.]
They were putting up posted signs at my work of this girl missing.
[woman 3.]
It was shocking because it's such a small town.
It was shocking to everyone.
And then when you really found out what happened, you were really shocked.
[reporter 2.]
With the latest information on this new development is Jim Snyder.
He is from the Desha County Sheriff's Office Elect.
Can you tell me what has happened? Yes.
This afternoon, we have located a body.
They walked up on Casey laying up against a ditch bank with a zip tie tightened around her neck.
She had been clawing at her neck, trying to get her fingers under that zip tie to get some breath of air.
It was just a murder.
A brutal murder.
[reporter 3.]
The family of a murdered teen have waited for the day when justice was served.
Desha County trucker Kenneth Osburn was arrested in the case.
Step back.
Let's just start from the point to where her vehicle was broke down and you picked her up.
How did that happen? Kenneth told us that his body was here and he was out of his body doing these things.
I've never had anyone tell me they've had an out-of-body experience.
Never.
In 50 years, I've never had that told to me.
[birds chirping.]
[Snyder.]
It may be a small town, but we have the same crime, the same serious issues that you do where you live.
Burglaries, thefts, murders, extortion.
We have it all.
She was a sweetheart, really.
Well liked and loved.
I think just knowing that I'll never see her again, that I'll never be able to talk to her again You know, that'll be the toughest part.
[Snyder.]
It's hard on her mother and daddy.
That little girl went through pure hell that morning.
And I'm sorry for that.
And I can tell you right now, Kenneth Osburn is too.
He's sorry for it too.
[woman.]
He was a big truck driver which he came home on the weekends.
And when after my mom passed away in '05, I ended up taking my momma's place and taking care of my brother while my dad was working.
I was more closer to my mom than I was to my dad, but, I mean, after Mom died, we got closer.
We went and done things as a family.
[frogs croaking.]
I've heard so many people talk about this case.
But my dad didn't do it.
He has never been violent.
My dad woke me up.
I got up and got dressed, and we left the house probably around 5:40.
Went into town probably about six o'clock that morning.
We went to Matthew's and had breakfast biscuit and gravy and then we left there.
I remember seeing a vehicle on the side of the road, and if I'm not mistaken, the flashers were flashing.
He took me and dropped me off at work and then he went back home.
[truck accelerates.]
[reporter.]
It's a busy highway, 65, that she ran out of gas along the highway and was attempting to walk to a nearby Exxon station.
That's at least what she told her mother when she made the phone call, that she had her car in distress and that she was going to walk for help.
[Snyder.]
Her car was abandoned just to the edge of the city limits, south to the area where we found her.
Sonic had one camera going out toward the highway.
This one truck came by and then came back.
It was in that time frame where she was last seen.
That in itself really stepped out at you.
[reporter.]
Investigators are looking for this 2002 white Chevy Silverado sport regular cab truck with designs on the side.
This vehicle also has an Arkansas license plate.
Everyone knew that it was Kenny.
So when they saw him go by with that decal on and then saw the same vehicle come back three minutes later at 6:45, law enforcement suspected that that was him picking up Casey on the side of the road and then returning back past the Sonic to where he supposedly killed Casey that morning.
There's just no way.
There's just no way that happened.
There's just no way that Kenny Osburn drove by the Sonic at 6:42 a.
m.
, drove to the area where Casey Crowder's vehicle was, somehow convinced Casey Crowder to get into his vehicle, or dragged her into the vehicle and then drove her back so that his vehicle would be on the Sonic videotape within that three-minute period.
[woman.]
I've been knowing Kenny all my life.
He was a nice guy.
I just never would dream that he did what he did, and I just felt bad because I saw him coming out of town.
Well, I was coming into town when I passed him, and I waved because everybody knew him, but he didn't wave.
I seen somebody in there.
It just looked like someone like this Asleep, you know? Just kind of slumped over towards him.
[birds chirping.]
[electric whirring.]
[man.]
Okay.
- You know who I am.
- [man 2.]
Yeah.
Rick Newton, State Police, and Boyd Boshears of the FBI.
We told you that you're not under arrest, that you can get up and leave anytime you see fit.
- Remember I told you that? - [Osburn.]
Yes, sir, you did.
I want to be able to help - [Boshears.]
I appreciate that.
- [Newton.]
Okay.
[Osburn.]
If that were my daughter, I know I'd be pulling my hair out.
[Newton.]
Okay.
When he came in that first time, [Benca.]
he goes down there voluntarily to talk to law enforcement.
He offered up his truck.
He said, "You can go in there and take a look at it.
" They tried to find DNA in the truck.
They tried to find zip ties.
It was his community.
It affected a victim in his community.
I think he wanted to help.
And the more he helped, the more he was looked at as a suspect.
[Boshears.]
Tell me why your arm's so scratched up.
[Osburn.]
A little dog I got gets real hyper.
He'll bite at you.
He'll get rough with you if you play with him rough.
[Boshears.]
You know what I think, Kenny? I think she scratched your arms up and she fought you too bad.
[Osburn.]
Well, if she done that, she'd have my skin under her fingernails.
[Newton.]
You have constantly repeated over and over again that "DNA is gonna prove I didn't do it.
" [Osburn.]
Well, with the technology that y'all got, I don't see why it wouldn't.
[Newton.]
I guess you watch too much murder mysteries on TV, you know.
They solve 'em by DNA.
All of 'em solved by DNA.
They don't solve 'em all by DNA.
There are some red flags that come up, Kenny.
[Boshears.]
We're just trying to get it squared away.
- You see all these little bitty streets? - [Osburn.]
Yeah.
[Boshears.]
That's the city of Dumas.
You see this little red mark right here? That's a cellular tower.
When your telephone's on, it's doing what's called communicating with a tower.
From 7:04 Casey's phone was making connection with sector one.
- We ran your records.
- [Osburn.]
Yeah.
[Boshears.]
And we've got you a little bit before seven, about the time you say you're there, in sector two drinking coffee.
But at seven o'clock on the morning of the 27th, your phone is registering in sector one.
You tell me how that phone's in sector one that morning.
You can't tell me, can you? I think you saw that vehicle, and she's an attractive young girl.
She had on a T-shirt and she didn't have on a bra.
Your wife died a year ago.
You've gone through some problems.
[Osburn.]
I ain't killed her.
- [Boshears.]
Huh? - I ain't done nothing to the sort.
[Benca.]
It's pretty intimidating.
He is sitting in between an FBI agent and Rick Newton, who is an agent with the Arkansas State Police, and Agent Newton.
He was obviously getting frustrated.
[Newton.]
You're looking at going before 12 people in a box in Arkansas City and going to trial for capital murder and be sentenced to death.
[Benca.]
All of the things that you are taught that you're not supposed to do, these officers were doing it.
[Newton.]
They're gonna cook your ass.
Do you understand where I'm coming from? Man, they're gonna burn ya.
They're talking about the death chamber, talking about being put to death.
I mean, these are the things that you just don't go into.
[Newton.]
They're gonna pump the needle in your arm, Kenny.
The prosecutor will go for your jugular vein.
Thomas Dean will try to rip your head off and shit down your neck.
[Boshears.]
But if you work with us now and we can sort through some of this, it won't go that way.
Tell us what happened.
[Osburn.]
I want to get a lawyer, and then I'll talk.
[Newton.]
You want to get a lawyer, and then you'll talk? [Osburn.]
Right.
[Newton.]
I'm gonna tell you this.
The next time we meet, I'm gonna be nice to you at first, but then I'm gonna get nasty.
[Osburn.]
That first interview is so humiliating.
Uh Boshears, the FBI agent, was trying to play good cop while Newton was trying to act like he was the bad cop, which both of them really was.
I didn't trust neither one of them.
[train horn bellows.]
It's just the way they kept threatening me, kept threatening me with the needle and kept threatening to kill me.
At that point, I realized that these suckers are really teeing in, like I done this.
But I still tried to cooperate with them.
That's why I volunteered my own DNA.
I mean, I figured that would be all I needed to clear me.
But I've found out now that you don't need nothing down there.
If they want you, they gonna get you, whether they've got evidence or not.
[birds chirping.]
Dumas, Arkansas.
It's full of drugs and corrupt policemen.
[Lisa.]
Law enforcement, I have no trust at all in them.
Crooked as a barrel of snakes.
[Snyder.]
Right now, we're keyed down, taking our time, doing a slow investigation so we can do it right.
So we're in really no big rush to make an arrest.
[Lisa.]
I think they're covering for somebody.
I mean, I have no proof of that.
It's just my opinion that they are covering for somebody else and they knew we didn't have the money to hire a lawyer and Kenny was a scapegoat.
[Snyder.]
Kenneth was bad.
Bad on drugs.
I mean, it had him It consumed him.
Drugs consumed his whole consciousness, his whole actions.
They itching like worms crawling on him, bugs crawling on him, and that's what they do.
He'd claw his face.
During the interview, he would just claw himself and bleed.
Those sores, he'd take scabs off them.
That's drug use, honey.
I never thought I'd ever see Kenneth Osburn in that mess.
No.
No.
No drugs, ever.
No.
You told me you had filters.
You told me you were gonna make me 80 pounds lighter and beautiful.
- [laughing.]
It is! - Do you hear this? [man.]
The beautiful part's already That's good.
[woman laughing.]
Don't pee on my back and call it rain, honey.
Don't do it.
[laughing.]
I know when this happened, it wasn't drugs.
I know that for a fact because the morning that he was supposed to have done this, he was at my house two hours after this happened for a barbecue.
How do you do that and go to a barbecue and act like you're supposed to be at a barbecue? - [interviewer.]
How was he acting? - Just like he always did.
He cooked.
He came in.
I remember laughing at him because of what he wore.
Hillbilly clothes.
He had on a white V-neck T-shirt, blue jean shorts to his knees.
Okay, are you ready? White socks and sandals.
[laughing.]
Isn't that crazy? That's what he had on.
He was always kidding back and forth.
But it just Everything was normal.
Everything was as it always was.
He was just as nonchalant as any day of the week.
[Osburn.]
When I got to McGehee and parked my truck, I was on the phone with Holley, telling her to come get me, and I'd just hung up with her when Rick Newton drove up.
He placed me under arrest right there.
But they allowed me to call Holley.
[Holley.]
He called and said, "Stop where you're at.
They're arresting me.
" And I'm panicking going down the road, and I almost turned around and come back up the road, up the wrong side of the road.
I had to collect myself and come here and tell Meemaw.
And we went straight to police headquarters, which he was not there.
And that's where they took me, into the interrogation room.
[Osburn.]
He said, "Well, remember what I told you last time, don't you? I told you that I was gonna be nice to start with, but now things are fixing to get ugly.
" They bypassed four or five law enforcement centers, sheriff's departments, police departments to get him to the backyard of the sheriff at the time so that they can do the interrogation or the interview in his shed in his backyard.
[Osburn.]
When they took me to that shed out behind his house, I didn't know what to think.
I was totally scared to death.
[electricity whirs.]
[Snyder.]
They felt like he'd be a lot more comfortable interviewing him out here in a very calm atmosphere.
[Boshears.]
Just start off where it went wrong, Kenny.
[Osburn.]
Call my lawyer.
I told you, the girl ain't been in my truck.
[Boshears.]
We got the evidence that she was in your truck, Kenny, and I'm gonna show you.
They have satellites that are over our head right now that keep constant 24-hour surveillance of everything that goes on.
And I've got these photographs in this package that the United States Air Force provided to us of where her body was located.
At the time of the 28th, the day that she disappeared, and it's got a white truck on 43 Canal Road.
And Kenny, it's your truck.
So what they did is they took a vehicle that was similar to Kenny's, parked it out there, and somehow were able to get an overview shot of that crime scene, suggesting that his vehicle, by way of a satellite, was able to be pictured during the purported crime.
And that was untrue.
[Osburn.]
I didn't know what to think after that.
I mean, that's when I just kind of just sulked into myself.
I mean, the law down there, when they get in that position and start threatening you like that, you ain't got a lawyer right then, you're just screwed.
[Newton.]
Are you protecting somebody else that we need to go look at? 'Cause I know she's in your truck.
[Osburn.]
I need to call my lawyer.
Every time I asked for a lawyer, he would turn the tape off, walk out the door, and then he would stick his head back in the door like he was on the phone to the State Police talking to Holley.
He would tell her, "Well, if you ain't heard from me in 15 minutes, lock her up.
" Why is it about my daughter? [Newton.]
We're going to get into that.
- We're going to get into that.
- [Boshears.]
You know what? After we talk, we're probably going to cut her loose.
[Newton.]
Cut her loose.
[Holley.]
They wanted me to tell them what he did to her, that I could be held as an accessory.
I mean, at one time, they kept trying to say I was with my dad when all this took place, which I knew I was at work that morning because I I mean, you clock in every morning.
I'm kinda slow at certain things, of getting certain questions, and they, you know, pretty much belittled me there.
And then I started getting, you know, nauseated and would not let me leave the room.
I ended up vomiting all over the floor in there.
[Benca.]
They indicated to Kenny that they were gonna charge her, and I think that that went to him confessing because he felt that if he were to take the heat off of her, just for a moment, that she'd be okay.
[Newton.]
It's 7:25 p.
m.
, and we're out here at Jim Snyder's shop.
And uh - Dumas, Arkansas.
- Dumas, Arkansas.
- I'm Special Agent Rick Newton.
- I'm Special Agent Boyd Boshears.
And who are you? - Kenneth Osburn.
- Kenneth Osburn.
You stated to us this afternoon that you'd like to go ahead and tell us something.
Is that correct? - Yeah.
- Is that correct? - Yeah.
- Okay.
Let's just start from the point to where her vehicle was broke down and you picked her up.
How did that happen? - I picked her up.
- Was she already out of the vehicle, - or was she still in her vehicle? - Out.
And you made the U-turn, and you pulled over there, and she told you she ran out of gas? And you told her you'd take her to get some gas? Right.
Yeah.
Was she calm when she did that, or was she sort of apprehensive about getting in your truck? - Real calm.
- Real calm? He's still in the shed in the backyard, and he looks absolutely defeated.
Upon the urging of the agents, he kind of walks through loosely, without much detail, this confession of him killing Casey Crowder.
When did you put the wire tie on her neck? You don't have to tell us the specifics of it.
Just Just tell us when.
That's all we want to know is when in the travel did you do that? Out there.
- You what? - Out yonder there.
- At 43 Canal? - Yeah.
Okay.
- Out where her body was found? - Yeah.
That's where you put the wire tie on her neck? - Yeah.
- Okay.
Okay.
[Lisa.]
I seen the videotape, and it just doesn't seem like my brother on the videotape.
No, he looked like he was drugged out or something down there.
Well, I know he had no sleep because he'd been up all night and trying to drive and But it just I don't know, he just didn't seem like him.
Supposedly, they took him to the shed to hide from the media, but the media knew nothing about it at that time, so why would you have to hide? [Osburn.]
When they kept threatening to lock Holley up, that's when I knew.
I knew that the only way I had to get up there to her was to say whatever they was telling me to say.
Them kids was my life.
After Rhonda died, I put them before God Himself.
At that point, as long as I could make sure my kids was okay, I decided to go be with Rhonda.
That was exactly the way I was thinking.
Detectives come up with theories of crime all the time, and that's how they conduct these investigations, but the more we interrupt somebody and the more we interject with further questions, we're actually potentially changing the accuracy of their story.
Your mind just sort of went in another direction.
You know? You can't understand why It's like I'm looking at somebody else.
It's like a whole different person.
Personality? Person? Like a whole different A whole person.
Like the devil was in you? I don't know.
- It just wasn't me.
- Just something possessed you? - I understand.
- It just wasn't you, was it? When it comes to the confession, Ken seems to become emotionally withdrawn a little bit.
We don't hear a lot from Ken, but we do hear a lot from the investigators.
[Newton.]
Something went wrong.
It got out of hand.
That's basically a good way to put it, Kenny.
Look.
Look at me, buddy.
It got out of hand.
Okay? What he's telling Ken is, "This got out of hand.
That's basically a good way to put it.
" And really what he's telling Ken is that's the way that you should put this.
"It got out of hand.
It wasn't intentional.
" When Ken eventually confesses, really that's what we hear.
"I don't know what happened to me.
It must have got out of hand.
I was outside myself.
" We essentially hear that same reasoning for why he did what he did or he claims to have done what he did.
Did she try to get out of your truck or anything? It's weird.
I just didn't mean for it to happen.
Okay.
When you mean you just didn't mean for it to happen, something happened.
In your words, you're saying you just didn't mean for it to happen.
I don't know really in my mind what did really happen.
What Yeah, what really did happen.
It's kind of fuzzy still.
I just really don't know.
- Okay.
- Okay.
He's acknowledging it, he's acknowledging regret for what happened, but we don't really get any further details from Ken to go out and further corroborate or validate.
Could it be somebody who committed the crime that's just really trying to detach themself, which is possible, or is it somebody who's just come to the decision that, "I just need to get this over with and tell them what they want to hear.
" He doesn't have that true emotional attachment to the crime if he was never involved in it.
I want to know so when anybody sees this, the prosecutor or whoever it may be, I want them to know that the only reason why you're telling us this is because you want to get this off your shoulders.
- Okay.
- And that's why you did it, and that's why you're telling us now.
- Isn't that correct? - Yeah.
[clicking.]
He told the whole story up to the death part.
He could not for the life of him He wanted to say, "Yes, I did," but he had a hard time saying it.
He'll tell you everything except "I killed her.
" [Snyder.]
I knew Kenneth well.
I've known him a lot of years.
He used to work for me.
He drove trucks for me.
So I interviewed Kenneth.
People step up to the plate and tell you what you need to know because you have that kind of rapport with them.
You know? Can you tell me how you picked her up, how that conversation went? I just pulled over and asked her what was her problem.
She told me her truck quit on her and she was out of gas.
She asked if I had a gas jug.
I told her no, but I could get one.
Was she awake and conscious when when the zip ties went on her neck? I know you didn't You said you didn't intend to do that at all.
What I'm asking you, I guess, did you get that zip tie on there and just couldn't get it off? I don't remember.
A lot of it, I just don't remember.
I don't know what it is.
It's just blacked out of my mind.
What do you think happened to you? I don't know, Jim.
Hell, basically, she was out there - It was just like a normal day.
- Yeah.
I mean, I just don't really know.
Do you think losing your wife and what you've done now has anything to do with that? I don't know.
- I honestly don't.
- I know you've had a hard time.
I understand.
I know you've had a hard time with that.
I know there's a lot on my mind, but I just That's something I just It's probably going to take me a long time just to understand it myself.
[Osburn.]
I was just at the point where I was just at a loss.
It felt hopeless.
I ain't hardly slept in 36 hours when they arrested me.
They kept me up for the rest of the night.
It felt like there wasn't nothing going to be able to help me.
Did she fight you when you were trying to put it around her neck? Did she ever swing at you or hit you? No.
But she did fight you a little bit when you were trying to put it around her neck? Not really.
[clicking, beeping.]
She was feisty.
She can handle her own.
[interviewer.]
You think that she fought back? Oh, hell, yeah.
I know for a fact she did.
She ain't gonna just lay down.
[creaking.]
We dated.
[sighs.]
We were together for a few years.
I guess the love of my life, the very first one.
We'd get on the four-wheeler, and drive in a big ol' mudhole, and I would stop and I'd just throw her off the four-wheeler and she'd come right back at me.
And then we'd end up off the four-wheeler, just rolling around in it.
It was fun.
I mean, we was kids.
[interviewer.]
After y'all broke up, what happened? She started dating Adam.
Yeah, I don't like him.
Apparently, he beat her, hit on her and She was scared of him and she really wasn't scared of nothing, really.
So for her to be coming to me and telling me that she's scared of him, something had to have been going on.
Well, I mean, she showed me her arms, the bruises.
You know, she never said anything like he'd kill her or anything, but if a man would put his hands on her, there ain't no telling what else he'd do, you know what I mean? I was raised not to.
I can't stand that.
[interviewer.]
Did you ever investigate the boyfriend? Yes, we did.
- Yes, I did.
- Is that a common Yes, sure it is.
And she had spent the night with some guys that I know that lived on the Pickens plantation, which is just a couple of miles south of here, - and - What guys? - Pardon? - Who were the guys? Do you remember? Yes, ma'am, I do.
- That she spent the night with? - Yeah.
No, ma'am, I won't go there.
I won't go there.
Why would I want to hurt these people just because they spent the night with her? You know, it's over.
It's done.
They had nothing to do with her disappearance whatsoever.
[Benca.]
We don't know how the car got out there.
Our assumption was that the vehicle ran out of gas, she made a phone call to someone, and then someone picked her up.
Picked her up to go back to her boyfriend's house, picked her up to go to a party that was supposed to be that night that some people have actually put her there.
Um, I think Personally, I think the car was on the side of the road, it ran out of gas, and that her and her friends were gonna take care of it the next day.
There was rumors that there was a party, that it was in some apartments behind Exxon.
I don't know who all was there.
[interviewer.]
Do you know what happened at the party? No, I do not.
Nobody gonna tell you that.
[laughing.]
Nobody's gonna tell a sheriff that.
[Benca.]
The investigation of the party? There was no investigation of the party.
Supposedly at that party, Adam and Casey got in a fight.
[Southerland.]
Adam, he needs to be dealt with 'cause I really think he had something to do with it.
But, I mean, if you can't prove it, you can't prove it.
[reporter.]
Do you feel confident you've got your man, - or are you still looking? - Oh, yes.
[woman.]
The police have told me that they're sure they have the right man, and I believe them.
[Benca.]
Under the prosecution's theory of the case, Casey Crowder was out there at 5:30.
She made phone calls to her mother.
The problem is that there were about five or six witnesses through the course of the night were seeing Casey's vehicle with the flashers going on all throughout the night.
[Lisa.]
If she ran out of gas at six o'clock, why is her car being seen there the night before? [Ruth.]
There were two nurses that worked at the hospital down there, and they had to go out to the highway to smoke.
So they were smoking, and they said at two o'clock in the morning, her car was sitting there then with the blinkers on.
[crickets chirping.]
[Benca.]
Why is she out on the side of that road from two in the morning till 5:30 in the morning? If not her, why is her vehicle out there? And where is she at during that period of time? Where's Kenny at two o'clock in the morning, three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock in the morning? He's home in bed.
It couldn't have taken place in the timeline that the State was putting forward.
That's the most compelling thing for me.
[Snyder.]
She could have sat in that car that long that night.
She really could have.
But at this point, it's kinda immaterial, you know? Right now, it's kinda immaterial.
[Benca.]
Knowing what I know about Casey Crowder, there's just no way that she would have sat out there for that length of time before she decided that she was gonna get into a car or a vehicle with someone that she didn't know.
There's just no way that that would have happened.
[birds chirping.]
[cameras clicking.]
[Ruth.]
I know my son is innocent.
I hope they find the one that is guilty, but I know he is not the one.
[Benca.]
The prosecution called Nancy Dunn.
Witnesses like that can be devastating.
I was kind of nervous about seeing Kenny.
It was kind of bad that I testified against him.
Quite like being in a funeral home.
I just told 'em what I saw.
[Lisa.]
Nancy had seen Kenny going out towards the river.
And she says there was a black-haired girl slumped over the seat.
I can actually show you what I think she's seen, if you'll hand me that thing over there.
This was in Kenny's truck.
- It goes over the back of the seat.
- It goes over the back of the seat.
And that's what we think she's seen as a black-haired girl.
Casey has blonde hair.
How would it be Casey if it's a black-haired girl? [interviewer.]
What color was the hair? Black.
Like coal black? Yes.
[reporter.]
Jurors watched a taped interview of Osburn, where he admitted to placing wire ties around Crowder's neck after reaching 43 Canal, where her body was later discovered.
The only thing that they had was the confession and the videotape of him going from 6:42 past the Sonic and coming back at 6:45 past the Sonic.
That's it.
[reporter 2.]
This is day four of the trial, and the jury just adjourned after about three hours of deliberation.
It's at the Ashley County Circuit Court Well, it just tore my heart out.
We just cried and hugged one another.
Because we lost my mom in '05, and then in '06, we lost our dad to this.
[Cherry.]
How do you ask for a death penalty when there's no evidence? How do you do that? I don't know.
It just makes me upset that it was all a farce.
I'm sure they don't think it was, but they didn't know Kenny either.
[Benca.]
After he's convicted of capital murder, the only options for a jury is either life or death.
So they have to go back and deliberate that.
And one juror, she was the only one that would not vote for death, so based upon that, the judge was forced to go ahead and impose a life sentence afterwards.
And I remember him calling me up to the judge's bench, and he showed us the verdict form where it was 11 to one.
Hey, Pawpaw! [Osburn.]
Hey, girl.
What you doing? Nothing.
Just got back from church.
He's fixing to eat some ice cream, he said, in a little bit.
We ate a lot of ice cream too.
[Holley.]
Sometimes he feels his spirits are up, and sometimes his spirits are down.
I mean, all I can do is hope.
[Lisa.]
The first trial was reversed and remanded from the Supreme Court, so it got tossed out, and then it went to talking him into doing a plea bargain.
Kenny didn't really want to do a plea bargain, but Jim Wyatt, the lawyer for Kenny, called me and told me that, you know, yeah, if he takes the plea bargain, he would only have to spend, like, seven, seven and a half years.
[Osburn.]
I can't get no one to explain to me the way it works.
He told Lisa that I would only have to do another seven and a half years if I would accept it.
He kept saying the death penalty was in place, and, "Well, you know if you go to trial, they're gonna just convict you again.
" They knew I wasn't gonna get a fair trial.
Oh, my gosh.
I see it every day.
You know, someone used to tell me, "You wouldn't have pled guilty unless you were guilty.
" Let me tell you, that is not how it works.
He wanted some sure thing.
He wanted to know that one day he'd get out, and he's got that opportunity now.
[Osburn.]
You can't blame Ms.
Crowder and them for being mad 'cause no father or mother should have to bury their own children.
That should never happen.
But I'm not the one that done it.
I'd be lying if I sat there and said that I didn't think about death a million times.
When they give you life without, that's the first thing that pops into your mind.
I couldn't give up hope.
There's always hope of being able to prove that I didn't do it.