#548 Jason Flom with Jeff Boppre

Joy is essential and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101, it's a new podcast hosted by me, Hota Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid uplifting and moving on air chats. Open your free iHeartRadio app search, Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hota Kotby is presented by CVS. June is Black Music Month and on the Drink Chams Podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Swae Lee. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate it. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, "Master got so much more to do." Like, Prince, he's got like 30 albums. We got like five right now. That's the rate we gotta be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. Matter-to-a-airer, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover, The Family Man on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. In the early morning hours of September 19, 1988, Richard Valdez and Sharon Condon were murdered in Scottsbluff Nebraska. Scrolled in engine grease on the floor of their home, the letters JFF and B-O-P-E. Investigators sought out local man Jeff Bobri who returned from a road trip to dispel suspicion but soon the two friends who were with him gave statements to the contrary. Jeff faced a potential death sentence. Yet, according to the first witness on scene, the message in engine grease that tilted the investigation toward Jeff was not there when he discovered the bodies. This is wrongful conviction. You're listening to wrongful conviction. You can listen to this in all the Lava for Good Podcasts one week early and add free by subscribing to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Welcome back to wrongful conviction where this week we're going for the first time to Scottsbluff Nebraska where we came across a double murder scene that appears to have been in part staged, possibly driven in part by incestuous urges or a cocaine operation involving law enforcement. And calling in from a Nebraska state penitentiary, the man who had the terrible misfortune of being one of the last to buy some of that cocaine, Jeff Bobri. Jeff, thanks for calling in. Well, thank you for what you guys are doing for the innocent. And joining him to help make sense of this crazy ordeal is attorney Tom Farricks. Tom, thanks for joining us. Absolutely my pleasure. So let's do what we do and start at the very beginning. I was born and maybe on North Dakota to Florence Bopri and Delores Bopri. My parents were actually from a little town about seven miles from the Canadian border called Rala North Dakota. And I got an older sister and two younger brothers. We've always been really close family. My dad was an alcoholic. My mom was the peacemaker of everything we did move around a lot. My dad was a mechanic and was a little hot headed if he was working a job and somebody pissed him off and we were up and moving around. So we wind up moving to a Grand Forks North Dakota. Peter's Berg North Dakota and then Albuquerque New Mexico. And then we wind up moving to Nebraska. So it was a lot of adjustment. But I dealt with it. And then when I graduated, I wind up going into a roofing business until 1984, 85. Then I went back to college and stuff for auto body and stuff. So I'm actually an auto body technician, paint and cars and stuff. But I was in a bad accident in 1987 where I rolled the truck working for a weathercraft roofing. And I laid in it for an hour and a half before they cut me out of it. There is pictures of their accident. And it's probably pretty amazing that I even live through that. And having seen those pictures, I can attest that it is an absolute miracle that he survived. And during his time on the men, Jeff came into contact with a number of people involved in this case. He hired an attorney named Len Taybor to handle his personal injury and workers compensation proceedings. And he began to dabble in some drugs, which brought him into contact with some other drug users like acquaintances of his younger brother, Alan Nieman and Candard Wasmer, as well as one of the victims in this case, a local drug dealer named Richard Valdez. Richard was a quiet person. He had a really good to know you before you were able to go in and buy drugs from him. And Jeff broke through that and was able to get served. But the only relationship we had was he was in the business to sell drugs when I was in this accident and trying to release some pain. Wasmer and Nieman did not know Valdez well enough. So when wasmer and Nieman wanted to get some cocaine, they would enlist Jeff's help. And then there was the other victim, Valdez's girlfriend Sharon Condon, who had a concerning relationship to say the least with her first cousin, a guy named John Yellowboy. Now some said Yellowboy had an unnatural attraction to Sharon. In fact, there had been some high drama in the weeks leading up to her death. She apparently went to the hospital because she had gotten hit with a butt of a gun during this dispute with John. We pulled all of the criminal cases that existed on Yellowboy prior to the murder. Yellowboy was incarcerated at about 15 for a pretty violent rape of a middle aged woman that occurred according to the police reports right in front of the woman's daughter. He left a code at the scene that caught belonged to a relative. It's almost like he was setting him up or something. I don't know. But there are a string of just incredibly strange assault behavior when I met John's sister and this stuck with me probably because of the age I grew up in. And I asked her, just give me an idea who Johnny Yellowboy is. She paused for a moment. And then she looked at me very directly, matter factly and said, have you ever seen the movie Halloween? That's basically my brother John. And that's his sister saying that so this is the backdrop for what happened on September 18th into the 19th of 1988 when Neiman, Wasmer and another man Chris Ruff had asked Jeff for help was Richard Valdez. They asked me if I could get them some weed and some coke and this is around 10 o'clock at night. So I proceeded to go out to Valdez's house by myself. There was no lights or nothing on at the Valdez's residence. So if you visualize, it's like on a rural road. I mean, it's dark. So it's kind of spooky in a way. And I went up and I knocked on door. Nobody was there. So then I left. And then I went meet those guys after trailer. And then I told him I said, Hey, I think I know where Valdez might be at. And I went to what's called tip top trailer court. And this is where John Yellowboy, he actually came out of one of the apartments. And he said that Valdez, he'd be back in a little while. He eventually caught up with Richard Valdez in town and bought some coke for Wasmer and Neiman, then traveled back and forth to Valdez's place for more cocaine that evening. The last time was around 1130 p.m. And then that was the last time I seen Richard Valdez. And then once we were back to Kenner Warsmith and Ellen, Neiman's trailer about 12 o'clock Chris Ruff, he said he was leaving. Kenner and Ellen, they were pretty high that night. And so during this time, Ellen and Kenner said, Hey, why don't we take a road trip? Let's go to Arizona. Jeff had a friend named Cassie who lived out in Arizona. So the three of them got some things together and got on the road. After all, cocaine is a hell of a drug, but I digress here. In the following hours while these three were on the road, Sharon Condon and Richard Valdez were killed. The state's narrative was that they were fatally shot around the same time inside the house and that Richard partially wrote Jeff's name on the ground in engine grease as a sort of dying declaration. And that's the theory. I don't think that's what occurred. I don't think Richard Valdez was killed inside the house. I think he was brought back in the house and staged the stab wounds and the blood loss. don't equal that he lost all of his blood in the position where his body was found. And we've now got a pathologist who says that these wounds across his neck and one of the bullet shots were post mortem. In 2018, we went and went through all of the evidence still at the Scotts Bluff County Sheriff's Department. And there we found a package that had negative, not photographs. And a memorandum from a former deputy sheriff that said, these were found in Alex Marinos, Dasken 2012, 14, I don't remember the actual date. And there's a picture of a knife. You have no idea where that knife is at, but it looks like it's in a cornfield, which the house was surrounded by cornfield. A black and white photograph of a knife that doesn't match any of the other crime scene photos. What it's just insane. And that's just the beginning. And then the Sharon's death, which was overheard by the 16 year old girl who was with her at the time, a girl named Melissa Martinez. According to her, she's in the back bedroom and they hear people enter the house. And she recognizes John Yellow Boy's voice. Sharon tells her to hide, which she does, partially under the bed. The lights go out. She hears the commotion. And then she waits. And waits. And eventually runs out of the house. If you look at the crime scene photos, she has to flip the mattress to get Sharon off of her. And if you look at the crime scene photos, you can see where Sharon bled out. And then you can see that her body was moved. And she continued to bleed. That's never explained. Now, Melissa Martinez claims that she didn't hear Richard's death or see his body other way out the door, which might be why this account was never included in the state's narrative. It just didn't fit. But Melissa accounts for the two spots where Sharon bled without having seen the crime scene photographs, which certainly bolsters her credibility, right? So, okay, back to her memory. She runs through the same doorway where Richard Valdez's body is supposedly right in the doorway. I mean, she would have tripped over him. She then runs to a neighbor. And as pounding on the door at two, three in the morning, the neighbors confirmed that there was somebody pounding on the door of that morning. And then she makes her way into town. That was about 3 a.m. So both the crime scene photos of Sharon and the neighbor's account corroborate Melissa's version of events. And we'll explain what happens to her in a bit. So then both bodies were discovered in the house. Sharon, where Melissa left her and then Richard's was in the doorway. There's a gentleman by the name Eddie Johnson who claims that he came there, saw the door slightly a jar, pushed the door and it pushed it into Valdez. He then kneeled down by the body, checked the body, realized he was dead. And this is before cell phones. So he then goes into Scott's bluff and calls the police. And as he's on the phone with the police, he sees a cop driving by and flags him down an officer by the name of Terry Hall. It says, "Look, there's a dude. He's dead out here." They go to the scene, Eddie stays outside. Eddie's later shown crime scene photos, 20 plus years later, and says, "That's not how the body was laid out. There was no grease next to the body. I would have stepped right in it." Because next to Valdez's body in crime scene photos are two words, in Greece, partial words, J-F-F-N-B-O-P-E. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. You can't order it, you can't borrow it, or simply hope it into life. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hota Kotby. Together, guys, we'll have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Entertainment Legends, sports icons, wellness experts, and everyday people will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. And I'll offer some of my own tips and takes on seeking a more balanced and harmonious life. If you're craving inspiration, support, and useful tools to maximize your joy, tune into these candid uplifting and moving on air chats. Joy after a break up, Joy is an empty nester, Joy after a loss, Joy as a caretaker. This new podcast will speak to you. Listen to Joy 101 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Things are getting eerie this week on Snap-Foo with Ed Helms. My favorite murder hosts Karen Kilgarif and Georgia Hard Stark join me for the unsolved kidnapping of William Morgan. It's a great true crime story filled with secret society intrigue and murder. For Mason Files. Karen, you just birthed a conspiracy and I'm here for it. Yay! Listen to Snap-Foo on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can hear it true, but now see it! Crime stories now available with video episodes free in the iHeart app. Watch all your favorite podcasts, full episodes, start to finish, gavle to gavle, soup to nuts, all in the free iHeart app. You can also watch all your other favorite podcasts like "Hey Jonas! Luskulturista's post run high and so many more. Hear the voices you know. Now see them and see the moments you've missed. Open the iHeartRadio app, search video podcasts, and crime stories and then just tap watch. I'll see you on video, friend. According to the autopsy doctor at the time he would have been bleeding profusely where he would have blood out very quickly within a matter of minutes. And that's from the state's own guy, but apparently in those minutes he still would have been able to grab a tube of engine grease, right out, Jeff, and then maybe right Jeff on the wall and blood. And then ironically put the tube grease underneath him before he died. Yep, figured I went out. They find the tube grease, you can see it in the crime scene video. They lift his body up and go, "Oh, there's the tube grease!" But there was a question at that time of trial whether he would have been able to do that given the wounds he had suffered. But the forensic pathologist today is in no way. Not a chance is he doing that. According to the autopsy, Jeff's injuries included eight gunshot wounds and two stab wounds, one of each type happening post-mortem. Either way, he was losing blood at an estimated rate of about a half a liter per minute, leaving only 150 seconds to 1/2 minutes until he'd experienced significant loss of his motor skills as blood flow concentrated around maintaining his vital organs, which is why the pathologist is saying no way to the dying declaration. But if that doesn't feel definitive enough, then you have the two post-mortem wounds. So not only does that, along with unaccounted for blood at the scene suggest staging of the body, but also whoever inflicted these post-mortem injuries was not going to allow him to make a dying declaration. Let alone, apparently, a second one. Along the door stop, there is J-E-F-F written in blood after they've surrendered the crime scene back to the family. Baldur's family says, "You gotta get back out here." It says Jeff in blood on here. And they went, "Oh, be jeez, we must miss that." So maybe whoever had killed Sharon Richard or both of them was still lurking around after Eddie had discovered the bodies. And then wrote Jeff's name at the crime scene, trying to send the police in Jeff's direction. So the police went straight to Jeff's and his father told them about Jeff's 32-calibre handgun. While the police searched for that, the next time Jeff called home, his dad told him what was happening. "I had a passport to lead the country and he said, "You want me to send this?" I said, "No, I said, "I'm coming back. I'm innocent. I can't do this." When I made this trip back, and I got arrested, Leonard Taylor was my attorney. All he really worked on was workmen's complications and DWIs. This was actually his first murder trial that he ever participated in. Already, this is a bad sign. And then things get worse when they question Wassmer and Neiman. During the recorded interview, Neiman is denying any knowledge about anything. Neiman's there with a public defender. The public defender tells Neiman, "Look, you're going to be in just fine shape with these fine gentlemen and leaves." That's when they turned him. Neiman was specifically told that if he didn't give a story, blaming Bo Pri, he was going to be charged with a murder. Neiman then comes up with a story that, you know, Bo Pri went in and then he heard a gunshot and then Bo Pri grabbed a few things inside the house and brought them out. And Neiman then goes in and supposedly steals a camera. And that's ultimately what he pleads guilty to. So he pleads guilty to theft. The problem is that Sharon's camera was a really nice one. while the one that Neiman played guilty to stealing was the cheap piece of junk. Additionally, not only were there tens of thousands of dollars worth of cash and drugs in the house, but Richard had $3,000 worth of cocaine in his pocket, which makes this theft motive totally unbelievable. Not to mention that this statement was made under the threat of a potential death sentence. And then, Wasserman got similar treatment. So he said that he overheard Japanal and talking about the murder. And then he helped to get rid of Jeff's 32 caliber handgun on the way to Arizona. They obtained the record of the firearm that Jeff had bought before they ever found the firearm to know what kind of firearm it was. And then changed that. So I don't know, we didn't get those records and we got them months later. Wasserman says then he disassembles the gun and throws it out in different parts along the way, but they found the gun. Not disassembled. Which would have ruled out Wasserman statement. It just didn't match. They say that we jumped over a fence and threw it in a mud hole. I'm like, where are they getting this? So a 32 caliber handgun was presented as Jeff's gun. A ledgerly found somewhere outside of Gallup, New Mexico. And it was missing the thumb safety, which would have held in the cartridge in this gun. Then the disconnector, as well as the hammer pin, which could have been used to most accurately identify this weapon as Jeff's or not. Nevertheless, the narrative had congealed around this weapon and the two statements. But then they got wind of 16 year old Melissa Martinez talking about the murder with her classmates. We found out about her in 1992. A lady named Meli Estada. Meli was a dispatch for the sheriff's department, I think. Her daughter, Patty Kling, told her dad, Melissa had told this story at school. So she went to the State Patrol and they took a statement from Patty and they said that they didn't believe her. So by September 29, 1988, police had spoken with Melissa. According to her affidavits many years later, she told them about her experience that night. She knew John Yelliboy don't forget. She told them that she heard his voice in the trailer right before Sharon was killed. And then there's the rest of her memory about running out, not seeing Richard's body and banging on the neighbor's door. Of course, this all ran counter to the narrative from Neiman and Wasmer. They take Melissa and scuttle her around in different juvenile placements and get her out of town. Along with her brand new living arrangements, a state police report was submitted into evidence, alleging that Melissa admitted to fabricating the story. So that's all that the defense was privy to a trial. And again, things continued to get worse. The whole process was kind of shady from the beginning because if you look at the rules of the courts, now that I understand it, you pick a jury one day, two days before you actually go to trial. They had picked my jury like 17 days out. There was no subquestion of the jury or nothing like that. So they got to see all the evidence that was playing out in the media. Which all potentially biased the jury going into trial in early March 1989, when Alan Neiman testified that Jeff suggested robbing and killing Richard on their multiple trips to Bicocaim. Neiman claimed that Jeff had stopped at his house, perhaps to get his gun, before their final trip to Richard's at which point he said that Jeff shot Richard when he came to the door, suggesting a forensically very improbable angle. Then said that they both stole things from the house, including a camera and drug scales. Before Jeff went back inside and Neiman said he heard a woman's voice followed by gunshots. Alan Neiman, he testifies, he kept motion to me. You could read his lips where he was saying he was sorry of what he was saying. Despite whatever little good that did, another states witness named Rich Zogg claimed that Jeff had suggested robbing Richard on multiple occasions. But again, there were tens of thousands of dollars in drugs and cash left behind that made this whole robbery story sound ludicrous. So moving on, they presented Wasmer with his bit about disassembling the gun and tossing it away. Then there's a fun guy named Mike Neu, a jailhouse snitch, who testifies that Jeff confessed. I think he said that I told him that you should have heard the bits of Pete for life and some other stuff about Valdez couldn't have wrote nothing because he was bleeding too much. So the state's own witness dispels the idea that this was a dying declaration while also assigning a consciousness of guilt to Jeff. Now, Jeff lawyer, Taber, also represented the jailhouse snitch. But he never disclosed that he actually represented him. He was serving time on a drunk driving case. It's unclear what he got, although, I mean, he obviously was led out of jail. - Well, I was being held at in jail. I was like segregated from everybody else. So he, I apparently got out and then he came back in January and he was a trustee. So he started saying, "Hey, I'm going to A with your father. "You want anything to say?" I said, "Yeah, tell my dad I love him and stuff like that." And that was probably the extent of any of our conversations. But when he got on the stand and started saying that he's kept by myself and I told him the whole story, I'm like, this has to be a plant from Silverman. - Or perhaps indirectly Leonard Taber. Maybe he was told to approach the head DA Silverman to offer his testimony for leniency and the charges for which Taber was representing him. We can't know the specifics, but one thing I do know is that this shit freaking stinks. The jailers even got on the stand and testified that there was cameras pointing at myself. They could have seen all that stuff. If somebody sat in front of my cell and I told him for an hour or so to tell my story. So two of the jailers got up on the stand and testified to the fact that this never happened. - In addition to the jailers, Taber had prepared expert witnesses to battle both the state's pathologists who claimed that Valdez could have mustered the straith to write two dying declarations, as well as the ballistic expert who called the gun allegedly found in the desert a match. - The guy that they had was Mark Bajadi. His story has changed now too, but our expert Kay Wood said that he couldn't even test fire the gun and that there was no way that this was the weapon. And then our pathologist, he said, there's no way he was losing too much blood and all this other stuff. And they believed the state's pathologists that didn't have a quarter of the experience that the pathologists that we hired at Omaha. - And maybe with the battle of experts in shaky witnesses, there was a nudge in the wrong direction from one of the defense's own witnesses, John Yellowboy. - He's called as a defense witness. - Why I have no idea, but he does end up throwing dirt on Jeff. - He said that he was president at the scene that night and saw Jeff Boe pre there, but at what time? After all, Jeff had gone out to Richard several times that night, plus Yellowboy appears to have had his own motivations as a potential suspect. Either way, this couldn't have helped Jeff. - The jury went in to deliberate and they came back nine and half hours or so later with the guilty verdict. They were seeking the death penalty on me and the report from the judges said that one thing that saved me from the death penalty is that I actually come back to be questioning, because I knew I was innocent. I didn't have nothing to hide. - Yeah, he faced the death penalty, but I think the recommendation was made by the jury without the possibility of parole. - So I was thankful that I didn't get the death penalty, but I still got two licenses running consecutively and then six and two thirds of 22 times for the firearm charges and then 28 to 15 that were run to court that was for the robberies. - So just in case you're immortal enough to live out two entire life sentences, they could still hold you. - Yeah, exactly. - Joy is essential and it's also elusive. You can't order it, you can't borrow it or simply hope it into life, but now. There's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. Together, guys, we'll have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, entertainment legends, sports icons, wellness experts, and everyday people will share how they find, allow, and experience joy. Listen to Joy 101 on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Things are getting eerie this week on Snafu with Ed Helms. My favorite murder hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hard Stark joined me for the unsolved kidnapping of William Morgan. - For your Mason files. - Karen, you just birthed a conspiracy, and I'm here for it. - Yay. - Listen to Snafu on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. - You can hear it true, but now see it. Crime stories now available with video episodes, free in the iHeart app. Watch all your favorite podcasts, full episodes, start to finish, gaville to gaville, soup to nuts, all in the free iHeart app. You can also watch all your other favorite podcasts like Hey Jonas, Las Cultoristas, Post Run High and so many more. Open the iHeartRadio app. Search video podcasts and crime stories and then just tap watch. - I've thought that the justice system would work itself out. Maybe it's gonna take five years to get this on done. I never, ever dreamt that I'd still be fighting it after 37 years. I was always told from older inmates, don't gamble, don't borrow anything. This is the simple things. Keep busy. Don't get in other people's business and stuff like that. So I kind of get that in my whole incarceration and I've done enough time where people kind of respect you now. Some of them call me old timer 'cause I am a little older than I was when I came in. But I made myself busy right away. I got into hobby. I'm a legal aid here. I had to learn how to type. I had to learn how to run the computers. I had to do all that on my own. I didn't know none of that when I first came to prison. So I mean, I just keep tugging away and never thought that I would still be imprisoned after 37 years. - Especially since he got some great support from a private investigator named Danny Whalon soon after his conviction. - Danny Whalon, a lady sent him a letter saying, "Hey, you need to check this case out." And he talked to her for several hours then he came in and I went through the story with him and then he left and then he came back a couple days later and it had me answer almost the same question to see if I was lying or not. You know what I mean? And one thing I will never forget Danny Whalon, he says, "I believe you're innocent. He's there. I'm gonna do everything in my power to get you out of there." He actually mortgages house a couple times. I mean, he was like a father to me. I believe Alan Neiman came first. Danny Whalon went down and interviewed him and then he recanted, I wanna say, 89. We found out about Melissa in 1992. She talked about yellow boy and stuff like that. - And she tells the same story that she told her classmates immediately after the murder. Then to the police, only to have a December 1988 police report claim that she had made it all up. Before being sent off to some juvenile placement in Colorado and remember her original account, critically was corroborated by Sharon Condon's bleeding pattern as well as the neighbors who heard her knocking on the door at 3 a.m. She also added that she knew Jeff. She heard three male voices that night and that he was not one of them. So they filed a motion for a new trial based on the new evidence and a Brady violation in the form of Melissa Martinez. But again, Melissa Martinez never made it to the witness stand. - So they don't really get Melissa Martinez, but they get a police report where she's scribbled. This is true, this is true, this is true. All of which contradicted the sworn statement that she gave, the bulk of which is statement she ended up going to her grave with. And then basically Neiman's the same thing. They have a state trooper say I talked him and he denied it all. They don't bring Neiman back to testify mind you. And they allow this guy to give the hearsay testimony that he retracted his recantation. It's strange 'cause Neiman said the only person that actually came to visit him in prison was Silverman. - Who in all likelihood threatened him again with the murder charge, perjury, the whole kitchen sink. - Yeah, he sure you want to face murder charges. He signed something, but it's not a true affidavit, sworn affidavit, but it was accepted and that was that. - The court ruled that in addition to the retractions that Martinez is the count did not put her in a position to prove Jeff's innocence. So the motion was denied. Then came an ineffective counsel post-conviction filing in 1995 claiming that counsel should have investigated alternate suspects. - They don't raise oddly during the first ineffective claim that he also represented the jailhouse snitch. Which a second year law student knows you can't do that. You can't represent the jailhouse snitch who's just to find against your client. By this time, Danny Wailand's son Lawrence was representing Jeff Pro Bono, who found additional ex-culpatory evidence surrounding the alleged dying declaration that had been written on the floor in N.G. Greece. - They found that the door to Valdez's place had a curtain rod and a curtain hanger. And as they're talking about it while they're filming it as they're going through it, they're saying that she's that looks like blood and grease on the curtain hanger. Which if there was grease on it, that's a pretty big deal. Right? 'Cause how did Valdez get all the way to the curtain? Did he peek out with the grease after and then lay down? It doesn't make any sense. That curtain disappeared. - And the post-conviction motion was denied in 2002. So the Wailand sought to expand their support and begin DNA testing. - I don't know if you ever heard of Ruben Hurricane Carter. So I got to speak to Ruben and Danny and his son had went to Canada for them guys to endorse the case and then win where she got a hold of Colin Starter from the ID and then they got the DNA started on it. - The Innocence Project in New York was able to do DNA testing on some of the crime scene evidence, including a blood stain near the door handle. - Right. And on the door they find John Yellow Boy's DNA. Blood DNA and a judge makes finding that John Yellow Boy was a frequent visitor at the residence and that explains why his blood DNA on the door. - Blood DNA? I'm gonna have to give them a 10 out of 10 for these intellectual gymnastics. I suppose they could also argue that even if Yellow Boy was there, that doesn't necessarily mean that Jeff was not. - Not according to Alan Neiman. The theory of the case was Alan Neiman and Yellow Boy's not part of that and his blood on the door doesn't fit that narrative, the narrative that was used to convict at all. - Either way, these preceding stretch from 2005, all the way through 2012, at which point Jeff's team began tracking down a woman named Sheila Janis, who had told Melissa Martinez about her past with John Yellow Boy and the team finally found her in 2017. Apparently she had disappeared after a horrific ongoing abduction scenario that began in the immediate aftermath of the murders in 1988. John, Yellow Boy had beaten her severely and taken her to the house where the murder occurred and she knew it was the house because the floor was cut out which is a detail that we probably wouldn't know. I mean, they cut a section of the floor out where this writing in Greece was and the police took the floor with them and she recalls being in the house, being repeatedly raped. While John Yellow Boy is talking to Sharon and Richard, saying things like, "Why did you make me do this? Why? Why did you have to do this? Your mind, crazy, weird things." Valdez was supposedly leaving town and had sold most of his worldly possessions as he was getting ready to leave. He thought his life was in danger, told several people that. - And we'll get to why he may have been in fear for his life, but this certainly sets up the motive for Yellow Boy. According to Janis, Yellow Boy, referring to Sharon and his confession, also said, "She thought she could get away with that Mexican bastard." And, quote, "Before Yellow Boy continued to beat Sheila nearly the death." In fact, it seems like he thought that he had actually killed her. - Yellow Boy, he's looking for Sheila after finding out that she had survived. Sheila shows up at another woman's house, Sandra stands, she's called the police. Sandra gave an affidavit when we found her that Sheila showed up, I called the police, took her to the bathroom, and while she was helping Sheila clean up, she was startled by Jan Yellow Boy, who simply appeared behind me over my shoulder. - There's those Michael Myers vibes. - She startled by him being there and what the hell are you doing in my house? She pushed him out the bathroom door and shut it. The police arrived, she answered the door and the police said, "Where is he?" She was too afraid to say anything, but was able to move and adjust her eyes in one direction like he's right here and they busted in and they grabbed him, but he didn't get arrested. - What? - So, I think you need to understand some of the baseline racism that exists in Scottsplough County and it's not the typical racism that I grew up in Waterloo, Iowa. It's not while you're black, I should be afraid of you and distrust of you. It's racism against the Native American community and that racism was not of you're a bad person. It's you're not even a person. So these people would be victims of crime and probably because there was an issue at times in getting those people to show up to actually prosecute crimes. The police never arrested anybody in those situations. They just say, well, if you want to press charges, go to the county, turn these off. It's kind of a test to say, are you going to pursue this thing or not? But it also sent the message that we don't really care. So John Yellowboy was freed with Salt Sheila. He regularly kidnapped, raped and beat her and he did so continuously for months until his arrest for a rape in Colorado. And it turned out that while Yellowboy had kidnapped Sheila to Colorado, they stayed with none other than Melissa Martinez, both of whom Yellowboy claimed ownership over. They shared their experiences. Melissa's ear witness account of Sharon's murder, Yellowboy's confession to Sheila and the ongoing abduction in sexual torture and Sheila claims that he kept her compliant by making threats. John Yellowboy said, I'm going to kill your mother. I'm going to kill anybody that's related to you if you talk about this or mention me or anything. And lo and behold, Sheila's mother's found dead and they said it's an accidental drowning in a foot half a water. This is when she fled to her sisters out of state. And then he pretty much snatched her back in. She was present when he committed the rape in Colorado and that's how she got away. So Sheila basically disappeared until the team found her in 2017. And even though Yellowboy seemed capable of killing Richard too, there are so many inexplicable elements of this crime scene that suggests that Richard was murdered somewhere else. The discrepancy with how much blood Richard actually spilled at the scene that according to Melissa Martinez, Richard's body was not there when she left that according to Eddie Johnson, the pathologist and his post-mortem wounds, that his body and dying declaration appeared to have been staged. So maybe after Sharon was killed, the body was discovered and his business partners thought it was prudent to tie up the loose end before Richard got a chance to leave town. The police chief of garing, which is a city that's basically connected to Scottsbluff. There were like small twin cities, okay? Went to the FBI with his suspicions that Brian Silverman was behind a large cocaine distribution network in the Scottsbluff area. Brian Silverman was the guy who prosecuted Jeppo Preat. And we're not suggesting that Silverman was responsible, but a potential proximity to power for the cocaine operation in Scottsbluff can make sense of how the investigation and prosecution ignored the evidence suggesting separate murder scenes, staging, and potentially other culprits. As well as how quickly Melissa Martinez was reassigned to a juvenile placement out of state and out of reach when her statement threatened to impeach the entire narrative. We got another affidavit from Melissa in 2017. She said she was just heartbroken that I was still locked up for Valdez and Condon's murders when she knows that I didn't do it. So with a more full account from Melissa Martinez, Sheila Janice's story, the evidence of a separate crime scene founded to detect the marinos files, the potential shady dealings of the district attorney, as well as new expert testimony about how at least two of the wounds were inflicted post-mortem. And that according to the autopsy, there's no chance that Richard Valdez had anything to do with writing on the wall or door, which is supported by the way by Eddie Johnson. Day went ahead and filed a new post-conviction motion, an emotion for a new trial back in 2018. To me, the biggest part of it was there's all these things that had been litigated in bits and pieces leading up to it. But when you put the full picture together, it's like, there's a lot here, but we never got an evidentiary hearing. So our motion for new trial was denied. Nebraska Supreme Court denied an appeal of that, and a rather scathing opinion that why would you write all this stuff? Basically, it was too much stuff. And then we got a post-conviction pending too. That got thrown out. We tried to amend. That's on appeal right now. The amendment, whether we should have been allowed to amend our post-conviction relief that was later filed, we may end up having to do a federal ABS or something like that. And there's a lot more evidence and mystery still to unfold in this case, including blonde hairs from crime scene evidence that have never been tested. So we hope for the best in future proceedings. In the meantime, if you'd like to show your support for Jeff's release, please take a moment, stop what you're doing right now. Scroll down on your listening app to the links in our episode description and click on the link to sign the petition. And with that, we're going to go to closing arguments. My favorite part of the show is everyone knows where, first of all, I thank both of you guys for being here and sharing. Honestly, one of the craziest and most terrifying stories I've ever heard in my 32 years of doing this work. And now I'm going to kick back in my chair, turn my microphone off and leave my headphones on and just listen to anything else. You want to share time you start off and then hand the microphone off to Jeff and he'll take us off into the sunset. I mean, I just Jeff has been concerned that he sits out there and nobody knows his plate. So this kind of light being shown on it is the kind of thing that I think Jeff feels is important and is the kind of thing that may eventually bring some pressure to bear on somebody to take a good close heart look at his case. I would like to say of an innocent man that's been present for 37 years. I would ask everybody to come forward and sign this petition so that we can move this case forward and Jeff can finally prevail and finally give me a release. 37 years is a long time but I've never given up and with all the help of friends, families, lawyers that have donated their time and their money for this case, I think it's time that we get an end to it. And I would like to say thank you all for being part of this and giving me the hope that I need to make it to another day. Thank you for listening to RONFL Conviction. You can listen to this and all the Lava For Good podcasts one week early and add free by subscribing to Lava For Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I want to thank our production team Connor Hall and Kathleen Fink as well as my fellow executive producers Jeff Campler Kevin Wardis and Jeff Clyburn. The music in this production was supplied by three-time Oscar nominated composer J Ralph. Be sure to follow us across all social media platforms at Lava For Good and at RONFL Conviction. You can also follow me on Instagram at its Jason Flom. RONFL Conviction is a production of Lava For Good podcasts and association with signal company number one. We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava For Good. Joy is essential and it's also elusive but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101, it's a new podcast hosted by me, Hauda Cotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy tune into these candid uplifting and moving on air chats, open your free iHeartRadio app search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hauda Cotby is presented by CVS. 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