The Cheat Sheet: Raps and Recantations

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[00:02:28] discussion of murder and sexual violence. Well it's Friday so it's time for another edition

[00:02:35] of the cheat sheet and we found some interesting cases that we would like to discuss with you.

[00:02:40] Some ongoing cases and there's also been a couple of updates in the Richard Allen Delphi

[00:02:48] murder case that we also think are worthy of chatting about. My name is Ania Kane, I'm a journalist

[00:02:55] and I'm Kevin Greenley. I'm an attorney. And this is The Murder Sheet. We're a true crime podcast

[00:03:01] focused on original reporting interviews and deep dives into murder cases. We're The Murder Sheet.

[00:03:08] And this is The Cheat Sheet, Raps and Recantations.

[00:03:31] Alright, let's start off with some familiar territory. Namely the Delphi case.

[00:04:01] Specifically the case against Richard Allen who's been accused of murdering teenagers, Libby

[00:04:07] German and Abby Williams. And this is going to be really really familiar territory because we're

[00:04:12] going to start out by discussing a filing that Nick McLean recently made. Of course he's a

[00:04:18] prosecutor in the case and this is actually the third time he's made this filing. Wow okay there you

[00:04:26] yeah. And this is a request for a specific medical records pertaining to Richard Allen,

[00:04:33] particularly Richard Allen's mental health records from the time that he's been incarcerated in

[00:04:40] the Indian Department of Corrections. Ordinarily of course there's all sorts of privacy regulations

[00:04:48] that certain health records should not be shared with the public or with prosecutors.

[00:04:56] Prosecutor McLean makes the argument that there was a reason that concern shouldn't apply here.

[00:05:06] He believes that through filings and other such things, the defense seems to be the very at

[00:05:14] least hinting or suggesting that Richard Allen's mental health is going to be an issue in the upcoming

[00:05:23] trial. Particularly that he feels the defense may be trying to use Richard Allen's mental health as

[00:05:31] a way to explain away the confessions Richard Allen made him his case. In other words they're

[00:05:37] going to suggest that those confessions were false presumably because of some sort of mental health

[00:05:42] issue and his argument is if they're going to be arguing about his mental health, we should have

[00:05:48] access to the mental health records so we can judge whether or not those claims are true

[00:05:55] about his mental health. That makes sense and this is one of those areas in the case where I've

[00:06:00] always been a bit fascinated in the beginning when this first came up when the issue of confessions

[00:06:07] or in criminality statements first came up behind the scenes, not in public but essentially immediately

[00:06:13] after he made in criminality statements to his wife and mother, Richard Allen's attorneys

[00:06:19] basically kind of came out with a filing saying being in prison has had such a detrimental

[00:06:26] effect on his mental health. They threw around clinical terms like schizophrenia and psychotic

[00:06:30] and it's very hard to analyze those without having a mental health professional say okay here's

[00:06:35] what we're seeing. It gets a frenic that doesn't really make any sense that wouldn't really

[00:06:41] manifest itself in a middle-aged man that comes on earlier in life but psychotic, there can be

[00:06:47] a number of reasons that someone could become psychotic suddenly so it was very interesting

[00:06:53] then they kind of backed off on that and put in you know when explaining the incriminating

[00:06:59] statements well he may have been threatened by odinous guards no we don't have any evidence

[00:07:05] for that and he's never said that but maybe that struck me as somebody that struck me as a team

[00:07:10] that is desperate to get around the mental health issue and so that really peaked my interest because

[00:07:15] why you know I think mental health sounds like a pretty compelling reason that somebody would

[00:07:21] say something that's not true but the fact that they kind of discarded that I'll be curious if

[00:07:26] they end up going back to it because again it's it's a better explanation but it's very intriguing

[00:07:32] that there's kind of this like keep away game going on with mental health in this case like oh

[00:07:37] that's it never mind that's not it and obviously McLeanland is still very much determined to get those

[00:07:44] records and if the defense essentially feels that like we really don't want him to get those records

[00:07:51] then they'll I imagine have to really be careful about how they talk about mental health and

[00:07:56] future filings kind of boxes them in now let's take a pin in that for a second and we're gonna

[00:08:02] get back to all of that but let's jump back a couple of weeks to February 26 2024 and on that

[00:08:11] date Richard Allen's defense team filed an X part A motion seeking payment for them to get

[00:08:17] the services of experts and those experts were not identified on the court docket so first of all

[00:08:25] let's talk about what X part A means when a public defender takes a case that's different from when

[00:08:33] a private defense attorney takes a case and when a private defense attorney takes the case

[00:08:39] they may hire all sorts of experts to explore all sorts of theories and to investigate all sorts

[00:08:48] of possibilities and maybe some of those theories will come out in court maybe they will talk to

[00:08:55] an expert and decide what this particular theory doesn't really fly and we're not going to use that

[00:09:02] but because they're using their own funds all of that is going on behind the scenes and the prosecution

[00:09:08] is not aware of it now once different is when it's a public defender they're paid for by the state

[00:09:15] and so when they're talking to experts and such they need to get approval for that from the judge

[00:09:23] now you don't want to penalize someone for not having the money to go out and privately hire their own

[00:09:29] experts just because the fact that a person isn't rich doesn't mean that the prosecution should get

[00:09:37] a glimpse at their defense strategy and that's why you have these X part A things which basically

[00:09:43] means that the defense can file a motion that the judge sees but the prosecutor doesn't see

[00:09:49] and in these motions they may say well we're going to we're talking to such and such an expert

[00:09:54] who knows all about this particular area that we think may be pertinent we need court approval

[00:10:00] to get funds for them and you don't want the prosecutor to know that that might tip your hand

[00:10:06] to the other side about what sorts of defenses you are considering so if Anya is charged with

[00:10:17] stealing 10 boxes of cereal thank you for the continuity nod thank you Anya's charged

[00:10:22] with stealing 10 boxes of cereal from the grocery store and her defense team gets permission

[00:10:31] from the judge to consultant expert who specializes in the defense that women who are married

[00:10:39] to lawyer slash podcasters are driven so crazy with stress they can't help but create petty thefts

[00:10:46] that would be if the prosecutor knew about that the prosecutor would say oh this is the strategy

[00:10:50] they're going to use maybe I can talk to other witnesses or I can talk to this expert and discredit

[00:10:57] this you're giving the prosecutor an advantage that wouldn't have it in normal situation or wouldn't

[00:11:03] it be like if they talk to an expert who's supposed to say that but then they didn't call them as a

[00:11:08] witness then the prosecutor would like I want to go talk to that cereal expert because obviously

[00:11:14] that didn't go well there's nothing obviously at some point the defense is going to have to turn over

[00:11:19] a list of everybody who's going to actually testify in the trial they don't have to turn over a list

[00:11:25] of everyone they've talked to so if the prosecutor knows oh they talk to this witness who's

[00:11:31] an expert in this subject and they're not using this person as a witness maybe that's an area

[00:11:36] vulnerability that I should explore so for all of these reasons we have these ex parte filings

[00:11:44] and communications that are done outside the purview of the prosecution so back on February 26

[00:11:53] there was this entry in the docket that the defense had filed a motion about expert witnesses

[00:12:01] and as we've explained here it didn't specify who those witnesses were what their specialty was

[00:12:10] or anything of that because that is something that was supposed to be kept secret at least that's

[00:12:15] typically what occurs and so I mentioned all of that because Nick McLean well why don't we read a

[00:12:24] little bit of this file? Sure the defense has now filed a verified ex parte motion for hearing

[00:12:32] on funding for expert services within that motion the defense asked the court to approve funding

[00:12:38] for Dr. Polly Westcott a clinical psychologist and for a confession expert the defense states

[00:12:45] the conclusion to be drawn from this is that there is a reasonable basis upon which to inquire into

[00:12:52] the impact of the accused confinement on his mental state this can only be done by an expert in the

[00:12:59] field of the impacts of solitary confinement on accused individuals it is clear from the statement

[00:13:06] and the other affirmations made in the motion that the defense intends to challenge the multiple

[00:13:11] confessions that the defendant has made while incarcerated further it is clear that the defense

[00:13:17] intends to make the defendant's mental health an issue in this matter in order to address this

[00:13:22] the state needs to review the defendant's mental health records and have an opportunity to consult

[00:13:27] its own expert so what it appears that prosecutor Nick McLean had access to this ex parte motion

[00:13:42] and he is quoting from it he's naming the expert they wanted to use and discussing why they wanted

[00:13:49] to use this expert and so that raises some interesting questions I presume there's good answers for

[00:13:58] them but how did Nick McLean get access to this ex parte motion yeah I'd be curious from hearing

[00:14:07] from attorneys who could shed some light on this is this really weird can we not figure this out

[00:14:12] or would there be reasons that one side you know the state could see an ex parte filing and not be okay

[00:14:19] to roll with it so I don't know it seems definitely not what we would expect with an ex parte filing

[00:14:27] but maybe there's something we're missing here because again typically the whole point of going

[00:14:32] through the motions of filing something ex parte is because there's stuff in here we don't want

[00:14:38] the other side to see and make Nick McLean saw it yeah so again if you might have any insight on

[00:14:45] this let us know because we're really confused mysteries are the heart of everything we do here on

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[00:16:54] at britbox dot com yeah it's peculiar i i know certainly there are some defense attorneys

[00:17:00] who've already made some public statements that they find this very unusual and strange i wonder

[00:17:05] what prosecutors think we'd really be interested in getting the full range yeah as there's some way

[00:17:09] around x part a where you could do something like this and say hey you know we know what you're

[00:17:14] asking for and here's why that means that we need something in return um i don't know it's just

[00:17:20] very odd and also fascinating that the defense is pivoting back to mental health discussions although

[00:17:27] in fairness it seems like from at least what we're reading into this filing it seems like

[00:17:34] they're trying to thread the needle in a very limited capacity not necessarily speaking to

[00:17:42] you know that the whole of his mental health but maybe just specifically the element of solitary

[00:17:48] confinement things like that so they're they're trying to be a little bit specific about it i suppose

[00:17:52] yeah and also in fairness to the defense we don't know what the contents of this x part a motion

[00:18:00] is we don't know if they intend to call these people as witnesses in the trial or if they're just

[00:18:08] asking the court to pay them for services already rendered it's entirely possible they talk to

[00:18:14] this expert and this expert has stuff that's really pertinent to the case that they want to use

[00:18:19] it's also possible they hired this person talked with her and found out that oh what she says

[00:18:25] isn't really helpful to us we don't intend to use her we don't know we don't know also it's possible

[00:18:30] that some of the experts could speak to you know the idea of somebody being scared into confessing

[00:18:36] by coercion and that is going to be what their topic is less mental health being an internal factor

[00:18:44] and more of an external force saying we're odinous we're going to kill your family confess

[00:18:50] and so there's also been another filing in the case that i think it's worth mentioning at least

[00:18:56] briefly this comes from David Hennessey who of course is representing attorneys Brad Rosie and Andrew

[00:19:04] Baldwin in the contempt hearing which is scheduled for March 18th previously the judge had issued a

[00:19:13] ruling that the defense needed to turn over all exhibits in such they intended to use in the hearing

[00:19:21] on March 7th 2024 and in this motion they're asking for an extension of that time for another week

[00:19:30] and the reason they are saying that is there's actually a couple of reasons one is that

[00:19:37] the prosecutor they're not they're not casting dispersions on Nick McLean for this for

[00:19:42] their saying that for whatever reason there's some stuff that we need from Nick McLean and he hasn't

[00:19:47] gotten to us yet we expect to get that from him relatively soon but if he gives us these things

[00:19:53] we may see something in them which may inspire us to create a new exhibit or something to highlight

[00:20:00] and so we want time for that and then there is also an interesting paragraph in this document

[00:20:06] that i think is worth quoting in fall on february 29th 2024 in march 1st 2024 the defense was

[00:20:16] contacted by two separate individuals who claimed to have documents pertinent to leaks

[00:20:22] despite diligent efforts the defense has not yet obtained these documents to be able to

[00:20:26] assess their credibility and reliability upon doing so the defense may have additional exhibits

[00:20:32] which of course will be provided to the state as all others have been

[00:20:37] so i think one thing that jumps out at me from that is they say that these documents are

[00:20:43] pertinent to leaks they're not specifying that these documents are pertinent to the specific leaks

[00:20:50] under discussion in this case in other words this may or may not apply to the leak of crime scene

[00:20:57] photos and defense strategy it may apply to something else altogether and reading between the lines

[00:21:04] david hennsey is not going to present here's other evidence of andrew baldwin leaking this is

[00:21:08] going to be coming from either law enforcement or the prosecutor's office i would imagine

[00:21:13] and certainly there are always rumors swirling about in the delt by online community really oh man

[00:21:21] i didn't know that was a hallmark of that community so it would be interesting to see what these

[00:21:28] documents are if it's some of the stuff that's been spreading the rumors that have been spreading

[00:21:34] or if it's something else altogether or it is possible that the defense will get these documents

[00:21:39] and say well there's nothing here so this may be a little time we hear of it we may hear a lot

[00:21:43] more from it again hard to assess without knowing what it is but if they're not able to get the

[00:21:48] documents in a timely fashion one questions you know what exactly is this because usually if

[00:21:54] somebody's coming forward with some some good stuff then there's not really a problem with exchange

[00:22:01] so it's frustrating to keep on saying we don't know but we don't know

[00:22:05] yeah we'd rather tell you guys we don't know something then to be like yeah this is definitely

[00:22:09] this and then you know be totally wrong and misleading you so you know delf i is one of those

[00:22:14] things we're all just kind of you know on this roll of coaster together and we're sort of trying

[00:22:19] to pick out what's what's blurring past our eyes as we're going on it so that's kind of kind of how

[00:22:24] it is so let's move on next case we're going to talk about involves a man named William Franklin

[00:22:31] our sources for this are NBC 10 and the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as court documents

[00:22:39] as well as court documents this this as I say this case involves a man named William Franklin

[00:22:44] and actually involves a murder that took place all of the way back in October of 1976 when a man

[00:22:56] named Joseph Hollis was shot in a pool hall during a meeting between two drugs syndicates and there

[00:23:07] was a witness to that event named a manual clayette I'm guessing on that pronunciation apologies

[00:23:14] if it's incorrect and in exchange for getting lenient treatment from the prosecution he provided

[00:23:20] testimony indicating that the man responsible for the murder was this William Franklin and so

[00:23:29] Franklin ended up being convicted of this crime back in 1980 Mr. Clayette made a statement on video

[00:23:40] before he died in 2020 where he claims that he was persuaded to take this deal because police were

[00:23:51] offering him all sorts of inducements including the opportunity to have sex with his girlfriend

[00:23:58] and so a judge has now said that these things cast so much doubt on Clayette's testimony

[00:24:07] that I'm going to vacate the conviction Franklin still has a murder charge against him but he's

[00:24:14] been released from prison and is now up to the district attorney to decide if they want to have

[00:24:21] a new trial in this case but meanwhile the prosecutor in in Philadelphia is saying wait a minute

[00:24:29] we shouldn't be putting so much stock in Clayette's recantation of his testimony it was not done

[00:24:37] under oath he didn't face any perjury charges for it he didn't come into court and face cross

[00:24:46] examination and basically he just read a statement pretty much word for word that was written for him

[00:24:53] by a defense attorney so it's very difficult for us to look at this and and just accept it blindly

[00:25:00] that his testimony is untrue and so the conviction should be reinstated I'm no fancy lawyer

[00:25:08] but it seems like the recantation has a lot of red flags there and I'm kind of shocked

[00:25:13] that a judge would put so much weight on it it does have a lot of red flags if you don't come in

[00:25:19] and face cross examination it's really tough to evaluate it the man is deceased we don't know

[00:25:26] what kind of health he was in but if he's just reading a statement given to him by a defense attorney

[00:25:33] how confident can we be that that statement is true not confident at all should we be concerned

[00:25:41] that maybe he was offered inducements to give this that's what I was going to say I mean listen I'm

[00:25:46] all about I'm all about the scrutiny of these older cases where there could have been

[00:25:51] policemen's conduct or evidence you know that that's not as slam dunk as was portrayed as being

[00:25:58] looked at I just don't know if that's I'm I just think I don't know the judge's decision on

[00:26:05] that is pretty baffling I think a lot of this would carry a lot more weight had been done differently

[00:26:11] and under oath and perhaps in his own words he described what happened so I don't know I'm not

[00:26:17] seeing necessarily that what he he's lying during the recantation it just seems really hard to

[00:26:24] assess throwing out an entire case based on this yeah I'd really like to see more information

[00:26:32] obviously I don't want it as it meant to be in prison no no one wants that but I just think a lot

[00:26:40] of these claims should be given a lot more scrutiny than they often seem to be yeah I think

[00:26:46] that there can be a real you know maybe in some cases there can be a real rush to

[00:26:52] side with the prosecutor and police and then in other cases there can be a real rush to

[00:26:57] you know get them that get a bunch of nice headlines about you know wrongful convictions being

[00:27:02] vacated I think that's also a competing impulse that's not always in the service of justice

[00:27:09] that's just my opinion I think like I don't know the judge judge is to be very skeptical of everybody

[00:27:15] and this doesn't really fly with that was there other stuff that was was a basically the

[00:27:21] recantation that did the recantation seems to have carried the most weight I really love our criminal

[00:27:28] justice system I believe the way to get true truth is by having both sides present their best case

[00:27:34] have witnesses cross examined and such and so it's troubling to me that this didn't happen here

[00:27:40] and the witness just seemed to be quoting from script right to him by defense attorney

[00:27:45] and he he never gave that under oath one thing I also feel this is maybe just my hat take but

[00:27:52] like with older cases especially non high-profile older cases but sometimes high-profile ones as well

[00:27:57] there's almost like this attitude of like well we can do whatever because like the families are

[00:28:01] dead of the victims or like it's not going to get that much attention I don't know like they

[00:28:05] almost is like no one's watching don't worry about it we can do whatever we want that's something

[00:28:10] I feel like I don't know if that's in I don't think that's necessarily a malicious impulse it's just

[00:28:15] you know maybe just a kind of the reality that you know this not could be that much outcry oftentimes

[00:28:23] I'm also interested in issues such as sentencing disparities this man has been incarcerated for

[00:28:28] 44 years for this murder is it typical for people who have been convicted of murder in the

[00:28:33] Philadelphia area to receive such long sentences is there something unusual about this case I'm

[00:28:38] also interested in that well it's his behavior like in prison also that's also a good question yeah

[00:28:44] so this definitely this is definitely some interesting stuff to impact there and again it's not

[00:28:50] really even commenting on guilt or innocence at this point it's like how is the system functioning

[00:28:56] as it functioning as it should so for this next case we need to go down to Georgia for our sources

[00:29:03] for this we relied on reporting done by 13 WM AZ as well as WGXA box five Atlanta my NBC 15

[00:29:16] as well as a rap music video on YouTube so on July six there's a reason for that yeah that's the

[00:29:23] reason obviously our standards aren't slipping that badly we're just gonna we're gonna give you the

[00:29:30] crime as filtered through a Taylor Swift music video now this it actually comes comes up in evidence and

[00:29:37] an interesting way so on July 6 2019 in Warner Robbins Georgia there was a rap concert at club

[00:29:46] boss one rapper who was there was named his rap name is no cap and his real name is Kobe Vidal

[00:29:55] Crawford Jr. And he's from Mobile Alabama and he's an he's an up-and-coming rapper so

[00:30:02] unfortunately things did not go well at club boss there was some kind of confrontation between

[00:30:10] different people and the club security out in front at a kind of like the breezeway that confrontation

[00:30:18] involved a 23 year old man named Morgan Baker from Alabama he's part of no caps posse and

[00:30:27] he and another unidentified person have a scuffle between security and them then they what the

[00:30:35] state alleges is that they went back to a van in the parking lot got firearms went back and started

[00:30:40] shooting a witness even saw Baker firing a gun unfortunately those bullets did hit somebody a man

[00:30:49] named to Marco head he was a bouncer for the club and he was killed he was 39 years old when he

[00:30:56] was killed and unfortunately according to 13 WAMZ family told them that heads relative had recently

[00:31:03] also died at a shooting at some apartments so the family was going through a lot at that point

[00:31:08] on November 13 2019 Baker was arrested and extradited to Houston County in Georgia there was

[00:31:16] ultimately a trial in 2022 the trial involved witness testimony as well as the prosecution showed

[00:31:27] the jury a clip from a no cap music video for his song ghetto angels so in the ghetto angels

[00:31:36] music video Baker can be seen holding and waving about a semi automatic pistol and i'll explain

[00:31:45] what exactly can be seen in this video at a moment but the jury saw that

[00:31:50] and they deliberated for an hour and then found him guilty of murder and several other charges I believe

[00:31:56] so what happened recently this nitlite is update is that the murder conviction the conviction of

[00:32:02] Baker has been overturned because the Georgia Supreme Court felt that the jury should not have

[00:32:11] been shown that rap video it didn't have anything to do with the crime and it may have really biased

[00:32:17] them so they've thrown out the conviction now it's up to the prosecutor to bring charges again

[00:32:22] and redo redo everything but i guess first of all there's been a lot of discussion about rap

[00:32:27] lyrics typically in this situation or rap music video but rap lyrics being used in cases

[00:32:34] what do you think about that uh it makes me uncomfortable i i'm not i'm sure this won't come

[00:32:42] as a shock to our listeners i don't really listen to a lot of rap songs but i certainly enjoy

[00:32:50] music and lyrics and storytelling and i think it would be a mistake for for instance

[00:33:00] even sondheim wrote a terrific musical about presidential assassins some of the songs are from

[00:33:06] the point of view of assassins and it would be a mistake to take those lyrics and say oh this proves

[00:33:15] Stephen sondheim wants to kill presidents get him there's lyrics in some of the songs there from

[00:33:22] the point of view of john wilkes booth where racist uh lyrics and ideas are expressed

[00:33:30] and clearly that those don't reflect Stephen sondheim's uh views or opinions they represent

[00:33:36] the views and opinions of the character he is writing the lyrics about and so

[00:33:44] the creation of rap lyrics is a work of imagination and it shouldn't be read as in my opinion

[00:33:53] as confessions or is sworn testimony what do you think yeah i tend to agree it given you know

[00:33:59] rap is is tied to the african-american community it's tied to the black community

[00:34:04] it seems a bit like why are we holding rap to that standard i mean if you look at rock and roll right

[00:34:09] which you know like maybe isn't as culturally dominant as it once was but if you look at

[00:34:16] the heyday of rock and roll some of the lyrics there can be pretty sexual right can be pretty

[00:34:21] raunchy talk about you know getting getting with ladies or whatever and i mean nobody would like

[00:34:29] we didn't have people necessarily like using that as like oh you know you wrote that or you like

[00:34:34] that so therefore you must be guilty of like some sort of sexual crime right sexual assault and

[00:34:39] that would that would seem ludicrous to most people and this rap video was filmed in some date prior to

[00:34:48] the murder so there's there's no connection between it other than at some point prior to the

[00:34:55] murder he held a gun and was acting tough with it in a video where are the guys were acting tough

[00:35:02] with it that's correct and that's part of that's part of rap videos sometimes it's

[00:35:07] her an element of rap videos people want to look tough and random shwepins it doesn't mean

[00:35:12] that that is what their real lives are yeah and i'm certainly not saying the baker is innocent it seems

[00:35:18] like witnesses had him holding a gun shooting i mean that's pretty bad i just don't think you know

[00:35:23] you should be including stuff that's prejudicial to a jury even if somebody you know likely did

[00:35:30] something because again as you said it's it's not it's not real life it's a music video um i i

[00:35:36] mean to me like when it comes to lyrics when it comes to writings if if maybe in some very specific

[00:35:44] cases that the details of the crime really are reflected in something to the point where you're like

[00:35:50] well how would this person even know this if they weren't involved maybe there's some room there for

[00:35:58] including them but i think just in general when it's being almost feels like it's being used to be

[00:36:06] like look this guy's inherently violent because he's holding a gun in a rap video i mean i don't know

[00:36:13] like that people post pictures of themselves holding guns on facebook and stuff i mean it's kind

[00:36:18] of maybe it's a machismo thing but it's not evidence that a person committed a specific crime

[00:36:26] i mean again unless you're holding the literal murder weapon and you can prove that i don't really

[00:36:31] know how it's super relevant yeah if an actor like a Harrison Ford holds a gun in a movie

[00:36:38] that wouldn't be used in a hypothetical trial against an actor

[00:36:43] in my hypothetical rap music video that i'm definitely not making if i'm like sitting on a throne

[00:36:50] and like there's a bunch of cereal boxes piled up around me you know and then i'm accused of

[00:36:55] stealing cereal to use the classic example you know i i don't really see like you know because maybe

[00:37:00] i bought all those legally you know not i mean like unless you can prove that those specific boxes

[00:37:05] were stolen why should that have anything to do it's probably just you in your mind

[00:37:10] think that all this cereal makes me look really tough yeah i look pretty cool

[00:37:18] yeah and so you know if i'm if i'm doing that like i don't again like i can understand why

[00:37:24] that's interesting to prosecutors wow this woman is obsessed with cereal but there's a difference

[00:37:30] between being interesting and being relevant enough and fair enough to include in a trial

[00:37:38] there's a there's a high bar that you have to clear to have stuff be in a trial

[00:37:43] and punishing people for creative works and rap is a creative work punishing people for creative works

[00:37:52] makes me uncomfortable yeah because again like you can have an artistic persona i mean in this case

[00:37:58] this is not the rapper this is a guy part of the rappers entourage who's just in the video so

[00:38:03] it's not even like his vision he's just a guy hanging out it seems it seems problematic and

[00:38:10] i feel like i i many years ago this is how old i am uh i was in the background of a scene from

[00:38:18] a league of their own and you would somebody try to use outtakes from that to show that i have an

[00:38:24] unhealthy interest in female baseball oh Kevin see really happy this particular play what does that

[00:38:31] mean it probably means i was doing whatever the director told the crowd to do yeah that's another

[00:38:37] really good point this guy is not even the creative visionary behind this he's a person who works for

[00:38:44] a rapper who had a vision for a music video seemingly or maybe the director did i don't know

[00:38:49] and they did that and and whatever it's it's way too much of a stretch to to really go with that

[00:38:56] in a court setting and again there has to be a high standard of what you present in court

[00:39:01] he can't just nest as like this feels very prejudicial because it's just like look he's waving

[00:39:05] a gun isn't that scary don't you think he probably shot somebody yeah go go with the evidence go

[00:39:11] with go with the concrete things that are proving that he did it at the scene because you know otherwise

[00:39:18] it just i don't know gets into some very uncomfortable territory for me especially again it feels like

[00:39:24] targeted against the African-American community in a way that's like are we holding any other

[00:39:30] musical genre to the standard so just to give you a sense of the the no cap music video forgetto

[00:39:35] angels you see Baker from about five seconds into about ten seconds and he's wearing a black hoodie

[00:39:42] which has the words the resurgence and loyalty is love on it he's kind of sticking at his tongue

[00:39:48] like he's concentrating his eyes are half closed and he holds up in his right hand a semi-automatic

[00:39:54] pistol blocking part of his face with that his trigger finger is against the barrel of the gun

[00:39:59] and then he shakes it at the camera sort of like he's shooting the videos viewers

[00:40:04] then later on he shows up and a bunch of people are holding guns so it's not just him he's not

[00:40:11] the only gun guy but the other kind of bizarre twist to this music video is that actually the lyrics

[00:40:17] of the actual rap seem to be alluding to the murder of two men 27 year old willicious willy

[00:40:25] mothat and 28 year old Carlos Cunningham who were both killed in 2019 in mobile alabama during a

[00:40:32] confrontation over a dice game and so no cap is essentially mourning his friends you can see their

[00:40:39] posters you know he's basically saying I miss my friends who are killed with gun violence

[00:40:45] so it is a bit ironic that there are guns in the video but it also is kind of I don't know

[00:40:50] it's like the spiral of gun violence because I mean obviously those two young men shouldn't have

[00:40:54] this was over a $40 game like this was over nothing that these guys lost their lives so he's

[00:41:00] mourning them they are holding guns that is about but ironic but it also it does show you that you

[00:41:06] know unfortunately this gun violence is a scourge and uh I just thought that was interesting to

[00:41:13] point out because I was like wait what are those names that they're kind of like standing near these

[00:41:17] posters for and it looks it up and it was another murder so unfortunate but interesting well with all

[00:41:23] of that said I can tell you're interested in eager to get back to your throne of cereal I'm actually

[00:41:31] literally going to eat a bowl of corn flakes after we are done with this so you're not wrong

[00:41:35] you're not wrong you're making fun of me but you're correct I know I'm correct I live with you I

[00:41:42] see the furniture you created for yourself all the cereal themes why did this become a thing

[00:41:53] oh my gosh we're so silly but yeah no I'm definitely gonna eat some corn flakes but yeah this is

[00:41:59] interesting interesting array of cases we talked about today hopefully hopefully between all

[00:42:05] the bizarre cereal anthology of my cereal killing crimes hopefully hopefully everyone was

[00:42:12] interested but I do really want corn flakes right now thanks so much for listening to the murder sheet

[00:42:20] if you have a tip concerning one of the cases we cover please email us at murder sheet at gmail.com

[00:42:27] if you have actionable information about an unsolved crime please report it to the appropriate

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[00:42:52] www.bimiacafi.com slash murder sheet we very much appreciate any support special thanks to

[00:43:02] Kevin Tyler Greenley who composed the music for the murder sheet and who you can find on the web

[00:43:07] at kevantig.com if you're looking to talk with other listeners about a case we've covered

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