48 Hours - The Killing of Cowboy Ray Green

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

Dani Green claimed the family dog killed her ex-husband, Ray, but when police arrived at the home there was no sign of man or dog. Dani told police they could search anywhere on the grounds — except for a large toolbox. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca What is cowboy action shooting? Cowboy action shooting is a shooting discipline based on the guns of the Old West. The days of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. We dress, for the most part, in period-accurate clothing. Spurs and chaps. It's full competition, shooting steel targets with lead bullets. Sounds like a blast. It is literally a blast every time.

These are some very competitive shooters. Some top shooters in the world. Now everyone has an alias, right? Correct. A cowboy name. My name is George Mann and my alias in cowboy action shooting is Angus McNasty. My alias is High Cotton Kitty. Pony James. Sassy Hammer.

Ray was known as Doc R. Green. And how about Dani? What was her name? Dani Oakley. She was Dani Oakley. Like Annie Oakley? Yeah, like Annie Oakley. I taught them how to do cowboy action shooting. Danny was more proficient, more driven and focused. Ray, he was there just for the fun. Ray was funny. You looked at him and you see cowboy.

Put him on your horse's reins, right? Yeah. She was just the all-American type cowgirl, and she had the long pigtails. They seemed like, to me, the perfect couple, but you never know what's going on in a relationship. There was problems in the marriage, especially financial issues. They had money, and then they lost everything.

The sheriff's department had received a call to investigate a complaint, and it was in regard to the residents of ray green and danielle green danny said that her dog killed ray we drove back through the barns and as i got closer to the trailer, I observed multiple police cars, different agencies. There were probably 15 guys that were out moving about the property. And what were they doing? They were looking for Ray Green. She was sitting in a lawn chair. She said she had given consent to search for Ray, and that she did not know where he was.

She said, you can search anywhere you want, except for that box. Thank you. On May 28, 2014, police were called to this remote piece of property in Dillsboro, Indiana, the home of Danny and Ray Green. I need to get some information on my son. The Sheriff's Department had received a call from Ray's 84-year-old mother, Betty. The police department had received a call from Ray's 84-year-old mother, Betty. My daughter-in-law called this morning and said he was killed yesterday by a German shepherd dog. The dog jumped up and grabbed his throat. Danny had called other family and friends too, saying it was Jazzy, the couple's own pet, who had attacked Ray.

Police drove out to check, but when they arrived, neither Ray nor Jazzy could be seen. And they say Danny seemed to be just going about her day. She's interested in feeding her horses and just engaged in conversation like nothing else is going on. Prosecutor Aaron Negengard says Danny then gave an entirely different story, saying Ray, who sometimes worked as a truck driver, was out on the road. The problem with that, there was a big truck in the property. The officers were suspicious that something was up. So the officers pinged his phone, and his phone came back to that piece of property. And there was this. That padlocked toolbox that piece of property. And there was this.

That padlocked toolbox sitting on the property. Danny refused to let anyone open it, so authorities set off to get a search warrant. My grandmother had called me at work and told me that Danielle had said that the dog killed him. Tracy Abbott is Ray's daughter with his first wife, Maggie. Animals like him. How can a dog kill him?

Tracy remembers her father's special way with all kinds of animals growing up on their 200-acre San Antonio ranch. My dad was a real cowboy. Ray began his career riding bulls and bareback Broncos. He served two tours in Vietnam, but it was the simple country life where he felt most at home. He always wore his cowboy hat and boots, never went anywhere without them. Ray was a renowned horse breeder and trainer.

Had he developed a successful business? Yes, he did. We had like 70-something horses. Friends like Dave Warr remember Ray as a real straight shooter. When you shook his hand, you knew you were shaking a man's hand. He was very powerful and very strong. Bob Stevens, another friend of Ray's, remembers a time when Ray captured a 12-foot alligator with his own two hands. We contacted animal control. They set up traps and this gator was so big it would break the traps. Ray trapped it himself and put it in the barn.

the traps. Ray trapped it himself and put it in the barn. Tracy says her parents, Ray and Maggie, had a loving relationship. They were best friends. They'd known each other. My mom was six and he was 11. We were a close-knit family. But that all ended in May of 2002 when Maggie was killed in a bridge collapse in Oklahoma. She was on her way home from a barrel race with her horses. A barge slammed into a bridge along Interstate 40, punching nearly a dozen vehicles 75 feet into the water among the dead horse trainer Maggie Green. Ray, who had called Maggie his rose, was left devastated. He kept saying, I miss my rose. I miss my rose. His light went out. A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the victims. As a result, the Green family received a large sum of money. There was a pretty big settlement that he had gotten, a little over a million dollars.

When did Danielle come into your father's life? Abruptly. She came in the picture maybe two months after my mother died. Danielle, who went by Danny, was a longtime client of Ray's. A skilled horsewoman herself, Danny hired Ray back in 1996 to train her horses. Soon after Maggie's death, Tracy says, a newly divorced Danny started hanging around the ranch every day. Ray didn't chase her. She came into Ray's life and, you know, said the things that Ray wanted to hear. So that blossomed into a relationship. Danny, 22 years younger than Ray, seemed to provide the companionship he needed after losing his wife and helped him move on.

They took a vacation and came back married. I was happy that he was happy. But Tracy was not happy with Danny. She would come out wearing my mother's cowboy hats and her nice cowboy boots and some of my mom's jewelry. After Dani solidified her place in Ray's life, she set her sights on her equestrian dreams. Her goal in life was to get into the Olympics in Dersage. So she did some research and ground zero for Dersage in the Olympics was for Palm Beach County. The newlyweds decided to move to Florida using the million-dollar settlement from Maggie's death. This was the property owned by Ray and

Danielle Green. They owned this five-acre lot and the five-acre lot to the east of us. The house was near the stables where Danny could train. The U.S. trials for the Olympics were held in Deer Run, and she wanted to be a part of that. And was she talented? She was very talented. Ray built her a workout room in the house that she'd get up at 5 o'clock and she'd spend all day just doing horse trainings. She would be on the horses from sunup to sundown.

And when she wasn't in the saddle, they discovered that fun and unusual hobby. After Danny and Ray got married and moved here to Florida, they got interested in cowboy action shooting. Part target competition, part costume fun, they would travel to events like this one. Howdy, y'all having a good morning? Yeah!

All right, start off with a pledge. Don Owen runs the event. I pledge allegiance to the flag. We have competitors from every walks of life. We have attorneys, we have surgeons, we have electricians. The people are what makes it. Keep going! We have electricians. The people are what makes it. Danny Oakley and Doc R. Green were both beloved here.

They were a huge part of the family, an amazing cowboy. Great part of our family. These big matches are like a reunion. It's fun to see everybody again and catch up. Friends Karen and Jerry Eau Claire say Danny was a natural. What about your horse's race, right? Yeah. And she quickly became the top shooter at the club. She really could handle a gun.

Oh, yeah. At the time, I was the top shooter of the club, and she just soared right by me. She wanted to win. Life in Florida seemed like a winning proposition for both Danny and Ray. But that was about to change. This is like a little piece of heaven. It's quiet, surrounded by woods. Bob Stevens says Danny and Ray's neighborhood near West Palm Beach had become a perfect refuge when they arrived in 2004. All these houses were designed so you couldn't see a neighbor's house. It has 22 miles of horse trails that don't intersect with any roads.

After the Dow dropped 18% last week and the S&P 500... But the dream died in 2008 when the economy collapsed. It was just devastating for Ray. The horsing market fell apart, corsage fell apart. They were using the second mortgage to pay the first mortgage. And it was just a disaster. For a while, Danny and Ray struggled to keep up their lifestyle, still attending their cowboy action shooting matches,

but now trying to make a bit of money on the side, off the livestock they kept at the ranch. The chickens would lay eggs, and she would bring eggs for everybody. People would buy the eggs. Danny and Ray caught a break when they were hired by their own neighborhood to become landscapers. Had the contract to take care of the right-of-ways, mow the grass, take care of the ditches.

Did you get any sense that Danny felt like that was a real step down in their lives, that he's now cutting grass? I don't think so. I don't think she was like that. She was not materialistic. She was not status-driven. Ray's daughter, Tracy, disagrees. I believe that the only reason why she wanted to marry

my father was for his money. Tracy didn't know her father had lost all his money. After he moved to Florida, Tracy mysteriously couldn't reach him. He would ask me, Tracy mysteriously couldn't reach him. He would ask me, how come you never call me? I miss you. Turns out Ray and Danny shared a single cell phone, and Danny blocked Tracy's number. I got this message saying, this phone is no longer taking calls from this number.

She had blocked my emails and letters. I sent him a certified Christmas card with pictures of his grandbabies. And it came back denied. Why would she do that? That seems cruel. Very cruel. It really broke my heart not to have my father in my life anymore. But that was her way of keeping all the money to herself. The money,

now all gone. The million dollar settlement Ray received after Tracy's mother was killed in that bridge collapse. To lose my mother the way I did

and then now being separated from my father, it was very heartbreaking. Heartbreak spilled over to Dani's side of the family as well. While she'd achieved some success on the local horse show scene, her Olympic dreams remained elusive. Then in 2012, Dani received devastating news from her Indiana family home. Both of her parents were terminally ill. They both had cancer at the same time.

Yes. I think she felt that that was her place to go up and take care of them. And besides, there was no place for them down here anymore. So Danny and Ray sold their Florida property at a big loss. With the landscaping contract their only source of income, Ray stayed behind, mowing grass and living with a friend. Dave Warr remembers the day Danny headed north. Ray had asked a couple of his friends to come over and help them load some of the big items out of their house into a moving van. He had misplaced the box that had his personal items in it. Dave says Ray asked Danny if she'd seen the box. And she went off on him, berating him, belittling him in front of everybody.

I made the comment to my friend, this comment haunts me to this day. It wouldn't surprise me if she doesn't kill him one day. Dave says Ray's paychecks got sent directly to Danny back home in Indiana. I've seen him literally live off of cold cereal. He would make a meal out of bread and water if he had to because he had no money to live. There was one bright spot during this troubled time. Tracy was able to reestablish a relationship with her father, who at last got his own cell phone.

We finally got to talk almost every day. We were able to finally have a relationship again. Bob Stevens gave Ray a special gift, an airplane ticket and the chance to reconnect with his family in Texas. I gave him the trip on his birthday and he flew out there and he had a great time with his daughter and granddaughters. I felt like I could not let him go. I just would hug him forever in happy tears, happy tears. I was so glad to see him.

In 2013, both of Danny's parents passed away and Ray's landscaping contract expired. Danny was poised to come into an inheritance. The parents owned 300 acres up in a mountain. There was three children. They were each going to get 100 acres. It had a farmhouse on it that needed to be renovated. So Ray moved to Indiana and joined Danny,

living in a trailer on the large property. She was in control anytime she's around my father, so moving back to be with her, I felt I was never going to hear from him again. Danny planned on running the property as a horse farm. Ray found work as well. Ray decided to get his trucker's license so they would have a form of steady income. By the end of 2013, Ray and Danny were together again.

But they were about to break apart, at least on paper. He qualified for social security with his first wife, who died in the bridge accident. Ray would be able to collect social security as Maggie's widower, but he'd have to divorce Danny to do it. So they got divorced for more income. Not that he didn't want to be with his wife anymore, but to get social security money. Yes. In the spring of 2014, Ray and Danny had started a new chapter together in Indiana. But it all ended with that shocking message to family and friends. Danny said that her dog killed Ray. In May 2014, Ray Green's mother, Betty,

made that call to an Indiana Sheriff's Department near Dillsboro, saying she'd heard the strangest story from Danny. The dog killed my son yesterday, a German Shepherd dog. Why would she call me with such a story? It just didn't happen. When police arrived, neither Ray nor Jazzy could be found.

That set off some red flags. State detectives were called in after local police concluded there was something not quite right with this remote Indiana property. What started out as a missing person wellness check

would soon become something far worse. As an all-out search got underway, detectives say Dani cooperated fully, except for that one thing. She said, you can search anywhere you want, except for that box. That box being this box. One of those big toolboxes that you put in the back of a truck.

Large, made of metal, sitting several yards away from the entrance to Ray and Danny's trailer. She said it was Ray's box and she couldn't give consent for anyone to look at it. It had a padlock on it, but it wasn't completely closed on one end. And there were flies, and then there was an odor of decay. Within hours, Baxter and Tressler obtained a search warrant for the box. When it was opened, Ray green was found dead inside it detectives returned to danny telling her they were done with their search and when you told her we found him how does she react she really had no reaction she was like okay that's when detectives say

danny's story of what happened to Ray changed yet again. Now saying she'd been forced to shoot Ray dead two days before in self-defense. She began to explain that there were instances of abuse, that this had began in Florida, wound up here. She kind of quickly glossed over the actual shooting of Ray and went right to why she had to do it. The detectives recorded an interview with Danny on the property. She told them Ray had been physically abusive for years and tried to force sex on her several times in the days leading up to the shooting. He walked around naked, slept naked, walked around naked all the time. He's pulling me to him, he's like, let's go lay down. He's trying to force himself on me. I don't want

this, but I don't know what to do. She claimed Ray retaliated each time she refused him. He'd come up behind me and put his arm around my neck and he was squeezing me incredibly hard. I couldn't breathe. Danny told the detective she slept on the living room couch alone. That led to another confrontation. He came in and he laid right on top of me. He had his forearm pressed against my neck, pushing on me. And I was like, what are you doing? I'm kind of gasping for air. And he's like, I just wanted to hug you. You don't hug people with your arm in their throat like that. Danny said it all led up to a fatal clash early on Monday, May 26, Memorial Day. Three days later, she went on tape with investigators

offering a unique demonstration in a calm, matter-of-fact way. I'm just going to play the role of Ray. So you've offered to place your body in various positions as she takes us through what happened? Yes. I had come in the bathroom. Danny says it was around 6 a.m. She just used the bathroom off the master bedroom

and was headed back to the couch. So I'm tiptoeing and I'm being really quiet. And Ray gets up from the bed and he says, I'm going to kill you. You need to die. Danny says Ray kept a loaded.38 on the nightstand. She says he started to reach for the gun. I grabbed the gun and I took his shoulder like this and I grabbed him like this and

tried to get him off balance and threw him on the bed like this. He fell more on his right side, actually totally on his right side. His legs were up and as I fell on him like this, my hand, I don't know if you can see, my hand was like this. At that moment, Danny shot Ray five times. He took five bullets to the torso. And I don't remember pulling the trigger. I don't remember pointing.

I don't remember hearing gunshots. Danny says the struggle continued. He started sliding down the bed, and his legs were here on this side of the bed, facing the wall. Sitting? Yes. And then I got really scared because he said,

I'm going to kill you, but he's whispering. That's when Danny says she ran to the back bedroom of the trailer and grabbed five more bullets. And I unloaded the gun and I said, what do I do? I'm scared to death. I'm in fear for my life. She returned to Ray, who she says somehow was still sitting upright at the foot of the bed.

And he started to kind of crouch over and lean towards me. So I put my hand out and he started to get up a little bit. But I don't remember pulling the trigger and hearing the gun, but I remember him going down. Danny says Ray collapsed on the bedroom floor, dead. Five bullets in the head. Five bullets in the head. She reenacted every step of that morning in the location where it occurred to the detectives. Delmar Weldon is Danny's attorney. That is incredibly compelling evidence that she was telling the truth.

The volcano that exploded on those early morning hours. That's what led to Raymond attacking Danielle, and that's what forced Danielle to use lethal force to protect herself. What do you make of Danny's account? Go inside the investigation of Ray Green's death at 48h hours.com. As a cowboy action shooter, Danny Green learned to quickly shoot five rounds, reload and shoot five more. A skill she put to use on that remote mountaintop in Indiana on May 26, 2014.

Detectives confirmed her father's death to Tracy, telling her Ray's body had been found in that toolbox. My heart was in pieces, and I just prayed that he didn't suffer. Eight days after the shooting, after the medical examiner ruled Ray Green's death a homicide, Danny was arrested and charged with his murder. An autopsy found that all ten bullets, the lower-velocity kind used in cowboy action shooter competitions, were still in his body. It was a shock. It blew me away. Because they're two good people in my mind.

Word of Ray's death quickly spread in the cowboy action shooter family, including Dave Warr. Ray was more than just a shooter. I mean, he was a personal friend of mine it was pretty devastating what state of mind she was in that to let her to that led her to do that who knows this man delmar weldon believes he knows weldon is dann Danny's defense attorney. Danielle was attacked. She was in danger. I'm in fear for my life. She had to act to save her own life. Unloaded, then reloaded. Weldon says it's clear from just looking at the tape. I remember seeing blood. Danny cooperated

with investigators. Did not appear to be breathing. Recreating what happened that morning, proving she had nothing to hide. Her description of what happened really never changed. It was very, very, very consistent, compelling evidence that she was telling the truth. And what about Danny's changing stories

of where Ray was? Saying the dog killed him, saying he's at work when clearly he's not. Having him in a box, feet away from their home. These actions were so ridiculous. They were not evidence of trying to hide the crime. They're evidence of trauma. But investigators disagreed. They combed through Danny's emails, texts, and Skype conversations and concluded she may have had another man in her sights, a well-heeled cowboy action shooter that she and Ray knew quite well. My name is George Mann, and my alias in cowboy action shooting is Angus McNasty

George Mann had known the Greens for years But when Danny moved to Indiana in 2012 to help take care of her sick parents She started a secret internet relationship with George Who was married at the time And one day out of the blue, I get an email she started a secret Internet relationship with George, who was married at the time. And one day, out of the blue, I get an email. He ended up calling, and we just kind of clicked off. Investigators learned that George and Danny communicated nearly every day,

sometimes multiple times a day. It wasn't X-rated explicit. It was sexually suggestive. Curled up by a fire under a blanket with nothing on underneath the blanket, sipping on hot chocolate. Can you top that? And you replied, nothing can top that. Wish I were there. Well, you have to understand, attractive women, I tend to be a little bit more flirtatious than I should be. Even though George had never traveled to Indiana to visit Danny, the investigative team wondered if the two had fallen in love online and whether that relationship played any role in Danny's decision to shoot her husband. Do you think a part of you was in love with Dani?

No. I mean, Dani is a nice person. In love with Dani? No, I don't think so. And I recall asking him specifically about his feelings for her, and he admitted in his own words that he loved her. That he loved Danielle?

Yes. he admitted in his own words that he loved her. That he loved Danielle. Yes. George says Danny dreamed of leaving Ray and raising and selling horses in Ocala, Florida. In early 2014, Danny and Ray divorced. Did you know that was coming? I knew that was coming, yes. She saw that as a way to get away from Ray eventually. She wanted a new life without Ray. So the motive is she needed to get rid of Ray because he was standing in the way of her dream. She believed George Mann was the person who would help her fulfill her dreams. I say he made that up. Well, I'm just going to say it's a complete lie. When investigators searched Danny's computer,

they believe they found evidence that she was using Google to research how she would kill Ray. What happens when you shoot a guy in the head with a.38, which was pretty damning considering she shot a guy in the head with a.38. She's on a remote property. You're a mile from the nearest person. No one's going to hear you scream. So we were talking about self-defense. She was doing research on things that we had discussed. As Danny Green's trial for murder was about to begin, her defense team finds a witness who could be a game changer. Someone they believe will back up her claim that Ray had physically abused her.

Did you ever witness anything out of the ordinary when you delivered mail? I mean, other than her wearing a sling occasionally, limping at times, black eyes. Yes. We're speaking now with a woman we're going to call Carol. Tell me about when you learned that Ray Green had died and had been shot by Danny. He got what he deserved. This woman, whose face and name 48 Hours has agreed to conceal, claims she is certain Ray physically abused Danny in Florida. How did you know Ray and Danny?

I delivered their mail. Carol and Danny became friendly over the years. She was a gentle person that loved her animals. Carol says Danny never told her that Ray was abusing her. But Carol saw the injuries on Danny's face. I saw three to four different times when she had the black eyes. And did you see bruises in other places? You couldn't see bruises because she was so covered up.

Carol found it unusual that despite Florida's high heat and humidity, Dani covered every inch of her body. She would try to tell me that she had fallen or that one of the horses had done it. What were you thinking? That she was being abused physically. And the Ray Green Carol got to know was not the gentle cowboy described by others. I asked him to sign something. He told me no. He said, go see Danny, and he called me a bitch. So from that point on, I avoided him. George Mann, Danny's online friend, says she once told him that Ray had attacked her.

They had an argument in Florida, and he grabbed her and threw her against the wall. I think she truly feared Ray. But other friends who were close to the couple say they never witnessed any signs of abuse. close to the couple say they never witnessed any signs of abuse. I never seen any personality trait that would show me that Ray was an abusive husband at all. No black eyes or bruises or anything. But what about Danny covering every inch of her body with clothing? Bob Stevens, who is working on a book about the case, says he knows why. She was very, very worried about sun damage and cancer. I know from a fact that she wore long-sleeved shirts to protect her from the sun. In August of 2015, Danny's murder trial began

at the Ohio County, Indiana courthouse. No cameras were allowed in the courtroom. We have some of the key pieces of evidence. You have the revolver, the.38, which was the weapon that was used. Prosecutor Aaron Negengard says some of the bullets fired passed through this blanket before striking Ray. There were three bullet holes, and this one actually went in there and out here. It showed that he was sleeping at the time. And that's significant because she is claiming self-defense.

Correct. But Danny's attorney, Delmar Weldon, says the blanket tells a very different story. It wouldn't be uncommon for someone to get out of bed and have a blanket around them. I think that'd be highly unusual. He's about to attack her. He was lunging toward her, wrapped in a heavy blanket. Danielle said exactly what happened. I remember him going down onto the floor with his head in this area.

What Danny didn't tell police was that she cut out a piece of carpet from the trailer floor. There's clear blood here. And put it in the toolbox where Ray's body was found. How is it self-defense if you're cutting carpet out,

putting a body in the box, and trying to destroy or hide evidence? And if Danny killed in self-defense, why didn't she call 911 after shooting Ray ten times? To second-guess the things that happen in a moment like that, this life or death moment, it is very unfair to say, why wouldn't you do this? She believed that he could come back and get her, even after he was obviously dead. Like some horror movie? Rise from the dead and come after her? She was living in a horror movie. Carol, the mail carrier, gave a deposition that was read to jurors.

But investigators said they found no evidence supporting Danny's claims of abuse. Do you have any proof whatsoever beyond your belief that he actually laid a fist on her face? No. Danny never took the stand, but jurors watched her version of what happened on that deadly morning. I'm in fear for my life. After two weeks of testimony, the jury got the case, and deliberations stretched on for eight hours. So they come in. What's the verdict? Guilty.

Danny Green was convicted of murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. I believe the jury got it wrong. I believe that Daniel Green is innocent. And do you think justice was served? By him being killed, yes. By her being in prison, no. The nicest man that would do anything for anyone suffered executions. She was a monster. execution style.

She was a monster. Jazzy, the family dog, who Danny once said attacked and killed Ray, has never been found. Dave wore his own clothes. Dave wore his world. Without his friend Ray, it's just not the same. I think you go through life with very few true friends. There's a big void in that circle that will never be replaced.

How do you want your father to be remembered? A wonderful, loving, caring man. A great grandfather. He was a great husband to my mother. Ray and his first wife, Maggie, both died on May 26th, exactly 12 years apart. Bob Stevens thinks that's more than just a coincidence. A message from God.

I think it was a sign from God that they're back together. An appeal by Danny has been denied. She will be eligible for parole when she's 71 years old. I'm Nora O'Donnell in our nation's capital. We're here at the White House with the President of the United States. Thanks for having me. Our exclusive access to the presidential platform. We will witness yet another moment in history.

The CBS Evening News with Nora O'Donnell from Washington, D.C. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this

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