Criminology - Rhonda and Donnie Wicht

Episode Date: November 16, 2019

In 1978, Rhonda Wicht and her 4-year-old son Donnie were killed inside their Simi Valley, California apartment. Rhonda's on-again/off-again boyfriend Craig Coley was arrested and convicted of the murders. He spent 39 years behind bars before DNA evidence set him free. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this case that is tragic all around. It is tragic due to the loss of Rhonda and Donnie, and it's tragic that Craig if he indeed had nothing to do with the crimes, spent a large part of his life in prison. We'll go through the evidence that put Craig Coley away as well as the evidence that set him free. Rhonda's sister Shelley joined us for this episode to help provide information. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill too? All right, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 87 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mike, how are you today? I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing great. I just noticed I called you Mike, which I don't do very often because there's so many mics, right? So you naturally over the course of the podcast have become morph. I stay. I made Mike, there's got to be some way to delineate the mics. There's too many. Yeah, it's a very common name, especially in podcasting, it seems. You're right.

I mean, it's common just in general. I think from our time frame, right, the time when we were born, Mike was a very popular name. Still may be today. I have no idea. But in the podcasting world, there seems to be a lot of mics. More of getting good feedback on some of the recent episodes. I think people really are enjoying them.

Yeah, I think we've done a good job trying to mix them up and bring different kinds of cases to people and take some suggestions along the way too. So hopefully people like the format. And I think that's the key to me, the mixing up, right? We're going to do some of the really well-knowns every now and then. But, you know, I hear from a lot of people. They love some of these cases that maybe they've never heard before. So we'll keep playing around, right, with the format, different types of cases. maybe the one thing that we haven't done a lot of, and I'd love to do a little bit more,

is venturing out into some different areas, different countries, you know, getting some international cases. Yeah, I think we mentioned doing that a little bit more, too, on the Halloween episode that we did, and I think that's a really great idea. All right. So before we jump into this case, we have some new Patreon supporters, which we really appreciate. So let's give some shoutouts. We had Janet Reeves, David Lee, Christy V, Nick, and Lauren Mitchell.

So we appreciate all that new support. We always do. We say it all the time, but we do. No doubt about it. Thanks to everybody, as usual, for that amazing Patreon support. We can't thank you enough. If anyone up there listening would like to be a Patreon contributor, please go to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, let's jump right into this case.

It was 41 years ago this week in 1978 that a woman named Rhonda Wicked and her four-year-old son Donald were found dead in their Seamy Valley, California apartment. Rhonda had been beaten and strangled. There were also signs that she had possibly been sexually assaulted. Her son Donald was suffocated. suspicion quickly focused on Rhonda's ex-boyfriend, Craig Coley, and he was arrested on the day of the murders and ultimately convicted. But in 2017, DNA testing and a new investigation proved that Craig Coley was innocent and he was subsequently released from prison after serving 39 years behind bars. 39 years more for a crime that California authorities are now saying he did not commit.

I can't even imagine what someone goes through during that period of time, any period of time, really. But when you think about 39 years, I can't wrap my head around it. It's like that old what if question. What if somebody paid you X amount of money to go to jail for a year? would you do it? Here's a case where 39 years, I don't think there's any amount of money in the world that would make somebody ever want to do that kind of sentence, especially for a crime they didn't commit. Yeah, I think that's an interesting question, right, to ponder. Would you give up a year of your life, essentially sitting in prison for a million dollars, 10 million dollars?

I think there are some people that would. I couldn't hack it. I know myself, Morph. I know, how I am, I could not do a year in prison. Even if you said the day you walk out, here's a million dollars or five million or whatever it was. But knowing in your heart that you did not commit the murders that you're accused of day after day for 39 years sitting in yourself, that is unimaginable. But now the question is if Coley didn't commit this double murder, Who did? I think his release came as a shock to many people, especially Rhonda's sister Shelly, who was the person who actually found Rhonda and Donald's bodies. The last four decades have been extremely hard on her. And she joined us to discuss the case. So you'll hear from her throughout this

episode. Seamy Valley, California is a small community in Ventura County, roughly 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles. It's where Rhonda Wick spent most of her childhood. Rhonda was born on October 13, 1954 in Dayton, Ohio. To Edgar and Nora Hamilton, Rhonda had three siblings, an older and younger brother, and her sister, Shelly, who's three years younger than Rhonda. And more of a lot of people may know that are listening. Some may not, but I was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio.

I did move away for a small number of years, but I have lived here most of my life. It's amazing how many times we talk about these cases and there's some kind of personal connection as far as a location or that kind of thing. Well, and people listening experience the same thing, right? You and I get tons of emails or messages on social media with these little connections between the cases that we do and listeners. Now, sometimes they are very frightening connections as far as, you know, somebody's mother interacting with a heinous killer, you know, maybe working with them, knew them.

You know, those kind of connections are very scary. But even the ones where the person just lives in the city that we're talking about, it adds an element to it for that listener because they know the places that we mentioned in the story. They see them on a daily basis. It adds to the experience. Rhonda and Shelley shared a bedroom growing up. We were very opposite people. She was about three years older than me, and she was kind of an old soul.

She was a lot older than her years. And I wasn't. I was just a kid. But pretty much we got along. Rhonda was a very caring, easygoing person. I was a little bit. You know, I was the bratty little sister. And I definitely was, no doubt about that.

But, yeah, I would say we were close. We, you know, there was a lot of things that, you know, I would, she explained a lot of things to me that I didn't want to go to my mom or dad and ask about. She was kind of the grown up. And, you know, so she would answer my question. She never snitched on me where I would always snitch on her. So I was just a stinker. But, you know, by the time I was about 15 is when she moved. moved away when she got married.

In 1972, not long before she turned 18, Rhonda married Donald Wicked, and the couple moved first to San Francisco where Donald worked, and then to Austin, Texas, where Donald was born. Two years later, the couple had a son, Donald Jr., or Donnie, as the family called him. Rhonda adored Donnie and loved being a mom. The marriage between Donald and Rhonda didn't last,

and the couple divorced in 1976. I had joined the Army when I was about 19. I was about a year out of high school. And I would join the Army. And when I left for basic training, they were writing me letters, both of them, her and Dawn, both had written me letters. I think I'm trying to remember when I came home on leave

after basic training, I want to say she was there. I know she was definitely there. I came back after I finished my school at the end of summer, and I know she was there then because at that point she was actually seeing Craig, because that was the first time I met him. So somewhere in that time frame in the summer is when she, I believe she came to stay with my parents because Dawn was away at school

or something like that, And I don't know how it all came about. But somewhere in there is when they, you know, decided to get a divorce. Rhonda and her son, Donnie, moved back to Simi Valley, where she enrolled in cosmetology school. She took other courses as well at a local college. She lived with their parents. And they often watched little Donnie for Rhonda while she was in class up until the time that she enrolled him in preschool. So a lot of struggles, right?

Morp, being a single parent, trying to go to school. That is a lot on anyone's plate. But despite all of that, Rhonda loved her life with her son, Donnie. Her whole world. It was, it was just exciting. Even I was excited. You know, I was excited about being an aunt. And it was just a very big deal.

My parents were grandparents for the first time. But yeah, she was thrilled. It was a great time. In the spring of 1977, Rhonda and Donnie moved into their own apartment, located at 1851 Byers Street in Seamy Valley. It was a small two-bedroom, one-bath apartment, located on the second level of the apartment complex. Rhonda liked living on her own with her son.

She really enjoyed the independence because she never really had it. She went from her parents' home to her husband's home, and so she never had this so I can understand, you know, the freedom and the excitement. I mean, they were always at my parents' house, but this was her house at the other end of town from my parents, so it wasn't that very, wasn't very close to get, you know, at the other end. So it was kind of a distance, you know, maybe a 15-minute drive because Simi Valley's not very big. But she was so thrilled to be on her own. She really was.

not long after she moved back to Simi Valley. Ronda started dating a man named Craig Coley, who was the son of a retired L.A. police officer. Craig was a Vietnam vet and a night manager at a local restaurant. He was eight years older than Rhonda. Rhonda introduced Craig to her family soon after they met. Rhonda's sister Shelley saw Craig as a weak man. Not the strong type with whom she pictured her sister. she did not know what Rhonda saw in him. But their mother, Nora, really liked Craig and thought of him as her son. Craig Coley has said that little Donnie used to call him Daddy Craig. I don't, you know, I don't remember how their relationship came about.

I just know when I came home, and I want to say it was when I came home on leave at the end of that summer, I think it was like September or something. after her divorce, and I want to say her divorce was probably in around June, Mayor June. They picked me up from the airport, so that was the first time I had ever met him. I was a little surprised. He just seemed like, and it's just kind of bizarre, but my first impression of him was he was, he just seemed like a very weak man to me. He didn't seem like a strong individual, and I thought, She needs a lot stronger person than that because my sister, I always saw her as kind of fragile in a sense.

You know, she wasn't a strong person. I don't know what she saw in him that, you know, I have no idea. But that was just my first impression. I was not impressed. I mean, he was a nice guy, but I was not impressed. I just, my first thought was he just seemed so weak to me. That's just how I thought of him. Rhonda was a pretty private person, and she didn't often open up to Shelly.

But in November 1978, she shared something very personal with her sister. The only time she ever opened up to me was actually the night before, the evening before they died. And then she told me that her and Craig were seeing other people is what she said. By this time, they'd been together a couple years. And I said, well, I said, well, how is Craig handling? it and she says, well, not very well. And I think that was really the extent of the conversation. I didn't, I don't think we talked much more about it because, you know, I mean, we weren't the only ones there. There was, you know, my mother and, you know, we had our kids. So, I mean, there was other people in the room.

So I do remember that part of the conversation because she said he wasn't handling it very well. And I think more if this is very important to the story, you have what appears, to be Rhonda making the decision that the couple should see other people. According to Shelley, Craig didn't handle that very well. And let's face it, a lot of guys would not. It is something that could upset a lot of men. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of details beyond what she told her sister, so we don't know why they decided to see other people and why Rhonda decided apparently to slow things down. but the timing of telling her sister that is going to be pretty important to what happens next. On November 10, 1978, Shelly, who lived out of town at that time, arrived back in Seamy Valley to attend a wedding with Rhonda, who was going to do Shelly's hair.

Rhonda told Shelly she would pick her up the next morning at around 9.30 or 10 a.m. And that they would go to the cosmetology school to do Shelly's hair. But Rhonda never arrived the next morning. On November 11th, 1978, which also happened to be Veterans Day, Rhonda's family became concerned when she didn't show up to do Shelly's hair. Rhonda didn't have a phone. So Rhonda and Shelley's father, Edgar, along with Shelly and her husband, drove over to Rhonda's apartment.

Shelly immediately had a weird feeling that something wasn't right. When she saw Rhonda's car parked on the street in front of the apartment building, they walked up the outdoor staircase to get to Rhonda's apartment and they knocked on the door. There was no answer. The curtains were drawn and they couldn't hear anything coming from the apartment. Rhonda's next door neighbor came out and asked if they had been able to get a hold of Rhonda. They said no and asked the neighbor why she was asking. The neighbor said she was concerned after her and her husband heard someone that they thought was Craig at Rhonda's apartment around 5.30 that morning. The couple had heard a loud thump on her bedroom wall.

which was a shared wall with Rhonda's apartment. The thump was so loud that it caused the husband's guitar that was leaning against the wall to vibrate. The husband banged on the wall to shut them up, thinking the couple was just horsing around. Soon after, the woman heard a door close and looked out her window. She saw what she assumed was Craig Culley's truck driving away. The differences in time, as well as the next door neighbor's account of seeing Craig Culley's truck at all would become a huge controversy during the trial and decades after.

They shared a bedroom wall with Rhonda, and I mean, I didn't know this until later, but the commotion they heard was, you know, something hitting the wall. And they, her husband went over and banged on the wall to shut them up because they didn't know, you know, probably thought they were horsing around. her comment was we heard Craig over around 530. That's what she said to us. And so, of course, we couldn't. The door was locked.

And so I told my husband, I need to call my mom. And they told us there was a phone downstairs in the laundry room. So I went downstairs to call my mother. And I called and let her know that something was wrong. And so I can't remember what all I said, but I know I said something. wrong. So then I started walking back up the stairs. And as it's coming up, my husband's fiddling with the window. And I yelled at him and I said, just break it. And he at that moment literally picked it up out of the frame and just moved it and laid it on. I mean, it was that easy. And she had a stick

in the window to keep it being open. Well, he just lifted it up and out. So this is aluminum, cheap aluminum frame. There's always been, and even in trial, conversations about whether the screen was on or off, I don't even remember. But regardless, he got the window off, and she had like cafe curtains. So there was a curtain rod right across the opening.

And he walked in through the window. I walked in, and it was a low window, so you just actually stepped in. So I went in right behind him. And when you walk in, it's a very tiny apartment, just a small little two-bedroom, one bath apartment. So when we climbed in the window, the kitchen table was right there. And the small kitchen was in front of us, and to the left with the living room. And then straight down from the living room was the short hallway with the two bedrooms opposite of each other and the bathroom.

And so he proceeded down towards the hall. and hers was the first bedroom on the right. I stood and I wasn't going in there because I can't even tell you, but I know, I knew he was going to find her dead. I knew it. I knew that. Donnie, I didn't in a million years think that, but I knew she was dead. And I just stood in a living room and looked at this disaster.

And she had these end tables, this old 70 style end tables. They had doors that opened up, and you could just shove things in there, which everybody did. And they're just junk cabinets or tables for all they were. It looked as though, and I'm just standing and we're talking seconds, and I'm analyzing this living room, and I'm looking for signs of the struggle or something. And it looked to me as though somebody had reached in and just pulled things out of her two end tables and threw them on the living room floor. The one item I remember on the floor was Donnie's Lincoln Logs.

I couldn't tell you what else was. there, but just junk, scattered throughout the floor. I was just in there for a second or two, and my husband came back down, came back from her bedroom, and he just, he shook his head, and he goes, don't go in there or something like that. And he told me she's dead. And he wouldn't look at me. We just said she's dead. And so he pushed me towards the window to go back out. We didn't go to the door. We didn't even get near the front door. We just went to the window, went back out the window and once we got out on the landing I looked at him and I said what about Donnie and he goes I don't know he goes I didn't look so I go you have to go see I think I thought

you know Craig could have taken Donnie because that that was my thought he's killed Rhonda and he's taken Donnie and who knows it was like 1030 by this time and five hours who knows where he's at and that was exactly what I thought and so he climbed back in the window came back out and he just said he's the same way. So that's when, you know, I said somebody needs to call the police. Pretty much from there, it's all a blur. I don't remember much else about that day. Horrified, Shelly and her husband ran for help, and the police were called. What Shelley's husband saw in that apartment stayed with him. It was pretty hard on him. He wasn't a person. I've only seen him cry. We were only married for five and a half years, and I only saw him cry once.

and it was during this time. He just didn't, you know, he didn't show a lot of emotion. It was hard. He said he was so scared when he went into that apartment because he said it was rainy, so it was gloomy. The curtains were all drawn in every window, so there was really no light coming in. So it was really dreary atmosphere to begin with.

So he just didn't know if somebody was there waiting. I don't even think he knew. I came in behind him until he came back in and I was standing there. He thought I was heading down the hall. I said, oh, no, I knew what you were going to find. I knew he could find Rhonda dead. This was Simi Valley's first double murder. Seamy Valley police arrived at the apartment and began their investigation.

There were no signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle. Nothing was really in disarray. Other than the items Shelley found on the living room floor, Rhonda had been beaten on the head and face and then strangled with a macramee court. Reports vary on whether Rhonda was the victim of a rape or whether there was some form of earlier consensual sex. Donnie had been suffocated in his crib. Very early on, Shelley felt strongly that Craig was likely the person responsible for the murders.

Immediately on the way over there, Avin. My thought was even, what if he's gone crazy and killed her? That was my thought. Maybe it was what she said to me the day before. Craig was a very, he's a very tall person, and so he could overpower very quickly, you know, very easily. So maybe that was what ran through my head. Police obtained a search warrant for Craig Coley's home. And during the search, they found a bloody towel and one of Donnie's T-shirts.

In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Police immediately brought Craig Coley in for questioning. This occurred on the day of the murder. According to police, he had minor cuts and abrasions on his body. They also noticed that he was extremely depressed. Now, his girlfriend had just been found murdered. There are also people that speculate that Craig might have possibly been depressed about the recent decision by Rhonda for them to see other people. But again, his girlfriend had just been found murdered.

I can't stress that enough. Craig Coley had an alibi. He was socializing with co-workers at a restaurant until 4.30 a.m. He then dropped one of his co-workers off at their house. This was about 4.45 a.m. before going home. This was confirmed by the co-worker. But nonetheless, police ignored that alibi and they arrested Craig Coley for the double murder of Rhonda and Donnie. Another neighbor who lived below Ronda initially told police he heard noises coming from Ronda's apartment at 4.30 a.m. But later, he changed the time to 5.30, which seemed to coincide with Ronda's next-door neighbor's statement. In late November 1978, 32-year-old Craig Holi was held for trial Ventura County Superior Court for the slings of Ronda and 4-year-old Donnie. Prosecutors said at the time that they were seeking the death penalty.

The trial officially started in February of 1979 in Ventura County Superior Court. And for Rhonda's family, the rather speedy trial date was welcome news, as they weren't looking forward to long-drawn-out process. It actually happened fairly quickly. In Vegas, for 11 years, I worked in Las Vegas in the court system, and it took years for things to come to trial. And so when I look back, it happened so quickly. This happened in November.

believe it went to trial the following year in 79, and we did have to testify. I was a witness. You know, my husband, we had to testify, and of course, my mother, so we were excluded from the courtroom because we were witnesses, so we didn't get to sit through any of the trial. And I don't remember a whole lot about it. I barely remember even testifying. During the trial, police officers testified there were no signs of a struggle or forced entry in Rhonda's apartment, and Craig had a key to the apartment. Additionally, they found a key to an inside door lock on the apartment floor. The prosecution called Rhonda's neighbors as witnesses, and they testified about the loud noises they heard around 5.30 a.m., Rhonda's next door neighbor testified that she

recognized Craig's truck by the distinctive pattern on the side of the truck, but for whatever reason, she never mentioned the pattern to Shelley on the day of the murders. They did not see him physically. This has been a huge controversy for the decades, you know, since from the day one that this happened. She said that she looked out her window from upstairs and from up there, you can see the cars parked along the curb in front of the apartment complex. she said she saw his truck driving away.

Well, he had a small truck with a shell, you know, like a camper shell on the back. And, of course, it was dark, 5.30 in the morning and in November. And so she said she saw his truck driving away. Well, of course, in trial, she could not pick out his truck in a lineup. But the thing is, it was a truck, a small truck driving away. So, of course, she assumed it was Craig. Because there was nobody else with a truck in the area, and Craig was there all the time. So she knew he drove this truck.

Then that's what she said. She said it's because she saw his truck. She couldn't identify the person in the car. She couldn't tell. She just saw the truck. A doctor testified in court about Rhonda's injuries. He said that she had suffered trauma to her vagina, which to him, indicated she had been raped, but there was no semen recovered from her body.

This same doctor also examined Craig Coley after his arrest and said that Craig had a small cut on his upper lip. His upper lip was swollen. He also had a five-inch scratch on his chest. He had scratches on his right forearm and an abrasion on his back and penis. The defense countered the doctor's testimony and said there were no visible injuries on Craig, except for a slight redness on the right side of his chest. Several witnesses for the defense testified that they were with Craig at the restaurant and confirmed his account that he was with them until 4.30 a.m. and then took one of them home at 4.45 a.m. Craig Coley testified on his own behalf and denied killing Rhonda and Donnie, something he would never waver from for the next 39 years.

Two months after the trial started, Judge Donald Pollock so the jury failed to reach a verdict. On April 12, 1979, he declared a mistrial because the jury declared themselves deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction. You know, my mother had said on the day of the murder, she took the time out to go and give a statement to the local newspaper. And because she was, well, she was a firm believer in the press. And she felt, she wanted the correct story out there. She just didn't want them writing just things here and there.

She wanted the, you know, the true statement out there. And so she gave, you know, she went out and gave a statement to the newspaper. And this is the day of the murder. So, I don't know, looking back, it's amazing because I don't think I could have held it together, but she had always said that she, because she loved Craig very much. She adored Craig. And she had always said she felt like she lost three kids that day, three children that day. And she had even always said that, and she did believe Craig did it. There was never a doubt in her mind that he didn't do it. I mean, she knew he did it. But, you know, it was just

always sad. And she had forgiven him a long time ago. And she had, she'd, she'd, she'd, she'd forgiven him and she had always hoped that he would reach out to her. And I think it really hurt her that he never did. So, and, you know, in the time, because he was out on bail between trials when he was, you know, they were able to get him out on bail after the first, the jury. And I think she was just really hoping, okay, maybe now he'll get a hold of me. I think she just wanted to, just to talk to him and let him know, you know, I still care about you, but he never did. He never reached out to her, and I think that really broke her heart, but she did care for him. It was hard for her all the way around just because it was all three of them.

The second trial took place in January 1980 in Ventura Superior Court. During testimony, Craig Coley was described as a second father to Donnie. Deputy Public Defender Don Griffin argued in court that Seamy Valley Police failed to investigate three other possible suspects. These were Robert Bauer, Ronda's cousin, Jim Ierton, a friend of Ronda's, and Glenn Watkins, a city bus driver who lived below Ronda in a first floor apartment. It's unclear. From the research, who else Ronda might have been seeing at the time of her murder, we mentioned it. She told Craig that she wanted them to see other people. There are no sources that mention

anyone by name that she might have been seeing, but it is possible that it could have been Glenn Watkins, her downstairs neighbor. According to the January 13th, 1980 Los Angeles Times article, Seamy Valley Police Department at that time had already been under fire for a number of brutality cases. They had low morale, they had a high turnover rate, and they had a bunch of administrative problems. So this police department is already in the spotlight, and the article is asking the question, how desperately did they need to close the WICT case for public reasons? Did the police department rush to make an arrest? During the second trial, Seamy Valley's local newspaper, the Seamy Valley Mirror, carried a large front-page headline that stated,

Coley truly appears to be wrong man. The newspaper and numerous people believed in Craig Coley's innocence. The mirror's publisher at that time, James A. Whitehead, also published an editorial, stating, The Mirror is firmly convinced that Glenn Watkins should be arrested, as he is definitely a suspect of committing the murderer in the first degree. So I know it's an editorial, but that's a pretty strong statement when you think about it. The editor of a paper coming out and saying, okay, we don't think Craig Coley did this, but I'll tell you who we think did it. And that's Glenn Watkins. He should be arrested for committing these murders.

And the reason I say that morph is because I think most of the time, right, editors are very careful about the words that they choose to put into print. So that tells me that this guy, James Whitehead, really felt strongly about Glenn Watkins. Glenn Watkins testified at Coley's second trial. Afterwards, the mirror began its story with this statement. Frustration prevailed as Glenn Watkins left the Superior courtroom after he practically confessed to killing Rhonda and Donnie Wick. in their Byers Street apartment last November 11th, 1978. So again, I say it's almost as if they have it out for this guy, Glenn Watkins,

you can make the argument that they might have gone a little overboard in that article because when you look at the other news agency's coverage, much less mention of Glenn Watkins, his testimony, and what his testimony really meant. In fact, Seamy Valley's other newspaper, the Seamy Enterprise, they simply ended their article with, quote, during cross-examination, Griffin asked Watkins if he committed the crimes, and Watkins denied any involvement. So, stark contrast, right, between the coverage in these two papers. Deputy District Attorney Bill Maxwell said in court that there was no evidence linking Glenn Watkins to the murders. So again, I asked the question, Morph, why did the mirror think so strongly

that Glenn Watkins was the person that murdered Rhonda and Donnie? What evidence did they have that nobody else had? The problem is we don't know. And that's why, to me, it is very strange for an editor to go out on what to me appears to be a limb, the way that this guy does. did. They certainly seemed convinced to go as far as writing all of those articles pointing the finger right at him. As much as Coley probably was in favor of it, imagine being Glenn Watkins with this newspaper saying that you're a killer. Well, you and I are not journalists, right? We're podcasters, but we know we have to be careful with the words that we use. You can't come out and say, so-and-so is a killer.

When the evidence to support it is not there, it hasn't been proven in a court of law, that's very damaging, right? Those type of words are very inflammatory against a person. And in many cases, they could have some legal recourse against you. The Enterprise also wrote an article after Craig Coley's testimony, which read in part, according to a courtroom observer, Cole failed to come up with an explanation for evidence that is damaging to his case. The evidence they were talking about was the bloody towel and Donnie's t-shirt that were found in Craig's home.

The defense offered an explanation for almost all of the evidence brought forward by the prosecution, and the prosecution countered everything that the defense brought up. During Griffin's submission to the jury, he described police testimony as, quote, cockamamie, and he also asked, Is it too much to ask for a decent investigation? The police investigation of the murders would be criticized for decades following the trial. So, Morph, I think we need to break down these two pieces of evidence, right? You have the bloody towel, as well as Donnie's t-shirt found in Craig's home.

The prosecution offered up that the blood on the towel was Ronda's. And they presented that the t-shirt, Donnie's t-shirt, was used by Craig. to suffocate Donnie. But what I want to talk about is how unusual would it be, really, to have these two items found in your home? You know, if the person that you've been seeing for some period of time is coming over to your house a lot, is it possible that they would bleed for whatever reason and use a towel, I think it is.

And then you talk about the T-shirt. You know, we mentioned it. People said that Craig was like a second daddy to Donnie. I don't think it's that out of the ordinary that one of his t-shirts would be left at some point over at Craig's house. And to your point, if you have little kids, anyone that has little kids out there knows that they constantly spill stuff on their shirt. And the first thing you do is yank that off and throw it in the laundry and put a different shirt on them. So that may have even been what happened. And so it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for him to have a shirt there that was in the dirty wash.

Yeah, I don't think it is at all. But in the end, Craig Coley's fate laid in the hands of the jury. And in January of 1980, they reached a verdict, guilty on two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances. Craig Coley was sentenced a short while later to life in prison without parole. But when you look at his conviction, I think more if it was. arrested mainly on the bloody towel, the t-shirt, and the next door neighbor's testimony. In March of 1980, an acquaintance of Craig Coley, a guy by the name of Bill Summers, started the petition for the Seamy Valley Police Department to reopen the investigation in the Wicked

murders. Summers claimed that Craig's arrest was, quote, based on a motion rather than evidence. The petition accused the police of conducting a totally unprofessional and incomplete investigation. In this murder case, even the judge from Craig's first trial called the conviction a miscarriage of justice. So you and I cover a lot of cases more. And Craig Coley's conviction and sentencing normally would be the end of it, right? Case closed. They have their man. But we mentioned it.

He maintained his innocence the entire time. He appealed his sentence. They were all denied. In 1989, a Seamy Valley police detective named Mike Bender examined the Wicked case files. Mike's career in law enforcement began in 1977 with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he worked the streets of South Los Angeles. He spent 18 months there before joining the Seamy Valley Police Department as a patrol officer in October of 1978. This was just a few weeks before Rhonda and Donnie were murdered.

When he climbed the ranks and made detective, a friend suggested he look into the case. He did and was shocked at what he found. Craig had a solid alibi and only 20 minutes of unaccounted time on the morning of the murders, which seemed hardly enough time to rape, beat, and kill Rhonda and then suffocate her son, Donnie. Mike also saw the fact that the three suspects we talked about earlier were never investigated. He also saw that hair and fingerprint samples were never analyzed. He looked at all of this as some pretty major red flags.

Mike told the LA Times in April 2018, quote, It appeared that a real investigation hadn't occurred. And just like Craig's defense attorney at trial, Mike Bender believed that police officers in 1978 had either ignored or overlooked evidence pointing to other suspects. He was convinced Craig Coley was an innocent man and he set out to prove that. In 1991, Mike met Craig Coley for the first time. After interviewing him, he immediately knew he was talking to an innocent man.

This guy had worked for many years as a detective and he had learned how to read people. I think that is something morphed that. detectives really learn how to do because it's a big part of the job, right? Are people telling the truth? Are they lying? Body language? All of that. Mike believed that Craig was telling the truth. So after he met with Craig, Mike Bender collected 16 boxes of evidence from Craig's mother, Margie. Mike's supervisor, who had been in charge of the original investigation, ordered him to stop pursuing his investigation or face termination. Mike didn't hesitate for a moment and quit his job, taking the 16 boxes of evidence with him. He vowed to never give up on Craig. He then moved to

Northern California, where he worked with theft investigations. He is currently the National Director of Special Investigations for ICW Group. In 2003, Mike and his wife Cynthia moved to Carlsbad, California, where they still reside. By some weird coincidence, Cynthia had been invited to the wedding, Rhonda and Shelley were supposed to attend on November 11, 1978. Mike spent years pleading to the city manager, the California Attorney General's Office, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, and a whole bunch of other law enforcement agencies, legislators, and even the well-known innocence project. But no one would listen to him. But this guy was not going to give up. Craig Coley had transferred to different

prisons over the years. One in particular was the violent Folsom Prison, made famous by the Johnny Cash song Folsom Prison Blues. While Craig was at Folsom, he learned to make jewelry and he sold it, sending any money he earned to his mother to help pay investigators. He started a Bible study in 2011, and he earned degrees in biblical counseling, biblical studies, and theology. In 2013, Mike helped Craig Coley draw up a petition for clemency, which was then submitted to California governor, Jerry Brown. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, the petition said in part that a Seamy Valley detective

had destroyed biological evidence that could have exonerated Coley. Naturally, as one would expect, Rhonda's family and the Ventura County District Attorney's author, oppose the petition. We knew that he had exhausted all his appeals. We knew they were all denied. And in the 80s, in Timmy Valley was a small police department. They didn't have any way to store their evidence.

So they would routinely, you know, go before a judge, and they would be granted to destroy the evidence. Well, he had exhausted all his appeals. There was nothing left. There was no reason to hang on to the evidence. And so they gave my mother whatever. she wanted to keep of it and they destroyed the rest. And that was just routine.

In 2016, we get, my brother actually was contacted by the district attorney's office, letting us know that he had filed for, Craig had a file for clemency. And did we want to write letters to the governor? And first, we weren't going to, but as the more I thought about it, I told my brother, you know what, I want to do this because it was really just him and I. to deal with it. And so I said, you know, I think I want to write letters. And so I wrote a letter. He wasn't interested. He said, just include me in your letter. So we did. We wrote letters. His clemency was denied. So then this was at the end of 2016. So in June of 2017, I get a call from a detective in the

homicide division of the Seamy Valley Police Department, and he said that they are looking back into the case, and would I want to, you know, answer some questions? And I kind of threw me, so that when it was kind of all cracked open again. In 2016, Seamy Valley Police Chief David Livingstone was reviewing old newspaper articles when he came across several about Craig Coley's case, he was particularly interested in the articles that were critical of the original investigation for charging Craig with the murders and ignoring other suspects. David allowed fresh eyes to look at the case and assigned a cold case detective named Dan Swanson to re-examine the case files.

After Craig Coley's appeals were denied, a judge signed an order allowing for the evidence in the case to be destroyed, which was normal procedure on closed cases, but not all of the evidence was destroyed. The boxes containing the evidence were later found in storage. And on top of that, biological samples thought to have been lost decades ago were located at a private testing company, which had bought out the original company who performed the test prior to Craig's trial. Some material from Rhonda's bed sheet was sent in for DNA testing that wasn't available in the late 1970s. It revealed the presence of sperm. and epithelial cells, most likely from saliva.

None of this belonged to Craig Coley, but rather to an unidentified male. Shelley said that it was confirmed to be from the man Rhonda was seeing at the time of her murder, because they had a sexual relationship. None of Craig's DNA was found on Donnie's t-shirt, which police believed Craig had used to suffocate Donnie. What they did find on the t-shirt was semen from three different men, as well as some fecal matter. this material on the t-shirt from three different men remains unmatched to any person and only leaves more questions.

So I brought up the t-shirt and how I didn't think it was strange that it was found in Craig's home. Now, what I do think is strange more is that when you find out later that the t-shirt had on it semen from three different men, none of them Craig. That I find very strange. Again, not pointing to Craig's guilt or anything like that, just strange in general. I think that definitely cast doubt on what was perhaps one of the prosecution's strongest pieces of evidence. Oh, I don't think there's any doubt about that. I think if the jury was presented with that information back then, things might have gone a little differently, right? If they had the technology to figure out that, okay, not only is Craig's DNA not on this thing,

but there is semen from three different men. Yeah, I think that really demonstrates how far technology and science has come. And in cases like this, it could be the difference between being found guilty and being found innocent. Well, I think what it does for sure is it allows to a much greater certainty for us to get to the truth, right? Because that's the whole thing. That's the endeavor. What really happened? here are the facts.

The jury decides from all the facts what they believe. Well, the problem is in these old cases, there was no way for the jury to have all the facts because the technology didn't exist. On the 39th anniversary of the murders, investigators went back to the crime scene, Rhonda's apartment building. They actually went to the apartment where the next door neighbor said that she saw Craig Coley's truck. They looked out the window, pretty much the same way that this woman would have done as she testified to a trial.

They went at the same time, 5.30 a.m. before the sun had come up, pretty much similar conditions as they would have been back in 1978. What they found was that the darkness made it virtually impossible to see any of the vehicle's details, such as the distinctive pattern on the side of the truck. they also said it wasn't possible to see inside the vehicle at that time of the morning. So even though this neighbor never changed her story, she was adamant. She saw Craig Coley's truck leave the apartment. Investigators believe that there's no way. She could have been 100% sure it was Craig Coley's truck. She saw that morning.

And there was no way that she could identify the person driving whatever vehicle left the apartment building that morning. And I think if we add to it, the weather conditions on the morning that Rhonda and Donnie were murdered were drizzly and rainy that day. So I think any visibility would have been even lower with those kind of conditions. Two weeks later, on November 20, 2017, Ventura County District Attorney Gregory Totten and Seamy Valley Police Chief David Livingstone concluded that Craig Coley was an innocent man and they would support Craig's petition for a pardon based on innocence.

They issued a joint statement that read, reviewing the case in light of the new evidence, we no longer have confidence in the weight of the evidence used to convict Mr. Coley. We also believe that the evidence, as we now know it, would meet the legal standard for a finding of factual innocence. Two days later, Governor Jerry Brown pardon Craig Coley, and he ordered his immediate release from the state prison in Languble. Castor, Brown wrote in his pardon that Craig was a model prisoner the entire time he was incarcerated.

He always avoided gangs. He avoided violence. He dedicated himself to religion in 2005. Brown also wrote, quote, the grace with which Mr. Coley has endured this lengthy and unjust incarceration is extraordinary. At a press conference, the district attorney said, quote, as district attorney, I must tell you that I look forward to the day when I can shake Mr. Coley's hand and apologize to him for the injustice he suffered. I am also hopeful that one day soon, we will bring to justice the violent man responsible for this most horrific crime.

On the day that Craig Coley was released from prison, which was the day before Thanksgiving 2017, he was given a $200-hour debit card and a bag of clothes. fellow inmates gave him hugs, and on that day, Craig walked out of prison after serving almost four decades for a crime he didn't commit. Mike and Cynthia Bender picked him up, and he moved in with him that day. For the first month or so, he was afraid to leave their house, which was in a gated community. He was afraid he was going to be stopped by police. Mike Bender set up a GoFundMe page for Craig Coley, and very quickly, it reached $73,000. Craig used most of that money for a down payment on a home in Carlsbad. In May 2018, Governor Jerry Brown approved a $1.95 million payout to Craig Coley.

All right, $2 million. That's a lot of money. But when you break it down, Morve, that amounts to about $140 for every day that Craig Coley was wrongfully imprisoned. Doesn't seem like a whole lot then, does it? Yeah. This is 39 years of this man's life that he can't get back. So for the $140 a day, just definitely not a, it's not like winning the lottery, that's for sure.

Now, I mean, you know, we talked earlier about would you spend a year in prison for a million, five million, 10 million? I'll ask you this. Would you even spend one day in prison for $140? And I would say, most people would say, hell no. You could not pay me $140 to spend one day in prison. Now, this payout did mark the largest by the state's victim compensation board for wrongful conviction.

But it's 39 years. So I think rightfully so. Craig filed a federal civil rights lawsuit seeking damages from the city of Seamy Valley and Ventura County. In February 2019, he was awarded a $21 million. dollar settlement. The city manager said in a statement, quote, while no amount of money can make up for what happened to Mr. Coley, settling this case is the right thing to do for Mr. Coley and our community.

The monetary cost of going to trial would be astronomical and it would be irresponsible for us to move forward in that direction. More if I got to break this down, is this guy talking about the fact that they were weighing options of taking this? this man to trial again? I don't know. That quote sort of blows me away. I mean, he does say it would be irresponsible.

I think irresponsible is not even near a strong enough word for what it would be to take this man to trial again. The other thing that I want to say, Morph, is that, you know, a lot of times I look at people getting very large dollar settlements and think, that seems like way too much money for what happened. Now, that varies, right, depending on what happened to a person. I look at Craig's case and say, he got $21 million plus the two that was approved by the governor. That is a bunch of money. But I don't look at it as too much. I really don't. I can't emphasize enough what 39 years of someone's life is worth. You could almost look at it and say, it's not. It's not.

not even enough. Yeah, I think if you asked a bunch of people, would they do 39 years for $23 million, I'd be surprised if you had a bunch of takers. I'd be very surprised if someone would say, yeah, I'll give up what amounts to, for most people, for a lot of people, half of my life for that amount of money. So after being released, after getting these settlements, Craig Coley obtained his driver's license. He bought a brand new. Red Jeep Cherokee. He also bought his very first cell phone. Think about that. Think about the technology that you would have to learn after being away for 39 years. You know, what's a DVD? What's all this stuff on demand? It would be very challenging to just kind of reaclimate or not re because you'd have to

acclimate yourself to the world as it now is. The world that you knew. It is long gone. Craig did some traveling. He spent his 71st birthday in Hawaii. So Craig's now 72 years old. Despite the new DNA results and Craig Coley's exoneration, some in Rhonda's family still believe that Craig Coley is guilty. But when Rhonda Wicks' youngest brother, Rick Hamilton, was asked what his mother, Nora Hamilton, would think of Craig's release, he said, quote, if she were alive today, she would probably feel guilty that somebody put the wrong guy in. Nor had thought of Craig as another son when he was dating Rhonda. Shelley, however, still feels that it was most likely Craig Coley, who killed Rhonda and Donnie.

But I think more if we have to ask the question, if the DNA found on some of these pieces of evidence, didn't come from Craig Coley, who did it come from? And how did it come to be found where it was? If Craig Coley didn't murder Rhonda and Donnie, then who did? The John Doe DNA was entered into the combined DNA index system, known as CODIS, which contains DNA profiles of people arrested across the U.S. Detectives had hoped that entering the profile into CODIS would result in a match, but it didn't. And you and I talk about that.

a lot. Morphright. DNA is great. It's awesome. It can do a lot of things if the person's DNA that you have is in one of these systems. If it's not in any of the systems, then, you know, it doesn't always lead to something right away. And I think as many times as DNA can answer questions, sometimes it only creates new ones.

In June 2018, DNA ruled out Golden State Killer suspect, Joseph DeLexamette. DiAngelo, who was arrested the previous April. The manner of death for Rhonda and Donnie didn't match the typical manner of death for a Golden State killer victim, which was bludgeoning. But since DeAngelo was down in the area around that time, police wanted to make sure it wasn't him. Other people's DNA, including members of Rhonda's own family, have been compared to this sample without a match. The detective was sitting here with me because they went through all the scenarios.

They even looked into serial killers at the time in the area, which shocked me. But those all, you know, they were all cleared. There was two of them. That was before the Golden State Killer thing even came about. So this surprised me. I didn't know anything about that. And they took our DNA. You know, we gave swabs, you know, everybody, my brother, me.

even my ex-husband has passed away, but my daughter had a harmonica of his, and she let them have that, and they were able to extract his DNA. So he was excluded, you know, he was excluded from it. But still, it just doesn't mean anything. I mean, there's just no way, I mean, they had, they couldn't even go by fingerprints because Craig's fingerprints are all over. And the other guy, she was seeing his prints are, so you really can't go back. by that either. You can't really go by what prints were there. So it makes sense to me that they would check DeAngelo. My assumption, Morp, is that there are agencies all over California checking him out for some of their unsolved murders. They have to be. I think any time you have

some vicious murders like this down in that area around that time, he's only naturally going to come up in conversation as a possible suspect. Yeah, he has to. Just based on how prolific he was as both a rapist and killer. Shelly and her family today are forced to consider that if Craig Coley didn't murder Rhonda and Donnie, then that means the real killer has been out there roaming free for four decades. It's really scary. It really does.

It's very scary. You know, you think that people, if they're going to do it once, they're going to do it again. It's possible they didn't. They don't people do it and they go and they live normal lives. It happens all the time. And it very well could be. I could be way off base. I could be totally wrong about the whole thing.

I'm just frustrated with how it came about and what they're claiming news reports of Rhonda having multiple partners. I mean, even if she did, I'm not. saying she didn't. I don't know that she did. I doubt it. She could have. But even if she did, so what? I mean, what does it matter if she was, you know, sleeping with, you know, 10 different guys? It doesn't really matter. It just, it's frustrating that, you know, all these things are out there. I could, I hope. I hope and pray that if it is somebody else that they, that they get them. Today, the Seamy Valley Police continue the search for the real killer of Rhonda and Donnie Wick. They are essentially starting from scratch. If you have any information about the murders of Rhonda and Donnie Wicked, please call the Seamy Valley Police Department at 805-583-6950.

This is a heartbreaking story. Morph all the way around. Rhonda was murdered. Donnie was murdered. Donnie was murdered. One thing we haven't talked about, I think you have to ask the question, what type of individual is capable of not only killing Rhonda, but then killing a four-year-old like Donnie? I think we say it enough in some of the cases we've discussed, but anyone that does this to a child, especially you know what you're dealing with. You know you're dealing with somebody that has just no conscience and it's just really despicable. And it makes me wonder if perhaps Donnie was killed because he could identify the killer, or at least the killer may have thought he could identify him. It's a good point. You know, four years old, you're getting in, you're

into that area of a child that could possibly identify you, especially if you had been there before. maybe you're a quasi boyfriend or, you know, had gone on some dates with Ronda. I'm just kind of thinking outside the box. But like I said, tragic case all around, Rhonda and Donnie lost their life. But if Craig Coley didn't murder them, which most of the evidence seems to point to, he lost not his entire life, but a very large chunk of it. And I'm telling you, man, not to run it into the ground, but no amount of money can make up for 39 years of your life. Yeah, if he's innocent of these crimes, the way the evidence seems to suggest, then he's a victim too.

Obviously, he's still alive, but as you mentioned, you can't get that part of your life back. Special thanks to Shelley Hamilton for joining us in this episode. Thanks also goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research. research assistance in this episode. As always, if you love the show and you haven't done so, please take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. Keep telling your friends. Word of mouth is amazing for the show.

If you'd like to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. We're also on Facebook. You can just search for Criminology Podcast. You can also join our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. All right, Morth. that is it for another episode of criminology. We will be back with everyone next Saturday night with an all new episode. So for Mike and more.

We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.