Dateline Originals - The Girl in the Blue Mustang - Ep. 6: Finding John Doe

Episode Date: December 19, 2023

A big decision. New theories. And a mystery man revealed.This episode was originally published on April 11, 2023. 

Deep in the California desert, perhaps 20 miles above Mexico, on a great empty swath of sun-baked sand and scrub, two dozen white buildings squat in semicircles, hemmed in by rows and rows of razor wire. Sentinel of prison. And inside, in a 6-by-ten-foot cell serving forty to life, Raymond Jennings peered through a narrow slit of window at the sky and waited.

For what? For when? He did not know. By now, he'd been locked up for eleven years. Had been able to see his children only once every year or two. He was about to turn 42. You'd look in that mirror and I'd be like, why me? I'd be in the cell by myself.

Why me? What am I supposed to be learning? What's going on on the outside? Something impending out there to hope for or dread, depending on the view. When the only comfort that you've had for a decade is the belief that the man who killed your daughter is in prison and that man is Ray, I understand why it's hard to let go of that. Change was coming. Ready or not. Who in the heck is banging on my door?

Finally, after about 20 or 30 knocks, he says, I need to talk to you about Raymond Lee Jennings. In this episode, justice will get a jolt and accepted facts will be tossed in the air like so many playing cards. The land and place is entirely unexpected and for some, unwelcome. You know, I've always had a lot of respect for law enforcement and what they do. And come to find out, you know, it's not all, you know, sugars and cookies. I'm Keith Morrison, and this is

The Girl and the Blue Mustang, a podcast from Dateline. This is our sixth and final episode, Finding John Doe. It was a winter's day, six years after Raymond Jennings was convicted of killing Michelle O'Keefe. Jeff Ehrlich was sitting in his law office in L.A. San Fernando Valley, and the phone rang. I picked up the phone, and the voice on the other end said, this is Ken Lynch. As in director Ken Lynch of the Los Angeles DA's Conviction Review Unit, or CRU. I'm not particularly good at describing feelings. I guess I'm a left brain kind of guy. But when I got that call and he said, I want to meet with you, I was like, wow. Clearly, the Ehrlich's letter about Raymond Jennings had hit a nerve. Enough to get them a meeting, at least.

Nothing more yet. The date was set for March 9th, 2016. A warm day and sunny on West Temple Street in downtown L.A. Inside, members of the Conviction Review Unit had assembled in a conference room to hear the Ehrlich's pitch in person. The stakes could hardly have been higher. Were the questions any more intense?

After all, in this first seven months since the CRU was formed, 700 other cases had appealed for review, too. They just, for 90 minutes, grilled me. It was like the most intense oral argument, an appellate argument I'd ever had. And then one of the prosecutors was sort of playing, I guess they were playing some good cop, bad cop, and he was playing bad cop, and he's really good at that. He was really, really in my face and giving me a hard time. They were back home when they got the news from CRU head Ken Lynch. Out of all those applicants,

the Conviction Review Unit had chosen to reinvestigate theirs first. And then instead of assigning it to one of the other attorneys in the unit, he assigned it to all of them to work on collectively. So that there are three other attorneys who work with him. And they're all experienced, very experienced prosecutors. By the time those prosecutors went to work, Michelle O'Keefe had been dead for 16 years. The CRU mined the Ehrlich's 34-page letter in granular detail and investigated new leads about others in the park and ride lot that night. For three months, Ken Lynch and the CRU dug into the case until they reached a tipping point. Then, one day in June, in a coordinated operation, they fanned out the key parties in the case. Up in the Antelope Valley, Pat O'Keefe was at home, the home she once shared with a husband and two children.

There was a knock at the door. She ignored it. But it didn't stop. Who in the heck is banging on my door? Finally, after about 20 or 30 knocks, he says, I need to talk to you about Raymond Lee Jennings. I said, can you tell me what it's about? He said, no, we're going to tell you in person. I said, is he dead? And he said, no, tomorrow we'll have a meeting and discuss it. Michael Keefe, now divorced from Pat, was at his place a few miles away. How did you get the word?

She actually called me and said that they were heading over to my place. The O'Keefe's didn't know it yet, but a chief deputy DA by the name of John Spillane had taken the CRU's findings and summarized them in a letter to the Superior Court where a judge put it under seal. A hearing was scheduled. It was June 23, 2016, one of those beautiful first days of summer, when the O'Keeffe's made that all-too-familiar two-hour drive

to L.A.'s Criminal Justice Center, just as they had done day after day after day during the trials of Ray Jennings. Clint and Jeff Ehrlich had already gone through security, and one by one, Clint and Jeff, Pat and Mike entered the courtroom. Jeff Ehrlich sat down at the defense table. The air bristled with tension.

The hearing about to begin would reveal what the judge had decided to do about the CRU's first case. I'm a lead general, MA 033712, habeas corpus. Appearance is needed.

That is Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William Ryan. Deputy District Attorney Robert Grace for the people. Jeffrey Ehrlich for the defendant. And Mr. Jennings is present in custody. Raymond Jennings was seated next to Jeff Ehrlich,

wearing a dark blue throwaway paper jumpsuit with a white zipper, his shaved head shining in the soft fluorescent light of the courtroom. Everybody was telling me that I would be sent back to state prison. I literally just started praying as hard as I could and just asking, you know, asking the Father, don't send me back there. Don't send me back. Release me from here. I also now have a letter signed by the Deputy District Attorney, excuse me, Chief Deputy District Attorney, John Spillane. As the judge began speaking, Jennings looked down, as if studying the floor beneath him. What happened here could send him back to prison for 30 years or more, or could set him free.

His eyes were unreadable. He stroked the stubble on his chin. People now believe that Mr. Jennings may not be guilty of the crime of which he is convicted, that other people are implicated by new evidence. I think I can believe that.

And there it was. The judge had raised doubt about Jennings' conviction. Now, Deputy D.A. Robert Grace spoke, and he went a step further. We're prepared to say that the people no longer have confidence in the conviction based upon what we feel is third-party culpability evidence. Third-party culpability? There could be no question what that meant. There must be other potential suspects,

someone else in the park and ride when Michelle was killed. As he announced his decision, the judge was careful not to say very much. He'd been told the investigation was continuing, and he didn't want to jeopardize it. But what he did say was as momentous as it was terse. The Department of Corrections has ordered the refugees to defend. I'm just not home or cognizant, and I will send an email to an appropriate deputy

advising them of my order today. It was surreal. Did he say it? Is that what he, I'm being released. Yes, released. But Ray Jennings' case was not officially closed. Though that day, it didn't seem to matter to Ray Jennings and the Ehrlichs. Here's Clint Ehrlich.

It was overwhelming. Didn't feel real. It's got to be one of the defining moments of your life, one of the important defining moments. I will never forget it. In fewer than seven swift minutes, Jennings' sentence of 40 years to life suddenly ended.

Anything further we need to do, Mr. Grace? Nothing further, Your Honor. Nothing further, Your Honor. Fair enough. Nothing further, Your Honor. Thank you for sitting here. Thank you very much. The DA's letter had slashed the prosecution's own circumstantial case against Ray Jennings to shreds,

and it all fluttered down like weightless white ribbons to the ground. This is Jeff Ehrlich. Getting someone who was innocent, who should not have been convicted, and getting the system to acknowledge that and let him out is an amazing feeling. One person.

You've got to start with one person, Keith. But joy on one side of the courtroom was matched by its opposite on the other. To the O'Keeffs, it was as if the world around them had gone mad. Release Jennings? But surely he was guilty. As guilty now as ever,

nothing in their long and terrible experience could prepare them for this abomination. Mike O'Keefe held an impromptu press conference just outside the courtroom. Do you have no doubt that he killed your daughter? I have nothing that can show me, prove to me otherwise at this time. Nobody showed me anything otherwise that he wasn't at least involved. This thing's went through three trials.

Over 30 jurors found this guy guilty. And then this little unit can kind of go in and kind of ad hoc without anything really solid to say, hey, we want to release him. It goes completely against our whole judicial system in the United States, in my opinion. Pretty harsh words. And I'm a pretty pissed off dad. We're the parents. We're Michelle's mom and dad.

I said, well, if you're going to release him, why and why can't you tell us what the evidence is? And they said, no, we can't tell you. I go, it doesn't make sense. As the O'Keefe's talked, a bailiff escorted an overwhelmed Ray Jennings into a hallway behind the courtroom, waiting for something. Was this real Or was he dreaming? And so I just remember leaning against the wall. And as I was in prayer, an overwhelming, still, small voice came across me again and said, You'll be released from here. And it was just as clear as day. And then, the moment.

The bailiff came back. She had the clothes that I had left prison with. She had them in her hand. And at that time, man, it's time to go. Time to go. Raymond Jennings took his first unshackled steps outside, escorted by three deputy sheriffs. They were Jennings' protectors now.

Go ahead and step to the left so I can walk by. Thank you. He climbed the steps to the sidewalk wearing the farthest thing from prison clothes you could imagine. Untucked t-shirt over baggy, sparkling white basketball shorts and white sneakers. How did it feel, Mr. Jennings? Reporters surrounded him. He hurried past to follow Clint Ehrlich to their waiting car. Clint, who carried

a cardboard file box, everything Ray Jennings owned, inside it. He moved away then, moved as soon as he could, back home to North Carolina, far, far away from the Antelope Valley, and the terrible events that had stolen so many years of his life. Well, well, well. How you doing?

Good to see you. Well, well, well. How you doing? How you doing? Good to see you. And that is where, after all those years of reporting, I finally sat down with Ray Jennings, free man. What's it like to be in this situation you're in now? What does it feel like? It's surreal. Shocking. Adjusting.

I mean, you carry yourself in a completely different way inside versus outside. Absolutely. Are you angry? Not angry. I hold no anger, no bitterness. There's no place for it. Is that real or is that kind of just something you pretend? No, that's absolutely real. And if you spend enough time around me, you'll see for yourself that there is none of that.

And then he showed me photographs of his family. His eldest daughter had never been able to make the trip from North Carolina to visit her dad behind bars way out in California. So this was the first time they had all been together since the day he was arrested 11 years earlier. You can hear a lot in a few words. So these are my two oldest right here. This is Brianna. She's here. And this is Ruben, Gabriel, Colonia, and Xavier. So of course, she's the baby. They're a fine looking bunch. And so it's all good with them, huh? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

This was the first time they've been together in over 11 years. They're joyful that their daddy is home. And I'm, you know, I can't, you know, hey, I missed my kids. Yeah. And now they know. Yeah. Now they know. A few months after Ray Jennings' release,

there was another hearing in Judge Ryan's courtroom. Ray Jennings wasn't there, didn't have to be. And yet the result of that hearing was to make him whole again. With a simple declaration, Judge Ryan wiped the record clean. He declared Ray Jennings a factually innocent man. But that wasn't all that happened that month. Judge Ryan asked two deputy DAs and two homicide detectives to join him in his chambers. What was said there remained a secret.

Until now. When a man convicted of murder is declared factually innocent, it leads quite naturally to an important question. If not him, then who? That question was at the very heart of the letter from Chief Deputy D.A. Spillane. As you're about to hear, it revealed potential new suspects in great detail without naming them. The untold story goes all the way back in time to that cold, windy night in the park and ride. It starts with another young woman. We've met her before. Her name is Victoria Richardson. She was 17 years old back then, and she was parked just a few spaces away from Michelle's blue Mustang, smoking marijuana and listening to music with two of her friends. Victoria,

you may remember, testified for the prosecution in Ray Jennings' first trial as a witness. Now, years later, the CRU had uncovered more information about Richardson and the others in her car that night. Here's what they found. Victoria was a hardcore member of the Flushing 50s Bloods gang, with an extensive rap sheet that included assault with a deadly weapon. For years, the Bloods and their rivals the Crips had been the scourge of L.A.,

drive-by shootings, murders by the score. The CRU looked hard at the interview she'd had with the police. It took place a few weeks after Michelle was murdered, and Victoria Richardson was arrested on a quite separate charge. The CRU discovered she had actually given investigators the name of a particular male passenger in her car, referred to in the DA's letter as John Doe. According to the CRU,

he was young, 18 years old, same as Michelle O'Keefe. But he, like Victoria, was a member of the Flushing 50s Bloods gang, and he'd already established a reputation for committing carjackings with a 9mm pistol,

just like the gun that killed Michelle. When he read the DA's letter, Clint Ehrlich was struck by several things. Well, there's a lot of evidence. First, you'd look at his list of priors. The fact that he'd been violent towards women before and had pistol whipped one. The fact that he had committed home invasion robberies and carjackings. And there was more.

The fact that he was found with an earring that matched the description of an earring taken from Michelle O'Keefe. And then I think, most importantly, that there's ballistics evidence showing a very particular defect in the shell casings that were ejected from the weapon used to kill Michelle O'Keefe that happened to match the shell casings found at a crime scene that appeared to be connected to John Doe. Again, John Doe, meaning that 18-year-old felon in the car with Victoria Richardson. Investigators working with the CRU talked to him.

He denied ever getting out of Victoria's car at the park and ride. He also was given a polygraph test and he passed. But the CRU discovered he'd been convicted of one carjacking a few months after Michelle's murder and was linked to a second. What kind of car was that? A Mustang. And he asked the victim if it was a manual or an automatic. Clint Ehrlich has a theory about why he asked that question. It appeared that he didn't know how to drive a stick. And so he was very interested in whether they were automatics or not. And so the detectives always acted as if it was mysterious why Michelle's manual Mustang hadn't been taken, but that would be one clue. Because he didn't know how to drive it. Because

he didn't know how to drive it. And then also because he had put bullet holes in it and blood in it. That's another fact that I think was sort of overlooked in the initial investigation. They acted as if it was mysterious. Why didn't he just drive it away? Well, because it was evidence of a murder. Then there was the weird business of the color, the blue Mustang. Those were the waning days of the LA gang wars, when just being in blue, the color of the crypts could get you shot by the bloods. Anyway, in spite of all that, Sheriff's detectives, including Longshore, appeared to ignore the violent young carjacker, and they followed instead something else said by Victoria Richardson

about somebody else altogether. Ray Jennings told us about that. What'd she tell Detective Harris? That she had witnessed out of her rearview mirror a Toyota Tercel drive by with a white male occupant with a tank top and a red hat turned to the side. Well, well, well. Another witness. Another witness. A witness or a participant, I wonder?

You and me both. It was a strange story, the alleged sighting by Victoria of the guy in the red cap. Ray was there, remember, and he said he never saw such a thing. But Victoria's story, true or not, caught the attention of sheriff's detectives because they'd heard about a redhat guy who drove a similar car and happened to be wingman to a local drug dealer. Did that mean the drug dealer was also in the park and ride? They couldn't nail that down, but the detectives did hear rumors that Michelle O'Keefe may have encountered that drug dealer. Even though they occupied different worlds, they may have crossed paths of the same parties.

And they heard that the drug dealer boasted of committing the murder. But when they found him and brought him in, he denied he ever said that. And neither his DNA nor Victoria's story could put him at the crime scene. And the trail fizzled out. Here's Michael Keefe. Well, this is something that Detective Longshore, the evening after he finished interviewing

him, it was a Saturday evening, and he came to the house. And he says, you're going to hear some grumblings about this guy and that he was involved and did it. But he says, we interviewed him, and I'm here to tell you he's not the guy. Besides, by then, Longshore and others

were focused almost entirely on their theory that Raymond Jennings, who seemed to know too much, had to be the guilty party. Two stories, two potential suspects, one overlooked altogether. Those were the stories the detectives and prosecutors told Judge Ryan in his chambers around the time Ray Jennings was finally declared innocent. That was the secret we promised to reveal. Dateline has obtained an unsealed court transcript of that meeting.

And for the first time, we're revealing the names of the two potential suspects they discussed. They are gang member Andrew Stewart, then 18 years old. Victoria Richardson told investigators he was in her car that night. They referred to him as John Doe. And the second one? Brian Kellogg, the drug dealer detectives believed may have been at the park and ride that night. Curiously, as the transcript reveals, the detectives seem most interested in the drug dealer, Kellogg. Clint Ehrlich.

If you listen to the detectives in that unsealed document, they want very badly to believe that somehow that was Brian Kellogg. Is there any established evidence to show a connection between Brian Kellogg and Michelle O'Keefe? I only know what is in that unsealed transcript where they talk about the investigation placing them in the same circles, that there were, it sounded like to me, very weak rumors trying to connect them together. And again, Keith, everything that I've seen has indicated that Michelle O'Keefe was a really good person and a good girl. And it really bothers me that they're straining to make it seem like somehow she was

involved in the drug trade. Still, CRU investigators did find evidence Kellogg was abusive towards women. And they heard those local rumors, though never confirmed, that Michelle may have crossed paths with him. Also curiously, in that sealed meeting, Andrew Stewart, the carjacking gangbanger, was mentioned relatively little. By the way, we reached out to Andrew Stewart, haven't heard back. But then the hearing ended, and Michelle's murder remained unsolved. And then the courtroom door closed and the trail ended, and that was six years ago. To date, there's been no update from the DA. The O'Keiths did not

hear a word from anyone about any of it. And then, just in recent weeks, as we prepared our story, a new prosecutor was assigned to the case. But he or she will encounter a surprise just like we did. It was a twist we didn't see coming. As we prepared this story, this final episode, we called the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. We asked about a drug dealer named Brian Kellogg, who was in prison at the time. We were curious.

Would he be getting out of prison anytime soon? Oh, you don't have to worry about him, they told us. Brian Kellogg had just died the night before we called. He was 45 years old. Natural causes, they said. He'd been in the hospital. Now, whatever he may have known

about the murder of Michelle O'Keefe is lost forever in his grave. Andrew Stewart, however, is very much alive. He is currently serving a 31-year sentence for a carjacking committed six months after Michelle's murder. He might have come up for parole soon. Except, violent offenses committed while in prison extended his sentence by years. He is stuck on stupid, said a prison official familiar with his case. His current release date is November 2032.

Clint Ehrlich has his own theory about why the DA has been so tight-lit about Andrew Stewart and the status of the investigation. They would have to acknowledge that they knew that this individual was present at the crime scene and they didn't even interview him. And the degree of embarrassment from that is such that I think they just don't want to touch it. This is Raymond Jennings. Do you think the person who actually did it will be caught?

Absolutely. What makes you say that? It's going to happen. You have information? I just know that there was other people in that parking lot that night. That's all I know. Clint Ehrlich, who happened to cross our Dateline story about Michelle all those years ago, is officially

a lawyer now. He was sworn in by Conviction Review Unit Director Ken Lynch in the same L.A. courtroom where Ray Jennings was set free. Will you please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I Clinton Edward Ehrlich Quinn. Clinton Edward Ehrlich Quinn. The biggest tragedy in all of this is the death of Michelle O'Keefe. Ray Jennings lost 11 years of his life. Michelle O'Keefe lost her entire life. And I've met her father. He's a gracious man, and he deserves the solace of knowing who killed his daughter. He's still not sure that your thinking has been correct, is he? He has been told many things that are false by the sheriff's department, by the Sheriff's Department, by the prosecution. And so I don't expect him to uncritically accept this new outcome, this new twist. It's a twist, all right.

It's my hope that we'll be able to build a strong enough case. Well, I should say. It's my hope that there will be strong enough evidence against the real killer that Mr. O'Keefe and Mrs. O'Keefe will come to accept that Ray Jennings is innocent. The experience also changed Jeff Ehrlich. You know, on any given day, there are probably, I don't know, well over 2 million people behind bars in America. You've spent a long time and a terrific amount of effort and your own money to right what you perceive as wrong with one of them. Right.

And yet it seems to me like it has given you more pleasure than anything I can imagine. It has given me more pleasure as a lawyer than anything I've ever done. And it rates for me with the kind of personal milestones that of getting married, having your children born, things like that. I get to see little ripples. I'm at the center, along with Clint and Ken Lynch and the CRU, of we did something good for Ray Jennings. And now the ripples of good, you know, go out. Ray Jennings is family to the Ehrlichs now. When Ray got married exactly a year after his release,

the Ehrlichs were there to witness it. Ray himself officiated at the wedding of Jeff Ehrlich's youngest son. And Ray is forever grateful to Clint, who noticed, but no one else did, that something didn't look right and did something about it. This is a friend for life. He is part of my extended family now. All of them, his family included, everybody. They have, you know, changed my life. In a small town in North Carolina, a world away from L.A. and the Antelope Valley, Ray Jennings is a manager of an auto parts store, and he enjoys life.

Lessons learned. It never dawned on me to ask for an attorney. It never dawned on me that these people were going to use, you know, things that you have said or helped with against you later on in life. You know, I've always had a lot of respect for law enforcement and what they do, and come to find out, you know, it's not all, you know, sugars and cookies, I guess, if that's how you want to say it. Why did you tell them so much? You know, there's a preconceived notion about security guards, and I didn't want to fit that model.

What do you mean, preconceived notion? Oh, you know, you see them in the movies and, you know, they're just portrayed in a very dumb, ignorant fashion. And I didn't want to be perceived as a man. All you can get is this basic security job and things like that. So I took on the role of playing Dr. Doogie Howser and Inspector Gadget, per se. You wanted to be extra helpful. I did want to be extra helpful, and that's pretty much what it was. It was nothing mischievous about it.

It was just simple, a young man, very immature in his time, wanting to impress the detectives or whoever else was out there. And by the way, Raymond Jennings told us he never laid his hands on civil attorney Rex Paris' neck, as Paris told us he had in that deposition, never harmed a hair on his head. And you're not bitter for the loss of those 16 years? No, I'm not bitter. You know, like I said, I have moved forward in my life. I moved forward in prison, and I now move forward outside of prison. Again, the choice is yours.

And back where it all happened, back in the Antelope Valley, Mike and Pat O'Keefe still can't quite believe that Ray Jennings did not kill their daughter and thus start the chain of terrible events that destroyed their family. Mike O'Keefe is a kind man and talkative himself, like Ray Jennings. Of all the things Mike O'Keefe told me over the years, I love the story he told me the first time we met 14 years ago.

This was before the divorce with Pat, before Michelle's little brother Jason died. It was about a kind word from a co-worker. She came to me just the other day

and said, you know, I was at the Emerald Valley graduation ceremony when you and your wife and son received her diploma. She said, I knew from then on I was a role model. And she said it was not only a role model for me, I use Michelle as a role model for my kids now as well. So in that sense, it helps. And she's still fulfilling some kind of rule even 10 years after she died i think so yeah she's touched many people's lives

how much does that live with you now how much does she live with you now she's lived with us she's in our hearts every day. Yeah, every day. Once there was a smart and pretty girl with a shiny blue Mustang and a whole new life ahead of her. You can't ever, ever forget me, okay? Because I know I'll never, ever forget you. And a younger brother named Jason, who made a promise at her funeral. I will love you forever, and I'll see you in heaven when it's my time to go. Love, your brother Jason. And if there is a heaven, perhaps they're there. Spirits catching updrafts in the high desert.

The Girl in the Blue Mustang is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Scott Fraser is the producer. Brian Drew, David Varga, and John Koster are audio editors. Thomas Kemmen is assistant audio editor. Keone Reed is associate producer. Adam Gorfain is co-executive producer. Liz Cole is executive producer. And David Corvo is senior executive producer.

From NBC News Audio, Bryson Barnes is Technical Director, sound mixing by Bob Mallory. Dina Bisbano is Associate Producer.