Going West: True Crime - Michael Morton // 59

Episode Date: February 27, 2020

In 1986, a 31 year old Texan woman was brutally murdered in her bed while home alone with her 3 year old son. Police immediately began to suspect her husband who had written her an angry note before leaving for work that morning. After weeks of questioning him and interrogating their loved ones, he was arrested for her murder. But years later, his attorney motioned to get the DNA tested since technology was better because he truly believed in his wife’s innocence. Once tested, the results were mixed. So, did this man kill his wife? Or was an innocent man put away for life? This is the murder of Christine Morton and the story of Michael Morton. _________ Audible is the leading provider of audiobooks and audio entertainment so you can listen to audiobooks, memoirs, the news, podcasts, theatrical performances, and plenty of other awesome content from your smartphone or tablet. Plus, you can download your favorite reads to enjoy offline- so you can listen anywhere, anytime! If you've been putting off reading because of lack of time, here's your chance to change that. Explore the thousands of titles available on Audible today while you clean the house, cook, drive, or just while you're relaxing at home! Visit audible.com/goingwest or text goingwest to 500-500 to get your free audiobook today! _______ BetterHelp is an online counseling service that connects you with professional counselors in a private online environment at an affordable cost. Going West listeners get 10% off their first month of BetterHelp using code GOINGWEST. Visit betterhelp.com/goingwest and simply fill out the questionnaire to help them assess your need and match you with your perfect counselor. Try BetterHelp today! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on through Cram fans? I'm your host Heath and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. Before we get to the shout outs, we want to let everybody know that we just released a brand new episode on Patreon. Patreon is where we release bonus episodes monthly along with other really fun bonus content. So go check that out patreon.com slash going west podcast. That's P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash going west podcast. Yeah, and in the latest episode, we talk about the sunset strip killing. So make sure you go over there and check that out.

Those killings took place in the 1980s by a killer couple. So you definitely want to hear that episode. And we have 10 bonus episodes out right now. They come out every month. We're actually releasing another one this week. So check it out. So let's get to these shout outs. Thank you so much to Zyla from Kentucky, Danny from New Bedford, and Vanessa in San Diego, California.

And thank you so much to Rachel from Portland, Maine, and Misty from Indiana, and Kathy from O'Clayer, Wisconsin. Big thanks to Rachel and Puebla West Colorado, Melissa and Peoria Illinois, and Crystal and Alabama. Thank you so much to Audrey from Memphis Lakes, California, Samantha from East Lansing, Michigan, and Marlow from Alabama. And then we have Jordan from Tuston, California, Kaitlyn from Philadelphia, and Carrie from Methuen, Massachusetts. Thank you so much to Kim from Texas, Yessie from Phoenix, Arizona, and Whitney from Gateuen, Massachusetts. Thank you so much to Kim from Texas, Yesi from Phoenix, Arizona, and Whitney from Gate City, Virginia. And then we have Stacey and Nicholas from Oklahoma,

Rosalind from Adelaide, Australia, Curtis from Kesswick, Ontario, Canada, and Riley from Calgary, Alberta. Big thanks to Janice from Australia, Graham from Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada, Tara from Sydney, Australia, and Katie from England. And last but not least, big thanks to Barbara and Australia, Cat Atomic and Alberta Canada, and Lynn and Singapore. And then thank you so much to all of our new patrons who joined us this week over at patreon.com slash going west podcast. Thank you so much to Robert,

Crystal, Emily, Samantha, Morgan, Miranda, Allison, Aaron, Sienna, Jerry, Tara, and Isabella. Hope you guys like the bonus episodes, and thank you so much for joining us. Yes, thank you so much for supporting the show. You really helped keep this show going. So without further ado, today we have a very interesting case. Unlike any case we've done before, this is episode 59 of Going West. So let's get into it. In 1986, a third of the world's most famous artists were the most famous artists in the world.

The film was the first film to be released in the world. The film was the first film to be released in the world. The film was the first film to be released in the world. In 1986, a 31-year-old Texan woman was brutally murdered in her bed while home alone with her three-year-old son. Police immediately began to suspect her husband, who had written an angry note to her before leaving for work that morning. After weeks of questioning him and interrogating their loved ones, he was arrested for her murder.

But years later, his attorney motion to get the DNA found at the crime scene tested since technology was much better than he truly believed in his clients' innocence. Once tested, the results were mixed. So did this man kill his wife or was an innocent man put away for life? This is the murder of Christine Morton was born on August 12, 1954 in Texas to Patricia and Billy Morton, but he and his family moved to California when Michael was very young due to his father Billy's job with an oil field service company. After spending much of his upbringing across Southern California, the Mortons moved back

to Texas and settled into the small town of Kilgore, where Michael finished out his junior and senior year of high school. After he graduated, he began studying at Steven F. Austin, State University in Nakadochis, which is about an hour south of where his family home was. Michael was known to be handsome and very friendly, but a little bit shy. And in 1976, when Michael was 22 years old,

he met a woman named Christine Kirkpatrick. Christine Kirkpatrick was born on April 18, 1955, so just a year after Michael, in a suburb in Houston, Texas. She had a brother named John and a younger sister named Mary Lee, and they all attended Catholic school where Christine was a very well-liked student and even a member of the drill team. Growing up, Christine found it easy to make friends because she was very smart but had a great sense of humor as well. She was very cunning and witty. After graduating high school, Christine also went to study at Steven F. Austin State University, where in 1976, while in psychology class, a guy tried to hit on her. She saw right through him and she shut him down, which gave the

guy's roommate a pretty good laugh. The roommate was Michael Morton, and he knew right then and there that Christine was something special. So they started to talk, and he asked her out on a date, to which she said yes. He borrowed his friend's corvette and took her out, and they really hit it off. But she was more into him at first, and wanted to keep seeing him. Him being a 22-year-old man, he didn't know if he was ready to commit, but he was falling for her. So, things got serious between them.

The following year, Michael dropped out of Stephen F. Austin State University and enrolled at the University of Texas in Austin to finish out his degree. Christine went with him but quickly learned that a lot of their credits wouldn't transfer over, so they just stopped attending college altogether and Michael got a night job at their local Safeway grocery store. Michael and Christine still had a lot of fun together and tried to make the best of things. Their favorite thing to do was go over to Lake Travis, which is a beautiful reservoir just outside of Austin, where they could water ski and scuba dive with friends.

They bickered and fought like any couple, but at the end of the day, they were laughing and making amends. They were both known to be very confrontational about things, so nothing was hidden and nothing was off the table, which actually made their relationship much more successful because they talked about everything and communicated constantly about what they were thinking. In 1979, so three years after meeting, when they were 24 and 25, Michael and Christine got married and had a beautiful wedding in Houston, Texas, surrounded by family and friends. Afterwards, they honeymooned at Disney World.

As they started their life together, they bought a house on Hazelhurst Drive in Austin. And at this time, Michael was now manager at the Safeway Grocery Store and Christine was a manager at Allstate Insurance. So things were going pretty well for them. But in 1981, they found out Christine was pregnant and they were overjoyed. Just to be heartbroken when she miscarried four and a half months into her pregnancy, she later told family that she wouldn't have been able to survive the loss if it weren't for Michael helping her through it, and really being there for her.

Less than two years later, they again were expecting a baby. And although she was worried she would miscarry again, she had a wonderful pregnancy with absolutely no issues. And in the summer of 1983, their son Eric was born. But just an hour after he was born, the doctors informed them that Eric had immense health issues. The biggest problem at hand was an abnormality in his esophagus, which doctors needed to operate on immediately. A couple weeks later, while Eric was still in the hospital, they found that he had a congenital heart defect, which made it difficult for his blood to receive enough oxygen. So this was all very devastating for Michael and Christine.

Because of their successful pregnancy, they were under the impression that everything would be fine, and now they were dealing with heartache all over again. The doctors even told them that they didn't believe Eric would live long enough to be an adult, so they suggested open heart surgery. They just couldn't do it until Eric was a little bit bigger. Him being just a few weeks old, he was way too small and fragile to perform

such a surgery. So the doctors told them to come back when he was around three years old, so they could carry out the surgery and help him lead a normal life. Christine and Michael did their best to care for him at their own home until then. They noticed that Eric ran out of energy quickly and would sometimes even turn blue if he exerted too much energy. But as time went on, they felt comfortable enough leaving Eric at daycare and with a babysitter, even though they always pretty much were worried when they did this, which put a lot of stress on their relationship. In June 1986, Christine and Michael took Eric to the hospital

in Houston for his open heart surgery. He was almost three years old at this time and he would be spending three weeks in the hospital. So both Christine and Michael had to take time off of work. Luckily, the surgery went great and it made a drastic difference for Eric. He had significantly more energy and was such a happy blonde, rosy, cheeked baby boy, so things were actually looking up. About six weeks later,

it was Michael's 32nd birthday. Christine, Michael, and their son, Eric all went to a cool restaurant in downtown Austin called City Grill, where they shared an amazing meal with lots of laughs. When they got home, they put Eric to sleep and Michael put on an adult film to try and get Christine in the mood. Since they hadn't been really intimate in some time and with everything they had been going through with their son. But Christine quickly fell asleep in the living room, which didn't make Michael too happy. So he went to bed alone, leaving her be.

When she eventually woke up and wandered into bed, she kissed Michael and promised him that they'd try again tomorrow night. The next morning was Wednesday, August 13, 1986. Michael got up and made himself something for breakfast, as usual, before heading off to work. But before leaving, he wrote Christine a note. It read, Chris, I know you didn't mean to, but you made me feel really unwanted last night. After a good meal, we came home, you binged on the rest of the cookies, then, with your night

gown around your waist, and while I was rubbing your hands and arms, you fell asleep. I'm not mad or expecting a big production, I just wanted you to know how I feel without us getting into another fight about sex. Just think how you might feel if you were left hanging on your birthday. I love you, M. That morning, Michael left the house a little after 5.30am and clocked into Safeway at 6.05am. The rest of the day was normal for him. He talked to his co-worker about scuba diving, which was a major interest of his, and they even made plans to go the following day. Later that day around 2pm, he left work to run a few errands before heading over to daycare to pick up Eric, which was his usual daily routine. But when he got to the daycare

around 3.30pm, the babysitter was incredibly confused since Eric hadn't come in that day. Michael picked up the phone on the wall to call the house. He assumed something must have happened if Eric wasn't dropped off that morning. When he called his house hoping to speak to his wife Christine, a man answered the phone. He stated that he was the sheriff. And when Michael asked what was going on and why he was at the house, the sheriff didn't give him any details.

He only told him to come home immediately. And what a scary thing to hear on the phone. You're not getting any details, which I mean makes sense. You're not gonna give bad news over the phone. But Michael was a few minutes away. I think it was like a 10 minute drive back to the house. And he just sped there because he's just like what happened? Every scenario is running

through your head. And when he got to his house, he saw multiple police cars outside and the whole place was blocked off with yellow caution tape. So now he's freaking out. And he ran up to his front door only to be stopped by police. He then stated that he was the owner of the house and asked if his son was okay. You know, Michael initially thought that something had happened with Eric since he had health issues, but the sheriff told him that Eric was with the neighbors. Michael then asked if his wife was okay. The sheriff replied in a very straightforward manner with, she's dead. Michael went into the house to see photographers

and police officers all around the home. He assumed his wife had been killed because he couldn't think of any other way that she would be dead, so he asked if she'd been murdered, which the police, of course, found to be suspicious. The sheriff told him that, yes, she'd been killed, but they didn't know much else. Around three hours earlier, the Morton's neighbor called police after she saw Eric in his

front yard all by himself. Him being only three, the neighbor knew that he had gotten outside somehow, and that something might be wrong. So she went into the house and called out for Christine, but there was no answer. She walked around the house and eventually into Christine and Michael's bedroom when she came across Christine's lifeless body on her bed. Her comforter laid across her face and there was a laundry hamper along with the suitcase on top of her. The room was covered in blood because she had suffered eight blows to the head. When

her neighbor came upon this scene, she immediately called 911. Because of the fact that her body was covered up, the police began to believe that someone close to her had murdered her. More specifically, her husband Michael. This factor, along with the note he left her, raised red flags for those investigating this crime. On top of this, Michael didn't show much emotion when learning about his wife's death, which I think we've all learned not to judge the way that someone reacts to bad news because

everybody reacts differently. So police began to believe that Michael killed her out of anger since their relationship hadn't been doing well. Especially since there was no sign of forced entry, nor a break-in, it seemed like a no-brainer. It's important to note though that the sliding glass door in the dining room was left unlocked. Christine's purse was also missing from the home, but her wedding band and engagement ring, along with other valuables,

were sitting on her nightstand. Police brought Michael down for a proper interrogation down at the station. They asked him exactly what he had done that day, and he gave them every single detail. They asked him if he had any complications in his marriage, and if he'd been seeing anyone else. At this point, Michael was getting the feeling like they were suspecting him of committing this crime. He told them flat out, he did not kill his wife. After they were done questioning him, he went to his neighbor's home to pick up his son, Eric. The moment Eric ran into his arms, he broke down into tears. That was when everything that had happened that day finally hit him.

Yet another thing that wearded police out was that night, Michael and Eric stayed in their home, where Christine had been murdered hours earlier. He slept in Eric's bed with him with nearly every light on in the house. At this point, there were no other suspects and Michael apparently had no idea who had been in his house earlier that day. But the next day, the police got a very interesting tip from the neighbors. So before that break, Heath was telling us that the police got a tip from the neighbors. A man who lived a few doors down from the Mortons told a sheriff's deputy that his wife and

another neighbor had noticed a man in a green van parking behind the Mortons house on multiple different occasions, and it had occurred recently. They had even seen this man get out of the van and walk up to the Morton's fence. The deputy assured the neighbors that they basically had nothing to worry about and insinuated that Michael was the man they were looking into. So the deputy didn't even act on this tip or look into it in any way because he was very confident that they had enough on Michael already, but the neighbors weren't too sure.

They hadn't thought much about the van at the time of the sightings, but now it seemed incredibly suspicious, as if someone had been watching the house and planning an attack. Especially since they had seen this van early in the morning before Christine was killed. So the neighbors made sure to call the police and give them this information as well to ensure that it was checked up on. It wasn't. The day after Christine was murdered, her brother John had been looking around the property to see if he could find anything.

And the same wooded area behind the house where the neighbors had seen the green van, John found a blue bandana lying on the ground, the neighbors had seen the green van, John found a blue bandana lying on the ground, and it had blood on it. He turned it into the sheriff's office who filed it under evidence. But they didn't go back and search the area for any further evidence because they found some other interesting evidence at the time as well. A medical examiner had determined that Christine was killed between 1am and 6am, and he was able to tell based on the analysis done on Christine's stomach in the partially digested food found. And remember, Michael had left the house around 5.30am for work. And

this, by the way, is not an exact science. It wasn't considered one then, and it isn't considered one now. Since everybody's bodies digest food and run differently, you can't accurately determine time of death solely based on this one determination. Seaman was found on the bed, but Christine was not sexually assaulted, so please believe that Michael had killed her that morning in a rage. Since this was just 1986, they were not able to test the semen for a DNA match. So they just went with their gut feeling on this one based on the circumstantial evidence at hand. Days after Christine was murdered, a funeral was held in her hometown of Houston where her family, as well as Michael, were just beside themselves.

Police continued to question Michael and Christine's friends who stated that they firmly believed Michael was not involved. None of them could ever see him doing anything like that to her. They fought like any other couple and at the very least, he would never hurt the mother of his child, let alone the love of his life. There was just no mode of there. Michael had taken two polygraph tests after Christine's murder, and he passed them both.

But police continued to question him and search his home in car. There was no blood found on any of Michael's belongings or in his car, so they still didn't have any physical evidence that Michael had committed the crime against his wife. It was soon discovered that three-year-old Eric had witnessed the attack. He told his grandmother that there had been a man with a mustache in the house. When asked if his dad was home, Eric said no. And by the way, Michael did have a mustache at this time. Rita, Christine's mom, asked Eric if the man wore gloves and Eric said yes, red.

Eric was taking the whole thing really hard. Although he was too young to fully understand what happened to his mother, he was experiencing severe separation anxiety from her and began seeing a child therapist. A few weeks later, Michael was scrubbing the bathroom clean to get any sign of death out of his home. Although he was still grieving, he knew he had to be strong for his son and help them both move forward. Then Eric came into the bathroom and apparently said, Daddy, do you know the man who was in

the shower with his clothes on? Michael said he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew that Eric must have been indicating to the man who had killed Christine, but Michael didn't tell this to police. And Michael later discussed that the reason he didn't tell police about this is because he didn't want them like berating and questioning his son who was so young and he just didn't want his son to be involved in this at all. Even though this is a pretty good piece of information, but again, the only person that could corroborate what Eric said is Michael. So it's kind of biased since Michael

is a suspect in the murder. And now he's saying, my son said this. And the police can say, okay, well, why are we supposed to believe that? Right. And I totally understand why Michael didn't want to give this information to police, but I don't know if it would have helped or not.

On September 25, 1986, so around six weeks after Christine's murder, Michael was making dinner for him and Eric when he heard the doorbell ring. He didn't know who it could be so he grabbed Eric and put him on his hip as he opened the door. To his surprise, it was the police. And they were there to arrest him. Michael's response was, you've got to be kidding me. The sheriff took Eric out of his arms while another officer handcuffed him. As Michael was being walked to the police car, he turned around to see his son crying, which he said was the most difficult part of his arrest.

Over the next week, Michael sat in the county jail until he was released on bond. Michael went back home with Eric in his care and tried to resume his life as normal with his manager job at Safeway and now single father status that he had. Tell us trial which would take place months later. There were many people in town who were still skeptical, including some of his neighbors and co-workers, but many people were very supportive of him, fully believing in his innocence. Michael put his house up for sale because of all the harassment and the bad memories, but he found it much more difficult to sell than he imagined.

No one was buying the house, most likely because of the recent tragic history attached to it. Tuesday, February 10, 1987, is when Michael's trial began. He was fully confident that he would not be found guilty of this crime, so he didn't even pack up his house or make arrangements for Eric. He knew that he didn't do it and he felt everyone would feel the same way, especially because they were going off circumstantial evidence. The state of Texas weighed heavily on the assumption that Christine died around 130 a.m. They discovered that she had eaten dinner around 9 p.m. so the medical examiner made it seem

that she would have had to have died around 130 a.m. but years later he recanted this because like he said, this was not an exact sign, so he was just telling the courtroom she had to have died at 130 and the only person who was with Christine in the middle of the night was Michael. They also discussed the letter of Michael left Christine on the morning of her murder about how she had made him feel unwanted the night before. And the state told the courtroom that Michael clearly was angry with Christine and had killed her in a rage.

During the trial, District Attorney Ken Anderson stated, he had rented a videotape, a very sexually explicit videotape, and he viewed that sexually explicit videotape and got matter and matter. He got some sort of blunt object, probably a club, and he took that club and he went into the bedroom and he beat his wife repeatedly to death. Ken Anderson also told the court that he tried to stage a burglary and only wrote the note to her to act as though he had left for work while she was alive. Again, since he had no physical evidence, everything he said was purely speculation. He tried to paint a picture that Michael hated his

wife and therefore wanted her dead. They also discussed the seamen found on the bed and how it contained the same blood type as Michael's, and that was the best they could do as far as DNA testing went. Mind you, they also found vaginal fluid on the bed, meaning the semen could have in fact been his, considering it was his bed. It could have been from a sexual encounter with his wife, Dave's prior. Yeah, it's like they're completely forgetting that this man and this woman lived in this room and that this was their bed. This is normal things that you will find in a couple's bed. Right, they're like, oh, we found semen and vaginal fluid on the bed. It's like, yeah, because they're fucking married.

The state also played the first couple minutes of the adult film that Michael had rented on his birthday, which again was the night before Christine's murder, and this only made Michael look worse. We don't know exactly what was in the video, but the jury, of course, didn't feel good about the whole thing after having seen it. But this video was shown and described in the same breath as a murder, so they started thinking of Michael as a sexual monster and sadist, assuming that he had committed the crime and gotten off on it. So this made him look really bad.

And this is so manipulative of the state to do to bring in this porn video while you're talking about the murder of a woman. Well exactly because they're trying to say, oh he was getting sexual pleasure from this crime, like, which is why everyone was thinking he was a sadist because, I mean, the thing was, is this video was rented the night before on his birthday when he was trying to be intimate with his wife. It had nothing to do with the crime that occurred the next morning,

but they were trying to connect them to make the jury believe this is something that Michael got off on and he committed the crime and he's this sex crazed maniac type of thing, but it's like everybody has sex. Are you serious? And this is the way that the courtroom works. The prosecution is trying to paint a picture, the defense is also trying to paint a picture, and it's whether or not the jury is going to believe which side.

The biggest problem though is that it was all circumstantial. So here's Kenna Anderson, the district attorney, shouting things at the jury that he's just thinking in his head. Michael did this, Michael did this, Michael did this. When none of it is factual, it's just what he's assuming from the scene of the crime and from knowing that Michael was angry when he left for work that day. Which isn't factual, so you can't really tell that to a jury, because then the jury is going to think that what you're saying is true even though you don't know if it is.

Exactly. And after a nearly two week long trial, the jury deliberated for just around about an hour. When they were done, they told the courtroom that they had found Michael Morton guilty of murdering his wife. Michael fell into his seat and disbelief and cried. His final words to the judge were, your honor, I didn't do this. At the age of 32, Michael was sentenced to life in prison. For the first few years of his prison life, he worked on the prison's farm.

And you'd think this might be like a nice prison job to have, but Michael said that it was brutal. You had to basically dig and do it at a certain pace in the horrible Texas heat, so he hated it, but he said he got into pretty good shape doing it. Meanwhile, there was a custody battle occurring outside those prison walls for a son Eric. After nearly a year of fighting for him, Michael's sister-in-law and Christine's only sister, single 26-year-old Mary Lee, gained custody and raised Eric and Houston with her mother Rita. The reason there was a custody battle is because Michael wanted his parents to care for his son. Before the decision was made, Michael wrote this letter to the judge.

Your honor, I will make this brief. I know you're a busy man. On October 5th, I will make this brief. I know you're a busy man. On October 5th, I will be standing before you again. This time, my sister-in-law, Mary Lee Kirkpatrick, will be trying to prevent me from ever seeing my son again. You have signed an order requiring me not to see my son until I appear before you. At which time, the final decision will be made. I'm asking you to let my son and I see each other one time for the following reasons. 1. The Innocent Until Proven Guilty Concept

2. My son has lost his mother also. 3. The length of time between your order and the trial date. 4. The psychological good that can come from the one surviving parent. And 5. I am innocent of the crime of murder. Because of this letter, the judge granted two visits a year between Michael and Eric. He also gave Michael's parents monthly visitation rights. Mary Lee went on to get married and have two children of her own, so Eric grew up with

siblings. Michael continued to file appeals, which were all denied because the system firmly believed in his guilt. But he still took every possible opportunity to prove his innocence. In the meantime, over the next several years, Michael took the time to study and finally obtained his bachelor's degree for psychology, followed by a master's in literature. In 2000, the Innocence Project started looking into Michael's case. The Innocence Project is a non-profit organization that helps exonerate people who are wrongly convicted for crimes that they didn't commit.

They proved such things through DNA testing, as well as helping pass laws to kick the justice system into better shape. Bill Allison, who was Michael's trial lawyer, had been the one to reach out to them because he believed that there was a severe injustice occurring with Michael's case. Another five years went by, but in 2005, a Houston Pro Bono civil attorney named John Rayleigh got together with the Innocence Project to file a motion. They wanted the DNA found at the crime scene tested.

Since they were now in the day of more advanced technology, they could potentially get an actual DNA match and either prove that the killer was indeed Michael Morton or that it was someone else entirely. Because of the recent technology, there was seven men in Texas alone that were exonerated in the 1990s. So this was obviously a very important step to making sure you had the right guy. But since Christine's case was closed, they never felt like it needed to be tested, which is why it's so important that there are people like the Innocence Project out there who

can get the ball rolling. The DNA that was present at the scene of Christine's murder was hair in her right hand, scrapings from Christine's fingernails, rape kit swabs, semen, and the bloody bandana, including hair on the bandana. In 2008, Ken Anderson, who remember is the county's district attorney, ruled that they would only be allowed to test the hair samples, fingernail scrapings, and the rape kit. The tests were ruled as inconclusive since only Christine's DNA was found and since the hair could have still technically been Michaels, so they kept him in prison. They also had previously tested the seamen found on the bed, which was found

to be Michaels. This took investigators back to their original theory that Michael had masturbated at the site of Christine's dead body, when in fact, as we said, vaginal fluid was also found. Meaning this more than likely actually came from the two having sex, previously probably days prior, not Michael masturbating at the scene. But they kept fighting. Michael's attorney appealed this and demanded that they test the bandana, but Ken Anderson didn't believe the bandana was relevant to the case at all, which is why he didn't think it should be tested. The bandana hadn't been

discussed in the trial barely at all, I think they only brought it up one time, and investigators had never even properly looked into it, since it had been found by John Kirkpatrick and not them, which means it technically could have been tampered with. But two years later and 23 years into micro-sentencing, the third court of appeals gave them the okay to test the bandana after factoring in that there was a footprint found in the backyard as well as unidentified fingerprints on the sliding door, proving that a stranger could have come in and left out the back, dropping the bandana on the way out, and this testing would change everything.

In 2011, a Dallas laboratory tested this bandana. It was a deep blue western looking bandana with the words Wrangler printed across it. Within a month, the testing had been completed and in June 2011, they announced that the blood found on the bandana proved to be that of Christine Mortons, as well as a strand of hair, with absolutely no traces of Michael. But that wasn't the only DNA on that bandana. There was also blood and hair of another man whose name had never been mentioned before in this case. A man who lived near the Morton home at the time of the murder and even had felony convictions in multiple states. His name was Mark Allen Norwood.

Mark Allen Norwood had a decorated criminal record, including breaking and entering, drug possession, resisting arrest, and even aggravated assault with intent to kill. He also had a very large mustache that connected to mutton chops, which is significant when you think back to when Eric said there had been a man

with a mustache in the house that morning. Nearly 25 years after Michael entered prison, he was told about the DNA found on the bandana. Although Michael was over the moon that they found something that could prove his innocence, he knew the fight wasn't over. Ken Anderson's office started doubting this evidence since it had been found nearly 100 yards from the actual crime scene as it was behind the Morton home in a wooded area. So it wasn't in their backyard, it wasn't in the house, it was off their property, but it still had a blood on it, so it's still relevant. Also if you really think about it, I mean this was found the day after the murder and what

are the chances that somebody else's blood would get on this random Bandana along with Christine's blood. I think that Ken was just grasping us draws here. Yeah, absolutely. And we're actually gonna get into that here in a minute. And this all was discovered after Michael spent nearly half his life in prison. Half his life dealing with aggressive inmates, unwanted fist fights, the inability to care for a son Eric and watch him grow up. He lived within four walls with no air conditioning in the Texas heat, as well as on a floor with 56 other men and just four toilets. Knowing he was innocent throughout this whole thing and feeling as though no one would ever believe him. Despite it all, Michael stayed positive in his letters to friends and family.

He was proud of his degrees and the knowledge that he had gained in prison. He was even writing a novel, but Michael would never get those years back. While imprisoned, Eric was raised in Houston, as we mentioned, believing that his father murdered his mother. He went to a private Catholic school, and in 1998, while at the age of 15, stopped visiting his dad all together. He completely cut ties, and this had just destroyed Michael at the time. Yeah, and when he turned 18, he actually changed his last name from Morton to Olsen, and

Olsen was the last name of the man who raised him. So in his eyes, his father was, had the last name Olsen. And that was what really upset Michael because he just felt like Eric was completely erasing the fact that he was his dad. Meanwhile, Eric, I mean, he kind of had no choice but to believe that his dad was guilty because Michael was in prison for it. He was raised by Christine's family who thoroughly believed that Michael was guilty because he was found guilty. And of course, Christine's family is going to be on the side of justice for Christine. So if the justice system said it was Michael, it was Michael in their eyes.

And Michael actually explained that the one thing that was keeping him going while in prison, the one thing that he could hold on to was the fact that he had a son. And now Eric is changing his name, so I can only imagine how terrible Michael feels, and he explains that this was one of the worst moments being inside. When they discovered Mark Allen Norwood's DNA on the bandana, Michael Morton's attorney's wife went online to try and see if there was any other cold cases in Austin around the time of Christine's murder. Just to see if this guy was a serial murderer or something like that, if there had been another crime, kind of just to help nail him even more. There was another murder that occurred about a year and a half after Christine's around

12 miles from the Morton's home. A 34-year-old woman named Deborah Baker, who resembled Christine in a lot of ways, had been brutally murdered in her bed after suffering six blows to her head. She also had a young child and was home alone at the time of this attack occurred. The sliding glass door in her home was also unlocked and her body had been covered with items just like Christine's had been covered

with a suitcase and a laundry basket. So there was an incredible amount of parallels in the two cases that somehow the police didn't connect sooner. And Debra Baker's case had gone unsolved, so she took the case to the Austin Police Department and laid out all the information and told them that she believed that it was Mark Norwood who committed this crime as well. And the police were shocked and they ran with this information. After testing the DNA at Deborah's crime scene,

it was a match. And by the way, this was a different police office than the one who had arrested Michael Morton-Jeris prior. So they arrested Mark Norwood for the murders of Christine Morton and Deborah Baker and released Michael Morton from prison on Monday, October 3, 2011. And during Michael's hearing, which lasted just a few minutes, it was very brief. The judge apologized to Michael and said, we don't have a perfect system of justice, but we have the best system of justice in the world. And even one of the jury members from his original trial had been there and apologized to him.

Before they arrested Mark Norwood, they had to find him, which proved to be a bit difficult, and they didn't want his name to get out to the media because he was a flight risk, so they were very stealthy with his arrest. They determined that Mark was out of police custody and living in Austin on the day of Christine's murder, and they also determined that he had owned a van, although it was registered to be a white van. So he definitely could have painted the van green and been watching Christine from behind her home like her neighbors had thought, but we can't confirm this. When they found him and arrested him for the murders, he stated his innocence, and he

still maintains it, even as mother Dorothy believes he is innocent of both crimes. In the 1980s, Mark Norwood was working as a dishwasher in Bastrop, Texas and was described to be a nice family man, but his brother called him a woodstock reject because he kind of looked like an old hippie. But actually, at the time of Christine's murder, he was the same age as them.

He was 32 years old. He grew up in California, France, and even Guam since his father worked for the Air Force before the family settled into Austin, Texas. Mark too joined the Air Force after dropping out of high school and even eventually moved to New York where he met his first wife. After he and his wife had a daughter and then divorced, he moved to New York where he met his first wife. After he and his wife had a daughter and then divorced, he moved to Nashville in 1980 where he met his second wife. And this is where his criminal record began with stolen property, arson, and aggravated assault with a weapon.

He and his second wife moved back to Austin in 1984, so two years before Christine's murder. The following year, they moved just two blocks away from where Deborah Baker lived. In 2013, Mark Norwood stood on trial for the murder of Christine Morton and he pleaded not guilty. But on March 27, 2013, he was found guilty of Baker's murder and he was also found guilty based on the DNA evidence provided. While in prison, he wrote a letter to the Austin Chronicle and asked them to publish it. It read, serial killer and a monster, but I'm not what they portray me to be. My family and I are among many others who have been victimized by a morally-debased criminal justice system here in Texas. It is often said, justice is blind, but it is also deaf, dumb, and crippled to a point

of being incapacitated from the neck up. Most people do not see a massive breakdown in the justice system, but it is definitely in trouble in a serious way. Michael Morton wrote a book and professed truth, innocence, and justice in it without knowing all of the hard facts. And the absence of hard facts, it leads to speculations and assumptions, which leads to false perceptions and interpretations. You are not supposed to draw to any conclusions until you have all the hard facts.

Little does anyone know, I was railroaded in Williamson County just like Michael Morton was back in 1986. Also, little does anyone know, my own defense attorney chose to withhold and conceal crucial and relevant evidence in my case and trial that resulted in my conviction in Williamson County. And there were many other improprieties that took place in my trial to substantiate my

conviction. I know the Baker family wants their day of justice to be served, and they want closure who wouldn't. But here again, little did they know, they have been misinformed and deceived by the law enforcement authorities of actual hard facts pertaining to their investigation in the case. Hopefully, these hard facts will come out in the trial. We'll see.

Some people think there is no such thing as coincidences, just different perspectives. From one perspective, a series of individual events could appear totally random. From another perspective, the events could emerge as parts to an overall pattern, and yet when viewed from a more cynical perspective, it could be perceived as just downright suspicious. So no matter how suspicious the evidence, and no matter how suspicious the circumstances, and there is absence of hard facts, it should not be substitution for evidence. Suspition is not conclusive, and suspicions aren't a long way from real proof. Thinking that someone did the crime or knowing someone did the crime is two different things.

When law enforcement authorities have to fabricate a case to convict someone that's crooked just in my book. How about your book? Justice can be arrived only by truth, not lies in the seat, that ignores truth and a court of law. The prosecution is having to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm guilty, and I'm having to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that I'm innocent. In reality, beyond a shadow of a doubt does not exist in a court of law anymore. There are no values attached to the prosecution, and they have little or no incentive to suffer a standard certainty.

If the hard facts are absent, the prosecution has to go by assuming, guessing, and speculating to produce hypothetical theories to make their case. So the bottom line is, the prosecution will have its way whether you're guilty or not, and people will let themselves be convinced of anything. And that's a hard fact. Ask Michael Morton. It's really frustrating that he's stating that he's innocent because we have DNA proof that he was at the scene of both crimes. And it's frustrating because Michael also stated he was innocent, and it's hard to know when to believe who. But based on his criminal record and the very apparent DNA found at both crime scenes, I can't see how he could possibly be innocent like he's stating. And I think one of the scariest parts about this whole case is the fact that time that wasn't

accounted for for Mark Norwood. I mean, if he killed Christine in 1986 and then killed Debra Baker, you know, months later. There's a possibility that he could have been killing throughout this entire time that Michael Morton was in prison. I just, I wonder why he wrote this whole letter to be printed in the newspaper stating that he's innocent because this is a long letter. And so I just wonder why he, why he wants people to think he's innocent so bad. The letter was kind of vague though he didn't go into saying, I'm innocent because of this, which is also pretty suspicious to me because he didn't really say why he's innocent.

He just said that they didn't have hard facts, but it doesn't really tell us why we should believe him. While we know one thing is true, and that is unlike Michael Morton's trial, where it was all circumstantial, where it was all circumstantial evidence, yes. In this case, we have actual DNA evidence, so I mean, there is physical evidence that proves Mark Norwood is the murderer. So going back to Michael's case, there were many leads that investigators didn't pursue. Two days after Christine's murder, her credit card had been used. Seven days after this, a check had been made out using her name.

Remember, her purse was missing from the scene, so someone was out there spending her money and police weren't tracking this or looking into it. Ken Anderson, the district attorney, had stated in court that Michael staged a burglary to make it look like he hadn't committed the crime, but he didn't actually give the jury the information that her purse had been stolen and someone had used her credit card and checkbook.

Because of this, and many other details left out in the case, when the judge had asked District Attorney Ken Anderson if he had anything else to present to the jury and he said no, he was breaking the law. Because he was in fact leaving out details. And when it was discovered in 2011 that Michael was innocent of murdering his wife, and the reason he was found guilty at all was because Ken Anderson committed misconduct, Ken, who was a prize prosecutor, turned judge, was disbarred. He also had to pay a $500 fine, serve 500 hours of community service, and spend 10 days in jail. And this is the only time in American history that this has happened to a prosecutor for misconduct in a murder trial. So this was huge.

And the thing that really pisses me off is that Michael Morton spent 25 years in prison, all because of Ken Anderson's negligence. And Ken Anderson only has to spend 10 fucking days in jail. Well, and going back to the whole situation of her credit card being used, and the neighbors talking about the green van, and there's just so many things that the police were like, ah, nah, we've got the guy, we've got the guy, because they felt like they had such a good case against Michael,

that they didn't even give a shit about putting the right person in prison. They just wanted to put somebody away for this and they felt like they could do that with Michael without even caring if they were correct or not. Right, and the biggest piece of physical evidence in this entire case is that blue bandana. And they basically just put it in a storage room and said, man, we're not going to test it. And for Ken to say, oh, the bandana isn't relevant. You can't test it. And years passed. And Michael spent, I think it was like five or six more years in prison because Ken Anderson had denied them to test this bandana in 2005. And that was what cracked this case was that bandana.

So it's just ridiculous, and it's really sad too because they could have prevented Deborah Baker's murder if they hadn't been so ignorant or just blind in the early days of this case of Christine's case, because if they had been looking outside of Michael, if they had taken the green van into account, if they would have looked where her credit card was used, who the check had been turned to, they could have gotten a description of this man who then in turn would have been Mark Norwood, but 25 years went by and all of this

was just swept under the rug. And winning in this trial was more important for Ken Anderson than finding out the real killer and finding justice for Christine. And that's just very, very sad. So after Michael's release, he lived with his parents in Kilgore, Texas until he got back on his feet. As soon as he was released, he arranged to meet his son,

Eric, who had been thinking his father was guilty of murdering his mother this entire time. When Michael was released from prison, Eric was 32 years old, the same age Michael was when he was incarcerated. Eric had been 3 years old when Christine was murdered, and the last time Michael had seen him was when he was 15. At this point, Eric was married with his own baby on the way. And you can only imagine how confused Eric must have been to think his father was a murderer,

basically his whole life, and then for this to just be proved wrong one day, and then Eric has to restructure everything in his mind. So it was really hard for them at first to reconnect, and as Michael says, they don't have a perfect relationship, but Michael is just so happy that he's free and he can get to know his son and his now three grandchildren. In 2013, the governor of Texas signed a bill called the Michael Morton Act, which ensures a more open discovery process and removes barriers for accessing evidence to help stop this from happening to someone else. Michael has remarried since his release to a wonderful woman he met at church named Cynthia and they live on a lake in rural eastern Texas where he enjoys being outdoors.

Michael remains incredibly positive and forgiving about what happened to him and speaks freely in interviews about his story. If you guys want to hear more about Michael's story and want to hear him talk, check out Wrongful Convictions podcast episode with Michael. Also, check out Michael's book Getting Life. Thank you everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an all new episode for you guys to dive into.

I actually found this case Heath and I had been watching the fugitive with Harrison Ford and he is wrongfully convicted of his wife's murder. So I googled something like that, like man found guilty of wife's murder innocent, something like that. And this case came up and it's just crazy. It was such a rabbit hole moment. So I hope you guys enjoyed this story,

even though it's absolutely heartbreaking. If you guys wanna see photos from this case and other cases, make sure you head over to our Instagram account at GoingWestPodcast or you can check us out on Twitter at GoingWestPod. If you guys want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash GoingWestPodcast. And I always say this, if you want to shout out in the show, make sure you head over to App of Podcast, leave us a five-star review, but make sure you leave your name and location. Alright, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you.

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