Going West: True Crime - The Snaggletooth Killer // 265

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

In December of 1991, a bar manager was closing up for the night when she was attacked and murdered by an unknown man. When bite marks on her chest led investigators to a local patron, he was arrested ...and for her first-degree murder. But would his teeth impressions be enough evidence to prove his guilt? With the re-surfacing of a mysterious note left at the bar the night after the murder, and the testing of certain DNA evidence, all would be uncovered. This is the story of Kim Ancona, a case also called The Snaggletooth Killer. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.amicus-alj.org/sites/default/files/documents/journal/ray_krone_issue_20_32-37.pdf https://innocenceproject.org/cases/ray-krone/ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/223993986/kimberly-ann-ancona https://www.forensicfilesfiles.com/ray-krone-kim-ancona-exoneration-settlement.php https://members.tripod.com/phoenix_copwatch/mud/police-news/cw1313.html https://members.tripod.com/phoenix_copwatch/mud/police-news/cw1313.html http://forejustice.org/wc/ray_krone_JD_vol2_i9.htm https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2006/apr/15/phoenix-arizona-settles-krone-wrongful-imprisonment-suit-for-3-million/ https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2006/apr/15/phoenix-arizona-settles-krone-wrongful-imprisonment-suit-for-3-million/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-uv8Wk0vW0 https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2004/nov/19/man-wrongly-convicted-as-snaggletooth-killer-to/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Taden, I'm your host Gaffney, and you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, hope you guys had a great holiday weekend. We're almost to the new year and on December 31st We are hitting our four-year anniversary of going west. That is so crazy Four years of going west. I can't believe it's been that long. So it's so many episodes Yeah, and it's almost our five-year anniversary of meeting and we only we only started the show a year after meeting That's so crazy to me. Yeah, but here we we are it's been a great four years here's to four
Starting point is 00:00:48 more and I just want to give a quick shout out also to Melissa for recommending today's case thank you so much Melissa I had not heard about it before and thank you everybody for tuning in all right guys this is episode 265 of Going West, so let's get into it! In December of 1991, a bar manager was closing up for the night when she was attacked and murdered by an unknown man. When a bite mark on her chest led investigators to a local patron, he was arrested for first degree murder. But would his teeth impressions be enough evidence to prove his guilt? With the resurfacing of a mysterious note left at the bar the night after the murder and the testing of certain DNA evidence, all would be uncovered.
Starting point is 00:02:18 This is the story of Kim and Kona, a case also called the Snuggle-tooth killer. Kimberly Ann Randall was born on December 3rd, 1955, in Phoenix, Arizona to Patricia Gasman and John Randall. Now not much is known about her upbringing sadly, but we know that she was raised and remained in Phoenix her whole life. And she also had three children of her own, Kelly, Christopher, and Daniel. It could be really hard, you know, covering cases where there's not a ton of information about the victim, but sadly that does happen from time to time.
Starting point is 00:03:11 So considering her obituary states her name as Kimberly Ann Randall, and Kona, and no one else in her family has the name Kona, we can assume that she was married at least once, but her obituary does not include a husband. So it's unclear if she was married at the time of her death, but it doesn't appear that was the case since some news article state that she lived with her boyfriend in Phoenix. Over the years, she had worked at many bars and restaurants in Phoenix, but in late 1991, 36-year-old Kim was working at a bar in Central Phoenix, and it was like a bar in restaurant and lounge kind of place, and it was called CBS.
Starting point is 00:03:52 And it's also referred to as CBS Lounge, and it was just a casual place that was located in a strip mall at 16th Avenue and Camelback Road between a shoe store and a video store. Just a block and a half away was interstate 17, which extends from the middle of Phoenix up to Flagstaff, Arizona, which is just about two hours away, but of course connects to other highways, which as we know can be very problematic in cases, although there are highways everywhere. Yeah, that can be very problematic. So, the CBS lounge was owned by a man named Hank Arndondo,
Starting point is 00:04:30 and it was known for its burgers, its hot wings, and sports viewings. But it was even open for breakfast and lunch, bringing in a steady local crowd of people looking for good food, cheap beer, and friendly service, and even a game of pool. Kim worked there, and although we, and even a game of pool. Kim worked there, and although we can't say for how long, the Arizona Republic stated at the time that Hank had only owned the bar for over a week. So they were at least newer to each other, but Hank absolutely loved having her.
Starting point is 00:04:59 She was friendly, she was kind, and she was really great with customers. The bar closed at 1am most nights and Saturday, December 28, 1991 was no different. Kim was closing and actually working her very first night shift as bar manager, so she received a call from the owner Hank at about 11.15pm, who asked her how the night had been. It was pretty typical for him to call and check in with her around closing time since he took ownership. But particularly this night since she was in a new role, and Kim reported that things were slow and she was fine to close the bar alone, which included cleaning the floors
Starting point is 00:05:37 in the bathrooms. At around 1am, just around closing time, a girlfriend of Kim stopped by to see her briefly before leaving, and that was the last time she would be seen alive. Because the following morning, which was Sunday, December 29, 1991, Hank arrived at work to a worrisome scene. The door at the restaurant was a jar, which wouldn't have been typical at all since they hadn't opened yet.
Starting point is 00:06:06 Now Kim was very responsible, so he felt immediately that something was wrong, knowing that she wouldn't have overseen something so important. So of course, just immediately wondering if maybe there had been a break in, Hank first checked the safe in his office, but there wasn't any money missing, and of course like he said as well, he is only on the bar for a week so he doesn't know if it break ins happen often here or if he should be worried about this being a reoccurring thing yeah I mean he would hardly know all the ins and outs of the bar anyway exactly so he's just making his way around the whole bar after
Starting point is 00:06:43 checking the safe and his office So he went to the kitchen and then he went to the bathrooms and there he found something horrific in the men's 36-year-old Kim and Kona laying on the floor dead and What drew him inside was the blood that was seeping under the men's room door. So he saw the blood first, open the door, and then found Kim clearly murdered. She was naked and had a row of stab wounds across her neck that mimicked a necklace. So there was five in her neck and one in her back with the fatal wound penetrating her lung.
Starting point is 00:07:24 How interesting that there is this necklace pattern of stab wounds. Really, really, really, I haven't seen that before. So there was also many defensive wounds just proving that she had fought very hard for her life. It was determined that she had suffered trauma to her head and neck, had been sexually assaulted, and distinctly, there was a deep bite mark on her left breast. And this bite mark is pretty much the entire basis
Starting point is 00:07:51 of this whole case, hence the name, as you guys already know. And on her shirt, which was not on her when she was found, like I said, she was nude, her shirt had the bite mark as well, which means that this killer bit through her shirt and into her skin. And hard enough to make an imprint in her skin. Yeah, really gruesome. So the murder weapon in question was a knife that came from the kitchen, from the bar itself, and had been stashed by the killer under the liner of the men's restroom trash bags, trash bag inside the trash can itself.
Starting point is 00:08:26 So they did try to hide it, but it was found pretty quickly. Now alongside it was a bundle of paper towels, which was a poor attempt at covering up the knife, but again, it was found very quickly. Other evidence left at the scene included a bloody shoe print on the clean kitchen floor that Kim had obviously just cleaned hours earlier. Clearly, something only the killer could have left after murdering Kim. Investigators were able to determine
Starting point is 00:08:54 that the shoe was made from a converse brand sneaker, since I had a very clear cons logo stamped in blood, and that it belonged to a man wearing a size 9.5. Found on Kim's body were multiple pieces of black hair, which didn't belong to her because she had brownish, oburn hair, so of course police bag this. Yeah, it seems like there is honestly quite a bit of evidence here. Yeah, and that is actually what's so frustrating about this case and where it goes, as you guys will see
Starting point is 00:09:25 But but it does it does help in the end So police took countless photographs. They lifted fingerprints other shoe prints collected fluids and more So they definitely had some things to work on here and they tried to theorize who this person could have been When her body was found there had been two drinks sitting on the bar top that police felt confident must have been poured after the bar closed. They were able to conclude that one of the glasses had Kim's fingerprints on them, while the other had fingerprints
Starting point is 00:09:58 that were not clear enough to identify or match. Also, like, of course, hers are the ones that are clear, and the other ones are the ones that are unclear. I know how annoying it's that. So annoying. But either way, police began to wonder if Kim had known her killer, and that she had let them in after closing, had part of a drink with them, and then they attacked her,
Starting point is 00:10:19 which seems like this is the case, since there's two drinks there. And not only was there no money missing from the bar, but Kim's purse, which was in view, wasn't missing any money either. Inside her bag, police looked at her address book in an attempt to find people that she may have known who could have been behind this. There were numerous people's phone numbers inside, including that of a man named Ray Crone. After figuring out who he was, it seemed interesting that she had his phone number because he
Starting point is 00:10:51 wasn't very well liked at the bar, though he was a regular who enjoyed playing darts, so she saw him quite frequently. He was a 35-year-old postal worker, so about the same age as Kim, from Pennsylvania that resided in the Phoenix area. And he had previously been in the Air Force and didn't have a criminal record. But there were multiple things that led police to believe that he could have been the one from the start. Despite some people at the bar, including Hank, not taking too well to raise personality. Like Hank said, Ray tended to just rub people the wrong way,
Starting point is 00:11:28 whatever that means. Kim had apparently taken a romantic interest in him. Romantist. According to her friends, which was obviously good information for police, because this could be the guy that she was having a drink with if they were romantically involved. Now, especially considering multiple people who worked at CBS had told police that Kim had a date planned with Ray on that very night that she was murdered, so that's big. Now automatically, Ray seemed like he could be their guy. So now having a person of interest, they looked further into the teeth marks, the shoe print, and the hair samples.
Starting point is 00:12:08 And something that stood out with the teeth mark is the positioning of the two front teeth. So it looked like one of them was a little bit crooked while the other one was straight, which obviously isn't too unique, but it does stand out amongst just two straight teeth you would probably think. So it was also the teeth marks were deep enough to draw blood and the marking was in a circle as if her killer had used their entire mouth to really sink into her chest. However, even though it was made into a circle, there were still very few actual teeth marks that showed up. So you could see the circle marks, but it wasn't super, super defined. So this is a big problem in this case because you can see, like I said, one of the front teeth
Starting point is 00:12:54 is a little bit crooked. You can see how some of the other teeth are positioned, but not enough to be like a super concrete sample. Yeah. But Ray had one crooked front tooth. And again, to be fair, this isn't super uncommon to have one crooked front tooth, but it also isn't as common as saying, oh, he also has black hair. This has to be him. Like this is, this is interesting, for sure. It's a little more unique. it can definitely help I feel like in this case But they didn't even know about his teeth until they questioned him So when they went to his home they saw this right away and Ray denied having any kind of romantic fling with Kim
Starting point is 00:13:37 And said that they were simply acquaintances and even though he thought she had a great personality And he liked that she was kind and bubbly Even though he thought she had a great personality and he liked that she was kind and bubbly, they weren't in any sort of relationship, and they certainly didn't have a date that night. And he also had an alibi. It wasn't necessarily airtight, but his coworker, whom he shared a house with in Phoenix, confirmed that he was home all night and he hadn't left. Now please argue that he could have left undetected, but his roommate stated that it seemed doubtful as Ray's car was parked right outside his window, and being a Corvette, he definitely
Starting point is 00:14:13 would have heard its rumble if he started it up that night. Police searched Ray's apartment and cars well, noticing some beads from the CBS lounges shuffleboard game in his car, and also a pair of underwear that appeared to have blood on them. Please ask Ray quickly if he would give them a teeth impression to see if it matched, and Ray didn't have a problem doing so. But they used freaking styrofoam. So not the most accurate method, but I guess that was fairly popular for this kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:14:46 The issue with this is that it's not a perfect science, especially considering they're going off of a bite mark and not a model of someone's mouth, so mistakes can absolutely be made. But they felt really confident that Ray was their killer based on his teeth. However, they did test other men's teeth impressions as well, and fact a total of 10 men's impressions were tested to see if any of them matched. And the only one that had a front tooth
Starting point is 00:15:13 that was visibly extended further forward than the other was Ray Crone. So on December 31st, 1991, just two days after Kim's body was found, police headed to raise home and they arrested him for the murder. So seeing interviews just makes me wonder why people had allegedly not really liked him because other reports say that he was just a totally regular guy and that's what he
Starting point is 00:15:39 appears to be. Can totally regular guys be murders? Absolutely, but let's see how the trial went. So from the start, Ray professed his innocence, but it wasn't just the teeth marks that made him look guilty. As we mentioned, he was a regular at the bar and had allegedly been on his way to a romantic relationship with Kim before her murder. He also had dark hair and a saliva sample
Starting point is 00:16:06 put him closer to looking guilty. Now, go without saying that there was saliva on Kim's shirt where the bite was, but DNA tests were inconclusive, though they were able to find via DNA testing that Kim's killer had type O blood, which Ray Krona himself had. And this isn't a rare blood type O blood, which Ray Crona himself had. And this isn't a rare blood type at all, and it's considered the most popular, with 44% of the American population having either O negative or O positive blood.
Starting point is 00:16:36 But still, Ray had it just like the killer. So this really doesn't cancel him out of the equation. Yeah, and the fact that the saliva was inconclusive, that also really muddies the water. Yeah, because that doesn't pull him out either. So a forensic odontologist made an appearance at Ray's trial claiming that the bite mark on Kim's body and the one belonging to Ray was a without a doubt match. And this felt huge for the prosecution, even though it was the only thing close to being evidence that they had on their side. Because again, there was really nothing else conclusively, concretely, marking Rey as
Starting point is 00:17:18 the killer. The defense stated, quote, the state has no fingerprints, no witnesses, no DNA, no confession. There's no nothing. The bite mark is very peculiar, but was it enough to put him away for murder? By the way, we did post photos. I urge you all to go look on our socials, our Instagram at going West Podcast, Twitter at going West Pod, and we're also on Facebook. Now, it didn't seem like this could put him away, that the teeth mark alone could put
Starting point is 00:17:48 Ray away, but it was enough. And on August 7th, 1992, less than eight months after Kim's murder, 35-year-old Ray Milton was found guilty of the first been convicted of Kim's murder. Now when Ray Crone was convicted, he was dubbed the Snaggletooth Killer with prosecutors believing that he liked to torture women and used the method of biting them to do just that. Ray was sentenced to death and sat on death row for years for something he claimed he didn't do, and he was unbelievably frustrated that all it took was for an expert Dr. Raymond Ralson to claim the bite marks were his and his entire life was ruined. Now something that was shown at trial that the expert created was a video overlay showing Ray's bite
Starting point is 00:19:15 essentially morphing into the bite marks from Kim's body to show the similarities. But the defense felt like this video didn't prove that well enough at all and it actually awarded Ray with a retrial in 1996 so four years after he was convicted Because the defense didn't have enough time to review it before the trial Yeah, and then they didn't have enough time to kind of figure out how to make their argument for this video Which I also will post on socials and it really does look like it's morphing into it But you can see the differences and how it is changing as this morp occurs. So here he goes with a new trial.
Starting point is 00:19:52 Yeah, so basically he has a new team defending him at this time, and they're hitting the pavement looking for ways to exonerate him, including looking closer at the hair samples and also other evidence. Now since we discussed various suspicious connections between Ray Crone and Kim's killer, we must mention that there are also multiple things that don't match, including the following. The shoe print made him blood at the scene was a converse brand shoe, size 9.5, but Ray Crone didn't own this type of shoe. At least that they could find, nor was this his shoe size.
Starting point is 00:20:28 He was actually a 10.5, so a whole size up from the killers. Also, the hair samples found on Kim's body did not match Ray's sample, as it was coarse and of Asian or Native American origin, which Ray was not. He was a white man. And again, he also had an alibi. So it still felt like such weak evidence to convict him based on bite marks alone. Especially since as we stated earlier, the bite marks found on Kim's body wasn't even a full set.
Starting point is 00:20:58 They were only a few marks that were sunken into her skin. So the only real impressions that they claimed were a match were the front teeth, but it still didn't look exact. And a different bite mark expert reviewed for consistencies and actually found that there were no similarities in Ray's real tooth impression with the one found on Kim's body. Something very interesting that came in was a mysterious note, less than 24 hours after Kim's murder on the night of Sunday, December 29, 1991. At this time, police were patrolling the scene to see if her killer would possibly return,
Starting point is 00:21:37 and remember this is before Ray's arrest, when they saw a suspicious person. A man in a hood went up to the CBS lounge, but his looks made police worry that he could be her killer, so they quickly approached him. Now this spooked the man who went running, but not before dropping a blank envelope on the ground, and evading police. Now this is what the note said. You're looking for an Indian about 5'8 to 6'1.
Starting point is 00:22:10 I've seen him about 3'30 and 4'30 hanging around out back of CBS about 190 to 210, assuming that means pounds. Get him please. Black hair, fat looking blue, and then it's unintelligible, but it looks like SEAS, I don't know. I was too far away to make him out good his face. I don't want to go to jail or I would come forward. I have a warrant. So this is basically somebody who is claiming to have witnessed the real killer and he doesn't want his identity known which is why he's not coming forward but he is still trying to get this information across which is amazing
Starting point is 00:22:52 and so he's basically claiming that a five eight to six foot Native American man with black hair who is on the heavier side is her real killer and this is extremely helpful and it will be helpful later on but it's also very unfortunate that that wasn't used in raised trial originally like they had this letter but they didn't do anything with it well that the difficult thing here is that they can't question this guy so this guy can't take the sand and say why he believes this person is the killer, what he saw specifically.
Starting point is 00:23:25 He just states that he saw him hanging out in the middle of the night behind CBS, the bar. So, it's not like this could mean nothing. But this does kind of connect in some ways. We know that the hair found at the scene was black and we know that due to its biological code, essentially, it is from an Asian or Native American person and that's who this guy is claiming that he saw. So that is a connection in itself.
Starting point is 00:23:52 Right. It definitely is. But I think police kind of, again, had this tunnel vision where they felt like they knew exactly who the killer was. So this letter means nothing to them at this point. Exactly. Obviously, in some way, this did seem like a big potential tip. But again, who was the man sending it and was he even reliable?
Starting point is 00:24:15 And since they couldn't question him to confirm this sighting, they really just kind of put this letter to the wayside. However, it was uncovered that there had been numerous altercations at the CBS lounge, involving one or more Native American males. And this mysterious man wasn't the only person to claim to have seen a man matching that, albeit pretty, basic description, but someone who had been at the CBS lounge that evening claimed to have witnessed Kim and Kona arguing with a Native American man on the same night that she was killed. They were allegedly arguing because the man had gotten too drunk and she refused to serve
Starting point is 00:24:56 him more alcohol. And you would think this information would be enough maybe for investigators to doubt guilt in Ray, but they pressed on with him as their prime suspect. So during Ray's retrial, Dr. Raymond Rossin, who is the bite mark expert on the first trial, still expressed his belief that the bite mark was 100% Ray's. But coming to Ray's defense, were four board certified forensic oncologists who begged to differ, saying that nothing about the bite marks are similar.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Not only this, but the FBI testified that the hairs found on Kim's body didn't belong to her nor did they belong to Rey. However, the jury found 39-year-old Rey Crone guilty once again of first-degree murder and he was again sentenced to life in prison. Now after this conviction Ray stated, quote, I was not there that night. This pretty much rules out any faith I have in truth and justice. Another disappointing part of all of this was that the judge wasn't even sure about Ray's guilt, stating quote, The court is left with a residual or lingering doubt about the clear identity of the killer.
Starting point is 00:26:13 This is one of those cases that will haunt me for the rest of my life, wondering whether I have done the right thing. That's crazy. That is crazy fucking thing for a judge to say. And to admit, to that they don't even know and Obviously, this was a jury trial not a bench trial It wasn't his choice, but still the fact that he had his doubts that is wild it speaks volumes Yeah, but alongside this one of the doctors that was coming to raise defense dr Dr. Suvoron, had seen Dr. Raymond
Starting point is 00:26:45 Rossin at a conference shortly before Ray's second trial began. Now Dr. Suvoron straight up asked Raymond why he was pushing this ridiculous claim that the bite marks matched Ray's, and why he didn't rethink it and see it for what the other experts did, that it did not match Ray's, and according to Dr. Suvoron, Raymond said that he was into deep as he had already previously claimed that without a doubt, it belonged to Ray. And he didn't want to look bad for going back on such a concrete statement.
Starting point is 00:27:16 So basically, he's saying, well, now I don't really believe this, but I'm going to look like an asshole if I change my opinion. Yeah. And this is according to Dr. Suvoron. I don't know why he has reason to lie. He has come out in interviews consistently stating this so I don't know why he would lie. I feel like he's probably telling the truth. Yeah. But I mean fuck. Yeah and of course, you know to no surprise Raymond Rossin claims that this conversation
Starting point is 00:27:42 never took place. But he's likely just saying that so he doesn't look even worse than he would have if you simply just told the jury in the second trial that he made a mistake. Yeah, I totally agree. So years passed, despite this years passed with Ray behind bars, still working hard at getting himself out of prison and proving his innocence once and for all. But it wasn't until 2000, so nine years after Kim's murder, that a new Arizona law would help him do just that. This new law stated, quote,
Starting point is 00:28:17 �Any person convicted of a felony offense may file a petition for post-conviction DNA testing with the court where the conviction occurred. DNA testing obviously had come a long way over the years since Kim's murder, so when Ray learned about this new law, he knew that it could help him because there were multiple samples of DNA collected from Kim's body back in 1991, including that saliva DNA that we discussed where a match could not be concluded with. So the following year in 2001, nearly 10 years after Ray's arrest, the defense team working
Starting point is 00:28:54 with Ray put in a formal request with the state of Arizona to have all the DNA found on Kim's clothes and body tested for DNA now that they have the new technology. And again, the saliva was inconclusive, though there were blood stains on her pants that the defense team pondered could belong to her killer. And this is when things really broke open. Ray's family had believed in his innocence from the very start, even remoraging their home to pay for all of his legal bills, and they were finally going to get their son back because in April of 2001, Blood was found on Kim's jeans that did not belong to her,
Starting point is 00:29:36 nor did it belong to Ray. And this was huge, because whoever would have bled on her pants had to have been involved in her murder. So that DNA was entered into Kodas in hopes of matching with someone whose DNA had already been there, like someone who had already been convicted of a crime. And there was a match. The blood found belonged to a 35 year old man named Kenneth Phillips. And this is crazy because, you know, not only was he a Native American, which is consistent
Starting point is 00:30:08 with the hair found on Kim, but he also lived just 600 yards from the CBS lounge at the time of Kim's murder. And, when this was all being discovered, he was serving time for sexually assaulting and choking a seven year old girl, which occurred just a week after Kim's death. But wait, there's more. When Kim was murdered, Kenneth was on probation for breaking into a woman's apartment, choking her as well, and then also threatening to kill her.
Starting point is 00:30:38 Yeah, this is, I mean, this is huge. I mean, massive. So inside the men's bathroom, investigators lifted multiple fingerprints. Raise didn't match any of them. But this was a bit tough because this is a bar for crying out loud So there's you know, it's gonna be dozens of people going in and out of there on a regular basis but Insanely Kenneth Phillips fingerprint matched a clear print that investigators had lifted years earlier so when the crime was originally committed, and when they questioned him about
Starting point is 00:31:10 his involvement, he didn't even deny it. Kenneth told police that the morning after Kim's murder, he woke up after a blackout, induced by alcohol, he says, to find blood all over his hands. And when he saw that a woman had been murdered at the CBS lounge right next to his house, he wondered to himself if he had been the one to do it. Not only did his fingerprint match, his hair matched, and his blood matched, and his shoe size was a 9.5, just like the bloody footprint from the kitchen. And I'm sure as you all are wondering, did his teeth marks match?
Starting point is 00:31:51 Yes, they did. Kenneth Phillips also had his left front tooth protruding past the other because not only were they slightly crooked but just like raised tooth it was you know crooked and leaning slightly forward. So same thing with uh... Kenneths but Kenneths was it was much more distinctive and it was a clear match. And remember earlier when we mentioned multiple witnesses claiming to have seen a Native American man hanging around the CBS lounge,
Starting point is 00:32:25 with the first leaving a note about seeing someone hanging around after hours, feeling confident that he was Kim's killer, and another stating that a man with the same description was seen arguing with Kim on the night that she was killed? Well, now that all clicks with Kenneth Phillips. With this information in April of 2002, Ray was exonerated and released from prison immediately after spending over 10 years for something that he truly had no part of. Four years later, after Ray filed a lawsuit
Starting point is 00:32:59 for his wrongful conviction, based off opinion and not scientific evidence, the city of Phoenix, Arizona was ordered to pay him $3 million. Not only did he spend all that time behind bars as an innocent man, but while inside prison, he contracted hepatitis C, had his arm broken, and also was stabbed by another inmate, which is so like, oh man, like. It's so sad, honestly. It's so fucking sad.
Starting point is 00:33:26 So after his release, Ray moved back to Pennsylvania to be near his family, and he continues to advocate for DNA testing and speak out about his experience and the injustice that fell upon him. And funny enough, he had also gotten his smile straightened after being featured on ABC's Extreme Makeover, which is basically like a reality show. Kenneth, on the other hand, got exactly what he deserved.
Starting point is 00:33:52 Kenneth Phillips had been arrested for the assault on the seven-year-old girl just three weeks after Kim's murder, and was still serving time when he was found to have killed Kim. Once they concluded that multiple blood samples belonged to Kenneth, that his fingerprints were on the men's restroom's condom machine and the interior door of the CBS lounge, and when the bite mark was an even better match than Ray's, they had more than enough to get Kim's real killer. And in 2006, nearly 15 years after Kim passed, Kenneth was indicted for first-degree murder and sexual assault and pled guilty to both charges. He was sentenced to life in prison and 28 years for
Starting point is 00:34:41 sexual assault. Although Ray won't get those years back, it seems that he's on a happy path now, and Kim's family and children have a pinch of justice, just knowing what really happened to her and that her real killer is behind bars for good. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. It's always so sad to research a case where somebody is wrongfully convicted for so many years, but I'm just so glad that they finally figured out who did it so that Kim's family can rest with this information. Just such a crazy story.
Starting point is 00:35:38 Yeah, and I can't blame him for going back to Pennsylvania at this point. He's probably like, fuck Arizona. I know, I wouldn't go back either. Seriously. So thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you again to Melissa for recommending this case. Hope you guys have a good week leading up to the new year and are for your anniversary.
Starting point is 00:35:53 We'll see you in a few days. All right, guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5%
Starting point is 00:36:16 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% Music you

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