Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #143 - Thrice-Accused Rapist Bowen Turner Getting Out of Prison AGAIN + Recording Reveals HCPD Disrespect for Spivey Family

Starting point is 00:00:00 Thank you so much for supporting our mission to give voice to victims by watching Hulu's Murdof Death in the Family. We have been hard at work for weeks curating Soak Up the Sun premium content to go with each of the eight episodes. We are so excited to share the behind-the-scenes photos from the show, maps, more audio, timelines, case files, and the original source material that inspired the writers and directors for Hulu's original series. All for our Soak Up the Sun members on Luna Shark Premium. Use your Supercast login to get access to the full experience. That means ad-free, plus extended episodes, bonus drops, exclusive case files, live streams, access to our exclusive members-only shows like Girl Talk, Corruption Watch List,

Starting point is 00:00:46 premium dives, and more. Plus, curated behind-the-scenes coverage of the Hulu series. Join our mission and become a member today at LunaShark.supercast or click the link in the description. When I look back at my younger self, I remember the feeling of being bullied and disrespected. I remember hating that feeling, and I remember the day that I resolved that it would never happen again. When I founded Blan Richter with my partner, Ronnie Richter, we committed to build a firm that demanded respect that would fight for the powerful on behalf of the clients who felt powerless. Since forming Blan Richter, we've stood tall against the largest law firms

Starting point is 00:01:29 in the state, in the country, and in the world. And we've remained true to the commitment not to be pushed around. To give tenacious representation with proven results. Tenacious representation, proven results, Bland Richter. Learn more about what we do and who we are by visiting blandrictor.com. That's B-L-A-N-D-R-I-C-H-E-R dot com. I don't know if we will ever see charges in the Scott Spivey investigation. But we need to share some important updates in the civil case.

Starting point is 00:02:11 And we need to tell y'all about more evidence of the Ory County Police Department mistreating the Spivey family. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption, previously known as the Murdoch Murdoch's podcast. Sunlight is a Luna Shark production written with journalist Liz Farrell. Hi guys, we've had a rough week. Probably one of the worst weeks we've had in years. I'm not even emotional at this point and really just dead inside and tired of the relentless hits from the South Carolina justice system.

Starting point is 00:02:58 And to be honest, I'm not really sure how much longer I can do this for. I told you all about the absolutely absurd. Ser deposition standoff on Friday where Greg Parker's attorneys refused to show up at the location where I felt safe in order to depose me in a lawsuit where they are the defendants, and in a lawsuit that I have nothing to do with. This week, attorneys Mark Moore, Deborah Barbier, Jim Bannister, and Rhett Ricard filed a motion for the court to hold me in contempt because I refused to be deposed by lawyers in a location where I felt unsafe, due to do you. ongoing and increasing harassment by a felon, who their team appears to be consistently communicating

Starting point is 00:03:43 with. Judge R. Keith Kelly has not ruled on that, but so far, he has not ruled once in my favor, so that doesn't feel great. And something else happened that was bad on Wednesday, but honestly can't talk about it right now because I'm just hanging on by a thread and questioning why I do this work, when it feels like we have to move so much for the justice system to just budge an inch. It is days like this that I start to question my existence and desperately search for reasons to keep going when it all feels impossible. So I just wanted you, our listeners, and the victims that we advocate for, to know that you are the reason why I am here still today, even when it feels like the entire system is stacked against us,

Starting point is 00:04:34 even when it feels like nothing in this world is fair or right. All of you believe in a better justice system, and you are out there fighting for it every single day. The least I could do is show up for y'all, especially the Lunashark Premium members, who are the first ones I think of when I start to question, Should I just sell everything, quit, and move to a foreign country with little access to Wi-Fi? Then the really pesky city council member in my brain always comes back with what would you tell the Lunashirk premium members and your team and the victims?

Starting point is 00:05:12 You cannot quit on them. So thank you for being my inspiration for fighting the good fight for the First Amendment and for a better justice system. I could not do this without y'all. Please consider joining Lunashark Premium to join our amazing community of inspiring Justice Warriors. Since that is who funds our mission. The Lunas Shark Premium members are who funds our mission, not billionaires or plaintiffs attorneys.

Starting point is 00:05:41 It is our sponsors and our premium members and the occasional TV show book or perhaps a feature film in the future about all the evildoers we have come across. And speaking of that, we have some updates for you. First, John Paul Miller, the Myrtle Beach pastor, whose estranged wife, Micah Francis Miller, was found dead in April 24, is set to appear in federal court on April 21st for jury selection in his federal case. In December, Miller was charged with one count of cyberstocking and one count of lying to federal investigators. A pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for April 14th. in Florence, South Carolina. Earlier this month, J.P. filed a motion of continuance for his trial

Starting point is 00:06:28 and the trial was delayed. According to this court document, J.P.'s attorneys need to file a motion for continuance by April 8th if he wants to delay the trial again. Now, I have two infuriating yet somewhat unsurprising updates for you. The first is in the Krista Bauer-Gilley case, which is set to go to trial in Houston, Texas this June. On Wednesday, a Texas judge gave Lee Gilley permission to travel from Houston to South Carolina to see his family members this weekend. Gilly is accused of killing his wife, Krista, an unborn baby in October 24. He has been out on bonds since October 24.

Starting point is 00:07:12 Gilly is due back in Texas on April 6th. We will keep y'all updated on that case when we get closer to trial, which we plan on covering in June. And for my other piece of unsurprising yet infuriating news to share, we need to talk about our least favorite, thrice-accused rapist Bowen Turner. He is getting out of prison early again on May 15, 26. Six weeks from now, if you've been with us for a while, you know that we are saying here we go again. Because really, why does a thrice accused rapists deserve thrice chances plus a fourth to prove that he deserves to be let out of his sentence early? Why? For once, can't they just let this

Starting point is 00:08:06 man finish his prison term, which would be 28? It has been almost a year since we've talked about this punk, so we need to do a little rewind and we can all get angry together. We have been following the Bowen-Tunner case since 2022. It was the first case unrelated to the Murdoch case that we ever covered on this podcast. Put simply, the Bowen-Tunner case represented everything wrong with the South Carolina judicial system. Bowen was an alleged teen rapist protected by his privileged family who purchased the power of a highly connected state senator to fight for Bowen in court. In episode 71, we did a full analysis where we identified 10 systemic failures in the Bowen-Tunner case. I highly recommend going back to that and listening to it.

Starting point is 00:08:59 But for the sake of time, we're going to give you all a quick summary of the Bowen-Tuner case starting in 2018. Between April 2018 and June 2019, Bowen Turner was accused of raping three different teenage girls in three separate counties. There was an unnamed victim, then Dallas Stoller, and then Chloe Bess. Bowen was not charged in the first case. In Dallas Stoller's case, he was released on a low bond, and less than six months later, he allegedly raped Chloe Bess at a high school party. Dallas Stoller was horrifically bullied by the Orange, community after Bowen's arrest, kids from Orangeburg prep posted free Bowen Snapchats and even

Starting point is 00:09:46 adults, including teachers, tormented Dallas for reporting that she had been brutally raped. Months later, the community did the same thing to Chloe. Both girls fled Orangeburg while solicitor Bill Weeks sat on the case for literally years. And Bowen was free to live his life as if nothing had changed. This injustice ate away at Dallas Stoller and she tragically died from self-inflicted wounds while she waited for someone in the justice system to do something about the case that destroyed her life. She died in November 2021 at just 21 years old. That brings us to April 2022 when we got involved. Suddenly, prosecutor David Miller wanted to move quickly on the case.

Starting point is 00:10:29 Against the victim's wishes, Miller agreed to give Bowen Turner a sweetheart deal. The thrice accused rapist got to plead his charges down to just one first-degree assault and battery charge under the Youthful Offenders Act, which basically was built to protect young, good old boys from facing the consequences of their own decisions and actions. Bowen was told if he violated his probation, he could get up to five years in prison and would have to register as a sex offender. Why would prosecutor David Miller do that? Well, Miller was vying to become a judge, and he had been for years.

Starting point is 00:11:03 And anyone who knows anything about South Carolina politics knows that you want Senator Brad huddle on your good side if you want to be a judge in South Carolina because of the disgusting way South Carolina elects judges, which also isn't fair to the judges, or at least the ones who can see this for what it really is. Less than a month after that sweetheart deal was struck, Bowen blew it all up because good old boys are going to good old boy. He violated his parole by getting allegedly wasted at a local bar and he reportedly threatened to bite a deputy during his arrest. One would think that this incident would be a wake-up call to drop the hammer down on Mr. Turner before he hurts anyone else, but no, he was sentenced to just a year in prison under

Starting point is 00:11:48 Y-O-A. During that time, Miller dropped the charges in the Dallas-Sdollar case, claiming it was worthless to even try the case because the victim was no longer alive. Belin was released from prison for his number one F-Up in October 2023. Less than five months after that, he was was arrested again following his DUI crash in Florence County, South Carolina. He was charged with driving under the influence, open container, not wearing his seatbelt, public disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. And y'all, this DUI crash was dangerous and could have killed someone. Bowen's arrest video alone showed the world that this man needed serious intervention away from society. Remember how he treated the female cop?

Starting point is 00:12:33 Ma'am, I'm sorry, ma'am. My hands about the damn choked to death, ma'am. Please unhook these goddamn handcuffs, ma'am. Man, this shit right here crazy, man. But really, because you got a vendetta. This, really how are you about to ask? You just resisted arrest, and you're going to tell me that I got a vendetta. Yeah, how am I resist arrest, ma'am? You sitting here. I got my goddamn handcuffs on. You just did. You just did. For what? You got me in handcuffs. How am I resist an arrest? Please it. Don't worry. Don't worry. You goddamn dark, bitch. I know how you're acting. Don't worry about it.

Starting point is 00:13:12 And I apologize. I didn't mean to say that. I'm an aggravated. You say, you say what you feel. Well, I did feel that, but I apologize. At that point, we were like, oh my gosh, great. Finally, this guy has enough charges that the system can send him away long enough for all of us to breathe a little, especially the victims who have been jolted around by the system's shenanigans since 2018. But of course, the system was like, nah, Bowen Turner deserves another pass. All the charges except for the resisting arrest charge were adjudicated within lightning speed.

Starting point is 00:13:50 Bowen pleaded guilty to the other charge and got time served as his sentence. Time served, being the 17 days he remained in jail, while SEDC tried to figure out what to do with him for violating his terms of probation. This was extremely unusual and fishy. In September 2024, the South Carolina Court of Appeals heard arguments from Chloe Bess's amazing team of attorneys Sarah Ford and Malia Bowers-Jefferson, who argued that victims' constitutional rights were violated when Bowen's plea deal went down in 2022. But because South Carolina is South Carolina,

Starting point is 00:14:29 where the law favors the good old boys over women's safety at almost every turn, the Court of Appeals decided in January 2025 that victims' rights were not violated in that case. But I highly suggest y'all listen to episode 72 and 73 and really think about what a shame that decision is. Bowen was released early again on Halloween of 2024. Less than four months later, he was arrested a case. Again. This time, we got word from a pesky listener that he was getting wasted at an Orangeburg golf course routinely. Because alcohol was involved in literally all of his previous crimes, Bowen was not allowed to drink alcohol while out on probation. It was one of a few rules

Starting point is 00:15:19 that they gave him to follow while being released. So, he was arrested again for the third time, thricely for violating his Y-O-A parole in February 2025. At Bowen's first hearing to determine whether or not he violated parole in the February Gulf Course drinking debacle, an SEDC officer did not let Carl Stoller, the father of Dallas Stoller. Bowen Turner's second alleged victim speak. They said it was because Dallas technically was not a victim in SEDC's eyes, which is just sick and twisted. and everything wrong with her system.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Ultimately, the intensive supervision administrative release authority sentenced Bowen to a minimum of one year in SEDC. And then that brings us to last week, when Sarah Ford, the amazing victim's attorney in this case who represented the Stoller family and Chloe Bess, notified the true sunlight team that again, Bowen Turner will be released from prison. this time on May 15, 26.

Starting point is 00:16:30 The SCDC board again gave this young good old boy with a serious history of breaking the law and allegedly harming women another pass. According to SCDC, Bowen Turner will be supervised by SEDC's Division of Young Offender Parole and Reentry Services in Orangeburg County. He will be placed on GPS monitor for no less than 90 days and will have to be placed. have to comply with all conditions of his release. To include zero tolerance for substance abuse, alcohol, and illegal substances, comply with mental health and substance use treatment recommendations as well as sex offender counseling. That statement said that there would be no tolerance for

Starting point is 00:17:16 attempts to contact victims as well. So again, this means on May 15, 26, for the fourth time in four years, thrice accused rapist Bowen Turner will be released from prison and it is up to all of us, again, to protect the women and girls in our state. I mean it, again, when I say please spread the word, to warn women across South Carolina, specifically in Columbia, Orangeburg, Bamberg, and Florence. We will be screaming about this on our social media pages as the date gets closer, and we would love the help from our Luna Shark Army because, unlike a majority of elected officials in this state, we care about the safety of our girls and our women. In communities across Canada, hourly Amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour.

Starting point is 00:18:20 Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. So we need to take some time today to catch up on the SpyVee case. Back in February after Judge Eugene Bubba Smith denied Weldon Boyd immunity in the civil case related to his and Bradley Williams killing of Scott Spivey on September 9th, 2023, the decision about Bradley was put on hold for two weeks. But ultimately, Judge Bubba ruled against Bradley too, which, whoo, what a win for the truth, something that is unfortunately a rarity in South Carolina's courtrooms these days, at least in our experience so far.

Starting point is 00:19:19 The judge's ruling meant that neither Weldon nor Bradley, who claimed they had killed Scott in self-defense, who claimed that they had no choice in the matter because it was their lives or Scots, can avoid civil liability or potential criminal charges for chasing Scott for several miles at high a speed prior to opening fire on him, according to court records, which was huge, right? It was the thing that needed to happen to move the needle closer to getting justice for Scott and his family, but it was also a huge sock in the gut for the good old voice, which includes South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, who quadrupled down on his office's decision in 2024 not to prosecute Weldon or Bradley, despite the very clear cover-up that had occurred in the investigation

Starting point is 00:20:05 by the ORI County Police Department. Two days before Judge Bubba issued his decision denying Bradley's standard ground immunity, it was also very clear that Bradley Williams wasn't using the gift of time to come to his census. Because according to the public index, Bradley added two new attorneys to his already highly populated defense team.

Starting point is 00:20:27 He now appears to be represented by five lawyers. Again, we have no idea who is footing the bill for that because it seems a little outside of Bradley's budget in our opinions, but we know that protecting Bradley at all costs was a goal of Weldon's from the beginning. Weldon is such a good friend, looking out for his co-killer like that. Anyway, after Judge Bubba made it clear that Bradley's argument of, I was just the passenger in Weldon's truck, was not a winning one. Bradley filed a motion for the judge to reconsider his decision, which is expected. That's his right to do. But it's also where things get highly annoying.

Starting point is 00:21:02 Again, we agree with this notion that everyone has a right to a defense, but we hold the word defense to mean use the truth to show you're not at fault, not employ tricks that you hope the judge doesn't notice so you can absolutely misrepresent what happened. And we certainly don't mean lie. Maybe that's naive of us, but so be it. We don't like a system that allows certain attorneys to willfully mislead judges and intentionally mischaracterize the facts to cover up the bad acts of their clients. and no one should make that much money from being big fat liars. It's particularly going when you see attorneys willing to completely revise history in front of a judge who witnessed it all in the first place. I guess just hoping that the judge forgot,

Starting point is 00:21:48 which is what Bradley appears to have done here. I'm going to have David read some passages from this motion to show you this dishonest, in our opinions, recasting of the facts. Remember, this hearing wasn't about whether Bradley and Weldon were justified in killing Scott. It was about whether the law that allows a person to stand their ground during what they see as dangerous and potentially deadly confrontations applied to what happened in this case. The judge had to weigh whether Weldon's and Bradley's account was credible. And the standard for his decision was a preponderance of evidence, that

Starting point is 00:22:23 50% plus a smidge that we often talk about on Cup of Justice. And the burden of proof was on Weldon and Bradley to show the court that their version of what happened that evening with Scott is, in fact, the God's honest truth. Welton and Bradley only needed to get a toe over that 50% mark with the judge, and they didn't. Why? Well, we're to start with that, right? Literally go back a year and start with our very first episode on the Spivey case. Before we start talking about what was in Bradley's motion to reconsider, let's take a little walk down memory lane with Judge Griffith's order. David, will you read the last few paragraphs of the order. As the passenger, Williams certainly occupies a different position from Boyd.

Starting point is 00:23:08 However, while Williams has better credibility than Boyd, his testimony mirroring Boyd's version of the moments immediately leading up to the shooting is not credible. That testimony is belied by the other evidence. Further, although Williams may not have wanted to initiate or continue the pursuit, nor was he in a position to control how fast Boyd drove. during the pursuit, he willingly went along with and encouraged the encounter with Spivey. As a passenger in the truck, Williams owed a duty to warn Boyd to stop the pursuit or

Starting point is 00:23:41 demand that Boyd permit Williams to leave the truck. Williams admitted that while he told Boyd to slow down as Boyd was getting close to Spivey's truck and to back up on Camp Swamp Road, he never warned Boyd to stop driving at excessive of speeds throughout the extended pursuit nor asked to be let out of the vehicle. Further, the evidence demonstrates that Williams recognized and perceived in actual danger at the very beginning of the extended pursuit, giving Williams more than ample opportunity to ask to leave Boyd's vehicle during the pursuit and demanding Boyd stopped the pursuit. He remained silent.

Starting point is 00:24:22 For you legal nerds out there, the judge cited a number of cases in the case. the order. But the two he cited with these findings were Lynch v. Alexander, a South Carolina case from 1963, and Thompson v. Michael, a South Carolina case from 1993, noting that, quote, the key is whether a person of ordinary care would have left the automobile if given a reasonable opportunity to do so. A passenger has a duty to warn and demand that a car be stopped if the car is driven in a reckless and careless manner. So again, the judge found Weldon Boyd not to be credible about what he said happened on September 9, 2023. In addition, he agreed that Weldon was driving at excessive speeds to chase Scott, which means Weldon was breaking the law. Another word for that

Starting point is 00:25:15 is wrongdoing, and that is significant because for Stand Your Ground immunity to have applied, Weldon's side of the street needed to be clean, and it wasn't. Let's also not forget that all throughout his testimony on the stand and his deposition, Bradley said things like this. Now, Mr. Martin asked you, did you do anything to encourage this? At no point, did you tell Weldon to stop? There was nothing to tell him to stop doing. That's right, because you were in full agreement with what he was doing.

Starting point is 00:25:53 Calling the police, yes. The Spivey family's attorney, Mark Tensley, then played a clip from a deposition. Well, from stopping before knowing the counsel not read? Not, right? Were you in full agreement with the idea to pursue Scott Spiney? To follow out? Yes. You'd invoice an objection because you didn't have one.

Starting point is 00:26:19 Is that fair? I didn't see anything wrong as far as well. well on those don't. It was column 911 and follow following direction. There was nothing that kept welding from stopping before you all turned on the Camp Swamp Road, right? There's nothing in this entire encounter with our thousand data points, it's about a thousand points. At any point time you all could have stopped because you had his license plate from jump, right? The very beginning. Why should we have to stop? Well that's right because y'all are heroes in chasing this bad guy down. Right? Right. Okay. Why did he stop? Well I assume he

Starting point is 00:27:07 stopped because of this white, mysterious white truck you all say he's engaged in, but the reality is, is that he was being chased by two people with their guns out. No guns were up. Two people chased you with your with guns out for an extended period of time, you believe you have a right to defend yourself, don't you? Okay, so now let's talk about Bradley's motion to consider. Here is David with some of the most puzzling parts, starting with this one. The court's order fails to identify any wrongful or unlawful act committed by Williams. This omission is critical because the, quote, bringing the difficulty, and, quote, analysis requires significantly

Starting point is 00:27:53 more than poor judgment. It requires misconduct. Well, that seems like an argument that belongs in Weldon's non-existent as of today motion to reconsider. No, not Bradley's. Weldon was a driver, and the judge agrees that he brought on the difficulty. And Bradley, well, you heard him, he does not consider anything that Weldon did that evening to be wrong. And despite Weldon clearly saying on 911 that he and Bradley had their weapons out on Highway 9. Before turning down Camp Swamp Road, Bradley won't even cop to that recorded excited utterance, or whatever we want to call it. Here's David with more. At most, the evidence shows that Williams did not forcefully demand that Boyd stopped the vehicle and allow him to exit, but no provision of South Carolina's criminal law imposes an

Starting point is 00:28:49 affirmative duty on a passenger to do so. Oh my gosh. Well, first, this is a civil case. Second, this was about whether stranger ground immunity protected Bradley from being sued by the spy vs. Third, the judge explained in his order that case law establishes this duty that Bradley says he did not have. There's more. David? Far from encouraging Boyd, Williams specifically cautioned him to slow down, testified that he did not want a second confrontation with spy, who had already brandished a gun at him and urged Boyd to back up and retreat when both vehicles turned onto Camp Swamp Road. L.O.L. When both vehicles turned on to Camp Swamp Road? Don't you love that boardwalk performance? It's well established that Weldon, by his own admission, followed Scott onto Camp Swamp Road.

Starting point is 00:29:43 Scott was headed home. Weldon was headed to his family farm, and Camp Swamp is not at all how you get there. But here, Bradley's attorneys claimed that right up as if Weldon and Scott were merely turning down a road at the same time. And also, this. I was talking to my friend, we're trailering couches. And this dude just, my buddy's like, what the fuck? And he's got a gun aimed at us next to us. Yeah, I don't think that's the vibe the judge was looking for when he said that Bradley had a duty to tell Weldon to stop what. he was doing or pull over. Because that vibe was gentle and kind uncle teaching his nephew

Starting point is 00:30:26 to drive for the first time. Slow down. Slow down. That was the sound of a co-pilot speaking. That was the sound of Bradley coaching his friend on their high-speed chase of Scott Spivey. Oh, and as far as telling Weldon to back up, let's listen to how that went. Back up. Weldon back up. I can't. I can't put it in gear. Put it in gear. Backing up. Backing up. Backing up. Backing up. I got it, Dan, I'll have him. Why could we fucking leave him alone?

Starting point is 00:31:26 Yeah. So, Bradley wants the judge to believe that he did tell Weldon to slow down and did tell Weldon to back up, which, okay, yeah, technically he did do both of those things. But how was any of that actual evidence of him trying to stop Weldon from engaging further? We already talked about his gentle coaching to slow down before they turned on to Camp Swamp Road, telling Weldon to back up a split second before Weldon, quote, unloaded his weapon, per Frank McMurrow's testimony, is called survival instinct. Everything up until that point was the Dukes of Hazard fun for Bradley. And reminder, Bradley Williams is on the record as saying he didn't think Weldon was doing anything wrong. Okay, there's one more passage from Bradley's motion that we need to talk about.

Starting point is 00:32:11 In his motion, Bradley argues that the Lynch v. Alexander ruling shouldn't apply here because it was decided under a law that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1979, which once again is true, but Bradley's team isn't being intellectually honest about that. The 1979 ruling basically made it so that passengers and vehicles could sue drivers for negligence without having to first show that they had asked the driver to slow down or stop. But the ruling didn't change the finding in Lynch that the test is not whether a guest, knowing that the driver's conduct is improper, has a reasonable opportunity to leave the automobile, but whether a reasonable opportunity being afforded, a person in the exercise of ordinary care would have done so under the circumstances. Again, Bradley made it pretty clear that he did not have a problem with how Weldon was operating until a split second before the gunfire erupted.

Starting point is 00:33:08 And it's not a stretch to think that a person, in fear for their lives, as Bradley said he was when he saw Scott had a gun nine miles earlier, in the exercise of ordinary care, would have likely pleaded with Weldon to stop chasing Scott, but that didn't happen. Here's where it's super interesting, though. I'll have David read the passage. The court also failed to consider plaintiff counsel's concession that Williams did not fire his weapon until after Boyd and Spivey had fired their weapons, as stated on page three of her pretrial brief, quote, only after Boyd fired numerous times and struck Spivey, did Spivey attempt to return defensive fire. It was at that point that Williams also opened fire,

Starting point is 00:33:55 and quote, the fact that Williams did not fire first is an important factual distinction between Williams and Boyd that the court did not consider in its order. You know, all during the hearing, we kept waiting for Bradley to make his move away from Weldon, but he didn't. He repeatedly stuck to Weldon's story, even when the record showed that the story changed. So it is pretty notable that at the very end of the motion to reconsider that Bradley is taking a half-step away, to basically say, this was Bradley's fight. I had no choice but to defend myself once Scott Open Fight.

Starting point is 00:34:34 which is a fantastic argument for someone who wasn't locked and loaded with Weldon in the same way Bradley was. Because, friends are not, loyalty or disloyalty, a man needlessly died because of what Weldon did and what Bradley did not do. And if Bradley, in our opinions, wants the benefit of being able to make this argument that this was Weldon's fight, then he needs to do more than take. a baby step away from it. He needs to come clean about what really happened on Highway 9 that evening, because Scott was just a regular man, driving home until the moment his path crossed

Starting point is 00:35:16 with Weldon and Bradley's. And that means something. If Bradley wants to keep supporting Weldon's story, then I'm sorry, it is his story too. As of Wednesday morning, the judge has not yet ruled on Bradley's motion to reconsider. And like we said, we have have no clue why Weldon Boy did not file his own motion to reconsider. Not that we think he should, but you know, it's kind of weird that he hasn't. So we wonder what exactly he's up to. More on Weldon and Bradley after a quick commercial break. We'll be right back.

Starting point is 00:36:01 Okay, so the other thing we need to talk about today is part of the ongoing story about how ORI County Police Investigators conducted themselves in the Spivey investigation and specifically about the way they treated Scott's family. We've shared recordings with y'all before that shows some of this appalling behavior from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and his senior prosecutor Heather Weiss, both of whom, in the service of defending their cowardly decision not to prosecute Weldon or Bradley in this case,

Starting point is 00:36:31 chose to treat Scott like a criminal, despite only knowing Weldon's and Bradley's version of how this conflict started. And they treated his family like a nuisance, for asking reasonable questions, such as when did Scott gain the right to defend himself against two men who were chasing him? We've also shared recordings of calls between Weldon and his parents and Weldon and Deputy Police Chief Brandon Strickland,

Starting point is 00:36:55 in which they referenced the SpyV family in various disparaging ways. And calls in which it was clear that the investigation was really just a formality they had to get around so that the family didn't suspect the police were helping Weldon. Like, in this call between me, Weldon and his mother that also references 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson and State Representative Bill Bailey. So Brandon told me it's already, it's already on Jimmy Richardson's desk.

Starting point is 00:37:27 So what does that make? I talked to him before you came in. He said that Jimmy can't call me or speak to me right now because he's the one who has to make the final decision. Mm-hmm. but said that that it's going to be all right. Just stay quiet for now. Okay.

Starting point is 00:37:50 But Brandon did say, and I called Ken, Brandon did say expect a civil suit. He said this family is refusing to believe it. So they're probably going to go after us civilly. He said that they aren't going to win. Yeah, well, I mean, when they don't know anything about all these other wins. I mean, when it comes out, how we just go. No, they know.

Starting point is 00:38:17 He said that Alan spoke with them yesterday. Alan brought them up to speed yesterday. Okay. So they just don't care. They want justice. They got to blame it on somebody. Yeah, so they're probably going to sue me. All right.

Starting point is 00:38:38 Well, when Ken? I already did. Ken's ready for it. And Ken's got a plan too. Once they announced that it was self-defense and that this guy was a danger, William Bailey's going to try and get me a, I forgot what it's called, an award for bravery,

Starting point is 00:39:01 me and Bradley to save my reputation. And then he's going to request that Hatley give it to me at City Hall, which she's going to turn it down. And that's going to give them ammo to use against her. And once she turns it down, he said Bailey's going to try and get me and Bradley on the floor of the Capitol and issue us a proclamation to issue us a proclamation for bravery, which will be a huge publicity stunt for the Second Amendment crowd for the state. Well, good. Well, we've still got to make sure I get self-defense.

Starting point is 00:39:40 Well, you are. You're thrilled. There's no way you aren't. I know we've played that call before, but honestly, I don't think we can play it enough. The amount of delusion contained in it is astounding. But more importantly, it really highlights the formidable mountain that the Spivey family has had to climb in not just getting justice for Scott, but simply getting the truth. The truth.

Starting point is 00:40:08 It shouldn't be too much to ask from a police department. apartment. Oh, and forget about law enforcement treating the family with respect. Orie County police treated the Spivey's like obstacles and unreasonable inconveniences. In February 24, Ory County Detective Alan Jones, along with crime scene investigator Shal Neal Tamasi, and at least one other police officer, drove over to the Spivey's farm just over the border of North Carolina. Jennifer Spivey Foley and her family had been given Scott's truck back from evidence. While the truck was at the impound lot in Conway, the family continued to make payments on Scott's truck loan, which his father had co-signed. Now they were preparing for the truck to be taken by the insurance

Starting point is 00:40:49 adjusters and totaled so that the balance of the loan could be repaid. While examining the truck, the family discovered that ORI County's investigators hadn't been thorough in searching for evidence. They found a casing from Scott's weapon and a projectile from either Weldon's or Bradley's guns still in the truck. After signing a waiver that allowed for investigators to search the truck, Alan Jones' body camera footage shows Jennifer letting him know that the insurance adjusters, who'd already been out to the site, wanted her to take photos of police searching the truck. When she informed Detective Jones about this, he laughed and then said nothing. He got on his phone and continued to fill out paperwork on the hood of the police truck while Jennifer stood and waited,

Starting point is 00:41:33 clearly sensing his hostility. When he was done filling out the paperwork, he asked her about the insurance adjuster's request again. You'll hear the awkward silence, as well as the dismissiveness of his laugh at her request. Because the insurance adjusters have come out here now twice. They want us to take some features while y'all are doing this, if that's okay. What you mean? I'm lost. Because we're really doing more damage to the truck.

Starting point is 00:42:00 They need just documentation. There's nothing else they mean. Okay. All right, so I'm just clear. I hear that they, the insurance company is wanting pictures because of the obvious additional damage we'll do trying to dig any further projectiles out? Yes, I. Okay.

Starting point is 00:42:35 All right. Well, they just want me to take them after we get done or? On the plot, while y'all are removing the door panel, they want me to take pictures of it. Okay. I don't know what the purpose of that is, but okay, I won't care. They just need documentation because there's nobody, they're not here to, the public adjuster is not here. That's all they want to move. All right, Chanel, it's done.

Starting point is 00:43:13 It's done, meaning the crime investigators, one of whom missed the projectile and casing during her first search, were now free to look in Scott's truck. It is interesting how Detective D.E. Jones laughed at that simple and polite request from Jennifer, right? This was five months out from losing her baby brother. The family had just weathered the holidays without him, and they had been repeatedly treated horribly by the Ory County Police. She was still able to be considerate and professional.

Starting point is 00:43:49 Oh, and by the way, he scoffed at her and said, I don't care. But everything about his response said he did care, from the dismissive way he silently turned away from her back to the warrant waiver and the way he let his laugh punctuate the silence and then hang in there in the way he repeated her request and the dismissing of their insurance adjusters need for photos before acting like ha it's no skin off his nose it all makes you wonder why what did he have to gain by treating Jennifer that way Was it simply that he did not like being forced to acknowledge the oversights in the investigation? Did he find the act of work to be inconvenient?

Starting point is 00:44:37 Or was this all nothing and he knew it? The decision had been made long ago, the night of Scott's killing. In fact, that Weldon and Bradley were protected. Nonetheless, Alan Jones chose to be a complete jerk. After signaling to the others that he was okay to search Scott's vehicle now, Detective Jones turned off his body camera. And the Spivey family turned their recording device on. Wait until you hear how this went.

Starting point is 00:45:08 The first voice on the recording is Jennifer's husband, Grayson. The second voice is Detective Alan Jones. The woman's voice is Jennifer Spivey. See if it was the other point. So somebody looked down there, I mean, looking here. No, they didn't take door panel off because you don't have any another point to. Okay? Right, right.

Starting point is 00:45:27 They're not going to take that doorpan off. Right. And I understand what you were saying, but here you have to look at it the way we do. You don't have that pass through there, but if you do have other projectiles already, it's not, you're not dealing with a whodunit, so to speak. You pretty don't know the ruffles you have involved. Right. So we're not going to basically potentially destroy a door panel to take it off to get to a possible projectile to a firearm that's already known with the checkdiles are already known.

Starting point is 00:46:05 Right. Right. Our thing is that that that's a one a whole. The one thing that we have, the only thing that is that the fact that it in the door panel and all the other bullets are not. near that and that it's an outlier it's an outlier and that's and with him being and I understand your point but as far as we preserved evidence and we towed him in his truck the family expected all the evidence to be taken so Alan is trying to tell Jennifer and Grayson that because investigators knew that Weldon and Bradley were the shooters it was not a who-dunuchy

Starting point is 00:46:49 it, in his words. Because of that, they didn't feel the need to collect all the evidence or take Scott's door off the truck to collect evidence. Jennifer makes a great point, though. With Scott being towed in the truck to allegedly better preserve evidence, the family expected all of the evidence to be taken. And more than that, wouldn't a projectile in the door say something about what happened? Or did Alan Jones want evidence that would corroborate Weldon's story? Or was no evidence better? Because Weldon's story could not, and was not, corroborated by what they already knew. Was this dangerous territory for Alan? Because he could maybe find something that would ruin that non-investigation of his. Let's keep listening. The first voice is Grayson. The second voice is Alan.

Starting point is 00:47:45 Here, they talk about Scott's body being towed in the vehicle and why it happened. Listen to Allen's garbage here. It may be an outlier for the positioning of the shooter. And there's the other possibility that there's grounds that didn't even hit the vehicle at all. Right. Yeah, that's true. So, I mean, there could be stuck in everywhere. I get what you're saying. And I understand that...

Starting point is 00:48:20 You know, at what... And I understand that if... ...that we, you know, we take a body in the vehicle like that. But... How often... And here's the other thing I'm going to tell you. And I didn't tell you this because I'm honest about it, I was just trying to be really nice about it.

Starting point is 00:48:38 The other option was to do it all on the side of the road. And you don't want that, okay? Just believe me. when I tell you the kinder thing was that. How often do y'all normally move people into this as that now? Yes, we do. Uh, nope, they definitely don't. They did it one other time that we know of,

Starting point is 00:49:08 and it involved a deputy who was killed. Another situation in which law enforcement might be motivated to control the story that the evidence told, right? Or at least another situation in which police might want to know what the evidence says. in an environment that they were controlling. Reminder, investigator Shelneal Tamasi testified last month that the Ory County Crime Scene Unit had tense

Starting point is 00:49:32 they typically used in weather events to protect evidence. So just listen to this with that in mind. Especially when you have a threat of weather that's coming in, because it was thunder and lightning all around us and just gotten worried it was raining a mile up the road from us. So we've got the potential of rain to come in there. When rain's coming in, rain is a bad juju for a crime scene. Because it's going to wash stuff away.

Starting point is 00:49:57 It's going to wet things. So in order to preserve that or any blood evidence or anything else, you get it out of the rain if you can. And I can tell you this. When Randy Gerald got killed one of our death deputy sheriffs, I was working at night. I was the one that went with him and transported him in his car to fire station where he could be processed by.

Starting point is 00:50:21 sled so yeah it's sometimes it's a working thing that you have to do had the weather been good that night and there had been no threat of rain or anything probably would have done it right there but because that rain was threatening and because it could wet everything could mess up blood evidence there's the potential for it whether it will or not you can't say but if you can eliminate a potential then you do so Yep, that was the thing that was done. Everything was transporting back to the shed in the back of the impound lot and the police department where it can be done there.

Starting point is 00:51:05 The part that really got me about what Alan said there is, one, I was trying to be nice. Huh? When? We must have missed that. And two, him bringing up the only other time that we know of so far that a body was towed in the vehicle to be searched. Obviously, I'm not in Allen's head to understand why he brought up the phone. and deputy and how he was there that night, but it felt manipulative to me and almost like he was trying to say that the things they did for Scott that night were on the level of how they treated their

Starting point is 00:51:36 own when really we know they were anomalies due to department leadership's relationship with Weldon. Now it's listened to Alan say a whole lot of nothing to cover up the lack of critical thinking the department employed while comparing the evidence to Weldon's and Bradley's story. Here Alan mentions that they have photos showing all the rods they put in the bullet holes to determine in what angles they came from. I can tell you that there are numerous pictures where there's all kinds of rods and where they could. Oh, rods. Yeah, totally.

Starting point is 00:52:22 So basically he's saying, yeah. I know y'all discovered that we didn't do as thorough of a job collecting the evidence as we told you we did, and that we told you thoroughness and preserving evidence were the reasons for us doing the most ghastly thing that shocks even the most seasoned of investigators, i.e. moving Scott's body in his truck to the impound lot where they put his body on a concrete floor and disrobed him item by item. He is saying, I know we look incompetent, but wow, We did take some photos showing the angles of the gunshots. And that's it.

Starting point is 00:53:06 That's all he said. The rest of the time was spent discussing whether there was enough battery left in Scott's truck to put the windows down. Now, I know what some of y'all are thinking. What did the investigators find? What did that evidence tell them? We have no idea. There's nothing in the case file. that memorializes this part of the investigation.

Starting point is 00:53:32 We have a copy of the waiver Jennifer signed in a six-minute body camera video that is mostly silent. We are bringing this to your attention today because it is yet another egregious thing the Spivey's went through in the aftermath of Scott's killing. In the body camera video you can see the exhaustion and grief in Jennifer's face in body language. The last thing she needed was to be catching an attitude from a police detective who essentially mocked her and acted like the family was being ridiculous for calling attention to the evidence that they found in Scott's truck. As we move forward in our reporting on the Spivey case, we will be looking deeper into

Starting point is 00:54:16 the individual officers who were attached to this case as well as the ORI County Police Department's highly disturbing history of corruption. cover-up and abuse. In the meantime, if you know of ORI County Police misconduct, please contact us at info at lunasharkmedia.com. Any documentation, names, search terms are welcome. We maintain anonymity of our sources and are happy to discuss any concerns beforehand. To make meaningful change in this community, it is going to require a lot of speaking up, even behind the scenes. The ORI County Police Department needs to learn who they work for and how to treat the people who pay their bills. Okay, until next time, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight.

Starting point is 00:55:21 True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production created by me, Mandy Matney, co-hosted and reported by journalist Liz Pharrell, research support provided by Beth Braden, audio production support provided by Jamie Hoffman and Grace Hills, case file management, provided by Kate Thomas. Learn more about our mission and membership at LunaSharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky. Welcome to National Park After Dark. We're your host, Cassie and Danielle. Join us every Monday as we visit a new park through stories of true crime, animal attacks, fatal accidents, miraculous survivals, and other incredible tales that you need to hear to believe.

Starting point is 00:56:08 Our hope is that by sharing inspiring tales and our passion for protecting our planet's wild places, inspires you to explore them yourselves. Find us on your favorite podcasting streaming platforms, watch us on YouTube, and follow our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. And remember to enjoy the view, but watch your back.

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