Murder in the Orange Grove: The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green - The Trial: 3

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

When Crosley Green went on trial for the murder of Chip Flynn, he faced an all-white jury. Witness after witness came forward for the prosecution including Kim Hallock who pointed directly at Crosley Green in court. But it was the surprise appearance of one of Crosley Green's closest family members that would ultimately help decide his fate.Get early, ad-free access to episodes of Murder in the Orange Grove: The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green by subscribing to 48 Hours+ on Apple Podcasts or Wondery+ on the Wondery app. Subscribe to 48 Hours+: https://apple.co/4aEgENo Subscribe to Wondery+: https://wondery.com/plus/.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

48 Hours Plus and Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Murder in the Orange Grove, The Troubled Case Against Crosley Green, one week early and ad-free right now. Join 48 Hours Plus on Apple Podcasts or Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. He wasn't a nervous person.

He just kind of sat there, and he looked down, and he looked over, and he would look at the ones that were up on the stand, and then he would look down. Amma Jean Bloss was inside the courtroom on a hot August morning in 1990 when Crosley Green went on trial for the murder of Chip Flynn. She was one of the 12 jurors who would decide his fate. She spent a lot of time watching him. To me, he didn't appear nervous. And that was another thing that made me think, maybe he thought he was getting off because they couldn't never be able to prove that he actually did it. If he would have done it, to prove that he actually did it. Now, if he would have done it, to me, he would have been a nervous wreck knowing he was going to be convicted.

I don't know. It was a touchy situation. Alma Jean Bloss was right. Crosley Green wasn't worried. He later told me, but not for the reasons Amadine Bloss imagined. Why should I feel nervous about something that I know nothing about? You're on trial for it. People are saying you killed someone. I mean, you're not going to be nervous about that in a trial?

Listen, if I did something, I'd be petrified if I did something like that. Okay, but if I didn't do nothing, why should I be nervous? Why? You give me one reason to tell me why should I be nervous for a crime I didn't commit. I believed Crosley Green. Rob Parker defended Crosley Green in court. I said, there's no jury in the world that's going to convict him based on these facts. And Parker needed to be right, because what was at stake at this trial?

Crosley Green's life. I'm 48 Hours correspondent Erin Moriarty. This is Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green. Episode 3, The Trial. Well, my name is Chris White. I was an assistant state attorney here in the 18th Judicial Circuit here in Brevard County, Florida, and I handled almost exclusively murder cases. In 1990, Chris White was one of two prosecutors who tried Crosley Green for the murder of Chip Flynn. The other was assistant state attorney Phil Williams. White later told me that he had specifically asked his boss to be part of the team. The reason I did was because it occurred

at Holder Park in part, and Holder Park is where my two kids were playing baseball. So I had a kind of special interest in seeing that the case was handled and that it was handled well. Crosley knew Chris White. In fact, he had a long, rocky history, both with White and the judge handling the trial, John Antoon II. And it wasn't just Crosley who had had past run-ins with the law. His younger sister, Sheila, and brother, O'Connor, had been convicted of distributing cocaine, and both were behind bars at the time of the trial. Crosley described a kind of them-against-us mentality that ran in his family.

Me and my family had a lot of trouble with them. But yet still, we stick together. And that caused a confusion with them. They can't understand why we're going to protect each other. We always stick up for each other. We take care of each other.

And ain't no way you're going to break us apart. On Crosley's side, Rob Parker. Crosley couldn't afford an attorney, so Rob Parker was appointed by the court. Parker had been a lawyer in private practice for three years after spending four years in the state attorney's office. But this was Parker's first capital murder case. He could have asked for co-counsel, but he didn't. He was so confident in himself and the evidence. Do you believe Crossley Green killed Chip Flynn? It's possible, but it's not probable based on the evidence that we have. Jury selection began at 9 a.m. on Monday, August 27, 1990, inside the Brevard County Courthouse in Melbourne, Florida.

Crossley and I sat there together and picked that jury. So, not that Crossley has any experience in picking a jury, but he was able to see the folks, and we did the best we could with what we had at that time. At least that's my opinion. And that's how 53-year-old Gardner and grandmother Alma Jean Bloss became one of those jurors. She had never served before, and she took that

responsibility very seriously. What did you know about the case before you actually sat on the jury? Did you know anything about it? No, I didn't know a thing. I didn't know a thing. I didn't know what to expect when I went there. Were you nervous about doing it? Yes, I was at first, yes. Why? Well, because it was to do with the blacks and the whites. And that many years ago, it was kind of touchy. And, you know, it's, I love them all equal. It doesn't make any difference what color. And to have all white jury, it's not fair. That's the way I look at it. Alma is white, and so is the rest of the jury, three men and nine women. There's this jury. I don't care what their makeup was, was going to have a reasonable doubt regarding his guilt. Parker is white, too. So were both the prosecutors

and the judge. Crosley Green's trial began on Tuesday morning, August 28th, around 10 a.m. There's no audio from this trial, but we do have thousands of pages of court transcripts. In his opening statement, Prosecutor Chris White gave the jurors an overview of the case, using the same metaphor that prosecutors often use. He told them that the evidence would come to them in pieces over the course of the trial and asked them to think about the front cover of a jigsaw puzzle box. White said, quote, when you sit down at a table and dump all the pieces out, the first thing you have to do is look at the front of the box and figure out where all those pieces are supposed to fit. Defense attorney Parker also talked to the jurors about evidence,

but he said that evidence would show that Kim Halleck didn't know who committed the crime. Parker then told the jurors that the trial was about two tragedies. The first tragedy being the loss of Mr. Flynn. The second being my client being hauled into court, charged with the most serious crime known to civilized society. Crosley Green's trial lasted six days. The jury heard from over 30 witnesses, but we're going to focus here on the key testimonies that addressed crucial evidence used against Crosley, including shoe prints, bullet fragments, fingerprints, and dog tracking. The very first witness on day one of the trial was Agent Debbie DeMars from the Brevard County Sheriff's Office Criminalistics Unit. She was the crime scene technician who recorded the walkthrough at Holder Park just hours after Chip Flynn's murder.

And what is believed to be the suspect's shoe print is found throughout this area. Prosecutor White had already told the jury in his opening statement that investigators were never able to recover any shoes that matched those shoe prints, only that they were tennis shoes. While questioning Agent DeMars, White showed a diagram of the shoe prints, which showed them trailing through Holder Park and then abruptly ending where Chip Flynn's truck was parked. Here's what White told me later about that evidence. They are there at the crime scene and they were leading into the crime scene to the truck. It was a damning piece of evidence because White was implying that the person wearing those

shoes must have left in Chip's truck. Parker asked Agent DeMars if she found any shoe prints leading back towards the robe where they came from. DeMars said no. Also testifying on the first day of the trial was Brevard County Deputy Sheriff Mark Rixey. He was one of the first officers to respond to the Orange Grove, along with Sergeant Diane Clark. Rixey testified that he and Sergeant Clark found Chip conscious in the Orange Grove, with his hands tied together behind his back with shoelaces, and that he found a.22-caliber revolver at the scene, about four feet away from Chip. Later in the trial, the defense cross-examined the forensic firearm expert about the fragment of the bullet found in Chip Flynn's body. Here's how defense attorney

Rob Parker described that testimony. They found one fragment of a projectile, and as I recall, it struck, I think it struck Chip in the upper chest and traveled down and back. It was just a fragment, after all. But the forensic expert testified that it appeared to have been shot specifically from a revolver, not an automatic gun like Kim had initially told the police the assailant used to shoot Chip. The only weapon found at the scene was Chip's gun, a revolver. And of course, my point was, how do you know that this fragment that you found in Chip really didn't come from Chip's gun? The expert said, yes, the bullet found in Chip could have been fired

from Chip's own gun. Another expert who took the stand was the crime scene unit investigator who evaluated the fingerprint evidence on Chip's truck. He testified that the only identifiable prints belonged to Kim Halleck. No prints matched Crosley Green, none on the outside of the car, none on the steering wheel or the gear shift. This was key for juror Alma Jean Bloss. When you don't find fingerprints, that was my biggest thing, was the fingerprints. No fingerprints when he drove a truck and no gloves mentioned. Did he have gloves on? Did he put his socks on his hands? But when I spoke to Prosecutor White, he said this fact never concerned him. Let me explain why I didn't, okay? Number one, I know

that fingerprints aren't always left. If they were, my conviction rate would be higher, okay? Number two, Kim was in that truck. She climbed in that truck to get away. She drove that truck. She touched all the places where Crosley Green would have touched. She could have smudged every single print that he left. Or it may be that his hands weren't placed on those places in such a way that it could leave a good print. He may have moved his fingers around everything he touched. I don't know. Later in the trial, the prosecutors questioned the police dog handler. He and his dog were called to Holder Park early on the morning after the murder to try to find and track a fresh scent from the crime scene. They ran a dog track from what they believed was the defendant's scent

along the track of the tennis shoe prints. The defense objected to the testimony, and the jury was asked to leave the courtroom. Parker argued to the judge that the witness was not qualified as an expert in dog handling, and more importantly, that the state could not prove that the dog was actually following the scent of the person who left those shoe prints. But the judge allowed the testimony in, and the trial resumed. Under Chris White's questioning, the dog handler shared that his dog picked up a scent at the crime scene and followed the shoe prints out of the park for about two-tenths of a mile until they disappeared at the edge of the pavement. They continued to track the scent along the road, following it all the way to the house of Crosley Green's sister, Tina, who lived just about a half mile from Holder Park. But perhaps the most important witness called by the prosecution was none other than Kim Hallick

herself. She was a very nervous person on the stand. Juror Alma Jean Bloss remembered Kim's demeanor. She chewed gum constantly and real loud, like, you know, and it was, she was very jittery. She couldn't really look at the courtroom. She's looking at the floor. Kim's testimony began on the first day of the trial and lasted into the second. White's colleague, Phil Williams, asked Kim about identifying her assailant on a photo lineup at the sheriff's department. That identification was one of the most damaging pieces of evidence at trial. You know, that's potent, potent evidence, potent stuff. In a pre-trial hearing, Parker had tried and failed to keep Kim's identification of Crosley in that photo lineup out of the trial, because Crosley's photo had been darker than the five other men.

The photographic lineup, the procedure, was an unnecessarily suggestive technique which would result in a substantial likelihood of in-court misidentification. I later asked White if he agreed that that photo lineup was suggestive. I think there's an argument that it is, but I think there's also an argument that she looked at it and she, what would she necessarily think that they're trying to point me to the darkest one? Maybe they're trying to point her to the lightest one. You know, you're, you're again, there's a deal of speculation that goes into what effect that had. The prosecution asked Kim Halleck if she could look around the courtroom and see the person who pulled the gun on Chip, took them in the truck, tied Chip up, and shot him. Kim said yes and then pointed directly at Crosley.

As you can imagine, it was a dramatic moment. Parker then had to cross-examine Kim, but he knew he'd have to tread carefully. Well, you know, anytime you have a young woman who has suffered through this kind of a nightmare, you want to be very careful with that. But he also picked up on something in that particular moment. Kim was responding to a question about seeing the black male with a gun shooting Chip. When she was interviewed by police, she had said she only heard the shots. That was news that came out for the first time, and we pointed that out. First time you ever told anybody that was now in front of this jury.

Parker pushed Kim a bit. He asked her, you didn't see anything. You just heard shots, didn't you? She responded that she saw a black male standing there with a gun, but admitted she didn't tell that to the police. For Parker, creating doubt around Kim's identification of Crosley as the assailant was crucial. He wanted to create reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. It was pitch dark. There was a canopy of trees over the area where this allegedly occurred. Parker asked Kim if she saw what the man looked like when he first approached the vehicle. She said no. He then asked if she got

a good look at the man when they left Holder Park for the Orange Grove. She replied that her head was down most of the time. And when asked if she had a chance to look at his face in the Orange Grove, she said she didn't. Never seen the person before, but for the photographic lineup. But when we get to the courtroom, she says that's him. But still, as far as description goes, can't really describe this person, can't remember what her description was, can't remember what she told the police. Here's what juror Alma Jean Bloss thought. Every answer was, I don't know, I don't know, or she just didn't know. She couldn't answer the questions that was asked her. She didn't know. In fact, Kim said the phrase, I'm not sure, close to 50 times while she was being questioned by Parker.

She also had changed her description of the suspect's hair. When talking to police that first time, she described it, quote, thick, kind of long, afro. At trial, she testified that the man's hair was styled with gel and that it came down to a little over the ear. Actually, she called them ringlets and they, and her description was she'd take her finger and she'd run them down. So I envisioned this kind of longer hair with ringlets. To me, it was this unique hairstyle. And she was very clear about that? Very clear about it. And in fact, then, what did Croswick Green look like at that time? Well, as you know, he had just gotten out of prison. He had a buzz cut. He had very short hair. All the witnesses who saw him at Holder Park said he had a buzz cut. When I spoke to

White about that inconsistency, he was dismissive. Might they lie about his hair if it would help him? Do you think? All of his friends said, everybody else you interviewed, every witness said he had short, cropped hair. I don't know that we actually interviewed everybody. Parker also asked Kim Halleck why she didn't seek help for Chip Flynn by going to a nearby house or even the local hospital after leaving the Orange Grove. Remember, Kim claimed

she drove directly to David Stroop's trailer after fleeing the Orange Grove. His trailer was four miles away. She's from this area. She knows where the hospital is. She knows that there's probably a police officer there because generally they have security there at the hospital. If not a police officer, armed security officer. She doesn't go to the hospital. And my answer to that is, you know, what should I make of that? And I have handled many cases where people have been victimized. Some of them were present when other people were killed or when robberies happened

or maybe they were just raped and beaten or whatever. Those people don't always act very rationally when all of that is said and done. I can't hold her to the standard that the defense team here wants to hold her to, that she should have done everything the exact way they think is most logical. I refuse to hold her to that standard. I'm sorry. According to Kim's testimony at trial, she said it only took her a couple of minutes to drive to David's trailer. But according to her police tape statement, the time between when she left the Grove and called 911 meant that the drive actually took her up to an hour. It's an inexplicable chunk of missing time, and it was crucial time for Chip. He was laying there

dying every moment counted. But at trial, Rob Parker did not question Kim about this time discrepancy. Parker did ask Kim some intimate details, whether she was in love with Chip. She said yes. She also acknowledged that they had been sexually involved. Parker then asked if Kim was aware that Chip had been sexually involved with another woman named Patty Larney. Kim said she didn't know for sure, but admitted that she and Chip did discuss his relationship with Patty that evening at Holder Park. When Parker then asked if it made her angry that Chip was having a sexual relationship with Patty, she replied that it made her upset. and kind of out of the blue he drives by and he and Kim go parking.

And I thought it was, I thought the jury needed to understand that that was a fact they should consider. Rob Parker also got Kim to admit something she had previously denied to police, that she and Chip smoked marijuana that night in Holder Park. There was clothing from the truck that was strewn out in the area where this event occurred in Orange Grove. Brush was patted down and matted down. What did that suggest to you? Suggested to me that they might have been out making love on the ground or something along those lines. The fact that Kim and Chip had been somewhat at odds that night,

that Chip could have been shot with his own gun, and that missing chunk of time didn't quite fit inside the jigsaw puzzle that Prosecutor White described in his opening statement. There were some missing pieces, some pieces forced into place, and that might have tipped the scale in Crosley's favor. But the state was not yet finished calling witnesses, and one big puzzle piece was about to be revealed.

Your sister comes in and says, you told her that you did it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. So what was the evidence that convinced the jury? Well, his sister testified against him. And she came in with shackles and uniform. And it was sad.

And she had four children. That's juror Alma Jean Bloss again. She's talking about the most shocking moment of the trial, when on the second day of the state's case, Crosley's sister Sheila appeared in court to testify against him. I remember that. She kind of turned. She couldn't look at him. Crosley's older sister, Shirley, was also in the courtroom watching. How difficult was that? It was very difficult. The judge told me

that if I look at her and roll my eyes, they're going to take me out the courtroom because Sheila was afraid of me. And they kept her back there in the room. I just want to make sure you heard that. Shirley said that she was warned that if she rolled her eye at her sister, they were going to take her out of the courtroom. Would she look at you at all when she was testifying? She would hold her head down.

Every time I tried to sit so I can see her and look her in the face and ask her why. At the start of this episode, we heard from Crosley that nothing could break his family apart, remember? So why would his younger sister Sheila turn on her flesh and blood? Well, Alma mentioned the shackles. Sheila was incarcerated and facing serious prison time for drug charges. Well, one of my charges carried 10 to life, and the other one carried 5 to 40 years. But the overall of the statutory guidelines, it was 97 to 121 months. Oh, my God, for drug charges?

Yes. Did they promise you anything if you testified against your brother? Yeah, I suppose I got a lighter sentence. But what exactly did you say in court? You testified against your brother in court. What did you say? If I'm not mistaken, I think I said I seen him. I asked him, did he do it? And he said yes. And I cried or something to that effect. I can't remember. When the prosecution questioned Sheila, she testified that she saw Crosley the day after the shooting at their sister Tina's house. She said she asked him about the rumor that he had killed Chip Flynn and that at first Crosley denied it, but then she says he admitted that,

quote, he didn't intentionally make it happen that way. Sheila said that Crosley referred to Chip as the dude and said that the dude pulled a gun on him and motioned for the female passenger to run for help and that the two men struggled over the gun. Sheila said that Crosley then told her that it was either going to be him or Chip. Sheila told the jury, quote, I wanted to cry and say no, Papa, but said that her brother told her he'd be all right. What did that feel like on the stand? I felt horrible. Up until this point, defense attorney Parker thought the trial was going pretty well for his client.

But it was undeniable that Crosley's sister's testimony was a major hit to his case. Some plea deal discussions had taken place before trial, but after Sheila's testimony, an official plea deal was offered. Crosley was looking at 10 years in prison if he pled guilty. So I've now gotten him into a position where he does not have to face the electric chair. He does not have to face the rest of his life in prison. I'm feeling pretty good. You recommend him to take it? Well, we talked about it and talked about it and talked about it. And he said, I didn't do it. I said, OK.

So he turned it down? Turned it down. Why should I take it? Why didn't you? Why didn't it? Listen, I didn't kill that young man, okay? I'm telling you, I keep telling you, I didn't kill that young man. So why should I take that place?

Why should I? But the damaging evidence wasn't over. The state didn't just want Sheila to testify. They wanted me to convince Lonnie Hillary, he was my fiance at the time, they wanted me to convince him to also testify because they felt that he would listen to me. Sheila's fiance, Lonnie Hillary, took the stand after Sheila. He told the court that sometime on the morning following the shooting, he noticed that Crosley wasn't acting like himself, that he looked shaky and scared. Lonnie testified that Crosley told him, quote, I f***ed up, man. I f***ed up. Lonnie also told the jury that Crosley told him a man and woman

wanted to buy something from him and that he got in their truck and rode off with them. He said that Crosley told him, quote, they hustled for a bit and the woman took off. According to Lonnie, that's when Crosley said he f***ed up. The prosecution also asked Lonnie about Crosley's clothes. Lonnie said he was wearing blue jeans and looked scuffed up, like he had been in the dirt. Lonnie went on to say that later in the week, Crosley told him that he got rid of the clothes and that everything was going to be all right. These witnesses against Crosley were incredibly damning, even though the jury was also told that Sheila was promised a more lenient sentence if she testified against her brother and that she convinced her fiance to do the same. It hurt to hear a sister and brother, one testify against the other.

I asked Parker about how reliable this kind of testimony can be. Isn't that a very strong incentive for that witness to lie? Oh, absolutely. To save herself? Absolutely. No question about it. Do you think that happened in that case? I think that is something you have to explore as a defense lawyer anytime that happens. And I think I pointed that out to the jury, and they just didn't believe that.

They believed that she wouldn't say that against her own brother to avoid a federal prison sentence. I took a look at some of the local papers from the time and realized that Sheila testified against Crosley on that Wednesday, August 29th, and then on Thursday, August 30th, testified against her other brother, O'Connor Green, at his sentencing hearing, all before she faced sentencing about a month later on September 24th. That's three of the Green siblings facing the court system in one month's time. That stands out to me, but nothing about that situation surprised Crosley. That's a thing that's been used in this system for so long. They bring in family to testify against family. Friends to testify against friends, but on false statements. Okay? And that's wrong.

And that's wrong. That's very wrong. Someone else who came forward as a state witness was Alan Jerome Murray. He told the court that soon after the shooting, a group of about 20 to 30 men were talking on the corner in Mims, referred to as 21 Jump Street. Allen said Crosley was there and told them that he had just killed a man and that he was going to, quote, disappear. But Allen also admitted on the stand that he was under the influence of alcohol at the time,

and that the group of men there was known to use cocaine, although Allen said he was not using cocaine at that moment. Sheila Green, Lonnie Hillary, and even Allen Jerome Murray were powerful witnesses, but they all spoke about conversations with Crosley after the murder. The state needed witnesses who could place Crosley near the crime scenes on the night of, like Willie Hampton, the umpire of the Little League game that evening. He testified that he saw Crosley at Holder Park and that Crosley was wearing a jacket that matched Kim's description.

The prosecution also called a witness who knew both the Green and Flynn families. I mean, it was a very well-known trial back then. A lot of people was following this trial. Remember Tim Curtis from the local body shop? He was the one who told police that the police sketch looked like Crosley Green, and he was the one who sold the truck to Chip Flynn. I noticed also in your testimony, you said to the jury, I sold Chip the truck that he was abducted in, which I know the defense was not happy with because you're making that assumption he was abducted. Well, at that time, Aaron, in fairness to everyone, that's what the story was. Chip was abducted, taken down the road and shot. During his opening statements, White had told the jury that they would hear a police dog handler testify about how his dog tracked the shoe prints at Holder Park to Crosley's

sister's house. When Tim Curtis took the stand, White asked him about the last time he had seen Crosley at his sister Tina's house. Tim said he had seen him there in the afternoon, just hours before the murder took place. Tim remembers that day like it was yesterday. He later told me that shortly after he testified on that Thursday, August 30th, the third day of the trial, the judge called for a break. Tim says he went out to his vehicle and looked over at another car. And I looked over at the person driving and noticed it was a male. And I thought, wow, I think that's one of the jurors.

The juror looked right back at him. He took his thumb as if it was a knife and stuck it in the side of his neck and drug it across his throat. his neck and shrugged it across his throat. And to be honest with you, I think I looked back at him and may have given him a thumbs up or, you know, at a boy or whatever. I asked him what he thought that juror's hand motion meant. I took it as Crosley's guilty. The next day, Tim says he went back to work at the body shop and Bobby Cook, a longtime customer came in worried about his car. Then Bobby brought up

the trial and asked, you know, ain't you involved in that case? And I said, yeah. And he goes, how do you think the trial is going? I said, well, I think they got him found guilty. And he goes, why do you say that? And I told Bobby that. What you had seen the juror do. Mm-hmm, yeah. Tim told Bobby about that juror in the parking lot. What Tim didn't realize was that Bobby Cook was a private investigator for none other than Crosley's defense attorney, Rob Parker.

And now Tim's body shop gossip could have very real consequences for the trial. This was a six-day trial, and on the first four days, from Tuesday, August 28th to Friday, August 31st, the prosecution called a total of 26 witnesses. The jurors went home for the weekend. But it wasn't just any weekend. It was Labor Day weekend, so they had three full days off to digest the evidence. They were not sequestered. When they returned on the morning of Tuesday, September 4th, defense attorney Parker motioned for a mistrial four times.

Oh, I thought I was gonna get a mistrial. What do you mean? What did you think? Well, there was so much going on in that trial. The defense took issue with the introduction of the photo lineup that depicted Crosley's photo as darker than all the others. The dog tracking evidence, because the prosecution could not prove that the scent tracked belonged to Crosley. And Kim's father's testimony, which Parker said was, quote, nothing but the hearsay statements of Ms. Kim Halleck.

Parker had also learned about Tim Curtis's alleged interaction with that juror, and Parker claimed that his client couldn't get a fair trial. Tim Curtis was called back to the courtroom. The judge explained to him in front of the jurors why he had been brought back. He goes, well, you had an incident in the parking lot. And then it just like at that point, it was like my whole brain and mind just like went completely numb. The judge asked him to identify the jur't even look at the juries. I didn't even focus my attention on them and turned and answered him.

And I said, no, I don't see this person in the courtroom. Even though Curtis admits he did. Yes, because afterwards I had seen the juror setting up there. You know, and I was like, wow, that was a guy. Why didn't him tell the judge the truth? This is his explanation. I was feeling pressured, but I think most of all, it's just, I think, to be honest with you, I was thinking of Chip and thinking, man, I'm not going to see this case ruined for you.

It's my fault, you know, that I was more concerned with this case isn't going to be ruined because of me. Tim didn't want a mistrial, so he lied. And sure enough, all the motions for mistrials were denied. It was time for the defense to make its case. Parker called five additional witnesses to the stand. A shoe print expert who said that the shoe prints at Holder Park could have matched more than 10 different brands. The chief umpire at Holder Park, who spoke to Crosley that evening and said he wasn't wearing a jacket and had short hair, and a friend of Kim's who saw her early in the morning of April 4th and testified that she had grass stains on the back of her shirt. The jury also heard from James Karn,

the ex-boyfriend of Crosley's cousin, Carlene, who had been arguing with Carlene at her house that night. James testified that he remembered seeing Crosley sometime before 1 a.m., but the jury never heard from cousin Carlene, or most surprising to me, Crosley's other alibi witness, Lori Raines, who said Crosley was at her house starting at about 11 p.m. Rob Parker's last witness was Crosley's sister, Tina, whose house was at the center of so much of the prior testimony. She testified that their other sister, Sheila, never told her that Crosley admitted to killing Chip Flynn.

Crosley himself never took the stand because he says Parker advised him not to. Parker said that as the trial was winding down, Crosley was feeling optimistic. He always felt like it would work out. He always told me it'll work out. That he'd be acquitted? Everything's going to work out. I mean, he kind of comforted me, I guess. He seemed to have a confidence that it'll work out. On the sixth and final day of the trial, the case went to the jury.

They were out only three hours. Alma Jean Blas says she was the last to hold out. I had my doubts, and I still have my doubts. What made you finally give in and vote to convict him? It was most of them all, and I kind of just, at the end, you give up. The clerk read the jury's verdict aloud. Guilty of robbery, kidnapping, and first-degree felony murder. They all had that feeling that he did it from the beginning. Maybe that feeling also had something to do with the fact that the phrase black man or black male was said over 100 times over the course of

the trial. I asked Parker if he thought the racial makeup of the jury had any impact on that verdict. I mean, do you think it made a difference there was this all-white jury, that a young white man had been killed and here is a black man who doesn't take the stand? You know, the only thing I can, we can all speculate. Certainly I'm not naive enough to think that there are some on that jury that may have had some racial bias, maybe even significant racial bias. If they did, they denied it when we addressed it. I also asked Parker about Crossley's reaction to the verdict.

You know, to be honest with you, it seems to me that the impact it had on me was such such that I think I was so stunned that I'm not sure I can recall how he handled it. But Crosley remembers. Guilty. That's all I can remember, was guilty. After that, I shut everything off. What do you mean? After that, I just shut everything out. Just shut everything out. See, I had a, my family was there. And I didn't want them to get angry or upset and stuff like that. Yeah, because I didn't want no scene, no nothing.

I was angry, but why let something just explode? But for the folks on the other side of the courtroom, justice had been served, especially for Chip Flynn's parents, Charles and Peggy. I think we got the right man. Did you have any questions in your mind at all when that verdict was reached? No. I would later look back at the defense's strategies and wonder, is there anything else Parker could have done for Crosley? I asked juror Alma Jean Bloss. How would you describe his defense, the way it was handled?

Well, maybe his defense wasn't strong enough. Maybe, maybe he did, maybe he, I don't know, maybe he should have got somebody else. I don't know. I just, there may have been better out there that could have helped him more. I don't know. It wasn't yet over for Crosley. That same jury now had to decide whether he would face life in prison or death by execution. The jury advisory sentencing hearing took place a little over three weeks later on September 27, 1990. Now, Parker was forced to take a different approach. He argued that if the jury believed that Crosley was guilty of murder, he had to come up with evidence that showed that Crosley didn't want to kill Kim or Chip, that he instinctively fired back after Chip fired the first shots. Parker pleaded with the jury,

quote, please don't overreact. But Prosecutor White argued that the killing was heinous, atrocious, and cruel. He asked the jury, quote, what could be worse than to murder someone, kill someone over money, just over money? Judge Antoon also allowed White to inform the jury of Crosley's prior conviction in New York for armed robbery when Crosley was just 18. However, Crosley was never convicted of armed robbery, but had instead pled guilty to a lesser nonviolent crime. That plea was also expunged from Crosley's record due to his youthful offender status. If three hours sounds short for deliberating the murder charges against Crosley, it only took a little more than an hour for the jurors to decide whether he would live or die. The jury,

eight to four, recommended that Crosley Green receive the death penalty. He was officially sentenced to death row on February 8th, 1991, a devastating blow to many of his family members, including his two sons, Shuma, age 16, and Gaston, age 6. Once they sign your warrant to be executed, you're going to be executed. And that scared the hell out of me. I wouldn't learn about Crosley's case until almost 10 years later. And after reviewing the evidence, I had doubts that Crosley committed this crime. And on top of that, key witnesses from the trial were coming forward to change their stories. On the next episode of Murder in the Orange Grove, the troubled case against Crosley Green.

Every time I look at news and hear about an individual death row, I think about my brother. And I knew that he's there not only for my statement, but for other people's statement, but I knew mine was a lie. Murder in the Orange Grove was reported by me, Erin Moriarty, alongside producers Alan Pang, Annie Cronenberg, and Alison Bailey. Kiara Norbitz is our coordinating producer, Thank you. executive producer of 48 Hours. Gail Zimmerman, Asena Basak, Mark Goldbaum, Charlotte Fuller, Judy Ryback, and Stephen McCain produced the original 48 Hours episodes. Associate producers were Michael Loftus and Shaheen Toki. Patti Aronofsky was the senior producer.

Special thanks to Megan Marcus, Jamie Benson, benson nick poser and gail sproul if you like murder in the orange grove the trouble case against crosley green you can listen to the next episode one week early and ad-free by joining 48 Hours Plus on Apple Podcasts or Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.