Sword and Scale - Episode 235

Episode Date: March 6, 2023

A young pregnant mother goes missing in the chill of an Arkansas December night. The small town of Rison and surrounding communities are well known fishing and hunting areas, but they also hold some sinister secrets. Cherrish Allbright wasn’t the only person to come up missing . Who would be found, and who wouldn’t? Were the disappearances related, and more curious, was there evil in the town of Rison where humans are mistaken for deer?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised The day that we went to Scalars funeral that was That was the last time I've seen cherish a love That was the last time I've seen Cherish love. Hello and welcome to season 10 episode 235 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. I'd like to remind you that we're living in a world of... Batchit crazy. Where a podcast that talks poorly about murderers and child molesters can be demonetized for

wrong think. And everybody acts like that's just totally normal. Speaking of which, now's a great time to support the independent content creators that you enjoy. Head on over to sordanscale.com-plus to support us, for example, if you want to. Because it's the only thing that's keeping us here. Despite what you've heard on the internet, socialism doesn't work. There's nobody wants to work for free. I'm sure you've probably heard of Little Rock Arkansas, a former president with an affinity for cigars comes from there.

But you've probably never heard of the little town of Ryzen, Arkansas, the seat of Cleveland County, approximately two counties below Little Rock. Small as it is hosting only about 1,500 inhabitants, it is still considered to be part of the metropolitan area. This is probably because it's defined as a commuter town, meaning most people travel from Ryzen to the larger city for work. Historically, Ryzen was created as a result of a railroad being routed through Cleveland County. Citizens of the neighboring county didn't want trains, so the railway was rerouted through empty land that gave Ryzen to.

Ryzen Early in its existence, it was primarily inhabited by sharecroppers and owners who relied on sales of cotton and lumber for its economic growth. Today, however, Ryzen isn't doing so well. The poverty level is statistically more than twice that of the national average. The people of Ryzen stick together. They fish, they go to church, they hunt, all together. But to get a hamburger, they have to travel at least 20 miles. Neither in and out, what a burger or five guys or worth that drive, fight me in the comments. But this is where Kristen lived and went to school. And the school was very small. The people there, they all pretty much knew each other. It was a very close-kn knit community. And this is where she met a girl named Cherish.

When I met Cherish, I was 13 and Cherish was 16, almost 17, I'd say. Everybody pretty much knew everybody there. Cherish lived on Rogers Road in Woodland, and that is how I met her, I had a friend, Raven, that lived on the same road, and I would stay with her a lot whenever I was younger, and they actually lived about three or four houses down from each other, and Raven introduced me to Cherish.

And that's how we become friends. We didn't become as close as we were until about two years after we met. Kristen recalled that her friend Cherish didn't live in a two-parent home, but lived with her grandmother and father while her brother lived with her mother in a nearby town. Cherish lived with her grandmother and father while her brother lived with her mother in a nearby town. Cherish lived with her grandma and her dad to kind of help her grandma out around the house and just kind of, you know,

to help as much as she could because Cherish was very family-oriented. She loved her family. She loved her friends. It was obvious that Cherish also loved her brother because she always carved out time to spend with them Even if it just meant going to their mother's house and hanging out with him for a couple of hours her mom I Believe she's worked as a CNA for a very long time. That's what she is doing now And her grandma does the same kind of work. She worked in, or she works in a nursing home. Cherish did the same thing. She worked in the nursing home with her grandma. She assisted with the elderly. She loved helping the elderly

and she just had a very big heart for helping people. Cherish would graduate from high school after Kristen because of the three-year-age difference. Even though Cherish preferred to be outside doing things like fishing and hunting, she began helping her grandmother in a nursing home after graduation and expanded her caring touch beyond the nursing home. She also had a lady that she would go and sit with during the week that was not in a nursing home to kind of help her around the house because she was a widow and her kids didn't live in the state so she would help her around the house to do laundry,

cook, run errands for, things like that. Kristen was still in school, but their friendship deepened. She and Cherish began seeing each other almost every day after school when Cherish visited a boyfriend who lived on the same road. Mostly they fished together, but they also had other hobbies. Cherish would bring Kristen along in her grandmother's car in due donuts in the mud. And they looked for just about any excuse to do anything outside.

Anything outside we were doing it, mainly fishing that was our main thing that we loved to do. And we were pretty big part of years when we were younger. Cherish, she knew how to have a good time and she could definitely get a crowd going. She could light up the darkest room with her laugh and her smile. They were just so contagious. And we just, we really clicked.

We understood each other. We had kind of gone through similar things in our past and when we were together, we knew that we weren't being judged by one another. So it was just a very close and important friendship to me when we did get close. I mean, we were seeing each other basically every day. And if we didn't see each other every day, we did talk almost every day. Kristen anticipated the friendship would outlast any other. It was the kind of easy, comfortable relationship we all want from our friendships.

The one where a friend that actually cares about you and shows it. But Kristen's life would forever be altered one chilly December evening in 2015. That evening was December 3rd, just two days before Cherish's birthday. After Cherish finished her work at a private residence, she texted Kristen but then went home early to spend time with her grandma and make it an early night. She and her grandmother were going shopping for Cherish's birthday the next day. What did Cherish want for a gift, you might ask? Her and her grandma were going to go to Walmart to get a baby bedding set. It was a finding name of a bed set and Cherish had her eyes on it while even before she was pregnant

when I was pregnant, she kept asking me to buy it and so she decided for her birthday that that's what she wanted and her grandma told her that she would take her to get it. Cherish was newly pregnant. She was ecstatic about it and she wanted her best friend, Kristen, to go with her on this special occasion. Knowing she would see her the next day, Kristen declined. But according to Kristen, the next day rolled around, and she didn't hear from her. That first Kristen wasn't concerned until Cherish's grandma called, asking if Cherish was with her.

Of course, Kristen answered that she hadn't seen her. She and Cherish's grandmother tried to remain calm as they made numerous calls to no avail. Eventually, the two of them, along with Cherish's mother, began to panic and filed a police report. So the night that she went missing, all we knew, all that I was told whenever her grandma called me was, that her and Cherish were laying in bed that night and they were actually sleeping in the same bed, Cherish wanted to sleep with their grandma that night. And they were laying in bed and they were talking about the baby in her birthday. And she said that Cherish got

a call and she didn't know who it was, but she got a call and she said, uh, Mimmo, I'm just going to step right outside and I'll be right back. I'll be right back. She didn't even push shoes on or a jacket because she didn't plan on leaving. She didn't plan on leaving her yard. Pregnant and barefoot, quite literally, Cherish decided to leave her yard that night for some reason. A cold December night when the temperature was in the low 30s.

The night before her birthday. Why did she leave the comfort of her grandmother's home and go outside? The only possible explanation was that she left, with someone that she knew. Cherish Albright was pregnant and would turn 22 years old just one day after she disappeared from her rural hometown in Ryzen, Arkansas. Her grandmother, mother, and best friend, Kristen had pulled out all the stops in their search for her.

Everybody who loved Cherish was sent into anxiety and alarm. This believing Cherish would disappear on her own and knowing she received a phone call just before going outside in her bare feet on December 4th, 2015. Shortly after she vanished, family and friends started to speculate about who would cause her to go outside in the cold after 10pm, let alone leave the property. So we didn't know who called her at first and her grandma said that she heard a truck pull up. She didn't see what truck it was but she heard a truck pull up and then eventually the truck pulled off. And all she kept telling me was I should have went and stopped her, I should

have went and stopped her. You know, I should have done something. And I mean, she had her grandma blames herself so much and I've tried and tried to tell her that, you know, it's not her fault that she could not have prevented this, even if she wanted to. So we went about a little over two weeks before or almost two weeks before we finally found out what had happened. And, you know, we were all hoping for the best. And Cherish's Girmall actually was in a car wreck because she was out looking for her granddaughters. She's looking for her baby girl.

And she was hit by a Tyson chicken truck. And so she was in the hospital. She ended up losing a lot of her vision because she hit so hard. And so she was just, I mean, she went through so much at that time, it was so heartbreaking. With no concrete evidence or clues, the rest of her family and friends still working with the police were bewildered and frustrated.

All that grandma who was now confined to the hospital, could remember, is that Cherish received a call that night. And then a truck, a loud truck, pulled up to the residence. Almost immediately, Cherish was gone. What person in Cherish's circle owned a loud truck? Well, this is Arkansas. And in this part of Arkansas, in particular, loud trucks can be heard almost everywhere.

But they started with the obvious leads like an ex-boyfriend. Kristen suddenly remembered potentially valuable information about someone cherished had dated. According to Kristen, the relationship was fraught with emotional and verbal abuse, but there was never any physical abuse. She then remembered something that happened

after they broke up. They had a very back and forth toxic relationship, you know, like mentally and just verbally, but not physically. Like they never got physical with each other is what she said to me. But they they had dated for a long time, you know, and they broke up around the same Tommy and chairs started becoming really good friends. And he did threaten her a couple days before she went missing.

But it was just because I guess she borrowed some money from him and she hadn't paid him back yet. And he was like, you know, if you don't give me my money, I'm gonna hurt you or whatever, but he didn't mean it. He was just, I guess, trying to scare her and to give him the money. So, of course, this individual was brought in for questioning, even though Chris

and maintained he really loved Cherish and would never harm her. The interrogation resulted in the rapid conclusion that this person was not the culprit, and the search continued. When detectives began digging into her past, another ex-boyfriend came to mind. But this boyfriend couldn't be part of Cherish's disappearance because he had also mysteriously disappeared. And get this, he'd been missing for more than a year, from a town not far from Ryzen. What was going on in Arkansas?

Obviously, this boyfriend wasn't able to be brought in for questioning, and although his remains were eventually found, the search for his killer is ongoing. Talk about a weird coincidence there. Now a third young man who was romantically involved with Cherish rose to the surface. Eyeballs singled him out after tongues began wagging and making claims in the small community. Someone was supposedly running around saying that they were going to make her disappear. The claims were substantiated, and now officers wanted to know why this young man would say such a thing.

It turned out that Cherish had named him as the guy who got her pregnant and would be the biological father. She wasn't keeping this secret to herself though, but the young man was. He had been trying to keep this relationship a secret for over a year. His name was Bradley Smith, but he went by his middle name, Hunter. When I met Hunter, it was around the same time, frame that I had first met Cherish since they both lived on the same road. They lived probably about half a mile down the road from each other for a long time.

So they knew each other very well. The first time I met Hunter, he was actually in a fight in my friend Ravens front yard. He was fighting with another guy. The impression that I got from him just meeting him and not really knowing him. He seemed very arrogant and cocky. He acted kind of like he was better than everybody and this was when he was younger and it only got worse with age. The older he got, the

more cocky he got, he had the attitude of he was better than everybody. That's the impression that I got. When when Cher has started hanging out with him, I think it was because most of the people that she was hanging out with, that was in Woodland had either moved or, you know, had started a family and they weren't, you know, partying and hanging out as much. And so they started hanging out and they hung out a lot. There were times that she would be at my house and he would be constantly blowing her phone up saying,

hey, when are you coming home, what are you doing, where are you at, who are you with? But they weren't dating, they weren't official, they weren't anything but friends. And he was very possessive over her for some reason, but at the same time, he didn't want anybody to know that he was in contact with her and that he had a relationship with her. Although the sexual relationship they had was behind closed doors, Hunter did take cherished

out to eat and do other activities with him. But he made their friendship seem more casual than it was. I think that he liked her a lot. But he, and I don't want to say this because, you know, it makes me feel bad to even think that someone would think this way about her. But I think he was ashamed of her. And I just don't understand a lot because she was

she was a wonderful person and she she deserved so much better. Hunter thought a lot of himself because cherish didn't have the slimly impossible body of misuniverse and her family didn't have money or anything else really to offer him, he convinced himself that he could do much better than a girl like Cherish. And now she was not only claiming to him and his friends that he was the father of her child, but she was also refusing to get an abortion like he wanted. He was the kind of God that He cared more about how a woman looked on the outside Than who she was as a person on the inside and either way she was gorgeous to me in and out She was beautiful on the inside in out

If he knew her, he loved her. I mean, she never met a stranger. She would help anybody the best to her ability, even if she didn't know him. You know, she always did what she could for everybody. And he was just, he took advantage of her. Hunter set out to dispel any rumor or notion that he was the baby's father, even going so far as to maintain he had seen a doctor and was sterile. Cherish didn't

believe him and didn't care anyway. She didn't need Hunter and she told him that, but she was going to keep the baby. 2015 wasn't a good year for this part of Arkansas. Not only was Cherish missing and her ex-boyfriend was also missing, but a third tragedy also befell this group of young people. A close friend was killed in an accident and they all attended the funeral. Amongst the mourners was Hunter. He kept giving her these sad odds attended the funeral. Amongst the mourners was Hunter.

He kept giving her these sadas during the funeral and, uh, I told her, you know, just don't worry about it. What is he going to do here? It's, you know, it's packed. It's a funeral. Surely he has enough decency to not cause a scene at him one of his childhood friends, funeral. And he didn't, he didn't cause a a scene but the day that we went to

scours funeral that was that was the last time I've seen cherish alive. Among the attendees at the funeral were two other common friends Jonathan Gunther and Josh Brown. Cherish's grandma who was still hospitalized remembered something about these two. They owned a loud truck. They lived with Hunter unsupervised, even though Josh was only 15. Hunter was babbling everywhere that he wasn't the father and he was going to make cherished disappear. At least, that's what he told his own mother, who then told her friend, who then went to the police. Notice that it wasn't Hunter's mother who took that information herself to the station. It was an uninvolved third party. It was an uninvolved third party. She added that she had seen both Jonathan and Josh at the store together, acting suspiciously

the day before Cherish's disappearance. These clues were enough for deputies to drive to the residents of Hunter's mother, where they found Josh and Jonathan burning debris. The officers quickly transported the boys to the station for questioning. Josh was accompanied by his mother since he was a minor, and the reveal was unusually easy, especially since mommy wanted to make sure her son

wouldn't do any time. In the background of the interrogation she vocalized to Josh, you better tell these detectives what you know so that you can save your butt. Not so that we can find Cherish, but selfishly, so she could save her son's ass. Of course, we know how that works. Of course, we know how that works. Detectives pressure the family, the parents, to get their kid to speak, and it doesn't ever do them any good.

Lawyer up people. So as you would expect, 15-year-old Josh listened to his mother and provided the answers to the burning questions. Who did it? And where's the body? Search was conducted in a wooded area located approximately 1.2 miles southeast of Rogers Road. The deceased body, cherished Albright, was found in a circular hole approximately 4-foot

10 inches deep. The body was that of an adult white female, heavy set dressed in bluish gray, pullover, lightweight shirt, and a black jacket with the right arm in the sleeve. The body also had some lightweight short leg pants that appeared to be pajama bottoms. The body was positioned in a semi-seated position leaning on to its left side. The body was cold to the touch and extremities were flexible indicating that the body had come out of rigor. There was evidence of blunt force trauma to the head area when attempting to move the body from the burial site.

It was discovered there was a single crossbow arrow located in the lower left back just above the hip area. Entry appeared to be at the back. On a frigid night in December of 2015, Cherish, with her baby alive inside of her, was mercilessly hunted down and thrown into a muddy hole where she lay for one week until she was found, and the wheels of justice began turning. 15-year-old Josh was interviewed more than once, claiming he wasn't forthright with what he knew because he was afraid of Hunter Smith than Jonathan Gunter.

Hunter had told Josh he would hunt him down if he said anything. He finally caved and described the nightmare taking place on December 4th. This is what he said, following his admission that he had overheard Hunter tell at least one person I'm going to kill that bitch. The following narrative took place once Josh had arrived at the fields and woods where the murder was to be carried out. Jonathan and Hunter were already in position waiting. This is a reenactment. Um, she got out and I walked around the back of the truck and because I was peeing and then she went to the front of the truck and Hunter stepped out of the woods and started yelling at her

and Hunter stepped out of the woods and started yelling at her, and he shot her with a crossbow. And then he tried like, you know, Mr. Gary, I'm telling you the exact truth. I was fixing to get in the truck and drive off and Hunter. He started yelling at me. He said, get on my knees, Hunter and Gunther both walked up and Gunther hit her first. And then she fell over and was coffin and stuff, and then Gunther hit her again.

Cherish was coughing and stuff because she was now spewing blood from her mouth, but that wasn't enough for Hunter. He needed to make sure she was dead because he didn't want that baby. And apparently, this was the only way to prevent it from being born. She ultimately died by taking a baseball bat to the back of the head after screaming out please for the lives of herself

and her baby. only reason that she even left that night is because she was tricked they tricked her. And they did this by luring her with promises that Hunter wanted to talk and work things out. Come on, Josh said. Get in the truck and I'll take you to them. During questioning Josh recalled that after Cherish was ambushed and shot in the back with an arrow, the other two took turns hitting her over the head with a baseball bat, because Hunter had already made it clear that if the arrow didn't kill her, they were to finish her off in this way. Josh was then threatened that if he ever told anyone, both Hunter and Gunther would hunt

him down and kill him. Hunter made it clear that he did not want the baby under any circumstances. He made it clear that he was embarrassed by his relationship with Cherish, and he made it clear to more than a handful of people, just what he was going to do about it, as he solicited anyone and everyone to help him. Between the time of the murder and the interrogations, which Hunter refused, by the way, the other two boys were asked if Hunter's mom knew anything. The following was Gunther's response.

Did she talk to you about this case when you got there? You know, sir. I don't really. She just kind of... She thought about... She asked me if I thought that he really did it. She told you, she asked you that and what you you tell? I told her no, because I didn't want her to get involved in it. But I'm sure she had her suspicions. I can't go into

that, but what actually happened, one of the place came, where did Hunter go? Well, he was outside. Of course. I want to say he was outside. It's nothing weak. It was one of the guys. I think the drummer. And then that's the last time I've seen him. The answer to the specific question, where did Hunter go was, it crawled to the safety of his mommy where he could discuss the situation and lawyer up. Hunter was told by his mother that under no circumstances was he to talk to police without an attorney present. Some good advice, whether you're guilty or not. Let's talk about Hunter's mother with this.

Yes, sir. You know her very well. I mean, I know she used to come in and out. Okay. That is really... Once Hunter found out that Cherish was pregnant, did you ever talk to his mother about any of that or were you present when she was talking about it? Well, she came in the house.

I asked her if I found it right after he found it. She came in the house for Mark one day and we were sitting around in a gang room where the pool table is and she had mentioned something about it because something about Cherish's grandma had been going to his sister's work places and telling her how to feel to be an ant or something like that. And then I know, on her say, excuse my language, but he said, I'm going to kill that bitch. That's exactly what he said. To his mom.

To his mom. Even though she tried to hide her knowledge of this murder under lock and key, just like she tried to hide her son, she not only told her friend that cherished was pregnant, but that she was not happy about being a grandmother at the age of 39, because, you know, she did such a good job the first time around with Hunter. She didn't want to spoil it or God forbid,

put in any more work in terms of parenting, that is. Worse yet, the Monday after Cherish went missing, she admitted to her friend that Hunter had made a statement that he could have done something to make her disappear to which mommy admonished Hunter, telling him to keep his mouth shut or he could end up in jail. For the mothers of Josh Brown and Jonathan Gunter, it was all about protecting babies, their babies. No other babies just theirs, and certainly not cherishes. Josh's outright confession and Gunther's eventual admissions were integral to solving this case, but other evidence included the burning of the baseball bat and clothing, a shovel in the truck, and a crossbow at

Hunter's home that matched the arrow found in Cherish's body. And finally, a deer stand and climber for the stand proved that the location of the killing was accurate, as confessed by Gunther. By the way, a deer stand is a perch that is placed up on a tree above the eyesight of deer for hunting. In this case, it wasn't used for deer though. The land where the grave is at with the holes dead and she was buried. You know how long it went? I know his grandpa rented it.

The place is at the heart and the right. I let him actually. He had a clamber that broke and I didn't use mine. And so he took me out there and shoved me, and it was out of the picture. What kind of crime stand was it that you longed me? It was a, uh, my dad can tell you. It was a big man crime scene, I think. That's what it called.

Head. Oh man. Oh man. That sounds more like it. I'm gonna ask you this. If you saw that crime scene, would you know it? It saw that clowns land you know it is a how would you know It's just the way it looks my dad getting you can you tell me a line of the tickering scratches any marks anything about it The knitting I can tell by the knitting on the seat

How's that? How it's there's a couple of them ripped? Not a greatrel, it's a quarrel they ripped. It's just... Any big scratches, or you didn't put your name on it, or anything like that. No, sir. But you think you can look at that stamp and tell us what you're not. And you owned it to honor.

You saw it in the woods. and tell us for sure is not. Oh yeah. And you owned it to Hunter, it's so you know who it is. You know if you put it in that area where the girl was buried. I'm pretty sure he lived it. You call him? Yes sir. All right. Do this.

I'm gonna just leave the tape running. We're gonna take a short break. Go turn it air down and we need to run it standing. Don't you just love how ironic it is for the officer to ask the killer? Are you cold? We'll turn the air down. Cherish didn't get the opportunity to escape the cold and return to the loving warmth of her grandmother's house. Her fate was decided for her, as was the fate

of her unborn child. After compiling all the evidence it was clear that Hunter master minded cherishes demise and committed the shooting and beating that killed her. Now, the only question that remained would be how many assailants would actually face murder charges other than Hunter. And would the suspects stand trial for one homicide? Or two? Belov'd and Adored by family and friends, 21-year-old Cherish Albright went missing one chilly December evening. Her grandma, who she lived with, was especially baffled since Cherish announced she was elated about her new pregnancy. But the alleged father of the child was not so happy. In fact, he was determined

to end the pregnancy by ending Cherish's life. He vowed to hunt down and kill his accomplices if they ever snitched. Fortunately, the minor of the group Josh broke down and admitted his part in the butchery and bloodshed of Cherish's final hours. Twenty-year-old Jonathan Gunter and twenty-year-old Hunter Smith would be held without bond for a capital murder, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse. Josh Hunter was also charged with first-degree murder, but was pled down because of his willingness to participate in the investigation. Oh, and an additional person was arrested for hindering arrest and apprehension.

And that would be Hunter's mommy, who hid her son and Jonathan while instructing them on how to abscond from the situation. Kristen had strong words for the mothers in this story. You know, but it didn't surprise me because she was always just a piece of shit really. And so was Hunter's mom. And she actually, she took it a little too far with her involvement. Now don't get me wrong.

I'm a mother as well. I have that same motherly love and that motherly instinct and I would do anything in the world for my son, but I would not help him hide after killing someone. And not only did she help hide him and lie to the police, but she also was convincing him to do what he had to do to get rid of her. This was evidenced by the confiscated text messages between Hunter and his mother.

In an effort to save her own son, the cold-blooded hunter, she was 100% complicit in the cover-up. Talk about bad parenting. Not only do you raise a psychopath, but you also try to protect him. Finally got a confession out of one of them. Hunter had already took off. He was hiding at his family's deer camp that his mom took him to. Now initially it was Jonathan and Hunter at his mom's house. They were hiding out there when the police showed up.

And because this was right after Josh had already confessed. And they didn't know that. So they had already went on Hunter's mom's property. Whoever's name it was in, I believe she said that she had to sell her house. That they were living in to pay for lawyer fees and all of that and to keep herself out of jail. And his mom is basically, I'm just gonna go out and say it, she's a big piece of shit.

And I hope that, you know, she gets hers very soon. The only reason that she is not in jail right now is because she testified against her jail right now is because she testified against her own son in court, because she's that big of a spleece ball. She's just allowing narcissist bitch. And I think that he got his narcissistic tendencies from her. And the controliness from her. Kristen said she actually went to school with Jonathan Gunther and had one word for him, weird.

To be more specific, she said, very weird. She detailed that he didn't interact well with others and was socially awkward, and the one you would suspect as plotting the whole thing. If you look at the picture of him that was used on the APB, he's smirking and wide eyed. He really does look like a sociopath. You know, I mean, it just shows you that you never really know who a person is, no matter how long you've known them,

no matter how nice they seem. You never know how evil someone can truly be. And it's scary. Since this has happened, it has made me so much more cautious that sometimes I almost like just, it's traumatizing, really. Like I have PTSD and anxiety from it just because if somebody can do that to her that she's known her whole life, they used to fish together when they were toddlers and diapers. What, I mean, how can someone do that? I mean, it just, it doesn't make sense.

Jonathan and Josh were sentenced to life in prison as a result of plea deals. While Hunter Smith was sentenced to death for capital murder, Hunter's mother served probation. The trial took only one week and the jurors needed less than five hours to reach a unanimous conclusion. That is until semantics became involved. There's a Supreme Court states that there's a question about the

unborn child and the definition that falls into. Now today I spoke with the Cleveland County clerk who says this ruling is unbelievable. with the Cleveland County clerk who says this ruling is unbelievable. I'm not a man that they don't return it. The Cleveland County Circuit clerk Jimmy Cumming says he sat through the entire trial

of the disturbing murder of pregnant 22 year old cherish Albright. Brad Smith was sent into death after court documents show he shot Albright through the back with a crossbow and hit her in the back of the head with a wooden bat death after court documents show he shot all right through the back with a crossbow and hit her in the back of the head with the wooden

bat then with help. Smith buried her now three years later the Arkansas Supreme Court voted five to two that Smith be resentanced. Justice Courtney Hudson noted the question at hand was whether state legislatures law properly provided for the unborn child definition of person to be applied when an aggravating factor in Capitol murder sentencing is

being considered. I read on the overcame it. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm disappointed. I'm very disappointed. Coming says this murder shook the community and this sentence being overturned will be another

shockwave through Cleveland County. I think it's going to be very very upset about it. An unborn child is not a person. County. I think we will be very upset about it. An unborn child is not a person, according to the Arkansas Supreme Court. Now you just love government. A bunch of fucking ghouls. As you can imagine, Cherish's grandmother and mother were the most upset of anyone. We reached out and spoke to her mom, Belinda,

who made it clear that the memories are just too painful for her to discuss. In 2015, though, she had a little something to say. She's a very sweet girl. She loved her brother, loved her family. It's like a scene in a movie. You never think the police are gonna pull up and tell you that, you know, your daughter has been found and murdered. She naturally was also very distraught

over the Supreme Court's ruling. Hunter was convicted of Capitol murder and was to pay for it with his life. If you're unclear about what capital murder is, exactly, here's a quick summary. Capital murder originated as a means of defining the types of homicide with some extenuating circumstances that make it especially heinous. The term is only used in eight states, and interchangeable terms are aggravated murder and first degree murder. In any case, if the homicide is categorized

by any of these terms, the death penalty is on the table. Cherish's mother fought hard along with senators to get the definition of person to include a fetus at any stage of the pregnancy when the mother is murdered. This is not to be confused with today's politics involving per choice versus pro-life, but it's not completely unrelated either. You cannot take away someone's constitutional right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, unless you deperson them first. With, you know, a definition. Oh, by the way, trigger warning! In 2017, a jury found Brad Hunter Smith guilty of Capitol murder, but prosecutors pushed for a death sentence

because he killed someone other than Albright, the unborn child. And that got Arkansas representative Joe Cloud's attention. Not only did he kill the woman in question, he also killed a baby. Later the Arkansas Supreme Court overturned that sentence because part of the law did not consider a fetus a quote person. I wanted to make it extremely clear to the Arkansas Supreme Court that yes, that definition of person in the criminal code applies also to aggravating circumstances.

In March, clouds bill passed making it clear to the courts and everybody that an unborn child in any term of pregnancy is considered a human life. In the future, then no other mother, grandmother, family member, friend will have to go through all that. In 2004, President George W. signed a significant federal bill called the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Here's President Bush at the signing. I am pleased that you all could be here for the first bill signing ceremony of the year

2004. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act provides that under federal law any person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb shall be charged with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother. As of today, the law of our nation will acknowledge the plain fact that crimes of violence against a pregnant woman often have two victims. Therefore in those cases, there are two offenses to be punished. The law should have applied to the case of Cherish, but the argument was specifically about

a definition, the same definition that is being quarreled about in 2022, what defines a person. That is precisely the argument Cherish's mother was hoping to win, in the case of her pregnant daughter's death as it pertained to Arkansas state law, and she won, but only after Hunter's sentence was reduced from death to life without parole. Rather than try the whole case again, Cherish's mom and family accepted the change. Kristen says that to this day, she still has difficulty coping with what happened. It is caused her to have PTSD, and she is a lot more aware of her surroundings and hesitant to let anyone into her life without knowing them. But even then, I would give him the label of being a monster because he had this planned for three or more days.

And he still went through with it. He had time to think to himself, maybe I shouldn't do this, but instead he not only involved two other people, which how he got them to be a part of it, I have no idea. I don't know if drugs were involved or if they were just desperate for friendship that bad, to not only do that, get two other people that have their whole lives ahead of them involved involved to sit here and scheme up a plan to not only kill someone but brutally kill someone that is pregnant, just because it's possibly your baby and you don't want anybody to know. And the fact that he thought that he was going to get away with it. He did. He drove up and down that road, knowing that she was buried in his backyard, knowing, and drove up and down that road like nothing had happened, because he was that cocky, and how can that not be a monster? And I fully believe

that if he was not caught, if Josh had not come forward and thought and told the police where her body was, they would have never found her. And he probably would have done it again because he I feel like he is that type of person that he would have he would have killed someone again. Except for his cockiness, Kristen says he seemed perfectly normal. He had no criminal history. But that's exactly why he fits into our motto. The worst monsters are real.

It's also interesting that the killer's name in this episode is really, Bradley Smith, but everyone called him Hunter because he preferred it that way. Like a lot of people in Ryzen, he was a sportsman. He liked his four wheeler, his truck, and just being outside. He loved to hunt, and there's nothing wrong with that, unless you're hunting people. But when he discovered that cherished might be pregnant, he enlisted his buddies to help him trap her, ambush her with a crossbow, and finally beat her to death, before placing her on a trailer and riding away with her corpse.

The way he treated her, another human being, the things that he did to her, you wouldn't do to a deer. Not without a clear conscience, anyway. But if there's one silver lining in this horrible, horrible story of a young mother and her unborn baby taken from this world for absolutely no reason other than shame, it's that Bradley Hunter Smith will never hunt again. Thanks again for joining us.

Head on over to SwordsKill.com Sash Plus to join if you can. We'll see you next time for everybody else. And until then, stay safe. Hey Mike and Russa Sword and Scale. I just finished plus episode 89 and you brought me to tears with that one. It's been a little over four years since my suicide has failed and if it had worked I would have missed out on the level of my life. I wouldn't be married. I wouldn't have the most beautiful stepdaughter in the world. I would never have met my nephew, so it's like the

light of my life. I wouldn't be working towards becoming a police officer and just the love that would have left a lot of life is I had, I don't want to say successfully, but that's the word that's coming in my mind. Successfully left this planet. There would have been so many lives that would have been changed forever. And for anybody that's with me, it's struggling. Just please remember you're not alone. And you're so low and you're needed and necessary. Mike, thanks so much for the tears. He sucks shit. It's a very important message though, so at the same time, you truly are the best. A short time listening. There have been all of the show, big time band forever.

Thanks so much for reaching us here in Phoenix, Arizona. I mean, Kylie. Can't wait to hear more. Can't wait to be a plus member forever. Rock on, my dude. I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, I wanna do, you