The Binge Crimes: Deadly Fortune - Friendly Fire | 1. Officer Down

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

A sheriff’s deputy is shot during a drug bust in Scott County, Tennessee. But who shot him? And how did it happen? The clock ticks as his wife, Lori scrambles for answers. She’s left with a shocking discovery. A Campside Media & Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is just an eerie feeling when you pull up in that driveway. I'm almost just putting myself back in John John's shoes. I thought, we have got to get down to the, you know, the bottom of this, the details. We don't know who it is yet, but that's just what we're saying. That's him for all cars and ambulance, 33 traffic. And I'm just thinking about what could possibly be going through his mind at this time. All U.S. V5s will be down here.

When you come over the big hill, on the left, pull back off. 3-5-4-3-1-3-3. That's the conservation lake. Would you copy? Thank you. Scott County is in East Tennessee, right up against the Kentucky border in the western foothills of the Appalachians. It's very pretty. It's all hills and streams, mostly rural, and it's way off the beaten path.

It's also one of the poorest counties in Tennessee. And like a lot of poor, rural places, there's a fairly significant amount of drugs. There's a lot of heroin and opioids these days, but 20 years ago, it was methamphetamine. In 2003, a man named Marty Carson was the drug officer for the Scott County Sheriff's Department. His partner was the canine officer, a sergeant named John John Yancey. His real name was Hubert, but everyone called him John John, except for Marty. He just called him John. Methamphetamine was so rampant in Scott County in 2003 that the sheriff sent Marty and John John to Kentucky for a week of special training in meth enforcement. A few weeks after they returned

home to Tennessee, they found themselves outside a mobile home on a swirvy two-lane road in the woods, just west of a little city called Oneida. It was a ratty little single-wide with wobbly porches on the front and back. The sun was already down that night, but there was a light at the top of a tall pole, like a streetlight that lit up the backyard and one side of the mobile home. Beyond that, it was just dark woods. John John and Marty had a tip that a guy was cooking meth inside, and that he might be really dangerous. Maybe even on the FBI's most wanted list. It was cold, 34 degrees, starting to snow. Marty and John John had two other deputies with them, covering the front of the building.

John John, the K-9 officer, was in the yard talking to the guy who lived there. Marty, the drug officer, knocked on the back door. A woman answered, and Marty went inside. A minute later, give or take, John John ran up the back steps, and he went inside. There was a bang. Marty ran out the back door, screaming for the other deputies to take cover and to call an ambulance. That there was a man inside with a shotgun,

and that his partner was down. Those are just about the only facts that everyone agrees on. Big hill on the left. We're back off to the back trailer down here. You can see Mattel. I've got one with a shotgun in the woods. One officer down. One officer down. One officer down. This is a story that begins with a shooting in a meth lab. But it's a story, really, about perspective. About who saw what, and from what angle, and when.

It's about what happens in the shadows, and the stories we tell to explain those things. And it's about which stories we choose to believe. From Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment, this is Season 2 of Witnessed, Friendly Fire, Episode 1. I'm Sean Flynn. When it comes to weight loss, no two people are the same. That's why Noom builds personalized plans based on your unique psychology and biology. Take Brittany. After years of unsustainable diets, Noom helped her lose 20 pounds and keep it off. I was definitely in a yo-yo cycle for years of just losing weight, gaining weight, and it was exhausting.

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Real Noom users compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, a typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. Minutes after John John is shot, the back roads of Scott County are strobing with red and blue lights. When cops hear that phrase, officer down, they can't get there fast enough. It doesn't matter if they're from the same agency. It's part of the code. Law enforcement officers take care of each other. I know y'all are real busy right now, but if you need any assistance at all, we're here for y'all.

Okay. I just want to tell you, we've got officers up on that end of the county. Okay. If you want anything, let us know. Yeah. If there's anything we can do to help out. The sheriff rushes there as fast as he can. One of his deputies is down.

There's a suspect with a shotgun on the loose. When he gets to the scene, he sits in a cruiser with Marty. All around them is controlled chaos. Everyone wants to know who did this and where they should be looking. Are you looking for a white male or what? No, sir, I don't. I don't know no more than that at this time. What kind of perimeter do we need to set up?

The sheriff's on his way down there. I'm hoping we're in county. Yeah. When Marty and John John first got to that mobile home, there were three people inside. A man and a woman were sleeping in the back bedroom with a batch of meth cooking on a hot plate in the room. The third person was Nikki Porter.

She was 26 with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair, but she looked older, tired. She was asleep when the cops came. She's the one who opened the door when Marty knocked. She's the only one of the three who didn't run. She held John John's hand while he lay bleeding on the floor. Now Nikki's in the backseat of a cruiser with Detective Randy Llewellyn. Listen, my name is Randy Llewellyn. I'm a detective.

I read your rights and stuff because you're not under arrest. with Detective Randy Llewellyn. Listen, my name is Randy Llewellyn. I'm stuck in a sheriff's park. I'm a detective. I'm not reading your rights and stuff because you're not under arrest. I'm just trying to find the information, okay? The conversation is being recorded. It's a mess, crime. It's hard for her to talk. A man just got shot in front of her.

Randy is sitting next to her. He's wearing a ball cap and body armor. He lights a cigarette. He asks very basic questions. What happened? Who was in the trailer? Nikki tells him she lives there with her boyfriend, Ryan. Did Ryan shoot him?

No. I said this is a full judge. I'll shoot each other. No. There's no room for no lies or nothing. You said you don't know about this. I told you you're not drunk. I don't understand.

Listen, listen. Now, who shot him? Me in the bedroom. She says, the man in the bedroom. Who was the man in the bedroom? I can't tell you with all this shit on. I can't. Truth is,

she doesn't know. Randy's getting frustrated. I think I need to end this interview and read your rights and start all over. No. Well, they said you were called.

You're just trying to scare me. No, I'm not. I'm dead serious, honey. If you want to talk to me, fine. Like I told you, I'm searching for information. Now, officers have been shot here and I understand it's bad. Nikki finally tells him the man in the back bedroom is named Mark. She doesn't know his last name, doesn't know him,

and she definitely doesn't know anything about any guns in the house. Randy keeps asking questions for another four minutes. Nikki gives the same answers. Then Randy gets out of the cruiser and leaves Nikki sitting there. A little more than an hour later, Randy comes back. The radio is on a country station, and the wipers are keeping snow flurries off the windshield. Nikki's calmer now.

Randy moves her to the front passenger seat. Can I give you a cigarette? No. Yeah. Randy gives her a smoke and reads her her rights. She's not under arrest, but Randy wants to go by the book, make sure Nikki understands that she doesn't have to talk to him, and that she can get a lawyer if she wants one.

Nikki agrees to talk. But I need you to tell me in your own words what occurred here this evening from the time that the officers arrived as best you can. Nikki tells him that Marty knocked on the door

and she let him in. She told him no one else was inside, but Marty could tell there were people in the back bedroom. The light was leaking through a gap

at the bottom of the door and Marty could see there were people in the back bedroom. Light was leaking through a gap at the bottom of the door, and Marty could see shadows, people moving. So he started yelling for them to come out. Then more officers came inside, and John John got shot. There's not a lot of detail in her story. I'm asking you what... That's what happened. But you didn't tell me much.

Well, not much happened, but a cop got shot. I mean, how much more do you want to know? That's what happened. But you didn't tell me much. Well, not much happened, but a cop got shot. I mean, how much more do you want to know? That's what I want to know. How were the shots you heard? What was going on? Who was in the house? Everything is what I want to know. Everything to the smallest detail.

Well, that's it. I'm trying to question you so we can figure out what happened. That's what happened. But you're not, you may think you're telling me a lot, but I need details of anything that you heard said. He tells more about what's going on than I do. Who does? Marty.

He was the one standing there. They were the ones standing there. Well, then we're going to be talking to Marty. I know. All I know is I've seen him die in front of me. The questioning goes nowhere again. We'll end this recording and this interview with you not answering any questions. Is that the way you want it?

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And give all our honest and unfiltered thoughts always. Listen to Lipstick on the Rim now on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2003, John John had been married to his high school sweetheart, Lori, for 13 years. They had three young sons. The oldest was seven. Lori was a nurse in the emergency room at the local hospital. But this day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, she's off. She'd taken the boys to Knoxville to look for a Christmas tree while John John was at work. On their way home, around 8, 8.15, she stops by her mom's house. There's a message that John John had called.

And I tried to call him back, but it went to voicemail. When Lori was at home, she'd usually have a scanner running in the background, a receiver that picks up on chatter from all the emergency frequencies. We left it on pretty much all the time, even at night, especially if John John was working at night. I just felt like a little safety thing, you know, just want to be able to hear his voice, make sure, yeah, yeah, he's still talking. He's okay. A few minutes after she tries to call John John, Lori's brother calls the house. And said, do y'all have the scanner on or y'all listening to the scanner? And he said, an officer's been shot. And we didn't have a scanner on. And that's, I just, you know, got that sick feeling when they said an officer

had been shot. She turns on the scanner. It's crackling with chatter. And at the sheriff's office, a dispatcher's field non-stop calls. Thank you. Could you tell me if that was Charles Jeffers that got shot, please? I'm just kind of listening, just a lot of background noise, and, you know, I kept waiting to hear John John's voice on there, and I wasn't hearing anything. Okay, who's out there that's a supervisor that I'm calling? Well, she said here, and Marty's out there. I'm just afraid, and I'm afraid of John John John, because we've not heard from him.

Afraid it's John John? I'm afraid we haven't heard him. Lori's trying not to panic. She calls the sheriff's department. Hey, this is Lori. That's not John John's truck, is it? We don't know which one it is, okay? Okay. Are they headed to the emergency room?

Yes. Okay, thanks. All right. All right. And then, on the scanner, Lori hears the medics in the ambulance calling into the ER, the same one where she works. They started, you know, giving details that they were bringing in a 35-year-old male. John Jones, 35 years old.

They said they had a gunshot wound to the chest. It still bothers me. CPR in progress. So I knew it was him. Gunshot wound to the chest. CPR in progress. I knew that was not going to be good. So I called back to the ER, and they just said,

Lori, you need to get up here. Back at the scene, another officer confirms that it is John John. Then Lori's brother calls in. I know you're not supposed to give us information. Was that my brother-in-law that shot? Who's your brother-in-law? John John. Yeah.

It was? Yeah, I think so. Is he okay? We don't know. They just traced him. We got there. There was, it was just unbelievable. There was police cars everywhere.

The parking lot was full. I mean, there wasn't really a place to park. There's just people everywhere. So I just went on in. I don't even know. He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows. He knows. He parking lot was full. I mean, there wasn't really a place to park. There's just

people everywhere. So I just went on in. I don't even know, you know, I guess I just left my mom. I just went straight in. I knew which room, because we usually have a designated trauma room. So I just went straight to that room. I don't even know if anyone tried to stop me or not. I can't even remember if they'd gone in the surgery not. I can't even remember if they'd gone in the surgery team. I mean, the whole ER staff, everybody was there, and everybody was working on him. I mean, it was just like I didn't know they were doing everything that they could to save him. And I thought, I'm just going to stay in the corner all the way and let them keep doing what they're doing.

But I just stood there and prayed. But he'd been down for a while, and they had no rhythm. I mean, he wasn't breathing. But eventually, you know, they had to stop because they just got nothing to work with. It's just the saddest thing, the absolute saddest thing. I just kind of stayed in there with John John. They let us, just me and him, be in there for a little bit. You know, they were going to have to send John John for an autopsy.

They needed me to sign a paper for that. So they brought me out of the room. So I went back to our ICU waiting area. And then I think the next person I'd seen was probably Robbie Carson. Robbie? Yes. Their name didn't go to yours. He had an officer shot. He had an officer shot?

Yeah. Oh, well, you don't know. We didn't know they was out or nothing. Robbie Carson was the chief detective in the sheriff's department at the time. He's not related to Marty in any meaningful way. They're fifth cousins or something. Carson is just a really common name in Scott County. I just really wanted to know what in the world had happened. And I think Robbie Carson had told me at that point, best I remember,

that someone had shot John John and there was a manhunt and they were out looking for him. There's a huge manhunt. Sheriff's deputies, local police, state troopers, they're all looking for a man with a shotgun suspected of killing John John Yancey. But a shotgun didn't make a whole lot of sense. A shotgun would have blown a giant hole through John John. If it hit him in the shoulder, which is where John John was hit, it probably would have torn his arm off. But he's got just a little hole, and on the x-rays, the doctors and detectives can see

a solid, misshapen slug. They tell Laurie that John John must have been hit by what's called a pumpkin ball. It's a single piece of lead instead of a cartridge full of pellets. They're mostly used for taking down big game. It's a stretch, but a pumpkin ball is the only way a shotgun would be remotely plausible. As far as Lori knew, John John was supposed to have had a routine shift that night. She knew he and Marty had been looking for someone who might be on the most wanted list. Odd as that sounds for Scott County, Tennessee. But he hadn't said much about it.

Lori thought John John really just wanted to follow up on a totally separate arrest he'd made two days earlier, on Wednesday. John John was in a hurry to get back because on that Wednesday night, I guess it was late, and he did not take his statement. Then there was Thanksgiving on Thursday. So that was his number one goal on that Friday. Instead, John John goes to a meth lab. Hours later, he's dead, and his widow, Lori, is at the hospital waiting to see his partner, Marty. When she finds him, he's having his blood drawn so it can be screened for drugs and alcohol. It's mandatory in cases like this. Totally routine. It'll come back negative. I asked him what had happened.

And that's when he told me that a guy named Mark knew that they had been looking for on that 10 most wanted. That's who had shot John John and that he had fled into the woods and that there was a manhunt they had brought in dogs from Brushy Mountain. You know, everybody was out looking for him. It was, yeah, very clear. Martin knew. That's who had shot him. Had you ever heard that name before? No, no. I didn't know him. I'm Martin New, and we're in my home in Whitley City, Kentucky. For the record, Mark knew had absolutely nothing to do with John John Yancey being killed. There was a guy named Mark in the mobile home that night, and he was cooking meth, but it wasn't this guy.

If you're confused, well, so was he. He lives in Kentucky now, just over the state line. But in 2003, he's living in Scott County, on Williams Creek Road, the same road where John John was shot to death. Mark and his wife have a furniture store, and he sells cars on a lot that he owns. The day John John's shot is Black Friday, and like a lot of people on Black Friday, Mark and his stepson go out shopping. We spent the biggest part of the day looking at motorcycles, came home that evening and had a friend to stop by. He was a good buddy of mine. While we were sitting there, me, him, my wife, and my stepson heard all these sirens. I mean, I'm talking like a bunch.

And we was just, you know, it was like, wow, something bad's going on down through here, you know, a bad wreck or something. Meanwhile, Mark's brother Steve, who's living a few miles away in Kentucky, he starts hearing Mark's name, and then his name. I've been a commissioner at the fire department over there since, well, when this was going on. And my scanner goes all the time.

It came across a scanner that he might have fled to his brother's house, and then said, Steve knew. That's what got me, I mean, that's when it occupied my mind. I got straight on the phone and called. I said, Mark, what's going on? And it was coming across saying that he had killed a deputy sheriff down there, had shot a deputy sheriff. Let's linger for a second in Steve's head.

He's just heard through official police channels that his brother, who sells cars and furniture, is a desperado, a cop killer. He's on the run. It's run all over Scandor. You have shot a deputy sheriff down there. And he said, well, Lord, I don't know what you're talking about. He said, I'm here at the house. And I said, don't leave the house. You need to get this took care of. I was like, you know, you got to be kidding.

I really didn't know what to think. And then I seen it's for real. You know, there wasn't nobody pranking me or nothing, that they was being serious. Lord, I got so many calls. Mark, are you all right? Mark, what's going on? I'm talking run down like three phones, cordless phones and cell phones.

Killed them out dead from getting that many calls and talking. So I absolutely started losing it. I mean, I was freaking out. Thought, what should I do? I mean, what do I do? And I was scared to really do anything. My wife and I decided that I'll just stay there till morning time,

and then we'll try to get to the bottom of it. The absurd part is that Mark says no one came to his house. No sheriff's deputy, no police officer, no state trooper. No one knocked on Mark's door to see if he was home. I'm sitting just a mile or so from what happened and don't know nothing. They're going to houses, several houses they searched, supposedly looking for me. Thought I was hiding out on the run. Just killed an officer. I stayed hid in the bedroom. I wouldn't even come out the house.

Like I said, I was looking any time for them to knock my door down and come in and kill me. In other words, they had to manhunt on me. But never came to my house. Never. Sometimes, you know, it feels like it was just still yesterday. You know, it's been

several years, but it's just you know, things that you seem like, I don't know, it's been several years, but it's just, you know, things that you seem like, I don't know, it's just like you're in a cloud, and it's just really hard to comprehend what has happened, and I got three little kids that are, you know, three, five, and seven, how do you even tell them about their dad? It's just awful. I don't even know how, you know, Brodeo even to tell them that he's not going to be coming back. How old are you? Four. You're four? When will you be five?

When is my birthday? Well, when is your birthday? That's John John with a video camera on the last birthday he celebrated with their oldest boy. Can we open the present? Lori, can we let Logan open his present? Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Logan. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Logan. Happy birthday to you. Blow them out, Logan. Oh, you're watching. Oh, my God. Probably 3 o'clock in the morning, I came back to my house with the boys. And then, you know, we just tried to lay down.

But of course, you know, you can't sleep. The next day, Saturday, is a blur. Of course it is. Lori's in shock, exhausted. None of this makes sense yet, or even seems real. Late in the day, three deputies from the sheriff's department come to Lori's house. Like at six or seven o'clock that night, and had told me that they'd got a preliminary report back that it was actually Marty Carson's gun that had shot John John. The bullet that killed her husband came out of Marty's gun.

And that's how I actually had found that out. And that was after the autopsy report. I thought, you know, there's a possible struggle. It just accidentally went off. You know, and this terrible thing has happened.

And, you know, I really, I felt bad for him. Lori, in that moment when she's drowning in her own grief, her heart breaks a little for Marty. She can't imagine a worse trauma for a deputy. Marty's lost his partner, the man who always had his back, who had his back in a meth lab where some maniac was waving a shotgun around. And they were both scared and everything took a bad turn. And then a gun went off. And it was Marty's gun. And the bullet hit his own partner.

For him not to even have known at this point on Saturday night that he had shot him, that it was actually him. They said that the sheriff was so upset that he couldn't come tell me himself. The sheriff, Jim Carson, is especially upset about the whole ordeal, in large part because he also happens to be Marty's father. This season on Witnessed Friendly Fire. Okay, Mr. Carson, we're on the record.

You were sworn yesterday, is that correct? Yes. We understand you're under oath today. Yes. Who's telling the truth? I thought they were friends, best friends. He said, you've got this all wrong. This whole scenario is just not making sense to me. Just my gut feeling.

Piecing together versions of the same story. Why you? That's the million-dollar question. A story that isn't about who did it. I did get tied up in this whole case because of what, you know, happened that one night. It's about why. You could kind of cover up a little dope dealing are you asking me if i

intentionally killed john don't you know that's your question i'm asking you if you intended to pull the trigger you're going to hear 1500 stories how it happened how this took place and will we ever know the truth probably not unless somebody comes forward we can take a pretty good stab at it, though. Thank you. Kilbride is the senior producer, and Callie Hitchcock is the associate producer. The story editor is Daniel Riley. The series was sound designed by Shani Aviram with mixing by Iwen Laitremuen. This episode was fact-checked by Alex Yablon.

The theme song is Booey by Shook Twins. A special thanks to our operations team, Amanda Brown, Doug Slaywin, Aaliyah Papes, and Allison Haney. Campside Media's executive producers are Josh Dean, Vanessa Grigoriadis, Adam Hoff, and Matt Scher. If you enjoyed Witnessed Friendly Fire, please rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.