The Misery Machine - The Case of Logan Cline

Starting point is 00:00:00 Logan Nicholas Klein was born on July 14th, 2008 in Midland, Texas. At the time of our story, he was a sweet, energetic 11-year-old boy with big brown eyes and dark blonde hair. He loved playing baseball, solving his Rubik's Cube, building things, and playing Legos with his friends. Logan's parents were Stormy Lorraine Johnson in Nicholas Klein. The couple had another child, Lexi Klein, who was born on February 18, 2006. Logan's maternal grandmother was Dorothy Holland and his paternal grandparents were Christine Barrow and John Klein. Stormy and Nicholas had first met while serving in the U.S. Army together in New York. Stormy later left the army due to a disability and became a disabled veteran.

Starting point is 00:00:47 Nicholas and Stormy divorced right after Logan was born and Nicholas remarried Christy Klein on May 12, 2012. Logan's younger half-brother Jackson was born in June of 2014. Stormy also remarried after divorce and had two more children. Her marriage ended in divorce again and she lost custody of the two youngest. After their parents broke up, Logan and Lexi lived with their mom in Mullen, Texas, since their father was stationed overseas quite a bit. Now, according to his teachers, Logan was a quiet boy who desperately wanted to make friends. In fact, Logan was so shy that the school thought he might have been getting mistreated at home.

Starting point is 00:01:29 The school contacted CPS four different times, but they did not investigate anything. At the beginning of September 2019, Logan and Lexi moved back to Midland, Texas, to live with her grandmother, Dorothy. Stormy had been using drugs and was no longer capable of looking after her kids properly. Two months prior, Stormy had gotten into a relationship with 32-year-old Corey Trumbull. Corey Allen Trumble was born in 1988 in Springfield, Massachusetts, which at which, at one, one point was the murder capital of the nation. Corey had a very dark and explosive personality. He was a crystal addict and had been from a very young age. He was also cruel to animals and liked to try to kill deer with his bare hands. I have no idea how he would do that. But anyway,

Starting point is 00:02:18 his body art also showed that he had a strange obsession with death. In March of 2012, he got a tattoo of a tree on his back, which he called a family tree on Facebook. One month later, he added six gravestones to the tattoo. He also had a tattoo of a gravestone with the Latin words, Veritas and Equitas, which translates to truth and justice, which will become really ironic later. Around the same time, he was making Facebook posts about how much he hated his life and venting about his mood switching between happy and depressed so easily.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Or he attended Chiquipee Comprehensive High School and graduated in 2006 with no career plans and little future to look forward to. When he wasn't working to McDonald's, he was using Crystal or hanging out with his baby cousins and nephew. Corey decided to date his cousin named Ashley Gebo from 2010 to 2016. After their breakup, Corey moved to San Angelo where he became homeless and had to live at the Salvation Army homeless shelter. 2019, he relocated to Midland, Texas.

Starting point is 00:03:21 Corey met Stormy in July of 2019, and one month later, they moved. moved into a Midland motel with Logan, Lexi, and Corey's three pet dogs in Chaos, Mayhem, and Aphrodite. After meeting Logan and Lexi, Corey instructed them to call him daddy and referred to them as his kids. He was the leader of the household from that moment onward, even referring to himself as the Alpha. The family lived together in one hotel room which was filthy and had holes in the ceiling. Corey and Stormy became more open with their crystal addiction and convinced both kids both kids to try the drug out for themselves. That summer, CPS began to investigate the couple, as they should have.

Starting point is 00:04:02 They visited them at the motel but failed to take any further action despite the obvious living conditions being so poor and the signs of drug use in the home. After Corey came into their lives, it did not take long before verbal and physical violence started to unfold in the house. Corey was violent towards everyone in the home, but it was Logan in particular, received the brunt of Corey's temper. For he could not stand Logan. Corey, who was a 5-10-inch, 220-pound man,

Starting point is 00:04:32 once stomped on the boy's head, leaving Logan with a permanent brain injury. Because of this, it caused him to have frequent seizures. He was never taken to a doctor for these seizures. And Corey and Stormy would even slap Logan while he was having seizures. On another occasion, Corey kicked Logan into a wall. Stormy never intervened. or appeared to stress that her boyfriend was beating her own son. In fact, she would actually encourage Corey to do so,

Starting point is 00:05:01 and she would even laugh at him while watching. Logan was treated like a subhuman by his own mother and her boyfriend, Corey. He was only allowed to eat dog food and could only drink water from a dog bowl. He was not permitted to use the bathroom and was forced to urinate on himself. Beatings were a daily occurrence for Logan. Corey would hit and kick him in the chest, stomach, back, and legs. He also smoothed down branches and put epoxy and electrical tape on them to make them less likely to break. Lori would hit Logan with the sticks while he begged for him to stop.

Starting point is 00:05:37 Stormy would always watch her son being treated horrifically. I would just laugh or join in if she felt so inclined. In late September of 2019, Corey got Stormy to pull Logan and Lexi out of school. He then told their grandmother, Dorothy that she would never see her grandchildren again as they were moving to Chilicothe, Texas. Dorothy was understandably devastated and refused to let Corey and Stormy collect their belongings if they weren't going to let her visit her grandchildren. The couple ended up calling the sheriff's department on her and Dorothy said one last goodbye to her grandchildren who were not allowed out of the

Starting point is 00:06:15 backseat of the car. After her grandchildren moved, Dorothy began calling CPS and at that point in time, CPS requested a hair follicle test after Stormy said that Logan was on medication for his mental health. The family lived in a rented rundown trailer. Now, all of the rooms were in poor condition, but Logan's was made the worst on purpose. His bedroom was bare with just a bedframe with no mattress. It was also full of dirty clothes covered with dog feces. The conditions were so uncomfortable that Logan tried to make a bed out of the dirty clothes, which Corey and Stormy found hilarious. Logan was not allowed to leave his bedroom without Corey's permission. If he dared, he was beaten mercilessly. Around this time, Lexi began using Crystal regularly. Neither Corey nor

Starting point is 00:07:06 Stormy worked, and the family was living in poverty, using child support in disability payments to buy drugs instead of necessities. The family started becoming very concerned. for Stormy and the kids as she had blocked them on social media and would only call to beg for money. Corey had also taken away all of Logan and Lexi's electronic devices, so they had no way to contact family or anyone in the outside world for that matter. Dorothy requested a wellness check on the family and continued making reports to CPS, but no real action was ever taken. On October 2, 2019, Corey, Stormy, Logan, and Lexi all moved to Wichita,

Starting point is 00:07:47 They checked in at the Red Roof Inn and lived in one hotel room with two queen beds. The hotel was completely run down with holes in the ceiling, no hot water, and bedbugs. Guests who had the misfortune of staying at this hotel described it as traumatizing, and the most disgusting, horrific place. A lot of crime occurred at the hotel as well, and it was well known to the local police. Each morning, Stormy would bring breakfast to the room, and Corey would decide if Logan would eat something or not. If the starving boy was caught trying to sneak food and Corey didn't allow it, Corey would threaten to cut off Logan's fingers.

Starting point is 00:08:24 The bedbug-infested beds were also considered too much of a luxury for Logan, so they forced him to sleep on the floor in a corner underneath the sink while Corey's dog slept on the bed instead. As Logan and Lexi weren't enrolled in school and Corey and Stormy didn't work, they spent each day all huddled in the hotel room watching TV and doing drugs. The whole family used Crystal, and Logan probably consumed more of it than he did food. Lexi's crystal usage increased dramatically after moving into the Red Roof Inn. Watching her little brother being tortured daily and not being able to help him was likely, emotionally scarring,

Starting point is 00:09:04 and Crystal helped numb the pain that she felt. As December was approaching, the long-term effects of the torture and mistreatment Logan had been subjected to for months were finally starting to show on him. His body could no longer withstand the almost daily beatings. His health began to decline rapidly. First his feet started to hurt. Lexi would try to rub Logan's feet to ease the pain, but Corey ordered her to stop doing that.

Starting point is 00:09:31 Next, Logan became too weak and frail to eat. Stormy responded by attempting to feed him chicken noodle soup, but Logan kept vomiting up black blood. Logan relied on his mother to feed him, but she never did it regularly, then lost his ability to walk and could only communicate with grunts or hums. Despite being well aware of Logan's deteriorating medical condition,

Starting point is 00:09:54 nobody ever sought any sort of medical attention for him. Corey and Stormy still continued to slap and hit Logan just like they had been doing for months, even in his current condition. On one occasion, Logan fell off the bed and could not get back up. Lexi asked Corey if she, could help her brother, but he said that she could not. Lexi then hugged Logan and said that she loved him. Not long after that, Logan appeared to be unconscious. Corey tried CPR but was unsuccessful.

Starting point is 00:10:27 He checked Logan for a pulse, but never found one. Stormy then began to scream and cry knowing that her son was dead. Corey covered Logan's body in a bed sheet and discussed with Stormy ways to dispose of his body. For the next three days, Logan's naked, lifeless body lay in the hotel bathtub, which Corey had filled with ice water to prevent him from decomposing. Lori allowed Lexi to see her brother's body and say goodbye to him. Lexi said she apologized to Logan for letting him down and hope that he was in a better place. Cory and Stormy then took Logan out of the tub, dressed him in his clothes, and put him in a wheelchair that he had found in the hotel dumpster.

Starting point is 00:11:09 Logan's body was finally wheeled out of the hotel and dumped in a nearby abandoned car on Kenzie Avenue off old Iowa Park Road. Lexi testified that when Corey and Stormy returned from discarding Logan's body, they were acting as if they had just had a fun night out. The couple kept laughing with each other believing they had gotten away with killing Logan. They then had a casual night in front of the TV watching Futurama and using Crystal. There's a trend you may have noticed in some of the previous cases. cases we've covered and especially Logan's case. And that is a parent or the boyfriend girlfriend of a parent, harming or torturing a child, realizing they need medical attention, not only not getting the medical attention,

Starting point is 00:11:55 but once they realize that that child is dead, trying to resuscitate them. Makes you wonder what the purpose is. Is it just to keep this child in this near-death state so they can forever torture them? I don't understand it. I want to know just exactly what goes through these people's minds. When they look at a defenseless child and think he doesn't need medical attention. But, oh, he's dead, I have nothing to torture anymore. I have nothing to harm anymore.

Starting point is 00:12:28 The first time I heard something like this, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was an anomaly. But now we're seeing this case after case after case. It's just disgusting. In December of 2019, Stormy and Corey were evicted from the red roof in for not paying rent. Other guests had also been complaining about Corey walking around the parking lot with knives. When the general manager Natan Patel confronted Corey about the rent, he slammed the door in his face. The couple didn't bother paying their own rent and Stormy's mom Dorothy had been paying the previous months but refused to keep doing it, understandably so.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Like I wouldn't either if she can't see the grandkids. After having a door slammed in his face, Nitan called the police to forcibly evict the couple. The family left the hotel at the end of December but would drive back to pick up mail in the days following. Despite the hotel offering weekly housekeeping, Corrie and Stormy left the room in a filthy state and it took one month of cleaning before the room could be rented again. That sang a lot for a bedbug infested room. after leaving the red roof in the family lived in another wichita falls hotel before leaving the state Corey had started to become very paranoid about the police finding Logan's body and tracing him back to it

Starting point is 00:13:52 his original plan was to run away to California but the three of them settled in Las Vegas instead they lived in Corey's new white pickup truck which he had parked at 3375 Glen Avenue The place they were renting was a large self-storage container rather than a house. If Logan now dead, Corey needed someone new to bear the brunt of his temper. It was not long before he started slapping and hitting Stormy the same way they had done to Logan. Corey was becoming more violent each and every day. And now all of a sudden, Stormy wanted out of their relationship since she was the victim. On February 24th of 2020, at approximately 4.30 a.m., Corey fell asleep and Stormy ran away to a 7-Eleven across the street.

Starting point is 00:14:41 She was visibly upset and crying and asked the employee to call the police for her. Officer T. Hager, who responded to the call, did not observe any injuries on Stormy at that time and didn't notice any red flags when he spoke to Corey. After leaving the 7-Eleven with Corey, Stormy reported that he began to physically batter her once again. Once they returned to the truck, Corey wrapped a metal dog leash chain around Stormy's neck, securing it to the headrest to prevent her from escaping. He forced her to drive while at the same time strangling her by pulling on the leash. This violent behavior continued as they drove to the Walgreens pharmacy located at Las Vegas Boulevard in Charleston, where they stayed parked.

Starting point is 00:15:22 Corey repeatedly strangled Stormy until she was on the verge of losing consciousness before releasing the leash. As a result, Stormy developed a sore throat, difficulty swallowing, a raspy voice and nausea. After removing the leash, Corey savagely beat Stormy with his fists in a red and black sticker pipe, focusing on her right leg to prevent her from running away ever again. Stormy sustained numerous injuries, including pain in her left elbow, right elbow,

Starting point is 00:15:49 fingers, her right ankle, lower lip, and her head. February 26th of 2020 at roughly 9.20 a.m. Corey fell asleep in the truck, parked at the Walgreens across the street. Stormy ran away from Corey again, went into the Walgreens, and begged the staff to call the police in an ambulance for her. Sergeant Donaldson responded to the call. When he and two additional officers arrived, they found Stormy who was visibly battered. Stormy told them that Corey had caused all of her injuries.

Starting point is 00:16:18 After she was taken inside the ambulance, Officer Palmyra and Sergeant Donaldson spoke with Corey in his truck. Corey explained that all three of them had been in the Walgreens. They returned to the car, Corey said he had fallen asleep and when he woke up, Stormy was gone, and he assumed she had gone back into the store to buy a drink. He also said he knew she was at Walgreens as he had tracked her phone. Inside Corey's truck, police found a dog leash and the black and red sticker pipe that Stormy said she had been beaten with. Officer Jay Gara spoke with Lexi, who refused to say whether or not there had been any physical altercations between Stormy and Corey. Stormy was taken to Sunrise Hospital for her injuries, which included a broken right shoulder, left elbow,

Starting point is 00:17:01 nose, right middle finger, left pinky, right ankle, as well as severe head pain, swollen bruised eyes, swollen bleeding lips, and multiple bruises. Medical staff confirmed several fractures and noted that some had previously healed, indicating ongoing DV. Given the evidence and the nature of these injuries, it was clear to officers that a battery with a deadly weapon had occurred. At 1045, that same night, Corey was arrested and charged with DV, kidnapping, coercion, and domestic battery by strangulation. When he was interviewed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, he said that Stormy used drugs and had made the whole thing up.

Starting point is 00:17:41 Lexi was interviewed as a witness, and Corey coached her on what to say. Back at the hospital, Stormy was questioned three times by Detective Metzger about her missing son. The pair spoke at the trauma bay at Las Vegas Hospital. During the interview, Stormy spoke on the phone with her mother and passed the phone to Detective Metzger at one point. or if he asked the detective about the children which made Stormy appear visibly uncomfortable. After hours of questioning, Stormy finally admitted that Logan was dead in Texas. On February 27th, the Wichita Falls Police Department was called the Red Roof Inn to search for Logan's body.

Starting point is 00:18:19 Detective Bailey was scouring the nearby areas of the hotel and came across an abandoned house with an abandoned Ford in the driveway, just half a block away from the Red Roof Inn. As the detective approached the vehicle, he was hit by a faint smell of decomposition. When he looked in the rearview window of the vehicle, he saw two white tennis shoes with what appeared to have ankles in them, as well as the cuff of a pair of blue jeans. Detective Billy then looked in the driver's side window and found piles of clothing. As he moved to the passenger's window, the smell of decomposition became even more intense. Logan's body was badly decomposed and he was lying in a fetal position with bugs eating away at his flesh.

Starting point is 00:19:06 It was clear to the detective that Logan's body had been there a long time and he had been dumped in the car purely out of convenience. He also noted that there were no bloodstains on Logan's clothing, suggesting that he had been dressed after death. Detective Bailey sealed off the crime scene in the Criminal Investigation Division and the witch's Wichita Falls Police Department impound facility were both alerted. For Logan to be removed from the car without any of his decomposed limbs breaking apart, he had to be carefully rewrapped in the tarp he had been lying on. The car he was found in was then towed in a rolled back wrecker

Starting point is 00:19:45 and transported to the evidence bay of the Wichita Falls Police Department in pound facility. After being identified with a hair sample, Logan was taken for an autopsy by the Dallas County Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Hayes. Hastings. Dr. Hastings noted that the level of decomposition made it hard to determine the cause of death or assess the extent of Logan's injuries. However, he did find hemorrhaging in Logan's deep tissues and bleeding in his soft tissues. Logan's bones also showed signs of obvious trauma. There were multiple fractures to the left and right nasal bone in the left and right upper jaw. Additionally, there was a lot of discoloration, bruises, and contusions which could only

Starting point is 00:20:27 have been caused by extensive blunt force trauma. Logan's skin also had numerous lacerations and tears, suggesting that he had been punched or kicked. One of the tears was actually so deep that it reached the bone. While the autopsy was happening, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Wichita Falls Police Department search one of the vacant rooms at the Red Roof Inn and found a blood stain about a half inch width near the shower on the inside of the bathroom. A swab was taken of the bloodstain and the results matched Logan's DNA. They also spoke with Natan Patel, who said he thought his tenant Corey acted crazy and weird

Starting point is 00:21:07 and that Logan and Lexi were quiet, wore the exact same clothes every day, and showed no happiness and no smiling whatsoever. Natan also said he only saw the kids at breakfast for a week or two after the family had checked in. After that, Stormy would always bring breakfast. back to the room. At this point, Wichita County already had put out a fugitive warrant for both Corey and Stormy. On March 2nd, he was booked on a $3 million bond and extradited from the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas to Wichita County Jail.

Starting point is 00:21:41 Wichita County Sheriff's Office had also contacted a member of Las Vegas Police Criminal Apprehension Team Fugitive Task Force about Stormy. She had a full extradition warrant out of Wichita Falls. She was taken to the Clark County Detention Center and booked on February 29th on a $1.25 million bond and later extradited to Wichita County Jail. Corey Trumbull was charged with capital murder and tampering with a corpse. His trial began at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2023, in the 78th District Court with Judge Jeff McKnight presiding with a jury of six men and six women in attendance. The lead prosecutors in this case were Richieta County District Attorney

Starting point is 00:22:24 John Gillespie, an assistant district attorney Kyle Lesser. Corey's defense team was led by William Hall and Gant Grimes, both of the Wichita County Public Defender's Office. Corey pled not guilty to all charges, claiming Logan, a child, a young child, was into BDSM and asking Corey to hit him. Lexi testified that prior to Corey entering her family's life, her brother was a happy and healthy boy. The prosecution noted that after Corey entered Logan's life, he didn't even make it to the end of the year.

Starting point is 00:23:01 Through tears, Lexi admitted that once she was able to move beyond the drug-induced fog that she had been living in, she realized she had been manipulated by Corey. That is the reason why she didn't try to get help. Lexi also claimed that Corey and her mother both mutilated her brother's corpse. Corey's sentencing hearing took place on August 29, 2023. The jury only needed. It's probably the quickest I've ever heard. The jury only needed 16 minutes to find him guilty of all charges

Starting point is 00:23:30 and the judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. March of 2024, Corey appealed his conviction of capital murder, claiming that the prosecution didn't prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt that his capital murder conviction should be reversed altogether. The appeal also stated that the prosecution failed to present evidence showing Corey knowingly and intentionally caused Logan's death and that he was charged on mere speculation rather than actual evidence. Stormy Johnson pled guilty to felony murder and tampering with evidence. She was sentenced in early September 2023 to life in prison with a minimum of 20 years. Corey's appeal is still in the

Starting point is 00:24:12 works. After Logan's death, Lexi went to live with her maternal grandmother. In September of 2021, she moved to Germany with her father, who was stationed there for three years. She made a Facebook post saying she had met so many people and was happier than ever. When she was 18, she moved back to Wichita Falls to testify at Corey and Stormy's trials. Lexi then moved back to Mullin, Texas, to live with her grandmother and recently graduated from Mullen High School. The same night police discovered Logan's body, the community of Wichita Falls came together to honor the life. of Logan Klein. A candlelight vigil was held at the Angel of Hope Memorial Garden. Dozens of strangers were in attendance alongside some of Logan's neighbors and his fifth

Starting point is 00:25:00 grade school teacher, Carrie Pulaski. An emotional gathering tonight, people in Wichdaw Falls paid their respects for an 11-year-old gone too soon. On February 27th, police found Logan Klein's body in a car on Kinsey Avenue near the Red Roof Inn of Old Iowa Park Road after investigating an unrelated case. attended the candlelight vigil tonight at the Angel of Hope Memorial. Now Zach, how did the community honor Klein? Well, Lauren and Jaron, the story hits close to home for many who have children or a young sibling. And most folks in attendance tonight had never met Klein, but want to make sure to keep his name alive. It just hurts me so much because I have my children, my grandchildren and everything and something like this happening here and we stopped close to my house.

Starting point is 00:25:46 And I'm thinking somebody needs to do something. The body of 11-year-old Logan Klein found in late February leaves many unanswered questions. Carrie Polowski teaches in Chilicothe and says Logan was only in her class for 30 days before suddenly leaving. And although it wasn't long, something seemed off. He wasn't there for long, but he was very quiet. He was a sweet kid. You could tell he wanted to try to make friends. But we knew something was wrong.

Starting point is 00:26:16 that things weren't necessarily right for him. Bolowski says the school did what it could, trying multiple times to get help for Klein, but unfortunately it was too late. We contacted CPS four different times. Our school did, but by the time they could get anything done, they had already moved on. You could tell they knew what they were doing by moving.

Starting point is 00:26:37 The candlelight vigil was a chance for the community to pay their respects, even for those who never got to meet, Logan. When people pass away, they're easily forgotten within two weeks or a month. You know, the time just passes by. So it's a great reflection to see individuals come together just to support even people that they don't know. Gathering to support and remember Logan Klein as the quiet, sweet kid that Polowski knew. We're just doing our best to just remember Logan and, of course, his age is kind of difficult in the circumstances.

Starting point is 00:27:13 that we heard on the news and things like that. So just basically doing whatever we can to say a prayer. A prayer to remember a life cut way too short. A plate with Logan's name was added to the memorial wall. After his death, Logan's grandmother, Christine Barrow, started a GoFundMe page to cover the travel costs of his funeral as his father was stationed in Afghanistan. The fundraiser received $2,279 in donations.

Starting point is 00:27:41 Logan's funeral was held on Saturday, March 21st, 2020, at Winter's funeral home in Winters, Texas. It was a private ceremony, and he was buried in nearby Lakeview Cemetery. The exact date of Logan's death is unknown, but February 26, 2020 was written on his grave. The headstone reads, Our beloved grandson, son, brother, Logan Nicholas Klein, July 14th, to February 26, 2020. Logan's favorite toy, his Rubik's Cube, was placed near the headstone, alongside a wire sculpture of a baseball mitt in a baseball. He will be forever missed by everyone who loved him.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Logan Cline

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.