True Crime All The Time - Travun Baskerville

Episode Date: May 23, 2022

Douglas Calhoun was a man known for being kind, generous, and fun to be around. Doug was fatally shot on June 1st, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan by Travun Baskerville. The subsequent investigation revealed not only the killer but a horrifying child-sex trafficking operation and domestic abuse. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss murderer Travun Baskerville. This is a man who was involved with a minor and put ads on the internet for men to be with her. Travun forced this girl to have sex for money and he took all of the money. Douglas Calhoun, or Chef Doug as he was called, answered one of these ads and ended up dead. The minor ended up as the state's star witness but some, including the judge, still have questions about who else may have shot Doug Calhoun.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationAn Emash Digital productionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 284 of the True Crime All The Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in True Crime. Mike Gibson, give me, how are you? I'm doing good, man, about yourself. I'm doing very well. Good. We just got done doing a little weekly Patreon episode.

Yeah. Talking about what we're watching, some updates on some unsolved cases, things like that. Speaking of Patreon, let's go ahead and give our shoutouts. We had Paige Team Gibby Smith. Hey, Team Givie Smith. Jalil Rahab. What's going on, Rahab? Yvonne E.

Hey, Yvonne. John Hutt. What's going on, Hutt? Vanessa deGrazio. Hey, there's DeGrizzio. Muriel Placet Qawesi. Ooh, Placet Corasi. Megan McPeak.

Hey, McPeak. Megan Hill. What's going on, Megan? Brittany Hanson. Hey, Brittany. Rebecca Southwell. Well, appreciate that. Southwell.

Elise Leirdam Gadsden. Thank you, Leardom Gatson. Jill Sutter. Hey, Jill. Seuna. Ibrahim. Hey, Seuna. Mr. Mebbles.

Well, there's Mr. Meables. Valerie El-Sawi. Hey, what's going on, El-Savi? And last but not least, Sophia Obergon. Thank you, Sophia. So we appreciate all the new Patreon support. And then if we go back into the vault, this week, we selected John Moore.

Hey, John, how are you? So we appreciate that long-term support as well. We had some great PayPal donations from Kalyn Landry. What's going on, Caitlin? Daisy Simontal. Hey, thank you, Simintal. And Amy Nell. Hey, appreciate that, Amy.

Yeah, thanks to all of you as well. Gibbs right now on True Crime All the Time Unsolved. We have an episode out on The Lady of the Dunes. Yeah, this is an interesting case. It involves a unknown victim. That's why we call it the Liddle. Lady of the Dunes. So we're diving to how the victim was found, how the investigators chase down some potential suspects, and we're talking about those. So that's out now. Make sure you check it out.

All right, buddy, are you ready to get into this episode of true crime all the time? I'm ready. We are talking about Trayvon Baskerville, who shot and killed kind of a famous local chef, at least in the city of Detroit, named Douglas Calhoun. Douglas Calhoun was a man known for being kind, generous, and fun to be around. He was fatally shot on June 1st, 2017 by Trayvon Baskerville. The subsequent investigation revealed not only the killer, but a horrifying child sex trafficking operation as well as domestic abuse. So we're in for some rough stuff, Gibbs.

We know that. Yeah, rough stuff goes with the territory, though. It does when you're talking about certain types of cases. Douglas Calhoun was only 39 years old when he was murdered in the early morning hours of June 1st, 2017. Doug was a veteran who was honorably discharged from the Marines. The one thing that came through very clearly was that Doug Calhoun was very proud of his, military service. When he left the Marines, he wanted to start his own business. So he founded an event

catering service. And it's something that you have a little bit of knowledge about. Of course. One of your many, many jobs that you've had over your time on this earth. Well, I am very good at cooking large amounts of food for many, many people. Yeah. It's when you try to pair it down to like one two, three or four servings. That's when it gets a little dicey. For some reason, you would think it would be the other way around. Yeah, I have problems calculating the cups down to, you know, the measurements down. I never get that right.

So things taste over, over, over, over, over, over seasons. I wanted to hear what cups down to X was going to be, but I liked the way you, you pivoted. Doug lived in Detroit, Michigan, but he traveled all over the country for work. His clients and coworkers called. him chef Doug. In his spare time, Doug Calhoun volunteered to teach children in the community how to cook. So he was an expert chef and his family always came to him for cooking advice. Doug was a happy guy and his business was doing well. He had a goal Gibbs, which was to save up enough

money to open his own banquet hall. Yeah, how great would that be. Now you have your own banquet hall, everything in one location. And to me, that makes a lot of business sense, right? You're already doing catering at different venues. Hmm, why not own the venue? Yeah. And so you're renting that out, but you're also, you know, doing the catering for events as well. Doug Calhoun's family described him as the life of the party.

According to Doug's older sister, Dana Phillips, she could always count on him to be there for her no matter what. Doug was single. He didn't have any children, but he was very close to his family. He made sure to attend every family function, even when he was exhausted from work. It sounds like he was a stand-up guy. Yeah, I think he was. I think his family loved him very much. I think he loved his family. Well, I know he had a very special bond with his nieces. He did. He had two nieces. It was said that he picked up his youngest niece every Tuesday after school to spend time with her. Dana said that her daughter's favorite part of the week was spending time with her uncle DJ. Yeah. You know, I remember before I had kids, my two oldest nieces, I would spend a lot of

time with them throughout the week. And it was always amazing for me. And I think they really got a kick out of it, too. Well, and I'm sure it helped with the bond. Yes. That you probably still have with them. Now, when it comes to Trayvon Baskerville, there really wasn't all that much information, you know, about his life. His inmate search says that he was born on August 17th, 1990. Other sources reported that he lived in Burgess, Detroit. And this is not unusual for us. No, we find that now. And then where we have limited information. Yeah. And it can work both ways. Either the information. is limited on the perpetrator, which is what we have here in this case, or the information is

very limited on the victim or victims. I did find a couple of convictions on his record that both occurred in two separate instances in 2010. One says he pleaded guilty to copying audio slash video for game, which was a felony. That's interesting. Yeah. there really was no information, you know, to go with it. I took from it that he was either burning CDs, copying movies, maybe something like that. Right. And then selling them. Yeah, just distribution of that stuff.

I do remember when I moved to Detroit in like 1995, 1996, I'm somewhere around that time frame. that was the first time that I ever encountered what you would call a bootleg movie. Yeah. Like a movie someone shot in the theater like on the Seinfeld episode. Right. Kramer and Jerry. And Jerry had to finish it up.

They were selling those all over the place. Now, they were VHS back then. Yeah. But that was the first time that I had ever seen that was when I moved to Detroit. So I don't know if they're talking. about something like that. By 2010, it would have been DVDs, but could have still been the same scenario. I've seen a few of those DVD bootleg disc.

Some were really, really bad. And you can tell like they were shooting it in the theater. A couple of them were, you know, surprised at the quality. But, um. Well, you know, like Jerry. I mean, he took it as an art form. He did on Seinfeld. Now, I will say, I'm assuming.

that most of that has gone away because now you have internet sites that actually you can go to, I believe, and download pirated movies. Right. So you don't have the physical movie, but you can stream it. Yeah. You know, I bought a DVD a couple weeks ago. Why? That's my first question.

Why? Well, that's what I was asked later by some other people. Who watches DVDs anymore with the amount of streaming that we have available? So that's the first thing my girlfriend said was, why did you buy that? I said, I wanted to listen into my truck. And she goes, does your truck have CD player? And then I realized it did not. No, because you have basically the same truck that I have.

I just assumed it did. I didn't think about it. And I got my truck. And I was like, where is that little button that exposes the hidden? a CD player and there is none. So you wasted your money? Yeah. I just have CDs in my glove compartment that I'll never be able to play.

So he did about not quite a year for that conviction. The second was a plea to a charge of malicious destruction of personal property. And it said it was between $1,000 and $20,000. And it looks like he did about three years. Seems like the jail time fit the crime. Yeah, I would say so. The other thing, though, that I would point out is these are not the typical crimes that we would normally see in the background of a killer.

But this is a one-off murder, right? We're not talking about a serial killer right here. We're talking about a guy who got into some trouble for sure. Trayvon's girlfriend referred to as AB in sources was just 16 years old when she started dating him. He was 25. So you can look at that. We've talked about age differences before nine years. Okay. You know, if you're in your 30s or 40s, that's not a big deal. But when you're 25 dating a 16 year old, that's a big deal. To me, that is a big deal, especially if it's my 16 year old. Exactly. We're going to have some issues. Yeah. Could be some problems there. But it was Trayvon's idea to

traffic his girlfriend for sex because they needed money. Basically, what he did, Gibbs, is he took pictures of her in her underwear and he began posting ads online. In August 2016, he posted an ad for sexual appointments on back page and it remained active for the next 10 months. A.B. was not allowed to keep any of the money. She was forced to give everything to Baskerville. She asked him about both of them getting jobs and he told her he didn't want to work for the white man. This is what she would later say in court. Yeah. So his answer was to just continue to traffic her?

Yeah. It's sickening to think about. But, okay, it was easier for him to put these ads online and collect the money from sexual services than to go out and get a real job. A.B. later said she couldn't recall how many individuals she had sex with, but she said it was more than one person each day. That's a lot. Yeah. Baskerville forced her to perform sexual acts, even when she didn't want to or she didn't feel well. She later testified that if she didn't want to engage in sexual acts, he would get mad at her. He would get physical. He would put his hands on her. So if she didn't do it, he would smack her around.

Get abusive. Yeah. 16, 17 years old. I don't know how you call somebody your girlfriend if that's how you're treating them. I don't think you can love somebody and do that to them. Well, no, not in the way that you and I think. But I do believe there are some people, and you could probably include this guy in the mix, who are able to do really bad things to people that.

they truly love. In their mind, they do love this person. But it doesn't stop them. That feeling or that sense of love doesn't stop them from doing, you know, horrible things to them. Yeah. So that's the part that you and I can't understand. Most people listening can't understand.

But some people will because they've been on one side or the other of that type of relationship. So they can relate to it. Douglas Calhoun was last seen alive on Wednesday, May 31st, 2017. He went out with friends that night and arrived at his home in the 3,500 block of West Outer Drive around 3.30 a.m. Doug messaged his friends to let them know that he got home safely. This was the last recorded communication he made with anyone because Doug was murdered in the early morning hours of June 1st. He was fatally shot three times after he and Trayvon Baskerville got into a heated argument at Baskerville's house in Burgess, Detroit.

Doug Calhoun responded to the back page app and he made an appointment to meet A.B. for sex. Now, it's not known whether or not Doug knew that this girl was underage. We'll hear more about that when we talk about Baskerville's trial. A.B. called Doug on June 1st and made arrangements for him to meet her at the home of Trayvon Baskerville. And the following information comes from her pretrial testimony in September 2017. When Doug arrived at the home, he paid AB $50. She performed oral sex on him. They were going to have sex, but Doug and AB got into an argument because he didn't want to use

condom. She testified he wanted to do it without a condom. I told him no. He kept asking why not. I told him no, everything is with a condom. So apparently, Doug asked for his money back, right? And keep in mind, Gibbs, that what we're talking about now comes from the two people that survive. Right. Later on, Doug's not going to be alive. Yeah, he's not going to be able to dispute or add anything to this. give his side of events, right. So the argument escalated to the point that Trayvon came out of his bedroom and pointed a gun at Doug. The two men got into an argument. Doug suggested they go outside to settle things.

And that's when Baskerville shot him three times. One shot hit him in the spine. Doug died of his injuries on a bed in the living room. And according to A, B, Trayvon paced a round. around the room while deciding what they should do with the body. And I've already said, Gibbs, this girl was young. I think by this point in time, she was 17 years old. She had a one-year-old child at the time who was sleeping in another bedroom in that house. Definitely messed up situation. Oh, very messed up. An hour or two went by and the two of them moved Doug's body to the backyard of a

vacant house, eventually dumping his body in a dumpster. They pushed the dumpster into the garage of another vacant house on the other side of a field of grass. Then they moved Doug's car. A.B. testified that she helped dispose of the body because she was afraid of Trayvon Baskerville. And I do think that's an important part of this case. It can't be emphasized enough. The amount of control. that he exercised over her. I think the amount of fear that she had of this individual. Yeah, not only for herself, but probably her child as well. I would say so.

So Doug Calhoun didn't show up to work on June 1st. Dana Phillips received a call from Doug's business partner, letting her know that he didn't show up for an event. And I think, you know, as we talk about in so many cases, that was very troublesome to Dana because she knew exactly how important Doug's work was to him. He wouldn't fail to show up without any explanation unless something was seriously wrong. Yeah, so at that point, they knew there was a problem. Then on June 2nd, Doug missed a flight to St. Louis for a wedding.

And Dana filed a missing person's report that day. Doug's family posted his information on social media. hoping that someone who had seen him would come forward. They also spoke to local news outlets to spread awareness of the case. Then Doug's truck was found near Finkel Avenue and Evergreen Road in Brightmoor, a neighborhood on the west side of Detroit. According to his family, there was no reason at all for his truck to be in that area. So the Calhoun family, you know, they searched the area, they handed out flyers.

but they didn't find anything that pointed to Doug's whereabouts. So they decided to look into Doug's bank records and saw that his card was being used. So I think at that point, Gibbs, you're a little bit hopeful. Sure, yeah. Okay, he's okay because he's using his card. But when police looked at security footage, they saw that it wasn't Doug who was using the card. Someone, another man had stolen it. Now, it's a little fuzzy, you know, in the research, there's really nothing to indicate that this man knew anything about Doug's disappearance.

I think it's thought by authorities that this guy most likely stole the card from Doug's truck after it was abandoned in Brightmoor. So this guy's walking by, sees his truck, goes through the truck, looking for anything valuable and comes across a bank card and says, you know what, I'm going to see if I can do anything with him. this and obviously he could yeah i think that's what authorities believe happened so did you ever have your credit card or bank card stolen i never had my physical card stolen but i did have my number stolen from one of those little kiosks in the mall oh one time yeah some employee you know got the bright idea that they would use it and racked up a bunch of uh charges which is always nice yeah i didn't have to pay for him. But still have to deal with the cleanup.

Sure. But I mentioned that Doug's family, they were pretty hopeful right after finding out about the bank cart. But then once they found out that it wasn't Doug, using it, you know Gibbs. They had to be even more worried, but they were trying to stay positive. Doug's okay. We'll find him. We'll keep searching.

Doug's brother-in-law, Eric Phillips told Click on Detroit that Doug was a big guy who's about 6-1, 230 pounds. If there was trouble, he could handle himself in a fight. Let's not forget the guy was a Marine. That's true too. So he was a large individual who had quite a bit of training. Who among us doesn't want to live well? Well, Hunter Douglas can help you do just that with their innovative window shade designs, gorgeous fabrics and control systems so advanced, they can be scheduled to automatically adjust to their optimal position throughout the day. Maybe you want to diffuse some harsh sunlight. Or maybe you just want to enjoy the view outside your window while protecting your privacy inside.

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Loan amounts will be determined based on your credit, income, and certain other information provided in your loan application. Go to upstart.com slash T-Cat. Crime Stoppers offered a $6,000 reward for information. Dana Phillips told Click on Detroit, regardless of the money, if you know something, somebody should say something and bring this man home to his family. No doubt. It shouldn't be dependent on how much money is offered. but sadly it seems like it is. Yeah, I think we've seen it play out that way. You would like to think Gibbs that people would just want to come forward and do the right thing.

Yeah, you just want people to do the right thing. But I can also envision scenarios where people say, okay, I didn't have anything to do with it, but I heard X. Now, do I want to go to police and give them that information? Is my name going to get out? out and someone's going to want to hurt me because I said something. Right. I think that probably goes through people's minds more than we may even think it does.

I just feel like there's plenty avenues that you can go down to get information to the authorities without being identified. On June 19th, 2017, Doug's family and friends searched all over the west side of the city. Dana Phillips told WX, Y, Z Detroit. days today. It's been hell for 19 days. No days are better than others. It's all horrible. It's all horrible not knowing. He's missed too many special occasions in the last week alone that he just would not have missed, not to mention his business. So I think just from, you know, that statement, you can get a sense of the desperation, you know, that the family is experiencing because we mentioned it.

This is a guy who loved his family, had constant contact with his family. He had a thriving business. He's not just going to walk away. No. So to me, Gibbs, as everyday ticks by, that desperation has to grow and grow. Yeah, I think because you're worried, right?

Because we said he's an ex-marine, he's a big guy, should be able to handle himself in almost every situation. So what happened to him? The Detroit Free Press reported that on June 21st, the Detroit police, the Michigan State Police, and the FBI spent hours investigating a vacant property on Detroit's east side. Apparently, the property was owned by the Detroit Land Bank and the search resulted from a tip that came in regarding two different missing persons cases from 2016. So the tip didn't have anything to do with Doug. It was about two completely different missing persons cases.

The authorities didn't find anything. But some of Doug's family members went to the location believing that they might find some evidence of what happened to Doug. And why wouldn't they? You know, they want to know where their family member is. When I always try to put myself in, you know, the position. of some of these individuals, I think if I heard on the news

that police were searching somewhere and I had a missing loved one, I'd try to get there. Yeah. To see what was going on. And that would be an agonizing feeling, right? Every time something comes up, and let's face it,

there are a lot of vacant properties in Detroit. Sure. We know that. Well, we're very familiar with the Detroit Land Bank. And unfortunately, this glut of vacant properties makes it very easy for people to, you know, hide a body or, or do something like that. The police obtained and searched Doug's phone records at 3 a.m. on June 1st, he called an unknown phone number, but they did figure out that this phone number was affiliated with a

back page ad. detectives figured out that this number called Crazy Joe's Pizza in Detroit and placed an order. So they reached out to Crazy Joe's and the management there gave the police the address they needed. When they went to the address, a young woman that turned out to be A.B. answered the door. She agreed to go to the police station and answer questions. she told detectives that she had been living in the house since March 2017. And this gave them the probable cause they needed to conduct a search. When they got inside, they found bloodstained bed sheets inside the home.

Testing later revealed that the blood belonged to Doug Calhoun. And Gibbs, you and I talk about this quite a bit. You know, thank goodness for dumb criminals, right? if you're going to kill someone, why in the world would you leave bloodstained bed sheets just laying around the house? Yeah. Too lazy to get rid of them. Can't afford new one so you keep the old one. Bloodstained doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense at all. The police questioned AB for seven hours. She was offered a deal. Show them where Doug was and she would get immunity from prosecutors. And she accepted the deal and led police to Doug's body. As far as deals go Gibbs, that's a pretty good one.

Yeah, it is a good deal. I'm sure as she was going through that interview for seven hours, she realized that she needed to look out for her and her child. And this was her opportunity to probably get away from Trayvon as well. Well, she's a young girl. And I imagine during those seven hours, she probably was, scared. Sure. And figured out pretty quickly that I'm in a mess of trouble. But I agree with you that she probably saw it as her best opportunity to get away from this guy. Gibbs, after 37 days,

Doug Calhoun's body was found on July 7th, 2017. He was stuffed into a trash can inside the garage of a vacant house on Graydale Avenue in Detroit. Doug's sister identified. And, you know, him by his tattoos. A medical examiner determined that Doug died from multiple gunshot wounds. Three bullets were recovered from his body. The identification was announced to the press on July 19th. The police also announced that a person of interest later revealed to be Trayvon Baskerville was taken into custody on an unrelated charge. It wasn't until August 31st that 26-year-old Trayvon was charged with first-degree murder and human trafficking. At a pretrial hearing, A.B admitted to lying during her first two interviews with the police,

but she eventually told the truth and led police to Doug's body. She also testified that they carried the body to a dumpster at the back of the house, but Baskerville moved Doug to the garage himself. Afterwards, they went out to get food from a local grocery. store. When asked why she didn't go to the police right away, she said, I was afraid of him. And I think that goes back to your theory. And I agree with it. I do think this girl was very, very afraid of this guy. But even if she wasn't, it's a good answer to give because what else could you say? Right. Yeah. But I think he conditioned her over time to be afraid of them.

Now, a big issue in the preliminary hearings was the first degree murder charge. According to the defense, the argument between A.B. and Douglas Calhoun only lasted about a minute. This is what she testified to. They said that this fact didn't indicate planning and therefore should qualify for a second degree murder charge. Basically, they're saying there was no premeditation. Right. The prosecution argued that the law doesn't specify how much time is needed to qualify for premeditated murder. The evidence proving first degree murder was the number of shots fired and the fact that Baskerville was listening to the argument between A.B. and Doug from his bedroom. he had time to grab the gun and start his confrontation with Doug Calhoun.

Yeah, I get it, right? I mean, he heard the argument. He could have decided not to grab his gun, but he chose to grab his gun. But he also could have stopped after one shot instead of continuing to shoot two additional shots. So I can see were the prosecution saying, this is first degree. Well, and I think the term premeditated. is an interesting one. I think a lot of times you think of, you know, premeditation as planning, scheming, lying in weight. The prosecution here is saying, no, there's no amount of time that

has to transpire. You know, back to your point, I think what they were saying was, you know, the fact that he had time to grab the gun means that it was premeditated. Now, I do think it's a, it's an argument that can be made on both sides. And I think it was made. The judge bound Trayvon over for trial on all counts and agreed with the prosecution on the charge of first degree murder. The trial started in July 2018. A.B. was the first witness. She testified about the history of her relationship with Trayvon Baskerville and the sex trafficking operation. She testified that there was only one gun. in the house and Doug didn't have a gun with him. I think the problem there was that Doug's autopsy

found that he was shot by two different guns. A detective testified about the software programs. She used to extract data from cell phones. She analyzed Doug's cell phone data and found an email from Doug to Trayvon on March 6th. The email was addressed to Trayvon Baskerville and it referenced someone performing a service or some kind of sexual act. The prosecution played a recording of a phone conversation between Trayvon and A.B. Where he told her to keep quiet and he would take all the blame for the murder. So this phone call happened while he was in jail. Right.

He told her if you keep talking, you're going to make yourself an accessory. He also asked her if she told on him. Now, I have a little bit of that call. I don't have the entire thing, but I want to play it. Can you hear me, baby? Yeah. Before I let anything happen to you, I would take everything. You hear me?

I take order charges. Before any, I was, don't you, don't you get scared and do anything. So, like I said, I could only find a little bit of it online. And this phone call is going to be huge in the trial. I actually couldn't find some of the more incriminating parts of it. The defense's main strategy was to attack A.B's testimony and point out inconsistencies in her statements. That makes a lot of sense, right? She's the star witness for the prosecution. The defense argued that she wasn't a victim of human trafficking and that she was actually one of the

shooters. And we mentioned it, right? The medical examiner concluded that two different weapons were used. to shoot Doug Calhoun, but neither one was ever recovered. But you can make the case for the fact that she could have been one of the shooters. Oh, absolutely. I don't think either side could prove it either way, right? That she either did fire or didn't fire. But it wasn't an extremely long trial. On July 23rd, Trayvon Baskerville was found guilty of seven charges, second degree murder, human trafficking, human trafficking, enterprise involving death, human trafficking of a minor for criminal sexual activity, child sexually abusive activity, possession of child sexually abusive material,

felon in possession of a firearm, and a felony firearms violation. So that's a lot of charges, but I didn't mention first degree murder. The jury actually acquitted him of first degree murder. they ended up going with second degree murder, although I don't think it mattered a whole lot, because on August 7th, Trayvon Baskerville was sentenced to 120 years in prison. Gibbs, he got 60 to 100 years for second degree murder and another 60 to 100 years for human trafficking. Wow, those are some lengthy sentences.

Yeah. And I think to top that, the sentences were set to run consecutively, meaning that, you know, unless he was able to successfully appeal, he was going to die in prison. Baskerville was also ordered to pay restitution to the Calhoun family for Doug's funeral. Dana Phillips said in her victim impact statement, every single day for 37 days, I made social media post with DJ's picture asking for any information that would lead us to him. For 37 days, we cried in anguish as we hoped for his return.

For 37 days, this animal, Baskerville, knew full well where he discarded my brother's lifeless body and had no regard, not a single care for the pain and suffering. His cowardly actions were causing our family. I've been forced to live with the awful imagination of how his life ended so tragically. I'm forced to deal with my nightmares of how Baskerville decided to go to Meyer, the grocery store, after just having murdered my brother in cold blood. I am forced to imagine the pain and agony. My brother must have suffered by the gunshot wounds.

I will forever be saddened that his dream will never come to fruition. Well, it's a good impact statement. Well, on a number of levels, right? To me, it's very powerful. But I also thought it was very well crafted. And again, I don't know how much planning, crafting went into it. If that was spur of the moment off the top of her head, that was even more amazing. A.B gave a victim impact statement as well. She said, I have learned so much from dealing with someone like you, the situation really changed my life. Thinking back on every single thing you put me through. I'm surprised I made it this far.

My life was revolved around you and controlled by you. I don't understand how you were able to sleep at night knowing that you put somebody in a situation like this. I look at all the old marks you put on me from my forehead to my eye. It is unbelievable. This really took a toll on my life. I went from needing therapy to starving myself to self-harm. As of today, I am still trying to recover from this.

I'm not trying to be controlled again by anyone. I was able to graduate high school and work a regular job and take care of my son the right way. When you were in my life and the way you controlled me, I would not be where I am today. You would have continued to take and control me. You only thought about your happiness and not thinking about how I felt giving myself away for money. That was not the life I wanted to live. That was the life you wanted me to live. I am honestly happy.

I don't have to deal with your craziness anymore. Now I'm really starting to see what life is all about. I think she got out what she needed to say. She made her point to him. And she was a victim. victim at the hands of Trayvon Baskerville. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Now, some people may have doubts about just exactly what her role in the murder was. Did she fire a shot from this second gun? I don't know. I think until, you know, somebody was able to prove that,

you kind of have to go with this. Gibbs, I want to play a clip from the judge. Gibbs, I want to play a clip from the judge at sentencing because I thought it was very compelling. Now, it's a little lengthy, but I think it's worth it. And then we'll talk about it on the other side. I don't know what happened to you in your life that brought you to this point, but I would imagine that there was a breakdown a long time ago in the way that you were raised in the home that you were brought up in that brought up in that. And I agree with Mr. Longstreet that we really are never going to know the truth about what happened in that house that day because only you and Alexis really know the truth about what happened in that house that day and how it is that Mr. Calhoun came to be killed. But I don't believe that you

acted alone. I think that the physical evidence clearly demonstrated that there were there were multiple weapons involved. None of the weapons were found. But you know, I talked to the jury and the jury felt that the most compelling evidence against you was your own alert to the jail call. Don't say anything. You should you say anything like that. At this point. And, you know, when you were on that jail call, the jury felt that when you called and said that if you keep talking, you're going to make yourself an accessory.

And when you asked, did you tell me that that was the clearest admission of your own guilt and your own responsibility? And that's really what convicted you in this case because she had every reason to lie and point the finger at you to save herself. And there really wasn't much evidence that directly linked you to the crime until you opened your own mouth on the jail call. And perhaps you thought you were being real slick because you used somebody else's number to call and that somebody else's inmate number, meaning you didn't call on your own account. You used somebody else's inmate number to call, and then you had somebody, whoever these random people were that you were calling, then using another phone to call Alexis and communicating through another person. That way, maybe you thought that you would be able to get around the telephone call recording system.

And I'm sure, you know, I don't know. You didn't have Mr. Longstreet as your lawyer at the time that you were making these calls. You had a different lawyer who ultimately went through from the case. But I hope that that attorney had already told you not to be talking on. phones at the jail. So I want you to know that it was your own words that hurt you the most in this case, according to the jury. You know the truth about what happened that day. And the truth about what happened that day is something that you're going to have to live with for the rest of your life. But you know, the most sad and disturbing part about all of this is, you know,

you had a 17-year-old girl who was selling her body. And all these men, all these men, all of them, I wonder if they knew that they were coming to have sex with a child. I wonder if the advertisement showed that these men were coming to have sex with a child.

You wonder how a 17-year-old girl finds herself in this situation where she's already got a child of her own. She is nowhere to live. She finds herself in the grasp and control of a man like you who the evidence bore out, controlled everything she did. You caught her on Facebook.

the text message showed. You caught her on Facebook and told her, get off Facebook before I come home and beat your ads. And she apologized and said all she did was post one picture and the status, and you said you didn't care she needed to get off Facebook. When you controlled everything that she did. And what was it about you that made you think you had the right to control someone else like there were your property?

Slavery wasn't abolished a long time ago. We as black people have been free in this country for a very very, very long time. Yet you had this 17-year-old girl like she was your slave. She was at your direction doing what you wanted her to do. Had you simply said that you caught Mr. Calhoun sexually assaulting her and you came to her aid and shot him because you were trying to prevent him from sexually assaulting her, you would have got away with this whole thing. Because damn men don't talk. And there would have been no one to say what really happened and why you really should. child. You would have got with the whole thing. But instead you were too smart for your own good

and you decided to put him in that dumpster, put him in a house and come up with a story that didn't make any sense. Well, I don't know. Again, I think something in your life had to happen where you got to this point where you felt that you needed to own it lowered over somebody else like a piece of property. So first of all, Gibbs, I love this judge. Yeah. Love her. You know, she's laying into him, but with such a nice tone. And when you look at her, she appears to be a very young judge. Now, she's dressing him down. She's not yelling at him.

She has a very soft speaking voice, but she's laying it all out there. Now, I thought in the very beginning, she almost came off a little bit as though she doesn't believe A, B. And she used her real first name. name, Alexis, right, is story that she wasn't completely involved in the murder. But I thought, you know, the best part for me was her basically saying, you know, you did this to yourself. It was your own words that convicted you.

The jury said that. But also her basically telling him how he could have gotten away with the murder. Yeah. If he had just done X. and I don't know if I've ever heard a judge come out and say something like that. Now, she's completely 100% correct. He would have gotten in trouble, but he could have called the police and said, this is what happened.

The sexual transaction went wrong. Right. There was a fight. He was abusing her. And I stepped in. Yeah, I mean, he could have controlled the narrative with. dug out of the picture. It was just Trayvon and A.B. To give their side of the story. Yeah, Doug was already dead. Yeah. So who's going to argue that? Right. The two of them could have

come up with their story, told the police. Now, there were still have been ramifications. You had a 17 year old and you had Baskerville who was essentially her pimp for the lack of a better word. he was pimping her out. So obviously there would have been probably pretty serious charges for that. But once you make the decision to hide the body, all of that goes out the window. Right. You can't then say it was self-defense or it was this or it was that. Well, you can, but it becomes much, much tougher.

Yeah, because now you have to answer the question is why. But how many times have you heard a judge actually say, well, if you had just done this and this and this, you probably would have gotten away with it. Yeah, that's definitely rare. Yeah. It's one of the things that really jumped out at me because I just don't know if I've ever heard it before. It's kind of her way of saying, you guys are a bunch of dumbasses. I think she probably believed that, at least when it came to him. But you can really hear her talking about slavery was abolished. Why did you think you had the right to essentially, you know, own this girl and control her every movement.

Yeah. Baskerville used his chance to speak to thank his lawyer and the opportunity for a fair trial. Now, he appealed basically, I think in large part, because he wanted his sentence to be reevaluated. And that was decided on August 20th, 2020. The judgment and the sentence were affirmed. But the court did acknowledge there were some minor.

errors in the sentencing guidelines. I mean, we mentioned it. He got some very, very lengthy sentences to be served consecutively. He's never going to get out. No. Unless he can get, you know, that overturned. Baskerville argued that the prosecution didn't have enough evidence to prove second degree murder, or the engaging in human trafficking of a minor involving commercial sexual activity, most of the evidence against him was based on A.B.'s testimony, which he argued was not credible and was uncorroborated. He noted that the court even doubted that she was telling the full truth, especially when she made the statement about the gun he used in the shooting. And you did kind of hear the judge, not come right out and say it, but hint, I think, at her doubts that it happened exactly

the way that the prosecution said it did. The appeals court responded that the defense went over the weaknesses in AB's testimony. The court instructed the jury to use caution when considering testimony from somebody within immunity agreement. And I think that's a good thing to do because you know, how many times have we talked about it? You know, in this case is a perfect example. I'm not saying this girl was involved in the murder. I don't know. What I am saying is that when you're in a bind and someone comes to you and says, we'll give you immunity as long as you testify against this other person. Right. Well, that's a real incentive to testify and possibly give a version of events that might not be the truth. Yeah, you might embellish the truth a little bit to

make sure that you secure your immunity. Well, that's the whole thing, right? If you're testifying for the prosecution in exchange for immunity, don't you have to then say only things that will benefit the prosecution? Yeah, otherwise, why would they want to give you immunity? Exactly. Either you bring something to the table or you don't. And if you don't, we can't help you. Exactly. In regards to self-defense, the court said that Baskerville shot Doug when Doug suggested they go outside. This showed that he intentionally killed him with no mitigating circumstances such as self-defense or, you know, it's somehow being an accident.

B. didn't know how many times he fired a gun. Of the three bullets recovered from the body, there was no evidence of how much damage each bullet caused. Doug could have sustained a fatal wound from just one bullet from the second gun, which could have been fired by a second individual. That's certainly a good argument. It is a good argument to make. They didn't think it was enough to, you know, overturn anything. In his appeal, Baskerville objected to the prosecution. showing color photos of Doug Calhoun's remains, but that was not objected to at trial. The appeals judges reviewed the photos and determined that they were not purposely gruesome

and that they served to corroborate A.B.'s testament. Now, I think one of the really big things was that Baskerville objected to the consecutive sentences. And from everything I read, Gibbs, the consent. consecutive sentences were not the norm and probably still not the norm in Michigan. They had to be authorized by statute. The court is required to give reasons for imposing a consecutive sentence. Well, if the prosecution recommended it and the judge approved it, where's the fault? I think what he was saying is, okay, you didn't have enough of a reason to make the sentences

consecutive. So from what I understand, there are what are called defense variables. And it's like a point system. So the court said that their reasoning was sex trafficking of a minor, which receives a high sentencing guideline score. As it should. The fact that the defendant would have gotten away with the murder if he had called the police and claimed he was defending A.B. from an assault. Instead, he moved the body and made incriminating phone calls from jail. Offense variable five is scored when a homicide causes psychological injury to a member of a victim's family. So I think they took that into account. We talked about Doug's sister's impact statement in that the murder forced her, you know, to deal with a number of nightmares. She said she became

less social, depressed. She had to get on medication just to get a full night's sleep. Baskerville received 10 points because of the danger to A.B.'s child during the shooting and the fact that they left the child alone while they moved the body. Now, the appeals court did say that this was one of the errors that the court made. They shouldn't have a sign such a high point score for this variable. They also said that the prosecution aired in giving a high score for predatory conduct. And this was related to the back page advertisement. There's no doubt that the back page ad existed. But the appeals court said that there was no substantial evidence to show that the ads were placed with the intent to lure someone to the house to kill them. And I understand that. Right. The back page

ad, the advertisement for, you know, sexual acts that ultimately we find out involved a minor. That's horrible. Sure. But I also agree that it wasn't placed with the intent to murder somebody. Right. So they acknowledged these minor errors, but it wasn't enough to have any impact on his sentencing. So the court affirmed the convictions. They also confirmed the sentencing. Now, from I understand Baskerville can still appeal, but it's unlikely that he'll ever get his sentence reduced, at least to the point Gibbs that he'll ever be able to leave prison. And I'm fine with that. I have no issue with that. Same here. Now, I know we've already said it, but I do want to emphasize, you know, the sources that we looked at, none of them said if Doug knew this girl's age, when he responded

to the back page ad, or if he regularly responded to online ads for sex, I think you even heard the judge say something about, you know, did these men know that when they were responding to this ad, they were going to be having sex with a child? Obviously, Doug's family was extremely devastated by the loss because this was a guy who had so much potential. He was only 39 years old. He had this great business. He was happy. Dana Phillips said in her impact statement that she often thinks about how she'll never see Doug open his banquet hall, get married or have children.

I think this is one thing that is universal. Whether you're talking about, you know, a solved case with, with a victim or an unsolved case with a victim or victims, that what if, you know, the victim's family, what if this had happened or what if this had never happened? Right. What would this person have gone on to do? And there's so much that we're going to miss out on the graduations, the marriages, the births, um, you know, all of that stuff. That is universal in every case. Yeah, all these special events. Trayvon Baskerville is currently housed at the Ernest C Brooks correction facility, which is a level for security prison. So, you know, as we wrap up this case, Gibbs,

No doubt it's a lesser known case. It's not one that I had ever heard of or knew anything about before, you know, I started researching it. There are some horrible aspects to it. Obviously, you have the murder, but you also have the sex trafficking of a 16, 17 year old girl by a man, as you said, was supposed to be her boyfriend. Yeah. Okay.

you're not only a horrible human being, you're a shitty boyfriend too. Yeah, really lousy. That's not what boyfriends are supposed to be doing. Nobody should be doing that to anyone. And I think you heard the judge say that very well, right? What gave you the right to think that you could own this person, control this person?

As we said in the beginning, chef Doug, as a lot of people referred to him, as I think he was a good guy. I think he was loved by many. Now, he was responding to a backpage escort sex type ad. There are some people who are going to think, okay, he shouldn't have been doing that. Sure.

And I get that. You can make that argument. Right. I think at the same time, you have to make the argument that doing that shouldn't have have meant that he should have lost his life. I think in a lot of true crime cases, there are victims who are doing things that are what most would consider morally wrong. There's a lot of things like that. Right. But it still doesn't mean that they deserve to have their life taken away from them. And if you think about it, it was all over $50. It was. Yeah. $50. Somebody's

died, Doug was killed, Trayvon went to prison for life, and AB, of course, other people's lives were changed forever. Yeah. And, you know, I go back to her, I still don't know. And you heard the judge say that as well. I don't think we'll ever know what truly happened inside that house. And just exactly what her role in it was. We know what she said it was. And we know what, kind of the prosecution laid out, but there's really only two people that know what happened inside that home and who fired shots,

and that's A, B, and Trayvon. Yeah. You know, when I was doing the inmate search on Trayvon, I forget exactly, I should have written it down, but it said his release date was like 2139 or something like that. And I thought,

that's not even a real date. Yeah. I mean, that seemed like, like, you know, something from some futuristic space movie. So, you know, obviously he's never getting out. No. Unless something changes with his appeals or, you know, something gets overturned. But that's it for our case on Trayvon Baskerville.

We've got some voicemails. Gibbs. You want to check those out? Yes, hear them. Hey, y'all. This is Sarah Kit from Atlanta, Georgia. I just want to leave your message and tell you. that you guys are absolutely amazing.

You guys are getting me through such a hard time in my life. I am going through a divorce, and you have kept me sing and keep me laughing. And I have to say that, Giddy, you make me laugh out loud, and it is the times that I need that laughter. And, Fergie, I do have to say, I absolutely love your singing voice. you should sing more. I think you miss your calling as a singer. And I also have to say that I love

that you mention my favorite singer Sam Cook and my favorite show of all time Matlock. So I have to say I am T. Fergie all the way. Your voice is so soothing. It totally helps me fall asleep. Thank you so much for all you do. And I love you both. much. Keep your own time picking, y'all. Well, you do have a voice like butta. Butta. Well, you know, we love you too. Absolutely. And thanks for the very kind words. Sam Cook, one of my all-time favorites. He and Elvis, man. Those are my guys. Yeah. And you do have a great voice. I appreciate that. Appreciate that. Yeah. You've serenated me many times. Let's stop now. How many times do I've told you? What happens in the studio?

when the lights not on stays in the studio. But they were dimmed. You dimmed the lights, so I thought it was okay. I meant the recording lights. Oh. Not the lights. Hey, Mike and Gibby. My name is Sandy.

I'm from Streetport, Louisiana, and I'm new to your podcast, and I'm up to 162, and I just read or listened to the Catherine Knight Story. Boy, she was evil. But I just want to say, I really enjoy your podcast. You and Gibby are just awesome. And I bet you Gibby's just as sexy as all get out. But I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy it. Keep up the good work.

And keep your own time ticking. Thanks. Sexy as all get out. Man, you nailed it. Nailed it. How does she know? You know. There's no, hey, there's no disguising it.

So depending on how quickly she's binging, it's going to take a while to catch up to hear this voicemail. But you never know. Some people listen to five, eight, ten episodes a day. I know. They get up there really quick. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate it. Hey, what's up, fellas? My name is Ginger. I am calling you from Massachusetts. I discovered your podcast recently. I'm a huge, huge, true crime fan, especially serial killers. I consume podcasts, like, all day. So I was really excited to find yours. I think it's really great. I don't even know if I started at the beginning or the end, but I'm through almost all of your T-Kat episodes right now. And right now I'm listening to The Killing Cousins episode, and I finally, you said something that I was like, I got to call these guys a voicemail.

The question was posed. How do you fail a gym class? And as someone with personal experience in the matter, I would say that Gilly hit it right on the head. He decided you don't show up. So I actually had to take two gym classes in my final trimester of high school just to graduate because I had failed it so many times. So, you know, not showing up, it's a good way to fail. Thanks, guys, for each of all.

Keep doing what you doing. And I don't know, if I have to say keep your own time clicking, I feel like everyone says that. So I'm just going to say, you know, don't be a stupid killer. take care and keep doing the show. Well, Givie knows a lot about not showing up. He also knows a lot about failing. Oh, wow.

Boom. There it is. Goes the dynamite. Hey, guys. How's it going? This is Thomas from Lakeland again. Just checking in with you all, seeing how y'all are doing. And I wanted to see if I can give you a couple of suggestions.

First one is Stephen Stainer. I heard about him, and I figured, you know, I like to hear a little bit more. And then the other one was John Cutchley. He was the vampire guy. I know you did one of those episodes over, I think Europe before. I don't know if I've heard him, but I figured these are a good couple suggestions. Have a good day. Keep your own time ticking.

Yeah, thanks for the suggestions. Cressley, we definitely haven't done. We haven't done Stephen, although I did just watch a, we were talking about it on Patreon. I just watched a documentary on Hulu. That was pretty good about Stephen's story. Now, we did profile his killer older brother, Carrie. We did. On an episode of T-Cab, but we've not, and we did touch on Stephen's story, I think, inside there.

We did. But we didn't, we've never done a full episode on, on Stephen. But we appreciate the voicemails. We do. We didn't have any mail bag this week, Gibb. So that's it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.