Unheard: True Crime in Their Own Words - They Lost Sonya Massey—Now They’re Demanding Answers

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

On July 6, 2024, Sonya Massey did what millions of Americans are told to do when they feel unsafe. She called 911 for help. She was alone in her home in Springfield, Illinois, and believed someone might be outside. Two sheriff’s deputies responded. Less than an hour later, Sonya was dead, shot inside her own kitchen by Sangamon County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Grayson. The body camera footage would later show Sonya apologizing, raising her hands, and trying to comply in the moments before the fatal shot was fired. Her death sparked national outrage, federal scrutiny, and protests across the country, but behind the headlines was a family left to live with the reality of what happened.In this episode of Unheard: True Crime in Their Own Words, Justin Shepherd sits down with Sonya’s cousin, Sontae Massey, for a deeply personal and emotional conversation about who Sonya really was and what her loss has meant to those who loved her most. Sontae shares what Sonya was like beyond the news coverage, the moment the family learned she had been killed, and the painful aftermath that followed. She speaks openly about the investigation, the courtroom revelations, and the questions her family still carries. She also discusses the creation of the Massey Commission, formed in Sonya’s name to push for accountability, transparency, and systemic change.This conversation goes beyond the incident itself and explores the broader impact on a family, a community, and a country still grappling with issues of trust, justice, and accountability. It is a story about grief, resilience, and the determination to make sure Sonya Massey is remembered not just for how she died, but for who she was.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is not an easy one. This one is fresh off trial. A family is still grieving. This is the story of Sonia Massey. She was a mother, a daughter, a cousin, a woman of faith who called police for help because she was scared of a possible intruder and she's the one who ended up dead. She was killed by former officer Sean Grayson for doing absolutely nothing wrong. In this episode of Unheard, I sit down with Sonia's cousin, Sante Massey,

Associate Director of the Massey Commission. and we talk about everything from the body cam footage, the narrative that followed, the claims of a cover-up, courtroom moments, and the racial undertones, as well as the fear that now exists in a community that is supposed to feel protected. We also talk about Officer Dawson's Farley's heroic testimony against his own partner. We talk about how stories get shaped in the media and what accountability actually looks like and why it so often feels out of reach. And less but not least, we talk about who Sonia was. This conversation is about grief, corruption, systemic failure, faith, resilience, and it's about what happens when a family decides they're not going to let the story be written for them. This is Sonia Massey's story in her family's own words. So, Santhi, thank you so much for joining us today.

If you want to tell the listeners a little bit about you, you know, and kind of your story. Well, thank you, Justin. My name is Sanjay Massey, and I am Sonia's, well, she's officially. my cousin. She's she's my cousin, but we were more like brother and sister as, you know, she was, you know, she stayed primarily stayed with my mom every day and her mother stayed with my mother. So we, we were brother and sister. We call each other brother and sister. So that's how I'm going to introduce myself. And at a professional capacity, I am the associate director of the Massey Commission.

What is the Massey Commission? You know, is that something that's for after this or is this a separate company? So it was created by some very concerned people in our county. And it crossed, it crossed, you know, partisan lines. You know, it's created by a state senator that's a Democrat and a county board chair that's a conservative. And they, and I, you know, decided enough is enough. We've got to create something to combat all of this hatred and, you know, authoritarianism. So they created the Massey Commission.

I wanted to make sure that the family was intimately involved in the process. And so the family anointed me to be the representative. and to oversee everything that happened in the Massey Commission made sure that the family was being well represented in it. So you basically became the official, unofficial spokesperson. Right. So, well, and I appreciate that. So for people who are listening to this, you probably already know the Sonia Massey story. For people who don't, basically what happened was Sonia Massey was, I'm just going to use the word murder because that's what happened by a police officer, Sean Grayson.

and you know what we're just going to let you guys watch if you're watching this on YouTube you can watch the video if not if you're listening to it you see you're streaming you can listen to kind of what happened and we're going to play that now and then we'll come back and talk about it yeah hey I just need your name so we can get out of here has there was there any damage previous to your car previous yeah what was the damage a dent I believe what about windows oh that it was something to happen earlier Okay, perfect. What is your last name? Shouldn't have a think of your last name. You're not in trouble. I just need to touch.

Massey. You have an idea that makes me so much easier. I just drive your license will do, and now I'll get out of your hair. I want to show you all my paperwork. I will. Get your paperwork. What? What paperwork? We'll just get your idea first. And then... One task at a time here. Okay.

Here, grab your ID for me. Uh-huh, okay? Your ID. One task at a time. So let's do an ID, and then you can dig around for your paperwork. I don't know where my idea is. You can't stand that stack right there, maybe? One second.

Just check on the curve. Let me need this. We don't need a fire while we're here. Right. What are you doing? Huh? Where are you going? Oh, wait from your hot steam and water.

I'm going to waste my hot steam and water? Yeah. Oh, I would repute you in the name of Jesus. I fute you in that. You better fucking not. That's where I got. I'll fucking shoot you right in your fucking face. Okay, I'm sorry. Drop the fucking pot! The fucking pot!

Drop the fucking pot! 13 shots fired! Jutts fire! Shots fire! Shots fire! Bring you miss now, we got a headshot wound to the female. Headshot one to the female. 1078.

I was on, I was on. I'm gonna go get my kit. Now I'm up you a headshot, dude, you're actually done. You can go get it, but that's a headshot. God, fuck. Dude, I'm not taking a fucking boring. water in the fucking head. Hey look, it fucking came right to our feet too. God damn it. You good? You good? You good? Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Let her fucking just,

God. That what you do, man. Fuck! You good? You good? All right. You know, what else do we do? I'm not taking hot boiling water to fucking face and it already reached us. They got a 52 in route? Yeah, 1078. Very 52. Still, but she's losing a lot of blood from the head. I'll go. Go get, yeah, hurry, get your med kit. I mean, there's not much to do. We can at least try and hold the, stop the blood. All right, so obviously that video is very heavy. I remember watching it when it came out.

And for people who kind of need to know the background on this, Sonia called the police because she was scared. She was worried and thought that somebody might be there. And so she called for protection. It wasn't like she was doing any. anything that warranted the police to come visit her. She called them. She makes a comment. I'll rebuke you, which Sontan and I were talking right before we got on this. Apparently, she said that to him at times. You know, that is not a reason to pull a weapon and shoot someone.

Yeah. You know, so I'll start at the very beginning that day, July 6th. So, me and my brother, my other brother, went down to my uncle Ray, who is, who his home is about three hours away from where we currently live. And, uh, so it's three hours one way. So we went there for the weekend. Um, and we kept getting calls from Sonia because she was having, she was having troubles that day. Um, you know, car problems, things of that nature. And, you know, anytime Sonia ever, ever had a problem she called her big brothers. And, you know, we were, you know, we were having a good time at Uncle Ray, so we were just enjoying our days. So fast forward to later on that evening, and we received a call from Sonia, and she said that she was afraid. She felt like somebody was trying to break into her home.

And, you know, when it comes to your siblings, you know, there comes a point where you get fed up. And, you know, in hindsight, it breaks my heart. But I was, we were fed up. We were like, Sonia, just relax. We'll be home tomorrow. And then we'll come to breakfast and we'll figure things out. So, from what I understand, after the fact, she, someone was in her backyard. She had She had footage on her Ring cam that someone was in her backyard and

someone was messing, you know, trying to get in. So she called the police, which is what she was what we've always told her to do. She had no reason to not call the police because she wasn't, you know, a criminal or anything like that. And her

son was actually supposed to be there that night. And he decided to stay at his father's house. So she was at home alone. And, you know, she was five, four on a good day and about 110, 115 pounds on a good day. So obviously, you know, she didn't want to, she was very afraid to be in the home alone. It was a two-story three-bedroom home. And, you know, she was afraid to be in there by herself. So, but she called the police. So we all saw what just happened on the video. what all transpired.

And afterwards, that morning, that morning we got a call. And we were told that Sonia had been, had died. And, you know, there's a lot of speculation as to what happened. We rushed back to, we rushed back home a three-hour drive. So we had plenty of time to think about. what happened, how this happened, things of that nature. We got back and I immediately wanted to talk to her son and daughter. And they were being told that she possibly committed suicide.

So was that what the police department was saying at that time? They were. So another common misconception is that she passed away on her floor. She didn't. She passed away at the hospital. She was still alive. And so when she got to the hospital, she passed away. And that was the narrative that was being told at the hospital.

So to nurses and that. Yeah, to nurses and whoever, you know, because we have relatives that work at this particular hospital. And some of them were concerned what happened? And the narrative was she, you know, killed herself. And then, you know, as the days go by, you start to think, well, wait a minute, this is, this can't be right. Sonia is not the type, you know, and she has two children that live with her. She's not that type of person. I personally know Sonia is not that type of person.

So, so then I start to investigate a little bit more. And so then the narrative became, well, whoever was. was trying to break into her home shot and killed her. So I'm like, well, why is the narrative changing? So I didn't, I couldn't grasp it because I was traumatized by my little sister being gone, first and foremost. And then there's these stories that are not adding up. So I wanted to do my due diligence and find out what actually happened.

And then that's when, you know, You start hearing things about, well, maybe the police had shot and killed her, which made absolutely no sense to me because she's not, again, she's not a criminal. So, you know, there's a lot of things that we couldn't understand. So we had to go into her home and we had to clean up the mess. there's blood all over the floor and that's traumatizing enough but it's things like that that that you wonder what happened here and you know there's a there's so many things that people don't know about this case things that led up to this things that transpired afterwards and i'm

glad to talk to you Justin and um you know, finally we can get the full story out there. And I have a lot, I mean, I have a lot of questions now, Justin, you saying all of that. So I'll just start kind of hitting you with them. And yeah, this is the platform. This is you can say as much or as little as you want. I did not know. Look, and I followed it.

I followed the trial with Sean Grayson. And I didn't know, I mean, maybe I didn't follow close enough. I didn't know that she passed at the hospital. You know, I didn't know that they tried to spin a narrative that she. She committed suicide. That's all brand new information to me. And that's part of the reason why I don't like having in-depth conversations before these, because then I can listen like they are, people listening,

and we can kind of have these discussions because they're probably wondering the same thing I am. So the first thing I want to ask is you guys had to go in and clean up afterwards. Is that typical in a situation where it's a homicide? I mean, this was a homicide. So is that a typical situation or does usually, is there a forensic team or police that go in and do this? And that's the first part of the question. And the second part I'm going to ask is the narrative that she committed suicide. You started hearing that about the hospital.

At what point did you find out or realize that this was a situation that was caused by the police? Well, to answer the first question, we had no idea. We're not, you know, our family had not experienced anything like that. So we didn't know the protocols. We didn't know if, you know, some sort of forensic team were to come in and, you know, assess the damage and clean up all the blood. Now, they didn't let us in. Well, so my Aunt Donna, which is Sonia's mother, she was very defiant from the beginning. She wanted to make sure they, in her words, now these are her words.

She wanted to make sure they didn't plant anything. So she wanted to make sure she was in there with the police. while this happened because because of the auspicious nature of the of the of the of the circumstances you know yeah and you know she she made it abundantly clear to the officers that you're not going to be in here without me because um it started disseminating to us that she was murdered by the police and and a lot of things so let me preface what i'm saying now by saying this. A lot of people don't know this as well. And, you know, from the beginning of the investigation clear up to now, my aunt Donna, me, her daughter and her son have said the exact same things since the beginning. Sonia was telling us that she was going to be murdered by the police months before this even happened. I don't know if she had an issue with the police. I know that her car, her vehicle did get T-boned by an officer.

I found out that that was a city police officer instead of a county officer, but that still didn't stop her from saying to us, she said it a week before she died that the police were going to kill her. And so I said that to say, you know, when this happened, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't reconcile. Island in my mind because, you know, you think your sister, she has a lot to say and then you think, okay, well, where is this coming from? Why is she saying this? And then when she gets killed by a police officer, then you're like, okay, well, what warranted this? What happened

that led up to this? And then the second question, can you please remind me what the second question was? Well, the second question you're kind of interested, like, when did you guys start first finding out that this, you know, I guess the first part of it was, you know, you answer the forensic part and cleanup. But the other part of it was, you know, at the hospital, you guys started hearing that the narrative was that she killed herself. When did you discover that that wasn't the case? Like I guess what I'm trying to determine here, were the police trying to cover this up from

the start when she was brought in with this narrative, hey, we're responding to like a suicide type, you know, type situation? we got here or whatever. Or when did you guys find out that, hey, this isn't self-inflicted, that this was the police. I'm kind of just trying to figure out that timeline. Like, were they trying, I mean, it's not, you know, unheard of that the police try to cover up things like this when it happens. So that's kind of what I'm trying to determine here. So I, well, we mostly found out because her son went up to the hospital when she was in the hospital.

and they told him that she tried to commit suicide. And he obviously was like, no, that's not something my mom would do. And then he started hearing things. And then my aunt Donna, like I said, who was Sonia's mother. She was very hands-on because Sonia was her only child. So that, you know, this destroyed her legacy. So she wanted to be intimately involved in what happened. And then she started trying to forcefully get answers from these people.

And finally, it came, what I'm saying is we found out from Aunt Donna because she was so diligent about finding out. And she found out. And then that became a conversation about, well, we know that there's body cam footage. Let's find out what happened there. So when that discussion came about, then it became people are getting lawyers and people are, you know, the FOP is showing up to Springfield now. And it seemed like a cover up to us. Because. Yeah.

Yeah. And this is not the first time this has happened in spring. Springfield, Illinois, primarily in the county with the county officers. You know, it has a history of corruption and it has this hasn't, this type of circumstances hasn't even happened or has happened within 10 years of our of our incident. You know, I've been talking to a family of victims that have been, killed in the jail. There's a gentleman that was tased 27 times in the jail that was saying the same things that

Sonia was saying a week before he died. So what's going on here? And that's, that, that, that, that surprised me because my birthday is January, or June 25th. And so that was, I talked to Sonia that day and she told me that day that the police were going to try to kill. I'm like, Sonia, I don't want to hear that today. You know, it's my birthday. I want to enjoy it.

She gave me $10, which is what a little sister would do. And, you know, I didn't think anything else of it. But in retrospect, I was like, I wish I could have, I wish I would have listened more. Well, I mean, how, the thing is, if she's saying this, how do you, if there's no reason for you to believe that this was going to, that she had this premonition, but, you know, there's been no, again, like you said, no criminal record, no incidents where she's having. run-ins with the police. You know, she's this tiny woman, you know, just kind of live in her life the way she wants

to. And, I mean, that's it. So, I mean, from your perspective, it's one of those things. Nobody expects to get the call that you guys got. Right. Much less find out what you all have found out during this, that this was the police that they were allegedly, because I don't want to get sued, potentially, you know, trying to cover this up and orchestrate this.

you know so why so again why would you think more of it at that point so so she's so she's at the hospital if i can ask how long from the time she when she got to the hospital um like you said she was alive how long until she passed like how long was she in the hospital still alive that i don't know that i found out you know i found that out um when we were in uh so when when the court when the court case was actually happening, we found that out in late October, November. So that was shocking to us as well.

And then we also found out that, so what a lot of people don't know, well, a lot of people do know by watching the footage is that the other deputy, everything you see is the footage from the other deputy. He didn't, Mr. Grayson did not turn on his body.

until right after he shot her. So his body cam, he was coached, you know, allegedly coached. Now, this is things that he said on the stand under oath. He said they came in and they coached him as to what to say and, you know, to deny everything. So it seemed to us like a coached. cover up from the beginning. And he said that on the stand, correct, that they told him what to say? Yes.

And that basically this is what happened. So he basically decided to, and I want to point this out because I know that you and I've had that conversation and I kind of want to make sure that he gets the commendation that he deserves. He defied his superiors and still testified basically on y'all's behalf, on Sonia's behalf in this story to be like, hey, he felt that this was not right. And I commend that for him. because we hear the stories of bad officers.

We hear the Sean Graysons. We hear the Derek Chauvins. We don't hear the story that you're sharing. And I don't remember that deputy's name. I'm sure you do. But exactly correct. His name is Dawson Farley. And Mr. Farley since then has been getting death threats.

Obviously, he has gone into hiding. You know. Guy. Yeah. it's it made me want to commit to doing something about all of this because you know you have so many arms in this this intertwined in this this terrible situation that were initially trying to cover this up or initially trying to save face and you know minimize this situation you know a lot of people, a lot of people obviously stop after they see what happened to Sanya, but a lot of people

haven't watched the part of it after he went outside, joking about her, calling her a crazy B. And, you know, I'm your number seeing that. Yeah, it's, it's, it was so shocking to me. We had to watch it with lawyers, you know, because they didn't want us. They thought that there was going to be full on riots from here to San Diego if it got out. Yeah, I feel that they're trying to avoid another situation like what happened with Derek Chauvin. But, you know, it's one of the – I have thoughts. I'm just going to say my thoughts here. It seems to me that when you have police officers who do what Sean Gray's,

did. That's a bad officer. And you have Deputy Farley, who obviously he's a good officer. He defied, and real quick, before I go further with this, is he still employed by Springfield PD or has he lost his job or stepped down because of all of this? You know, I'm not sure. We've been trying to find out because, you know, he is what policing is supposed to be about. And we recognize that early. You know, he is if you're asking me, he's one of the most, he's one of the bravest people I've ever, I've ever met. I mean, Gray, he, some really bad things started happening to him after he told the truth on the stand. And of course, they try to discredit him. You know, they said, well, you know, this is what you initially put in your report.

And then you turned around and you said that you lied about it. Well, it takes guts to admit that you lied. It's accountability. Yeah, it's countability. And he has suffered immensely for it. And that is what he's another reason why I'm doing trying to do what I'm doing because we want more officers like Officer Farley. Yeah, and I agree with you on this because there these are, and I want me, the reason I'm trying to like, I'm harping on this a little bit is because like, like we've said, this is not the story you hear of the officers. Right. It takes a lot of guts to go against your department. to go against your superiors,

to know that what you're going against your partner in this situation and say, hey, this is what happened because you're like, hey, you know what? My morals, my ethics don't allow me to sit here and lie about the murder of an innocent woman.

At the hands of us. But what seems to me, and I guess where I'm frustrated is with the police department is, it seems that there would be a lot more respect, a lot more trust, a lot more accountability for the police department. For Springfield PD to be like, you know what,

Sean Grayson, he did this, this is not our protocol. This is not what we do. Instead of trying to lie and to cover it up or trying to change the narrative on what happened, because when the civil lawsuits come out, and I can't remember, we can't get to this in a little bit, but I don't remember if you guys have, I'm sure y'all have a civil lawsuit.

I don't know where it's at right now as far as status, but that's not their money that they're going to pay out. Now, I realize that there's a commissioner somewhere at the top that's got a budget, whatever. But at the end of the day, if the police officers or the police department says, this is a bad officer. This was a bad call. This was a bad situation. We condemn what happened here. We're going to cooperate with investigators. We're going to make sure that this is handled the exact way that it needs to be handled. There'd be a lot more respect for it versus the distrust. And I'm just going to say this is somebody who looks like me. And saying this as much as I can know looking like me, that when it comes to police distrust with the black community, from what I understand, this is one of the biggest reasons why. You know. And so a lot of, you know, how does, how to her kids, how does, you know, your Aunt Donna, how do they feel like if they had an issue right now about calling the police? And that's scary

because if they need help, they don't trust the people there's, and I don't know if they feel this way, but I'm assuming that they probably, and even you probably are going to think twice before picking up that phone and calling the police. And that's not how it should be. Well, that's exactly what my Aunt Donna said when she did her victim impact statement in front of Sean Grayson might I had. I thought it was dope to me because she said, you know, my aunt Donna does not

pull any punches. She doesn't parse her words for anyone, especially after this happened. She, she said that she's afraid to call the police. And let me distinguish the two because I think, I don't want to get anything misinterpreted. This was actually not

the Springfield Police Department. It was the Sangha County Sheriff's Department. but she said she was afraid to call anyone now and you know there's a narrative going on in the black community that you know just handle your business on your own don't call the police

and we obviously don't want that because we want you know we want law and order we just don't want to be killed in the in the you know we don't want to

be killed when we call the law. And she, I thought it was dope that at the end of it, she looked Sean Grayson in the face and she told him, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus to his face. And, you know, that was a very powerful moment in the courtroom. And, you know, it doesn't negate the fact that her, her children, a lot of members in my family, and a lot of people, on the east side of where we live that look like me are afraid to call the police especially after that. And that's not how it should be. Right. And that's, that's why I actually knew it was Sagamon.

I don't know why I kept saying Springfield. So that is my apologies. We'll make sure that you guys know, Sagamon, not Springfield PD. Springfield PD did not do anything. They're not, they're not involved. But I mean, that's a lot to take it. And your, your aunt sounds like a legend. Honestly, that's good.

Sounds amazing. But you know what? Here's the thing. This is a mom advocating for her daughter. And I'm sitting here thinking as you're talking about her, you're not going to this apartment without me being there. You know, the fact that she had that force like given the trauma. And now I'm sure she devastated is not even a strong enough word to describe how she feels that she's still advocating for her daughter the way she is just. I mean, she sounds like an incredible, incredible woman. Oh, yeah. And she'll tell you. that too. Yeah, she's, you know, Aunt Donna is just a miracle.

But, you know, Sonia, oh my God, Sonia had that level of discernment that is very, very hard to find anymore. You know, she, she, she didn't rebuke him in the name of Jesus to upset him. She tried to save him by saying that. You know, she obviously saw the east. evil in him. Or, you know, there was something there that provoked her to say that. And I know Sonia, so I know how she jokes and I know how she approaches things.

I know that after she said that and he did what he did, you know, it took her by complete surprise because she didn't intend it that way, first and foremost. And second, you know, she lost her life. there's people you know her daughter her daughter goes by summer she

she's still reading comments about how her mother initiated the the uh she initiated the I don't even know what how to say it she started it they're saying she started

the whole problem and through the water and I went on a you know, I went on a podcast, well, it wasn't even a podcast, it was a live on a, a streaming app. And, you know, there's people in there that saying, we're saying that she said something before he, you know, called him an expletive before she shot him. And I'm like, where is this coming from? But it's people creating a narrative to justify what he did. You know, I remember seeing those things too.

And let's talk about this because I think that that's a big elephant in the room. And I think you watched that video. Yeah, she's got a pot of potentially hot boiling water. She took off the stove that he told her to go take off the stone, by the way. Even if she went to throw it at him, which she did not. But even if she did, you know how you handle that? You take a step backwards. Right.

You don't pull a gun. Let's say she called him an expletive, which she did not. Right. I saw that video. I've seen the video multiple times. That's not a reason. Pull a firearm. At the end of the day, let's just call what this is.

Okay, let's call it what it is. Let's not even sugarcoat it. It's a bunch of people seeing a black woman get shot, and they're going to find every reason to justify a white cop not being held accountable for it. they're going to find some reason that the woman who called because she was scared that there was a prowler in her backyard, that somehow they're going to jump through every mental, every hoop, every mental gymnastic move that they can move to somehow justify that this woman deserved it. And it's the same thing with George Floyd. It's the same thing that's, you know, we've seen more recently with like Alex Pretty, with Renee Good. And I know that those two are both white people, but we see the same narrative online that if they don't, if we're bigoted towards them or we're,

or we don't agree with them, then somehow they deserve to die. Now, you can, you can disagree with somebody. You don't have to like them. And hell, you want to be racist, fine. Be racist. I can't stop you from doing that. But to sit here and say that somebody deserves to die over any of these reasons and try to find a way to justify it, well, I think all of those people need to be rebuked

in the name of Jesus, honestly, because that's not a way to treat other humans. you know and one thing and one thing about this show too that that I I like for people to hear it unfortunately a lot of people who need to hear this are going to listen to this show um is that having somebody like you on shows people more than the headlines it shows the people hey this is a family with kids and a mom and cousins and siblings you know that that that you know and I say cousins and siblings I know that she was technically and only but you guys are very close in it um that loved this woman and how this has impacted so many people because of it. And I mean, if you look at it too,

you know, Sean Grayson, from what I understand, and I know this came out in court, he's got stage four cancer, right? So I don't know what type of cancer he has, but I know that no matter where you're out, once you hit stage four, it's not a good prognosis. And now you're getting prison care, not even the proper care that you know that you should be doing. So he will very likely die in prison. And that's going to be the right. rest of his life and this is now his legacy. So even outside of Sonia, for the people who want to sit there and support him, his decisions now led this and this is his legacy. He's going to die alone in prison from cancer. And, you know, I never, I never condone death of anybody, but I also

don't have to mourn somebody who does something. He was a bad cop who made a bad decision and took somebody's life. That's the bottom line. And if you're somebody that's online trying to justify this, it's, you need to take a good hard look in your heart because you are just not a good person. Well, it surprises me that people still defend his narrative. You know, I made an impassioned post, I believe it was a couple, well, it was definitely a couple days ago. You know, I said, you know, he admitted in court, in his impact statement, he admitted in court that he was wrong that name. So I made it a point to go online and I made it a point to say, hey, you all can stop. lying for him now. He admitted that he was wrong. He admitted that he would take back everything

that he said that night and he wished that he could bring all that back. Now having that being said, there are still people that defend him that say, well, it doesn't matter what he said. She's still through the pot. And, you know, how do you reconcile that? As a human being, if, if the man that perpetrated the crime admitted guilt, how do you still defend him and his innocence? You know, I've kind of gotten to a point with this is that you're trying to, you're obviously a very logical person. I'm a logical person. When you're dealing with people like that, you're trying to be logical with the illogical and you can't. And I'll give you another example of a completely different case, but still murdered. You probably have at least her, I don't know if you're

familiar with it. I mean, most people listen to true crime will be, but a couple, a few years ago, um, in Moscow, Idaho, a man by the name of Brian Coburger, I don't usually say his name. I usually just refer to him as inmate 163, two, one four, murdered for college students. Okay. Um, I don't know if you're familiar with this story. All right. Yeah. So he takes a plea deal. He in order for that plea deal, it saves his life. He will get life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. No, not allowed technically to appeal. He admitted, a guilt to this, you know, took the plea deal to save his life to get the death penalty off the table. People are still, I did a post about some of the drop document drops on him not too long ago.

And people are still defending him. He's innocent. He didn't do it. And then I'm like, so my response to that is why then would a man who is completely innocent take a plea deal to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he didn't commit and not even have the ability to appeal it? like your the logic is not there it's just that people want to just be defiant for the sake of being defiant yeah it's not how to you what it did and unfortunately i'll say this too and then i'll let you continue obviously but and then i'll say this too and i'm not trying to be like race baiting here but you know i cover enough stories to know that when it is a person of color that that that narrative to defend the

perpetrator against a black person or Hispanic person or even a native american person becomes tenfold people trying to justify it and it's it's absolutely disgusting yeah i mean so i'll briefly mention this but you know what's the news that's you know encompassing my feed this morning it's the fact that you know uh oh to the milk out too a former president was you know in they somebody put his face on a primate you know let the same you know let the same Say who put it on the primate. I'll do it if you don't want to. Oh, I mean, we all know who did it.

I mean, he's... Those who are in a closet for whenever this airs, President Trump, on a one minute, two-second video talking about voter registrations at second 58. Go to that clue. You can go to that clip.

It's on his truth social right now. I mean, it's going to be February 5th. At like 11 p.m. is when he posts us. We're recording this on February 6th, which, you know, whatever. he posted like 11.44 p.m. at night. You go to this post. It's also on my social, just in the nick of crime,

posted this morning, February 6, where I posted a link to the actual post, but you go to 58 seconds, pause it, then hit play. You will see for about two seconds, President Trump took former president Barack Obama's head, former First Lady Michelle Obama's head,

and put them on a primate's body dancing around. stand for like two seconds and goes away. There is no way that you could possibly misinterpret that. There is nothing. It is disgusting. It is vile. I don't care if you support President Trump or not.

You know, you can support certain policies and still condemn other things. This is something that everybody needs to be condemning. This is not okay. And especially not that it would make a difference if this happened in August or June, but this is now the beginning of Black History Month as well. So to do something like that, he's really making his point clear. And I find that very, I'm very frustrated by that this morning as well.

And it's dangerous. Not to mention it's dangerous. But that goes back to the mindset that I was talking about with this whole situation that happened to my sister, Sonia. You know, he didn't see her as a human being. He shot her down like she was an animal. And he, his specific. words was he didn't want to waste a Medipak on her. Waste a med, I just couldn't, I was so appalled. I couldn't, I couldn't figure it out. I don't understand what he thought was more valuable in that Metapac than a human life. And that's the danger of, you know, that's the danger of these little antics that people play, you know, putting the former president. on a on a primates body and and and you know uh things that you know there's so many things that were said

about you know uh george floyd that were appalling i i couldn't believe it and you know you turn around and you see that you know hate crimes have gone up something like 200% in the past year and you wonder why well that's why they you when you begin to, you know, when you begin to allow that behavior and back up that behavior and support that behavior, then people that look like me aren't human anymore. They become less than animals. So it's just dangerous. And it's not okay. It's not okay, right? It's not. And, you know, speaking of George Floyd, so this episode is going to air before his, but I have, so I spoke with Selwyn Jones and for people who don't know who Selwyn, and he is the uncle and spokesperson for George Floyd. And I had a conversation with him, and that episode is going to come out on May 25th, which is, you know, the day George Floyd was murdered. And so in that conversation, you know, it's the same thing.

Did George Floyd have a pass with some minor criminal convictions? Did he maybe have a past where there was some domestic violence? Sure. Yeah. And do I condone that? Absolutely not. But does that mean he deserved to be murdered? And the answer is no.

I mean, that's the answer for anybody who's pausing. The answer is no. He did not. You know, it's. And when you hear Sellware. story and you understand who George Floyd was, things might make a little more sense. I'm not talking about domestic violence, but, you know, people love to talk about the fentanyl thing and there's a false report out there. That's just not true. Did he have drug uses at some point

in time that he struggled with? Yeah, a lot of people do. But again, that there's reasons for that. And, you know, without getting too much into that right now, when you listen to that episode, you'll find out why. But like you said, when you have the most powerful man in the world posting racist rhetoric, it becomes very dangerous, especially, you know, there are always going to be people who are on the extremist side of things, right? They're going to be the people who are already chomping at the bit as a reason to try to harm a non, we'll just say a non-white person, because for a lot of it doesn't matter who it is as long as they're non-white, whether it's Jewish, black, Hispanic, Native American,

it doesn't matter. and posting the president posting something like that emboldens them to be like well maybe I can take the next step you know that my president thinks it's okay you know there's a lot of people you know that really look up to Donald Trump that's the bottom line so when he says something like this he's there's a lot of power in his his words and his posts and when you have stories like this and you have these types of situations, it makes them ten times worse and it makes an entire community fear, fearful, you know, so it makes, and it makes people who want to stand up and advocate fearful. Yeah. And I'll take it a step further. You know, I, there's a, there's a few

social media, uh, celebrities that I had to personally email and, you know, kind of lay out the facts and I won't go I won't go into their names but they typically are you know conservatives that look a lot like like me and and uh that are forwarding that narrative and that becomes even more dangerous when you have someone that looks exactly like you forwarding the narrative of well you know she threw the hot water or or he was on fentanyl and and is not to be trusted. Even, you know, I remember when they did the Ahmad Arbery, oh yeah, that one, yeah.

The death and, you know, the narrative quickly became, well, what was he doing snooping around in those homes that weren't built? What was he looking for? Why was he over in that area? You know, this is a freak country. I get it. You know, you can, there's trespassing laws. I get it.

But that's why we have law and order. You know, you let the law sort it out. You let judges sort it out. And then, you know, it's to be determined if a person is guilty or innocent. Now, historically, that has not bode well for us historically. But, you know, there are certain checks and balances that we must follow to get to the truth. Instead of just shooting people down and creating narratives that black people are less than human, it's disgusting. It is.

So, and just to clarify, Sonia didn't throw the water and George Floyd wasn't on fentanyl. Just to clarify for people. And if you follow me, you know that I do my due diligence. You know that I do my research. But again, even if they were, which they were not, the sentence for that is not death. To further that, there's something in our state that's called the castle doctrine. You have the right to defend yourself in your home. So what would cause someone to defend themselves in their own home?

You can defend yourself with deadly force in your own home. Now, what would cause that? Well, I would like to think that if someone says, I'm going to shoot you in your effing face, that's grounds to defend your life in your own home. home. So let's say hypothetically, she did throw the pot, which I don't think she did. And a lot of other people don't think she did either. I mean, we saw what we saw. Even if she, even if she did throw it, she absolutely had the right to in her home. It was her home. He threatened to shoot her in the face. You know, what would anyone else do in that circumstance? It's fight or flight then. That's terrifying. Yeah. Yeah, especially for a 5'4, 105, 110-pound black woman that's in a home by herself after midnight. So let's talk about, I don't think of a lot of things you want to talk about. I could stay on this subject forever, just so you know.

And maybe we do a separate live and talk about more of this stuff because I'm happy to do that. but I have lots of thoughts and words as, as, you know, as much as somebody like me could understand. But let's talk about Sonia a little bit more. And let's talk about, you know, I don't know where you want to go next with this. I mean, there's a lot of directions we can go. And I don't, I don't want to like force you into anyone direction. Because again, this is your platform, you know, to share your story. But I know there's a lot you want to say, so where do you want to go from here as far as talking, which part of her story?

do you want to go to next? Well, I want to, I'm going to kind of talk about her and, you know, kind of lead into the reasons as to why I'm doing what I'm doing. And let me pause you real quick before you that, because if you're going to do that, then I want you to do something else for me if you don't mind. Sure. I want people to, we hear these stories and you hear the name, Sonia Massey, you know what happened, but you don't, you don't know who Sonia Massey was, right? I mean, you do, obviously, but the listeners don't. would you mind sharing, you know, as much as you're comfortable who she was, like to you, to your family as just a human?

Well, so I have a biased opinion because Sonia was the quintessential little sister. And so she got on my nerves a lot. She was always following us around and, you know, always in our hair. know that, you know, is ironic given that you can see me right now without here. But, you know, your persevereal hair.

She was just a fantastic human being, not just a mother, not just a sister, not just an aunt. You know, she's a fantastic human being. She would give you, I mean, she's one of those people that

everyone talks about that would give you the shirt off her back and she always remember people's names. Like there's people that have personally come up to me in town and share their stories of when Sonia gave them $5 when they were a nickel short at the grocery store and, you know, or when she's, you know, made a plate of food for people and then just dropped it by to make sure they had something to eat. She was just a beautiful, a beautiful soul. And I think that's what prompt her to say what she said. I think there is many levels to what she said in, in regard to I rebeke in the name of Jesus. But I think that that level of discernment that she had,

you know, allowed her to say that. And, you know, she's her key. Her key. kids were the most important thing in her life, as it would be to anyone. And what hurts me the most is her children, you know, her son graduated, you know, early after this happened. And his motivation was his mom. His mom, he knew his mom wanted him to graduate. And he walked across that and everyone stood for five minutes while he walked, walked across that. And it was such a beautiful moment that they had to carry me out of there. So her daughter, you know, her daughter is, you know, following her footsteps in the church all the time and just trying to make people's lives better. And she wants to be a part of this process of making sure that we don't, we never forget her name.

So, you know, her kids are just wonderful. And they're an extension of her. She was just, she loved, she was one of those people that when you saw her, it was a surprise that you saw her. Because she's never out. She's never going to be in a compromising position outside. She was a mother, a homebody. She loved cooking. She was the quintessential mother.

slash sister slash family member that you knew. She was Claire Huxstable. She was, you know, she was one of those mothers that you saw in the 50s. That's when she was. Now, when she was around family,

she could cut it loose. But that's a whole different story. You know, she loved to dance. She loved to play music and have parties and she was just she was just a fantastic person you know one of my favorite things about asking that question in these situations is

you just absolutely light up and talk about her if you're watching this on YouTube you see this but if you're listening you don't but I mean you can probably hear it in his voice but and for the record fair huxible was the funny one on that share just so you know like like like taking Bill Cosby's more recent transgressions aside he was funny on the show

but but Claire that was that was top grade humor on college and she had that level of grace about her even though she was funny and you know she would she would snap at you every now again she had that certain grace about her and that that was Sonia I mean she sounds again incredible and you just absolutely light up when you talk about her

so I wanted people to kind of have an understanding who she was so she's not just a name and a headline. Okay, so with that said, I know I made you do that. Thank you. Where were you wanting to go with that before I made you do that? Well, so I started an LLC before the Massey Commission was formed, and I put my LLC on hiatus because I wanted to make sure that the Massey Commission was run effectively and made sure that we got some laws change, and we did.

We got the Sonia Massey law in the state of Illinois. What we want to do is we want to extend that nationally. There should be more thorough and in-depth background checks. This man bounced around from, you know, department to department. And a lot of his records didn't transfer with him. You know, this guy has been cited for disobeying rules. he was dishonorably discharged from the military. So, I mean, he has a background that that followed him,

and he was still allowed to be a part of this county police department. Well, the Sangamon County Sheriff's Department in particular. And the chief at that time, So the situation was he was related to someone in that department. And so he was given a leg up to get in and, you know, do the things that he wanted to do. You know, Officer Farley said in court that he wasn't afraid of Sonia that night. He was afraid of Sean Grayson, you know, the only person he feared that night. And, you know, there's a, there was a, I mean, you, you, you don't just, you don't just have, that's not an attribute that you have for one night. There had to been a, there had to been a, you know, it had to be something that was, that was commonplace in the Sangamon County Sheriff's Department. You know, a lot of, from what, from my understanding, when,

when all this happened and the body can footage came out, something like 10 to 15 officers from the Sangam County Sheriff Department quit in defiance because the chief was called to quit. So what was going on there? A lot of things happened behind the scenes that people just don't know about. That's why you hear. Yeah. Yeah, and, you know, I got a, from the bottom to the top, I have to change this system.

I feel like I have to change the system because, I mean, the fact that, you know, entities were encouraging Officer Farley to lie about what happened and cover it up. And, you know, he felt comfortable enough, Mr. Grayson felt comfortable enough not to turn his body cam footage. on until after he shot her. And another thing, you know, I found this out during the trial as well. You know, protocol says that if you are, if you engage a threat, you are to, you know, protect you and your partner. Well, he stepped in front of his partner to shoot her. Step right in front of his line of fire. Steps in front of Dawson Farley's line of fire to shoot her.

So if you ask me, he purposely did it. I can't say what I've heard outside of what happened there. But Springfield, Illinois... But you're not allowed to. I mean, you can, unless you're not allowed to for legal purposes. I'm just saying you're allowed to say whatever you want. Well, you know, I'm an open book, so I'll say what I heard. what I heard

and someone snap chatted it and obviously couldn't keep it because it's footage that disappears you know he went and he celebrated after all this happened he went and he had some drinks

and he said some pretty racist things in a bar in front of people about what happened I don't think that's a shock to anybody listening to this. It's a shock to me that he felt that comfortable. And what kind of environment is he a part of that makes him feel comfortable enough

to feel that comfortable? And to think that there's going to be no repercussions for one. Right. Right. So that tells you a lot about the uphill battle that we face in Springfield. Now, having that being said, there's a lot of good people here that are actually trying to change things. and, you know, we had 26 calls to action from the Massey Commission,

and that's just a year alone. You know, I am trying to secure funding so we can move the next entity. I want to personally own the next entity, because the county owned the Massey Commission, and we only had certain power. We had powers to suggest things. we had no substantive power to, you know, make sure that things were changed. And that's the power that we're looking for.

We're looking for the power to actually, you know, the power of oversight. We want to make sure these laws are being changed. There's still laws that are on the books from 100 years ago. And we can't have that in 20, 26 society. And so we just have to change these outdated laws and make sure that everyone's held accountable for their actions. You know, somebody gave the order to cover up what happened to sign. And that person needs to be held accountable. Do you all know who that is at this point?

I mean, you don't have to say it. There's ongoing litigation. Obviously, you don't have to say their name because I know that's part of it. But do you all know who that is at this point? I personally don't. But I do know what I heard in court. You know, people from this, you know, people from this entity or people from that entity encouraging Officer Farley to lie about this and not say this.

And, you know, then call him a flat out liar when he does come clean. You know, there's people protecting these. There's people protecting these narratives. and they need to be brought down. And that is going to be my life's work to change this system to benefit everyone, especially truth tellers. You can't, it's my opinion, and I know we've talked a little bit about some of this stuff, but it's my opinion that you should not be a first responder.

You should not be an officer of the law. You shouldn't be, you know, fire department, a doctor, a nurse, if you can't view all people as equals. If you're going to take and give somebody a different level of care or treatment because of the color of their skin, because of your, you know, preconceived views or values or whatever you want to call them, then you should, like, if you're going to, if you're going to hate black people, maybe don't be a cop. Yeah. You know, or, I mean, I know that's why a lot of them become cop because they feel like they get a free pass to harass. but like, you know, it's, and I did not mean to make that rhyme, but it just did. But, but like they, that's something that needs to be weeded out.

And, you know, going back to what you said when you're talking about background checks, that's a personality assessment that a lot of that could come out in. You want to hear something really crazy? He passed all of his background assessments. I don't know how he did. But again, that's something that needs to be a little. looked into. It tells me that the background assessments aren't doing their job. And the other thing I'll say this to you, and we'll talk more online once we're finished

recording. I have this thing that I like to do, and I don't know why. It's just who I am as a person, where I like to connect people who I think can be beneficial to each other. And I've got a couple people in mind, I think, that you need to be connected with that I'll say their cases are as high profile or more so than yours that have had to navigate a lot of A, what you're doing and be the media and I think that there's going to be some beneficial aspects for you

and helping getting your laws passed and stuff with a couple of these people. Well, that'd be awesome. I appreciate that, man. Yeah, so don't let me forget when we're done, but... All right, so you guys finally get the body cam footage. You see the body cam footage. You see what happens.

This whole battle starts. They're trying to cover it up. you know, I know that I know that there's, again, there's a lot of spokes off of this, right? A lot of forks off of this that we can go. Do you want to talk a little bit more in depth on the uphill battle that you kind of faced with trying to get? And I know that we haven't talked about this separately, but I just based on what you're saying, I know that you face an uphill battle getting information, getting truth, and even looking towards, you know, justice. and I use the term, you know, so the first episode of this podcast was with Elizabeth Smart, and she said something that has just been so profound and stuck with them.

I'm going to repeat it to you, which is that we don't have a justice system. We have a legal system. That no matter what happens, you're not going to get justice for what happened to. You're never going to get back what you lost. Right. You know, for her, you know, people know, Elizabeth Smart story. She's never going to get those nine months of her life back. Right.

And, you know, for you guys, you're never going to. to get Sonia back. Right. So you have a legal system that that added some accountability to what he did is making him pay for his crimes. He will likely die in prison. But all that being said, what kind of battles did you, I mean, and if you want to talk about something else, that's fine, but what kind of battles did you guys face, you know,

with this and still facing, I mean, obviously, you know, the cover up, but what, I'm trying to think how I want to verbalize this. What, you guys had to get to a point as you're going. going through all of this, that either you discovered that this was, that they were trying to cover it up, or they were, you discovered that they were trying to withhold information, that they were trying to frame it in a different narrative, like the suicide, for example. You know, what did all of that look like? Because it seems to me that while you're going through this, you're hitting like these stoppages

that aren't real stoppages, meaning like, you know what I'm saying? They're put there as roadblocks, but they're not real roadblocks. And then you figuring out that, hey, this is how we got around these. This is what's really going on. Does that kind of make sense what I'm asking? It does. Okay. So there's an ecosystem that you have to navigate, especially when you're dealing with something like this.

And so the ecosystem in this town is very, I mean, this is a town that is, it's like every other town. You know, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and, and, and how, you know, this person can benefit this person. And so I'll start off by saying this. This happened on July 6, 2024. I was working as a property manager then, and I was working for, you know, a place in Springfield that I will definitely. never name ever again. But they were terrible to me

while this was going on because because of the ecosystem. There's people that are connected to people in the place that I worked. I got a letter that I will send you via text message from

a white supremacist at my job. It said some of the most, it said some horrible things. And I received that at my job and my job did nothing about it. Now, when I was working at this company, I dealt with, you know, them not wanting me to take off work. And, you know, this had ballooned into something that was working that was working. I saw this this news report come come across on network or on network news in Russia, in China, in Ireland.

It became this bigger thing. And when it became this bigger thing, the company that I work for decided that I was too much of a, the narrative was too much for them. to handle so they got rid of me. I hope you follow a lawsuit. You don't have to answer that. You don't have to answer. You don't have to say anything. I just hope you did. Yeah. Well, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's some things in the works.

Um, and a lot of people don't know that, uh, even before. So I lost Sonia in July. Well, uh, I have a fiance that I, that lost her son. in in March of that year. So I lost a bonus son and I lost Sonia that year. And I lost my job. And the interesting part is, so there's so many narratives that I could just throw at you that you could be like, oh my God, wow, what's going on here?

Excuse me. the sheriff's department handled that situation and you know we we there's so many layered things so what i'll say about that situation with my bonus son is he was 22 he had just enrolled in the army uh he was about to leave in april he died march 9th uh he apparently got hit by a train. Oh my God. A freight train. He had a two-inch scar on

the front of his head and a four-d scar in the back of his head. That's all that ever happened. And I say that sounding like a conspiracy theorist. So my fiance

she she's a civil rights activist and she works at the and a lot of things that went on in Springfield before this happened had national implications. Like they were to run a CO2 pipeline through Springfield, Illinois. And a lot of the people that got that shut down got retaliated against. Emma Schaefer is one of the names that comes to mine. She was murdered.

and then my fiance's son mysteriously got hit by a train. And, you know, Springfield is a, it's an interesting place. And so much so that national affiliates want to do a more in-depth story on it. They did a more in-depth analysis on the Sangamon County Sheriff's Department. but you know there's a lot of things that are in my are in the peripheral that you can attribute to well that's interesting that that happened you know um my fiance after he after she uh found out about her son, they would not release the footage after she foyered it. They wouldn't send it to her of the body cam footage.

She still, to this day, hasn't received that body cam footage. And that was two years ago. So what is really going on in this town? Having that at all being said, you know, it's just a lot of stuff that that you deal with in a small town that, you know, can be swept under the rug or can be quieted. And, you know, it's a highly political town. I mean, it's obviously, it's the, it's the seat of Illinois. So, I mean, a lot of, a lot of politicians, a lot of, you know, things happen here that

aren't really normal. So I get ready, man. Yeah. I can go, I can talk to you for hours about the stuff that has happened to me personally in this town, notwithstanding the people that I've actually talked to or, you know, are friends with that things have happened to them that I've talked with them about. You know, there's, and you can, you can find that story in any town. And that's what we need to be.

fighting against this, this, this corruption that plagues our system. You know, it's funny you say that when you, when you say any town. And first of all, this explains, you know, kind of why you see a cover-up, but, you know, anybody who lives in a small town, you kind of know that this is true. You look at like a more national case like Alex Murdoch, for example, you know, all the corruption that was going on for years until, you know, you got the murder charge and then the federal charges that came against him, you know, and it took the, feds coming in, not local, you know, not sled in South Carolina,

and took the feds coming in for him to see any type of action. And but I remember, so I went to college, so I grew up in Georgia and the Atlanta area, and I went to college at Georgia Southern University. And where I lived, I lived in this neighborhood called a Players Club. And at the back of our apartment complex, it had a little like a lake, I don't call a lake, it's like a pond, a large pond. pond and one day there was a young black male who was found dead in that pond his clothes were folded neatly on the shore there was a bible there and they said it was suicide well it's the rumor started

coming out there was no water in his lungs right that you know he went purposely there to drown and there's no water in his lungs um but guess what nothing ever happened with it you never heard of it again Yeah. And that was pretty common for states for statesboro. You know, this is an area that literally has cotton fuels and old cotton plantation. So I'm sure you can imagine, you know, the people who who weren't college students, how, you know, the locals, how a lot of them in the judiciary, stuff like that felt. So, so I know that you're right when it comes to that kind of stuff. And I know, obviously we all know the politicians have the ability of making things go away when they need to. And obviously for this, It's what happened with Sonia is a big scar for the Sagamon Police Department, and they didn't want it out there. I don't know if they expected it to blow up the way that it blew up. I don't know why they wouldn't think that, but I don't know if maybe they expected it to go the way that it went.

I think they knew that it wouldn't because it's, you know, there's stuff that happened in Springfield that are, that's worse than that, that's unsolved. you know, if I'm not mistaken, see, just to give you a brief synopsis of what we deal with in Springfield, Illinois, I think we are top three in the country of disparities between the haves and the have-nots, the east side of town versus the west side of town. And I think that a lot of powers that be want to keep it that way. And so, you know, when you have that motivation, then you can get away with a lot of stuff when you have people that you can pay off or people that you can silence or things of that nature. And I think that that is the way it's always been. What I will to, I'm a descendant.

I don't know if you know this story, but so in 1908, there was a race. riot here in Springfield, Illinois. What was in 1908? Well, yeah. So, 1908, yeah, 1908, it was the catalyst for the reasoning that the

NWACP was started. I did not know that story. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, Springfield, Illinois is why, that last murder, his name was William Donagan.

And he was a mixed gentleman. and his throat was slashed because he was married to a white woman. And he was hung. And just like Sonia, he survived that and died in the hospital. But that was the catalyst of change. They found out about that in New York. And W.B. Dubois and a lot of other people started the NAACP as a result of that. and Sonia is a descendant of the Donagin family, so it came full circle.

So there's a lot of things that, that, I don't know, man, it's, it's, Springfield is an interesting place. You can't even say it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's not a city, it's more like a town, but it's the capital of Illinois and the disparities. I mean, it's like 1965 here. When you have, you know, when you have Chicago, which is a, I liken it to a more progressive town. I know there's a lot more progressive. Chicago is very progressive. Yeah.

Yeah. But, you know, Springfield is, it's like Mayberry. And it shouldn't be. It's 2026. should have as the seat of Illinois we should have more advantages more more things that we can work on progressively and that's what I'm trying to turn this into in the name of sonya like I got my my entity will you know lead with sonya's name I want to make sure her voice is heard forever her name her name is posted on everything that you know I do um

I told people, and I meant this, Sonia made more people invoke the name of Jesus than most pastors do. You know, there's people that phrase caught on. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. There's T-shirts and all kinds of stuff around the world. And, you know, her name deserves to live on. And I'm not doing this for me. I'm doing this for her kids.

her mother and, you know, from my little sister. Well, I mean, let's, let's be real, too. It's, it's, it's, I mean, it's not 1965 anymore, obviously, but I mean, this is another, I mean, it's another, she's, she's another, I don't want to call a victim, but yeah, a victim of civil rights. I mean, that's what she is. She's avid in 2026, you know, it's, it's no different than, um, the Donagan family, like you said, no different than, like, Emmett Till, no different than Rose Park.

I mean, Rose Park's didn't die, but you know what I mean. It's no different. It's all a catalyst for change. You know, not everybody who experiences a situation like this, you know, tries to impact change like you guys are. And I think that you'll be successful because one, you're awesome. And two, I know you're very motivated. I think that you'll do a good job at convincing people. But, you know, this is a type of situation that that really needs to stop.

I mean, I think that there's a lot of police departments across America that really do. need a revamp. And, you know, you're never, I guess, going to fully quell racism. That's going to be there. But you can, but the way you handle it is what makes a difference. That's right. And, you know, trying to cover up what happened is not taking a stand against. Correct. What happened to Sonia. And for the reasons why. So, so I think that, you know, you bring that front and center, I think is really important. I think sharing Sonia's story is important because with this, a lot of us have learned that, hey, these things

she died, like, for everybody who saw that, we thought that she died on the floor of that that kitchen. And now we know what you guys, but you guys, but the thing is you guys don't even know exactly when because everything was covered up. So, you know, you don't know if it was, you know, she hung on.

Did they try to even, like, I'm sorry I'm going to go back to this, but like, did they even try to, to your knowledge, did they try to do Did they do anything to try to save her? Or did they just kind of like let her, like, wait it out until she passed? I'm glad you asked that because so in the courtroom, this is the first. So we had saw the video before we went to court. They set the family in the room and they showed us the video from front to back. But they showed it to us redacted.

In court, they showed it unredacted. Now, Dawson Farley, like I said, to him. his credit. He tried to resuscitate her. He tried to make sure that she was breathing. And what he didn't realize was his body cam, obviously, was still going. And he, uh, he was so close to Sonia's face that me and Aunt Donna had to walk out of the courtroom. I mean, it took us, I mean, you could see her gasping for air and bloods coming out of her face and, excuse me. And, uh, it was just too much to bear. but Officer Farley did try to save her life. Sean Grayson went outside immediately and he started taping off the scene.

Now, I don't know about policing, but I don't know of any police involved shootings where you're allowed to tape off your own scene. But he did. So they, and excuse me, the problem is they allowed him to, they, they allowed him that freedom instead of saying, hey, maybe you should sit in the car until we investigate this. They allowed him to wrong freely after he killed her. So those are things that need to be addressed. I mean, this whole situation from front to back is just, it's messy. And, man, I don't know. There were so many things that I saw in that that are just wrong.

So there's a lot of stuff apparently that we don't know. What else? I'm just going to kind of give you the floor. It was like you can just go down like a checklist if you want. What else do we not know that we need to know like about this? Because that's, I mean, I don't know anybody who would think that it's okay for a perpetrator. At the end of the day, yes, he is what was an officer. He was an officer at that time.

At the end of the day, though, taping off your own crime scene, not calling for, you. you know, medics not helping your partner trying to help provide medical aid. Because even if, even if she wasn't savable, which, you know, who knows had he maybe acted different, maybe she would have been. Maybe if they called EMS sooner, maybe she would. We don't, I don't know that at least. You might. But him going off and taping up the crime scene does nothing to help her as she's fighting for life. Right.

I mean, he obviously said, you know, I'm not going to waste a meta pack on her. He said that. out loud. And so the circumstances were that, you know, they wanted to investigate as to why she had, you know, damage to her car after initially showing up and saying that, you know, there was a prowler and they couldn't find a prowler. So the first thing is they should have left after she said goodnight. but there was a reason there was a reason why he wanted to get into that home i don't know what it was i've heard stories that she's had dealings with with him in particular before i've heard stories that she's had dealings with his fiancee i don't know if it's his wife now or i don't know

if they broke up but from what i hear she was her and sonya worked together his his fiance so there's in this there's so many connections there that are like okay what really happened here now that's some

of the things that I've heard I don't really know because I didn't get into Sonia's life like that what I knew is what she allowed her brothers to know I saw that video and I saw how he shot her down like a dog and then he said he didn't want to waste any his equipment on

on her and then he walked out and joked with his buddies out there and they they asked they asked you know they asked where her gun was they thought that her and sean grason had a gun fight a shootout in the wild west did she notify her did she own a fire her she did she did she She's obviously Right. Yeah. And it was her right, but she,

she didn't have it with her. Her mother, her mother had that a couple days before something like that. So I was even in the house. She didn't have it with her in the house. No. Yeah. But I was just curious.

I wouldn't have made a difference if she did or not. I was serious, but that's even less of a threat at this point. Right. And if we, I mean, everybody saw the video. You saw the size's difference.

He was six, three, 250 pounds. she was tiny yeah yeah and like what did what did he fear from her you can't

you can't saw me that narrative wait before pot of hot water yeah you can't you can't sell me that narrative that he was afraid for his life and she had boiling hot water he just wanted to shoot somebody and he did

he said that you know he the word was now this is coming from a reliable source and I won't name him, but he talked to the guy that was with Sean Grayson in court. Now, the guy didn't know that this person, you know, was involved with the family, but he said, he told this guy that's with Sean Grayson told this other person, well, he bragged about wanting to shoot a, you know.

A word the starts with the letter, and I'm guessing. Yes. So. So, yeah. So yeah, and, you know, they talk about, man, I'll even go as far as to say this. And I won't mention the lawyer's name, but in court during sentencing, one of his, one of his lawyers was obviously trying to get a smaller sentence for Mr. Grayson. And he was saying all these things about Sonia. Now this is the lawyer.

He was saying all these things to Sonia to the judge. And then when he started going in depth in, you know, bashing her name, this lawyer turned to us in the courtroom and said it directly to us. The judge had to reprimand him. I mean, it got that egregious. Can I ask what he said? He was just saying about how she started, she had the poor, pot of boiling water and she initiated the

she initiated the the circumstances that warranted her murder he turned to us and said that and the judge got mad and he is like you will address me in this courtroom you won't turn to the family you won't address them like he he was he was making it a point to say it to us

to as a final dig and I'm like well why would a lawyer be that entrenched so it's it's just levels of just racism that they felt comfortable with I don't know how you all deal with it I really don't I just we're bit sandy well I'm not even saying that I'm just even just the I mean I know you're all are good feeling of it even to deal with that level of like racism and hatred you know I I can only understand being white I can only understand to a very small point you know and what I see makes makes me sick and upset for you I just don't know how you guys go through something like this I mean it breaks my heart like how you guys go through something like this losing someone who you loved and cared about so much and having to fight only because of the color of your skin like none of the comments you're talking about would have been made has she been a white blonde woman but if she was a white blonde woman she'd still be alive so you know it's just I mean, it just, it hurts, it hurts my heart.

It really does. And it's, and it's, it's a very powerless feeling. Well, so I would say that, you know, when it comes to, and I can't speak for all black people. What I can do is speak for how I feel and I think how my family feel. And I think that this was, this was so out of, how to character for something like this to happen to our family. we thought like it was important to make sure that, you know, tempers kind of subsided and we wanted to make sure that we did this peacefully because we didn't want anyone else to get hurt,

especially anyone else that looked like us, because if they were so emboldened to shoot Sonia in the face over saying a rebut, then what would they do to the rest of us? they want an excuse and you can't give them the excuse. So you have to take, you have to take the high road and go higher than that. And that, that's what's so different.

That to me is just, y'all are better people than me. I'll put it that way. It's just, I don't think I could do it. Well, we, you know,

we're, like I said, we're God-faring people. I know, like, I believe in a higher power. And I know that his judgment is what, with God.

There ain't nothing I can do to him worse than what God is going to do to him. And that's the way I look at it. You know, he may beat cancer and get out of jail and do, you know, do all this. But guess what? He still has to, he still has to stand in front of the throne, man. And he's still going to have to account for what he did.

And that's way, that's, that's, that's way more than what I can do to or anybody in this family can do to them. So we rely on our faith when it comes to stuff like that. Yeah, and again, that's even with strong faith, you all are still stronger than me to be able to do this and handle it with such poise and such grace when you have all of these things flying at you.

Well, you, it's just, you know, I don't know. You're doing the Lord's work, man, because you know, you're giving me an avenue to tell this story. So you're intertwined in this as well. I mean, you're doing the hard work that a lot of people aren't doing, and we appreciate that. Well, I just feel like, you know, when you and I talk the first time, I feel this whole, the whole premise of this show was to give people an insight that they haven't seen before, you know, without time limits, without narratives, without, gimmicks, angles, just to be able to share your story the way that you all want it shared. And so that's kind of what I wanted to do. I have this platform and trying to use it for good, you know, and that's kind of the goal here. And that's one of the reasons I really wanted to share.

And first of all, I appreciate you giving me the honor of letting me, you know, host your story and share it. But that's why I wanted to do it because I remember when it happened, it was so heartbreaking and then the court case was was obviously it's as much of a win as you're going to get I think I think that you're the one that told me that you know if he doesn't you know out of the 20 years if he doesn't beat if he doesn't beat the cancer which I honestly with stage four I depending on what kind it is it's not years of the prognosis is not good right but if he does he's out in seven and that's for the life of somebody is just it's it's gross yeah I mean, there's people that have, there's, there's people that have sold,

there's people that have marijuana that have gotten longer than that. Yeah. And, you know, taking a life. But, you know, it's, we're appreciative to tell the story. You know, I'm, I'm very appreciative to tell Sonia story. See, Sonia was Sonia Manessie. So she was always little slim to me. And I'm big slim to her.

And, you know, we were just like this, man. And so, you know, I will continue to tell her story to anyone that asks. And, you know, I'm not worried about, you know, what I'm going to say. You know, all this was off the cuff because it's honest. You know, I can tell anyone of this story. And, you know, because. Because it's a true of, it's a true account of what happened. You know, even a lot of people say, well, you know, they'll even make it political, man.

And when I tell people, I tell people that Sonia lean more conservative than anything. And then when people hear that, it's like, okay, well, we can't use that angle. So it's, it's, it's, I just love talking. her story because she meant that much to me. What other parts of the story do people need to know? Well, uh, I'd be bad for you. I tell you have no more for me, by the way. No, I appreciate it, man. Um, I just, what really stands out to me in this whole situation is the fact that it seemed like she was this, she knew it was coming. You know, she told us that she's going to kill, be killed by a police officer.

You know, she told us this months before it happened. You know, I can't chalk that up. I can't chalk that up here. What, what happened between her and the police? I don't really know. I know that she told me that. And, you know, that's the honest of God truth, that she said that to me.

And I didn't believe her. And I feel bad for not believing her because that's exactly what happened to it. Yeah, it makes you wonder if you were to do some more FOIA requests if you would see his name pop up and additional reports with her. Yeah, but who holds the people accountable that make those decisions? Because with my fiance, when her son was killed, they didn't even, they, I had to, I had to ask ABC, no, in CBS, New York to FOIA those for me and they sent them to me. They wouldn't send them to us directly.

And then the stuff that CBS News, New York got was heavily redacted. So you still, they still have ways to not give you the information. So it is just a low point in our country's history, especially when we were built on the premise of, you know, justice for all. That you have to go through all these hoops, just define the truth. What happened to all the honest people? Oh, they're not in politics, that's for sure.

That's why I feel like running. I'm going to ask you me, I kind of felt you might have, have in you, some sort of political aspirations. I kind of felt that. I was going to ask you, and I forgot until just now. I'm mulling and over, man. You know, Springfield, Illinois has never had a black mayor before.

And, you know, I've been approached about that. And, you know, to be fair, I am a people person. I'm not a political person. And I go by, you know, how people are when the cameras are off. And I have dealt with fantastic people in both parties in this town that actually want to do the right thing. And we're missing that discourse in politics. And I think that if I can encourage someone to be that real person or even someone can encourage me to be that real person in politics, I think we need to start doing that. I like in what happened to Sonia as

the Great Awakening. I've said that to a couple people. I mean, what happened in these videos that people are seeing that people are saying, well, this didn't happen. Don't believe you're lying eyes. You know, there's a great awakening happen. People are starting to see through the veil of pundit tree and all of this stuff that's going on outside of the scenes. And people are starting to want the truth

and they're starting to see the truth. And people that are telling blatant lies in front of the truth are history. And that's a lot of the reason why social media creators, people like myself, tend to do really well because we aren't owned. Like people, like somebody said to me on a post yesterday, they're like, how much are you getting paid? You know, where'd you do with the 7,000 you got to make this post?

And I'm like, man, I said, somebody wanted to pay me seven grand to run propaganda posts, count me and I will sell out for their. Mike you that is that is my price you you want me you want me to post pro whoever whatever content seven grand done but but no it with the exception of you know people who believe that you know and I know there have been rumors of social media careers getting paid whatever I've not been I've not been one of them but you know we get to kind of share the stories we want to share what we find important and you know I try to do a lot of it without my personal bias now

I will say lately, there are certain things that I can't, like when some, like the, we talked about this earlier, like putting the Obama's on a primates body, I can't sit here and take a neutral, I can't take a neutral stand on that. Right. I can't sit here and post something neutral. I don't care who it was that did it. I don't care what side of the aisle they're on. I would do the exact same thing.

I don't condone racism or bigotry. And anybody who stands silent and thinks that that's okay, you are condoning it. I mean, that's either you're against it, you're for it, or you say nothing, which means you're for it. And that's just how it is. So I can't do that. But with the exception that I try to be very neutral on when I do the stories that I do it and give people just the facts and let them make their own determination. But the thing is when you're dealing with mainstream media, again, this is one of the reasons where this whole platform exists. Like you guys, when you heard, you know, we saw the videos that were posted, you know, of the body cam,

We saw the, you know, what, the three paragraphs they'd write about Sonia or what happened, and that was what you get. And you'd get that regurgitated and syndicated basically everywhere. You know, they would just use that exact same article. So you don't get the full story and people, and that's what makes people kind of go crazy when it comes to rumors and talk. They're going to fill in the blanks themselves. And so social media, you know, has kind of changed that because, again,

not all individual independent creators are reliable or credible. You know, you can't say that, but, you know, we're not owned by three different networks. Yeah. Yeah. So, I can say whatever I want. And you know what? At the end of the day, this show goes out through Crossroads Media Group. They're the network that, podcast network that helps me out.

But I own the content. I own the show. I do it exactly how. He's like, the CEO's like, you do it how you want to do it. We're here to help. In an age where they're, you know, they're silencing, reporting, you know, it's, you know, I applaud podcasters like yourself

and, you know, various others out there, man, y'all are doing, you're doing what we need to happen. You know, we need this to happen. We need the truth to be out there. And I appreciate the fact that, like I said, you called me, man, because now the truth can't get out there.

So I appreciate you, man. And if there is anything I can do for you, man, let me know because I'm there. I appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. So, you know, I know we've been, I've kept you for a while before, you know, I don't want to close out if you got more. So if you don't have more, then obviously we can kind of start that process. But if you have more, man, that you want to share, you just, I mean, the floor is yours.

Like I said, whatever part of her story that you want out there, I want you, I want every bit of it that you want shared, shared. So I'll say this, and I'll say this directly into the camera. everyone that has pushed this narrative that she somehow started this or she's somehow liable for her own death. And, you know, she could, I've even heard that she committed death by cop, the suicide narrative. Just put it to rest. You know, stop with all the lies and the deceit and stop doing this. for a political side. You know, at the end of the day, you are a human being.

You're not a political party. Just be honest, you know, get to know people before you, you know, demonize them. And, you know, people that are being demonized have families. You know, her children are seeing things online that people say about her their mother that breaks their hearts every day. And her mother, Donna, that was her only child. You know, she can't get her back. So just be mindful of the things that you say.

And remember that we're all human beings and we all have feelings. And just be careful what you say and just be good to the next person. And that's all. I think that that's a that's a beautiful sentiment and and I'll go I'll go a little bit further than that you know I often think when we see kind of how the rhetoric is with certain events like this event and others and you see people and I don't know how people are torn the way that they are I go back and you're old enough obviously to remember like I am 9-11 and minus the Islamophobia the people that we were on 9-12 would be so disappointed in the people we are today. Absolutely. Absolutely. That is 100% true.

I mean, who did we become? It's terrible. It's become so awful. And I realize that you see the worst of the worst with the Internet sometimes, and it feels like everybody, you know, it used to be one of those things with conspiracies and racist or whatever. You're like, oh, that's Uncle John. That's just how he has you had to deal with them,

once or twice a year in the holidays. Well, now with the mention of the internet, Uncle John can find a Facebook group with 15, with 1,500 other Uncle John's to bounce their ridiculous conspiracies and hate off of, which just helps it grow. And unfortunately, the social media companies do very little,

nothing to shut it down. So it kind of continues. But, but yeah, I mean, just, you know, if you're listening to this, for the most part, my followers, you know, I have, I've always argue that I have the best followers

of anybody who's, that true crime current event space on the internet my followers are great they're very engaged they're very passionate um and very empathetic and caring the vast vast majority of them but um so most than listening but if you're not one of those people maybe again think about how you were on nine 12 and ask yourself with the person you were on nine 12 2001 how would they feel about you today perfect so well with that said sante i mean i i so appreciate you and i sharing your story and I'm so sorry for you and your family's lost and very happy that you're fighting. Oh, one more thing.

So with the commission that you're doing, is there anything people, I mean, anywhere that you want people to follow you or anything that they can do to help this commission, anything that they can do to help your fight and your cause? I want you to definitely be able to have the spaces to talk about that. So what we can do, what I'm doing is I'm trying to find funding for the new entity. they can still go on the Massey Commission page. It's still up, and our 26 calls to action are on that page. What's that web address? So it is, let's see here, it's the Massey Commission. So it's on the Sankey County Boards page,

and you'll see a hyperlink to the Massey Commission. And you'll be able to, like I said, you can download the 26 calls to action. this is just our first year. We had to pick it up from the ground running from, I mean, we didn't even really have a year. We didn't get really started on the work until six months in because we created this commission. And we didn't know how to, we didn't know how to do anything in it. We had to learn on the fly.

And, you know, a lot of people helped us out with that and we're very grateful. But now we're trying to turn it into an entity that. the people own and the people have the say so and we're trying to find funding. So you have my email address. If I mean, if people want to send, you know, people's names are a way that can potentially either fund or help us structure the company. We want people to be a part of it. We're not going to limit ourselves to Springfield, Illinois. There's this work. This work means, needs to be done across the nation. I've been getting calls from Boston.

I've got calls from California, Texas, Colorado. There's people that want to know how we did the, we got laws passed this quick and how they can do it. And we want to show people how to put together commissions and get laws changed. And that, that I think is that that's my. life's work and I want to make sure that Sonia's name is attached to that so people know that what spring from what happened to Sonia can be a catalyst of change. Well, I think that that's, that's incredible. What I'll do is I looked at the page and it is probably too long for people to remember.

So I'll put it in the show notes for the Sagamon. It's Sagamon. It's just very long. So I'll put it in the show notes for people to go. and then as we get more information, or once you have a new website, we can always update that in the notes later on for people who are listening to it in the future.

And then for me, guys, if you want to, you know, make sure you're following all my accounts, just in the nick of crime on all platforms. I think that what I'd like to do with you, Sante, at one point in time, and we can announce it later is I think we should do a live and go into some more discussions

because I think that there's a lot of, there's a lot that you have to say that's really valuable and important, and I think that we should showcase that. Well, anything you need for me, Justin, I got you, man. Well, thank you so much again for joining, and for everybody, until next time, this is Unheard.

The views and opinions expressed in this episode are solely those of the individuals speaking and do not necessarily reflect those of the host. Unheard is intended to provide a platform for personal stories and lived experiences, not to establish facts, determine guilt, innocence, or provide legal, medical, or professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to conduct their own research and form their own conclusions. Thank you for listening to Unheard. Thank you.