Eugene Christopher Wright

I spent this week as I often do watching True Crime shows and jotting down the names associated with cases to do further research.  I admit that quite often while in the middle of an episode that I find particularly interesting I find myself doing a quick search. This was just such a case and at the time I had to literally stop myself from looking too much further until I was ready to sit down and do legitimate research.  Of course, as I said one of my true crime shows had brought me to this story, and as we all know they tend to be at least slightly bias in their telling of stories.  It really just depends on what angle the show is portraying to determine which way they are leaning.  The particular show I watched leaned towards the fact that Eugene Christopher "Chris" Wright may have been framed for the murder of Kenneth Dolezsar and ultimately not responsible.  

I have said many times that I go into researching a story on the idea that the police and prosecutors (and jury if there is one) "got it right."  This is imperative for me.  I need to do this to have faith in the justice system that we live by. Now, that is not to say that when I am done I still believe that is the case or that something was not wrong somewhere. It seems almost routine for defendants to claim their innocence and they often get friends and family on board to help them so I am not quickly persuaded to assume that an injustice has been done, but it is enough to look at.  I also know that we cannot ignore the fact that so many people have been exonerated for crimes they have not committed so you simply have to look at all sides of a case and examine those who claim that a convicted person is innocent.  Doing that in this case I have been left as I have in the past when I sit down to compile the things I have found.  As I begin to sit and type up this story, I am leaning a particular way but I am unsure I am convinced completely.  I can only hope that in this case, as in many cases before this one, by the time I am done, and looking at all the information at a whole I will be able to decide.  

On November 15, 2007 a man by the name of Kenneth Dolezsar was shot five times in a parking lot of a restaurant in Salt Lake City Utah.  A man by the name of Lee Carlson was nearby as it happened.  When it was over the shooter got into Dolezsar's vehicle and drove away, only to abandon it a few miles down the road.  Carlson would immediately claim that he had arrived at the restaurant just around 7:00 am, early for a job interview and was sitting in his car when he saw two men outside talking, he said he soon heard yelling and as Dolezsar was near the front of his car and in his line of sight the other man, who was wearing what appeared to be a wig with a ponytail, shot Dolezsar.  Carlson stated at the first sound of a shot he ducked his head in his car and subsequently heard more shots and the shooter drive away. Police and emergency technicians would arrive to find that Dolezsar had been shot twice in the head and three times in the torso.  He died at the scene.

Carlson of course was taken to the police station to be interviewed.  Supporters of Chris Wright would later claim that Carlson's story seemed to change and evolve often, indicating as police claimed to have found evidence leaning towards Wright they convinced Carlson of remembering more details as well as washing away details from prior statements that did not fit the investigators ideas.  When it comes to Carlson, I am almost going to have to agree with Wright's supporters.  First of all, eye witness testimony has repeatedly been found to be flawed in many cases.  First there is the stress of seeing a crime happening in front of you, so of course an eye witness is going to be shaky going in.  Some will claim that when the nervousness goes away witnesses seem to be more reliable but I do not find this to always be true.  I mean, if that was the case then why do the courts allow what is called "excited utterances" in court that claim when someone is stressed and excited they tend to be more truthful?  Then there are the witnesses (and they cannot be faulted for this necessarily) who want to do everything in their power to help the police find people that are responsible for a crime and often feel it is up to them to do so. At any rate Carlson initially told police that other than seeing what he believed to be a dark wig with ponytail and a general description in height and weight of the shooter,  he did not get a very good look at the shooter or his features.  He did describe hearing an Eastern European accent that he initially said was the shooters voice. He stated that when he arrived in the parking lot the two men were outside and he had parked next to them, then he heard shouting.  As they moved towards the front of his car he saw Dolezsar holding his hands up and the shooter, who he stated had a gun in his right hand, shot Dolezsar.  At this point Carlson ducked down in the car.  I found no real indication just how fast this whole situation took place but it was apparently within a few short minutes.  

So now investigators need to start looking around.  Presumably one of the first stops they made was to a federal prison.  Dolezsars wife, Leslie Dee Mower. She was serving a 27 month sentence, along with her ex-husband for tax evasion and had gone to prison earlier that year.  Apparently she and her ex husband ha amassed a fortune and while she was in prison her new husband, Kenneth Dolezsar was handling that money.  It seems she immediately sent investigators onto the trail of David Novak.  According to Mower, Novak had contacted her and her ex-husband while in prison claiming he could get one or both of their sentences commuted.  Both Mower and her ex husband apparently gave Novak $25,000 each but Mower would claim that she was suspicious of Novak and did not like him and left all further contact with him to Dolezsar.  Dolezsar apparently did not have the same apprehension about Novak and at some point had given Novak an additional 1.9 million dollars to finance a documentary Novak wanted to make.

Now, before we go any further into this particular case it is imperative that we look more into David Novak as he plays a huge role in this case. This is the man that Wright supporters claim framed him.  In the same respect while Dolezsar's family believe that Wright was in fact the shooter, they also believe that Novak paid him to do so.  To be clear however, Novak has never been charged in this case but that does not mean that some of the allegations do not have merit.  In fact, at Wright's trial even the prosecution admitted that there was likely more than one person involved, but again, we'll get to that.  In 1996 David Novack was convicted of mail fraud and a charge of sending false distress signals.  He served 9 months in a Florida prison camp (considered to simply be a minimal security prison).  Some say that he had even attempted to fake his own death, others say that was greatly exaggerated, however the evidence does seem to show that he at least tried.  At the time Novak ran some sort of flight school or business in Seattle (keep in mind that this case has overshadowed a lot of information on Novak so some of it seemed vague) and he "got in over his head" he says, although I found no specifics on what that meant.  Apparently however, he intentionally crashed a plane in order to cash in on the $80,000 in insurance that was obtainable.  By the sounds of it, he then tried to 'reinvent himself'... you'll find this more believable later in the story.... but was all but caught and arrested.  By the sounds of it, there was a plea made that made the mail fraud and other charge, so as we know that is not always exactly what happened and he accepted a 1 year sentence of which he served 9 months. Upon being released he apparently relocated to the Salt Lake City area with his wife and his new job consisted of him all but counseling people who were headed to minimum or low security prisons, mainly for white collar crimes like his.  It was said he charged $75 an hour and even wrote a book called "Down Time: A guide to Federal Incarceration.  Apparently he was wildly successful although I have to wonder why.  It seems he counseled on things like how to behave in prison, how the prison lingo worked and things like that.  I suppose if you have gained enough money at the ill will of other people you can afford David Novak's advise, but still it seems a bit odd to me.  At any rate at some point Novak and his wife moved into a condo building in which all of the neighbors were friendly and friends.  This was his job apparently at the time in which he reached out to Dolezsar's wife and her ex-husband in prison, although I cannot say what power he though he possessed to get their sentences commuted.  It was through Mower that he met her husband Kenneth Dolezsar and eventually obtained the additional funds for a supposed documentary.  

At that time Chris Wright lived in the same building as Novak, with his wife, Bianca. Both Chris and his wife claim that at the time of the murder they were both at home sick with food poisoning and could not have committed the murder. Reports start to get sketchy here.  Wright says that Novak introduced him to Dolezsar and that they were discussing Dolezsar helping Wright with a real estate project.  Some reports say that Novak did put Dolezsar and Wright in touch with each other but that they had not seen each other face to face, to which Wright disputes.  This is kind of important because supporters of Wright claim that if he was meeting with someone who he had already met in the past why would he wear a wig to their meeting if it was Wright who was the shooter. Supporters also claim that it seems unreasonable for Wright, who it seems did have quite a bit of debt and possible financial issues, to kill Dolezsar if he was supposed to be going into business with him.  Others would argue that Dolezsar "may have" (there's no proof) backed out of his support of Wright and it infuriated Wright to the point of murder, while supporters say that even if Dolezsar had changed his mind this was not something Wright had not seen in the past.  Wright continues to maintain it seems that he had met Dolezsar face to face (even claiming to have been in his vehicle before) and they were still working on coming to an agreement, but that he did not see him on the day of the murder.

It seems that by the time investigators made their way to Novak they had already looked into phone records.  It does not seem as if anyone disputed that Dolezsar was in a habit of using what are called "burner phones."  If you do not know what these are they are basically phones in which you can buy anywhere and pre-pay your minutes without ever giving any information to a company or anyone.  It seems that Dolezsar was in the habit of using them often, tossing the and getting a new one.  One has to wonder why and my research found little other than an indication from Chris Wright that Dolezsar seemed to be a paranoid person.  Investigators had however apparently retrieved the phone in which Dolezsar was using at the time of his death and traced calls made to that. This became very important.  It seems that there was a record of the number that had called him and although it was also a burner phone the store in which it was bought had surveillance video of the person who purchased it. Investigators did not know who this person was but apparently David Novak did and told them it was Chris Wright.  To be fair, I was unable to totally pinpoint when this phone was purchased exactly.  At any rate, by investigators standards they now had a name to the face of the person in the video and that took them to Chris Wright.

Christ Wright for his part seemed to be highly cooperative with investigators. It appears his first interview with police occurred in January of 2008, nearly two months after the murder. He admitted that was him on the video, and admitted buying the phone.  So what happened to that phone? This is where my research gets a bit sketchy, some indicate that Wright said he bought the phone because Novak asked him to while others say he bought it at Dolezsar's request.  It could simply be an issue of name confusion but it is enough that left me confused other than knowing that Wright claimed to no longer have the phone and had given it to one of these men.  For practical purposes I am going to have to think that if we believe the idea that Novak was framing Wright that the phone went to him, but again I cannot say for certain.  Investigators focused in on three calls in the 24 hours prior to Dolezsar's death from this phone.  The first occurred the day before the murder at around 9 am and was a voicemail.  This was important because prosecutors would claim that the voice on the message belonged to Wright.  The second call came in about 20 minutes later. Dolezsar was in his office (although I could not determine what kind of office he had beyond the fact he was a hockey coach at a local college), where his assistant told investigators that she heard him on the phone at that time. According to the assistant she heard Dolezsar say "I know a lot of Robert's" and then indicated he knew who he was speaking to and said "I look forward to meeting you", "I have been wanting to meet you for months." It was later determined that a meeting was set for 7 am the next morning in the parking lot of the restaurant in which Dolezsar would be shot.

When interviewed Wright was apparently asked if he owned a 9 mm gun, the typed used in the murder.  Wright had owned one but claimed (and his wife would later claim this also), that his wife had lost it several months prior.  At his trail prosecutors would put a man on the stand who would claim that Wright bought a gun from him just days before Dolezsar was murdered.  However the defense would argue that this played no part in the case as the gun bought was a .40 caliber gun and not a 9 mm like what was used.  To be truthful I am uncertain just what the prosecution was planning to prove with this especially with the evidence they would later claim to have.  In the first part of February investigators got a warrant to search the Wright home.  They did not find a gun, but they did find a gun case for a 9 mm.  Again, the Wrights were claiming this was the gun that had been lost by Bianca.  It was later claimed that they determined that the manufacture of the gun would include a test fired bullet in the case and that when found it was compared to the five shells found at the crime scene and it was a match.  On February 28, 2008 Chris Wright was arrested.  

Chris Wright stood trial for the murder of Kenneth Dolezsar in April of 2010.  So, by the time the trial came around, just what did the investigators have and what could they prove?  They had processed Dolezsar's vehicle soon after it was found abandoned just after the shooting.  They claimed they had Chris Wrights DNA on the inside handle of the driver's door. Playing devils advocate here, defense attorney's would say that that the results were not conclusive, only included Wright in the results.  They would also argue that there were several fingerprints within the vehicle that were left unidentified, none of which belonged to Chris Wright.  The biggest thing it seems the prosecutors had it seems was the shell casing they claim came from the gun case in Chris Wright's home that matched the casings found at the scene.  Prosecutors did not seem to believe Chris and Bianca that the gun had been lost several months prior.  And then there was eye witness Carlson.  Much would be brought out about his testimony.

As I stated before initially Carlson stated the shooter had an Eastern European accent (he claimed to know this as he had friends from the area) and just a general description of the shooter.  He initially claimed to not know eye color. However, by the time he testified in court he was now saying the shooter had ice blue eyes (just as Wright did) but had no explanation as to why this was the first time he had stated this to any official. He was also questioned by the defense at trial about the fact that he had told the police that the shoot either had no facial hair or a small mustache.  Chris Wright had a short goatee. Carlson had not identified Wright until several weeks into the investigation and after seeing several photo line ups.  By the time the trial came around Carlson was more sure than ever who he saw in that parking lot and that the person was Chris Wright.  He would still maintain he heard an accent in the voice but would change his story in the fact that he was not sure which of the two men were speaking... Wright did not have an accent.  He also continued to maintain that the shooter used his right hand to hold the gun and pull the trigger.  The defense would maintain that Wright was left handed and shot with his left hand.

And then of course there was the phone and the phone calls.  The prosecution would maintain that the voicemail left on Dolezsar's phone the day before his murder was left by Wright and that it was also him that had made the meeting with at the parking lot.  I personally have some issues with this.  The program in which I watched (again I do not believe everything I hear) could not get an interview with Wright in person through the prison so when they talked to him it was on a telephone through a speaker.  They then played the tape that was played at trial of the voice mail message left to Dolezsar.  In my opinion they were two very different voices.  I understand that sometimes people sound different in person than they do on the telephone but in the case in which I hear the comparison both examples were on the phone.  In the interview Wright appeared to have a much higher pitched voice than that heard on the voice mail tape.  

Of course, just as in every case, the prosecution had a few holes that they either had to try and explain.  They relented at trial that Wright likely had help carrying out this crime. I have to agree with this.  It seems obvious that the shooter, whether it was Wright or not, had to have had an accomplice.  How did the shooter get to the meeting? The shooter left in Dolezsar's vehicle and surely would not have used another, leaving their's in the lot to be found by police. How did the shooter then get away from where the vehicle was abandoned 2 miles down the road.  It is unlikely the shooter parked 2 miles away, walked to the parking lot, shot Dolezsar, and then took his vehicle to where his own was sitting.  That simply does not make sense.  First off he would have been too exposed walking in public that far to get to the parking lot, let alone leaving a vehicle sitting there for who knows how long.  Secondly, supposedly Carlson could clearly see, in his opinion, that the person was wearing a wig that had a ponytail.... I have not mentioned this until now, but Wright's head was shaved bald (there's no dispute of this). I saw nothing of any kind of report of anyone at all being reported as walking a distance to the parking lot or a car being parked where Dolezsar's vehicle was found.  Logically it seems that whomever the shooter was they were dropped off at the parking lot or at the very least let out. The other person could have even stayed in the parking lot and watched the murder and amid the chaos at the scene left the lot to meet the shooter down the road and picked him up where Dolezsar's vehicle was abandoned. But then why if there's another vehicle there did they take Dolezsar's vehicle risking leaving prints and DNA? The defense would argue that is exactly what they wanted to do.

The defense would argue that David Novak was behind the crime and Novak himself was not helping anyone think differently.  In fact, just a few days after Wright was arrested Novak and his wife suddenly and quickly decided to move, liquidating all assets. Initially it seems no one knew where he went and investigators did not seem to care or bother, which is a bit odd since even by their own accounts, whether they believed Novak was involved in the murder or not, it was Novak who had introduced Wright and Dolezsar to each other.  It seems that in 2011 it was discovered that Novak was likely living in Portland Oregon.... again, he has never legally been charged in this case.  So, aside from introducing Wright and Dolezsar, what else does the defense have that leans towards this theory?  The Novak's and the Wright's were such good friends at one time the defense claims that Novak had a key to the Wright condo which would have given him access to their things (as well as DNA, although I am thinking that may be a stretch).  Wright's wife, Bianca claims that it was Novak that Wright gave the pre-paid cell phone to.  Defense attorney's (and apparently Dolezsar's family) believe that Novak owed Dolezsar two million dollars and that instead of using that money for a supposed documentary that would have brought in a return there was evidence that he instead used that money to pay his own bills.

In the end in April of 2010 a jury convicted Chris Wright for first degree murder and aggravated robbery.  He was ultimately sentenced to 15 years to life for the murder and 5 years to life for the robbery to serve consecutively, meaning when one ends the other begins.  Reports say his first chance at parole is in 2031 but according to the Utah Department of Corrections site there is no year listed. So obviously the jury concluded that they believed the prosecution theory.... but is that the correct one?

In every case we are forced to hear a theory from each side and basically determine which is more plausible.  In my opinion both theories have some major flaws.....and I am not sure where to begin.

Lets look at the prosecution theory of motive to start.  They claim that Wright was in such dire financial straights that when Dolezsar backed out of a deal they had been discussing Wright lost it (although they had to admit he had help, they fell short of naming a name). Yet, while Wright argues that he had met Dolezsar in person before (arguing why would he meet someone he'd met before wearing a wig) the prosecution disputes that.  So this would have been their first "sit down meeting"?  And yet they never actually sat down as everything occurred in the parking lot of a restaurant? Not to mention, Wright have had to have known Dolezsar was going to back out of the deal because even by their theory he had to have an accomplice hiding in the shadows or something. Why else is there apparently another driver and is Wright wearing a wig? Even if we take the testimony of the assistant that claimed to have heard Dolezsar making plans for the early meeting he apparently seems excited to meet whoever it was he was meeting.  It does not sound logical that he would make a meeting with someone and then before ever really having the said meeting decides to not even sit down and discuss it. Not to mention the assistant said she heard Dolezsar say the name "Robert."  It makes no sense that if their theory held true that Wright would give a fake name (especially since they both knew Novak), then wear a wig, and plan a shooting before he has even really talked to Dolezsar or gave him time to 'back out of the deal' if Wright really needed the deal to go through to help him financially. The defense obviously argued that when it came to motive David Novak had 2 million more reasons.

Then lets go to the crime scene.  Again, we're supposed to believe that Wright would have had to have planned this murder.  We are talking 7 am in a wide open public parking lot.  It would seem obvious that as Lee Carlson pulled up that the shooter would have noticed, and also notice he never got out of the car. If you're going to shoot a guy in a public area in daylight (or at least near daylight if it was still dim although I do not know for sure), then you have the guts to shoot the guy sitting in the car just next to you that watched it happened. In fact, you're going to want to do that, you do not want witnesses that could possibly identify you. The shooter, then leaves a witness, and shell casings in the parking lot and gets into the victim's vehicle and yet although there was no talk of the shooter wearing gloves, there are no fingerprints belonging to him inside the vehicle, in fact, there are prints on the steering wheel that were not identified by police.  But, do not forget, prosecution claims that Wright's DNA is on the inside driver's door handle.... ok, lets say it is, how does he leave that a small spot of his DNA on the inside of a handle, but no more DNA anywhere else or leave fingerprints? So the police show up.... they have an eye witness, they have shell casings, they have a body, and they have a phone on the body.  Think about the phone for a minute.  It seems that it was common knowledge that Dolezsar was in the habit of having several different burner phones and the impression I got was that he changed them often.  This act in and of itself seems suspicious to me, but whatever.  Wright admitted knowing this about Dolezsar in his first interview.  So if you know Dolezsar carries a phone and that without the phone itself it could not be traced, why would you leave the phone?  It is not like he had a phone through one of the major cell phone companies and records could be obtained.  If the phone had not been there investigators would not have been able to determine what numbers had called that phone.  In the same respect by the phone remaining not only were they able to find the numbers that called but also that one was apparently from another burner phone that they linked to Wright buying.

I also have an issue with the prosecutor admitting that it is likely Wright had help and yet by all appearances did not look for any accomplish or even seem to be concerned that Novak could not be found, let alone that he took off suspiciously and quickly.  They of course did not want to likely link him or mention him in court because that would be an answer they would have to explain.  The defense had no issue naming David Novak by name, but prosecutors knew that juries here alternative suspect names all the time and the defense did not have any proof, just a theory, just like they did to give the jury. In the same respect however, they had to have known that Novak's name was going to come up.  He seemingly had more motive than Wright; Dolezsar's wife had mentioned him; he had even introduced the victim and the defendant.  Why were they not looking for him at the very least to get him to testify to his knowledge of the people involved?  I mean Novak was the one who identified Chris Wright in the video buying the phone that ultimately led investigators to Wright.  

We all know that a verdict is based on reasonable doubt and that it is up to the state to prove their case, but we also know that juries have to pick a side to believe, so despite the holes in the prosecution case they have to look at defense arguments. To believe the defense theory, there are many things we have to assume happened. First we have to believe that Novak not only got Wright to get the prepay phone (and apparently prove it somehow, or did they just get lucky with the video?) then take that phone and either he used it or gave it to someone else to use to lure Dolezsar to the restaurant parking lot. They claimed that Novak had a key to the Wright home giving him access to the gun case to plant the shell casing to a gun the Wrights say they no longer have.  They then claim that Novak hired someone, they do not know who, that was similar in stature to Wright to kill him in the parking lot and drive away in his vehicle.  Again supporters of Wright claim Novak also planted the DNA, but the defense seemed to simply argue away the DNA results which in my opinion was a smarter move than having us believe Novak was able to obtain, and procure DNA to plant it.  There is no indication that he or anyone he knew had that knowledge or ability.  Then theoretically that answer why an eye witness, shell casings and the phone were left at the scene.  It does not necessarily say why the shooter took Dolezsar's vehicle considering other than the small spot prosecutors claim is Wright's DNA there was nothing else. We have to believe that Novak knew the Wright's no longer had their own 9 mm gun and knew where the case was to plant the shell casing or he was the one who had stolen it several weeks before and the prosecution was right in the fact that the shell in the case was from the manufacturer.  It is not impossible, but highly improbable in my opinion.

There is a third theory out there and is one that it seems a civil jury may believe.  This is the theory that friends and family of Dolezsar believe and it almost seems to be the most logical in my opinion.  They believe that Chris Wright is guilty of shooting Kenneth Dolezsar.  However, they also believe that David Novak persuaded Wright to commit the murder on the concept that he would receive a large payment from Novak.  In 2011 Dolezsar's wife, Leslie Mower sued David Novak for a number of things. It seems at that time Mower's attorney's had determined that Novak was living in Oregon and although they went through the legal channels to notify him Novak never responded.  Because of this the judge ruled in favor of Dolezsar's family in the amount of 7 million dollars but only addressed the issues of breach of contract and fraud, presumably due to the issues with all the money that had been given to Novak. My research indicates that she is also suing Novak for wrongful death claiming that Novak hired Wright to murder Dolezsar because Novak owed him more than 2 million dollars.  My research indicates that that portion may not have been settled as of yet.  However, this does seem rather plausible in my opinion. Lets say that Novak did hire Wright to kill Dolezsar and he accepted because he truly was in financial trouble.  It still sounds as if even if that was the case that Novak did all he could to send investigators Wrights way.  The only problem with this theory is that Wright has never admitted being the shooter at all and implicating Novak officially, not even since his conviction.  He still maintains it was not him that was involved.  

In the end Chris Wright is in prison, Kenneth Dolezsar is dead and David Novak has never answered many questions that need answers, but then again it is not likely that he ever will.  For all we know, Novak has moved again and 're-invented' himself, that seems to be his lifestyle and career if nothing else.