True Crime Stories

This will be my fourth case that involves a death penalty case out of the state of Kentucky. One would think so many of them would be rather routine or at least similar in nature, but if these four cases show anything it shows that anything can happen, every case is different and you never know what legal maneuvers will be tried and which ones will fail and which ones will succeed. Some only succeed temporarily. Marco Chapman murdered two children, injured their mother and sister and in the end volunteered for the death penalty. Yet the courts had to decide if he had that right. Thomas Bowling Jr. was convicted and sentenced to death for the killing a couple in their car and shooting their son but in my opinion there was insufficient evidence. He died in prison of cancer. John Garland was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of three people. He maintained his innocence until his natural death in prison, blaming his son. This latest case is one in which David Matthe...

I am putting this case together literally the day after the verdict was read. I admit that I heard a little about case throughout the trial but really knew very little about it except for the fact it was a case of a wife murdering her husband with a kitchen knife. I also heard rumors that her husband used to be her stepfather, but again, I knew none of the details. Today it is difficult to find those details because the first things to pop up revolve around the verdict. I do know that domestic violence was alleged and after the verdict the case was often compared to the now infamous Depp V. Heard trial that ended earlier this month. More specifically many of the law shows talked about the difference between Amber Heard's testimony and that of Danielle Redlick. As I said finding deep specifics about this case proved to be a bit difficult but I will do the best that I can and hopefully any of you that watched the trial or know more can chime in. What I can tell you is tha...

  I found this case interesting because it appears that while by a legal standard Arthur Paul Baird Jr. did not qualify as “insane” it seemed to be understood that he actually may have been. The idea, or the “rule” of someone being “insane” to meet a legal definition has been up for debate for a very long time. The long and short of things is that if someone seemingly knows their actions are wrong, then they are not insane. To prove “temporarily insane” is even harder to prove because actions both before and after are considered and looked at. While I will agree that claiming insanity can be as common as appealing a case based on ineffective counsel and often is nothing more than a tactic used to lessen culpability, that is not always the case. Many believe that these rules should be changed but little has really been done about it. Arthur Paul Baird Jr. lived in Darlington Indiana with his wife Nadine. Even though I have lived in Indiana all of my life I had never heard of ...

  I have lived in Indiana my entire life. I admit that it is not completely unusual for me to come across a case that I am not familiar with. What is less unusual is to come across an Indiana town that I have not at least heard about. This case qualified in both areas of unknown for me. I am unsure which I am more surprised about, the fact that this was a pretty gruesome crime in my state that I had never heard about or that I had never heard of the area in which it took place. In 2002 Ray and Maggie Green seemed to have a pretty good life. The couple had been married for decades and had raised a daughter together. They also owned their own horse breeding and training business which they ran from their San Antonio Texas home. And then tragedy struck. On the morning of May 26, 2002 Maggie was on her way back from a show, carting her horses when a barge hit the bridge she was crossing on Interstate 40 in Oklahoma. When it was all said and done eight cars and three semi-truck...

I am surprised at how often I am surprised in hearing about a case for the first time after seeing how “high profile” the case had been. I admit that some of that is likely due to the fact that I have gone to exclusively streaming television like many of us and by doing so I rarely keep up on new episodes of things like Dateline or 48 Hours. It is not that I do not have the ability because I have several streaming services and they allow me to watch those and several other types of true crime shows. But, when I still subscribed to cable I would use the DVR to tape all the shows I wanted and simply used that more than watching television live. That being said, I am still surprised that I had not heard of this case. On March 23, 2018 police in Blooming Prairie Minnesota went to a home for a welfare check. Friends of David and Lois Riess were reporting they had not seen or heard from the couple in a few weeks. Now, to be fair, it seems like more people were actually looking for D...

  I heard about this case for the first time on and episode of Paula Zahn's On The Case. I was quite surprised considering not only have I heard, and blogged about, many Indiana “infamous” cases but also by the fact that I actually lived in Indianapolis when this crime occurred. The crime itself was not “technically” committed in Indianapolis, but in the town of Speedway. If you know anything about Indianapolis then you know that Speedway IS Indianapolis. Yes, it is its own incorporated town with their own school system but unless you live there and know it you cannot tell a true difference. While I can sit and tell you that a difference cannot be made, I can also tell you that when you visit the Indianapolis 500 racetrack, you are in fact not in Indianapolis, you are in Speedway. Cynthia “Cyndi” Albrecht was a was a chef who not only worked for the Penske Racing team, traveling with the crew, she had also catered to celebrities. It was said she was well on her way to ...

  This is a case in which I wish I had more information, especially in the form of an appeal. I suspect that an appeal has likely been filed and is forthcoming but I also suspect that the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed things. The case ended in late 2019 and an appeal takes time so I will try to make a note to check back on this case at a later date. Obviously I have let you know that a conviction was obtained in this case if I feel an appeal is in the works. On December 14, 2016 a 911 call was made in Chester South Carolina. The caller was actually a dispatcher, Jamie Baldwin, himself calling. He told the dispatcher on duty that his wife had had an accident at their home and while he was taking her to the hospital there had been an accident and did not think his wife was breathing. Baldwin had once been a police officer in the towns of York and Columbia but had been a dispatcher in Chester County for about a decade at the time of his call. His wife, Judy McWaters Orr...