Danielle Green

 

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-trucks fell into the river or onto broken pieces of the bridge. Fourteen people died in that accident, including a three year old girl, and another eleven people were injured. Ray Green was devastated.

So, when one of his clients named Danielle, who went by the name Dani, began hanging around the stables and the business more initially friends and family were happy for him even if they did think it was a little soon after Maggie's passing. For them the important part was that Ray seemed to be happy.

In 2003 one of many lawsuits surrounding the bridge collapse was settled and Ray received a “large some of money” that was said to be “a little over a million dollars.” It seems that soon after Ray and Dani went to Florida and eloped. Not long after that the couple sold Ray's property in San Antonio and moved to Palm Beach Florida so Dani could study and train in dressage. I will be fair and tell you I had no idea what dressage was and had to look it up. Basically it is the “art” of horse riding and presentation of a horse and Dani had a dream of competing in the Olympics in this area. The couple had done their research and learned that the Palm Beach area was where “it was at” when it came to learning and training for dressage.

They bought ten-acres in property and settled in Florida. Most people have said that most days Dani trained from sun up to sundown. I also want to point out here something else others said about Dani in Florida. Many pointed out that she almost always wore long sleeves and pants, completely covering most of her skin because she had a fear of sun damage and cancer when it came to her skin. You will understand later why this is of importance.

While living in Florida the couple also joined a group of “cowboy action shooters.” These people dressed up in “wild west” clothing and did target shooting. All of the members had a nickname and Dani's was Dani Oakley. There were competitions involved also and it was said that Dani was the best shooter in their group.

Things seemed to be going well for quite some time with the couple. They had made many friends and started new hobbies together. Then in 2008 the stock market crashed and economy and the couple began to struggle. They were not able to continue to afford everything involving the horse and apparently most of the money from the lawsuit Ray received was gone. They had taken out a second mortgage on their property and they were beginning to drown.

It appears that most of their friends did not see any rifts between the couple until about 2012 when the couple sold their property at a loss and Dani moved to Dillsboro Indiana for a period of time because both of her parents got sick. For those who do not know, and I was one of them, Dillsboro is located about twenty-three miles southwest of Cincinnati. One friend would later describe an outburst he observed from Dani around this time when Ray could not find a box that contained many of his own personal belongings. But, Ray's daughter had already come to the conclusion that Dani was not what was best for her father and there were issues. She was already feeling things were not right before the couple left for Florida. She stated that Dani would often wear her mothers clothing, hats and jewelry.

Ray's daughter, Tracey basically lost contact with her father when he moved to Florida. Dani and Ray apparently shared a cell phone at this time and when Tracey would call initially she would only get Dani who would tell her Ray was not available or gone, or whatever the excuse was at that time. Later her calls would not even go through as her number was blocked. Her email was also blocked and she did not receive responses from letters. She even sent one certified and it was returned to her.

But, when Dani went to Indiana Ray initially stayed in Florida. He lived with a friend of theirs for a while and even got his own phone. He was able to regain contact with his daughter. In fact, Ray's friend even paid for him to visit his daughter at one point. Then sometime in 2013 Ray moved to Indiana with Dani. Both of her parents had passed away from cancer and they had owned 300 acres in property. Dani and her two siblings were expected to split this property and until that was settled it seems the couple placed a trailer on the property to live.

For his part Ray began sometimes working as a truck driver although it was not clear just exactly what or how he did this. He did have a truck that when he was not at work was placed on their property. In 2014 Dani and Ray legally divorced but it was said that they had done so solely for financial reasons. Ray was eligible to draw off of Maggie's social security and being strapped for cash, they decided this was a legitimate option. Ray and Dani continued to live together as if nothing had changed.

Then, on May 28, 2014 the local police in Dillsboro were contacted by Betty Green, Ray's eighty-four year old mother. She told the authorities that she had received a phone call from Dani and was told that the couple's german shepherd, Jazzy had attacked Ray, cut his throat and killed Ray. Betty was obviously upset and asked authorities to go to the property and do a welfare check on her son.

Local officers went to the property and the only person, or animal for that matter, that they saw was Dani. They asked her where her husband was and she stated that he was working on the road in his truck. Officers immediately knew this was obviously a lie considering Ray's truck was not only on the property but in plain sight. They asked if they could search the property and Dani told them they could search anything they wanted. That is except for a long metal toolbox not far from the front door of the trailer. It was one of those toolboxes that are often seen in the back of pick up trucks and the like. Dani claimed that this toolbox belonged to her husband and told officers that she did not have the right to give them permission to search there. This was odd to the officers for several reasons.

First, there was absolutely no reason that this would be the ONLY thing on the property that she could not give permission to search if this was the angle she was going to take. I mean Ray's truck was on the property. If she was going to claim she could not give permission to search the box, then she could not give permission to search the truck, yet that did not seem to be a problem. Secondly, the officers noticed that while the metal toolbox had a padlock attached to it, they also noticed that it was not completely closed on one side. In addition to that the officers would later say that there was a very disturbing smell coming from the toolbox and many flies were swarming around the lid. Dani stood firm in her stance that they were not given permission to search the toolbox.

It took a few hours but officers were able to get a search warrant for the toolbox. When they opened the toolbox they were shocked to find the bullet ridden body of Ray Green inside decomposing. They also found a large piece of bloodstained carpet that had been removed from the trailer inside. Among other things they found inside the box were blankets, sheets, Dani's bloodstained shirt and some cleaning supplies. Despite the fact that it seemed obvious to the police officers and other law enforcement that this was a murder they had on their hands, it would be eight days before Dani would be arrested and charged with murder. The story is that authorities were waiting for the medical examiner to officially rule the death a homicide.

At this point Dani's story began to change. She was now claiming that Ray had been physically abusive for many years and that he had attempted to force her to have sex for days leading up to the shooting. This was a claim that she would continue through her trial. It would include the claim that on the morning of the shooting that Ray had gotten up out of the bed on Memorial Day (May 26^th) and had threatened to kill her. She knew that he kept a .38 revolver in the bedside table. She claimed she was about to get around him and get the gun. She continued to claim that Ray continued to threaten her and come toward her and she opened fire. When all was said and done Ray Green was left with ten gunshot wounds. Five of the shots were to the torso area and five were to his head. Of the five in his head one shot was to the temple and the other four were in the back of the head. The gun itself was only a five shooter so Dani had reloaded the gun at least once.

Dani went on trial in August of 2015. The state argued that this was not a self defense case in any way, shape or form. They presented evidence that indicated that despite her claims that Ray had awoke and was threatening her, that he was in fact still in bed. They claimed that the evidence showed that Ray was still sleeping in the bed when he was shot and that bullet holes in the blanket that was generally on the bed proved this. The defense would attempt to argue that Dani's self defense story was true and that Raymond had gotten out of the bed with the blanket still around him. I hope that this seems as absurd to you as it sounded to me, but we will touch on that in a bit. I never saw an explanation when it came to how or why she stuffed his body in the toolbox and did all of the apparent clean up instead of calling the authorities.

The prosecution could find no one who in the slightest saw any evidence or had any indication that Ray was abusive to Dani in any way. The defense on the other hand found themselves a witness that they brought to the stand to testify about abuse. The woman, who I could only find identified as “Carol,” had been Ray and Dani's mail lady when they lived in Florida. “Carol” (and this is exactly as I saw her name said) talked to the media also. She would claim that when the couple lived in Florida she often saw black eyes on Dani. She would admit that she did not ever see marks or bruises anywhere else on Dani's body but by doing so she would point out how Dani always wore clothing that covered her body. “Carol” claims that she and Dani became “good friends” during that time and even still had to admit that Dani never told her that Ray was abusing her. She also had to admit that she had no proof and only a feeling that abuse was going on.

The prosecution had two other things in their arsenal. When Ray and Dani had lived in Florida and were in the shooting club they had met another member named George Mann. When Dani moved to Indiana she and George stayed in touch through the Internet and text messages. George claimed to the media, and possibly at trial, that it was not a romantic relationship but initially to investigators he admitted to being in love with Dani. While it does not appear that George knew anything about any sort of abuse but he did claim that Dani saw the divorce from Ray as a way to get away from him and that she wanted a life without Ray. More importantly prosecutors were able to determine that three months before Ray was shot Dani had done an Internet search that asked “What happens when you shoot a guy in the head with a .38?” If this is not telling I am unsure what is.

The jury did not believe this was a self defense case in any way and after a two week trial and eight hours of deliberation they returned a verdict of guilty. On October 30, 2015 Danielle Green was sentenced to sixty years in prison. Her earliest possible release date is in May of 2043 when she will be seventy one years old.

Before, during and after Dani's trial her attorney spoke with the media and went on and on about how Ray had been abusive to Dani and how he (the attorney) full-heartedly believed that this was a self defense case and that she was fearful of her life on that May morning in 2014. I am sure that I have mentioned before in a few of my blogs that I have taken college law courses. That, along with my “obsession” with true crime feeds my passion for the law. Many times I have stated that if I was every an attorney I do not believe that I could be a defense attorney, at the very least I would not be a good one. I could not lie or twist things to fit a picture to get someone off.

I am currently reading a book by Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutor from the Charles Manson trial. After being a prosecutor for many years he became a defense attorney and obviously an author. He states in his book that as a defense attorney he could not defend someone that he believed was guilty. This would be me. The difference is that Bugliosi could supplement his income with books, speaking engagements and appearing in or on anything pertaining to the Manson case. I would not have that luxury.

In my opinion there is absolutely no way way that Dani's attorney could have truly believed that she was an abused woman who killed her husband in self defense no what how many times he said it publicly. I feel as if his insistence in this area was in essence disrespectful not just to the legal community but an insult to the jury members in this case. The fact of the matter is that this man was shot ten times and four of those shots were to the back of his head. In order to claim self defense one has to prove that they are in immediate danger and legitimately in fear of their lives. The fact that Ray was shot in the back of the head, let alone, the back of his body at all shows that he was not even facing her when she shot him. I mentioned earlier that I would touch base again on the issue of her attorney attempting to say that Ray was not sleeping when Dani shot him but had gotten up with the blanket around him. Dani's story was specifically that Ray was threatening to kill her and was enraged. And yet according to her attorney we are supposed to believe this but believe he not only got up and went after her but continued to keep the blanket around him while he was threatening her.

Then this attorney has the audacity to put on the stand a woman who “feels” like Dani was abused by Ray. This was a woman who claimed to become good friends with Dani and still say her “good friend” never told her Ray was abusive, but “he got what he deserved” because deep down she just knew he was abusing Dani. She claimed that she would ask Dani about bruises on her face or black eyes she saw and Dani always told her that it had something to do with a horse or her training. But, “Carol” did not buy that at all. While all the other “real” friends the couple had in Florida stated that Dani wore long sleeves and pants because of her fear of cancer and sun damage to her skin “Carol” knew differently.

Here is my assessment of this case. Ray and Maggie Green were a dedicated and loving couple and when Maggie died tragically Ray was lost. Dani already knew the couple and she knew they owned horses and land, etc.... so there had to have been some money and then Ray had more when lawsuits were settled from Maggie's death. Dani waltzed in and started showing this lonely man some attention. Have I mentioned that Ray was twenty years older than Dani? No? Well, there was that too. Dani got this man to do whatever she wanted and give her whatever she wanted. And then times got tough. They lost money, they lost jobs, they lost property. Ray no longer had anything to offer her but maybe companionship. Then her parents got sick and she went to Indiana. It is unclear why she did not just end the relationship then other than the fact that by all accounts Ray still adored her and gave her attention and I suppose if you do not have money and he does not have money, then attention is the next best thing. I even question if Dani did not push for their divorce in 2014 so he could claim Maggie's social security as a widower more than Ray did. After her parents died and their estate was settled Dani was planning to have property, maybe not money, but property. Maybe in the beginning she thought Ray had some more to teach her about owning horses. Besides if she has the land she likely believed he would help her get some horses. But in the end Ray did not have any money and could offer her very little.

Why did she kill him that day? Who knows. I would be curious to know if she realized that she murdered Ray on the 12^th anniversary of Maggie's death or if that was just a coincidence on her part. Why then did she call his mother and tell her that he had died after their dog attacked him? By the way the dog was never found. I do admit that her actions and behavior after the murder were odd and unusual but was it because she was crazy... or stupid??