True Crime Stories

  My goal today is to get several blogs put together and published. May the Force be with me (yes, along with many of my passions is a love for Star Wars) as I attempt to make that happen. I have several already researched and I have attempted to do this one more than once but I'm like the dog who sees the squirrel (yep, animated movies too) and loses my attention span! I blog about more cases that go to trial than those that end in plea deals or any other way mainly because those are the better cases to research. There is always more information out there in cases that go to trial as there are more articles about information and those that end in convictions generally have appeals filed which also gives a lot of information. That being said, taking a case to trial is not always the smart thing to do for a defendant. It is said, and has often been proven, that prosecutors and judges prefer plea deals. It saves time and money for the county or state for one. Often prosecut...

When a couple divorces the claws come out. So often it is only then that allegations of abuse arise and while this is sometimes the case, the courts have become leery of these allegations over the years because so many times it has been found to be false. Judges and courts are left to decide who to believe in cases. I had a personal experience in my own previous divorce that left me wondering if false allegations would land me in legal trouble and left my family fearing for my life. I was less concerned with the latter but looking back I have often wondered if I was not just too naive to believe things could have been worse after learning more things. The case involving Allen Blackthorne and his ex-wife Sheila Bellush was just as muddied. The couple had married in 1982 and had two daughters, Stevie and Daryl. While throughout my research I found instances where it stated they were divorced in either 1986, 1987, 1988 or 1989 (yes it was crazy how many different years I...

If you are a regular reader than you know I do not always agree with a jury verdict. You also know that I have often said I am neither for or against the death penalty but I believe there should be absolutely no question what so ever that the person that is executed is guilty of their crime. The only case that I feel I could categorically state that I felt a person was innocent and yet executed is the case of Todd Willingham in Texas.... this is until now. Maybe it is not a coincidence that this case also took place in Texas or that after years of having what was called an “express lane” to their execution chamber that Texas slowed their process down and started offering more DNA testing to inmates. This is also a case that today would not have seen the perpetrator executed as he was a minor when the crime occurred. On November 8, 1984 at a house under construction in San Antonio Texas to men were shot. The home had been burglarized previously and a water heater had b...

On the evening of May November 22, 2004 in San Antonio Texas a popular high school teacher, Diane Tilly, was packing in preparation for a trip when there was a knock at her door.  When she opened the door 15 year old Pearl Ann Cruz was standing there saying she had car trouble and asking to come inside and make a call. Soon Pearl and her father, Ronnie Joe Neal were inside Diane's house and by the time the night was over Diane would lay in field dead from several gunshot wounds. Most reports that I found stated that at some point before the murder Ronnie Joe Neal had gone to Diane Tilly's home, with his daughter, Pearl, in search of lawn mowing jobs.  The stories say that while she denied needing her grass mowed she had offered them an old swing set that was in her yard.  This was the claimed as really being the only contact made between the victim and her murderers prior to her killing. However, at his trial there was a Thanksgiving card shown that Ronnie Joe Neal...