After The First 48 S10 E05
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00:00The following program documents a real homicide case, the investigation, the pursuit of justice,
00:11and the lasting impact on the loved ones left behind.
00:23Ashley didn't have much for his money, but he had people that actually loved him.
00:29For those most affected by a homicide, Ashley had sort of been the protector in the neighborhood.
00:36He was a very proud man.
00:37The first 48 is just the beginning.
00:39What was they fighting for?
00:41The young guys that started with him all the time, it's been a long way to go off.
00:48Ashley wasn't running from these kids, he was standing up to them.
00:53That mother****er went and got his gun, he said, I got that mother****er AK and I'm gonna
00:58kill all of you mother****ers.
01:00This is the story of the fight for justice.
01:03I felt that the defense was going to be self-defense.
01:06And if you have an armed victim who's been aggressive towards the defendant, you could
01:10have a potential disaster on your hands.
01:12In the weeks, months, and years.
01:15The biggest worry was, is this guy gonna get away with it?
01:19After the first 48.
01:35A residential street on the east side of town.
01:38I'm a woman's actress of the emergency.
01:41They shoot on me across the street.
01:43Okay.
01:44Has anyone been shot?
01:45I don't know.
01:47Call your police man.
01:55Hey, hey.
01:56How many people are shot?
01:59Patrol finds a man, gunned down in his own front yard.
02:03Where's he shot at?
02:04Back up, back up.
02:05Where's he shot at?
02:07I don't know, I didn't see.
02:09Alright, alright, alright.
02:11Alright.
02:22I am originally from Mobile, Alabama.
02:26When I started my career, I patrolled for about three years.
02:30And jumped right into homicide.
02:32You talking about a huge learning curve.
02:34Straight from the streets, right in the fire.
02:42This is the Crichton area.
02:44Some of my kinfolk stay right down the street from here.
02:48A lot of people in that neighborhood actually went to school with me.
02:51It's not the best neighborhood.
02:53But it's a neighborhood where everyone pretty much knows everyone.
03:00This street is always busy with people just hanging out.
03:02So, I mean, somebody saw something.
03:07What's up?
03:08Stay with me.
03:13Me as a young investigator, only been in for like five months.
03:17You trying to put things together about what happened?
03:22I'm crazy.
03:27Ashley Hayes was a 49-year-old Mobile native who survived by four sisters.
03:32He repaired cars out of his home and helped neighbors in need.
03:37He was a longtime resident of the Crichton community.
03:40Of course, everyone knew him.
03:42You see people outside of the tape.
03:44You hear people talking.
03:56He obviously was a good guy and had some good friends as well.
04:02Working in the homicide unit, it's always a challenge.
04:05But what drives me is being able to see something through to the end,
04:10trying to determine what occurred, who did it, and bring justice for the community.
04:21We did discover that he had been shot multiple times to his back.
04:27When someone is shot that way, it obviously raises a lot of concerns.
04:31What was the victim doing when he got shot?
04:33At the time, we believed that Ashley didn't even see this coming.
04:44Apparently, there was a witness here, and I lived across the street.
04:48She basically said she witnessed it.
04:52Okay, I'm trying to talk to her.
04:56We were hoping that her living directly across the street
04:59would give her a great view of exactly what occurred.
05:13She told us that the victim was tussling with some younger boys in the front yard.
05:30From what we learned, he was a tough guy.
05:32He didn't take any mess for a lot of the young guys in that neighborhood.
05:37But we weren't sure at the time what this could have been about or what this would have been over.
05:51She told us that Ashley was going inside to get an AK to go get a gun.
06:00She made it sound like Ashley was the one that was an aggressor.
06:07If Ashley is armed with a gun, then you obviously raise the question of whether or not the suspect was acting in self-defense.
06:30I was in the house.
06:35Did you see the gun?
06:37I ain't seen it.
06:39All I know is I know that mother****er went in and got his own.
06:43But at this time, we don't know if he actually came out with a gun or not.
06:46Because on scene, there is no gun.
06:52How many guys were they tussling with?
06:54One person.
06:55All young boys?
06:57The young boy? You know what he was wearing?
07:09The neighbor admits her two sons were there when the fight broke out.
07:26I met the witness with dealing with some of her kids in the past.
07:30So I knew there was a chance that she may not be completely forthcoming, especially if any of her relatives were involved in the incident.
07:39After all this happened, have you seen either one of your sons?
07:42I ain't seen nobody.
07:43Are you sure they're not in your house?
07:46No, they're not in my house.
07:49Who is she actually protecting? Is she protecting her sons?
07:54If you put me in the right direction to talk to somebody, who would it be?
08:00You look one fine young man.
08:02Thank you, man, but you got to be careful.
08:04How do you remind me of my first boyfriend?
08:06If I'm going to be compared to a nice-looking boyfriend that she had, I'm fine with that.
08:12That's that small door of opportunity that I have to build a rapport with her.
08:16Thank you, man, but you got to hit your ass on the same time.
08:20I don't know.
08:21I don't know.
08:43She was very adamant that she didn't see the shooting and what actually occurred.
08:47But I believe that she saw exactly what happened.
08:57You see all these people outside.
08:59Somebody has to have seen something.
09:09With this witness, she didn't want to be seen talking to the police right there on site.
09:14But when you hear that, it means there's really good information that's about to come my way.
09:25How you doing?
09:26I'm Detective Rogers. I'm part of the detective program.
09:30What are you going to tell me about tonight?
09:32We were at the street. We had a little iron bowl party.
09:36The party host says she was watching the football game with friends when her husband stepped outside.
09:42And it was taking him too long to come back.
09:45So what I went on out there, they trying to stop the guys from trying to jump on.
09:49She says her husband helped break up the fight in Ashley's yard.
09:54That's when the guy shot him in the back. Boom, boom, boom.
10:00I seen him when he came up. He didn't see me, but I seen him.
10:04I'm hanging on to every word that she says.
10:08I'm hoping she's about to give me the actual shooter.
10:12Who is him?
10:28I know who it is.
10:31I don't know his real name, but his name is Mimi.
10:34I was excited to just have a name.
10:37I'm like, okay, I know we're getting somewhere.
10:40You saw Mimi firing a gun?
10:41Yeah.
10:44Mimi came from behind him, coming up on the side of the house and bang, bang, bang.
10:50Did you see Ashley with a gun?
10:52Mm-mm. I didn't see.
10:55So then that's just the fight that was going on in the street.
10:58Mm-hmm.
10:59When it first started, who was fighting?
11:02The party host says she saw Ashley fighting with Mimi and his neighbor's son.
11:07Have you seen either one of your sons?
11:09I ain't seen nobody.
11:11That explained why she was being so vague about what was going on.
11:16So it started to put all the pieces together for us.
11:20She says after Ashley was shot, neighbors rushed to his side.
11:25I can't bang on the girl's name. It's a young girl.
11:28But she did CPR and I told her to try to check his pulse.
11:31Where's the gun at?
11:33I don't know. I didn't see.
11:35I don't know. I didn't see.
11:37All right. All right. All right.
11:41Something's got to stop. There's always something bad happening.
11:45Ashley will help anybody. When I say anybody, he will help anybody.
11:50That's true. Appreciate it.
11:56Right now, I'm heading back to the neighbor's house.
12:06Dre, I talked to you early.
12:09You want to come in?
12:11Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
12:13We had to let her know that we know that it's not your son that actually did the shooting.
12:18So I asked her who was Mimi and she gave us the name Demetrius Dixon.
12:24It was kind of a sigh of relief at that point.
12:27We finally got a break in the case.
12:33Yeah, that is him.
12:35Demetrius Dixon, a.k.a. Mimi.
12:3928-year-old Demetrius Dixon was raised in Mobile and has a child.
12:44He has prior convictions for drug possession.
12:47Not only have a name, but now I have a face to put to it.
12:55At this point, we have two conflicting statements about whether or not the suspect was acting in self-defense.
13:02We've got the neighbor that's across the street saying that Ashley was going to get an AK.
13:07And we've got the party host saying that he wasn't armed with a gun.
13:15Then...
13:17I remember he was still holding his gun.
13:21The woman who gave Ashley CPR agrees to an interview.
13:25He was laid out and the gun was physically still in his hand.
13:34It was in his right.
13:36She says she didn't want to start CPR while Ashley was still holding his weapon.
13:42I remember asking him to move the gun.
13:45It was his friend, Ashley's friend.
13:48Even if Ashley does have a gun, it doesn't mean that it's automatically self-defense.
13:54We needed to try to determine why did the suspect in this case shoot his gun?
13:59What was the victim doing at this time?
14:02The team wants to hear what happened from Mimi, but they don't have enough evidence to arrest him.
14:08With five hours to go in the first 48...
14:11Now I have to provide a photo line-up to the party host to identify Mimi.
14:16And that would give us enough for an arrest.
14:19You've got to look at the guy that was on the side of the house firing the shots.
14:24You gave me the name Mimi.
14:27So with this photo line-up, who was that guy?
14:30It was Mimi.
14:31So who is this?
14:33Mimi.
14:37Thank God.
14:39For her to pick out Demetrius Dixon in that photo line-up,
14:43I think it was a mistake.
14:45It was a mistake.
14:47It was a mistake.
14:49It was a mistake.
14:51It was a mistake.
14:53It was a mistake.
14:55It was a mistake.
14:57It was a mistake.
14:59It was a mistake.
15:01The photo line-up was the best feeling ever.
15:04At this point we have enough to pick up Demetrius Dixon.
15:07But it was still hard for us to determine whether or not if it was a self-defense case.
15:15Then...
15:19Another witness turns up.
15:22It's hard for witnesses to come in and speak with police.
15:26But some people have a heart.
15:27And with Ashley's friend, he decided to come in and tell exactly what he knows.
15:44He says Mimi kicked Ashley and started shouting at him.
15:58They looked like a revolver.
16:01I said, let's break them up.
16:03So the friend is actually walking Ashley to the house.
16:07He's calming him down.
16:09I said, let's go get a beer. I said, I'm not buying.
16:12He said, okay. He said, let me shut my door.
16:15I turned around and saw him on the toilet in the car.
16:18Ashley went in the house.
16:20He's like, I got something for all of y'all.
16:22And Mimi was saying, I'm not going to get guns from you, Ashley.
16:25You don't want to get guns from me.
16:27And I heard Ashley say, f*** this s***.
16:30By that time, I never heard shots going off in here.
16:35I just got down.
16:38By the time I turned around a little, I seen that guy, Mimi, standing over me.
16:45The friend didn't see the shots happening.
16:48But he thinks that Demetrius was the one that shot.
16:52I just shook my head. I said, man, calm down.
16:55It was my partner, man. It f***ing hurt.
16:58It hurt like a motherf***er.
17:01We shouldn't have gone out like this.
17:05He was very emotional.
17:07He hated that Ashley was out there fighting with some younger guys.
17:12And you can tell that he hated to lose his friend.
17:15What was they fighting for?
17:17I found out later that guy, he was fighting.
17:20His car was in the driveway.
17:21His car was in the driveway.
17:23So I guessed the guy that confronted him.
17:28The young guys, they started with him all the time.
17:33It's been a long way to go off, you know, for a long time.
17:38Ashley wasn't running from these kids or locking himself in the house.
17:43He was standing up to them and was going to not let them run all over him.
17:49At any point, did you see Ashley with the gun?
17:52No, I didn't. I ain't never seen him with no gun.
17:56Even after he got shot, did you see him holding the gun or anybody going to his pockets?
18:02No.
18:04At this point, I don't know what to believe.
18:07We know it was only a handful of people that was around Ashley during this time.
18:13And you were one of them?
18:15I was one of them.
18:16I remember asking him who he was.
18:18Do you know who he actually is?
18:20It was his friend, Ashley's friend.
18:22I want to be completely honest with you.
18:25I believe that you took the weapon off the scene.
18:42Once I got the call that it was on Mill Street, of course I knew a lot of people in that area.
18:46For them, this is home.
18:48This is their community.
18:50Before Ashley was shot, apparently there's been a lot going on between this younger group and the older generation.
19:00Drugs are involved.
19:02And you had people hanging out on the street, on a corner.
19:06Then you're going to get a call from some of the elders that lives here, that's been here for a while,
19:10that's tired of seeing these guys hanging out on the streets.
19:17So, was Ashley one of the ones that was tired of it?
19:20Of course.
19:22And that particular night, Ashley Hayes stood up to that younger generation.
19:27And that's the reason why he was shot.
19:30The First 48
19:43As the First 48 winds down.
19:59So, now we have conflicting things, gun, no gun.
20:02That's what I was dealing with that whole case.
20:05But at this point, we had the party host identify Mimi.
20:09And now we had Ashley's friend identify our suspect.
20:12So, we felt pretty confident that this was going to be the right person.
20:19The next day, the team heads to Mimi's last known address, his grandmother's house.
20:26When we get there, I'll probably stay back in the car.
20:29If we show up with a bunch of people, you may really spook them.
20:35But we also wanted to make sure that everybody there was safe.
20:38So, we had officers in the area that could observe, just in case he decided to resist in any kind of way.
20:54Yo, what up, Woods?
20:55Yo, what up, Woods?
21:08When we went to interview Demetrius, I expected him to talk.
21:13All he had to do was explain on why he'd done it.
21:17Demetrius, do you have any idea what this could be about?
21:21No.
21:24Nothing whatsoever?
21:26You ain't got to tell me.
21:28In every interview, we always give you your chance to give your side of the story.
21:33Do you remember being over on Mill Street at some point within the last couple of days?
21:40Yeah.
21:42If it was self-defense, he would say, this is why I did it.
21:45He had a gun pointed at me or something.
21:47He didn't do that.
21:48Let me ask you this question, when was the last time you were over on Mill Street?
21:59I ain't gonna answer no more questions.
22:04I ain't got no lawyer.
22:06I see y'all trying to put me somewhere.
22:09I would have thought he would at least came up and said, you know, he shot her.
22:13So, you know, something like that.
22:15So if he was going to go with the self-defense theory, he never came up with it.
22:20Me, me.
22:22It's enough, fam.
22:24You're being charged with murder, all right?
22:26Mm-hmm.
22:27You hear me?
22:28Mm-hmm.
22:29So you knew that was coming, don't you?
22:30You wouldn't have been surprised.
22:33You know, I'm not surprised.
22:35Once we make an arrest, the case isn't over yet.
22:38Because we have no cameras that witness the shooting, only eyewitnesses.
22:43We still have some loose ends.
22:45And trial comes around.
22:47Did Ashley have a gun?
22:48Did not have a gun.
22:50We've got Ashley's friend saying that he wasn't armed with a gun.
22:56No, I didn't.
22:58But he's obviously going to look out for the best interest of the victim.
23:01We need an independent attorney.
23:02We need an independent witness of the victim.
23:04We need an independent witness to corroborate that.
23:20After six months with no leads.
23:22That's when the surprise witness showed up.
23:32Mm-hmm.
23:34Mm.
23:38He says he was actually there when the shooting happened.
23:46I'm hoping to hear exactly what he saw.
23:50Who had a gun, who didn't have a gun.
23:54Who shot, who didn't shoot.
23:56If he says Ashley shot first...
24:03We're about to listen to an interview of a surprise witness.
24:07And the interview was approximately six months after Demetrius Dixon was arrested.
24:12So once they have that argument, then what?
24:15Ashley went in the house.
24:17And he come back.
24:19So where are you at this time?
24:21I'm in the house.
24:23I'm in the house.
24:25I'm in the house.
24:27I'm in the house.
24:29I'm in the house.
24:30So where are you at this time?
24:34OK.
24:35Can you visually see Ashley from where you were?
24:46Shooting him in the back, that has to do with the question of whether or not the suspect was acting in self-defense.
25:01I don't see no gun.
25:03Detective Rogers did a really good job in that part of the interview clarifying the victim himself is not armed with anything at all.
25:11So there was no way that this case was justified.
25:15This witness was huge.
25:17So at this point I'm excited to hand over the case to the district attorney's office and we're just ready to go to trial.
25:25This case was solely built on eyewitnesses.
25:27I, as a prosecutor, love eyewitness cases.
25:30I like to have someone get on the stand and say, that's the man.
25:34That's the man who shot Ashley Hayes.
25:36But an eyewitness case is only as strong as your eyewitnesses.
25:40And these cases do not get better with age.
25:43The witnesses will disappear or you'll just lose contact with them.
25:47So as far as the defense was concerned, the longer this case goes on, the better.
25:58I am looking for the Demetrius Dixon motion files for all of our continuances.
26:06I was assigned to the Ashley Hayes case as the victim service officer.
26:11I'm having to explain to the family it's going to be a while for us to get to trial.
26:16This order is going to be from June 28.
26:20His attorney files for a continuance in October.
26:24The family was very frustrated with this system.
26:28Almost a year, another continuance here.
26:31They are going through something so traumatic that most people don't ever have to go through.
26:38After a year and a half of trial delays.
26:41The judge gave him a bond in April of 2018.
26:45Mimi is released.
26:47When he gets out on bond, it worries me.
26:51Because sometimes when witnesses see that a person is out, they may change their mind about wanting to testify or not.
26:58It could be a situation where the defendant passes by those witnesses' house every day.
27:03He walks by and he looks at them and they look back and they know what he's looking at.
27:08Is that going to scare my witnesses? Are they going to show up for trial?
27:13It was not looking great.
27:14It was not looking great with the time ticking and the potential witness issues.
27:20The biggest worry was, is this guy going to get away with it?
27:25I was far from a seasoned attorney at that point.
27:29So I will readily admit that I was not prepared to try a murder case on my own.
27:34So we needed a more experienced attorney to come in and help Mr. Damarich.
27:39Almost two years since Ashley Hayes was killed.
27:42My initial assessment was that we had a lot of work to do.
27:47Veteran prosecutor Deborah Tillman takes the lead.
27:52The district attorney told me to get this case to trial.
27:56We had three eyewitnesses and I'm just hopeful that I can get them to court and they will say the same things.
28:04I'm worried there's going to be inconsistencies.
28:07The more inconsistencies, the more someone is changing their story, the less reliable they are.
28:13And the more things that the defense can latch on to.
28:16So we have the party host, we have the friend, and then we have a surprise witness.
28:22I thought that the friend was going to be maybe our strongest witness.
28:26He had a lot of good information, very confident in what he saw, very confident in his memory.
28:32But with the surprise witness, the initial interview was less encouraging.
28:37I was concerned about him.
28:40He mentioned other people firing guns off in the air and he also indicated that he had only seen the defendant shoot the victim one time.
28:50And we knew that the victim had been shot three times.
28:53So I felt like he may not play as well in front of the jury.
28:58Our last witness is the lady who had the party that night.
29:02I thought that she would come across credible.
29:05I just didn't know if we could keep her on point and keep her on track about what was relevant in the case.
29:11So I had some concerns about that.
29:14But after meeting with these witnesses, we felt it was very likely that they were going to be cooperative.
29:22I think the witnesses understood what was going on.
29:26I think the witnesses understood that now it was their turn.
29:31They needed to come forward and to deliver justice for their friend.
29:36They understood that Ashley had died trying to protect the neighbors.
29:43Ashley wasn't the type to just allow things to happen on that street.
29:48He wasn't going to back down from anyone.
29:51Ashley had sort of been the protector in the neighborhood.
29:56But because of that, I felt that the defense was going to be self-defense.
30:01Because some people indicated that the victim had a gun that night.
30:12And there was another thing.
30:15I found out that Ashley had a criminal history.
30:17A criminal history.
30:19In 2001, Ashley pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
30:23He served 10 years in prison.
30:25And if you have an armed victim who's been aggressive towards the defendant,
30:30you've got all the building blocks for a self-defense case.
30:34The jury could find him not guilty.
30:36You give any skilled attorney, especially the one in this case, these type of facts,
30:41you could have a potential disaster on your hands.
30:48Ashley did have a criminal history.
30:51And I knew that if the jury knew that he had this criminal history,
30:56that they would potentially focus on that.
30:59So I did not want the defense attorney to try and put the victim on trial here.
31:06That would have been very damaging for our case,
31:09in terms of bolstering the defense.
31:11But because you're talking about things that happened years and years ago,
31:15they are completely irrelevant to whether or not this crime happened.
31:21So we filed a motion to exclude any mention of the victim's past.
31:29And we were successful in doing that pre-trial.
31:33Two years after Ashley Hayes was killed,
31:36the trial of Demetrius Dixon begins.
31:39So this is my first murder trial.
31:42I was nervous and excited at the same time.
31:44The weight of the world is pretty much on the detective's shoulders.
31:48And I didn't want to be the one to go through that.
31:51I didn't want to be the one to go through that.
31:53I didn't want to go through that.
31:55I didn't want to go through that.
31:57I didn't want to go through that.
31:59I didn't want to go through that.
32:00And I didn't want to be the one to mess anything up.
32:04The family's sitting there.
32:06They're all very anxious.
32:08It's very quiet.
32:10You can almost hear a pin drop.
32:14My impression of Demetrius when he came in the courtroom is that
32:18he really wasn't taking this very seriously,
32:20which frankly even motivates me more when I see that.
32:24Opening statements are a preview of what you expect the case to be about.
32:30I read the defense's argument.
32:32I looked just as surprised as anyone.
32:34At that point, I knew that the defense is not going to be self-defense.
32:38And he was definitely going to attack our witnesses.
32:42He said, I want you to think of every person that takes the stand
32:46and know that what this person's saying is going to be inconsistent
32:50with what someone else is saying later.
32:52So either one of them's not true or they're both not true.
32:56And if you don't know, then you must acquit him.
32:58And there was a lot of truth to it, quite frankly.
33:02There was a lot of chaos.
33:04There was alcohol involved.
33:06And there was some inconsistencies.
33:08The defense puts forth alcohol inconsistencies and chaos.
33:13Sounds like a bad country song.
33:21That first witness is where the jury is probably paying more attention
33:26than they will ever pay in that trial.
33:28So you lead off with someone strong.
33:30We called Mr. Hayes' friend first because I felt like he was going to get up there
33:36and do a good job.
33:38But then came the cross.
33:43What we're doing is we're looking at the initial interview
33:46that the friend gave with the police.
33:48And we're comparing these to the trial transcript.
33:50The friend had acknowledged that he had been drinking that night.
33:55So then when we go to the trial,
33:57and you have the defense attorney cross-examining him,
34:00you had been drinking, correct?
34:02I had, yeah, a few beers.
34:04A few beers.
34:06Were you drunk?
34:08No.
34:09You weren't drunk?
34:10No.
34:12Okay, you're telling this jury that you never said you were half-lit.
34:16I don't know what you're talking about.
34:17You never said you were half-lit.
34:19I don't remember saying lit.
34:21I might have told them I was drunk, but I don't remember saying lit.
34:24So you now have a witness who's evasive,
34:27who's changing his testimony.
34:30It's not the best way to start a trial.
34:33If it wasn't bad enough,
34:35he continues to dig a hole about a very big consequential detail.
34:41The friend had been adamant that Ashley did not have a gun.
34:47At any point, did you see Ashley with a gun?
34:50No, I didn't.
34:52I ain't never seen her with a gun, no.
34:54But then when we go again to the trial transcript,
34:57do you remember telling the police
34:59that you never saw Ashley with a gun that night?
35:01I misunderstood the question that he asked me,
35:04but I did see him with one.
35:07I was like, what in the world is going on here?
35:11What are you talking about?
35:13If you listen to the playback of that,
35:15there is no misunderstanding what he's asking.
35:18He's very clearly asking, did you see him with a gun?
35:21He's very clearly saying no,
35:23and then at trial, he very clearly says yes.
35:26And I think it was a surprise to the defense attorney.
35:29I know it was a surprise to me.
35:31The defense attorney said to him,
35:34are you lying now or were you lying then?
35:37It doesn't matter how they answer it.
35:40It's bad either way.
35:42He's setting it up for argument
35:43that this witness is lying about everything.
35:47Considering that we thought he was our strongest witness,
35:50we were worried that it may be all downhill from there.
36:07This is the house where the victim lived.
36:10I wanted to go to the crime scene.
36:13I try to do that in every case.
36:16So when I came out here,
36:18I was trying to get a sense for myself
36:21exactly what had happened
36:23and where the witnesses were located.
36:26This area here was where several of the witnesses were located.
36:32The party was happening down the street.
36:35There were people out in the street.
36:38There was alcohol that was being served.
36:40I mean, it was a wild scene,
36:41and so it was easier for me to understand
36:45how, you know, this witness could see this
36:49and the other witnesses could see this.
36:52There's going to be inconsistencies.
37:04After the cross-examination of Ashley's friend,
37:07I don't understand how you can go from
37:09no gun to gun at this point.
37:13That was not what we were expecting to hear.
37:16It was very nerve-wracking, and the family were very anxious about it.
37:19If this is this way with Witness 1,
37:22I'm very concerned about Witness 2 and 3.
37:25Because of the story not entirely lining up,
37:28and that lends credence to reasonable doubt.
37:33To what degree the defense is going to be able to exploit those inconsistencies
37:37remains to be seen.
37:40So next up, we have the surprise witness.
37:43I had some anxiety going into that, for sure.
37:47I knew he was going to say he had only seen the defendant fire one time.
37:52We all knew Mr. Hayes had been shot three times.
37:55But he said to the defense attorney,
37:58I saw him shoot him in the back.
38:00I know who this guy is. I know his mama.
38:03I've known him most of his life.
38:04And I looked him in the eyes, and that's the one.
38:08He was very, very convincing.
38:11And I think the jury really picked up on that with him.
38:14And so the surprise witness turns out to be an extremely strong witness.
38:19To bolster their case, the state calls the party host.
38:24The stakes have now been raised.
38:26And we know that there's another discrepancy that we are going to have to deal with.
38:30This is Ashley's house right here.
38:32His body is found.
38:35And something that is not in dispute is that he was killed in the front yard.
38:39The friend and the surprise witness, they're around here.
38:46The party host was somewhere across the street viewing the scene here.
38:53So the party host says that she sees the defendant come around this side of the house
38:58and fire his gun and kill Ashley.
39:02That's what he maintains.
39:04But the surprise witness says basically the opposite.
39:08And then he comes from this side of the house, fires his gun and kills him.
39:11Which is a big discrepancy.
39:13It don't take much to confuse the jury.
39:17And when they start putting the suspect on different sides of the house,
39:20they're probably going to wonder, was he even at the house?
39:23It calls into question everything that those witnesses have said.
39:28For my closing argument, I had to come up with some way to explain these discrepancies.
39:36Because if you don't make some sort of sense of them,
39:39then the jury is going to go back there and try to do it for you.
39:42What I had to do was put the jury in the scene.
39:46If you hear gunshots popping off in every direction,
39:50the last thing that you are going to do is just sit down and say,
39:55okay, well, I see Demetrius over there and he's got a silver gun and it's a revolver.
40:01Let me make sure I make a mental note of that for three years later when we have a trial.
40:05You're not taking notes. You're not writing everything down.
40:08It is very understandable that someone may see something different.
40:14In fact, if there were no inconsistencies, it would seem way too good to be true.
40:19In closing arguments, what the defense attorney basically was able to say is,
40:24you can't shoot somebody from here.
40:26And then he walks across the courtroom and then turns around and says, and shoot somebody from here.
40:31The defense's argument was really compelling and really convincing, and I thought ours was too.
40:36It was really up in the air.
40:41When the jury went back to deliberate, I was concerned.
40:45I was nervous. I was so nervous.
40:47Because you only get one shot at this guy. One shot.
40:51It wasn't very long that they were out, so I wasn't sure if that was good news or bad news.
41:01The jury comes in. The foreperson hands over the paper to the judge.
41:05It was a point where you can actually hear your heart beat through your ears.
41:10Then the foreperson reads, guilty of murder.
41:14I mean, chills. Because, you know, we got the right answer.
41:19To get the verdict that we did, it was much needed.
41:26I think the jury ultimately believed all of those witnesses because they came here for their friend, for Ashley Hayes,
41:35being willing to testify in front of the jury.
41:38They came here for their friend, for Ashley Hayes.
41:42Being willing to testify at risk to themselves is what made this case.
41:48They made this case.
41:58Give me your name again?
42:00I'm Deborah Tillman.
42:02I work in the district attorney's office still, and I prosecuted the case.
42:06My dad was terrible about that.
42:08Yeah, it was a terrible situation.
42:10It didn't have to happen.
42:12No, it did not have to happen.
42:15Ashley was living in a house that had no water, that had no electricity.
42:21He was living a very modest life.
42:24But I think he was a very proud man, and I think he was very helpful to all of these people who lived here on this street.
42:30Ashley didn't have much as far as money or a licensed house, but he did have a heart.
42:39He had people that actually loved him, and that means a lot. That means a lot.