Kevin Keith: Wrongfully Convicted?

 Kevin Keith (born December 18, 1963) is an American prisoner and former death row inmate from Ohio who was convicted of the 1994 triple-homicide that killed Marichell Chatman, her daughter Marchae, and Linda Chatman. In 2022, his case received international attention due to claims of innocence and controversy surrounding his trial and conviction highlighted on a podcast hosted by Kim Kardashian titled The System: The Case of Kevin Keith.

Early life

Keith was raised in Crestline, Ohio, where he lived at the time of the crime. Keith has one brother, Charles. In high school, Keith played defensive tackle at Canton McKinley High School, winning a state title in 1981. As Keith got older, he began dealing drugs to make a living.

Crime

On February 13, 1994, three people were killed and three people were injured in a shooting at the Bucyrus Estates apartments in Bucyrus, Ohio. Marichell Chatman, her daughter Marchae, and her aunt, Linda Chatman were killed in the shooting. Marichell Chatman's boyfriend, Richard Warren, and her cousins, six-year-old Quanita Reeves and four-year-old Quentin Reeves were wounded. Warren, who was shot in the jaw, took off running toward a restaurant and was shot again in the buttocks. At the restaurant, Warren told four people, including one police officer, that he did not know who had shot him.

Investigation and witness accounts

The first description of the scene describes "a large black man" at the apartment complex. Several days after the shooting, police interviewed one of the victims, Richard Warren. Warren stated that Linda Chatman had stepped outside of the apartment to meet a man. When Warren asked Marichell Chatman who the man was, she stated that "it was Kevin who had been involved in a large drug bust." Linda and the man, who wore a mask, then came inside and talked about the basketball game while the man drank two glasses of water through the mask that covered his mouth. Afterward, the man ordered them to lie on the ground and began shooting. It was later determined the large black man originally described was Keith's half-brother who had recently moved into the apartment complex. When a nurse asked Quanita Reeves, the six-year-old victim, whose fault it was that she was in the hospital, Quanita stated it was her "Daddy's friend," Bruce Melton and repeatedly asserted that Keith was not the shooter.

The Bucyrus Police Department and Crawford County prosecutors claimed that Keith carried out the shooting in retaliation for his January 1994 arrest for selling 2.6 grams of crack cocaine, which had resulted from information received from Rudel Chatman. At the time, Rudel Chatman was a confidential informant for the Galion Police Department. Keith was arrested on February 15, 1994, and his bond was set for $1 million. He was never questioned by the police.

In 2022, Quanita Reeves, who was six at the time of the shooting, and Quentin Reeves, who was four, claimed that they were visiting their cousin Marichell Chatman at the time of the crime. They claimed that when they went downstairs to eat dinner there was a knock on the door and Kevin Keith was there, wearing no mask or gloves. The Reeves' said that they knew Keith because he was Marichell's ex-boyfriend, but did not know he was a drug dealer and that Marichell's brother, Rudel Chatman, was an informant who had recently helped to expose a drug ring involving Keith. They said Keith was carrying a bag which he said was full of laundry and asked for a drink of water. After drinking several glasses of water and realizing that Rudel Chatman was not there, the Reeves' claimed that Keith pulled a gun from the bag and shot the family. Quanita claims that she gave police the wrong name when she was in the hospital but that she is positive Keith was the shooter.

Legal proceedings

Trial

Keith's trial began on May 10, 1994, only a few months after the murders, and he was represented by attorney James Banks, who had never worked on a capital murder case before. At trial, the prosecution claimed that Keith was trying to retaliate against Rudel Chatman for his role as an informant in the drug bust that led to Keith's January 1994 arrest. Keith presented multiple alibi witnesses which placed him about thirty miles away from the crime. Keith claimed that he spent the evening of February 13, 1994, with his two girlfriends. He claimed that at around 6 p.m. he was at the home of his girlfriend, Melanie Davison, in Mansfield, Ohio. Neighbors testified that at approximately 8:45 p.m., the time of the shooting, Keith and Davison left Davison's home in a blue car that belonged to another girlfriend of Kevin's. At around 9 p.m., they arrived at Keith's aunt's home in Crestline, Ohio, and Keith went inside to talk to his uncle, Roy Price, to borrow five dollars. Keith claimed that they left his aunt's home ten minutes later and returned to Davison's home at 9:25 p.m.

Forensic analyst G. Michelle Yezzo testified that a license plate imprint of the number "043" left in a snow bank at the crime scene matched Keith's girlfriend's car. She also testified that she could conclude that tire tracks also matched the car after comparing the tracks to a photograph on a tire brochure.

Quanita and Quentin Reeves did not testify in the trial because they were still in the hospital and Quanita's statement that the shooter was Bruce Melton was not entered. No forensic evidence connected Keith to the crime. The jury found Keith guilty and sentenced him to death on June 1, 1994. Two Bucyrus police officers resigned immediately following Keith's conviction.

Appeals

In 2010, judges ruled that the evidence against Keith was "compelling, persuasive and overwhelming."

In an appeal, Keith's attorneys wrote that "The sheer distance involved makes it impossible for Keith to have been the shooter," noting that "From Gracie Keith's house, in Crestline, it is 19 miles to the apartment, and it would have taken approximately 25 minutes to make that drive. Mansfield and Bucyrus are approximately 30 miles apart. Keith was accounted for before, during, and after the shootings that took place at 8:45 p.m."

Following Keith's jury trial, new evidence regarding an alternative suspect, Rodney Melton, came to light including a statement Melton made to his girlfriend claiming that he was paid $15,000 to "cripple" Rudel Chatman and documents showing that Melton was known to wear a mask similar to the one worn by the perpetrator of the crime. Melton had been involved in a pharmacy burglary ring in which Rudel Chatman had been acting as an informant to the police. Rodney Melton was also the brother of Bruce Melton, who had initially been identified by Quanita Reeves, and he drove a car similar to the one described by witnesses. His car had a license plate containing "043", which matched the imprint left in the snowbank at the scene of the crime. Evidence was also discovered showing the location of a bullet casing used at Keith's trial may have been wrong.

Brady violations

On October 28, 2016, Keith and his lawyer, public defender Rachel Troutman, filed a motion for a new trial in the Ohio Third District Court of Appeals, claiming the state failed to make Brady disclosures regarding a witness, G. Michele Yezzo. Keith claimed that the state relied heavily upon the testimony of Yezzo, a forensic analyst at the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, who provided a crucial link between Keith and the crime scene. He claimed Yezzo's personnel file showed that Yezzo was mentally unstable and that her forensic conclusions were untrustworthy. Yezzo's personnel file included allegations that she habitually provided police departments the answers they wanted in cases. Yezzo had previously been placed on administrative leave and was actively under investigation at the time she worked on Keith's case. Evidence also included a copy of radio dispatch logs from the Bucyrus Police Department. The department had claimed they had obtained Keith's name from a hospital nurse who had called and told them that a shooting victim had identified Keith as the perpetrator, but the dispatch logs did not reflect the call and a note to "ignore for now" was written at the top of a subpoena for the dispatch logs. On January 13, 2017, Crawford County Common Pleas Judge Sean Leuthold denied Keith's motion for a new trial, stating that he did not find that "the information in Yezzo's personnel file constitutes newly discovered evidence that would allow for a motion for a new trial."

In 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reviewed the evidence and stated that "no reasonable factfinder would have found him guilty." Following the Sixth Circuit's decision, Keith was allowed to present new evidence to Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio contesting his conviction.

Post-conviction

Keith was scheduled to be executed on September 15, 2010, by lethal injection, by a unanimous recommendation of the parole board. On September 2, 2010, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland commuted Keith's sentence to life without parole, noting that there were questions about the evidence and a "troubling" failure to investigate other suspects. At the time, Strickland released a statement explaining his decision:

It is my view, after a thorough review of the information and evidence available to me at this time, that it is far more likely that Mr. Keith committed these murders than it is likely that he did not. Yet, despite the evidence supporting his guilt and the substantial legal review of Mr. Keith's conviction, many legitimate questions have been raised regarding the evidence in support of the conviction and the investigation that led to it. Under these circumstances, I cannot allow Mr. Keith to be executed.

In 2022, Strickland stated that he wished he had completely commuted Keith's sentence and that he had expressed this to the current governor Mike DeWine.

Podcast

In 2017, producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi heard about Keith's case and began talking with him. Rothschild Ansaldi was initially interested in creating a television show but thought a podcast might better explain the story. She connected with Kim Kardashian, who expressed support for the commutation of Keith's sentence in July 2019. On October 3, 2022, Kardashian released the first episode of a podcast created with Spotify titled The System: The Case of Kevin Keith, which gained international attention. Following its release, the podcast was ranked number one on the charts. The eight-episode podcast outlines the discrepancies throughout Keith's case. On the podcast, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly agreed to an interview "to demonstrate the need to reform the post-conviction process in Ohio for those who claim they are wrongly convicted" and stated that "Kevin Keith's case should concern anyone who is concerned with the integrity of the system." On episode eight of the podcast, Kardashian spoke with former Governor Ted Strickland, who stated that he wished he had fully commuted Keith's sentence in 2010.

In October 2022, surviving victims Quentin and Quanita Reeves criticized the podcast, claiming that they were never contacted and that they do not care about new evidence. When the podcast premiered, Quentin stated "We saw it with our own eyes. You don’t forget something like that. I don't care what Kim Kardashian says – Kevin did it." Quanita said that Kim Kardashian "did not contact us, not one time. If Kim Kardashian wants to get involved, she should come and meet us face-to-face." The producers of the podcast claim the survivors of the shooting were contacted multiple times but declined to participate in the podcast and asked the production team to stop contacting them. Quanita later stated in November 2022 that she had blocked Rothschild Ansaldi's number a few years prior, which explained the miscommunication about whether they had been contacted.

Kevin Keith. (2023, December 11). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Keith

Cline Falls Axe Attack

 

The Cline Falls axe attack refers to an unsolved attempted homicide that occurred on the evening of June 22, 1977, at the Cline Falls State Park in Deschutes County, Oregon United States. The victims were two female college students, Terri Jentz and her roommate, Avra Goldman, who were on a cross-country cycling ride along the Trans America Trail.

Both women decided to spend the night along the Deschutes River at the park near Redmond. During the night, they were awoken by a vehicle that drove over their tent, injuring both. The driver of the vehicle exited his car and proceeded to attack both women with an axe. Both women survived the attack, suffering significant injuries, but their attacker has never been positively identified.

Timeline

Background

In the summer of 1977, 19-year-old Terri Jentz of Western Springs, Illinois, and her roommate, 20-year-old Avra Goldman of Wellesley, Massachusetts, were both Yale University students who decided to cycle across the United States via the newly-opened Trans America Trail. Upon completing their tour, which ended in Astoria, Oregon, both women headed east through the state. On the night of June 22, they stopped at the Cline Falls State Park in rural Deschutes County and decided to camp there overnight along the river.

Jentz would later recall being unnerved by the location, and that both women felt as though they were being watched: "It was an animal instinct of danger, and we both had it, we both had it separately and we shared it with one another."

Attack

Around 11:30 p.m., while both women were asleep in their tent, they were awoken by the sound of a truck pulling up to their campsite. Jentz initially believed the vehicle was driven by partying teenagers who had driven up to the campsite. The vehicle then proceeded to drive over the tent before stopping, its tires pinning Jentz to the ground at her chest, breaking both of her arms, one leg, her collarbone, and several ribs, as well as crushing her lung. A man exited the vehicle carrying an axe and struck Goldman in the head with it around six times. After, the man stood over Jentz. She recalled:

I looked up at him and opened my eyes and I said, 'Take anything but leave us alone, please leave us alone. He brought the ax down slowly, and I caught it in my hands right above my heart, grabbed the blade in my hands... and then he withdrew it.

After Jentz begged the man, he returned to his vehicle and drove away. Though severely injured, Jentz managed to stumble to a nearby road, where she flagged down Bill Penhollow and Darlene Gervais, two teenagers who were passing by. Gervais recalled that Jentz was "so bloody it was dripping off her hair... the ends of her hair.” Penhollow and Gervais drove to the campsite to tend to Goldman, who was severely injured, and while doing so noticed a pair of headlights appear in the distance at the edge of the park, which frightened them as they assumed it to be the attacker returning to the scene. The vehicle, however, drove away.

Investigation

Initial response

Police arrived at the Cline Falls campsite after midnight on June 23, and began investigating the scene. Police officers who inspected the scene examined tire marks left in the dirt; they determined the vehicle likely had two bald tires in the rear which were 6 inches (150 mm) in width; one of the front tires was possibly bald, while the other had significant tread. Both Jentz and Goldman were taken to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, where Goldman underwent a nine-hour emergency brain operation.

Interviews and suspects

Detectives were unable to obtain a rounded description of the attacker from the victims; Goldman, who had sustained serious brain trauma, remembered nothing of the attack. Jentz, who was conscious throughout, did not see the face of the assailant but described him as a physically fit, "young cowboy" based on his clothing and stature.

In the weeks following the attack, a local woman in Redmond told authorities that she had been told that the attacker was a local young man named Richard "Dick" Damm (born November 10, 1959), then 17 years old. Damm was interviewed by detectives on several occasions, and it was discovered he had been in a fight with his girlfriend, Janey Fraley, around the date of the attack, though he never disclosed his specific whereabouts the night of June 22. Fraley denied that the two were fighting on that day, though she stated the two did fight often. After a polygraph examination taken by Damm proved inconclusive, he was given a second polygraph on July 14, 1977. The results of the second polygraph were shown to be "deceptive," though the validity of these results was called into question when it was discovered Damm was under the influence of methamphetamine during the examination. The results of both polygraph examinations were subsequently analyzed by laboratories in Salem, the state capitol, and it was the opinion of the analysts that Damm showed deception in both.

Fraley later told authorities that she had noticed Damm changed the tires on his truck shortly after the attack, and that a toolbox located in the truck bed had been removed. She also conceded to police that Damm had been abusive to her throughout their relationship.

Another suspect in the attack was convicted child rapist and murderer Richard Wayne "Bud" Godwin. After the attack, Godwin was imprisoned for the murder of a five-year-old child, whose skull he used as a candle holder. On the night of Jentz and Goldman's attack, a female relative of Godwin's–with whom he had allegedly had a sexual relationship–was possibly staying at Cline Falls Park. Despite law consideration of Godwin as a suspect, Jentz stated that he did not resemble the man she recalled attacking her.

Later developments

Both Jentz and Goldman survived their attack and recovered from their injuries, though Goldman was left with vision problems resulting from her head trauma. In September 1977, Goldman's parents donated $3,000 to St. Charles Medical Center into a fund for critical-care monitoring equipment under the names of Penhollow and Gervais, the two teenagers who found Jentz and Goldman and helped save them.

In 2006, Jentz published a book recounting her life after the attack, titled Strange Piece of Paradise. While researching in preparation for the book, she discovered that the official records of the attack, including interviews, physical evidence, and crime scene photos, had been inadvertently lost.

Cline Falls axe attack. (2023, August 19). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cline_Falls_axe_attack

The Crimes of Franklin Delano Floyd

 Franklin Delano Floyd (June 17, 1943 – January 23, 2023) was an American murderer, rapist, and death row inmate. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, as well as the kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes, who he claimed was his son, from his elementary school in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Floyd was also considered a person of interest in the 1990 hit-and-run death of his second wife and kidnapping victim Sharon Marshall, mother of Michael Anthony Hughes. It was later discovered that before becoming his wife, Sharon had been raised by Floyd from an early age as his daughter and was kidnapped by Floyd as a child.

Marshall's true identity remained a mystery until 2014 when she was positively identified as Suzanne Marie Sevakis, the daughter of a woman to whom Floyd was briefly married. He disappeared with Sevakis, her two sisters, and infant brother Phillip (also known as "Stevie") while her mother was serving a 30-day jail sentence in 1975. Sevakis' brother remained missing until 2019 when a man came forward believing he was Phillip; DNA tests confirmed his identity in 2020.

Early life

Franklin Delano Floyd was born in Barnesville, Georgia, the youngest of five children born to Thomas and Della Floyd. Shortly after Floyd's first birthday in 1944, his father, a cotton mill worker and alcoholic, died from kidney and liver failure at age 32. His mother, a widow at age 29, struggled to make a living independently, so she and her children lived in a small apartment with her parents. Over the next year caring for the large family became too difficult for Floyd's grandparents, and by 1946 they asked Della and her children to leave.

Floyd and his siblings were put into the care of Georgia Baptist Children's Home in Hapeville at the advice of the Lamar County child welfare agency. There, Floyd was allegedly bullied by other children for being "feminine" and later reported to have been sodomized with a broomstick when he was six years old. In his own words, he states that he was digitally penetrated by other boys in the home. He was also subjected to harsh punishments by the staff; as a teenager, his hand was dipped into hot water after being caught masturbating. Floyd often got in trouble for fighting and stealing. In 1959, having been there two years after his youngest sister left, Floyd ran away and broke into a nearby house to steal food. The Children's Home informed his sister Dorothy, who was married and living in North Carolina with two children, that criminal charges would not be pursued if she took custody of her brother.

After being kicked out of his sister's home, Floyd traveled to Indianapolis to search for his mother, Della, only to learn that she had become a prostitute. Floyd had Della help him forge legal documents allowing him to go to California to enlist in the United States Army. However, the Army discharged Floyd six months into his service after discovering that he was underage and that his papers were falsified. After being unable to find his mother again, Floyd traveled across the country as a drifter. Della died on July 2, 1968, and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

Early criminal history

On February 19, 1960, at age sixteen, Floyd broke into a Sears department store in Inglewood, California, to steal a gun. Police quickly responded to a burglar alarm, resulting in a shootout in which Floyd was shot in the stomach. He survived following emergency surgery. After recovering, he was sent to a youth institution for a year. In 1961, he was arrested for violating his parole by going on a fishing trip in Canada with a friend.

In May 1962, Floyd returned to Hapeville and found a job at Atlanta International Airport. The following month, he abducted a four-year-old from a local bowling alley and sexually assaulted her in the nearby woods. Floyd was convicted of kidnapping and child molestation and was sentenced to serve ten to twenty years at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. That November, he was moved to the Milledgeville State Hospital for psychiatric testing.

While being taken out for a medical errand in 1963, Floyd escaped and fled to Macon, where he robbed over $6,000 from a branch of the Citizens & Southern National Bank. He was convicted of the robbery and was sentenced to the Federal Reformatory in Chillicothe, Ohio. After a second escape attempt, he was transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. There, he was repeatedly raped by other inmates, causing him to climb a roof at the prison and threaten to commit suicide at one point. After being sent to the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, Floyd was sent back to the Georgia State Prison in 1968 and befriended a fellow inmate named David Dial.

In November 1972, Floyd was released from prison and sent to a halfway house. On January 27, 1973, a week after he was released from the halfway house, he approached a woman at a gas station and forced her into her car, where he attempted to grope and sexually assault her. The woman managed to escape, and Floyd was arrested. Floyd convinced Dial, who had also been released from prison, to post his bond, releasing him from custody until his hearing on June 11, 1973. Floyd did not show up to court, making him a fugitive.

Relationship with Sandra Brandenburg

By 1974 Floyd was using the alias Brandon Williams. While at a North Carolina truck stop, he met Sandra Francis Brandenburg (née Chipman). She was the mother of four children by two different fathers: Suzanne Marie Sevakis (1969–1990), from her first husband Clifford Ray Sevakis, and Allison (b. 1971), Amy (b. 1972), and Philip (nicknamed "Stevie") (b. 1974) Brandenburg from her second husband. Floyd and Brandenburg dated for a month and married, and Floyd convinced Brandenburg to move her family with him to Dallas, Texas. Brandenburg was interviewed in the Netflix documentary Girl In The Picture, in which she stated that she met Floyd in a church. She was crying, and he approached her, asking what was wrong. When she replied that she was at risk of losing her children, Floyd offered to marry her and be the children's father, which she agreed to.

Brandenburg was sentenced to thirty days in jail for passing bad checks in 1975. While she served her time, she left her children in the custody of Floyd. After she was released, she arrived home to find the residence vacated, and her husband and children were gone. Brandenburg eventually found her two middle daughters, Allison and Amy, in the care of a local church-operated social services group. She never found her oldest child, Suzanne, or her youngest child, Philip. Chipman attempted to file kidnapping charges but was told by local authorities that, as their stepfather, Floyd had a right to take the children. The boy's whereabouts remained unknown until 2019 when a man came forward believing he was Phillip. DNA tests confirmed his identity. According to his older sister Allison, their mother had first claimed that Phillip was dead. She later learned from Social Services that he was alive and had been privately adopted in North Carolina shortly after he was born. As of 2018, Sandra Brandenburg was known as Sandra Willett.

Death of Suzanne Sevakis

Suzanne Sevakis, then living under the alias Sharon Marshall, graduated from high school in Forest Park, Georgia, in 1986. Floyd was living under the alias Warren Marshall. Sevakis earned a full scholarship to the Georgia Institute of Technology to study aerospace engineering. Unfortunately, as she told a friend, she was pregnant, and her "father" Warren would not allow her to attend college. She gave birth to a child who was placed for adoption. She and Floyd moved to Tampa, Florida, where she began working as an exotic dancer. Sevakis became pregnant again, giving birth to Anthony Michael Hughes in 1988. She and Floyd were married in 1989 in New Orleans; by then, the two had begun using the aliases Clarence Marcus Hughes and Tonya Dawn Tadlock, with Sevakis becoming Tonya Dawn Hughes on the marriage certificate. It was discovered years later that Sevakis had given birth to a daughter while living in New Orleans. The daughter was placed for adoption. Her name is Megan.

By 1989, Floyd and Sevakis were living in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sevakis worked as an exotic dancer at a strip club. A fellow dancer, Karen Parsley, encouraged Sevakis to leave the domineering Floyd, only for Sevakis to claim that he would kill her and her son if she tried. Floyd had joined the Fraternal Order of Police, despite not being a police officer, and had told Sevakis that he could use his connections to track her down. However, by April 1990, Sevakis had decided to run away with Kevin Brown, a college student with whom she was having a secret relationship, and take Michael with her.

That month, three passers-by found Sevakis lying on the side of a highway one hundred miles outside of Oklahoma City. As she was found with groceries scattered around her, police surmised she had been struck from behind in a hit-and-run while walking from a convenience store to a nearby Motel 6. She was rushed to the Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City with severe bruises and a large hematoma at the base of her skull. She subsequently died. When Floyd arrived at the hospital the following day, he claimed he had fallen asleep at the Motel 6 after Sevakis had departed to collect the groceries.

At the time of Sevakis' death, she and Floyd were suspects in the 1989 disappearance of 18-year-old Cheryl Ann Commesso, her fellow exotic dancer at the same strip club. Commesso had disappeared following an angry confrontation with Floyd. Floyd was also the lead suspect in Sevakis' death.

Kidnapping of Michael Anthony Hughes

Following Suzanne's death, Floyd put her son Michael into foster care and left the state. Michael's foster parents told authorities the boy had limited muscle control, was non-verbal, and often experienced hysterical behavior when he first arrived at their home, but he had made remarkable progress. In 1994, they began adoption proceedings.

Six months after Michael was placed in foster care, Floyd was arrested on a parole violation. As part of the adoption process, Michael's DNA was compared to Floyd's to establish paternity. At that time, it was determined Floyd was not Michael's biological father. When Floyd was released from jail, he attempted to regain custody of Michael. Based on his criminal record and the discovery that he had no biological relation, his request was denied.

On September 12, 1994, Michael was in the first grade at Indian Meridian Elementary School in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Floyd walked into the school and forced Principal James Davis, at gunpoint, to take him to Michael's classroom. Floyd then forced Michael and Davis into his pickup truck. Floyd forced Davis out of the truck in a wooded area, handcuffed him to a tree, and sped off with Michael. The principal survived the abduction and was rescued.

Two months later, Floyd was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky. Michael was not with him and was never seen again. Authorities received conflicting reports as to what had happened to Michael. Some witness statements detailed alleged confessions by Floyd regarding Michael's death. According to these reports, Floyd reportedly told his sister and others that he drowned the child in a motel bathtub in Georgia shortly after the kidnapping. Another person claimed he saw Floyd bury Michael's body in a cemetery. Still, other sources reported that Floyd had stated that Michael was still alive and safe, although Floyd had refused to disclose the boy's exact location or who was caring for him. In a 2015 interview with the FBI, Floyd finally admitted to killing Michael on the same September 1994 day of the kidnapping, shooting him twice in the back of the head.

Cheryl Ann Commesso

Commesso's 1989 disappearance remained unsolved until her skeletal remains were found in 1995 by a landscaper in an area off Interstate 275 in Pinellas County, Florida. She was listed as a Jane Doe until a year later when the remains were identified. An archeologist determined that she died from a beating and two gunshots to the head. Floyd and Suzanne Sevakis had been persons of interest in the case after coworkers witnessed an altercation between Floyd and Commesso. Floyd accused Commesso of reporting Sevakis for misstating her income, resulting in Sevakis losing her government benefits. The argument occurred outside the club where Sevakis and Commesso worked as exotic dancers. A coworker reported that Floyd punched Commesso in the face. Floyd and Sevakis fled to Oklahoma shortly after Commesso disappeared, and their trailer was burned to the ground in what was ruled intentional arson.

In March 1995, a mechanic in Kansas found a large envelope stuffed between the truck bed and the top of the gas tank of a truck he had recently purchased at an auction. He found 97 photographs in the envelope, including many photographs of a woman bound and severely beaten. The police traced the truck to Floyd, who had stolen it in Oklahoma in September 1994 but abandoned it in Texas the following month. Investigators compared the photographs of the injured woman with Commesso, as well as evidence found with her remains, and found that the clothing in the photographs was similar. The medical examiner also compared injuries seen in the photograph to the cheekbone of Commesso's skull and found that they were consistent. Many pictures contained images of furniture and other belongings identified as present in Floyd's intentionally destroyed trailer. He was tried and convicted for Commesso's murder based on the photographic evidence found in the truck.

Further investigation

Other photos found in the truck show sexual abuse of Sevakis starting very early in her childhood. Authorities found photos of her in sexually explicit poses at various ages, starting around age four.

In September 2014, Floyd admitted to the murder of Michael and that he had disposed of his body on Interstate 35. A search of the area yielded no results, and police believe wild hogs may have eaten Michael's body.

In 2001, while awaiting trial for Commesso's murder, Judge Nancy Ley ruled that Floyd was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to undergo a further mental evaluation. Floyd fought against this assessment, asserting that he was competent. Several months later, the judge reversed her previous ruling and ordered him to stand trial. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon

The book A Beautiful Child by investigative journalist Matt Birkbeck was published in 2004. It brought the story of Franklin Floyd and Sharon Marshall, whose real identity was still unknown, to light and led to the discovery of the daughter placed for adoption in 1989. Worldwide interest in finding Sharon's true identity generated by the book eventually led the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI to revive the case in 2011. In 2014, two FBI agents interviewed Franklin Floyd, who confessed to killing Michael Hughes and divulged Sharon's true identity, Suzanne Sevakis.

The 2018 memoir Finding Sharon, also written by Matt Birkbeck, tells the story of the events that transpired following the publication of A Beautiful Child and how they led to finding Sharon's true identity.

Girl in the Picture

Girl in the Picture is a Netflix original documentary about the Sharon Marshall/Franklin Floyd saga that first aired in July 2022. It is directed by Skye Borgman and based on the books A Beautiful Child and Finding Sharon by Matt Birkbeck, who is also the executive producer. Girl in the Picture featured interviews with many of the participants in the story, including the biological parents of Suzanne Sevakis. The critically acclaimed film was an instant hit and was Netflix's number-one movie worldwide for several weeks. It received a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Death

Floyd died from natural causes while on death row on January 23, 2023, at the age of 79.

Franklin Delano Floyd. (2024, March 5). Inhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Floyd 

Superbike Murders: Todd Kohlhepp

 

Todd Christopher Kohlhepp (né Sampsell; born March 7, 1971) is an American sex offender, mass shooter and serial killer convicted of murdering seven people in South Carolina between 2003 and 2016. In addition, Kohlhepp kidnapped at least one woman, raped another, and claims to have killed many more.

Early life

Todd Kohlhepp was born on March 7, 1971, in Florida, and was raised in South Carolina and Georgia. His parents divorced when he was two years old. His mother gained custody and married another man the following year. Later psychological reports found that Kohlhepp had an unhealthy relationship with his stepfather and often wanted to live with his biological father, whom he had not seen in eight years.

Kohlhepp was described as a troublesome child. In nursery school, he was known to be aggressive toward other children and would destroy their property. At the age of nine, when he started undergoing counseling, Kohlhepp was described as being "explosive" and "preoccupied with sexual content". He also displayed cruelty to animals, shooting a dog with a BB gun and killing a goldfish using Clorox bleach.

Kohlhepp's father later said the only emotion his son was capable of was anger and madness. Kohlhepp spent three and a half months in a Georgia psychiatric hospital as an inpatient because of his inability to get along with other children.

Eventually, in 1983, Kohlhepp was sent to live with his biological father in Arizona after his mother and stepfather separated. He took his father's surname and began working a number of local jobs. He also inherited his father's hobby of collecting weapons and was taught by him to "blow things up and make bombs". Despite this, their relationship deteriorated due to his father's absence with a number of girlfriends and Kohlhepp repeatedly expressed a desire to return to his mother, though she reportedly made excuses to extend his stay.

1987 kidnapping conviction

On November 25, 1986, 15-year-old Kohlhepp kidnapped 14-year-old Kristie Granado in Tempe, Arizona. He threatened her with a .22-caliber revolver, brought her back to his home, tied her up, taped her mouth shut, and raped her. Afterward, he walked her home and threatened to kill her entire family if she told anyone about what had happened. Kohlhepp was charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, and committing a dangerous crime against children.

In 1987, he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge and the other charges were dropped. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison and registered as a sex offender. According to court records, Kohlhepp was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and was noted as having an above average IQ of 118 (percentile rank 88.5 at σ ⁠= ⁠15).

The judge in the case said Kohlhepp was "very bright and should be advanced academically", but "behaviorally and emotionally dangerous" and likely could not be rehabilitated. Kohlhepp's probation officer wrote a similar description in court papers and added that Kohlhepp "felt the world owed him something". Kohlhepp's attorney in that case later went on to say that, while defending him "he did not believe his client would go on to harm others" in the future. During his imprisonment, Kohlhepp was initially cited for violations that included some violent behavior; after turning twenty, however, he had no other records of disobedience.

Release

In August 2001, Kohlhepp was released from prison after serving fourteen years and moved to South Carolina, where his mother was living. During his imprisonment, he attended and graduated from Central Arizona College with a bachelor's degree in computer science. From January 2002 to November 2003, he worked as a graphic designer for a company in Spartanburg. He began studying at Greenville Technical College in 2003. Kohlhepp transferred to the University of South Carolina Upstate the following year, and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration-marketing.

Despite being registered as a sex offender, Kohlhepp was able to get a real estate license on June 30, 2006, after lying about the felony charge on his application. From this, he built a firm that had a dozen agents in its employ. He had been recognized as a top-selling agent in the Carolina region. The firm was closed down following his arrest. Kohlhepp also acquired a private pilot license and several properties out of state. In May 2014, he purchased nearly 100 acres (40 ha) of land, located in an area nine miles (fourteen kilometers) from the community of Moore, for $305,632. He then set a fence, which cost $80,000, around the property.

A customer who sold her home to Kohlhepp remembered him as extremely outgoing and professional, but noted that he would often talk about his firearms and sometimes subtly used sexual innuendo during their conversations. Conversely, a woman who assisted one of Kohlhepp's employees described him as angry and condescending towards her partner. A banker who worked with Kohlhepp said he often watched pornographic videos, even at work.

Kohlhepp frequented a Waffle House restaurant in Roebuck, where his behavior disturbed the waitresses to the point where the male cook began to take Kohlhepp's orders for them. According to this employee, one of the waitresses was Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, one of Kohlhepp's victims.

Murders

On November 6, 2003, a customer found four people shot dead inside Superbike Motorsports, a motorcycle shop in Chesnee. The victims were identified as owner Scott Ponder, 30; service manager Brian Lucas, 29; mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26; and bookkeeper Beverly Guy, 52, who was Ponder's mother. All four died from multiple gunshot wounds. Before Kohlhepp confessed to the shootings in 2016, investigators believed that the gunman, armed with a pistol, entered the shop from the back and killed Sherbert as he worked. He then killed Guy in the middle of the showroom, Lucas at the main doorway, and Ponder in the parking lot.

According to Ponder's wife, Kohlhepp was a disgruntled customer who had been in the shop several times. According to Kohlhepp's mother, he attempted to return a motorcycle there, but the employees laughed at him.

On August 31, 2016, Kala Brown, 30, and her boyfriend Charles David Carver, 32, went missing after they went to remove brush from one of Kohlhepp's properties. Carver was later found dead of multiple gunshots on the property. Interest in the disappearance of Brown and Carver increased as a result of posts on Carver's Facebook account following their disappearance, the unusual nature of which prompted speculation that another party had taken control of his Facebook account.

On November 3, authorities found Brown chained to the wall inside a metal storage container on the property. Investigators had tracked her down after tracing the couple's last known cellphone signals, after which they heard banging noises coming from inside the container. A search of Kohlhepp's property recovered Carver's vehicle, which was found in a ravine covered in brush.

According to Brown, she witnessed Carver being shot by Kohlhepp. Kohlhepp's mother claimed Carver was killed for having a "really smart mouth", which Kohlhepp did not like. He also said he kept Brown captive because she did not do anything wrong and that he did not want to hurt her. However, Brown stated to police just after her rescue that Kohlhepp had killed Carver because Kohlhepp was "mad at her". During her captivity, Brown was raped repeatedly, and intimidated into not escaping after having been shown the graves of Kohlhepp are other victims.

Two bodies were discovered on Kohlhepp's property following his arrest, on November 6–7. They were later identified as husband and wife Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26, residents of Spartanburg who were reported missing on December 22, 2015. They were allegedly hired by Kohlhepp to work on his property. McCraw-Coxie had been killed by a gunshot wound to the head on December 25 or 26, while Coxie had been killed a week earlier by a gunshot wound to the torso. According to the county coroner, they were identified through their extensive tattoos.

List of known victims

Kristie Granado (survived) F 14 November 12, 1986

Scott Ponder M 30 November 6, 2003

Brian Lucas M 29 November 6, 2003

Chris Sherbert M 26 November 6, 2003

Beverly Guy F 52 November 6, 2003

Johnny Joe Coxie M 29 December 19, 2015

Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie F 26 December 25 or 26, 2015

Kala Brown (survived) F 30 August 31, 2016

Charles David Carver M 32 August 31, 2016

Arrest and investigation

Kohlhepp was arrested shortly after Brown's rescue. He later confessed to the Chesnee shootings and the murders of the Coxies, in exchange for allowing him to talk to his mother, give her a photograph, and transfer money to the college fund of a friend's child. While meeting with his mother, he reportedly confessed to the killings and kidnapping. When he confessed to the Chesnee shootings, Kohlhepp revealed details of the killings that were never released to the public.

A search of Kohlhepp's property also uncovered numerous weapons, including 9mm pistols outfitted with suppressors, semi-automatic rifles, and an undetermined amount of ammunition. Because there was no record of a background check under Kohlhepp's name for the purchase of a firearm, investigators believe he likely acquired the weapons illegally.

Shortly following Kohlhepp's arrest, authorities in Spartanburg County discovered a number of seemingly joking product reviews for various items such as padlocks, shovels, tasers, and gun accessories on retail website Amazon.com written by a user known simply as "me". One review about a padlock stated, "Solid locks... Have 5 on a shipping container... Won’t stop them... But sure will slow them down til they are too old to care." Another, written for a folding shovel, read, "keep in the car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full-size shovel at home.... does not come with a midget, which would have been nice." The reviewer's "wish list" page was listed as Todd Kohlhepp.

Following his arrest, Kohlhepp claimed to his mother that there were many other victims aside from the aforementioned. When his mother asked how many, his response was, "You do not have enough fingers." During interrogation, he claimed to have shot a victim in Arizona. On November 18, 2016, it was reported that the Tempe Police Department had begun an investigation into Kohlhepp's claim, searching through unsolved homicides in the past three decades. They said they would focus on cases dated from 1983 to 1986, when Kohlhepp was living with his father; and also between August 2001, when Kohlhepp completed his sentence for kidnapping, and November 2001, when he moved back to South Carolina.

On November 25, 2016, police in Greer, South Carolina, announced that they had named Kohlhepp as a person of interest in an unsolved 2003 bank robbery and triple homicide at the local Blue Ridge Savings Bank. This crime was separated from the Chesnee shootings by six months. However, as of May 16, 2018, no definitive link between Kohlhepp and the killings was established, and Kohlhepp has denied any involvement in the case.

In December 2017, Kohlhepp wrote to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal claiming that he had more victims who had not been discovered.

Legal proceedings and guilty pleas

Kohlhepp was charged with four counts of murder in relation to the Chesnee shootings, and one count of kidnapping in relation to Brown's abduction. He was later charged with three additional counts of murder for the murders of Carver and the Coxies, along with one additional count of kidnapping and three counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime. Kohlhepp's next court appearance was scheduled for January 19, 2017, where Kohlhepp's attorney waived their right to appearance.

According to a report by WLTX, relatives of the Chesnee shooting victims filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him. On December 1, it was announced that Brown also filed a civil lawsuit against him.

On May 26, 2017, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of criminal sexual assault and was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole in a plea bargain that spared him from capital punishment.

Although his defense swore at his sentencing that there were no other victims to be found, Kohlhepp has since repeatedly admitted there were at least two other murders. As of August 2018, he had not given authorities the details. Kohlhepp is currently imprisoned in the Broad River Secure Facility.

In August 2020, some of Kohlhepp's belongings went to auction and the proceeds were donated to the victims' families.

Dustan Lawson

Dustan Lawson, a man accused of buying firearms and silencers for Kohlhepp despite knowing he was a convicted felon, faced federal charges. Lawson admitted to buying at least 12 guns and five silencers from 2012 to 2016, lying that they were for himself. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to 36 federal firearm charges and was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison. Lawson is serving his sentence at Butner Medium I FCI, and is scheduled for release on November 12, 2024.

Todd Kohlhepp. (2024, March 22). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Kohlhepp