February 18, 2026 • 38 mins
Jermaine Hudson’s life was shaped by instability, loss, and early encounters with police. When he became a father in 1999, it felt like a second chance. Instead, a traffic stop set off an injustice that tore him from his family and sent him to one of America’s harshest prisons for life.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Ever forget riding on that bus, coming on this road,
it was like, Wow, this is the road that lets
you know you're going into a prison, and Gola had that.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
The drive to the Louisiana State Penitentiary Angola is long
and sobering. You pass through the small town of Saint
Francisville before the road narrows and begins to twist through backwoods.
There's nothing to look at, nothing to distract you, just
a blur of trees and the steady rise of that
(00:43):
knot in your stomach, knowing the road ends at a
prison with a brutal history.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Like everybody on the bus was quiet. Everybody was just
looking out the window. What my life is about to
be like going to this place. I had so many
thoughts running through my mind, so many thoughts. The ultimate
thought was am I ever going to leave this place?
(01:18):
Am I ever going to get a chance to travel
back down this road going home to my family? And
it becomes a reality once that bus stopped and they
transferred you off the bus. How you're walking into the prison,
(01:40):
shackled up, feast, shackle and shackle. And they took me
out and told me, okay, you're ready you're ready, and
they put me in population.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And life has just started from there.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
This is season two, A Burden of Guilt, Episode two
of Fatal Compley. So here's where we left you. In
the last episode, twenty one year old Jermaine Hudson was
tried and convicted for the armed robbery of Bobby gumpright,
and in this episode, what you're going to hear is
(02:34):
not what you would expect. But first I want to
tell you more about the verdict. The trial lasted just
a few hours and after thirty seven minutes of deliberation,
Jermaine's fate was decided. He was found guilty by a
jury who voted to convict ten to two. Now that's
(02:55):
called a non unanimous jury. They were legal and with
a non unanimous jury, only ten people had to agree
to convict or quit a charged person. A few weeks later,
on April twelfth, two thousand, Germaine was sentenced to ninety
nine years in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary also known
(03:19):
as Angola. The crime was stealing between seventy five and
one hundred dollars. No shots were fired. The victim, Bobby
Gumpride wasn't physically harmed.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Ninety nine years in the deplotment of correction when out
parole probational suspension of sentence. When I tell you, my
hall dropped, I was like, no, this can't be real.
I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I got to
be dreaming, accepting. This can't be real.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
When a sentence was re Tremaine reflexively looked to the
courtroom window to the world he would never be a
part of again, and out the window he saw something
he considered a sign.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The only thing I can remember was two doves sitting
on that window, two white doves. After I got found guilty.
And then when I looked up at them, two doves.
I could just see them. When they knew they got
my attention, they just flew away.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Germaine kept replaying the events in his mind. What had happened?
What had he done to be sentenced to life in prison?
How did he end up here?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I'm like, loud, I didn't do this, and you know
I didn't do this. What can I possibly have done
to deserve this?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And here's the thing. Germaine had an alibi from March first,
nineteen ninety nine, the night of the crime. It was
an alibi never heard in court. We'll tell you about
that later in the episode. But even without an alibi,
how in the world could a judge possibly sentence him
to ninety nine years The punishment was very disproportionate to
(05:13):
the crime.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well at instead of Louisiana, they got this thing called.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Judging, you offer your past.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
They used my juvenile conviction to say that I was
in need of in conservation, that I was a minister society,
and that I didn't deserve to be among civilized people.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
The court did rely on Jermaine's past criminal record, and
he had a rough start in life. His childhood was
chaotic and most days were simply about survival.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
As a baby, my mom was on drugs.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Jermaine Hudson grew up in the West Bank of New
Orleans in the Fisher Housing Projects. The Fisher, as it
was known, was a low income housing project adjacent to
the Great Mississippi River.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
My mom couldn't raise me. She wasn't in the mother
frame of mia.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Jermaine was a toddler when she disappeared from his life.
He wouldn't see her again until he was a middle
aged man.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I was also dealing with a situation from my biological
father because he was murdered when I was a baby.
You know, I never got a chance to see him,
never got a chance to see his face, never got
a chance to even beat Nobody on his side of
the family. Right now, I couldn't even tell you if
I had siblings on his side of the family. I
still don't know nobody on his side of the family.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Fortunately, another relative stepped in to help Jermaine. His uncle,
Thomas Robinson, and his wife, Sunshine, took him into their home,
But eventually Thomas and Sunshine separated.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And she ended up adopting me, and I've been in
that family ever since.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Sunshine provided him with a real family, two brothers and
six sisters who adored the shy young boy. For a while,
Jermaine felt safe. His adoptive family soon faced their own tragedy. Sunshine,
the matriarch and soul of the Robinson family, died suddenly
(07:30):
from a heart attack in nineteen eighty five. Germaine was
just six years old.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Even though she adopted me, she loved me like she
gave birth to me. But after she passed away, I
was bounced around from family to family.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
When you're in the second grade. You're six years old.
Most kids life are about their friends, sports cartoons. But
for Jermaine, living in the Fisher projects.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm stepping over by this, witnessing bidies coming on from
elementary school. You got police, amblams, fire engines, you know,
because somebody was murdered and you were witnessing that as
a child, and the traumatized you.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Jermaine tried to circumvent the violence and embrace sports, but
trouble seemed to find him. His first encounter with police
was in middle school. A few older boys in his
neighborhood saw him walking home from basketball practice after dusk
and they offered him a ride.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I was like no, but they was like, man, come on, man,
it's dug out here. Let us drop you off. As
soon as I get in that car, the police end
up pulling us over.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't know this car stolen.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
The other boys jumped out and took off, but Germaine.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
He froze me and two more guys end up getting
arrested for joy riding in a stolen vehicle.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Germaine was fourteen years old and looking at the inside
of a jail cell.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
When a kid like that and you entering a prison
something you never seen in your life before. It was
like being in that cell and you're in there by
yourself as a kid and your cage. Then it does
(09:42):
something to you. It does something to your brain cells.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He stayed in that jail cell over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We was arrested that Friday, So I came home that
Monday on probation, went back to school. Still was playing ball,
but something inside of me wasn't right. It did something
to me. Then my life just changed quickly.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Even though Jermaine was only fourteen, the charge followed him.
He recalls being sentenced to three years probation for riding
in a stolen car. We tried to confirm the exact charge,
but we've been unable to secure the records. Possibly because
Germaine was a minor. Germaine figured his record would ruin
(10:41):
any shot at an athletic scholarship to college. He suddenly
felt like he had no future, no path to follow,
and there wasn't a parent pointing him in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
My behavior is change.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Started hanging out a lot, started hanging with the wrong crowd,
started smoking weed, started using drugs, started selling drugs as
a child. I'm already living in the projects. I'm around
these same kids every day. I'm growing up with these kids.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Then there was the lure of fast money. Quick cash.
Selling drugs on the corner was better than earning minimum
wage somewhere. So Jermaine became a low level high school
drug dealer on the streets, running around with friends who
were like him. Two years after the arrest for riding
in a stolen car, Jermaine found himself in trouble with
(11:36):
the law again, but this time the consequences were far worse.
Here's what happened. Jermaine was walking down the block when
he came upon a crime in progress.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
A friend of the family he was getting carjacked. He
was getting ribbed in carjacked by a few guys that
I grew up with. I'm just so happened to come
through the alleyway. I just really walked into it.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Normally, Jermaine would have minded his own business and not
gotten involved.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And when I seen who he was, I anstantly changed
that situation.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
It turns out Germaine knew the driver of the car
that was getting carjacked, Tyrone Hills, and Germaine knew the
guys who were in the middle of stealing it.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And when I seen who it was, I'm like, no, y'all,
don't do that that He's a friend of a family.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Germaine tried to step in, but when police arrived on
the scene, Germaine was arrested, but he maintains he wasn't
involved in that crime. I want to stop here for
just a moment. This is the second time Germaine ends
up in trouble but says he wasn't involved in the crime.
(12:58):
I wouldn't blame anyone for wondering about Jermaine's story. He
says he didn't know the car he rode in was
stolen when he was fourteen, and then he says he
literally walked into a carjacking in progress two years later.
The truth about what happened in these two incidents matters
because they were both essential in determining Jermaine's ninety nine
(13:22):
year prison sentence in the armed robbery of Bobby Gumpright, So,
our team went to work trying to verify Jermaine's story.
Was he actually just in the wrong place at the
wrong time twice. We decided to do some digging, and
as I mentioned, we couldn't access the records from the
joy riding incident a few years earlier, but we were
(13:45):
able to get in touch with the victim of the carjacking.
The victim, mister Hills, confirmed two things for us. He
was a family friend, and the second detail he confirmed
is that he never start Germaine to any other than
walk onto the scene while the carjacking was happening. Nevertheless,
(14:07):
Jermaine was charged as one of the carjackers.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
When that took place. I wasn't no angel.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I'm the type of man that can't understand when you're
playing in those streets, there is no rules to the game.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Even though he says he wasn't involved. On the advice
of his attorney, Jermaine took a plea deal for the
carjacking charges because risking a trial could have been catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I ended up pleading guilty to a four year prison sentence.
I did two years on those four years.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Prison changed him, but Jermaine was determined to make it
a change for the better them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Two years passed so fast. It was really a growth
for me because I took the time out to say
this is what you can do normal, and this is
what you need to do. Moving forward.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
While he was incarcerated, he was introduced to Kristin Motley,
a girl who would become an important part of his life.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I was actually friends with his niece and one day
we were sitting down for lunch. We just were talking
and she said, I have somebody for you. I was like, ooh.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Jermaine was only seventeen when he was sentenced for carjacking
and Kristin was still in high school.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I think we were just so mature for our age,
and the conversation it just it felt natural. I feel real.
He came home in ninety eight, the first thing he
came to see me. From that dayfore we were inseparable.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Kristin and Jermaine truly connected. The relationship became intimate, and
she became pregnant with a baby girl. When she told Jermaine,
it was that like.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh my guy.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
He was there literally in like five minutes home series.
He was so excited.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
He stayed by her side and was there when the
baby was born. Kristen's mother was there too. She remembers
how Germaine fell in love with his baby girl.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
From the time she came in the world. That was
his baby.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Even if we will see Jermain walking with the baby.
I said, give me my baby, saying, uh.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's my baby.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Germaine understood the responsibility of being a parent. Kristin wouldn't
tolerate him being around drugs or running around with the
wrong guys, and he took that seriously.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
He ain't gotten two jobs. Like we were on a
right pad. I started working, you know, we were trying
to figure out how we can get our own apartment.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
After my daughter was born. They changed me because I'm like,
I have something to live for. I have responsibilities on
my hand now, so the best thing for me to
do is go find me a job, save my money,
have confident and faith in what I'm doing, and raise
(17:25):
his little girl like she's supposed to be raised. I
could not go a day without being with her.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
But a few months after his daughter was born, Tremaine
was picked up by police during a traffic stop. It
turns out the cops had been looking for him since
Bobby Gumpbright identified him in a photo lineup of possible suspects.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
And they said, do you recognize any of these men
as the one who robbed you. I pointed at one
and I said, that's him. That looks like him.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Jermaine Hudson didn't have an easy start in life. He
grew up moving between family members. As a teenager, he
got into trouble and served time in prison for carjacking.
But his fortune and direction were changing. He was in
love with Kristin Motley and a new father to their
baby girl, and just when things were going well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
On April fifteenth, nineteen ninety nine, I was arrested for
a traffic violation. It was speeding now wearing a seatbelt
and no driver license.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
According to Jermaine, as one officer was writing a ticket,
another officer arrived and decided to arrest him. Once in custody,
police recognized him. This was the same man Bobby gumpright
identified in the photo lineup as the man who robbed
him at gunpoint while he was heading home from work.
(19:19):
The traffic violation suddenly became a minor issue. He was
wanted for a far more serious crime. Neither Germaine nor
Kristin knew he had been tied to the robbery of
Bobby Gumpright. Kristin still believed she'd get him home that
same day, so she drove down to the police station
where Germaine was being held. She waited there to post
(19:41):
his bail until finally.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Prison official to whoever is waiting on Jermaine Hudson, y'all
can go home.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Jermaine couldn't understand why Kristin hadn't bailed him out, so
he called her from jail, and that's when he learned
for the very first time why the police were holding him.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
She's crying and she's like, we did come. The people
told us we can leave because you got a robber.
Charlespend to know you're in a computer. I dropped the phone.
I literally dropped the phone and was like, wow, for real.
She said, Yeah, that's not who I am. I don't
(20:26):
do those things. I knew it was a mistaken identity.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And while Christian could have posted bail for a traffic violation,
an armed robbery was a totally different story. Bail for
Jermaine was set at one hundred thousand dollars and nobody
he knew could post that bail.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
There was nothing we could do.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
My life took a total chain doing those events.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
To go from a traffic violation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
About to be released on that traffic violation.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
To telling you and telling your family that you will
not be released because you had a Robert Charles Pender.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Jermaine and Kristen had begun building a life together. They
had a six month old daughter. Kristen could never have imagined.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
We wouldn't see him for twenty two years. Half the day.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Jermaine couldn't afford a lawyer, so he was assigned to
public defender named Don Donnelly, And you heard some of
the trial in the last episode. It was a trial
Donnelly never wanted to have. He told Jermaine he should
take a plea in exchange for a guaranteed five year sentence.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I refuse because I didn't do it. I didn't do
it and I didn't want that on my record.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
But Germaine's public defender wasn't listening. He was adamant that
he should take the plea deal.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
He tried his best to convince me to take those
five years. He even sent a young lady that was
a court reporter clerk back there where I was dressing
waiting to go to trial. He sent her back there.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
To talk to me.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
She told me, she said, Jermaine, these people is not
playing I don't want to see you get your life
thrown away. Man take them five years. I say, are
you going to help me do five years? She couldn't
answer that question. I said, man, get out of here,
don't let them people come back. I'm not going to
change my mind for nothing, and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
It isn't uncommon for a public defender to urge a
client to take a plea deal. Louisiana has the highest
incarceration rate in the country, and that's why Don Donnelly
was recommending the plea. If Germaine went to trial and lost,
he would face far more than five years. But Germaine
(23:23):
held firm he knew this was a case of mistaken
identity and he could prove it. He had an alibi
for the night Bobby Gumbright was robbed.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
When we found out he went to Geoa need stayed
the charges thing were happened, I was like anything possible
because he was at how thick with the flu.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
That's Christian's younger sister, Dwan. She was fourteen at the time.
She lived in the Motley family home with Kristin Germaine
and the couple's new baby. She and Germaine were both
certain they were together at home on the night of
March first, nineteen ninety nine. They knew it because Jermaine
had come down with the flu. His girlfriend, Kristen was
(24:08):
at work that night, so with Jermaine sick, someone needed
to stay back and take care of their baby. So
Duan decided to stay home and she stepped up to
help care for the baby and look after Jermaine. And
to this day she remembers how sick Jermaine was that night.
It was a kind of sick where you don't have
(24:28):
the energy to lift your head off the pillow.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
He just was in a bed.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
He was sick, just feeling bad, you know what, the
cold flu, Just like down, laying down, drink and orange juice.
And I told that to the detective who came to
the house for some reason. He was adamant about Jamaine
doing it, and I was like, that's not true. How
could he be at two places at one time? If
you sick with the flu inside like you're about to die,
(24:57):
how you supposed to be at a bus stop rhyping
somebody out of a chain.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Her testimony would be critical to proving Germaine's innocence. She
was with him all night.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
He was inside, sick with the flu. Have a weakness,
that is, I would testify cities.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
When the trial began, Dewan waited to be called as
a witness.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Me and my sister in my niece who was going
to court for Jermaine, and I kept on telling his
attorney I needed to testify, but he said I couldn't testify,
and I kept asking him why, and he couldn't give
me a value reason why.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
We reached out to public defender Don Donnelly. His wife
picked up the phone and said, he declined to participate,
but we wanted to talk to him because there's some
glaring inconsistencies between what we've heard in our reporting and
what the jury was allowed to hear in Jermaine's trial.
The biggest one is the fact fact that Dewan's alibi
(26:01):
was never mentioned in court. When it was almost time
for the defense to rest, public Defender Donnelly acknowledged there
was a witness that Germaine wanted to call, but instead
of calling the witness, he asked for a sidebar with
the judge. There's a transcript of that sidebar. A voice
actor reenacts that moment.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
The defendant wants me to call a witness who I
don't feel comfortable calling for the simple reason I know
the witness not to be telling the truth. I know
this from an independent investigation.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Donnelly never referenced Christen's sister, Dewan. The defense rested without
calling her to the stand. It made me wonder about
the independent investigation, public defender Donnelly conducted. Germaine sat at
the defense table wondering the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How you know that from independent investigation? Will you never
talked to my witness nowday I went to trial, now
time I was facing those charges, you never talked to
my witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
The judge took Donnelly at his word when he said
he'd found Germaine's alibi witness not credible. He didn't ask
your man's lawyer a single question about this independent investigation.
The prosecutor seemed delighted.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Thank you, mister Donnelly, for being so truthful and honest.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Jermaine's alibi witness to Juan said she talked to a
police detective. If that happened, it should be in the
police file. So we reached out to the New Orleans
Police Department to get a copy of that file. We
wanted to see who they talked to and read notes
from the investigation, but the police department informed us that
(27:58):
the case file is no longer available. It had been
lost in a cyber hack in twenty nineteen. So back
to the trial. In the end, no witnesses testified for Jermaine,
not even himself. His attorney had advised him against it.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
He said, look, do not testify.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I advise you not to take the stand in your
own behalved because they're going to bring up your criminal history.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Any' gonna make you look bad enough.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So me sitting there and not really not putting up
a fight for my life because of what my attorney
influenced me not to do, it made me look even better.
And now that I really look back on it, and
I'm like, my criminal histor ain't got nothing to.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Do with what I'm going on trial for today. They
have nothing to do with that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Jermaine was twenty one at the time. He knew what
it meant to be a black man in a Louisiana
court room. His attorney was white, so was the judge,
the prosecutor, the victim, and most of the jury. Jermaine
took his attorney's advice and stayed quiet. The whole trial
(29:15):
was over in the course of an afternoon, guilty by
a vote of ten to two. Jermayne's case was tried
and prosecuted within a day. When the verdict came down guilty,
(29:35):
his family was stunned. Dewan Motley didn't think much of
the public defender's performance.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
He didn't do nothing. He didn't fight for Jamaye. Oh
he didn't. He didn't fight for Jamaine at all. And
I told him name. He didn't put up no fight.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The guilty verdict was almost to fade a complete but
the sentence that was a different story entirely. On April twelfth,
two thousand, Germaine and his attorney Donnelly appeared for sentencing.
Speaker 8 (30:09):
What is mister Hudson's criminal history.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Here's Sidney Woods, who represented the state, Your honor, mister
Hudson has two counts of prior armed robberies.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
You're allegend multiple bill, Yes, we are, your honor.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Multiple bill refers to the habitual offender statute. If you've
ever heard of the three strikes law, it's the same
theory increase sentencing to keep repeat offenders out of society
by imposing increasingly severe penalties for each felony conviction. In
Jermaine's case, the armed robbery of Bobby Gumpright was treated
(30:49):
as his final strike. Don Donnelly objected to the habitual
offender classification to no avail.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
No further questions, your honor.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Minutes later, the judge delivered his sentence.
Speaker 8 (31:09):
Mister Hudson, you've been found guilty by a jury of
the offense of armed robbery, and considering mister Hudson's prior
criminal history, it is the sentence of this court that
you serve ninety nine years in the Department of Corrections
at hard labor, without the benefit of probation, parole or
(31:34):
suspension of sentence.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was so angry because I was like, how can
my life ENLiGHT this.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Kristin Motley, the woman Germaine had found love with started
a family with, was sitting in the courtroom in a
state of shock.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Only thing I really heard was ninety nine years. I
don't think I heard nothing else they said in that
cold work. I looked at my sister, you know, and
we just was crying. She was screaming.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Christen says this was the worst moment of her life.
She looked over at the attorneys and then she realized
for them, it was just another Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
They were actually standing there cracking jokes, talking about golfing,
and they just ripped my heart out. They just took
Jamaine away from it, just like that. And I can
remember him looking out that window. He didn't have any
expression on his face, any like any expression.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I think we just always numb.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
For Christian's little sister, Dwan, the case was personal. She
knew Jermaine hadn't done it.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
They sentenced him to ninety nine years, and I was like,
this is some bullshit.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Du One was only fourteen. And maybe it was because
of that, because she wasn't heartened to the world that
she decided to say something to Bobby Gumpbright, the man
who said Jermaine Hudson robbed him.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
So when we was leaving, we interacted well by because
me and my sister and the baby was walking and
he was walking too, and I say, hey you, and
I put my niece in his face and he went
to shaking and all this like he wanted to cry.
And I said, why would you do that? You just
took my knees daddy away from her. He said he
(33:47):
had to put somebody away. He told me this out
his own mouth.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
As far as the cord and the jury were concerned,
justice was served, they didn't know. They couldn't know that
the star witness had developed a strategy to win the
courtroom over.
Speaker 6 (34:18):
The best lie is partial truth, right. That's what I
learned after lying for so long, is always include a
little bit of truth in your lie, and it's more plausible.
The truth was. It was my job to remember faces
as a bartender, so I was good at it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
The lie was had.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I didn't remember his face because it never happened.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Just take a minute to let that sink. In the
robbery a gunpoint, Bobby made the whole thing up. The
crime itself never occurred. Well, you may be asking yourself
the same thing I asked myself. Why did he create
such an elaborate lie, a lie that would put someone
(35:04):
away for ninety nine years. Well, Bobby had a secret.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I met a guy who did and dealt cocaine, and
so tried it and immediately was an addict. I needed
it like I wanted it.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It was his addiction that he needed to keep from
the world, especially his father.
Speaker 6 (35:29):
My family has a good reputation. They're good people, and
so for me, to be the drug addict of the family.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
It was embarrassing.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
The lie was the only thing that was going to
protect me from them finding out the truth, which was
even scarier.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
He picked Jermaine Hudson out of that photo lineup at random,
and Jermaine Hudson was sentenced to life in prison for
a crime that never happened at all. He would spend
twenty two two years in Angola Prison before the truth
finally came to light. Coming up on Burden of Guilt,
(36:12):
how did Bobby conceive the story of a fake crime
and why did he do it?
Speaker 6 (36:20):
I just rolled it through my mind and said that
sounds plausible. So now that the story's developed, now I
have to go home and get in the character and
nact scared.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
And Jermaine loses hope.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I'm like, ah, what is going on? I'm like, Lord,
please send me a sign. This can't be the end
of my life. This can't be my final destination.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying Burden of Guilt, subscribe,
rate and review the series with five stars. Yay. It
helps other people find our show. You can reach out
to the Burden of Guilt team at Burden of guiltpod
at gmail dot com. That's Burden of guiltpod at gmail
(37:13):
dot com. Burden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
The series is executive produced and hosted by me Nancy Glass.
This episode was written and produced by Carrie Hartman, also
produced by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our story editor
(37:37):
is Monique Leboard. Our associate producer is jade Abdul Malik.
Our production manager is Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart team is
Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Thank you to our voice
actors Brian Balthazar, Todd Gans and Trey Morgan. Audio editing
(37:57):
by Dean Welsh, mixed and mastered by Anna McLean. The
Burden of Guilt theme is composed by Oliver Bain's music
library provided by Mob Music, and we want to give
our special thanks to Jermaine Hudson and Bobby Gumpwright. For
more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or Apple
(38:18):
Podcasts
Oh oh.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Ever forget riding on that bus, coming on this road,
it was like, Wow, this is the road that lets
you know you're going into a prison, and Gola had that.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
The drive to the Louisiana State Penitentiary Angola is long
and sobering. You pass through the small town of Saint
Francisville before the road narrows and begins to twist through backwoods.
There's nothing to look at, nothing to distract you, just
a blur of trees and the steady rise of that
(00:43):
knot in your stomach, knowing the road ends at a
prison with a brutal history.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Like everybody on the bus was quiet. Everybody was just
looking out the window. What my life is about to
be like going to this place. I had so many
thoughts running through my mind, so many thoughts. The ultimate
thought was am I ever going to leave this place?
(01:18):
Am I ever going to get a chance to travel
back down this road going home to my family? And
it becomes a reality once that bus stopped and they
transferred you off the bus. How you're walking into the prison,
(01:40):
shackled up, feast, shackle and shackle. And they took me
out and told me, okay, you're ready you're ready, and
they put me in population.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
And life has just started from there.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
This is season two, A Burden of Guilt, Episode two
of Fatal Compley. So here's where we left you. In
the last episode, twenty one year old Jermaine Hudson was
tried and convicted for the armed robbery of Bobby gumpright,
and in this episode, what you're going to hear is
(02:34):
not what you would expect. But first I want to
tell you more about the verdict. The trial lasted just
a few hours and after thirty seven minutes of deliberation,
Jermaine's fate was decided. He was found guilty by a
jury who voted to convict ten to two. Now that's
(02:55):
called a non unanimous jury. They were legal and with
a non unanimous jury, only ten people had to agree
to convict or quit a charged person. A few weeks later,
on April twelfth, two thousand, Germaine was sentenced to ninety
nine years in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary also known
(03:19):
as Angola. The crime was stealing between seventy five and
one hundred dollars. No shots were fired. The victim, Bobby
Gumpride wasn't physically harmed.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Ninety nine years in the deplotment of correction when out
parole probational suspension of sentence. When I tell you, my
hall dropped, I was like, no, this can't be real.
I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I got to
be dreaming, accepting. This can't be real.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
When a sentence was re Tremaine reflexively looked to the
courtroom window to the world he would never be a
part of again, and out the window he saw something
he considered a sign.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
The only thing I can remember was two doves sitting
on that window, two white doves. After I got found guilty.
And then when I looked up at them, two doves.
I could just see them. When they knew they got
my attention, they just flew away.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Germaine kept replaying the events in his mind. What had happened?
What had he done to be sentenced to life in prison?
How did he end up here?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I'm like, loud, I didn't do this, and you know
I didn't do this. What can I possibly have done
to deserve this?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And here's the thing. Germaine had an alibi from March first,
nineteen ninety nine, the night of the crime. It was
an alibi never heard in court. We'll tell you about
that later in the episode. But even without an alibi,
how in the world could a judge possibly sentence him
to ninety nine years The punishment was very disproportionate to
(05:13):
the crime.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well at instead of Louisiana, they got this thing called.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Judging, you offer your past.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
They used my juvenile conviction to say that I was
in need of in conservation, that I was a minister society,
and that I didn't deserve to be among civilized people.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
The court did rely on Jermaine's past criminal record, and
he had a rough start in life. His childhood was
chaotic and most days were simply about survival.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
As a baby, my mom was on drugs.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Jermaine Hudson grew up in the West Bank of New
Orleans in the Fisher Housing Projects. The Fisher, as it
was known, was a low income housing project adjacent to
the Great Mississippi River.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
My mom couldn't raise me. She wasn't in the mother
frame of mia.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Jermaine was a toddler when she disappeared from his life.
He wouldn't see her again until he was a middle
aged man.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I was also dealing with a situation from my biological
father because he was murdered when I was a baby.
You know, I never got a chance to see him,
never got a chance to see his face, never got
a chance to even beat Nobody on his side of
the family. Right now, I couldn't even tell you if
I had siblings on his side of the family. I
still don't know nobody on his side of the family.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Fortunately, another relative stepped in to help Jermaine. His uncle,
Thomas Robinson, and his wife, Sunshine, took him into their home,
But eventually Thomas and Sunshine separated.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And she ended up adopting me, and I've been in
that family ever since.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Sunshine provided him with a real family, two brothers and
six sisters who adored the shy young boy. For a while,
Jermaine felt safe. His adoptive family soon faced their own tragedy. Sunshine,
the matriarch and soul of the Robinson family, died suddenly
(07:30):
from a heart attack in nineteen eighty five. Germaine was
just six years old.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Even though she adopted me, she loved me like she
gave birth to me. But after she passed away, I
was bounced around from family to family.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
When you're in the second grade. You're six years old.
Most kids life are about their friends, sports cartoons. But
for Jermaine, living in the Fisher projects.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
I'm stepping over by this, witnessing bidies coming on from
elementary school. You got police, amblams, fire engines, you know,
because somebody was murdered and you were witnessing that as
a child, and the traumatized you.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Jermaine tried to circumvent the violence and embrace sports, but
trouble seemed to find him. His first encounter with police
was in middle school. A few older boys in his
neighborhood saw him walking home from basketball practice after dusk
and they offered him a ride.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I was like no, but they was like, man, come on, man,
it's dug out here. Let us drop you off. As
soon as I get in that car, the police end
up pulling us over.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't know this car stolen.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
The other boys jumped out and took off, but Germaine.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
He froze me and two more guys end up getting
arrested for joy riding in a stolen vehicle.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Germaine was fourteen years old and looking at the inside
of a jail cell.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
When a kid like that and you entering a prison
something you never seen in your life before. It was
like being in that cell and you're in there by
yourself as a kid and your cage. Then it does
(09:42):
something to you. It does something to your brain cells.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
He stayed in that jail cell over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
We was arrested that Friday, So I came home that
Monday on probation, went back to school. Still was playing ball,
but something inside of me wasn't right. It did something
to me. Then my life just changed quickly.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Even though Jermaine was only fourteen, the charge followed him.
He recalls being sentenced to three years probation for riding
in a stolen car. We tried to confirm the exact charge,
but we've been unable to secure the records. Possibly because
Germaine was a minor. Germaine figured his record would ruin
(10:41):
any shot at an athletic scholarship to college. He suddenly
felt like he had no future, no path to follow,
and there wasn't a parent pointing him in the right direction.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
My behavior is change.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Started hanging out a lot, started hanging with the wrong crowd,
started smoking weed, started using drugs, started selling drugs as
a child. I'm already living in the projects. I'm around
these same kids every day. I'm growing up with these kids.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Then there was the lure of fast money. Quick cash.
Selling drugs on the corner was better than earning minimum
wage somewhere. So Jermaine became a low level high school
drug dealer on the streets, running around with friends who
were like him. Two years after the arrest for riding
in a stolen car, Jermaine found himself in trouble with
(11:36):
the law again, but this time the consequences were far worse.
Here's what happened. Jermaine was walking down the block when
he came upon a crime in progress.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
A friend of the family he was getting carjacked. He
was getting ribbed in carjacked by a few guys that
I grew up with. I'm just so happened to come
through the alleyway. I just really walked into it.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Normally, Jermaine would have minded his own business and not
gotten involved.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
And when I seen who he was, I anstantly changed
that situation.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
It turns out Germaine knew the driver of the car
that was getting carjacked, Tyrone Hills, and Germaine knew the
guys who were in the middle of stealing it.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And when I seen who it was, I'm like, no, y'all,
don't do that that He's a friend of a family.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Germaine tried to step in, but when police arrived on
the scene, Germaine was arrested, but he maintains he wasn't
involved in that crime. I want to stop here for
just a moment. This is the second time Germaine ends
up in trouble but says he wasn't involved in the crime.
(12:58):
I wouldn't blame anyone for wondering about Jermaine's story. He
says he didn't know the car he rode in was
stolen when he was fourteen, and then he says he
literally walked into a carjacking in progress two years later.
The truth about what happened in these two incidents matters
because they were both essential in determining Jermaine's ninety nine
(13:22):
year prison sentence in the armed robbery of Bobby Gumpright, So,
our team went to work trying to verify Jermaine's story.
Was he actually just in the wrong place at the
wrong time twice. We decided to do some digging, and
as I mentioned, we couldn't access the records from the
joy riding incident a few years earlier, but we were
(13:45):
able to get in touch with the victim of the carjacking.
The victim, mister Hills, confirmed two things for us. He
was a family friend, and the second detail he confirmed
is that he never start Germaine to any other than
walk onto the scene while the carjacking was happening. Nevertheless,
(14:07):
Jermaine was charged as one of the carjackers.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
When that took place. I wasn't no angel.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
I'm the type of man that can't understand when you're
playing in those streets, there is no rules to the game.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Even though he says he wasn't involved. On the advice
of his attorney, Jermaine took a plea deal for the
carjacking charges because risking a trial could have been catastrophic.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I ended up pleading guilty to a four year prison sentence.
I did two years on those four years.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Prison changed him, but Jermaine was determined to make it
a change for the better them.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Two years passed so fast. It was really a growth
for me because I took the time out to say
this is what you can do normal, and this is
what you need to do. Moving forward.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
While he was incarcerated, he was introduced to Kristin Motley,
a girl who would become an important part of his life.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
I was actually friends with his niece and one day
we were sitting down for lunch. We just were talking
and she said, I have somebody for you. I was like, ooh.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Jermaine was only seventeen when he was sentenced for carjacking
and Kristin was still in high school.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
I think we were just so mature for our age,
and the conversation it just it felt natural. I feel real.
He came home in ninety eight, the first thing he
came to see me. From that dayfore we were inseparable.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Kristin and Jermaine truly connected. The relationship became intimate, and
she became pregnant with a baby girl. When she told Jermaine,
it was that like.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh my guy.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
He was there literally in like five minutes home series.
He was so excited.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
He stayed by her side and was there when the
baby was born. Kristen's mother was there too. She remembers
how Germaine fell in love with his baby girl.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
From the time she came in the world. That was
his baby.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
Even if we will see Jermain walking with the baby.
I said, give me my baby, saying, uh.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
That's my baby.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Germaine understood the responsibility of being a parent. Kristin wouldn't
tolerate him being around drugs or running around with the
wrong guys, and he took that seriously.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
He ain't gotten two jobs. Like we were on a
right pad. I started working, you know, we were trying
to figure out how we can get our own apartment.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
After my daughter was born. They changed me because I'm like,
I have something to live for. I have responsibilities on
my hand now, so the best thing for me to
do is go find me a job, save my money,
have confident and faith in what I'm doing, and raise
(17:25):
his little girl like she's supposed to be raised. I
could not go a day without being with her.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
But a few months after his daughter was born, Tremaine
was picked up by police during a traffic stop. It
turns out the cops had been looking for him since
Bobby Gumpbright identified him in a photo lineup of possible suspects.
Speaker 6 (17:53):
And they said, do you recognize any of these men
as the one who robbed you. I pointed at one
and I said, that's him. That looks like him.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Jermaine Hudson didn't have an easy start in life. He
grew up moving between family members. As a teenager, he
got into trouble and served time in prison for carjacking.
But his fortune and direction were changing. He was in
love with Kristin Motley and a new father to their
baby girl, and just when things were going well.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
On April fifteenth, nineteen ninety nine, I was arrested for
a traffic violation. It was speeding now wearing a seatbelt
and no driver license.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
According to Jermaine, as one officer was writing a ticket,
another officer arrived and decided to arrest him. Once in custody,
police recognized him. This was the same man Bobby gumpright
identified in the photo lineup as the man who robbed
him at gunpoint while he was heading home from work.
(19:19):
The traffic violation suddenly became a minor issue. He was
wanted for a far more serious crime. Neither Germaine nor
Kristin knew he had been tied to the robbery of
Bobby Gumpright. Kristin still believed she'd get him home that
same day, so she drove down to the police station
where Germaine was being held. She waited there to post
(19:41):
his bail until finally.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Prison official to whoever is waiting on Jermaine Hudson, y'all
can go home.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Jermaine couldn't understand why Kristin hadn't bailed him out, so
he called her from jail, and that's when he learned
for the very first time why the police were holding him.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
She's crying and she's like, we did come. The people
told us we can leave because you got a robber.
Charlespend to know you're in a computer. I dropped the phone.
I literally dropped the phone and was like, wow, for real.
She said, Yeah, that's not who I am. I don't
(20:26):
do those things. I knew it was a mistaken identity.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
And while Christian could have posted bail for a traffic violation,
an armed robbery was a totally different story. Bail for
Jermaine was set at one hundred thousand dollars and nobody
he knew could post that bail.
Speaker 4 (20:51):
There was nothing we could do.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
My life took a total chain doing those events.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
To go from a traffic violation.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
About to be released on that traffic violation.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
To telling you and telling your family that you will
not be released because you had a Robert Charles Pender.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Jermaine and Kristen had begun building a life together. They
had a six month old daughter. Kristen could never have imagined.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
We wouldn't see him for twenty two years. Half the day.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Jermaine couldn't afford a lawyer, so he was assigned to
public defender named Don Donnelly, And you heard some of
the trial in the last episode. It was a trial
Donnelly never wanted to have. He told Jermaine he should
take a plea in exchange for a guaranteed five year sentence.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
I refuse because I didn't do it. I didn't do
it and I didn't want that on my record.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
But Germaine's public defender wasn't listening. He was adamant that
he should take the plea deal.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
He tried his best to convince me to take those
five years. He even sent a young lady that was
a court reporter clerk back there where I was dressing
waiting to go to trial. He sent her back there.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
To talk to me.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
She told me, she said, Jermaine, these people is not
playing I don't want to see you get your life
thrown away. Man take them five years. I say, are
you going to help me do five years? She couldn't
answer that question. I said, man, get out of here,
don't let them people come back. I'm not going to
change my mind for nothing, and I didn't.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
It isn't uncommon for a public defender to urge a
client to take a plea deal. Louisiana has the highest
incarceration rate in the country, and that's why Don Donnelly
was recommending the plea. If Germaine went to trial and lost,
he would face far more than five years. But Germaine
(23:23):
held firm he knew this was a case of mistaken
identity and he could prove it. He had an alibi
for the night Bobby Gumbright was robbed.
Speaker 5 (23:37):
When we found out he went to Geoa need stayed
the charges thing were happened, I was like anything possible
because he was at how thick with the flu.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
That's Christian's younger sister, Dwan. She was fourteen at the time.
She lived in the Motley family home with Kristin Germaine
and the couple's new baby. She and Germaine were both
certain they were together at home on the night of
March first, nineteen ninety nine. They knew it because Jermaine
had come down with the flu. His girlfriend, Kristen was
(24:08):
at work that night, so with Jermaine sick, someone needed
to stay back and take care of their baby. So
Duan decided to stay home and she stepped up to
help care for the baby and look after Jermaine. And
to this day she remembers how sick Jermaine was that night.
It was a kind of sick where you don't have
(24:28):
the energy to lift your head off the pillow.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
He just was in a bed.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
He was sick, just feeling bad, you know what, the
cold flu, Just like down, laying down, drink and orange juice.
And I told that to the detective who came to
the house for some reason. He was adamant about Jamaine
doing it, and I was like, that's not true. How
could he be at two places at one time? If
you sick with the flu inside like you're about to die,
(24:57):
how you supposed to be at a bus stop rhyping
somebody out of a chain.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Her testimony would be critical to proving Germaine's innocence. She
was with him all night.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
He was inside, sick with the flu. Have a weakness,
that is, I would testify cities.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
When the trial began, Dewan waited to be called as
a witness.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
Me and my sister in my niece who was going
to court for Jermaine, and I kept on telling his
attorney I needed to testify, but he said I couldn't testify,
and I kept asking him why, and he couldn't give
me a value reason why.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
We reached out to public defender Don Donnelly. His wife
picked up the phone and said, he declined to participate,
but we wanted to talk to him because there's some
glaring inconsistencies between what we've heard in our reporting and
what the jury was allowed to hear in Jermaine's trial.
The biggest one is the fact fact that Dewan's alibi
(26:01):
was never mentioned in court. When it was almost time
for the defense to rest, public Defender Donnelly acknowledged there
was a witness that Germaine wanted to call, but instead
of calling the witness, he asked for a sidebar with
the judge. There's a transcript of that sidebar. A voice
actor reenacts that moment.
Speaker 7 (26:23):
The defendant wants me to call a witness who I
don't feel comfortable calling for the simple reason I know
the witness not to be telling the truth. I know
this from an independent investigation.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Donnelly never referenced Christen's sister, Dewan. The defense rested without
calling her to the stand. It made me wonder about
the independent investigation, public defender Donnelly conducted. Germaine sat at
the defense table wondering the exact same thing.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
How you know that from independent investigation? Will you never
talked to my witness nowday I went to trial, now
time I was facing those charges, you never talked to
my witnesses.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
The judge took Donnelly at his word when he said
he'd found Germaine's alibi witness not credible. He didn't ask
your man's lawyer a single question about this independent investigation.
The prosecutor seemed delighted.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Thank you, mister Donnelly, for being so truthful and honest.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Jermaine's alibi witness to Juan said she talked to a
police detective. If that happened, it should be in the
police file. So we reached out to the New Orleans
Police Department to get a copy of that file. We
wanted to see who they talked to and read notes
from the investigation, but the police department informed us that
(27:58):
the case file is no longer available. It had been
lost in a cyber hack in twenty nineteen. So back
to the trial. In the end, no witnesses testified for Jermaine,
not even himself. His attorney had advised him against it.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
He said, look, do not testify.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I advise you not to take the stand in your
own behalved because they're going to bring up your criminal history.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Any' gonna make you look bad enough.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
So me sitting there and not really not putting up
a fight for my life because of what my attorney
influenced me not to do, it made me look even better.
And now that I really look back on it, and
I'm like, my criminal histor ain't got nothing to.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Do with what I'm going on trial for today. They
have nothing to do with that.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Jermaine was twenty one at the time. He knew what
it meant to be a black man in a Louisiana
court room. His attorney was white, so was the judge,
the prosecutor, the victim, and most of the jury. Jermaine
took his attorney's advice and stayed quiet. The whole trial
(29:15):
was over in the course of an afternoon, guilty by
a vote of ten to two. Jermayne's case was tried
and prosecuted within a day. When the verdict came down guilty,
(29:35):
his family was stunned. Dewan Motley didn't think much of
the public defender's performance.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
He didn't do nothing. He didn't fight for Jamaye. Oh
he didn't. He didn't fight for Jamaine at all. And
I told him name. He didn't put up no fight.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
The guilty verdict was almost to fade a complete but
the sentence that was a different story entirely. On April twelfth,
two thousand, Germaine and his attorney Donnelly appeared for sentencing.
Speaker 8 (30:09):
What is mister Hudson's criminal history.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
Here's Sidney Woods, who represented the state, Your honor, mister
Hudson has two counts of prior armed robberies.
Speaker 8 (30:21):
You're allegend multiple bill, Yes, we are, your honor.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Multiple bill refers to the habitual offender statute. If you've
ever heard of the three strikes law, it's the same
theory increase sentencing to keep repeat offenders out of society
by imposing increasingly severe penalties for each felony conviction. In
Jermaine's case, the armed robbery of Bobby Gumpright was treated
(30:49):
as his final strike. Don Donnelly objected to the habitual
offender classification to no avail.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
No further questions, your honor.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Minutes later, the judge delivered his sentence.
Speaker 8 (31:09):
Mister Hudson, you've been found guilty by a jury of
the offense of armed robbery, and considering mister Hudson's prior
criminal history, it is the sentence of this court that
you serve ninety nine years in the Department of Corrections
at hard labor, without the benefit of probation, parole or
(31:34):
suspension of sentence.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
I was so angry because I was like, how can
my life ENLiGHT this.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Kristin Motley, the woman Germaine had found love with started
a family with, was sitting in the courtroom in a
state of shock.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Only thing I really heard was ninety nine years. I
don't think I heard nothing else they said in that
cold work. I looked at my sister, you know, and
we just was crying. She was screaming.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Christen says this was the worst moment of her life.
She looked over at the attorneys and then she realized
for them, it was just another Wednesday.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
They were actually standing there cracking jokes, talking about golfing,
and they just ripped my heart out. They just took
Jamaine away from it, just like that. And I can
remember him looking out that window. He didn't have any
expression on his face, any like any expression.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
I think we just always numb.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
For Christian's little sister, Dwan, the case was personal. She
knew Jermaine hadn't done it.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
They sentenced him to ninety nine years, and I was like,
this is some bullshit.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Du One was only fourteen. And maybe it was because
of that, because she wasn't heartened to the world that
she decided to say something to Bobby Gumpbright, the man
who said Jermaine Hudson robbed him.
Speaker 5 (33:25):
So when we was leaving, we interacted well by because
me and my sister and the baby was walking and
he was walking too, and I say, hey you, and
I put my niece in his face and he went
to shaking and all this like he wanted to cry.
And I said, why would you do that? You just
took my knees daddy away from her. He said he
(33:47):
had to put somebody away. He told me this out
his own mouth.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
As far as the cord and the jury were concerned,
justice was served, they didn't know. They couldn't know that
the star witness had developed a strategy to win the
courtroom over.
Speaker 6 (34:18):
The best lie is partial truth, right. That's what I
learned after lying for so long, is always include a
little bit of truth in your lie, and it's more plausible.
The truth was. It was my job to remember faces
as a bartender, so I was good at it.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
The lie was had.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
I didn't remember his face because it never happened.
Speaker 3 (34:43):
Just take a minute to let that sink. In the
robbery a gunpoint, Bobby made the whole thing up. The
crime itself never occurred. Well, you may be asking yourself
the same thing I asked myself. Why did he create
such an elaborate lie, a lie that would put someone
(35:04):
away for ninety nine years. Well, Bobby had a secret.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
I met a guy who did and dealt cocaine, and
so tried it and immediately was an addict. I needed
it like I wanted it.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
It was his addiction that he needed to keep from
the world, especially his father.
Speaker 6 (35:29):
My family has a good reputation. They're good people, and
so for me, to be the drug addict of the family.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
It was embarrassing.
Speaker 6 (35:41):
The lie was the only thing that was going to
protect me from them finding out the truth, which was
even scarier.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
He picked Jermaine Hudson out of that photo lineup at random,
and Jermaine Hudson was sentenced to life in prison for
a crime that never happened at all. He would spend
twenty two two years in Angola Prison before the truth
finally came to light. Coming up on Burden of Guilt,
(36:12):
how did Bobby conceive the story of a fake crime
and why did he do it?
Speaker 6 (36:20):
I just rolled it through my mind and said that
sounds plausible. So now that the story's developed, now I
have to go home and get in the character and
nact scared.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
And Jermaine loses hope.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
I'm like, ah, what is going on? I'm like, Lord,
please send me a sign. This can't be the end
of my life. This can't be my final destination.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Thank you for listening. If you're enjoying Burden of Guilt, subscribe,
rate and review the series with five stars. Yay. It
helps other people find our show. You can reach out
to the Burden of Guilt team at Burden of guiltpod
at gmail dot com. That's Burden of guiltpod at gmail
(37:13):
dot com. Burden of Guilt is a production of Glass Podcasts,
a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts.
The series is executive produced and hosted by me Nancy Glass.
This episode was written and produced by Carrie Hartman, also
produced by Ben Fetterman and Andrea Gunning. Our story editor
(37:37):
is Monique Leboard. Our associate producer is jade Abdul Malik.
Our production manager is Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart team is
Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Thank you to our voice
actors Brian Balthazar, Todd Gans and Trey Morgan. Audio editing
(37:57):
by Dean Welsh, mixed and mastered by Anna McLean. The
Burden of Guilt theme is composed by Oliver Bain's music
library provided by Mob Music, and we want to give
our special thanks to Jermaine Hudson and Bobby Gumpwright. For
more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app or Apple
(38:18):
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