April 3, 2023 • 36 mins
From an extremely young age, Amanda Busse endured severe physical and sexual abuse, not only by her father, but also by her father’s friends, who were all feared by much of the community as they were rumoured to control the local drug trade. After her mother passed, Amanda’s father sold her to a 36 year old acquaintance of his, to be his wife. Amanda was 17 at the time. On November 15, 1997, a local woman was found brutally murdered in the Meramec River in MO. Amanda’s father, husband, and 3 others were initially arrested and charged. Her father’s charges were dropped and her husband received a life without parole sentence. It wasn’t until 5 or 6 years later that Amanda’s brother implicated her in the crime, as revenge for Amanda reporting him for molesting their young nieces. Amanda was convicted, and ultimately sentenced to 25 years in prison. Maggie talks to Amanda Busse, Mary Payne, Amanda's aunt, and Anne Geraghty-Rathert, Amanda's attorney.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
When Amanda Bussy was seventeen, her home life was spinning
out of control. Her father was abusive to her and
her siblings, and her mother had just died in a
car wreck. So when Larry Declue asked her to run
away with him, she jumped at the chance, even though
he was nearly twice her age.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
In my mind, he was kind of like a superhero,
you know. He took me away from all the abuse
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But soon after she moved in with Larry, she started
to notice suspicious behavior. One night, after they went to bed.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I remember being woke up by someone banging on a
window and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them. Okay,
so it didn't make no damn sense to me. He
didn't come back until eleven o'clock that morning.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Not long after that, she and Larry were out driving
with Larry's niece, Melissa.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
This is where it happened. Unc Larry, I'm like, what
the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
You know, I wanted didn't know what the heck was
going on. That's when I realized something happened.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Amanda didn't put the pieces together until a few years later, when,
to her surprise, she was arrested for the brutal murder
of a local woman.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
My name is Amanda Bussy. I was convicted of a
second degree murder. I've been incarcerated for almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
From Lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
Freeling today, Amanda Bussy. Amanda Bussy was born February twelfth,
nineteen eighty in Sullivan, Missouri, to Lisa and Kenny. She's
(02:01):
the oldest of their five kids. Although they grew up
poor in rural Missouri, Amanda remembers there were some good times.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Like on Christmas. You know, my dad would take us
out and you'd throw us in the snow. We'd all
just laugh, you know. He put us on the sled
and push us down the hill, or he'd go down
with us whenever he was younger.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
We were very close during our adolescence.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
This is Amanda's aunt Mary Paint. She's Amanda's mom's sister
and actually two years younger than Amanda. The two of
them grew up more like siblings than aunt Nice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We would go to church together on Sundays, we would
walk home together after school. Or my dad had a
furniture store, so her mother, my sister worked in the
store with my dad sometimes, so we would walk to
the furniture store and there was a back room so
we would choreograph dances and perform them for our family.
(03:04):
We always would go on adventures in the woods, making treehouses,
creating time capsules. We were both heavily involved in music,
so we were inquired together a lot. She loved to
get up in church and sing. She really connected to
music and used that as an outlet. I believe.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That is an outlet for what was happening in Amanda's
home life, which was challenging for a young girl.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It was. It was a pretty hard life. You know.
My mom was sick grown up. She had congest of
heart failure and thyroid problems, and she just kept gaining
weight gaining weight, you know, and eventually she just wasn't
able to get around and do much with herself. She
couldn't do things like cutting her toe nows and shaving
(03:52):
her legs and you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Her mother eventually had to stop working at the furniture
store because of her condition and Amanda stepped into the
role of a parent.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
It was like trying to help mom do everything for
her and then happened to do for the other kids,
getting them ready for school, cooking dinner.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Amanda's father, Kenny, worked various jobs, but she doesn't remember
any of them lasting long.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My dad, he just he quit working and then he
just start selling his drugs. He'd go from this place
to that place, and eventually he just whenever he was home,
they'd be all we'd have house full of people, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The Bussy home became a revolving door of people buying
and selling drugs, particularly meth. It was rumored that Kenny
controlled the local drug trade and ruled with violence and intimidation.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We started realizing, hey, you know, Dad's not who we
thought he was, you know, and whenever he'd start coming
down off of drugs, you know, he start hitting us
and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It took me a while to figure out that things
at her house weren't very good.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
This is Mary again.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
When I was there, I would notice there were sometimes
strange people there. My nieces would tell me, you know,
about their dad being abusive toward them. It just wasn't
a good environment.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Which is why Mary's parents wouldn't allow her to stay
at Amanda's often.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
My parents knew that her father was selling drugs, and
they tried to be a good influence on my sister
and her husband. They tried to minimize anything that they
were aware of. They tried to correct, but a lot
was hidden from them.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
At one point, Amanda's sisters were so distraught they tried
to run away, but that only made their situation worse.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Their dad figured out where they were and he beat
them so horribly. Whenever he found them, he punched one
of them in the face and broke their nose. I
don't understand how someone could do that to their child.
I think that that person has to be completely void
of soul or you know, I just don't understand. That's
(06:32):
I can't comprehend it.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But Kenny's abuse towards his family, particularly Amanda, went far
beyond a punch in the face. When Amanda was around thirteen,
her father started sexually abusing her, and so did his
friends who would often come by to buy drugs.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You know, someone would end up stay in there, or
they'd sneak into the room, end up having sex. You know,
it just it's we shouldn't have been taking an advantage
like that.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Were any of your other siblings being abused, I.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Can't say for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
For sure, I would see little little things like Dad
paying them more attention or something, and then I tried
to like take away that attention.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I kind of went out of my way from my
brothers and sisters a lot because I didn't want them.
I didn't want my dad getting to them like that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You know, even though Mary was also a child when
all of this was happening, she tried her best to
stand up for her family.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
About fifth grade, I started going to my school counselor
and telling them, somebody needs to do something because my
nieces are being sexually abused, they're being physically abused, and
you know, in fifth grader words, right. I was worried
(08:05):
about backlash from their parents, but my parents protected me
very well, and I had a wonderful home life, and
I just couldn't even understand or fathom really what was
happening to them. I don't think she's ever even told
me half of the stuff that actually happened, but I've
(08:26):
heard from her sisters things that have happened to them
as well, So I just know that the sexual and
physical abuse was rampant.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Amanda felt utterly alone and helpless.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
People getting worse and worse.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And of course, you know, I don't remember stuff like
that when I'm a kid, had am I supposed to know?
Speaker 5 (08:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Like, I don't know the truth about a lot in
my life. You know, I questioned all my life that,
you know, why mom let us, why mom will didn't
do anything up. My mom knew something was going on.
She did ask me one time, and I was honest
(09:10):
with her about it, and she kicked my dad out,
but it didn't last. It was like for two weeks,
and then I found out that my mom was just
as scared of my dad as I was. There's a
lot of stuff that I didn't know until I got older.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, see, your mom was being abused by your
dad too.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The abuse that Amanda and her siblings were suffering was
reported to the Department of Family Services by their schools,
but it wasn't much help.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
There was a point in time in my life where
where we had to go see the shrinks and stuff,
and they like made us play with dolls, tell us
where we was touched and stuff. That I remember growing up.
I remember Family Services being called a few times by Knie.
(10:09):
I don't know what for when I was too young,
but we knew better not to say nothing like drugs
and nothing about the drugs in the house. We knew
better than that. You know, there was consequences if we
was said anything like that, Like my mom was like,
do you want to go to DFS? You know, stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
The counselors could only do so much because once they
were in the counselor's office, they would not tell them
what was going on. It was just me saying it.
You know. They felt scared, they were afraid. They were
too afraid.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We had to grow up fast, you know. It just
took a toll on us a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
By ninth grade, Amanda had dropped out of school, and
then when she was seventeen, her mother died suddenly in
a car wreck.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
After my mom passed away, ninety seven is when everything
went downhill. It's just one thing after another. This is
a really really bad year.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, So tell me about that. After your mom passes,
you know, everything goes to how I know this is
when Larry came into your life. So tell me a
bit about.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That so to me. I mean, at first, like I
I thought I had a good relationship. Larry was he
was nice to me.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Larry Declue was thirty two, fifteen years older than Amanda
and a drug associate of her father's. He was at
the house one time when he saw Kenny physically assaulting her.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
You know, I was in my dad's room and my
dad started, you know, pressing all against me and had
me against the door, and Larry walks past when and
he's seeing me push some dad off of me.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Larry and Kenny then went outside and had a talk.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Larry come back and he had asked me if I
just if I wanted to run away with him, if
I just wanted to leave with him, and I was
all for it, you know, I was. I was just
ready to go at that point. I was ready to
get out of the house and just tired of everything.
And I ended up leaving with him. In my mind,
(12:28):
he was kind of like a superhero, you know. He
took me away from all the.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Abuse and stuff.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So I thought I loved him. I didn't know any.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Better, you know, But Mary saw Larry de Clue very
differently to me.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
He is the most frightening person I've ever met in
my life. I was young, and I just could just
looking at him just as eyes. He had crazy eyes,
and he had this aura around him that was frightening.
And I think that when he came into the picture,
(13:11):
I think that things took a horrible turn.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
About a year after they met, Amanda and Larry got
married and had their first child, Larry Jr. After this,
Larry became abusive.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
It was so bad, like I couldn't even go in
Walmart to get divers without him accusing me of going
inside to meet somebody to do something with them, and
then I would risk, you know, getting beat on and
stuff like that, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And it wasn't just Amanda. Larry was abusing.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I remember there was a time after I had had
little Larry, when he was a baby. Larry was holding
the baby, and you know, the baby he wouldn't stop crying.
He wouldn't stop crying. And I turned the corner coming
into the living room and I seen Larry like kind
of throw him hard on the couch, and that's when
(14:16):
I freaked out real bad, and I'm like, oh my god,
what are you doing? And then he grabs me by
the hair, and he bashes my head into the ground
and he said, you stupid being. I went to Grandma's
a few times that he came right behind me and
there was no leaving. You know, he was going to
(14:37):
make sure of that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Amanda was stuck back in a familiar pattern with no escape.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He threatened to bury her. He threatened at one point
to kill her and bury her and cement and build
a house on top of it so no one would
ever find her body.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
in the communities where they work and live. In light
of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
(15:34):
the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. In November of
nineteen ninety seven, Diane Coleman went out for the day
(15:55):
as she usually did. The thirty two year old suffered
from schizophrenia and lived at a care facility near Sullivan,
where Amanda's family lived. Diane was allowed to come and
go from the facility as she pleased, and she usually
left in the morning and returned at night. But on
November eleventh, nineteen ninety seven, Diane never returned to the
(16:16):
care center. Days later, her body was found floating in
the nearby Merrimec River. An autopsy revealed that she had
been brutally beaten to death by different blunt objects. Investigators
ruled her death a homicide. This evening would later become
(16:38):
significant to Amanda, but she only remembers it because of
what happened at home that night.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I remember being woke up by someone banging on a window,
and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Larry left and ended up staying out all night. He
didn't come home until eleven the next morning. Amanda thought
that was strange. They usually went everywhere together.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So it just didn't make no damn sense to me,
you know, I don't know, there's just certain things that
wasn't adding up.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Ten days later, seventeen year old Jeremy Payne was brought
into the police station and questioned about his knowledge of
Diane's murder. Jeremy knew Diane through his father, who was
in a relationship with her. In a taped confession, Jeremy
said that he, Amanda's father, Kenny, and two young women
named Angela Cody and Melissa O'Brien were all complicit in
(17:40):
Diane's murder. According to Jeremy, they were all riding in
a van when they accidentally hit a woman on the
side of the road. They got out to see what happened.
Then the group beat her, raped her, and left her
in the woods. Amanda knew both Melissa and Angela, Melissa
(18:00):
was Larry's niece. Once she heard the news of Jeremy's confession,
Amanda recalled something that happened not too long after Diane's
body was found. She and Melissa were all out driving together.
They were on Highway N near the Merrimack River, and.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
This is where it happened. Uncle Larry. I'm like, what
the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
You know? And we just keep on going and I
want didn't know what the heck was going on. That's
when I realized something happened. I didn't know what happened.
Something happened.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
However, Larry wasn't part of Jeremy's story, and he was
not arrested for the murder with the others. Jeremy Payne
was convicted and sentenced to life without parole based on
his confession. The charges against Amanda's father were dropped, and
Melissa and Angela both took immunity deals. The following year,
(19:03):
Amanda and Larry had another child, named Felicia. Amanda tried
to be the best mom she could be despite her
harrowing home life with Larry. By the end of nineteen
ninety nine, Amanda's thirteen year old brother, Kenny Junior, also
known as Buddy, moved in with her and Larry. He
didn't want to live with her father anymore, and Amanda
(19:23):
knew he had nowhere else to go. One day, Amanda
returned home after running some errands. She had left Buddy
to watch over the kids, including Larry's niece Adrian.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I remember I picked up Adrian and she would be like, ow,
you know, I could tell something was wrong, mind you.
She's three years old at the time, Okay, So I'm like,
what's the matter, baby? And then she'd kind of touch
herself down there and she say it hurts, and so
(19:58):
Amama was to pick her up, and I started to
take her bridges off on the couch and then she
just start crying. I'm like, what the heck man? I thought, Okay, well,
maybe she fell and she hurt herself, you know, but
she was rubbed roll down there and I looked looked
at her. I'm like, honey, I said, what happened. She's
(20:18):
telling Aunt Mandy what happened baby? And when she that
Buddy Buddy, and I mean, right then and there, I knew.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Buddy had sexually assaulted three year old Adrian. Amanda then
realized my dad.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Got to him too, you know, I didn't know. So
I had to make one of the hardest decisions there
in my life, you know, to kick my brother out,
knowing he had nowhere to go.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Amanda also reported Buddy to authorities, but that decision would
lead to consequences she could never have imagined. In January
of two thousand, Buddy was facing charges in juvenile court
for the molestation of Larry's niece, and while police were
(21:12):
questioning him about it, he dropped a bombshell, not about
the molestation, but about the night of Diane Coleman's murder.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
He told the police that he would tell the police
what really happened in the murder if they would essentially
drop the charges or lesson the charges against him.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
This is Anne Garrety rathert. She's the director of the
Willow Project, which focuses on the wrongful convictions of women
and girls.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
And so, since he had been living with Amanda and
Larry and they kicked him out when they learned this
about the abuse and turned him over to the police,
he said that they were the ones who had in
fact committed the crime. So then the story he told
was that he was a slate at his grandmother's house
and that Amanda and the people who Jeremy had said
(22:01):
were in the car came to pick him up to
take him to like a birthday celebration late at night.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Remember, Jeremy is the young man who first confessed to
Diane's murder and was serving a life without parole sentence.
In the story he told police Melissa O'Brien, Angela Cody, himself,
and Kenny Bussey were all present that night. Jeremy never
mentioned Buddy, Larry or Amanda, but now Buddy was telling
(22:30):
police that he was actually in the car, that Larry
and Amanda were there too, and that his dad, Kenny
was not. He went on to say.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
That they gave him LSD and he fell asleep. That
was his story. So then the next thing he said
was that he woke up and no one else was
in the van, and he got out of the van
to see what was going on, and he saw a
woman lying in the road, and he saw the rest
of the people from the car standing around her and
beating her with objects. He says that they told him
(23:03):
to do the same, and he ran back to the
van and did not, but he saw Amanda specifically hit
the woman with multiple objects.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Buddy also said he saw Larry hit the woman multiple times,
and even though Jeremy Paine had pinpointed Kenny as a
fellow perpetrator, Buddy claims his father was not involved.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
So this is where the situation comes in where he
perhaps is trying to protect his father as well. That
also probably had to do with his fear of his
father having also been horrifically abused by his father. So,
you know, all of these things are so convoluted by
the threats and the intimidation and the violence going on.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
In the spring of two thousand, Larry de'clue was arrested
and charged with first degree murder. Amanda was also arrested,
but was released due to lack of evidence. Around this,
Amanda also found out she was never actually married to Larry,
he never finalized the papers. She also learned a shocking
truth about the man she'd once seen as a superhero
(24:12):
whisking her away from her abusive father.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It wasn't until later and then I found out my
dad had sold me to Larry for drugs.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
With Larry finally out of her life, Amanda tried to
move forward. She entered into another relationship and had her
third child, Katie. Meanwhile, the police still had Amanda in
their sights. Soon after Buddy's conversation with police and Larry's arrest,
Buddy recanted his statements, but police would not accept that,
(24:47):
and he was then threatened with perjury.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He did come forward and he said a sad, many
lie and he wrote a statement saying, please tell my
sister Mee and that I'm sorry for lying on her.
I just tried to clear my dad's name.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And in two thousand and three, based on her brother's
initial statements alone, Amanda was arrested for the murder of
Diane Coleman. What was that like for you?
Speaker 5 (25:17):
It was devastating.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So that was my babye brother, and that I helped.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
I didn't understand why he was lying, and I.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Knew, and it just it was everything hit me at once.
I'm like, why would he do that? You know, why
why something happened to where he's saying something like that.
But I love him, and I know that he was
youngest and they scared him into saying whatever they wanted
(25:54):
him to say. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
From the beginning, Amanda has maintained her innocence and because
of that, she opted to go to trial.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You know, I knew God wasn't gonna let me go
down for something that I didn't do. They couldn't. They
couldn't possibly hang me up for something I didn't do.
They had nothing on me, you know, And this is
where my mind was set.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Amanda's defense attorney was public defender David Bruns and Garretty
rathert remembers reading the transcript of the.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Trial, and to be honest, I was a little alarmed
when I saw that the defense put on by the
public defender lasted three minutes in length, which obviously seems
grossly inadequate.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But Anne dug deeper and saw that Bruns actually did
the best job he could given the circumstances.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
There really isn't a defense that can be put on
effectively when someone is completely, factually innocent and in fact
wasn't even at the crime scene, nor knows anything about
the crime scene. You know, since three years had passed
at the time she was implicated, and almost six years
(27:28):
by the time she went to trial, you know, who
of us could remember on any given day what we
were doing and who we were with six years prior
to that moment, right, there are no witnesses who will
say she wasn't there, So there really isn't a good
defense that can even be put on.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Bruns and Amanda were convinced the prosecution's case was extremely weak.
Brunn said all the prosecution had was the testimony of Buddy,
who by then was seventeen. But Buddy recanted again, this
time on the witness stand under cross examination by the defense.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
So he did a good job of asking him questions
that I believed poke holes in everything he said. The
evidence was so poor and the public defender poked so
many holes in the testimony of Buddy. It almost seemed
like a foregone conclusion that she would be declared innocent.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
But that's not what happened. Do you know how long
the jury deliberated.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
For less than two hours?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Wow. On May twenty seventh, two thousand and four, Amanda
was found guilty and convicted of second degree murder. She
was sentenced to twenty five years in prison.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I was devastated. I didn't know what, you know.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I was mad at.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Everybody around me, like what how could they do this?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
At the time of Amanda's conviction, she had three children,
Larry Junior and Felicia went with Larry's family, but she
made the difficult decision to put her youngest child, Katie,
up for adoption. During the first years of her sentence,
Amanda didn't communicate much with her family, But in twenty thirteen,
(29:27):
when Amanda got her ged, her sisters and Mary traveled
to the prison for the ceremony.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And I was chosen to give the see the speaker
for everybody, kind of like Valvictorian, And they kind of
surprised me when they came up there after all these years,
you know, And that's kind of like my whole life
just classed before in my eyes, you know, because we
(30:00):
all conspected.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And then just a couple of years later, Amanda got
some more good news the Willow Project was going to
take on her case.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Well, the very first thing I thought was that.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Someone actually believed me, believed in me, and was there
to help me.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
I thought that the case had all the same sort
of issues as other cases that I had read about
where people were wrongfully convicted, no forensic evidence, and the
only evidence that was presented at trial was the testimony
of an incentivized informant, and that was literally the only
(30:48):
evidence against her several years after the murder, when no
one had ever implicated her before or indicated any involvement
on her part up to that point. So all of
the those things led me to believe that her case
was at least problematic, if not that she was literally innocent.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Amanda has run out of appeal opportunities, so Anne and
the Willow Project are diligently working on finding new evidence
to get her case back in court. In the meantime,
Amanda is now nearing the end of her twenty five
year prison sentence. She was granted parole and will be
released in early twenty twenty five. Amanda plans to live
(31:30):
with Mary, who is thrilled to have her best friend
and niece back in her life.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I want people to know that she is a good person.
She wanted to be a good mother and be there
for her children. I want them to know that she's
innocent of this crime that she has given her life for,
(31:57):
and she's a victim of evil and terrible circumstances.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Amanda can't know for sure who killed Diane Coleman. She
just knows that she didn't. And to this day, Mary
blames everything Buddy did and everything that happened to Amanda
on their father, Kenny.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Who I also think is one of the most evil
people I've ever met. I just can't stress enough how
he ruined. He really ruined their lives. He stole their
lives from them. I fully hold him accountable for that.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Although her time in prison will be coming to an end,
Amanda knows she has a long road of healing ahead
of her. One thing that helps is putting her feelings
down on paper.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
I have a poem that I wrote. Would it be
okay if that I read it?
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Please?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I wrote it in twenty twelve, called There's no life
without hope. Imagine being said a teen, trying so hard
not to be bad and putting your trust into that
number one man that you loved so dear, that man
you call Dad. Then one night everything went wrong. Scared
(33:12):
and alone, trying your best just to hold on, getting
locked up for first degree murder, asking him, Daddy, why
did you hurt her? Telling myself I'm going to get
out because in God, I had no doubt. How can
they give me twenty five years? I couldn't see that far,
my eyes filled with tears, begging my daddy please tell
(33:36):
the truth.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
But he wouldn't and I had no proof.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Imagine how hard it was to trust anyone else.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
All I could see is they were out for themselves.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
There. I was on my knees, asking God, how can
this be?
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Where's the justice in his crime?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
My dad's out there, I'm doing his time.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Finally I see it.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
My eyes are now open, and God said, child, you
can't stop hoping.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
God put an angel into my life. She's helped heal
the pain and get through the strife. You've helped me
get past all the hurtful flinches and most of all
you've taken away, these senses. You know who you are,
and I thank you so much for the one person
in this world I know I can trust.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To find out more about the Willow Project and how
to help support wrongfully convicted women like Amanda, go to
Willow Project stl dot org. Next time, on Wrongful Conviction
with Maggie Freeling, Tala Lalay Edwards.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
He's saying, now something happened. You shook the baby or something,
And I'm like, shake the baby?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
What are you talking about here?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Like TJ man bag you Like if I.
Speaker 6 (35:05):
Was a kid and you're over here like shaking me out,
I'll be in the same position.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Derek Sam, I'm like, what.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
(35:39):
and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
(35:59):
at Maggie. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production
of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Number one
When Amanda Bussy was seventeen, her home life was spinning
out of control. Her father was abusive to her and
her siblings, and her mother had just died in a
car wreck. So when Larry Declue asked her to run
away with him, she jumped at the chance, even though
he was nearly twice her age.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
In my mind, he was kind of like a superhero,
you know. He took me away from all the abuse
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But soon after she moved in with Larry, she started
to notice suspicious behavior. One night, after they went to bed.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I remember being woke up by someone banging on a
window and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them. Okay,
so it didn't make no damn sense to me. He
didn't come back until eleven o'clock that morning.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Not long after that, she and Larry were out driving
with Larry's niece, Melissa.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
This is where it happened. Unc Larry, I'm like, what
the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
You know, I wanted didn't know what the heck was
going on. That's when I realized something happened.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Amanda didn't put the pieces together until a few years later, when,
to her surprise, she was arrested for the brutal murder
of a local woman.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
My name is Amanda Bussy. I was convicted of a
second degree murder. I've been incarcerated for almost twenty years.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
From Lava for good. This is wrongful conviction with Maggie
Freeling today, Amanda Bussy. Amanda Bussy was born February twelfth,
nineteen eighty in Sullivan, Missouri, to Lisa and Kenny. She's
(02:01):
the oldest of their five kids. Although they grew up
poor in rural Missouri, Amanda remembers there were some good times.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Like on Christmas. You know, my dad would take us
out and you'd throw us in the snow. We'd all
just laugh, you know. He put us on the sled
and push us down the hill, or he'd go down
with us whenever he was younger.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
We were very close during our adolescence.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
This is Amanda's aunt Mary Paint. She's Amanda's mom's sister
and actually two years younger than Amanda. The two of
them grew up more like siblings than aunt Nice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
We would go to church together on Sundays, we would
walk home together after school. Or my dad had a
furniture store, so her mother, my sister worked in the
store with my dad sometimes, so we would walk to
the furniture store and there was a back room so
we would choreograph dances and perform them for our family.
(03:04):
We always would go on adventures in the woods, making treehouses,
creating time capsules. We were both heavily involved in music,
so we were inquired together a lot. She loved to
get up in church and sing. She really connected to
music and used that as an outlet. I believe.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
That is an outlet for what was happening in Amanda's
home life, which was challenging for a young girl.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
It was. It was a pretty hard life. You know.
My mom was sick grown up. She had congest of
heart failure and thyroid problems, and she just kept gaining
weight gaining weight, you know, and eventually she just wasn't
able to get around and do much with herself. She
couldn't do things like cutting her toe nows and shaving
(03:52):
her legs and you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Her mother eventually had to stop working at the furniture
store because of her condition and Amanda stepped into the
role of a parent.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
It was like trying to help mom do everything for
her and then happened to do for the other kids,
getting them ready for school, cooking dinner.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Amanda's father, Kenny, worked various jobs, but she doesn't remember
any of them lasting long.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
My dad, he just he quit working and then he
just start selling his drugs. He'd go from this place
to that place, and eventually he just whenever he was home,
they'd be all we'd have house full of people, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
The Bussy home became a revolving door of people buying
and selling drugs, particularly meth. It was rumored that Kenny
controlled the local drug trade and ruled with violence and intimidation.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
We started realizing, hey, you know, Dad's not who we
thought he was, you know, and whenever he'd start coming
down off of drugs, you know, he start hitting us
and stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It took me a while to figure out that things
at her house weren't very good.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
This is Mary again.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
When I was there, I would notice there were sometimes
strange people there. My nieces would tell me, you know,
about their dad being abusive toward them. It just wasn't
a good environment.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Which is why Mary's parents wouldn't allow her to stay
at Amanda's often.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
My parents knew that her father was selling drugs, and
they tried to be a good influence on my sister
and her husband. They tried to minimize anything that they
were aware of. They tried to correct, but a lot
was hidden from them.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
At one point, Amanda's sisters were so distraught they tried
to run away, but that only made their situation worse.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Their dad figured out where they were and he beat
them so horribly. Whenever he found them, he punched one
of them in the face and broke their nose. I
don't understand how someone could do that to their child.
I think that that person has to be completely void
of soul or you know, I just don't understand. That's
(06:32):
I can't comprehend it.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But Kenny's abuse towards his family, particularly Amanda, went far
beyond a punch in the face. When Amanda was around thirteen,
her father started sexually abusing her, and so did his
friends who would often come by to buy drugs.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You know, someone would end up stay in there, or
they'd sneak into the room, end up having sex. You know,
it just it's we shouldn't have been taking an advantage
like that.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Were any of your other siblings being abused, I.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Can't say for sure.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
For sure, I would see little little things like Dad
paying them more attention or something, and then I tried
to like take away that attention.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I kind of went out of my way from my
brothers and sisters a lot because I didn't want them.
I didn't want my dad getting to them like that.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
You know, even though Mary was also a child when
all of this was happening, she tried her best to
stand up for her family.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
About fifth grade, I started going to my school counselor
and telling them, somebody needs to do something because my
nieces are being sexually abused, they're being physically abused, and
you know, in fifth grader words, right. I was worried
(08:05):
about backlash from their parents, but my parents protected me
very well, and I had a wonderful home life, and
I just couldn't even understand or fathom really what was
happening to them. I don't think she's ever even told
me half of the stuff that actually happened, but I've
(08:26):
heard from her sisters things that have happened to them
as well, So I just know that the sexual and
physical abuse was rampant.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Amanda felt utterly alone and helpless.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
People getting worse and worse.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And of course, you know, I don't remember stuff like
that when I'm a kid, had am I supposed to know?
Speaker 5 (08:46):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Like, I don't know the truth about a lot in
my life. You know, I questioned all my life that,
you know, why mom let us, why mom will didn't
do anything up. My mom knew something was going on.
She did ask me one time, and I was honest
(09:10):
with her about it, and she kicked my dad out,
but it didn't last. It was like for two weeks,
and then I found out that my mom was just
as scared of my dad as I was. There's a
lot of stuff that I didn't know until I got older.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, see, your mom was being abused by your
dad too.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
The abuse that Amanda and her siblings were suffering was
reported to the Department of Family Services by their schools,
but it wasn't much help.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
There was a point in time in my life where
where we had to go see the shrinks and stuff,
and they like made us play with dolls, tell us
where we was touched and stuff. That I remember growing up.
I remember Family Services being called a few times by Knie.
(10:09):
I don't know what for when I was too young,
but we knew better not to say nothing like drugs
and nothing about the drugs in the house. We knew
better than that. You know, there was consequences if we
was said anything like that, Like my mom was like,
do you want to go to DFS? You know, stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
The counselors could only do so much because once they
were in the counselor's office, they would not tell them
what was going on. It was just me saying it.
You know. They felt scared, they were afraid. They were
too afraid.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
We had to grow up fast, you know. It just
took a toll on us a lot.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
By ninth grade, Amanda had dropped out of school, and
then when she was seventeen, her mother died suddenly in
a car wreck.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
After my mom passed away, ninety seven is when everything
went downhill. It's just one thing after another. This is
a really really bad year.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, So tell me about that. After your mom passes,
you know, everything goes to how I know this is
when Larry came into your life. So tell me a
bit about.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
That so to me. I mean, at first, like I
I thought I had a good relationship. Larry was he
was nice to me.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Larry Declue was thirty two, fifteen years older than Amanda
and a drug associate of her father's. He was at
the house one time when he saw Kenny physically assaulting her.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
You know, I was in my dad's room and my
dad started, you know, pressing all against me and had
me against the door, and Larry walks past when and
he's seeing me push some dad off of me.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Larry and Kenny then went outside and had a talk.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Larry come back and he had asked me if I
just if I wanted to run away with him, if
I just wanted to leave with him, and I was
all for it, you know, I was. I was just
ready to go at that point. I was ready to
get out of the house and just tired of everything.
And I ended up leaving with him. In my mind,
(12:28):
he was kind of like a superhero, you know. He
took me away from all the.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Abuse and stuff.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
So I thought I loved him. I didn't know any.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Better, you know, But Mary saw Larry de Clue very
differently to me.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
He is the most frightening person I've ever met in
my life. I was young, and I just could just
looking at him just as eyes. He had crazy eyes,
and he had this aura around him that was frightening.
And I think that when he came into the picture,
(13:11):
I think that things took a horrible turn.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
About a year after they met, Amanda and Larry got
married and had their first child, Larry Jr. After this,
Larry became abusive.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
It was so bad, like I couldn't even go in
Walmart to get divers without him accusing me of going
inside to meet somebody to do something with them, and
then I would risk, you know, getting beat on and
stuff like that, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
And it wasn't just Amanda. Larry was abusing.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
I remember there was a time after I had had
little Larry, when he was a baby. Larry was holding
the baby, and you know, the baby he wouldn't stop crying.
He wouldn't stop crying. And I turned the corner coming
into the living room and I seen Larry like kind
of throw him hard on the couch, and that's when
(14:16):
I freaked out real bad, and I'm like, oh my god,
what are you doing? And then he grabs me by
the hair, and he bashes my head into the ground
and he said, you stupid being. I went to Grandma's
a few times that he came right behind me and
there was no leaving. You know, he was going to
(14:37):
make sure of that.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Amanda was stuck back in a familiar pattern with no escape.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
He threatened to bury her. He threatened at one point
to kill her and bury her and cement and build
a house on top of it so no one would
ever find her body.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
This episode is underwritten by AIG, a leading global insurance company.
AIG is committed to corporate social responsibility and to making
a positive difference in the lives of its employees and
in the communities where they work and live. In light
of the compelling need for pro bono legal assistance, and
in recognition of AIG's commitment to criminal and social justice reform,
(15:34):
the AIG pro Bono Program provides free legal services and
other support to underrepresented communities and individuals. In November of
nineteen ninety seven, Diane Coleman went out for the day
(15:55):
as she usually did. The thirty two year old suffered
from schizophrenia and lived at a care facility near Sullivan,
where Amanda's family lived. Diane was allowed to come and
go from the facility as she pleased, and she usually
left in the morning and returned at night. But on
November eleventh, nineteen ninety seven, Diane never returned to the
(16:16):
care center. Days later, her body was found floating in
the nearby Merrimec River. An autopsy revealed that she had
been brutally beaten to death by different blunt objects. Investigators
ruled her death a homicide. This evening would later become
(16:38):
significant to Amanda, but she only remembers it because of
what happened at home that night.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I remember being woke up by someone banging on a window,
and they wanted Larry to go hunting with them.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Larry left and ended up staying out all night. He
didn't come home until eleven the next morning. Amanda thought
that was strange. They usually went everywhere together.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
So it just didn't make no damn sense to me,
you know, I don't know, there's just certain things that
wasn't adding up.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Ten days later, seventeen year old Jeremy Payne was brought
into the police station and questioned about his knowledge of
Diane's murder. Jeremy knew Diane through his father, who was
in a relationship with her. In a taped confession, Jeremy
said that he, Amanda's father, Kenny, and two young women
named Angela Cody and Melissa O'Brien were all complicit in
(17:40):
Diane's murder. According to Jeremy, they were all riding in
a van when they accidentally hit a woman on the
side of the road. They got out to see what happened.
Then the group beat her, raped her, and left her
in the woods. Amanda knew both Melissa and Angela, Melissa
(18:00):
was Larry's niece. Once she heard the news of Jeremy's confession,
Amanda recalled something that happened not too long after Diane's
body was found. She and Melissa were all out driving together.
They were on Highway N near the Merrimack River, and.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Melissa starts jumping up and down. This is where it happened.
This is where it happened. Uncle Larry. I'm like, what
the heck, what are you talking about? What's the matter?
You know? And we just keep on going and I
want didn't know what the heck was going on. That's
when I realized something happened. I didn't know what happened.
Something happened.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
However, Larry wasn't part of Jeremy's story, and he was
not arrested for the murder with the others. Jeremy Payne
was convicted and sentenced to life without parole based on
his confession. The charges against Amanda's father were dropped, and
Melissa and Angela both took immunity deals. The following year,
(19:03):
Amanda and Larry had another child, named Felicia. Amanda tried
to be the best mom she could be despite her
harrowing home life with Larry. By the end of nineteen
ninety nine, Amanda's thirteen year old brother, Kenny Junior, also
known as Buddy, moved in with her and Larry. He
didn't want to live with her father anymore, and Amanda
(19:23):
knew he had nowhere else to go. One day, Amanda
returned home after running some errands. She had left Buddy
to watch over the kids, including Larry's niece Adrian.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I remember I picked up Adrian and she would be like, ow,
you know, I could tell something was wrong, mind you.
She's three years old at the time, Okay, So I'm like,
what's the matter, baby? And then she'd kind of touch
herself down there and she say it hurts, and so
(19:58):
Amama was to pick her up, and I started to
take her bridges off on the couch and then she
just start crying. I'm like, what the heck man? I thought, Okay, well,
maybe she fell and she hurt herself, you know, but
she was rubbed roll down there and I looked looked
at her. I'm like, honey, I said, what happened. She's
(20:18):
telling Aunt Mandy what happened baby? And when she that
Buddy Buddy, and I mean, right then and there, I knew.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Buddy had sexually assaulted three year old Adrian. Amanda then
realized my dad.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Got to him too, you know, I didn't know. So
I had to make one of the hardest decisions there
in my life, you know, to kick my brother out,
knowing he had nowhere to go.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Amanda also reported Buddy to authorities, but that decision would
lead to consequences she could never have imagined. In January
of two thousand, Buddy was facing charges in juvenile court
for the molestation of Larry's niece, and while police were
(21:12):
questioning him about it, he dropped a bombshell, not about
the molestation, but about the night of Diane Coleman's murder.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
He told the police that he would tell the police
what really happened in the murder if they would essentially
drop the charges or lesson the charges against him.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
This is Anne Garrety rathert. She's the director of the
Willow Project, which focuses on the wrongful convictions of women
and girls.
Speaker 6 (21:39):
And so, since he had been living with Amanda and
Larry and they kicked him out when they learned this
about the abuse and turned him over to the police,
he said that they were the ones who had in
fact committed the crime. So then the story he told
was that he was a slate at his grandmother's house
and that Amanda and the people who Jeremy had said
(22:01):
were in the car came to pick him up to
take him to like a birthday celebration late at night.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Remember, Jeremy is the young man who first confessed to
Diane's murder and was serving a life without parole sentence.
In the story he told police Melissa O'Brien, Angela Cody, himself,
and Kenny Bussey were all present that night. Jeremy never
mentioned Buddy, Larry or Amanda, but now Buddy was telling
(22:30):
police that he was actually in the car, that Larry
and Amanda were there too, and that his dad, Kenny
was not. He went on to say.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
That they gave him LSD and he fell asleep. That
was his story. So then the next thing he said
was that he woke up and no one else was
in the van, and he got out of the van
to see what was going on, and he saw a
woman lying in the road, and he saw the rest
of the people from the car standing around her and
beating her with objects. He says that they told him
(23:03):
to do the same, and he ran back to the
van and did not, but he saw Amanda specifically hit
the woman with multiple objects.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Buddy also said he saw Larry hit the woman multiple times,
and even though Jeremy Paine had pinpointed Kenny as a
fellow perpetrator, Buddy claims his father was not involved.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
So this is where the situation comes in where he
perhaps is trying to protect his father as well. That
also probably had to do with his fear of his
father having also been horrifically abused by his father. So,
you know, all of these things are so convoluted by
the threats and the intimidation and the violence going on.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
In the spring of two thousand, Larry de'clue was arrested
and charged with first degree murder. Amanda was also arrested,
but was released due to lack of evidence. Around this,
Amanda also found out she was never actually married to Larry,
he never finalized the papers. She also learned a shocking
truth about the man she'd once seen as a superhero
(24:12):
whisking her away from her abusive father.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
It wasn't until later and then I found out my
dad had sold me to Larry for drugs.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
With Larry finally out of her life, Amanda tried to
move forward. She entered into another relationship and had her
third child, Katie. Meanwhile, the police still had Amanda in
their sights. Soon after Buddy's conversation with police and Larry's arrest,
Buddy recanted his statements, but police would not accept that,
(24:47):
and he was then threatened with perjury.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He did come forward and he said a sad, many
lie and he wrote a statement saying, please tell my
sister Mee and that I'm sorry for lying on her.
I just tried to clear my dad's name.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
And in two thousand and three, based on her brother's
initial statements alone, Amanda was arrested for the murder of
Diane Coleman. What was that like for you?
Speaker 5 (25:17):
It was devastating.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So that was my babye brother, and that I helped.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
I didn't understand why he was lying, and I.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Knew, and it just it was everything hit me at once.
I'm like, why would he do that? You know, why
why something happened to where he's saying something like that.
But I love him, and I know that he was
youngest and they scared him into saying whatever they wanted
(25:54):
him to say. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
From the beginning, Amanda has maintained her innocence and because
of that, she opted to go to trial.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
You know, I knew God wasn't gonna let me go
down for something that I didn't do. They couldn't. They
couldn't possibly hang me up for something I didn't do.
They had nothing on me, you know, And this is
where my mind was set.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Amanda's defense attorney was public defender David Bruns and Garretty
rathert remembers reading the transcript of the.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Trial, and to be honest, I was a little alarmed
when I saw that the defense put on by the
public defender lasted three minutes in length, which obviously seems
grossly inadequate.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
But Anne dug deeper and saw that Bruns actually did
the best job he could given the circumstances.
Speaker 6 (27:07):
There really isn't a defense that can be put on
effectively when someone is completely, factually innocent and in fact
wasn't even at the crime scene, nor knows anything about
the crime scene. You know, since three years had passed
at the time she was implicated, and almost six years
(27:28):
by the time she went to trial, you know, who
of us could remember on any given day what we
were doing and who we were with six years prior
to that moment, right, there are no witnesses who will
say she wasn't there, So there really isn't a good
defense that can even be put on.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Bruns and Amanda were convinced the prosecution's case was extremely weak.
Brunn said all the prosecution had was the testimony of Buddy,
who by then was seventeen. But Buddy recanted again, this
time on the witness stand under cross examination by the defense.
Speaker 6 (28:05):
So he did a good job of asking him questions
that I believed poke holes in everything he said. The
evidence was so poor and the public defender poked so
many holes in the testimony of Buddy. It almost seemed
like a foregone conclusion that she would be declared innocent.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
But that's not what happened. Do you know how long
the jury deliberated.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
For less than two hours?
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Wow. On May twenty seventh, two thousand and four, Amanda
was found guilty and convicted of second degree murder. She
was sentenced to twenty five years in prison.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I was devastated. I didn't know what, you know.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
I was mad at.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Everybody around me, like what how could they do this?
Speaker 1 (29:07):
At the time of Amanda's conviction, she had three children,
Larry Junior and Felicia went with Larry's family, but she
made the difficult decision to put her youngest child, Katie,
up for adoption. During the first years of her sentence,
Amanda didn't communicate much with her family, But in twenty thirteen,
(29:27):
when Amanda got her ged, her sisters and Mary traveled
to the prison for the ceremony.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And I was chosen to give the see the speaker
for everybody, kind of like Valvictorian, And they kind of
surprised me when they came up there after all these years,
you know, And that's kind of like my whole life
just classed before in my eyes, you know, because we
(30:00):
all conspected.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And then just a couple of years later, Amanda got
some more good news the Willow Project was going to
take on her case.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Well, the very first thing I thought was that.
Speaker 5 (30:18):
Someone actually believed me, believed in me, and was there
to help me.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
I thought that the case had all the same sort
of issues as other cases that I had read about
where people were wrongfully convicted, no forensic evidence, and the
only evidence that was presented at trial was the testimony
of an incentivized informant, and that was literally the only
(30:48):
evidence against her several years after the murder, when no
one had ever implicated her before or indicated any involvement
on her part up to that point. So all of
the those things led me to believe that her case
was at least problematic, if not that she was literally innocent.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Amanda has run out of appeal opportunities, so Anne and
the Willow Project are diligently working on finding new evidence
to get her case back in court. In the meantime,
Amanda is now nearing the end of her twenty five
year prison sentence. She was granted parole and will be
released in early twenty twenty five. Amanda plans to live
(31:30):
with Mary, who is thrilled to have her best friend
and niece back in her life.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I want people to know that she is a good person.
She wanted to be a good mother and be there
for her children. I want them to know that she's
innocent of this crime that she has given her life for,
(31:57):
and she's a victim of evil and terrible circumstances.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Amanda can't know for sure who killed Diane Coleman. She
just knows that she didn't. And to this day, Mary
blames everything Buddy did and everything that happened to Amanda
on their father, Kenny.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Who I also think is one of the most evil
people I've ever met. I just can't stress enough how
he ruined. He really ruined their lives. He stole their
lives from them. I fully hold him accountable for that.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Although her time in prison will be coming to an end,
Amanda knows she has a long road of healing ahead
of her. One thing that helps is putting her feelings
down on paper.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
I have a poem that I wrote. Would it be
okay if that I read it?
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Please?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I wrote it in twenty twelve, called There's no life
without hope. Imagine being said a teen, trying so hard
not to be bad and putting your trust into that
number one man that you loved so dear, that man
you call Dad. Then one night everything went wrong. Scared
(33:12):
and alone, trying your best just to hold on, getting
locked up for first degree murder, asking him, Daddy, why
did you hurt her? Telling myself I'm going to get
out because in God, I had no doubt. How can
they give me twenty five years? I couldn't see that far,
my eyes filled with tears, begging my daddy please tell
(33:36):
the truth.
Speaker 5 (33:38):
But he wouldn't and I had no proof.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Imagine how hard it was to trust anyone else.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
All I could see is they were out for themselves.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
There. I was on my knees, asking God, how can
this be?
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Where's the justice in his crime?
Speaker 2 (33:58):
My dad's out there, I'm doing his time.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
Finally I see it.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
My eyes are now open, and God said, child, you
can't stop hoping.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
God put an angel into my life. She's helped heal
the pain and get through the strife. You've helped me
get past all the hurtful flinches and most of all
you've taken away, these senses. You know who you are,
and I thank you so much for the one person
in this world I know I can trust.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To find out more about the Willow Project and how
to help support wrongfully convicted women like Amanda, go to
Willow Project stl dot org. Next time, on Wrongful Conviction
with Maggie Freeling, Tala Lalay Edwards.
Speaker 6 (34:55):
He's saying, now something happened. You shook the baby or something,
And I'm like, shake the baby?
Speaker 4 (35:01):
What are you talking about here?
Speaker 2 (35:02):
Like TJ man bag you Like if I.
Speaker 6 (35:05):
Was a kid and you're over here like shaking me out,
I'll be in the same position.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Derek Sam, I'm like, what.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Thanks for listening to Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling. Please
support your local innocence organizations and go to the links
in our bio to see how you can help. I'd
like to thank our executive producers Jason Flamm and Kevin Wurtis,
as well as our senior producer Annie Chelsea, producer Lyla Robinson,
and story editor Sonya Paul. The show is edited and
mixed by Annie Chelsea, with additional production by Jeff Cliburn
(35:39):
and Connor Hall. The music in this production is by
three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Be sure to
follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Facebook at
Wrongful Conviction Podcast, and on Twitter at wrong Conviction, as
well as at Lava for Good. On all three platforms,
you can also follow me on both Instagram and Twitter
(35:59):
at Maggie. Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling is a production
of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Number one
Hosts And Creators
Lauren Bright Pacheco
Maggie Freleng
Jason Flom
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