Jerry Soucy
Appearances
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
That's theoretically possible, but there's no evidence of that. I mean, it gets worse than that because what actually happened with Matt's phone was Matt, during this period of time when the murder's supposed to be taking place, is texting back and forth with a roommate they had, and there's this...
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
this kind of high school argument about, you were rude to me at dinner, you can't talk to me like that way. So, I mean, you have to have a situation in which he's texting back and forth to the roommate about this argument they had, picks up his other phone, plans this murder, coordinates the meeting in Lincoln. They get another car, drive out, do the murder, and then get rid of the evidence.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
I mean, it was beyond their capability to fake that kind of evidence. But he's texting during the time the murder is supposed to be taking place.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
I got a call saying they've arrested Reed and Fester up in Wisconsin, and we got no details on it at all.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
And suddenly... Everything clicked. He knew exactly what the case was at that point.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
So... I called a newspaper reporter. I said, you won't believe this, but they arrested two other people. He called me back about three hours later, and he says, you won't believe this, but I got the arrest warrant from Wisconsin. And he said, do you want to read it? I says, oh, yeah.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
No, it was being sealed. We would have gotten it later, but I wouldn't have gotten it that quick. Yeah. And so I met him at a bar, and for the price of a Budweiser, I ended up being able to read the affidavit for the arrest warrant of Reed and Fester.
Murder in the Moonlight
About Face
If she would have thought that Nick had done this, she would have thrown him under the bus in a heartbeat. There was just no doubt about that. She said he was home with me the entire night, 35 miles away.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
Nick was in really, really bad shape. And so at that point, I'm holding him together. It's going to work out. It's going to work out.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
Number one, you had two lead investigators who had never done first-degree murder cases before this one as lead investigators. Number two, having made the arrests, holding the press conference, they were committed to trying to build a case against Livers and Samson. And then when Reed and Fester showed up, I think it was just beyond their ability to comprehend that they had made a mistake.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
And so that somehow, someway, they needed to fold Reed and Fester's cross-country crime jaunt into somehow having some contact with the Nebraska people, whoever they were.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
I'd been a nice guy up to that point. Trying to encourage the county attorney to dismiss the charges is the right thing to do. In that point, then I had to shift to be much more aggressive, saying, you know, coming at him and here's all the stuff. And I'd prepared a kind of an extensive motion outlining all of the information pointing to Reed and Fessler's acting alone.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
That must be a good feeling. No, it wasn't. It's a good feeling to know your client's innocent. It's a bad feeling to know that your client's still in jail. You can't get him out. The cops are coming up with every other kind of theory they can think of to drag him in.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
And then when we get the Reed and Fester interviews, we see how they're bending over backwards to basically show him a picture of my client and say, isn't that the guy that you met?
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
There was every indication in there that there was a problem. When people confess accurately... I mean, the resistance you have from somebody who is innocent, the resistance you have from somebody who is guilty, from an interrogator standpoint, looks the same. But at the point at which they finally get over that moral hump and say, you know, you're right, I really did do this.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
At that point, you can't shut them up. They then have to morally justify, okay, I killed my wife because she was cheating on me, and let me tell you what I did. And then they give you facts and information that you didn't know. I mean, that's how you verify it. Mm-hmm.
Murder in the Moonlight
When It All Falls Apart
With Matt Livers, what you had was, at the point at which he makes the baby step portion of his interrogation, they then asked that open-ended question, so tell me what happened, Matt. I don't remember.