Judgment day for the accused brings anger and sorrow for the Stocks. And one of the killers talks to Keith about the night of the murders. This episode originally published on March 5, 2025.
Chapter 1: What led to Matt Livers' release after his confession?
It's a funny old expression, isn't it? Fish or cut bait. But everybody knows. Everybody knows what it means. Time to make a decision. Charge ahead or walk away. Sort of thing keeps a prosecutor up at night. There was Matt Livers, who had confessed to killing his aunt and uncle, Wayne and Charmin Stalk, and then unconfessed. Convictable? Maybe. Confessions speak loud in court.
But then they had to release Nick Sampson, the cousin who obviously didn't take part. And Jessica Reed, who most certainly was in on the murders with her boyfriend Greg Fester, refused a sweet deal to testify against either Nick or Matt. And now the CSI chief who'd overseen the crime scene, David Kofod, had been accused of planting evidence.
Oh, and yes, there was that awkward business about the sheriff's office failing for months to tell Matt's attorneys that he had recanted his confession.
I mean, I've been making answers, though, left and right.
And now it truly was time to act, one way or the other. Fish or cut bait? I'm Keith Morrison, and this is Murder in the Moonlight, a podcast from Dateline. Episode 6, The Final Domino's Fall. By the end of 2006, more than seven months after the stock murders, the problems with their case multiplying, prosecutors finally agreed with the defense lawyers.
Matt Liver's confessions were, as they say, unreliable. His attorney, Julie Baer.
I went over to the jail, and Matt was in the cell, and we told him, you know, this is over. You know, you're going home. And, you know, I probably had the biggest hug from a man that I've ever had in my life.
Cass County Prosecutor Nathan Cox was once again left to call in the press and make the announcement.
It's not my intention to try and convict somebody that is not guilty. That's not why I'm in this business. The winning isn't the issue. The issue is whether justice is being done.
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Chapter 2: Why did Matt Livers falsely confess and implicate others?
Ran with it more.
Ran with it more or less, yeah.
But the damage was done. The whole thing left Matt and his cousin Nick at a loss for words to each other. What has this done to your relationship with Matt?
Ruined it. Completely.
It hurts knowing that he couldn't even be man enough after all this happened and apologize.
And what's he chosen to do? Forget all about it? Forget all about you? I think he just wants to forget it ever happened.
People give me s*** about it all the time. You know, I try and make a joke out of it, but it hurts every once in a while.
We wanted to know if their relationship has been mended. We reached out. They did not respond.
What will it take to convince them that you're an innocent man? I don't think anything will. You mean you're going to have to live under this cloud for the rest of your life? Probably.
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Chapter 3: How did the Stock family react to the case developments?
Triggered by the sight of them.
Yeah. It kind of shocked me.
I didn't. So I remember just thinking, I didn't know I could be this mad.
In the courtroom, the judge read the victim impact statements, which had been written by Wayne and Charmin's family members, as if such an impact could be measured in words. Jessica Reed and Greg Fester each apologized to the Stalk family. And then the family held its breath. Steve Stalk.
The whole thing itself was just kind of a blur. It was so nerve wracking, hard to sit through. But then when they got to the end and the judge went through the whole thing, when he was actually talking, there was a little part of me saying, he's going to let these guys off easy.
But no, that was not to be. For Fester, the judge handed down two consecutive life terms plus another 10 to 20 years for using a weapon. For Jessica Reed, the first of the courthouse to make a deal, remember? There was, in fact, no break at all. She got the same sentence for murder as Fester. Two life terms to be served back to back, if you could do such a thing. her attorney, Tom Olson.
Was that justice?
I didn't think so. I thought that there was no question. I think everyone believed in the case that the individual most culpable was Fester. No question about it. That the only person who had cooperated was Jessica. That the only person who really did the right thing by exonerating Livers and Sampson was Jessica.
that she did show true remorse, that she had done some constructive things while she was incarcerated, and that you would have thought that something would have been given to her.
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Chapter 4: What were the legal outcomes for Jessica Reed and Greg Fester?
The truth about that night? After so many lies, so many versions. Here it is, said Jessica. She and Greg Fester, days without sleep or real food, had been driving aimlessly through Wisconsin and Iowa and Nebraska, breaking into homes along the way. In one, she grabbed a shotgun, a 410. So on Easter night, there they were, armed, drugged, and wired, bumping along a random country road.
And Greg said, stop. turned out to be the Stock farmhouse, though they had no idea who lived there. But in they went through that unlocked window Fester found.
Greg was like, you know, follow me real quick. So I followed him and I was wearing this coat that was making a lot of noise.
One of those puffy coats, right?
Like a windbreaker type deal. Right. It was making me nervous. So I like took it off and set it down on the floor.
Yeah.
In the kitchen. And he went straight upstairs, and so I followed him up the stairs.
Why did he go upstairs?
I don't know.
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Chapter 5: How did the Stock family respond to the sentencing of the killers?
We didn't say anything. I mean, I started crying at one point, and Greg just looked at me, and he was like, don't do that. You know?
But what about all those letters? The words found later in that house with Jessica's belongings, with that cigarette box? Words she wrote, boldly admitting to her crimes. I killed someone. He was older. I loved it. I wish I could do it all the time. If Greg doesn't watch it, I'm going to just leave one day and do it myself. I don't understand it.
I hate hearing them because it's just kind of like... how everything was portrayed. I hate hearing it.
Because it was how everything was portrayed?
Because I'm not like that.
Were you like that at the time?
No. That was my way of showing Greg that I was OK with it too. Because when he told me not to cry, it was like, what? I'm not supposed to feel bad about this? I mean, how can you have no remorse for this at all?
To them, it meant that you were a cold-hearted killer and that you enjoyed the process.
And people saw you, probably still see you as some kind of monster.
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Chapter 6: What unresolved questions remain about the murders?
Because?
They weren't there. They had nothing to do with this.
But for the Stock family, it wasn't that simple. Can you believe, Jessica? They asked. They were driven, they told us, by a common sense instilled in an early age by their murdered parents. And so they still were asking, who, why, who did this?
I'd like to know the honest truth about everything. You know, I hope someday we can all sit down and look at each other and say, Were these two involved? Yes or no? Definitely. Was the blood planted? Yes or no? Definitely. I don't know if we'll ever know those answers. I don't know if there's any way to prove those answers, but I hope someday we'll know.
We wanted to know how the Stock family feels about Matt and Nick today, but they did not respond. As for Jessica Reed, since that day we spoke to her in prison, she's had a bit of an epiphany. She explained in a TED Talk taped behind prison walls.
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Chapter 7: What insights did Jessica Reed share from prison?
What if my real purpose is to never get out of prison, but change the way imprisoned women come in broken and leave mended? All I ever wanted to do was just get out of here, leave all this behind and never look back. That one thought changed my whole paradigm. I stopped living solely for my own outcome, and I started living for those around me.
What if, indeed? At this point, Jessica has served 18 years behind bars. She is not eligible for parole. Her accomplice, Greg Fester, did not respond to our interview requests. He, too, has served 18 years. No parole for him, either. Ever. A postscript? Andy Stock now runs Stock Hay and Grain.
He knocked down the home where the murders occurred and built a new house, where he made some better memories. Matt Livers and Nick Sampson have gone through many struggles to get back their good names. They settled lawsuits against state and local authorities, as well as CSI chief David Kofod, for something north of $7.5 million.
As for Kofod, he was acquitted of federal evidence tampering charges. But then the state of Nebraska took up the case, and at his second trial, Kofod was found guilty of evidence tampering.
Do you understand what you were convicted of? Yes, Your Honor.
At his sentencing, the career law enforcement man again denied planting evidence and told the judge the truth would come out eventually.
I don't believe this is the last of this case for me. I want to continue on, and that's nothing personal with you.
But the judge had a somewhat different perspective. He told the court he'd been moved by letters from Livers and Sampson asking him to throw the book at Kofod, and that is just what he did.
The defendant has not acknowledged any wrongdoing. He's not appeared to be particularly remorseful.
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