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Woody Overton (1:01)
I don't want no J Black woman.
Mike Burton (1:07)
Oh she knew me.
Woody Overton (1:16)
I don't want no Jesus I don't want no sugar in my coffee make me be Warning each episode of Real Life Real Crime the podcast will contain descriptions of acts of violence or of a sexual nature and are for people that are 18 years or older. Heed my warning people. I do not get the facts of these cases off the Internet or from some television show. These facts I'm retelling were presented to me by the victims of the crime or the perpetrators who committed the crimes. My descriptions of the crime scenes are what I saw with my own two eyes. If you are going to get offended, turn this podcast off now. Thank you. Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of Real Life Real Crime, the podcast and I'm your host, Woody Overton. Today we're going to be doing the next part in the Screwdriver Red series and it's titled justice for Caitlyn. Before we start, I want to say stay tuned at the end of the show and as always I'm going to be giving some shout outs to our fans and making some announcements announcements about some exciting things we have coming up and also we'll be doing a promo at the end of the announcements for a podcast called Genuine Chit Chat and the host, Mike Burton. So y'all stay tuned for that and check it out at the end. Okay, so when I left you last, Mark Lewis had been arrested, charged first degree murder of Caitlyn Adell. And approximately a month later, maybe a month and a week, I think it was the first week of March. We had a grand jury on Caitlin's case. The grand jury is a secret meeting of 12 people. It's run by the district attorney, and the district attorney puts on evidence what they have, and they let the jury decide what to come back and charge the person with. And so we did it. Testified, been testified basically to the same facts that Job heard already in the grand jury, returned with an indictment of second degree murder, which y'all. That's a still mandatory life in prison for Mark Lewis if he gets convicted. Now, death penalty, do I think it's warranted in this case? Certainly I do. And I think probably every person that sat on that grand jury thought the same thing. But to be technically fair, it's probably a really hard one to do to get the death penalty in this case. Not because it's not a horrific crime, because it is. But all the evidence we had was what they call circumstantial evidence. Right. We didn't have anybody to put Mark Lewis and Caitlin together that day physically that saw them together within physically, for sure. Have the positive crime scene. I mean, everything we have is circumstantial, but it was good circumstantial. So today we're going to talk about the time from when Mark Lewis was locked up. Go into the trial and see how far we can get. The first thing I would like to talk about is Caitlin Adel and y'all. She was 13 years old and live with her mom, and just everybody loved her. Her funeral was held that week after she was found in a bayou. And it was a sea of pink. Everybody had pink on, pink ribbons, pink shirts. Ms. Danette, the mom, said one little girl came up to her at the wake and handed her a pink softball that was signed by all the players. And she thought it was one of Caitlin's teammates on the French settlement team. But later on when she got home, she realized that was a softball from a whole nother town. It's called Springfield, Louisiana. That was from their softball team. And it's really reached out and touched people the deafest. Sweet baby girl. I told you. My own daughter was the same age, and her name was Kate Lee. You know, so it was kind of. I worked a lot of homicides and stuff, but this one's just always been tough. And the mom is such a sweet lady. Ms. Danette, I think the overwhelming support from the community, it just came out and just absolutely supported Mr. Net Adele and the family members in their time of grief. And the whole community came together. Such a testimony to the people down here, not only in south Louisiana, but from all over. I mean she had people from all over the world sending her stuff and certainly all over the United States, but laid Caitlin duress. And it didn't stop there. Somebody put together a bass tournament. I don't remember who it was, but they put together a bass tournament and it raised like eight grand, I think for Caitlin's funeral expenses. If you don't know what a bass tournament is, you live outside the country. It's a tournament, fishing tournament. And it's a certain type of fish they fish for. Each boat usually has two people in it and they charge you an admission fee per head. And whoever has the most weight of fish at the end of the tournament, whether it's one day or two day, they win the prize money at the end. But just that tournament alone raised a lot of money. And then in May, four days or three or four days before what would have been Caitlin's 14th birthday, they put on a huge benefit for at a place called the Moonlight Inn. And the Moonlight Inn is right in the heart of the French settlement country, if you will. It's a mainstay long term running, I call them swamp bars. But everybody knows about the moonlight and there have been a lot of famous people that have played there over the years. And it's a local watering hole and man, the owner and then really put it out and he had all these small businesses came out and donated stuff. There was food, there was jambalaya, spaghetti, hamburgers, hot dogs, snacks, cakes, whatever. I think they said they sold like, I don't know, three or four hundred plates of jambalaya. And they sold all the food, like 250 spaghetti boxes. And one lady that had donated a cake, they had an auction also and one lady donated a cake. Her coconut cake sold for $100. Another restaurant, I think it's closed now, Dutchess Seafood, they had some $50 gift certificates they donated. They sold for like 100 bucks each. So people were paying way above and beyond just because they could. Budweiser sponsored it, Miller Light sponsored it. They had Budweiser coolers that were going for 500 bucks at the auction. And just can't really say enough about people did to support Caitlyn and So what did Ms. Danette do? This is a lady who lost her only child. And I just. I'm a father of four, man, and I can't even fathom it right. And the. She lost her only child in the most horrific way possible and goes to show her character. What does she do? She takes that money from the fundraiser and establishes a scholarship in Caitlin's name to be given away to two French Settlement high school seniors. One that shown the most improvement in basketball and one that's shown the most improvement in softball when they graduate. And Mr. Net said, I'm going to make sure I'm part of the process, and I don't want them to give it to the best player. I want them to give it to the most improved player. Because Caitlin wasn't the best player, but she worked hard every day to be better and better at it, and she loved softball and basketball. And Mr. Ness said she wanted the scholarship to go on year after year, and it was going to be funded by the recurring BASS tournaments and benefits that are put on by the moonlight and them every year for sweet little Caitlyn. So that's to the character of Mr. Net, God bless her. Be able to step up and turn the tragedy into a blessing for other people's lives for years and years to come. Meanwhile, let's get back to the case. Okay, so Lewis is locked up. What happens, Detective Wise? Well, I told you, we did the search warrant on his residence and took his computer. So it's being gone through forensically. Right. And the phone records are being looked at on Caitlin's end and the truck is being processed. We know they found some blood and some blonde hairs in the truck, but that has to be identified by DNA. And I believe to help expedite the process, part of it was actually sent out to a private lab because the state police were just so backed up with the DNA. And other witnesses are coming forward and giving statements about Lewis and pretty much his depravity, what a piece of shit he was. And I'll go into that in a little while when we're talking about the trial. So the case proceeds and you have your usual motions and just typical bullshit. But the one thing I. I won't forget about it is every time there was a hearing about Caitlyn's case, room was flooded with pink. The people showed up. Justice for Caitlyn, shirts and shirts with Caitlyn's face on it. And everybody showed up and packed the house to support Ms. Danette, and that son of a bitch walked in. And for those hearings, he. It's not like trial where you get to wear civilian clothing. You're not chained up. He walked in chained up like the little bitch that he is. And he would just walk in and smile at all the people in pink. Right. He's a sick fuck in the News media would catch him coming and going from court and ask him, mark Lewis, did you do it? No, I didn't do it, but God bless y'all and have a great day. That kind of shit, smiling at the camera. He's hamming it up and it just burned my ass, man. He just played. I mean, he loved it. It was like he got off on it every time when he was in the spotlight. So anyway, time progresses, the investigation progresses, and it comes time to prepare for trial. It was more then a year later. I had already gone to the Louisiana State Police as a criminal investigator, too. And I left the sheriff's office and transferred to the Louisiana State Police as a criminal investigator to out of headquarters in Baton Rouge, which wasn't that far away. But I got called in by Charlotte Hebert. You've heard me talk about her many times. She was absolutely top notch. And Scott Perrille, who's a district attorney, Scott Perrille, who's go to for the biggest cases at the time, and now Charlotte's since gone on to be a judge for the 21st Judicial. Anyway, she calls me in and it's like right before trial, we're sitting in her little office and she had the pictures that I had taken of Lewis in the cell of his scratches. And she said, woody, what do these look like to you? And I looked at them again and remember in earlier episodes I told y'all that I knew they weren't defensive scratches. I've seen it too many times. They weren't gouges. They were almost like little dotted bumps, but significant. But it wasn't a continuous slash or tearing of the skin. It was. It was like lines. And I told her so, Charlotte, you know what I remember seeing that night? And seeing him wiping the blood in a tissue and looking at the scratches and looking at them when I took the photographs of them. And I had him naked in the cell and he even had a couple on his leg that weren't as prominent as though. She said, yeah, here's a picture. I said, yeah. I said, I don't know. I said, I know it's not Caitlyn's fingernails. She said, no, it's not. She said, look at this. And she had pictures of where Caitlyn's body had been found in that bayou in Ascension Parish. But it was daylight photographs. And remember when I went out there that night, it was already dark when they were pulling Caitlyn from the water. But I told you about the thick undergrowth and the trees. I mean, it was A perfect spot. A little bitch to dispose of a body, if you will, because he's in a panic. Like I say, he ran like a little bitch, then he acted like a little bitch, and he didn't think it through. All he sees is some thick bushes that he can go into and get cover to dump Caitlyn's body. Well, the pictures that Charlotte had of that area. Fuck. It's a briar patch. Briars are bushes that have thousands and thousands of small thorns. But she showed me that. I was like. I said, holy shit, Charlotte. I said, I should have known. I should have known because I'm a big hunter and I'm a big fisherman, and I pick dewberries, if y'all know what those are. In south Louisiana during the springtime, they come up. It's a berry, but they grow in the briar patch. And that's what it was. He, you know, I've been scratched a thousand times like that, and I don't know why to this day. I didn't catch it, but it really wouldn't have mattered on guess, but I should have called it. But she said, what do you look. And I was like, that's it. I said, it's a briar patch. And she said, that's right. She said, he got those scratches when he hurried up and just plunged into those bushes for concealment and dumped her body. And I was like, you're right. I agree with you a thousand percent. So we go to trial, and trial began that Monday, and they have what they call voir dire, and it's basically just jury selection. I think they had to run what we call three separate panels to get the members for the jury and a panel, y'all. There's 14 seats in a jury box and 12 for the regular jurors and two for alternates. So they would put 14 people who had been subpoenaed to possibly be a juror in Caitlyn's trial. And so the courtroom's full of people, and the judge introduced himself, and I always went to voir dire, but I was sitting over on the side listening. Anyway. So the judge comes, introduces, explains the process, and they bring the first 14 people in and they ask them questions, they being Charlotte Bear, and McKee was the defense attorney's name. And they'll ask questions about this and that. And y'all been convicted of a crime, or do you have any family members have been convicted of a crime? Then they'll read the witness list or the potential witness list, see any y'all know any of these people. And the prosecution gets so many strikes to cancel out jurors, and the defense gets so many strikes, and then the judge can kick out anybody he wants. Right? So they would go through this process in question, every potential juror until that panel's over. Let's say they strike six off the first panel, so there's eight left, and then the next panel fills in a 14. Then those eight are already jurors, right? Been selected, the first eight. So they go until all the spots are filled. I think it went through three times, three rounds or panels, and they seated the jury. And it was eight women and four men. And the two alternates, one was a man and one was a woman. Now, trial began and of course Charlotte gave her open statement and basically to sum it up, she said what a piece of Mark Lewis is and. But of course, now she can't say anything about his past conviction, but that they dropped it to attempted simple kidnapping, but it should have been aggravated kidnapping and the whole thing could have been avoided, but she can't say anything about that. But she goes on to lay out her case, not in detail, but saying that the evidence will prove that Mark Lewis killed Caitlin. And then the defense attorney gets up and says, oh, this is all going to be circumstantial evidence. And you have to find beyond a reasonable doubt, you can't do that because nobody can put Caitlin together with Mark Lewis that day, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So then we're sequestered. And by we, I mean Ben Ballard, myself, the Louisiana State Police people that are going to testify and all the witnesses sequestered is. We're locked out of the courtroom. But so you can't hear other people's testimony or the questions on redirect from the defense. And so you can't change your testimony. It's only fair enough. Doesn't matter. The statements don't change. I think probably Ms. Danette went first and established that Caitlin was her daughter and how tight they were and how Caitlyn never went without having her cell phone on one and how she spoke to Caitly when she got off the school bus that day. And I think the. Probably the school bus driver went next and school bus driver said, yes, they dropped Caitlin off at her house at 3:00 that day. And then one of Caitlin's little friends, I think is her best friend, I think her last name was Bourgeois, testified that she had a call from Caitlin, like just right after 3:00. I mean, like soon as she got home, evidently. And as she told Caitlin she'd have to call her back. And she called Caitlyn back after 4pm and Caitlin didn't answer. Neighbor who went in the residence and saw Caitlyn's book bag on the bed testified. And Charlotte's just basically laying out her case. And everyone went. 26 witnesses, I think, in all that she did in just a couple days. And the case was laid out like this. Charlotte establishes that Caitlin makes it home through the cell phone records and the bus driver saying she dropped her off, Ms. Danette talking to her while she's at home, the friend talking to her and saying she'll have to back. And then a representative from etel, which is the local cable television company, but they also do home phone service, like for dirt cheap, you know, if you get a monthly package for cable service, you get a home phone for 9.99amonth, something like that. Caitlin's last incoming call that was answered on her cell phone came from, wait for it, Mark Lewis residence at 3:06pm she was never heard from again. She never answered her cell phone again. Let's say that. And then we testified, Ben and I testified. And basically I testified the same thing that I've told y'all already, that I was called out by Ben. And because Danette got home and she called 911 and the uniformed guy called Ben and Ben called me. And we went through the process about how we interviewed him in his house. The washer and dryer were going. He had fresh scratches on his face. He takes the comforter out of the dryer, goes and puts it on the bed. I had Ben go outside and ask the wife, did he ever do the laundry and would there be any reason for him to do the laundry? And she said no, and come back and ask him. And he says, yeah, he does a laundry all the time. Now, you have to remember also we had the knowledge from Ben Ballard that Craig Simoneau had called in and gave a statement about Mark Lewis coming to his house. And all that transpired after that. So including him being Louis, asking Semino to alibi him for about 4:30pm that afternoon that Caitlin went missing. Ben testifies. He has a testify to mine. We build it up all the way up until the arrest. And the photograph of the scratches that I did, Charlotte had them blown up. And so the jury could see it and asked me, and I answered. And then trial progresses. The defense attorney, fucking dumbass. I mean, he just tried to naturally say that we had tunnel vision. Or I had tunnel vision and I never let the investigation go anywhere else besides Mark Lewis. And I said, you're absolutely right. I said I never got off Mark Lewis. And he said why not? I said, because the evidence pointed to him. And I said I had to work this case as any case to conclusion. I said I'm telling you if somebody else had come up and another angle that it wouldn't have been worked. I said, but I'm telling you, your boy showed up with scratches on his face and he lied about being at work and he lied about going to visit his mama in the hospital and he lied and tried to get Craig Seminole to lie to him to Alabama out. Every time I'd say he, I would point and Mark Lewis and I kept pointing at him, he just turned beat red. And I would do that. Y'all courtroom tricks. I would never look the defense attorney in the face. Every time I'm answering a question, I'm turning to my left and looking at the jury in the eyes and pointing at Mark Lewis saying he lied and he asked for an alibi for the time that Caitlin was murdered or disappeared. And he is the one with the fresh scratches on his face, etc etc. It's pretty powerful stuff. And I learned that from Kearney. Foster is probably the most brilliant detective, mind you ever of all times. But I watched him in another murder trial when I was a rookie detective do that and it's very effective. And did it to the point where Lewis actually, I kept pointing at him, lose actually reached up and grabbed McKee's sleeve and said, make him stop pointing at me like you Louis. Of course I couldn't say that. And so I testified what I had to. And McKee got off me pretty quick because he realized, hey, I'm not going to shake this guy up, I'm not going to rattle him and I'm doing more harm here than good because he's up here pointing to my guy driving home all the bad points about him. So I was pretty much quickly dismissed. Charlotte might ask me a follow up question too. I don't remember. But it wasn't important or she, I mean just would have been because she was sharp. If there was anything McKee might have planted in the jurors mind, she cleared it up. So I'm dismissed, which means I can come back in and sit.