(Updated Release) Sovereign Citizens | Bloody Angola Podcast

0:05 H a wall street line, shackle change, Oh someome gird, it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the hill Stream game wrangle three. I'm here, but by me to die inside these walls, inside the wild hadn't went no girl as.

0:59 I It's been a very difficult day. As you can see, I lost two good officers.

1:40 Today. I've had a number of sheriffs here and law inforcement throughout the state who are helping us deal with doesn't matter. But first let me say this, Please pray for the two officers that were ambushed early this morning. I have two deceased officers, Randon Nielsen he's thirty four years old, and another one of Sir Jeremy Trish, he's twenty eight years old. This entire tragedy unfolded early this morning as one of my officers was working the traffic detail in this particular parking lot. As he was working in this detail for some unknown reason at this time, a gunman opened fire on him multiple times. As you can see the car that's parked over he on the shoulder of Bayo Steel Road. That officer is present league at University Hospital being treated for multiple gunsholl booms. He should be okay.

2:44 After the shooting took place, we were able to get a call from a citizen based on a description we got from the officer. A citizen advised up advised Saint john Sheriff's Office of a speeding motorist on a street by Riverview Trailer. Court officers proceeded to that area where we found a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle using the shooting here on Bayou Steel Road, officers came in contact with some individuals during this investigation, one of the subjects. As officers were handcuffing one of the subjects, they thought that investigation led us. To a trailer.

3:25 When we knocked on the door, another person came to the door with a dog, where we could see inside where another individual was fully closed but laying under a blanket. The officers asked him to step outside as we were interviewing the two persons. The two subjects, another person exited that trailer with an assault weapon and anne bush excuse a bush by two officers. The investigation is ongoing. The officers away from the investigation. The Louisiana State Police on now taking over the investigation.

4:06 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Bloody Angla, a podcast one hundred and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest present. I'm Jim Chapman, and before we get into today's episode, I want to mention why it was previously pulled and re recorded. So upon the initial release of this episode a few weeks ago, I was contacted and there were some discrepancies between some of the sourcing articles I use and those that well, all I'm going to say is there was some people close to the case and they had what I would refer to as direct knowledge. Some of it related to the type of weapon used in the initial shooting, and there were several things that occurb when the second shooting took place that I did not detail because of the information I had at the time did not stipulate it.

5:02 So if you cover cases long enough, such as I have for the past six plus years, sometimes this happens. The information that you source, even if it's from credible sources, can be incorrect or be incomplete. And it's very important to me that what I tell you is as accurate as possible. Now, everyone that knows me knows there is no one more pro law enforcement than myself. I work with law enforcement and most of well, I would say eighty percent of my circle, if you will, or law enforcement folks. So when it came to this case, even though I was not asked to pull that episode, I found it best to pull it, get some additional facts, and re record it. So that is what I did.

5:54 And let's get into it, and I'm going to cover a tragic story that occurred on August sixteenth of twenty twelve in Laplace, Louisiana. Now sadly, that resulted in the death of two Saint John Parish Sheriff's deputies and two more being wounded. So I'm going to cover the details of what happened in the results, which do include a death sentence inside of Bloody and Gola for one of the perpetrators. So let's get started. And first, as I said, this took place in Laplace, Louisiana, which Laplace is a town. It's located in Saint John Parish. It's part of the New Orleans metro area, if you will, and the town runs along the east bank of the Mississippi River and it's a kind of a quaint bedroom community with roughly twenty eight thousand residents. Now Laplace is known as the Onduey Capital of the World, and this was an honor bestowed on the town by popular Governor Edwin Edwards in the nineteen seventies. And because of this honor and being known as the on Dewey Capital of the world, the town does host an on Dewey Festival every year in October, and it's done so since nineteen seventy two. It's just a charming area. It's blended with some Cajun heritage, river life, and Southern hospitality. So definitely not the type of place

7:26 you would expect the incident I'm about to tell you about occurring, and this whole incident kicked off at the Valero Refinery parking lot initially, and y'all, Valero is a global gas refinery in the area that offers high paying jobs to plant workers that work typically twelve hour shifts. Now, that particular morning, Michael Scott Boynton was doing extra duty. He was in the parking lot of the refinery. He was a sheriff's deputy. And what I'm about to tell you is, according to the test money of someone that was in the vehicle we're going to talk about. Her name was Tanisha Bright. So according to her testimony, she said that morning, her and the coworker she was writing with, they all got off work at four am from the Valero refinery and they piled into a guy by the name of Terry Smith's truck. And she said they were in their usual seating arrangement, which was Bright in the front seat, Terry Smith driving, and his son, Brian Smith, on the other side of the front seat, so she was in the middle. In the rear seat of that truck, there was a guy by the name of Kyle Yokel and a guy by the name of Derek Smith. So you have five people total in that vehicle, Terry Smith, miss Bright, and Terry Smith's son Brian in the front seat, and then in the backseat of that truck you had

8:56 Derreck Smith and Kyle Yokel. Now, she said, initially everything seemed fine, nobody seemed pissed off or anything. And as they. Neared the road, a deputy working the gate shined his flashlight into the truck and walked towards the truck's open window. She said, the deputy, who was thirty three year old Michael Boynton, who she said she did not know at the time, she described as very agitated. She said she could tell by his body language and the tone of his voice. She said she didn't know why they had been stopped by Michael Boynton or flagged down, if you will, but that Terry Smith refused to pull over. She said the officer in Smith then exchanged some words and it got kind of heated, and that Boynton asked Terry Smith for what's known as his twit card, which, y'all, a twit card is basically a government issued ID card, kind of like an ID for people working in the maritime industry of it similar to a driver's license. Terry Smith refused to turn over his twit card, and in the meantime, from the backseat, Kyle Yokel started shouting for Terry Smith to drive away.

10:13 She said. At that point, Terry Smith basically gunned it and peeled out of the parking lot, and she saw Deputy Bointon run back to his vehicle to provide chase. Now this is her testimony in court. She said the deputy soon caught up with them and he was right on the trail and then he pulled to the right side of the car and he was on the shoulder at this point, kind of driving along with them, and she said at that point Terry Smith feared into the line of oncoming traffic, but he had to jerk back into his lane because a car was heading in his direction. She said, at that point she felt something brush her leg. She looked down in Brian Smith, who is remember the son of the driver Terry Smith. He had grabbed an assault rifle.

11:04 She said. At that point he asked his father, Terry Smith, if he could shoot, and his father didn't say anything. She said, at that point, Brian starts firing through the window at the deputy and Boyington was hit. Now, according to her testimony, she said she then pleaded with Terry Smith to pull over and let her out, and that basically she described it as. Him being in zombie mode. He just kept his eyes straight ahead on the road. And didn't say anything. Now, before we go any further, I want to say a few things about to Misha Bright and how she got caught up in all of this, because she was really innocent in a role. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong guys. Now, according to her testimony, she had moved to Louisiana from California with her mother. That was just a few months before the shooting occurred.

12:03 She said she. Lived in a hotel that was nearby where she worked at that Voalero refinery, and that she worked for a contracting company that worked on a project there. So these folks did not work directly for Voalero refinery. They were contractor workers. They were working for somebody else who had a job in that plan. Now, somehow her mother knew Terry Smith. He was an acquaintance of some sort, and her mother also knew that he worked overtime for that same contractor, and she had arranged for Tanisha Bright to catch a ride to and from work with Terry Smith and the other folks that I just mentioned. But her mother also warned her daughter that Smith had quote a big gun that he always carried, and she was talking about Brian Smith, and she even told her daughter that he called his gun his girlfriend. And she would describe Brian Smith in particular, who did this shooting, as very paranoid and that he always felt like people were watching him and trying to kidnap him, and that one of the reasons he carried this assault rifle was because of his paranoia, So back to it. Tomi sha Bright said that after the shooting of Deputy Boyington, they drove to Riverview Moba Home Park. This is in Laplace, which is where the Smiths and family friend Kyle Yokel, who was also in that truck, if you'll remember, they lived in a series of four trailers.

13:35 She said, as sent. As they got there, they all got out of the truck and at that point she tried to run, but she slept in the gravel. She testified. At that point, Brian Smith turned toward her, still holding that assault rifle, and she said, quote, I assumed if he thought I was going to run, that will be the end of me. So she was like, screw that, staying and she said at that point, the group huddled on the concrete patio outside of the trailer that Terry Smith shared with his wife, and at that point Terry Smith ordered everyone into that trailer. She said. Once they got back in the trailer, they started hearing sirens in the background, and she said everyone started to panic.

14:22 She said at that point she went toward the bathroom to hide because she was afraid of what was about to happen. Next, she said she heard an officer knock on the trailer door and that Terry Smith and Kyle Yokel went out of the door to talk to that officer. Now, her perspective from the inside of that trailer is that after Terry Smith and Kyle Yokel went outside, Terry Smith's wife, a woman by the name of Shaneil's Keines, told her that they should blame Yokel for everything. That was her testimony, now going on to say that Terry Smith's wife called Kyle Yokel crazy. She said at that point she backed up further into the bathroom and that Brian Smith and his girlfriend joined her in that bathroom, and his girlfriend's name was Britney Keith. She said that while she was in the bathroom, Brian Smith got nervous because he thought his dad was going to tell on him for shooting Deputy Bointon. She said at that point she heard shouting from outside the trailer, and quoting the shouting, she said that she heard quote, I know you fucking did it.

15:32 I know it was you, and she said she believed it came from a deputy. At that point, she said someone else screamed. It sounded muffled, like someone was shouting while lying face down in the dirt. She went on to say that she heard the words help and then help Brian, and said she did not recognize the voice of who was saying that. She said she also heard someone shout Brian, kill them. She said at that point, Brian Smith ran from the bathroom. She also said at that point that she started wedging herself behind a washing machine that she rolled into a ball. She put her hands over her ears and all she heard was the sound of an assault rifle, and she said, I knew it was an assault rifle because I recognized the sound of the shots.

16:25 As being the same sound of. The shots from that first shooting at the Valero refinery. She said she could also hear different sounding shots, is how she would describe it, and she said she knew those were shots fired from a pistol and not an assault rifle. Now, she estimated the shooting lasted around thirty seconds. She said Brian Smith at that point stumbled back into the trailer and he was bleeding badly from a wound to his leg, and that he fell inside of the trailer. His girlfriend, Britney Keith, then started screaming help. And then she said at that point, Kyle Yokel then returned to the inside of the trailer. He also was bleeding, and Chanelle Skanes also returned to the trailer, and according to Bright's testimony, she was shot through the arm.

17:18 She said that she. Called nine one one, and at that point Brian Smith. She ever heard him tell his girlfriend to tell police he surrendered and at that point Tanisha Bright runs out of the trailer and runs to a police car, and a deputy helped her into a neighbor's trailer, she testified. So that's her story, and I'm going to give you some other perspectives. And I mentioned Chanelle Skaanes, who was the wife of Terry Smith, and she also testified in the trial. Now, she testified that when the first shots rang out, she was crouched under a picnic table outside of that trailer. She said her step son at the time, who was Brian Smith, was the man who began firing at deputies at that trailer park. She testified she screamed for Brian Smith to please stop. You're gonna kill everybody, Please stop, and she said deputies return fire and hit Smith, and he dropped his AK forty seven and fled back into the trailer. She said it wasn't long after the shooting would start again. Just as she was starting to crawl away from that picnic table, she said she noticed Kyle Yokel, who at this point had been detained by deputies.

18:40 Somehow he escapes during all this chaos. When Brian Smith started shooting from the trailer, she said she saw him pick up the assault rifle and start firing again. She said at that point she started screaming again quote stop, oh my god, you're killing somebody. She said it was during that second round of shooting that she saw Kyle Yikel stand over and already injured deputy by the name of Brandon Nielsen and shoot the AK forty seven from point blank range, killing him. She then told the jury that after the shooting had stopped, she ran over to another deputy, later identified as Jeremy Trish, and she was holding his hand, telling him it was going to be okay.

19:29 Help is on the way. Just trying to comfort this hero who was shot and dying by this point, and she said it was at that point that Terry Smith, her husband went up to Deputy Jeremy Trish and flipped him over. So that he was lying on his stomach. She said, at that point, Terry Smith told her to get away. She said she continued to hold this deputy's hand and assure him help will be on the way, and that he took one big breath and stopped breathing. That was her testimony court. So there was another officer who was injured during the shootout at that trailer park, and his name was Deputy Jason Tresh, and he testified for about ninety minutes, and he was very seriously wounded.

20:23 As a matter of fact, his wounds were so bad that when he awoke from a medically induced coma more than a month after the shootings, he was missing his gallbladder, his spleen, in one of his kidneys. He was quite frankly lucky to be alive. Just horrible, tragic, and horrific. And he admitted during his testimony that all of this had caused some memory loss with him, but he really did his best to recount the details of August sixteenth of twelve and the events that led up to the shooting from his own perspective, and he said on August fifteenth, he had been assigned to a graveyard shift, which was six pm to six am, and he testified that around five am he heard a transmission over his radio that a man had been shot and was lying in the street.

21:24 And he said it was much later that he would find out that that man, that deputy, was Michael Scott Boynton. And of course, the shooting being referenced here is the initial shooting at that Valero plant. He said, he drove to the reported shooting scene in Laplace, and he said the radio traffic was not completely clear, so he wasn't one hundred percent sure of what to expect. He said when he arrived there were several sheriff units that were already on the scene, and that at that point another message came over his radio, this time reporting a suspicious vehicle that was headed towards the Riverview Mobile Home Park in Laplace, So at that point he starts heading that way.

22:14 He said that he arrived at the trailer park and he saw two deputies who responded to the dispatch report. Now, one of those deputies was named Anthony Bullock and the other one was named Brandon Nielsen. He went on to say, it was pitch dark and they were trying to locate this suspicious vehicle using a flashlight. In that they in fact did locate the vehicle. It was in some weeds in the rear of the trailer park. And he said at that point the three deputies they banded together to investigate the vehicle. And at that point a fourth deputy arrives on the scene, and that was Jeremy Trish, and this was roughly fifteen minutes after he had arrived on scene.

23:03 The deputies were then told that the suspicious vehicle was a pickup truck and that he and Deputy Nielsen went to check that out, and they were joined by Deputy Jeremy Trish. Meanwhile, he said that Bullock was about fifty yards away from him and he started talking to a man who the deputy testified he couldn't make out his features at the time, but he could tell it was a man, and he could tell that this man was standing near a picnic table in the trailer park. Now, in prior testimony, Bullock had already identified that man who he was talking to, and he identified him as Terry Smith.

23:45 And as a matter. Of fact, I want to pick up with Bullock's testimony quickly because he mentioned that he spoke to Terry Smith for ten minutes or so and that he wasn't convinced that Terry Smith did not have anything to do with the shooting at the Valero plant, even though Terry Smith was doing his best to convince this deputy of that. He said, after about ten minutes, he noticed Terry Smith's demeanor starting to change and that Terry Smith got very nervous. According to Deputy Bullock, he said it was at that point Terry Smith literally started having the shakes. He said he noticed some black residue on Terry Smith's hands, and he said, to this day, he doesn't know what that black residue was, but it looked like something that he had gripped. He said that once he noticed the residue, he called out to Jeremy Trish, who would join his fellow deputy, and according to Bullock, it was at that point he grabbed Smith's hand and that's when Smith got really defensive. In his words, Deputy Bullock said Smith tried to run, but that he wrestled Smith to the grind and he put handcuffs on him, and at that point he asked him if anyone else was in the trailer, to which Terry Smith replied that his wife was in the trailer. He said, that's when he approached the trailer and he saw a large dog at the door, and

25:17 he called to Terry Smith's wife to put the dog on a leash. Block said, he then asked to speak to Chanelle Skanes, who is Terry Smith's wife, inside of the trailer. And he said the reason he wanted to do that was to prevent communication between Terry Smith and Chanelle Skanees so they couldn't get their stories together right. So he sat Upon entering that trailer, he noticed a man under a blanket in the bedroom, and he said he could see this man's hands moving under that blanket, under the cover, and he didn't know what was under that cover with this guy, of course, so he draws his weapon and he ordered this man to show his hands.

26:04 Now. That man was later identified as Kyle Yokel, and he said that Kyle Yokel complied and that himself, along with Chanelle Skenes and Kyle Yokel then all exit that trailer together. He said, when they exited the trailer, and once they got outside of it. Kyle Yokel takes off running, and Bullock said that he took off after him. He catches up to him and he starts handcuffing Kyle Yokel, and he said that's when Brian Smith appeared from the trailer. He was brandishing an AK forty seven, and of course all hell breaks loose. Now, picking up with a little bit more of Jason Trisha's testimony, he said that it was a split second when he saw Deputy brand Nielsen and Jeremy Trish get shot. He said, at that point he took off running and he got shot in the back.

27:10 He grabbed his weapon and he shot several times back at the individuals. Jason Trish said he did make it back to his vehicle and he was actually able to make it to the hospital and as I told you several weeks later, after about a month in a coma, he finally woke up. Now, as far as Deputy Bullock, he said he took shelter behind the trailer after Brian Smith started shooting, and he said, in one hand he had the gun that he had pulled out of Kyle Yokel's waistband, and in the other hand he was firing with his own weapon. He also testified that he saw Deputy Nielsen fall and that he saw Deputies Jeremy Trish and Jason Trish running in the same direction toward some nearby railroad tracks. He said at this point he was positioned behind the trailer and he and the gunmen were actually firing at each other through the mobile home. He said that's when Kyle Yokel, who had been on the ground, ran back toward the front of the trailer and out of his view. He said, after Deputy Nielsen was struck by bullets, he saw a pair of legs from the other side of the trailer, and it was at that point that he made it to a nearby white pickup truck and took cover behind the truck, and he was able to shoot the person whose legs were visible, presumably the legs. He said he didn't watch as the person

28:40 began crawling toward the door of the trailer. Now. Deputy Bullock also testified that he saw a gumman standing over Deputy Nielsen, who had been shot, and that he saw this person, who was later identified as Kyle Yokel, fired several shots into the fallen deputy's body execution style. He also testified that as the bullets were flying, another deputy by the name of Charles Well approached the scene and that he basically flagged the deputy down and told him stop, don't come any closer. So that's the details that I have in this just absolutely horrific, infuriating shooting in which two deputies were killed, Saint john Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Nielsen and Deputy Jeremy Trish, and two deputies were wounded, of course, Michael Boynton at the first scene and Jason Trish wounded at the trailer park scene, if you will, and police would discover that these guys were members of what was called a sovereign citizen movement. And let me explain to you quickly what a sovereign say citizen allegedly is, and it's I guess the best way to tell you is it's an extremist movement of a bunch of people who don't believe in any sort of law. They believe

30:11 you're in charge of yourself essentially, and they don't recognize law enforcement at all. They don't believe in taxes, they don't believe in authority, and they refer back to laws like laws that existed when the country was very first founded, as something to stand on. As far as their beliefs are concerned, it's absolutely ridiculous in my opinion, and I'm not going to spend too much time on it, but let's just say that they don't believe in any authority whatsoever, and they hate well, they typically hate cops because their law enforcement, and they don't believe in law enforcement, and they don't believe in anybody expressing any authority over them.

30:56 So I'm going to break down for you now because there's so many one who each of these individuals were and what happened to them, And I'm going to tell you that there's one in particular that it's really going to shock you when I get to him. But we're going to start with Terry Smith, who was involved in that initial shooting at the Valera refinery. Remember, he was a driver. He was approximately forty four years old at the time of this shooting, and there's not a whole lot of details about his early life, but he was very involved in the sovereign citizen movement. He would proclaim himself as a common law judge and he would lead a small group of sovereign citizens in the area, so he was kind of like the patriarch of this group, if you will. And of course he gets arrested for his role in the initial shooting. But guess what his role in this shooting that attempted murder of the initial officer at the Valeria plant, Deputy Boyington. It never goes to trial. Why because he had another case penning that would send him to Blooding in Gola to serve multiple life sentences for rape. And let me tell you how disgusting this guy is. And I'm going tomber reference. An article in this article was written by Dan Swinson. It ran in The Times Picky un on October fifth of twenty twelve, and it kind of discusses Terry Smith's past

32:31 and it reads, Adam Tennessee, a police car crunched up in the trailer Parks grivel drive headed for the family exiled to the far back corner. They were so honory, so prone to trouble making that their landlord had moved them there to Lot twenty eight A just to get him out of the way. It was November of last year when the detective came for forty four year old Terry Lynn Smith, accused of raping a teenage relative. What she found instead would take her months later to Saint John the Baptist Parish. A stack of paper she carried from that trailer would help piece together a puzzle of the Smiths, their connection to a Nebraska fugitive, and the senseless doctrine that might have driven them to gun down four sheriff's deputies in cold blood. On November ninth, Robertson County, Tennessee, Detective Angela Lenney arrived at the Smith's camp, two trailers side by side at the Red River Valley Camp in Adams, Tennessee.

33:33 The Smiths weren't home, but a skinny redhead bolted from that camper. He ran for the windline, leaped off a steep wooded bluff, and disappeared into the woods. An old white buick with Nebraska tags sat parked outside. It had been stolen two months earlier. Lenny learned by a skinny, redheaded fugitive named Kyle Yokel, wanted in two states for dealing dope and threatening to kill police officers. Inside the Smith's camper, Lenny found an arsenal of guns. And ammunition in a stack of paper she hoped would lead her to Terry Smith's missing teenage relative. Quote. I started looking through it, and I discover more than what I went there for. The documents linked the Smith family to the militant anti government group called Sovereign Citizens, whose thousands of members recognize no authority higher than their own. They dabble in conspiracy theories and file cryptic lawsuits protesting the unfairness of taxes and driver's license and sometimes they spiral into violence.

34:36 The Smiths, they were arrogant. They didn't care about anybody but themselves. That from their landlord in Tennessee. I hate to say it, but I could see that ending coming. The mere mention of Terry Smith drives a grizzled old man in North Louisiana to weep, to beat his head against the doorframe of his rickety old house, to curse God in Smith and anyone else who will listen. Quote he's killing me, he sobs. Richard Skaines has long white hair, wears cowboy boots and denim shirts, and sinks to his knees if the thought of Smith. His daughter Chanelle met the man years ago. Her father begged her not to marry him. Smith was manipulative, Skaines could see. He brought up his two boys mean just like him. But his daughter married Terry Smith anyway, and the two took off to travel from state to state, factory job to factory job.

35:31 Skaine's heard of the child molestation cases in Tennessee, and he said he helped Leamy to try to find Smith. He begged the police to arrest him. Quote I hate that son of a bitch, and I always did, he said of his son in law. I told the detective, if I see him, I'm going to kill him. You better catch him before I do. But he didn't see Smith ever again, and neither did that detective. On the morning of the massacre in the Laplace trailer, Chanelle Scanes ran screaming from her trailer in an effort to protect the deputies that, according to witnesses, quote don't shoot them, she wailed. A neighbor said she threw herself on top of a fallen deputy as the neighbor watched, begging her husband's son and Kyle Yogl to stop firing. They allegedly shot her in the arm. She is charged as an accomplice in the shooting of the first deputy in the parking lot. A week later, Scane's father stood on his lawn, littered with broken bicycles, trash in old tires, and laminated that his daughter, who he said was a good girl, married such a dangerous man, so dangerous, so mean. He said that somebody should have seen it coming and locked him up A long time ago. Those cops didn't have to die. His former landlord in that trailer park remembered just three tenants of the hundreds he had last year. Quote, you don't remember the good people, You just don't you remember the troublemakers in his threshold for recollection is high.

37:01 One of the three bad ones he recalled stole his canoes, cut them into pieces, and sold them a few towns over. Another was caught with the dead prostitute in his trailer. The third, the Smiths, was a family so unruly that the landlord insisted they moved to the furthest back corner of the campground's overflow lot. The camp sites seventy eight lots were full of November due to a semiconductor plant that was under construction in nearby Clarksville. Tennessee. Until then, the landlord and his father had run a sleepy canoe camp, a place for weeking getaways and field trips on the Red River, which snaked along the back edge of the camp shady main lot. They are more accustomed to nailing flip flops to their trademark quote tree of Souls in telling ghost stories to children than they are housing bad laborers that the Chamber of Commerce had asked if they expand, even temporarily to allow workers a place to live. The landlord charged the workers four hundred dollars a month in rent, and for the most part left them alone. The landlord got the impression Yokel was a follower, impressionable, and easy to reel in. The Smiths, he believes, became Yokel's outlaw family, bonded in blood and guns and a shared distaste for authority. When the law came for the patriarch, the Smiths had to run, and Yokel had nowhere else to go, so he figured he might as well run with them. The landlord said. They all snuck back in the next day, long enough to hook up their trailers to their trucks and haul them away.

38:35 Then the Smiths and Yokel once again slipped away. The landlord didn't know where they were headed at the time. He didn't care so long as they were gone, but Looney kept looking. She issued a bulletin through the Tennessee Fusion Center declaring Terry Smith wanted for questioning in a child's sex abuse case. He had a history that wove through a half a dozen states, the bulletin warned, and was affiliated with a militant organization prone to domestic terrorism. He should be considered dangerous. A half a year later, a hitchhiker thumbing a ride on a desolate stretch of the highway in North Louisiana would offer a similar warning about the Smiths. The family, he told yet another sheriff, this one six hundred miles from Tennessee, had moved into the back of a trailer park in their town. They had a lot of guns, he said, and they didn't like the law. And that's how that rered gives you kind of a view of how just horrible these people were.

39:38 And of course that article started off talking about a rape of a family member, that the patriarch of this group, Terry Smith, was accused of molesting, and that victim was identified as his minor stepdaughter. Now, according to documents, he raked her for over ten years, with the use starting in two thousand and four, when this little girl was just seven years old, and continuing until the summer of twenty eleven when she was seventeen. And the acts included vaginal penetration, oral sex, and even object insertion into her. And he would threaten this poor little girl that he would kill the entire family if she ever told. Now, in twenty eleven, when this little girl escapes the Smiths home, she reported it and there was apparently plenty of evidence to substantiate this, and he eventually pleaded guilty to the charges.

40:39 And just as sick and disgusting as this is, when they interviewed her mother, her mother admitted to ignoring the signs of this, and it would be hard for him to believe she didn't know what was going on after all of that time. So he has a ton of rape charges here, and he eventually gets sentenced for this. This was in March of twenty sixteen, and he gets two life terms consecutive with no probation, plus fifty years of hard labor on some other charges. He ends up getting life. Plus Terry Smith ain't never getting out of prison, thank god. And all of that was tied to those original child rape charges of a family member, and none of that sentence was tied to what occurred in Saint John Parrish. Now, of course he appealed all that shit, and those appeals were denied. And let me tell you something, I don't know anything about this guy as far as how he's going about his life inside of Bloody and Gola, but I can tell you convicts don't like chomos. That's all I'm gonna say. They don't like chomo's. So he's either protective custody so to speak, meaning they don't let him in general population, or he's having quite a hard time.

42:09 And I feel not the least bit sorry for him. So that's who Terry Smith was. And before I go any further, I want to make this very clear. Nobody gives a shit about these people that were involved in this from the standpoint of the perpetrators. But you have to tell the story, the who, what, why, wearing how, And I just want to make that clear. I am telling the complete full story, and you can't tell the complete full story without going over what happened to these people and how much trouble they were causing even before all this went down. So I want to make that clear. I don't give a fuck about these people, but I have to tell the story, so I'll move on. I told you about Terry Smith. We're going to talk about his son, Brian Smith, who was one of the two shooters at the trailer park. He was twenty four years old when all this went down. Of course, he was charged with two counts of first degree murder. And to give you a little background on him, obviously he was very much influenced by his piece of shit rapist's father.

43:16 He was homeschooled and at the time growing up, not much as knowing out him outside of the fact that he was considered a major troublemaker, kind of looked like a punk, and he heavily embraced the sovereign citizen ideology. But here's something that may surprise you. In his case, he was also never convicted or sentenced in this case of these shootings, even though he had two charges of first degree murder, which are death penalty charges. Right Why well, he was considered mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was actually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia with psychosis, and even though he was never sentenced in this case, he will never see the free world again because he is hospitalized in Jackson, Louisiana, where there is a state hospital where you put people that are just mentally incompetent, and he will be at that hospital for the rest of his life. So, just to give me an idea of the timeline of his case.

44:23 On August twenty fourth of twenty twelve, he gets charged with two counts of first degree murder plus three counts of attempted first degree murder. On August twenty fifth of twenty twelve, he gets indicted for those charges. In August of twenty thirteen, the following year, emotion is filed with his attorneys to bar the death penalty, and they cited mental illness and they have a hearing, and in then hearing, some psychiatrist speaks and he confirms that this guy suffers from schizophrenia, paranoid schizophrenia. And look from there, this case drug out all the way to twenty twenty before a judge by the name of Sterling Snouty ruled him mentally incompetent to stand trial, and that was spurred by an audio recording from twenty seventeen from a hearing where this guy just goes on a rant in the hearing about the government targeting him. And as you would expect, he's acting just completely crazy. But it was a good example of his stability, which is non existent in this guy's case.

45:31 And that was enough, I guess, to convince the judge that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial. Not saying I agree with it. I would have made him stand trial personally, but that is the facts of what the judge found. Now, one thing that came out as police investigated was he had a unique bond with the next guy that we're going to talk about, which is Kyle Yokel and he was the other shooter at that trailer park, the one that picked up the AKA forty seven. So let's get into Kyle Yogel. Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York.

46:14 It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast about it. And with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts. Simply by searching Crime War Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. He was indicted for two counts of first degree murdyer. And a little about his early life. He was born in nineteen eighty five.

46:55 He was twenty eight when all this went down. As of today, he is a around forty years old. He's a white male, and he grew up actually in Nebraska on a farm. In his early life was troubled, was rough. Allegedly he had an abusive father and his entire family was plagued by alcoholism. At some point, he drops out of high school in the eleventh grade after he and his father supposedly gotten a pretty violent altercation, and from there he would turn to alcohol in minor crimes. By his early twenties, he faced some pretty stiff charges in Nebraska for drug possession, resisting arrest, making threats against law enforcement, and all of those are classified as terroristic threats. So warrant gets put out for his arrest and he hauls ass and he meets up with the Smiths somehow. And I told you about him being with them in Tennessee at that trailer park. But he was just kind of a want to bee, as that landlord in Tennessee also said, and I quoted him as saying, he just appeared to be some sort of follower and wanted to be accepted into a group. And he was also the sixth s Mitch that shot, if you'll remember Deputy Nielsen point blank after he already laid on the ground dying.

48:23 As it was. That's how sick and twisted this guy is. And in the end, he gets exactly what he deserved. He gets the death penalty inside of bloody Angola. But it took a while. He wasn't convicted until February of twenty twenty, and he was formally sentenced to death just a couple of years ago, in twenty twenty three, some eleven years after this incident. I would imagine, because he was convicted in twenty twenty, what happened right after he was convicted. He was convicted in February of twenty twenty of course, late March COVID, and it put things off, and he wasn't actually formally sentenced to death until twenty twenty three, eleven years after the incident. He's on death row as of today. And in that case, get this, and this is a little bit rare. It's not very common that you would deliberate for just twenty two minutes to convict someone in a death penalty case. But that's what happened here, that's how clear the evidence was. So we covered the actual shooters and what happened to them, and let's get into some of the I guess you would call it co conspirators.

49:37 And the first person we're going to talk about is the wife of Terry Smith, the leader of this group. And her name was Chanelle Skeines. And Chanelle was thirty seven years old when this originally went down. She was born in. Nineteen seventy five, so she would be fifty years old approximately today as I record this, and she was the second wife of Terry Smith. Now, she was originally arrested for accessory after the fact. Now at some point her charges do get upgraded to being a principal to first degree murder, However, because she testified against Yokel, eventually she gets sentenced to five years in prison. She serves that time with good credits, and she ends up getting released sometime around twenty seventeen, and not much else is none about her. And I'm sure her role in the shooting, as far as trying to comfort the deputies, shielding them at one point from her husband, I'm sure that played a role. And the fact that she testified against some of these individuals, I'm sure that played a role in her sentence. And it was interesting that she cooperated pretty quickly considering the charges she was facing, probably a smart thing.

50:56 As a matter of fact, in November of twenty twelve, she took that plea deal, so just a few months after all of this occurred. Now, someone that I haven't told you a whole lot about is Derek Smith. Derek Smith was the younger son of Terry Smith and Brian Smith, and he was also arrested in connection with this incident. Now, he was not directly involved in the shooting that took place at that trailer park. However, when they investigated him, he does get charged with two counts of accessory after the fact and a felon in possession of a firearm, and he gets some time for that because he was already a felon. You get found with a firearm. He actually picked up twelve years at hard labor for that, plus five years at hard labor for the accessory after the fact charge. He ends up serving it in a detention center and he gets released on good time. And this is an April first of twenty seven after serving about four and a half years of his sentence, and he was placed under supervised probation in the custody of his grandmother at that point, and maybe he learned his lesson right. Nope, his freedom is very short lived. As a matter of fact, on August twelfth of twenty seventeen, just five months after he was released, he gets rearrested for illegal weapon possession, which violated his parole. It leads

52:30 to his return to custody and he goes back to prison. Now I don't have any information on if he has been released again or not, so I'm not going to speculate on that. But he did get out and five months later end up back in jail in twenty seventeen. Unbelievable, So I'm going to reference another article now, this article also from The Times Peaky un and it talked a little bit about Chanelle's Skanes and her testifying at a preliminary hearing. And I find it very interesting. It again helps to paint the picture here and it reads Chanelle Skanes knelt on the gravel of the Laplace trailer park, where she lived with her husband, daughter and step sons, clutching the hand of a Saint John Parish deputy who had been struck in a hell of gunfire just seconds before, stroking his hair and forehead.

53:28 Quote. Are they talking to you? She asked the deputy in a panic, referring to the voices she heard broadcasting over a Sheriff's office issue radio that lay on the ground next to him. The deputy mumbled, yes, they're coming, Skins reassured him between bouts of sobbing and please for help, so frantic in fact, that she hadn't noticed her own gunshot wound in her arm. They're coming, she told him, I promise you, they're coming, but help would arrive too late. Moments later, the deputy died, one of the two casualties of a horrific ambush on August sixteenth, twenty twelve that ambush claimed the lives of Deputies Jeremy Trish and Brandon Nielsen, and left Deputies Michael Scott Boyington and Jason Trish with injury so severe that Boyington required six or seven surgeries and Trish had to have his spling, gallbladder and one of.

54:21 His kidneys removed. Four suspects will stand trial for those crimes, including Skaane's husband Terry Smith, step sons Dereck and Brian Smith, as well as Kyle Yokel. Terry and Derreck Smith are charged with being a principal to attempt at first very murder. Brian Smith and Yokel are each charged with two counts of first very murder in the deaths of Jeremy, Trish and Nielsen. It convicted, they faced possible death sentences Skain's and Britney Keith, Brian Smith's girlfriend, had pleaded guilty to accessory charges. The charges against Tamisha Bright, who told authorities she simply had hitched her at home with the Smiths that August day and was initially booked with being a principal to attempt at first green murtyerr were refused in October of last year on Friday morning. In a tear for a two hour testimony during the preliminary examination, Skanees were called the Fear, the panic and violence had unspooled across the scenic Riverview Mumba home that August morning. Shortly after four am on August sixteenth, Skane says she received a puzzling phone call from her step son, Derek. Skane's had just gotten out of bed in the Moba home she shared with her husband, Terry Smith, and had gone to the kitchen to make coffee. She knew Terry and his sons would be arriving home from the Valeria refinery in Laplace where they worked late shifts, and then her phone rang quote, the cops are chasing us, Dereck Smith told her, then abruptly hung up.

55:50 Quote. I thought he was playing a joke because he liked to do practical things like that, She testified. But because Skines knew that her husband, who drove a Chevy truck, did not have a driver's license, she began to worry that perhaps the group had run into trouble. She walked out of the trailer just as they pulled up Terry, Derek, and Brian Smith, as well as Kyle Yokel and Bright, a neighbor and fellow employee who Terry Smith often shuttled to him from work, poured out of that truck. Quote. I asked Terry what was going on? He told me that Brian had shot a guard. Terry Smith was referring to Deputy Michael Scott Boynton, who Brian Smith allegedly shot with an assault rifle outside the Valeria parking lot. After Boynton tried to pull them over. The Smithson sped down by you. Steell rode back to the trailer. Terry Smith told Skanes to go back inside the trailer. She obliged. Meanwhile, he returned to his truck. The others, including Skanes, convened inside the trailer. Keith was also present at the trailer.

56:50 According to Skaanes, Derek Smith left the trailer shortly thereafter. Quote then Brian said, Dad's turning on me. Skanes testified he was pacing talking, saying we had to leave, we gotta go, we can't stay here. Skane said her testimony that Brian Smith often exhibited paranoid behavior, peering out of windows as if he were being followed, distrusting his loyal family and friends. Quote. I said, no, no, no, it's okay, Skane said. Terry Smith returned from his car with a rifle slung over his shoulder. As Terry Smith went to lay the rifle on the bed, Skane's picked up the firearm and tucked it under a pile of clothes in the closet, along with the purse which held a handgun. Terry Smith left the trailer, and moments later Skane's heard voices outside quote.

57:40 I assumed it was a police because I could hear the radios. Then there was a knock on a door. I opened the door and there was a policeman standing there. He said, Hi, how are you doing. I'd like to talk to you for a second. I have my dog in my hand and said let me come outside. I put the dog on a leash and stepped outside. When I did, Terry was sitting at the picnic table, handcuffed. Skane's testified she met his two other deputies staring near the corner of her trailer, and the deputy who had knocked on the door told her to go back in the trailer. He followed her inside. Brian Smith, his girlfriend, Britney Keith and Bright had disappeared into the bathroom. Yokel was lying in Skane's bed, hiding under the covers. The officer quickly noticed Yokel and asked him to step outside.

58:25 Skane's Yokel and the officer then left the trailer. Skane sat down at the picnic table. The next thing, Skane's need the deputies were wrestling Yokel to the ground. Skane's thirteen year old daughter, who also testified on Friday, had been in Dereck Smith's trailer for the entire episode, but she said she distinctly heard Yokel scream they're going to kill us all. Skane said she saw one of the officers kick Yokel. She said another officer drew a gun and threatened to shoot Terry Smith as well as Skane's dog, who had been barking since the deputy showed up. They put the. Gun in Terry's face, saying he should just shoot them. Skane said, he said, I'll just shoot the dog. No, you can't shoot the dog. He said, I'll shoot both of you. I'm trying to hush the dog. Skane's continued, and the door of the trailer swings open. Skin said She then saw Brian in her peripheral vision in the doorway of the trailer. She heard gunshots, grabbed her dog and rolled under the picnic table. She said, I heard a bunch of shooting, then everything went quiet and I was screaming.

59:28 Stop, stop. Then I heard Brian say I've been shot. Skane said. She began crawling toward the camper from under the picnic table where she had been hiding him. When she turned her head, she met his Jokeal walking along the side of the trailer. She said, Yokle knelt down and picked up a rifle. Moments later, gunfire resumed and Skane's once again buried her head in her arms. Quote. I guess Brian had just threw the gun out the door, she said. Yokel picked it up, started screaming he was going to kill the and he started firing down at the police officer. Although Skanes later said she did not actually see Yokil a deputy, she confirmed that she did see him point the barrel of the gun downward toward the ground, only later which she noticed the deputy lying nearby. Deputy David Anthony Bullock, who was also present during the ambush, testified in September that he had seen a pair of legs fire shots into the body of Deputy Brandon Nielsen, and I quoted you that then when quiet, Skane said, she said, she grabbed the dog and ran across the street to Derreck Smith's trailer, where he and his thirteen year old daughter had been during the shooting. Skanes left the dog there and ran back toward her trailer, where she noticed the deputy, presumably Jeremy Trush, bleeding on the ground. She knelt beside him. Quote, he was laying there. I asked if he was okay. She held his hand, smoothed his hair, and told him help was on the way. Skane said that she then spotted Terry Smith. Skanees told the deputy

1:01:00 that she'd be right back, and she and Smith returned to the trailer, where Brian Smith was on the floor bleeding from a gunshot wound. She looked at him and told him, quote, you're crazy. As Skin's began walking back to the fallen deputy, she noticed Dereck Smith and her daughter coming toward her. She said she pleaded for them to stay away. Skan's grabbed her daughter's hand and took the child to her aunt's trailer. Skan's then ran back to the deputy as the deputy radio continued to cackle beside them. Skain's greened, hurry, I'm losing him. I don't have any weapons, please hurry. Then Skin's testified between fits of tears he stopped breathing. Only then skin said did she realize she had been shot, presumably by a bullet from Brian Smith's gun.

1:01:48 Quote. They grabbed me, Skane said, and got the ambulance and I went to the hospital because I had been shot. Skain's was one of nine witnesses in court, etc. Etc. And I wanted to read you that because I just talked about Derek Smith and there's just not a whole lot regarding him, and there are a few more players in all of this. Let's get into Britney Keith. She was a girlfriend of Brian Smith, and I mean, you reckon, something's wrong with these girls, pickers. I mean, find a classy guy, ladies. She was twenty three years old when all this went down. She was also charged with accessory after the fact, and she was also in that trailer when this incident went down. As I told you, she also shared in that same ideology as a Sovereign Citizen group member and during the gun battle, she was inside the trailer when the ambush occurred. Now, she was charged with principal to first Green murder, and she was not as cooperative as Skan's and all this she didn't testify against any other individuals, and thus her sentence was a lot harder than Scanes. And again it took what seemed like forever to get her sentence. As a matter of fact, it was February fourteenth of twenty twenty two before she has sentenced to two concurrent five year terms and three years of probation. But she had been in jail for quite a while on all of this, so it was time served for her. And from what I understand, she's not in jail anymore. That's just from what I understand.

1:03:22 Take that with a grain of salt. Now, remember Tanisha Bright, who was twenty one at the time that all this went down. I've already referenced us. But of course they discovered she was just wrong place, wrong time, wrong fucking people, and sure her charges were dropped and rightfully so, so to quickly go over everything you just heard, Terry Smith, the one that was driving the car when Deputy Boyington was shot in the initial shooting. He was never convicted in this case. However, he was convicted for those disgusting rapes and incest charges. He ends up with two life sentences plus ninety five years, and he was the leader of this group. Brian Smith, his son, twenty four. He was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial, but he is in a forensic mental hospital for likely the rest of his life. Kyle Yukel, who was twenty eight. He was convicted of two counts of first degree murder. He received the death penalty inside Bloody Angola Derreck Smith twenty two at the time, the son of the leader of this group.

1:04:32 He pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and accessory after the fact. He was released in twenty seventeen. However, he was re arrested in twenty seventeen for weapons violations. I don't know where he's at as of this point. Chanelle Skaines, Terry's wife, pleaded guilty. Was the first person to take a plea in this case. Of course, she testified in trial, and she received five years probation, primarily for her help with the prosecution. Now, a couple of things that are worth mentioning that occurred during all of this, And it came out during the testimony of Deputy Michael Boynton that he was having some very serious issues with his police radio system that day. So again I'm going to directly reference an article by The Times Picky in this was May twenty fourth of twenty thirteen, where Boynton testified on just that subject. Says Deputy Michael Boyington lay flat in his patrol card, dazed and bleeding from the four bullets that had torn into his body just seconds before.

1:05:43 He had seen the muzzleflash from the truck window and felt the searing pain that followed. Now ahead of him, the truck's brake lights were fiery red where they're coming back for him to finish him off. Boynton's hand was on his radio, moving the dial, hoping to hear the familiar chirping sound of a connection. Nothing. For the third time that morning, Deputy Boynton's police radio had failed him. As the legal proceedings continued for the group accused of shooting Boyington and three other Saint John the Baptist pair Shriff's deputies last August, killing two testimony in a preliminary hearing has spotlighted something deputies in the parish have known for a long time. Throughout Saint John there are areas where emergency radios cannot snag a signal.

1:06:30 Boynton was the first to come into contact with the alleged attackers on August sixteenth, about four am in the Laplace parking lot. But when Boynton tried to call for backup before the deadly bat of violence began to unferral, nothing happened. His radio couldn't find a signal. During testimony in a preliminary hearing last month, Boynton said he tried unsuccessfully he uses radio at least twice before he was shot, and at least once after. By the time he was able to reach headquarters, the truck and his passengers were well on their way to a Laplace trailer park where they would attack and kill more deputies. So I just wanted to reference that, and I'm not going to read the rest of the article, but pretty crazy that these radios, these deputies were having so many problems with these radios, and man, that is serious, and I thought it was important to mention that in reference just a piece of that article and another thing worth mentioning. While awaiting some sort of trial, it also came out that Terry Smith was planning an escape from jail, and that was reported by The Times picking You on February twenty seventh of twenty fifteen. And here's what was reported about that incident.

1:07:45 It said Terry Smith, one of the three men indicted in connection with the shooting death of to Saint John the Baptist pair sheriff's deputies and the waiting of two others. Jailbreak plans were foiled before he could make his attempt. A Batinery's television station reports another inmate at the Hunt Correctional Center located in Saint Gabriel told guards about Smith's plans, and that was reported by WBRZ television. According to the news report, that appeared Smith was planning a shawshank redemption type of escape attempt, having dug a hole in the center black wall, and it made gloves from boots and a vest from a sack in some legal papers. The TV station also reported Smith had survival guide tips and so that's how that read. Thank god that guy did not get away. Now I'm going to reference one more article today because it gives you an idea of the mindset of these individuals. And it's really an article on the families of the fallen, you know, asking why, which if you ever have a Tragy situation happened in your family, that's a question, right, that's the human side of a tragedy.

1:09:03 You want to know why. So I'm going to reference this article from the time speaking you from June ninth of twenty fourteen, and it reads Eddie Trush leapt up from her seat in the back road of the courtroom and ran outside. She looked up towards the sky, and she screamed for hours, for days on end, listening to dozens of witnesses recount Howur's son, Saint John the pad Baptist parish Shier's deputy Jeremy Trush, was shot dead at a Laplace trailer park last summer. But in that one moment, as she heard how he tried to run from an assault rifle fire, Eddie Trush was broken by grief. Her whole world changed that day August sixteenth of twenty twelve, a date that will forever be seared into the parish collective memory and wasn't yet dawned in two deputies, Brandon Nilson and Jeremy Trush, but fathers and husbands lay dead in the gravel of a scenic riverview mobile home park and laplace. Two other deputies were grievously injured. In the years since the shooting, the wounded deputies have returned home from the hospital, though with permanent disabilities and constant reminders of the whares they've faced that morning. The winners of the two dead strangers before had become best friends. They call each other nearly every day to cry or shout or laminate all the things that their husbands had missed birthdays, first fishing trips, dance recitals, and skin knees. Quote. You wouldn't think it would take an entire year to realize he's never coming home, said Nielsen's wife, Danielle. It's unbelievable

1:10:36 that it has been a year. Sometimes it feels like I saw him last week. Sometimes it feels like forever. The community continues to warm with them. A ceremony marking the anniversaries schedule for Friday. The details of the shootings have been pieced together through a half dozen hearings and testimony from other officers. The killers accomplices and innocents who witness some of the events, but the family still struggle to comprehend what might have provoked a group of strangers to gun down for good men. There's just one word all can come up with, evil, And I couldn't agree more with that. As they sat in jail cells for a year, the family accused of the killings that have written various manifestos maintaining their allegiance as sovereign citizens. A loose but volatile group of anti government extremists. They are described by the FBI as domestic terrorists, and their encounters with authority, particularly police, routinely turned violent. Quote they proclaim me anti government bitch. I am a sovereign citizen, one of the accused wrote in a wrap found scribbled on the back of a police report in his jail cell.

1:11:44 Quote you approach me, you better be ready to get in to where a badge is of sin. You will be put to death. My bullets will be cutting through your vest. Seven people were originally charged in the massacre. Sovereign citizen Terry Smith has announced his deep distrust in the government. With his two sons, Brian and Derek, the Smith family originally from North Louisiana, has stuck together, moving from state to state, trailer to trailer, picking up jobs as welders and day laborers at construction sites. Terry Smith's wife, shaneil Skenes, and Brian Smith's girlfriend Brittany Keith traveled with them in Tennessee months before the shootings in Laplace. They met like minded Nebraska outlaw Kyle Yokel, who fled his home state in a high speed chase after threatening to kill any cop who tried to control him. Yokel and the Smith family had a few things in common. Both were on the run from the law, and both shared a profound hatred for law enforcement. Brian Smith and Yokel would months later become the accused gumman in the Laplace killings, but prosecutors suggested in court filings had planned to slaughter officers long before they moved into the back of the Laplace trailer park. Derreck Smith, during one of his many prior incarcerations, wrote his brother a letter from jail. Quote, Dad said he wanted to go to war with the police. Well, I'm gonna see if he bout that he scrubbled. I ain't got nothing to live for anymore. So I'm gonna

1:13:14 take everyone to hell with me. I found out where my old po and he means probation officer lives. I'm gonna get his wife and kids and let him live in pain. That letter, found in one of the son's trailers after the Laplace massacre has become evidence in this case against them. Prosecutors point to it is proof that the father not only knew of his son's murderous intentions, but encourage them. Of the seven charged, only three still await trial. One twenty two year old Tanisha Bright, was released after authorities decided she was telling the truth. And of course we went through all that, so I won't go through it again. It does pick up at the ENDEA article and it says Eddie Trish still catches herself wading for her twenty seven year old son to walk through the door. He stopped by often just to say hello, drink a coke, snack on a Hershey bar. It took Moss before she stopped buying his favorite treats. He was married to Mistic Trust and they had a toddler together named Kate, who had just turned three. Jeremy has missed all of the everyday things, she said, tucking him into bed, teaching me how to fish. Kate doesn't have that anymore.

1:14:28 When he comes here, we talk about his father, We go through pictures. He will remember his dad. Dozens of fellow officers and family packed the back rows of the courtroom whenever Smith's and Yokel are set to appear. But Danielle Nelson tries to avoid the hearings. She likes to remember the things she loved about her husband, How he changed the words to songs to make her laugh while they drove him the car, how he made funny faces when his picture was taken. How much he loved his two daughters and three step sons. Quote. We were a team, she said. He was my best friend. The only part of him she wants to forget is how he died. She doesn't get every hearing so she can manage to get up in the morning and be strong for her youngest daughter, now getting ready to start the third grade. Quote, I'm all she's got now. I've got to be strong.

1:15:19 I've got to take care of us, give her the sense of security we have when he was here. That's all on me now, and I wouldn't wish that on anybody else. She is woken up three hundred and fifty nine mornings without him, but all the first have passed for now for her, the first Christmas, first birthdays, first day of school, graduations, first Thanksgiving alone, and she hopes that now, without the constant tide of milestones, she might finally get some peace. And you know it's. People don't sometimes think about how tough when these things happen is out there.

1:16:00 It is on the families. My heart just breaks for all of these families, and people often forget that they're victims too. So I've told you all that, but I hadn't told you a whole lot about the two fallen officers, And I want to honor them and just tell you a little more about them. And we'll start with Brandon Joseph Nielsen. And according to what I've read about him, he was born in nineteen seventy seven. He dedicated his life to law enforcement, which culminated in a one year term as a deputy sheriff with Saint John the Baptist Sheriff's Office, where he served as a motorcycle officer. He was thirty four years old at the time of his death, and he was known by his colleagues for his dedication and positive spirit. He was survived by his wife and five children, and his parents and his sister, and of course, annual memorials continue at the Sheriff's office, with remembrances on social media, etc.

1:17:03 Honoring Nilson as exactly what he was, a hero who was shot and killed while serving his community. Also killed Jeremy Michael tresh He was born in nineteen eighty four, from what I understand, just twenty seven years old at the time of his death. He was a dedicated family man, survived by his wife and son, and he was known as having a kind of a passion for fishing, a hobby that later community thumb raisers would be held in his memory, like fishing tournaments and things of that nature. And he embodied a strong commitment to helping others, which was a trait that extended from his personal life into his professional life, obviously as a law enforcement officer. He served with the Saint John Pears Sheriff's Office for approximately four years until he was gunned down, and he specifically assigned as a canine handler, and he had a reputation for selflessness and dedication to protecting and serving in the Sheriff's office. Of course, honor him. He has a memorial page as well on their website. Now, I also want to mention Jason Trish, who was also shot. He underwent a kidney transplant in twenty seventeen, and from what I understand, he's a return of the Sheriff's Office in an IT role despite having some pretty tough mobility challenges now and as far as Michael Boyington, he was discharged from the

1:18:36 hospital within three months of the shooting, despite being shot with an assault rifle. A pretty strong guy right there. If that doesn't speak to just his sheer strength, and y'all, I know that was a hard one for you to hear, but think about it. Next time you come across someone in law enforcement, maybe shake their hand, thank them for their service, because this type of shit can happen anytime on any day, in any given place. And I'm sure that I did not cover every detail in this case, as much as I would have loved to. I just don't have access to everything in this case. I wasn't there.

1:19:22 I don't have direct knowledge. I would, however, extend an invitation to anyone from the families of the slain officers to those still in law enforcement in Saint John Parrish, I would love to know more about who these deputies were, and just an open invite to any of you that would like to come on Bloody Angola and shine a light on who these guys were outside of what I was just able to find by reading about them. Open invite, come on the show, let's talk about it. I just can't speak to what occurred on the inside of that because I don't have any direct knowledge of that. And look, anytime we cover these cases, as I said from the beginning, no matter how good our intentions are, information sometimes can get slightly twisted. I'm all about correcting the record. Let me know if something is grossly misstated somewhere in this podcast, I'll be happy to correct it and correct that record.

1:20:31 I'm certainly not perfect, but I'm only as good as the information that is out there available to the public. So if it's something you would like me to bring up, I can certainly bring it up on a subsequent episode of Bloody and GOWA. Again, my sincere thoughts and prayers to everyone who knew and loved, not only those heroes that lost their life in this event, but those that were injured and everyone with the Saint John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's office. Thank you all so much for listening, and until next time. For Bloody Angola, A podcast one and forty two years in the making, the complete story of America's Bloody is present.

1:21:19 Peace a wall. Street line, shackle chain, whosome gurdy. It's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's been a tentery juice as the Hustream game.

1:22:00 Rule three. Come in. Fine, f'm me to die inside these walls, inside the wild and when the walks, I'm know it's oldbody angleler, ohbody Angle.