I began this series of letters with the intention of providing the full and true details of this case up through my court trial in 2024. There is so much more to say, but I feel I need to pause the letters for now. The timeline in the letters has reached a point that begins to overlap with the date of October 26, 2018, which is when the State alleges I became part of a criminal conspiracy.
My attorneys continue to work on my appeals and are in the process of submitting a post-conviction petition to the Court. I believe it is important that my letters not get ahead of the legal process. My side of the story will still be shared when the time is right. That time will have to be after the legal process has sufficiently progressed.
The challenge I face in sharing my story is that the only versions told until now are the ones given in the media and by the State prosecution. Those two versions are essentially identical, and they present a biased story that was created at the very beginning of their investigation. There are times when it feels I will likely never to be able to overcome their versions, which have been set in stone through repeated retellings by the same handful of people whose comments have been crafted with an end goal already in mind.
Years ago I read a book by John Grisham titled “The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town.” The book tells the true story of two Oklahoma men who were wrongly convicted of murder, and one of them was sentenced to death. The book describes how a very aggressive prosecution was irretrievably misguided by just a few mistakes at the very beginning that sent it down the wrong path. The detectives then engaged in badgering and harassing witnesses, conducted threatening interrogations, ignored obvious facts, and discarded other evidence. So many parts of my case can be reflected in that story. You can find it here (paid link) and read it for yourself.
As a one-time journalist myself, I do feel the media has largely failed in telling the public a balanced and accurate version of this case. Instead they have opted for the State’s salacious version that would appeal to the most people and capture greater attention. I believe the media and the prosecution have worked in lock-step with one another to make sure only one version of events was ever told.
When I worked as an editor at the Ogden Standard-Examiner in the early 1990s, our staff included a very tough, seasoned journalist named Don Baker. He was the crime reporter, and he took his job seriously to hold the police department and other government officials accountable for their actions. Don always felt it was important to seek information through public disclosure laws that would discourage the police from investigating cases in the shadows.
I remember Don being fearless and relentless in the pursuit of truth. He has since passed away, but I have often wished a true journalist like Don would emerge in this case and fulfill the media’s proper role of keeping sufficient distance and independence from the prosecution and the police. Instead, I have spent several years watching my story be inaccurately told by others.
At every turn I have been told, and continue to be told, that I should allow the judicial system to play itself out and allow my attorneys to tell the story. For years, leading up to my trial and even during it, I did that. Then my trial came and went without the entirety of my story being shared with the jury or the public.
Six years have now passed since Tammy, Tylee, and JJ died. I know that anything I share now, or even what I have shared in the previous letters, will be seen as desperate attempts by a convicted man to redeem his reputation. It is a very heavy burden, because I continue to be told that the best opportunity to do that is at a proper trial.
Most people will say I had a proper trial, but I did not. My current attorneys are in the process of showing the many deficiencies of that trial. I am seeking another opportunity to present to a jury the vital information that should have been shared the first time, not just the theory the prosecution put together.
My current post-conviction petition is an effort to demonstrate that my previous attorney, the one person in a position to help me, sorely let me down. For such a high-profile capital case, he was underqualified and completely alone against the combined forces of several police departments, prosecutors from multiple counties, federal and state agencies, and out-of-state capital attorneys.
I believe these circumstances need to be shown and argued in court as part of the appeals process, not simply explained through my own words in these letters. Hopefully my current attorneys will be able to clearly demonstrate the fact that I never received the defense I deserved as a citizen of the United States.
It is primarily for this reason I think it is best to pause these letters until my petition is publicly available. Only then will I know whether I will be given the opportunity to tell the full and accurate depiction of what took place in the fall of 2019. I make this decision very reluctantly, because these letters have barely scratched the surface of the events I want to share.
These events include my fourth near-death experience, which happened in early 2022 in my cell in the Fremont County Jail. That powerful experience was much more extensive and far-reaching than my first three NDEs. It provided great comfort and hope that has helped sustain me through these subsequent years and the separation from my family.
I hope these letters have been helpful to you, my dear friends. I do have a deep desire to show that I am still the kind, gentle person you knew. I trust that the facts will be eventually revealed. Until then, please know I love you, and I have felt your love and prayers as well.
Sincerely,
Chad