At 14 he was accused and later convicted of murdering his mother. But he claims he knows who the real killer is and he’s still out there. "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
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There's nothing in this world.
body can ever do me? That's only worse than what I say.
I see the call from the sheriffs department
that word been homicide. It was very devastating. There was.
a lot of murders in washington county
new everyone. They all knew, Michael. They all went to school with it
Everyone knew breeder was really close with my mom. She was always at a football game, my baseball game. She always had the camcorder out. She was recording me
this murder was its boodles. They go first responders called this crime scene horrific
the blood all over the room, some sort of object was used to hit reader at least once might finds her body burning. On the floor of her room
Let us go to the abundant, always do it over cod in no way to know what to do
My name is Michael boy. I was fourteen years old
wasn't promoting my mother either. One of you ever ever thing can be honest with me that he might hurt your mother.
I never thought you her among them choose very closely.
He was her baby telling about december, for
nineteen. Ninety eight, you remember
enabling vividly
those home. I see headlights coming down the door,
my mom she comes in
I love you. Can I not seeing the morn sat the last thing you
after sentence. The last said
mostly. I remember. I woke up and see
hey my room tomorrow, my door actually her feet.
And she was far from waste up here. I could you here,
crack and other far how soon dead investigators focus, unlike a meat
He is a suspect from
the moment they arrive at the scene. They said this kid didn't act the way they expected. He wasn't emotional enough. You look like a pretty good suspect. You were a person who loved to set fires. You had had
arguments with your mother. You are having trouble in school, but not other suggest anything about,
or are there any injuries on Michael on your brother, any blood found on him on his clothing, no and no weapon? No, let me ask you a question. What fourteen year old kid could commit a crime that violent that vicious and not leave any
any friends again is beyond whatsoever, has not passed. Michael was convicted of murdering second agree, even sentences
Michael, did you kill your mom? No
and there's only one individual. There are no that hates her. That must do better.
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This is where the police family home once stood on December fifth, nineteen. Ninety eight day, Michael polyte, says he woke up to find his mother's body.
and on bedroom floor on fire
I seen, was hatred and evil. He was
fourteen years old, the universe
who did it to my mother, had dinner with
inside him. Reader was
forty when she died, there's a lot
pictures of wealth and mom. All these,
later Michael's owners, sisters crystal and Melanie still have vivid memories. That's crystal
small and then me, what's the first thing,
comes to mind when you think about Rita Hayworth
laughing.
smiling michaelmas sisters grew up in a tiny, ruled community of hope, while Missouri it's about seventy miles, south west of saint Louis, within our doors, we live by all our family reward for both more fertile attribute, Michael went by the new
name, Bernie back then is middle name was bernard.
from bernard their parents
Edward and Rita got marriages, teens and
So Melanie say the couple had their struggles.
He was very mentally abusive. He also cheated on her a lot, but she loved him love. It
outweigh in any other feeling she ever eventually, though
love wasn't enough. I witnessed violence
when the two of them there were allegations of domestic,
violence on both sides. The year before the murder. There was an incident where police were called Michael, told, an officer that is dad pushes mom to the floor and choked her. The cup
ultimately divorce in the summer of ninety. Ninety, eight, after more than twenty years of marriage, divorce decree cited edwards infidelity
my dad would try to pay me to come, live with him
I wonder when mom Michael end
having a split time between both parents.
december for ninety ninety eight. He was as moms that night she was out working at a local bar
and Michael was home alone. Probably some eight were so I get bored
I ride my bicycle store. It's there than mine,
says he met up with his friend fifteen year old george song sissy. We invited to sleep over the two hung out for hours until Michael's mom got home,
around midnight by man where you want to sleep sleeper
They earn a living. Marijuana photo accounts for users sleeping deal
in the former roomies I just crash into the floor Michael says he slept through the night until just before. Six thirty am when he and joshua
woke and noticed smoke in the room.
We ran out of the room, my mama,
door is facing me august.
the blow and orange well in that area,
he says he called out to his mom, but there was no.
answer Michael. What are you fail and at this point to permit fear michael says he went and got
The hose outside and then ran toward his moms room and what
He saw he never forget.
In berlin and legs, and she was on fire from the waist up now turn a water hose on. I dunno how long a center
Vitamin minutes or certain josh ran to get help, but it was too late
crystal would soon get a call from her brother with the news.
So my bed and
I just kept saying I don't want to. I don't wanna go
I don't wanna go.
Then you know it's real crystal pick Melanie out that by the time they got to the scene
cars and fire trucks were lining. The driveway MIKE was on the front seat passengers I of the police car.
And we just ran up to the window, asked him what was like what happened?
and had set on his face and he had tea remarks all down his face.
And he said I don't know mom's dead, you could smell the smoke, you could smell
flash tammy nash work for the Washington county sheriff's office back then, and was
the responding officers. It was clear that this was a murderer. Rita had suffer blunt force trauma to the head.
and blood was visible. Honour, bedroom walls indicating a struggle had occurred. A fire marshal quickly concluded
that and accelerate was used to set her on fire. What would your job at that point? What was your assignment together the evidence we were looking for any thing that she could have been struck with. We never found a weapon was Tammy p.
says. The scene, Michael and Josh, were taken away to the sheriff's office for questioning a police report indicates that on the way, Michael ass, an officer something back
quickly put him under suspicion. He ass. What's going to happen to my moms
Isn't that an odd thing to say after you just saw your mother on fire
When you lose someone you want to hang on to things to me. That's all it was you known arm on love that trap, but it did raise eyebrows and at the sheriff's office, Michael, was given a voice.
ass task. Then they told me that I feel
investigators also took Michael shoes, so that an accelerated sniffing
could examine them. There
dog alerted my shoes too.
Seller? How would you describe the tellers questioning after
the dogs alerted on your shoes and after you failed this voice stress tests. There was a question you no more. There are telling me than I do.
Michael and judge both insisted,
They didn't know what happened to riga, that they had stayed in Michael
room all night, but investigators told them they didn't believe them. The boys were question repeatedly and two days after the murder, Josh gave a videotape statement with an officer on each side and his mother present. That statement seemed about
The whole in Michael's account he sadie woke up to a noise in the middle of the night voice,
burning waiting to hear very learned.
Bernie wasn't meant by
Could you say you were
Yes, I think so. Now he wasn't it,
it was a anywhere else about better,
shortly after Josh gave that statement on December seven. Ninety ninety eight fourteen
ro Michael polyte was arrested for his mother's murder.
I always believed
the outcome we found innocent because I made him: do
My mother,
Always
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flash wondering.
I
He looks like a really happy kit
He was always really happy.
When money and crystal learn that their fourteen year old brother had been arrested for their mothers murder, they say they couldn't believe it. How are they-
coming up with that conclusion. I just thought they were crazy.
No one clear check and patsy styles are.
Michael's uncle and aunt. They live next door to where the crime took place. They also felt police have made a mistake- and I was the first ones to seem after happen.
He had no scratches no less than I'm is always used mamma he loved his mom, but while michael scale,
they believed in his innocence. The truth is Michael, was,
italy, the model child, something that even he admits. You failed seventh grade three times I was on my third year because I became fluent. I just wasn't going skipping school is one thing, but ten months before the murder, things got so bad. That Michael was hot
relies for behavioral issues after he threatened to kill his mother and himself for water
I told him the output of six
we don't dislike her mom and dad digital him at Michael know. I did and it's the biggest regret of my life melody and crystal blame Michael's misbehavior on their parents,
Borders are dad we're trying to put him in the middle. Michael was clearly
Angry troubled teenager
yeah, I think he was married are to have for sure was he mad at your mama's? Well now I think:
I mean, I know they didn't always get along perfectly. I don't think any parent
child as three years pass with Michael in custody.
Awaiting trial, and then the prosecution came to him with a deal. Please
guilty to voluntary manslaughter and need spend a maximum of fifteen years?
is in prison are rejected. It in think about
Why not? I didn't murder, my mother,
in january, two thousand to Michael polyte, then seventeen years old, when on trial, his
Life was on the line, the prosecutors and defends attorney, who tried their case didn't respond to our calls, but Josh hedge court. The current prosecutor of wash did county where the murder took place, was willing to talk,
the case. What was the most important evidence, the scientific evidence, and that would start with the shoes
that he was wearing at the sheriff's office, not
we had a dog detected, an accelerant on Michael's shoes according to the prosecution. Later testing also confirmed the presence of gasoline on them, and there was
testimony that an accelerated have been used to burn readers body, and so all of these
together. I think solidified that he must upset the fire that Michael Adele
LISA gasoline found on his shoes met nothin and that he and his friends would often set fires for bud.
We all did it. It was in. It was in the country, in fact, Michael totally said just hours before the murder,
he had his friend Josh use gasoline to set of fire on the railroad tracks near his house before Rita, got home, go through
Persistent fire, but the prosecution use added mission
as another piece of evidence against Michael Corleone
They argued that burn pattern on the tracks. Matched burn pattern on
read out. Nothing. Electrical could have caused the fire linda dec
send bow and Jonathan Petersen we're jurors
the case on workers.
and good for him. What they were telling us was
Michael, had a problem with burning and there he was the only person
it could have done this. The jurors never heard about Michael's power.
Comes at school and that threat to his mother, but a whit yes testify.
about a disagreement that Michael have with his mother weeks before the murder,
was over money and he sat licking a lighter afterwards. It happened, but not in the way that the state betrayed. I was workin the wheel on the water
that you weren't, threatening your mother with that
and there was something even more damaging the prosecution claim that Michael had actually confessed to the crime during a suicide attempt at a juvenile detail,
center. Exactly one month after the murder, three witnesses who work there wrote in reports that Michael said
I haven't cared since I killed my mom, but Michael says.
that's not what he said when they
as to why you are trying to kill yourself. You say he said what,
as a cuban on it's the difference
of one word, but that one word carried along.
of wage and the jury would never hear from Michael, because when it was the debate
is turn he didn't take the stand
today is certainly resemblance to ninety eight and leave
the jury with even more unanswered questions was the fact that they were told that josh see. Other boy now said knight
had been granted immunity. I kept waiting thing
im. Ok, you will feel he's been given. Immunity of them he's got to have something to offer, but
jury never saw or heard from Josh at all. He was in called to the stand
They were never shown. His video statement, Michael sisters, also work called,
I never really hurt anybody in his defence. Say Michael didn't do this. Instead, the defence hinges case on the lack of direct evidence, no murder weapon had been found and, despite the violence of the attack, Michael had no injuries and no blood. On his clothing,
after three days of testimony the case when the jury
to hold someone's life in your hand of you ever done. It's not applies a thing to do
I wanted to get it right.
but Linda Jonathan say they were left with. So many questions too many
questions and they fell pressure by other members of the jury.
I thank everybody. Finally, just got to mean just like we're.
You go home and they now it's like the.
you're ready go home and his kids are ready to go to prison
After more than four hours the jury filed into the court room with their verdict guilty of
can degree murder. I wept why, because it what's wrong,
Michael was sentenced to life in prison
and was wrongly walls
Nevertheless, we would happen. Michael would spend
zennor Missouri prison before a new team of lawyers will take his case and make it their mission
to turn it around. The state essentially never really had any case against this kid, but the case that they even did have back at trial has been.
indisputably proven false. What do you make of the evidence used to convict Michael chat now and facebook and twitter apartments? Dot com has helped millions of renters find their perfect places and the beauty
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to Michael foley was, was convicted and sentence delight at the age of eighteen. He was
to the Missouri state penitentiary, once called the bloodiest forty seven acres in amerika,
being so young how the target gonna fight my first day. There is withdrawn rating
michael says he became desperate for some sense of safety
became a scan. Her joy, known as where you got there tat. Is there was something that I feel like I knew due to survive, saw the weather for you
It's the way the mom raise me I just didn't fit in Michael says. He longed to prove his innocence and get out.
Prison. He needed to hire a lawyer, so he says he asked his dad for help. Did he know? So? How did you keep up any help at all? I didn't for a few years, I just her when I drama love myself, I was looking for drugs. I was just self medicating
That's the way things were until Michael finally found something they gave him hope. Five years after his conviction, he wrote a letter to the mid west innocence project and they agreed to take. It
in case. The organization worked on it for years and eventually attorneys tricia bush. Now megan, crane and mark amazon became involved mike was convicted because he was a kid pure and simple. They said he wasn't emotional enough trauma, doesn't look like
people think it should look like the trisha, megan and Martin picked apart the case against Michael. They say it was based on bad science. Group started with the prosecution's claim that an accelerant was used to set the fire. That killed
now, when the fire investigator deigned to the scene, they immediately did determined. It was a fuel third fire based on just visual patterns, just based on looking at the scene which, at the time violated gold standards of fire investigation. There has to be lab testing control sample taken there and lab testing was dinah carpet samples threaten the crime scene. No accelerate was detected. The prosecution explained that away by saying it could have burned down, but defence attorney megan crane says that suggestion is reasonable. There's no scientific basis for that being possible. Do you believe that their jerry believed that, in fact, there was an ex seller used to say
rita on fire. Absolutely the main case against Michael was that it was a gasoline fire and in order to attempt to tie my to the crime, the only physical evidence was the gasoline that the state alleged was on his shoes.
But Michael's new lawyers say that Michael shoes didn't have gasoline on them. Either for crew they say a chemical use in the shoe manufacturing process was wrongly
I identified as gasoline trial
Even the missouri state crime lab agrees in this too
It's funny ladder. Officials say it
now known that solvents found in footwear, adhesives have similarities to gasolene, but that it
a laid ninety nine days? This knowledge was now
widely known content.
Ben alerting to the chemicals used in their shoes. Absolutely the jurors cared about the gas on their shoes. They asked to see the issues it was the nail in the coffin
What about Michael's alleged confession at the juvenile detention centre, witnesses road that they heard him say I haven't cared since I killed my mom but Michael and says he said I
having carried since they killed my mom
same way. We talk about tunnel vision. People can hear what they want to
we're talking about one word in a room where there's lots of activity happening. They havoc a kid in the detention centre that they believe has probably committed this crime right,
and so that's their view of him
There is one big question that remains: what about george song, sis ii?
Remember the jury was told he got.
immunity and there was that videotaped statement where he told police that he woke up in the middle of the night and Michael wasn't there the wasn't anywhere else and that better now, many years after the crime, Josh is speaking publicly. For the first time
thou, what he says really happened that night
When a majority on the largest china forget about it.
Hi, I'm lindsey, graham host of wonders, podcast american history tellers. We take you to the events times and people that shaped america and americans. Our values are struggles and our dreams in our latest
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as on music or wonder YAP, everything I'll check one to want to carry out an keep homer. I'm an address the finger and entrepreneur and of our development as the main view not upheld
How many occupations over the years that my bans lovingly macneil me kiki, keep a bad palmer and trust me. I gave a vague love, but if you ask me, I'm just getting started and there's so much. I still want to do so. I decided I want to be a pot castles. I'm proud, introduce you to the baby. This is: keep calm, pockets, I'm putting my friends family and some of the deepest experts in the hot seat to ask them questions that have been burning in mamma,
am a former child stars, be if they weren't actors. Parabolas thick arms is only banned. Only that I want to know, though, as my mum about it. These are the questions that keep me up at night, but I'm taking these questions out of my head and I'm bringing them to you because on baby this is kiki. Palmer no topic is off limits, follow baby the skip home or wherever you get your podcast pay. Prime members, you can listen early and app free on amazon download the
zalm use the cap today don't hurt again just move along with it
but I mean it's
Still it's always there now
Sound sis ii is now thirty. Nine years old,
He says he's ever been quite the same since he woke up from that sleep over Michael's at the age of fifteen and
himself in the middle of a murder investigation.
He says he was questioned by police repeatedly for hours at a time
I tell him something
Would be like? No, that's not what happened. This is what happened.
I remember telling my so that keeps hen
suddenly nor from telling the truth anymore. But the truth Josh says is that now
paying out of the ordinary happened on that night in question?
I a normal the night.
It's been very good.
About that video tapes statement where Josh told police eddie woke up in them.
of the night and michael: wasn't there,
no
it wasn't anywhere else in that better. I don't remember ever saying that, and I feel like if I said that, then that was that'd be at a weak point or something Michael's attorney
They say they ve seen this all too often in interrogations. What we see in dry.
his interrogation is the result of hours and hours of interrogation and every other time. He has never ever said that that was what happened in a deposition right before Michael went on trial. Josh said that he never sat up from where he was sleeping on the floor, and that is not that I did not
see I'm in is bad. It's I couldn't see him in his bed. There's no way I can see river, that's on top of the bed to. Why did Josh take that immunity deal
I just wanted it because I knew there was gonna china pin it on me or Bernie
was like well. If they give me immunity, then maybe I don't have anything to worry about. You know. Michael's lawyers said the prosecution was likely trying to get Josh to flip on Michael and the fact they didn't
even put josh on the stand, says it all. They didn't colin because it wasn't going to go well for them. He had nothing helpful to say for the state. Why didn't the defense called Josh? That's a great question erin and there's a lot of great questions about what the defense didn't do and who they didn't. Call Michael's trial attorney was a public defender back then in a court affidavit. He admits that Michael's case was the first homicide case that he had tried on his own and that today he was.
Handle his representation of michael differently. Michael's new legal team was committed to getting him out of prison. They filed court document suggesting an alternative, suspect, Michael's, father, edward
Colleagues, I believe he is responsible for what happened one, if that's true, that means Michael's own father,
stood by and let his son take the fall for murder that he was behind,
I go sisters say their father was furious over the financial terms of the divorce. A judge have finalize them just bored
as before the murder she got half of his retirement.
and maintenance child support.
ex alimony in the one.
Thing. I remember about growing up with our
Is you don't mess with his money? Is don't do it
He had out versed in the court
so you'll never live to see a diamond that money police did interview, edward believe after the murder he had an alibi. He was home more than eighty miles away at the time of the murder, but Michael's defend seem says, invested.
haters didn't look hard enough. They didn't at all investigate the possibility that perhaps I did this with someone else and Michael says he believes his dad did arranged the murder and how
To help our John tomorrow mama johnny is johnny poorly edwards, cousin Michael's legal team identify witnesses.
who plays johnny near the crime scene on the morning of the murder, justice first responders were arriving.
Twelve I'd heard firing Emma
some were coming up. The road or nom approaches, railroad tracks, Johnny boy.
Walkin emerald branch. Larry Lee is one of those witnesses.
He's known johnny four years as he's a walking up to my truck.
He asked me if I argued Rita you should from my heel.
No one knew what about a week later: Larry's wife, carol
and says johnny came to their door and it was like
it's a clock in the morning. He said I need no
You know about readers, death men
we are doing our own investigation and we
You were up at the store talking about it and I said johnny,
I don't know nothing now we need,
What do you know? He said, and I said you know I think it's time for you to go where you scared. I was a little bit tat. The two of you talk to investigators about this.
No, we think back now aim we wish we would have
If he had, I knew anything either memorial, but you know.
another man places. Johnny police trot near the same spot. That Larry lay says,
ran into Johnny. On the morning of the murder and an affidavit filed by Michael's team, the man says he saw the truck justice emerged
see. Vehicles were coming down. The road former investigate.
Tell me now says she doesn't remember hearing the johnny believe habit.
Seen that morning, but she does recalls something that happened in the days after the murder. Once a crime scene have been released
Somebody came in to the sheriffs department and said that they had found
a tire on earth tar tool or something in the closet whose closet, Michael's closet police records, show the person you ve found that tired tool was johnny police. Could you
miss down in your first search. No, are you absolutely I'm positive? I did not miss tat if it wasn't there when you search. What does that mean that somebody placed at their tammy went and retrieve the tired tool for Michael's closet? It was later ruled
out as the murder weapon he will leave that tire iron was put in your closet to set you up. How do johnny and ever believe didn't respond to our request for an interview neither has been charged in that case. It's been years since Michael and his sisters have spoken to their father, but they say they did ask him whether he had anything to do with their mothers murder and
he denied it. It's not our our job and it's not our focus to say who who did commit this crime, but what we do know is it was not Michael polly and while Michael's lawyers were true
to prove that pays pace would take a turn in the world and the result as they were gone.
Taken in depth, look at the case of forty eight hours, dot com, it's hard, it's real hot,
here in misery to get these convictions overturned, it's a battle.
I don't know. Michael's legal team was shut down by appeals courts at every turn. It is a constant fight with,
and you don't goliath, really is what it feels like. Despite the let downs, Michael and his sisters kept up hope that one day he would be free and in twenty twenty one there was an unexpected development, a bill passed in Missouri, giving you
in all offenders convicted of serious crimes. A second chance he Amelia brought her michael, went before the parole board.
ask him for his release or moldova, not all missus wadman.
And this is: why should we I,
it worked on employment policy
Twenty twenty two million
and crystal brought friends and family. We went in with any change of close to them.
Jefferson city correctional centre? It was a really great day,
the dream come true, really on that day,
Michael pole, leader, walked out of prison incursion
just fourteen years old, who is now thirty eight, my lord let alone and see all the laws on ice,
myself wondering what we like me out here and at this moment and had finally comes bruises, is us
yeah, I'm free michael says he felt his manners were present when a bird flew by overhead-
she's, always in my thoughts users. In my mind and everything I do.
everything that a process of days is guided by her michael left, pray.
That day, during one of the things he enjoyed most before he went at once occupied road from the border to the rural drugs
leave in the same way that I came in here right applies. It doesn't really matter
Well good, does by road,
world well, following his release. Michael moved in with it
Sister Melanie the reading room. He started getting those reminders of prison. His tattoos covered up with this new art. He also found job as a carpenter and got his drivers license. You're now out is that enough?
not enough, because the use sit right. Now you are a convicted phelan on parole. You have a criminal record that says you killed. Your mother, Michael
once the clear his name, and it just might happen because Josh hedge court, the current prosecutor in the county, where the murder took place as filed, emotion, ass, asking for Michael's conviction to be over turned to me all always comes back to the science. Hedged corinth agrees with Michael's attorneys that this
scientific evidence used to convict Michael, is problematic, so I dont believe that Michael receive a fair trial. I can't say that the prosecutor at the time knew what he was putting on was false. Adjust shouldn't have been presented. Could you re try Michael paulie
for the murder of his mother, based on the evidence you have today and the evidence I have today. I dont believe I would file this case, but while the local prosecutor believes Michael's, conviction should be thrown out, another pet
like official Missouri attorney general Eric Schmidt, is fighting it and every
duration misery, the attorney general fights that, because they say we have to respect honour and protect the verdict of these jurors. Will that goes out the window when the jurors themselves want this verdict overturned in sworn affidavits five years have questioned whether michael got a fair trial
including Jonathan, pieterzen and Linda dickerson, bow, I do not believe
that Michael polyte killed his mother, but I dont know how to fix it.
The attorney general's office didn't reply to our request for comment, but in a court filing they say that Michael cannot meet the standard for actual innocence, and the age has argued that the evidence against johnny and edward polyte would have been in a miserable a trial. Michael hopes that a judge will here
the case and decide to overturn his conviction, but in the meantime, prosecutor josh hedge court, as revealed to us that the local sheriffs department has reopened the investigation.
Into readers murder. We want to do the right thing if someone else
this we want to know that, even if its new evidence that it was Michael, neither hedge,
fourth, nor the local sheriff would comment on the specifics of the investigation, including whether Johnny
lead or edward police are persons of interests,
about four vernon, his family, everything you have to go through. Bernie lost his whole child,
Josh son, says, hasn't seen Michael police, since they were kids, but they hoped
one day reunite the needed-
sleep over and its aftermath has haunted josh
all these years.
What would you say to him? I'm sorry,
and he didn't do anything wrong.
Inventory signatory, not far from where the murder took place. Readers truck has said
all these years. It's gone and jars
Some are, I remember her family says they have.
Onto it, because it's one of the only things they have left her. That's our strong support
as long they help to fix it up and get it right.
Again we're on justice for
I believe that one day we're going justice worried
the
she just close it on they forced themselves in with nuts.
They take her by force a hooded me as soon as I went into the van a deputy chases them down. I opened the rear door of the van scared to jump back and I shut the door.
Hours saturday, on CBS and streaming on paramount plus
hey Brian
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Transcript generated on 2023-07-13.