Morbid - Episode 421: The Torture & Murder of Cordell Richards
Episode Date: January 23, 2023On March 4th, 1999 the body of Cordell Richards was found in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The man had been absolutely brutalized. He was tied to a tree, beaten, burned, and had his throat cut.... The medical examiner notices something strange though; he found maggots present at the scene but some of them had been charred. This meant that the man had likely been burned after his body had already begun decomposing. Why would the killer(s) come back after the fact? And better yet, who had done this to the 31 year old father of two?Thank you to the lovely David White for research assistance! References:Associated Press. 1999. "Teens charged with veteran's death." Lakeland Ledger, March 19.—. 2000. "Teen emotional as lawyer describes scene of slaying." Ocala Star-Banner, February 16.—. 2000. "Video shows suspects returning cleaver." Ocala Star-Banner, March 18.—. 2002. "Court reverses death sentence." Sarasota Herald Tribune, November 8: 7B.—. 2000. "Girl, 17, convicted in killing." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, February 18: W6.Gainsville Sun. 1999. "Accessory to murder charges are dropped." Gainsville Sun, September 23: 1.—. 2000. "Son of minister gets death sentence." Gainsville Sun, May 17.Hawkins, Erik. 2020. Florida Teen Trio Torture, Bludgeon And Immolate Man Chained To A Tree. February 27. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.oxygen.com/killer-couples/crime-news/kristel-maestas-ronald-bell-murder-cordell-richards-torture#:~:text=When%20Fort%20Walton%2C%20Florida%2C%20police,with%20his%20wrists%20also%20bound.Kristel Rose Maestas v. State of Florida. 2021. 1D19-1767 (First District Court of Appeal, State of Florida, April 20).2003. New Detectives: Case Studies in Forensic Science. Directed by Bertrand Morin. Produced by New Dominion Pictures. Performed by New Dominion Pictures.Ronald Lee Bell, Jr. v. State of Florida. 2002. SC00-1185 (Supreme Court of Florida, November 7).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondries Podcast American Scandal.
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Hi babe, I'm Ash.
I'm Alina.
And this is Dark Satted. It's morbid. We can't get enough of a babe on TikTok.
Babe, I think about it every night.
It's so good.
It really is.
It's so good if you're listening.
We love you if you can't tell.
We love you so much.
Come on the show.
Let's talk about sinister shit on the show.
Yeah.
We were going to talk about some sinister shit.
I would have Bide on the show. The absolute fuckin' talk about some scene of shit. I would have died on the show. The apps of fucking
talk about something sinister. Man, I'll first it by what we're
gonna get her. I'm gonna go get her. Everybody's like, what the
fuck are you talking about? If you didn't listen to our last
episode, which was a crazy fucking tale. Truth.
A survivor tale.
We were talking about this Instagram,
not Elena and I, I have to give credit
where credits do Elena found it.
And now it's just become an integral part of our lives.
It is, and it's called
at Sinister Pond Babe.
And she's hilarious.
And I just, I gotta give, I gotta give credit
when somebody makes me laugh and
brightens my day.
Yeah, I want them to blow up.
They're not in like a bad way.
No, like a good way.
I want her to get a billion followers and get paid.
You want her to get what the kids call clout.
There you go, clout.
I just want her, I hope she's getting paid.
Because she's doing a service.
Get that back.
It's like Mama Todd.
I'm like, I hope she's getting paid
because she makes my day better.
I hope Mama Todd is getting all,
I'm the bound to gifts that the earth has to offer.
Truly, truly.
All right, well, that was all very wholesome.
And happy, babe.
And this is Santa Sturbide.
Oh no, it's dark side.
It's really dark side.
This is honestly, this is a tough one.
So I think we should just get rid of it. Oh, I't know if it's there. You know, you should get right into this though. So I haven't out of that.
I don't know this one. Oh, you don't. So I know the name. I've heard the name. I just have not heard details about this.
It was actually pretty requested in our inbox. Really? Yeah, I would shout everybody out,
but there was a lot of you that wanted this story. Shout out to all of you. Shout out to anyone who suggested this. So, this story takes place in
how Alina and Kevin from TikTok would say, the 90s. And it takes place on March 4th, 1999,
but this was more than just the 90s. The murder of Cordell Richards, which we're going to talk about
today, is truly
one of the most brutal cases I think I've personally covered. Oh, not like we have covered,
but that I've covered. Okay. So Cordell was an Okalusek County restaurant worker and father
of two, and his body was discovered on this day. Like I said, March 4, 1999, he was burned,
beaten, and found chained to a tree. Oh my God.
Yes, his remains were left in an isolated wooded area, just outside of some land that was
going to be soon turned into houses.
I think there was a couple houses on the plot, but it was like a newly built neighborhood.
Okay.
Quartelle's body was discovered by a 12-year-old boy.
Oh, just playing in that wooded area in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.
And when he found the body, he immediately ran home
to tell his parents what he had seen.
They immediately contacted the Sheriff's Department
and the police headed out their ASAP.
So they found the remains actually partially skeletonized,
intensely charred, and again, like I said,
bound to the tree by a very heavy chain.
Now, upon closer inspection, there was a thick cord tied around the victim's wrists,
which were behind his back, and there was duct tape covering the remains of his mouth.
The county medical examiner at the time, Dr. Michael Berkland, was obviously called to the scene as soon as possible.
At first, he wasn't even able to identify the gender
of the victim. He had because he was so beyond any recognition whatsoever. That's awful.
Couldn't even determine a cause of death other than, of course, the body had been lit on fire.
Now, the body was not only burned past the point of recognition, but also significantly decomposed.
The body had been out in the elements for quite some time.
There was actually barely even flesh on the bones anymore,
and there were no organs left to be tested.
Geez.
I actually didn't realize how quickly organs decomposed.
So when I first read that, I was just like,
oh, so there's no healthy organs to test,
but then I looked it up,
because I was like, were there no organs left at all?
Or just none to test?
Wait a second.
So.
And I knew you would love this.
According to a BBC Future article, quote,
soon after the heart stops beating,
cells become deprived of oxygen
and their acidity increases as the toxic byproducts
of chemical reactions begin to accumulate inside of them.
And so I'm start to digest cell membranes and then leak out as the cells break down.
This usually begins in the liver, which is rich in enzymes, and in the brain, which has
a high water content.
So those are the first to go.
Hmm.
Eventually, though, all other tissues and organs begin to break down in this way.
Cell death.
I didn't realize how quickly it happened.
Yeah, that's why.
But they just are gone.
That your heart is keeping everything going.
It's so freaky when you really start to think about it.
I know.
It's a delicate process.
Seriously.
So the first observation that Dr.
Brooklyn was able to make made me
feel like I was reading the butcher and run all over again.
The part where Ren explains the presence of blowflies.
As I was reading this, I was like,
the butcher on the run.
Yeah.
So Dr. Brooklyn was able to determine
that the body had been left chain to this tree
for at least two weeks
because he found the presence of maggots.
However, there was something strange
about the presence of these maggots.
Some of them were also charred.
Not all of them, some of them.
So excuse me, this told him that whoever had left this body in the woods had come back
at least two weeks later than to burn it.
Wow.
So now it was time to bring the body back to his office to carry out a full blown examination,
but it would be quite the feat to do so because of the advanced state of decomposition
and also the fact that the remains were so considerably damaged already,
the crime scene technician and Dr. Brooklyn had to be super careful with these remains,
and they had to keep them in the same exact position that they were found while they were transporting.
Wow.
Which I can't imagine the pressure.
Wow.
Because they didn't want to disturb any potential evidence, so this is the way they had to do it. Wow. Because they didn't want to disturb any potential evidence. So they just, this is the way they had to do it. Yeah. Now, once the remains were carefully transported,
the examination started. Dr. Brooklyn found that the victim had suffered multiple skull fractures,
evidence of blunt force trauma to the shoulder blade, sternum, and ribs, and also what appeared
to be defensive injuries on the hands and arms. And he also noticed what he explained as a quote,
probable chop injury to the left neck.
Ooh, yeah.
So the victim was believed to be a man in his early to mid-30s,
and Dr. Brooklyn believed that he had been killed about one month earlier,
meaning that he would have been dumped in the woods close to February 4th of that year.
Now, because of the circumstances,
a precise cause of death really couldn't be determined.
Because there was just so much going on here.
But Dr. Brooklyn concluded that quote,
the manner of death was homicidal violence
with combined features of one forced trauma to the head,
body and upper extremities,
and a probable chop injury to that left neck.
She's, and he believed that the victim was likely beaten
with some kind of club, he said.
Oh my God.
Now what was stumping him though was the charred maggots.
The body had been discovered, like I said,
with bindings on the wrists and tape covering the mouth.
So the man was presumably alive
when he was transported
to this area and then killed, most likely after being chained to that tree and beaten.
So why did the killer or the killers come back two weeks later and further destroy the remains
by burning them? What was that about? So anyways, I deem this man was incredibly difficult at first,
but then the doctor noticed and I thought this was crazy.
The only reason why Cordell was ever able to be I de-ed is because of there was enough soft tissue on the right thumb to get a partial fingerprint.
What?
Isn't that nuts?
My God, forensic science, man.
Forensic science is crazy.
Unbelievable. It really is.
So the doctor got that partial fingerprint
and handed it over to detectives,
and he was like, do what you can.
Now back in the woods, investigators
were combing through this scene.
They sifted actually through a significant amount
of evidence.
There were empty cans.
There was a roll of duct tape that matched the one
that had been used to cover the victim's mouth, various clothing items that seemed to belong to the victim, and there were
tire impressions that were left in the dirt at the side of the road near the site.
Automatically, we're going to get excited about that.
But unfortunately, none of these things would give them any evidence that they hoped they
would have.
Oh, come on.
Nothing.
So, but nonetheless, obviously, they went back to the station
and they start sifting through all the missing persons
reports they could find from early to mid-February.
Yeah.
And they're able to narrow down their search
based on Dr. Brooklyn's approximation of the age
and the confirmation of the sex.
And their pool was pretty small at that point.
And the most likely victim they believed
was 31-year-old Cordell Richards.
Cordell was a military veteran.
He had served in the US Air Force for almost 10 years
from 1985 to 1994.
He'd been recently divorced and had two young daughters
at the time.
And at the time of his death,
he was living in an apartment in Fort Walton, Florida
and working at a local eye hop.
He'd been actually reported missing by his friend Martin Stone.
Martin realized on February 13th that he hadn't heard from Cordell in over a week.
He called him on the phone, he emailed him a couple times.
He actually even made several trips to his apartment during that week,
but just couldn't get in touch with his friend.
So Martin actually went to the eye hop and checked in with some of the co-workers.
He was like, have you seen Cordell at all?
They're like, we actually haven't seen him since the beginning of the month.
And that was super, super, super out of character for him.
He was a very reliable employee.
So after doing everything he possibly could to locate his friend, Martin went to the
police and asked them to do a welfare check.
So the welfare check was conducted that same afternoon, actually, by officers Josh Duma,
I hope I'm saying that right, and Mike Nichols.
They pounded on the doors, they pounded on the windows, but they got zero response.
Officer Nichols noticed that there was one window, though, that was slightly open,
and he was able to push it
completely open and crawl through it. And once he was in, he looked around to find to find himself
what seemed to be in a storage room like inside of the apartment. So then he located the front door
and was able to let the other officer in as well as Martin and Sergeant Brune who had shown up just
behind them. So they searched room by room by room by room, called out for Cordell, called out for anybody,
but got zero response.
And then they finally reached a bedroom door.
And it seemed to be locked with a dead bowl, and there was a towel stuffed under the crack
between the door and the floor.
Hmm, sketchy.
Yeah, I would say so.
Just a little bit.
A little bit. So they knock on that door and announce themselves.
And finally, the door opens.
But it was not opened by Cordell.
Instead, 17-year-old Ronald Bell answered the door
and identified himself.
And then identified his girlfriend,
fellow 17-year-old Crystal Mastos.
17 years old.
Both of them 17 years old.
She appeared to be just waking up from a nap.
She was wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the floor just sleeping. Oh, okay. Just snoozing. Yeah,
just snoozing. Now they explained that they had actually been subletting the room from Cordell.
Crystal had been living there a couple of months now because she had been kicked out by her parents.
Ronald didn't live there, he said. And he claimed he actually really didn't know much of anything about Cordell, and Crystal told the officers that she hadn't seen Cordell in the past week.
She said the last time she saw him, he had gotten some court papers and left in a hurry without
saying anything to her. Interesting. So soon it would be confirmed, excuse me, that the body
discovered in the woods was Cordell Richards.
Because he was a member of the Air Force, his fingerprints were on fire and were a match for
that partial thumbprint taken by the medical examiner. What luck. Like, that's in my opinion,
like a one in a million. Yeah, that really is. Now, so now that they had a positive ID, it was
time for the investigators to really start ramping up here. Who killed this guy and why did they do so?
Yeah.
By all accounts, that's the thing.
Cordell was really well liked.
He was really hardworking.
He really seemed to have few if any enemies.
All of his co-workers at IHOP told the investigators that he was, quote, good natured and popular.
He had a house cleaner who insisted, quote, he would have done anything for anybody in
the world.
Even his ex-wife had only good things to say about him.
She told the investigators that he was a, quote,
reliable hard worker and a good dad.
Oh, that's really sad.
It is. I forgot he was a father.
To two young daughters.
Oh.
The only thing she could think of that was going
slightly poorly in his life was that he was having
some money problems, she said. But that was really the only thing she could think of that was going slightly poorly in his life was that he was having
some money problems, she said. But that was really the only thing she could think of.
And as the detectives dug deeper into Cordell's life, all their findings seem to confirm what they
had been told that he was a good guy. They didn't hear from one person at this point that he was a
shitty person. And that's rare. Like you're going to find someone who's like, um, actually, if I'm being honest, like, yeah, and in the ex-wife, for the ex-wife to say,
I got nothing bad to say about him. Like he's a good dad, he's a hard worker. Yeah.
The only thing I can think of is he's got money problems right now. And she didn't,
didn't even make it seem like they were like major. Yeah. She was like, she was just like, that could be something. Right.
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They also found out that he spent a lot of time caring for his elderly grandparents who
weren't doing so well around the time of his death.
They were pretty much getting by his grandparents due to his physical and financial aid.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
Now, the comment about his money problems led the detectives to believe that maybe it was
some kind of factor in his death.
So they went down that avenue a bit longer, but they eventually ruled it out because it
turned out the money issues really weren't that serious. Oh, okay. He was just kind of trying to make ends meet. Yeah, it just
wasn't like great. Yeah, exactly. So next they turned to the area where Cordell had been discovered.
They canvassed a neighborhood that was adjacent to the scene and were able actually to connect
with a couple that gave them a pretty strong lead. Oh boy. Donald and Robin Burden lived in a cul-de-sac
in that housing subdivision,
where Courtauld was, behind where Courtauld was found.
Okay.
And the two of them told detectives
that in early February, they had been out for a walk.
They always went out for a walk daily.
And they said this day, they saw three young people in a car.
They'd never seen those young people
and they'd actually never even seen that car.
So it kind of made alarm bells go off. When it's that kind of neighborhood, people notice things.
On a cold-assack neighborhood, we always be knowing. We always know. A dead end street, we always
be knowing. Everyone is looking at the cars going through a cold-assack. And if we don't recognize them, we say, it's dark saddened. It's dark saddened.
Oh, damn it.
Oh, damn it.
Oh, damn it.
It's dark saddened.
It's dark saddened.
It's dark saddened.
It's getting sinister by.
This car actually was kind of dark saddened.
It's given sinister by.
It truly was by.
They described the car as being a small brown or tan hatchback.
And they said the rear right window appeared to be broken
and covered by some kind of
board. Donald, the man, said that he believed the car's occupants were a young black male,
a young white female, and another person in the backseat that he believed was a white male,
but he wasn't completely sure about that one. So the detectives thanked the couple for their
information, but because they had no leads or suspects, all they could do really was go back to the apartment with a search warrant,
and then that was when they carried out a search of the home.
Now, according to a forensic specialist, the apartment was unusually sparse, but, quote,
there were some items left behind that the average person wouldn't leave behind.
And one of those items was Cordell's bicycle. It was really weird that it would be found at
the apartment
because he didn't drive and he used that bicycle
to get around everywhere.
So that's a big red flag to me.
That's huge because the fact that it was left behind
led detectives to wonder if he'd been forcibly removed
from his apartment.
Because if that's how he got around, exactly.
So because this was now a suspicion the detectives had the apartment sprayed with lumenol.
When they did so, they found evidence of blood spatter in the living room.
And among the blood spatter were various bloody fingerprints and a bloody handprint.
Oh, yeah.
And they did testing on the spatter patterns to determine what kind of attack would have created
such a pattern, and it was consistent
with blunt force trauma to the head.
Oh, God.
Just like the medical examiner, Dr. Berkel
and had noted on the autopsy.
Yeah.
This guy was spot on with his autopsy.
Hell yeah, medical examiner.
And to be that spot on with a body in that condition,
that's just a lot about this medical examiner.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's the thing. Practice, you know? I mean, the fact that they could only get fingerprints in that condition. That's just a lot about this medical exam. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
That's the thing.
Practice, you know?
I mean, the fact that they could only get fingerprints off
of like the tiniest bit of soft tissue on a thumb.
Right.
A partial print and he was able to get that
and then able to tell all this stuff.
Right.
Like, we let, like, Shemla.
Just kiss, doing your job, bringing justice to someone.
Like, that's all we ask for.
Like, we out here.
That's all we want. That's all we want.
That's all we need.
So while technicians were busy processing the evidence over at the
apartment, the detectives were working on interviews with
Cornell's housemate, Crystal and her boyfriend, Ronald.
Oh boy.
Crystal told the detectives that she had been dating Ronald for the
last few months and that they were very much in love.
17 year olds.
You know how it be very much in love.
Now she explained that about a month prior she'd had been kicked out of her
parents home and Ronald was the one to help her find the sub lease at
Quartelle's apartment.
He had seen an ad Quartelle put in the paper about looking for a housemate and
the rest was history.
So the detectives asked how the living situation had gone.
And Crystal said at first it was fine, but then Cordell's behavior toward her started making her feel uncomfortable.
And it was inappropriate, she said, in a number of ways.
For one thing, she was 17 years old and he was 31, so if he was making advances, that was very inappropriate.
Absolutely.
And for another thing, according to her, she was not interested whatsoever.
She alleged that he made inappropriate comments toward her
and sometimes would come into her room
wearing quote, only bikini underwear allegedly just to talk.
Okay, we don't know if this is true or not.
This is what Chris was saying.
I would really take it with a grain of salt
because everybody else in this man's life,
coworkers, house cleaner,
like people that really are barely even connected to him
or completely connected to him,
all agree that he's a great person.
Yeah, so this is interesting.
And I'm assuming this person that's talking
is not the most credible of humans.
I wouldn't call them trustworthy.
I'm just like guessing out how the end of this goes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So she said at first he would leave when she told him
that she wasn't interested, but there was one occasion
recently where she said he grabbed her, pushed her
against the wall, and hit her head, and her head had
hit the wall behind her with like the force of the attack.
I guess you could say.
Yeah.
That would be fucked up.
That would be super fucked up.
And you know, we weren't there.
We don't know.
Does it justify murder?
No.
No, absolutely not.
I don't think much many things do.
Nope.
So she said this was the second time, though,
that Cordell had become physical with her.
And in another room,
Crystal's boyfriend Ronald told the detectives
that he actually had only just learned
about the altercations between Crystal and Cordell.
And it was because he saw bruising on Crystal's back
from the last altercation.
He said he asked her about it,
and she told him everything.
And after he learned what happened,
he bought her that dead bolt for her door
and told her that she should have a friend sleepover
more often to make her feel safe,
like on nights that he couldn't be there.
Yeah.
And that friend would end up being Renee Lynx.
Now, as the two were explaining their stories to detectives,
the detectives were all thinking amongst themselves that something about this
story just didn't seem right. They said to them,
Crystal and Ronald both seemed to be being disingenuous.
They were already pretty skeptical of this couple when they found out that
Ronald's car had a close resemblance to the one that Donald and Robin had told them about, a couple
from earlier.
And that was right about the time of the disposal of the body, remember.
So they've been able to do a search of Ronald's car after getting a warrant for it, but it
actually didn't turn up much of anything.
But detectives weren't ready to give up on this lead yet, and that was smart.
Questioning staff and fellow classmates
at their high school, where they were both students,
would prove to be more than productive.
It turned out, Ronald had been absent from school
from February 2nd to February 5th.
Ooh.
And a classmate told detectives that Ronald had asked him
to borrow his truck within that same time frame.
A separate student said that in early to mid February,
Ronald and Crystal asked him for help getting into a computer
that they didn't have the password to.
Huh.
And he said that when he went to Crystal's apartment,
which he knew belonged to a man named Cordell,
he said that after he attempted to get into the computer, Crystal and Ronald had driven
him home and along the way they threw out multiple trash bags full of stuff from the apartment.
Yeah.
I always wonder in these situations, high school students.
No one's questioning.
No, none of you.
Like, even when I was 17 years old,
and if I got a ride home from somebody
that was throwing trash back to the window,
I'd be like, hey, what are you doing?
I'd ask.
Just throw it out there.
Always ask.
Or I don't know, observe.
If you see what's happening there.
If you don't feel safe asking what's going on.
Yeah, just observe.
Write that down somewhere.
Just go, just tell your mom, tell your dad, tell your adult.
I don't know.
Like even then, even then in now, when I drive by a trash bag
on the side of the road, I'm like,
well, is that a body?
Does that body part?
I'm like, I always wonder.
So I feel like it's like that would be on my mind.
I don't care if it's trash bags.
It'll be like, what are you throwing out this?
What's happening?
But so the detectives tried to search the dumpster, excuse me,
in those areas, but the trash from that period was long gone
at that point, because remember,
it's been a month and a half point.
So it's like in a landfills.
Yeah.
But they were not far from their big break in the case.
Yes.
On March 17th, somebody placed an anonymous call
to the Emerald Coast Crime Stoppers hotline
and said that they actually had information
about the murder of Quartelle Richards. The caller was very nervous and frightened about any repercussions that would
be involved if they did give information, and they said that they would only come forward with
their information if they were allowed to remain anonymous throughout the process. This person
was granted that on anonymity, and then he told the detectives that around early February, a friend of his
Renee Lynx, remember her name, she was the friend that slept over, told him that she and her friends
Crystal and Ronald were planning to kill Crystal's roommate Cordell because he made advances toward
Crystal. I just came right out and said it. Okay. Mm-hmm. It turns out that Renee
Lynx had been interviewed prior to this tip actually in the presence of her mother
because she was a minor. Both women, the mom and Renee, denied knowing anything about
Cordell's murder. But luckily, the evidence police had already taken in was plenty to
arrest all three teens at this point. Ronald Bell, Crystal Mastas, both 17 years old, and Renee Lynx.
On March 18th, police officers arrested that 17-year-old couple at their high school,
and Renee Lynx was arrested at a local animal shelter, where she was doing community service
for a previous parole violation.
Wow.
Now, when Renee was able to speak with her mother, her mom was able to break down
how serious the situation was and she was like, you need to make a plea deal because her
yeah deep here. Renee was 15 years old at the time of Cornell's murder. 15? 15. Holy shit. But
she was able to make that plea deal. Wow.
She would be able to plead guilty to manslaughter instead of murder if she confessed to helping
Crystal and Ronald and explain what the whole story was.
So, she told the detectives that she had met Ronald earlier that year, and that she had
been spending more and more time with him and Crystal as of late.
At the time, she wasn't getting along with her mom, and so she kind of moved in with crystal and cordelle at one point. She too said that
cordelle had made comments to her that made her feel uncomfortable. For some reason, as she said,
that he was under the impression that she and crystal were in some kind of relationship,
and he suggested that they should all sleep together. She said, okay. She said that she was made so
uncomfortable by this, actually, that she. She said that she was made so uncomfortable
by this actually, that she, the first night
that she was there after he made this comment,
she ended up leaving and spending the night somewhere else.
Okay.
Now the next night was February 2nd,
and Renee went back to the apartment
because Cordell was planning to be out
pretty much all night and she knew that.
So Ronald came over to hang out with the two girls,
and Renee alleged that he was the one over to hang out with the two girls and Renee alleged
that he was the one to bring up the idea of, quote, beating up or killing Cordell Richards.
Those are two very different things. Yeah, both very wrong and both two completely different things.
But he said he was pissed off about the advances that he'd made to Crystal and he needed to learn a
lesson. So Renee said at first she didn't think that Ronald was serious and she especially didn't think
that Crystal was gonna go along with this,
but she was wrong.
Jesus.
Crystal agreed and added on to this
that if they were to kill this man,
they could stand the apartment for the rest of the month
because the rent had already been paid.
Oh my God.
And if they needed extra money,
they could just sell off some of his stuff, she said,
Oh, okay, this kind of like this to me,
there's a different mode of here.
Totally.
Like that's a lot of thinking, that's a lot of planning.
Y'all, that's not just, I'm angry because you did something
that made me feel uncomfortable.
So I'm gonna go off in a rage and like a crime of passion kind of thing.
Obviously this wasn't a crime of passion anyways
because of the prolonged torture of it all.
Exactly.
But even if something like that had happened
and like they were pissed and all that,
like this doesn't make sense.
No.
That you would come up with, oh, you know what?
Yeah, I'm really pissed that this happened.
So we should kill him because I'm so mad about
it, and I'm so uncomfortable here.
But you know what's cool is we can stay in this apartment for the rest of a month, and
if we need extra money, we can just sell off his stuff.
Like all of that doesn't just come together in a moment.
No, I'm sorry.
That's not your thing.
If you're really sitting there going, something's wrong here, we need to get rid of him, which
is a wild way of thinking anyways.
It's like just get a fucking different apartment.
You're also not going to be thinking of like other things that you can do to make this better.
You're just thinking of the one focused we need to rid ourselves of him.
Hundred percent.
I mean, we will not know because obviously nobody was there except for the people that
are involved here.
But like, to me, this is, it's not Seaman.
Seaman, right.
The math's not math.
Yeah, the math is not math, thank you.
No, not at all.
But Renee said she knew for sure
that they were really going to do it
when the couple went to Walmart
and came back to the apartment with a rope, a chain,
and a lock, which they said would be used
when they killed Cordell.
My God.
Mm-hmm.
Now, Renée told detectives that that same evening, Ronald called his friend Calvin Smith
and asked if he could be of assistance in the murder, but Smith told him that he couldn't
sneak out that night, so he wasn't going to be able to do that.
So then they called Renée's friend Demetrius, and she had actually stayed at his house
she said the night before, when she had been made uncomfortable.
His answer was along the lines of quote, he might help beat someone up but not kill them.
Oh, okay.
I was like, well, everybody's gone either way.
He said that if he changed his mind, maybe he would page them.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
This is so callous and so like if I change my mind about helping you murder that man,
I'll shoot you a beep.
Boy, like what?
You never ended up beeping them that night or paging them.
Wild.
So since they couldn't find anybody to help,
they said they gave up on their plan for that night.
It just, it wasn't really panning out, you know?
Not for tonight, you know.
So Ronald headed home, but told the girls to page him
if anything went down. The 90s.
Oh, he.
Renee said that something did happen after he left.
I guess the two or she says, but the two girls got a call from somebody
who identified themselves as Heather and said that they were Cordell's girlfriend.
The woman said that she, oh, yeah, I was just going to tell you that all over again,
but one more time.
I was just rereading my same line.
But then she told the two girls that they should kiss each other.
They said they then realized that the caller was actually Cordell
calling from the next room.
Like, I don't know.
OK.
So one of them went to confront him.
Something went poorly and they ended up
backing Crystal's room and they had locked themselves in.
They paid Tronald and he showed up soon after that.
And as soon as he heard what
was happening, he went into the living room to confront Cordell. And as they were arguing, Cordell
started to move toward the front door. They said, like, almost like he was just going to like dip
because he was like, what the fuck? Yeah. That was when Ronald grabbed him, shoved him, and got him
into a headlock. And as Ronald was holding Cordell, he told Crystal to go get the baseball bat
that he had brought to the apartment that night.
Oh boy.
That's the other thing.
It's like, this is a, this is very planned,
very prepared for.
Very we know what we're gonna do.
Exactly.
You don't bring a baseball bat somewhere,
thinking you're not gonna kill someone.
I'm sorry.
You hit someone with a baseball bat,
that's attempted murder.
That's exactly what that is.
Like this, the math is not mathing.
Not at all.
So she was the one to hit him first,
tickward L first.
As Ronald was holding him in a headlock,
it doesn't shock me.
Crystal started hitting him in the legs.
She said, Renee said weekly at first,
but then eventually she hit him in the temple area
of his head.
My God.
That hit knocked off his glasses and split his skin up near his temple, at which point he
obviously started bleeding.
She said, Renee said as she watched, she saw the man lose consciousness from the beating
and the intensity of the headlock.
And once he lost consciousness, she said all three of them,
so she was very much a participant in this,
tied him up with ropes and wrapped him in a blanket.
He's not dead at this point.
They then placed him into the back of Ronald's car
and drove to that wooded area behind
that cold assack in Fort Walton.
Now, after they dragged his unconscious body into the woods,
Renee said it was actually crystal
that suggests they kill him by lighting him on fire.
That's how she wanted to kill him.
Crystal?
Crystal suggested that they light him on fire
as a means of murdering him.
Crystal needs to be and by forever.
Like you like throw it away.
Like that's a, that's diabolical.
Like that is real cold, cold.
I wanna watch someone suffer kind of shit.
And your brain, like I know people
who have been abused before
or like been in horrible situations
and I've never heard any of them say
that they wanna light their abuser on fire.
Well, that's the thing and it's like,
and if somebody says that, that's one thing,
like I wanna light this person on fire, you know?
And totally, like, I'm sure somebody has said
that like hyper-ballically, but just be standing there
with the action actually able to be carried out
and be like, let's go.
Let's light this man on fire while he's still alive.
It's like, whoa.
Like pump the fucking right.
And at this point, again, they've already purchased a fucking chain.
Like, he brought a baseball bat, they got a lock for the chain.
Like, yeah, that's the thing.
If this was a, let's beat him up and teach him a lesson kind of thing,
you wouldn't buy a chain for that.
Well, and it would have already been over.
Exactly.
It would have been over.
There wouldn't be a second location.
No.
There wouldn't be a let's light them on fire while he's alive
There wouldn't be a let's tie him up and bring him somewhere else. There wouldn't be a bat involved
There wouldn't have been any of that. You would have beat him up with your fists
You would have left and never come back exactly. This was something very different the intention was very different
This was fulfilling a different void mm Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, she said, Renee, that they used the can of cigarette lighter fluid that Ronald had
in his car.
Renee said it was actually her idea to get the man to give them his ATM pin so that they could steal his cash before they lit him on fire.
Oh my god.
They removed the blanket from his head and he actually agreed to give them the number and begged them not to kill him.
Oh.
Ronald was angered by his pleading and started hitting the man again with the baseball
ball.
Oh, this is awful.
Eventually, all three of them had taken multiple swings to this man, now in the woods
after chaining him to this tree.
I don't, I don't understand this.
I don't understand if somebody getting a lesser sentency there for giving this information,
like you took swings at him.
You're a different kind of individual.
If you can look at a man tied to a tree
and hit him with a baseball hat.
While he's begging for his life,
and you sit there and say,
oh, we should get his ATM pin while we're out here,
beating the shit out of him while he's chained to a tree.
Wow.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
And I think this would have happened
regardless of any of the circumstances going on at play here,
because if you're capable of doing that,
you're capable of doing that.
No matter what the circumstances are.
Absolutely.
Oh, it's so weak.
While this was happening, Rene said that Ronald Hickordel
so hard that he ended up making a comment
that he was Baybrooth.
Oh my God, that is so beyond.
The callousness involved in this.
The callousness here.
And how nobody, none of that registered for any of them
as like what the fuck?
Like that should have.
This is a man.
Oh.
This is someone's dad.
Yeah.
Like this is somebody's son.
Wow.
After they were done hitting him,
they dragged him even further into the woods.
So I'm sorry, he actually wasn't chained up at this point.
This was elsewhere.
This was just out of the car.
Exactly.
So at this, after they had all done that,
and Ronald had his big roof moment, according to him,
they dragged him further into the woods,
and then, excuse me, chained him to that tree
where he would eventually be found.
That is awesome.
Ronald was the one to chain him up,
and Crystal was the one to, like, like, him on fire.
What the fuck?
Mm-hmm.
And then they just left and Ronald's car.
I mean, this girl, our parents kicked her out of the house.
Obviously, something is going on here.
Yeah, she was having a lot of problems before this.
So once the sun came up that morning,
they went back to the woods,
and Crystal and Ronald went back to check on the body.
Renee said that she waited in the car.
Crystal and Ronald assumed that they would find Cordell dead, but they were actually shocked
to find him still alive and faintly calling out for help.
Are you kidding me?
After being lit on fire, he was still and beaten brutally, left out in the middle of the
night, chained in the middle of nowhere, basically was still and beaten brutally, left out in the middle of the night,
chained in the middle of like nowhere, basically, still alive.
Wow. Now, when they found him like this, they were actually worried because
there was a construction crew working on a house in that cul-de-sac nearby.
So they were like, oh no, he's gonna alert the construction worker,
someone's gonna call the police and we're all going down.
Yeah. They're gonna try to save this man. How dare they? Yeah, exactly. We gotta stop that.
This is really fucked up. I mean, all of this is really fucked up and it's only gonna get more
and more grisly as we go. I don't know how that happens. Ronald actually, at this point,
attempted to break Cordell's neck, but wasn't able to. Renee said that when they got back to the car,
they immediately drove to a local store
where they purchased a large meat cleaver
for $9.99.
Oh my God.
Then they went back to the woods
and Ronald used the meat cleaver to cut Cordell's throat.
That was what the chop was, exactly.
Holy shit.
Then they drove, this is going to send you to the moon, Alice.
They drove back home to clean the meat cleaver
and then returned it to the store for a refund.
Are you fucking kidding me?
They cleaned it and returned it after cutting a man's throat with it.
Like, I have no words.
The fuck? Detectives were actually able to locate the store where Renee claimed they bought the knife.
They got surveillance. All three teens are on surveillance. Not only purchasing the knife,
but then returning it to the store for their $9.99 refund.
Oh my god.
And then they ended up being able to locate the woman who had bought the knife.
Like, imagine the police knocking on your door and being like,
Hey, did you purchase a meat cleaver recently?
Uh, it was the murder weapon in a recent brutal homicides, so we're gonna have to take
that back. And imagine if you're like, I just cooked dinner with it. Like what the fuck?
Yeah. So they were able. So not only are that like these kids are fucking demons, demons
like to go through all of this, you have to be a demon.
And then to add on to it, these different layers of like, let me just return to this.
Let me just turn it to the straw.
I want my 10 bucks.
I don't give a fuck that somebody else is going to buy it and use it to cook dinner for
their family.
And it's like, shit.
You really needed your 10 bucks after you stole that man's pin and you were going to take
all his money.
You needed your 10 bucks.
And you needed to terrorize the life of somebody else
who was gonna buy that meat cleaver.
Holy shit.
Can you fucking imagine?
No, obviously not.
But like, I think that's like just what I always say.
I need to come up with something else.
I just, I can't.
It's hard.
My brain doesn't compute that.
It's horrible.
None of this.
Holy shit.
And that woman absolutely had to have used that meat cleaver
because remember, he wasn't discovered for a month.
Yeah.
So she had that cleaver in her possession for a month.
And she bought it for her reason.
You don't buy a meat cleaver when you don't need one.
No, you buy it because you need to cook something.
So the police took the meat cleaver into evidence,
but unfortunately, they couldn't get any traces of blood
because it had probably been washed 10 times over at that. Oh my god. After Crystal, Ronald and Renee were all certain that
Cordell was dead, they went back to the apartment and Calvin Smith, but friend from earlier who
wasn't able to sneak out and help them, came over that night and helped them all forge checks
in Cordell's name and pawn off some of his belongings, including a TV and his violin.
Oh my God.
I don't know why the violin just got me.
No, it's like the glasses got me.
The glasses got me when you were knocked off.
When you said the glasses were knocked off,
I don't know what it was,
but I got a pit in my stomach.
It's just like, I don't know what it is.
It's, I think it's, you know what it is.
It's a unique part about someone.
It's a unique part about someone. And it's also, I feel like bullies it is. It's, I think it's, you know what it is. It's a unique part about someone. It's a unique part about someone,
and it's also, I feel like bullies always use glasses
with their tactics.
So knocking them off feels like a very like helpless.
It does.
And it is, it's like, oh, he has glasses.
Like he's the guy with the glasses.
And it's like, I don't know when they get knocked off,
it feels very like something's being ripped away.
I don't know what it is, but then the violin is like that's a part of his identity. It's awful.
You played the violin. You know what I mean? You're just like... And actually much of what she told detectives lined up with what Renee had already told them.
The only difference in the two-girl story, stories, excuse me, was that crystal said she was the one
to have weighed in in the car, and Ronald and Renee went back into the woods.
And that was when Ronald placed duct tape over Cornell's mouth and cut his throat.
Yeah, isn't that convenient that they both can't decide who was in the car?
Well, isn't it convenient that Renee didn't have the bit
about putting the duct tape over herself
or Crystal did, but Crystal did.
Interesting, because we didn't tell us anything about that.
So who really was out there?
Exactly.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
She told them that about a week later,
they all worried that they had left too much evidence
behind in the woods.
So she Ronald and her 14-year-old sister April all went back to the woods where Ronald
covered Cordell's body a second time with lighter fluid and set it on fire again.
So that was why when he was discovered that there were magnets, but then there were other
magnets that were charred.
Because he was set'm fired twice.
Two times.
And why are there so many kids?
A 14-year-old.
Just completely fine with this.
I'm sorry if my fucking 15-year-old friend was like,
do you want to come out and light a body on fire that we murdered?
A couple weeks ago, I wouldn't be like, yeah, sure.
Of course not.
Fuck is going on with these kids?
Like Jesus Christ.
Yeah.
Like, wow.
Someone questioned something, please.
You're like, what is happening at home?
What is happening at home?
Yeah.
What is happening?
Wow.
It's insane.
And she said that any time she or her sister,
Crystal, was nervous throughout this night,
she said, Ronald assured them it was okay and reminded them what Cordola had done to
Crystal. And because he had done whatever he she claimed he did, he deserved this.
Wow. So between all the information they got from Crystal and Renee, police were
actually also able to arrest Crystal sister April. She was charged with
accessory to murder after the fact, but the charges later ended up being dropped
because witness testimony couldn't,
against her couldn't be corroborated.
So Ronald, Crystal and Renee, however,
were all held in a juvenile detention center in Pensacola.
A judge then ruled that all three of them
would be tried as adults,
and they were all subsequently brought to the
Ogolusa County
jail to await their trials. I personally believe that they should.
100% me too. This is an adult crime. This is beyond. Yeah. So on April 1st, 1999,
a grand jury convened to hear assistant state attorney Bobby Elmworth's arguments, which were in
favor of trying all three as adults. And after two days of arguments, they all ruled in favor.
But because the Florida Supreme Court had previously ruled that anybody under the age of 16 would
not be able to be tried as an adult, Renee would have to be tried as a juvenile.
So essentially she got off with a shorter sentence on a technicality.
But it's like you were very much their girlfriend.
Absolutely. You very much participated. That's awful.
This man died not only at your friend's hands, but at yours too.
But you had every hand in it. Absolutely. Your hand was on the back.
Now, because she was offered a plea deal for her cooperation and agreement to testify against both Crystal and Ronald, she pleaded no contest to that lesser count of manslaughter,
as well as false imprisonment, and she was sentenced to the maximum at the time, which was 15 years in prison.
That's it.
15, and she was released after 12 years in 2012.
Holy shit.
So she's just out there somewhere.
Oh, yep.
Okay.
Now, Crystal went to trial in mid-February 2000
a year after the murder.
The prosecutor and the defense were
said by the media to have, quote, sharply contrasting views of her involvement in Cordell's murder.
Crystal sobbed in court while the prosecutor described the full extent of Cordell's injuries,
which had been inflicted in part by her. That would make me so angry.
Just sitting there sobbing. Cordill's like family
of friends watching her sob. I'd be like, shh, fuck up. Were you sobbing while you did it?
Nope. You said you were not. Were you sobbing while he was sobbing begging for his life?
No. Did that make you sob? No, you were swinging harder every single time.
Or is it just because you're being shamed in a public place right now for doing what you did?
The latter. Yeah. The latter. The prosecutor called her, quote, an enraged killer seeking revenge for a sexual advance. And he told the jury that although it was
Ronald Bell who set the plan in motion, Crystal had not only partook, but mocked the man as he
was dying and asked him, how does it feel? Oh, God. Like, she's a monster. Yeah. She's a
true monster. Crystal's defense attorney painted a picture of a girl who was simply caught up in a situation.
She just couldn't control.
Of course.
Calling her a crying passive bystander.
She didn't testify in her own defense, but the jury was shown a video of her interview
with detectives in which she places pretty much all of the blame on Ronald.
Renee did the same thing during her testimony.
She said that Ronald was
quote, very angry that Richard's had touched Crystal. But in his closing arguments, the prosecutor
stated that Ronald had always planned on more than just beating Cordell. He brought a rope.
He bought a chain before Cordell had even gotten home that evening. And the prosecutor ended by
saying quote, they wouldn't have chained him to a tree if they intended to let him live.
Exactly.
There was only one reason they got the meat cleaver
because Cordell Richards continued to defy the odds.
Exactly.
Now, the jury deliberated for just about three hours
before returning with a guilty verdict
for the armed kidnapping and first-degree murder
of Cordell Richards.
The DA made the decision not to seek the death penalty
and judge Thomas Remington's sentence
crystal to life and prison without the possibility of parole,
which is the mandatory sentence for first degree murder
in Florida.
So she went away.
She went away.
She went away.
Now Ronald Bell's trial was next
and that started on March 13th 2000. The prosecutor's
argument in that case was pretty much the same as in Christel's case. They argued that the
courtell was murdered, quote, as revenge for making sexual advances toward Christel. The defense
argued that it was a situation that had gotten tragically out of hand. That's always my favorite thing, is when they're like,
yeah, it's wild, it just got out of control.
And it's like, no, out of control is when you buy too many shoes
during a sale.
And in whoops, I spent the money I was supposed to use
to pay my phone bill.
Like that's out of control.
Out of control is when I finish an entire tub of Ben and Jerry's
rather than the half that I intended on eating.
Exactly.
Out of control is not brutally torturing and murdering someone.
I hate when the out of control thing.
It's like, we are not, we're supposed to be humans here.
Right.
We're supposed to be a higher species of like on this earth.
You're just equating us to a full-on jungle animal
that like has no knowledge of anything
and it just goes off of hunger.
The other thing is, okay, so this was a situation
that got out of control.
So then why did they go back multiple times?
They were out of control that entire time.
They were out of control still a week later
when they went back and burned him even further. Yeah, what sense does that mean? It doesn't mean there's a very long period of out of control.
Yeah. Huge. No. Out of control is a brief moment of being out of control.
Out of control is not like a sustained state of being for that long. Of course, it's not.
But luckily, the prosecution was able to remind the jury of how Calis Ronald Bell had been.
They showed the video of the teens returning the meat cleaver and all of the evidence that shows that this murder,
no matter what, if it was a moment out of control, which it fucking wasn't, was premeditated.
Yeah, they bought all of the things used in this murder aside from the meat cleaver,
before any of this had even gone down before
this night was even happening.
Exactly.
That's what bothers me.
They knew what they were going to do.
There was even further testimony given by Ronald's old friend, Calvin Smith.
I'm sure they're probably not friends anymore.
Ronald Smith testified that Ronald had on more than one occasion tried to get Smith
to help him to murder someone.
He said that almost is just something he wanted to do.
100 and this was an excuse.
Yeah, 100%.
He said that on those occasions, he just lied
and said that his mom wouldn't let him out
because remember we're talking about 17 year olds.
But go ahead.
Sorry, I actually can't help you murder someone tonight.
My mom's cooking Brussels sprouts for dinner
and she says I can't leave.
My mom said I can't come out with you to murder tonight. Sorry, maybe next time.
Yeah, I'll try again.
He also stated that the day after Cordell was murdered, Ronald had told him, quote, that
they had beaten the man, chained him to a tree, and tried to burn him, and finally cut
the man's throat. Jesus.
Now another friend, Thomas Baldwin, testified that he had been given that TV and the violin
and multiple other items that turned out to obviously belong to Cordell.
He didn't realize it at the time.
And he ponded them at Ronald's request just days after the man had been murdered.
Oh my God.
So on March 17, 2000, the jury found Ronald Bell Jr. guilty of one count of armed kidnapping
and first degree murder
And the penalty phase was held the next day
During this phase the jury were shown school records and jail records that showed he was a good student and a model in me
Oh good like that's gonna change my opinion of you
You chained a man to a tree and burned him alive and then went back and cut his throat open, and then went back and burned him again.
Yeah, it's like, but I'm so glad you're doing great in there.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Good for you, bud.
Very glad.
Both his father and his grandfather, which is really sad,
but like they even had to do this.
Absolutely.
Testified on his behalf, and both mental the jury
that he was a good man who had been involved
in both his church and his community.
The judge and jury were also presented with a petition urging mercy, signed by 200 members
of his church, where his father was the pastor.
The prosecution called one single witness during this phase, who was detective Stan Griggs,
and he was able to remind the jury how callous Ronald had been and how he and his friends, again, returned a meat cleaver that they used to kill him in
just to reclaim $9.99.
And I don't give a fuck that he goes to church.
People who go to church do a lot of bad things.
Guys, just like people who don't go to church do a lot of bad things.
ATK went to church.
Yeah, plenty of them went to church.
Most of them blame like God talking to them or somebody talking to them.
Yeah.
Like, that doesn't mean anything.
It doesn't mean anything in both ways.
People who don't go to church do shitty things.
People go to church do shitty things.
And people who go to church don't do shitty things.
Exactly.
People who go to church don't do shitty things.
Like, so it has no basis in reality at all.
That's just another part of his life and terror.
You're like, that's cool that he goes to church.
Has nothing to do with anything.
That's not pertinent.
Yeah, not at all.
But the jury hold bird.
The jury heard both sides.
And in the end, they voted unanimously in favor of the death penalty.
Whoa.
And on May 15th, same judge, judge Thomas Remington sent
and spelled to death for what he called an unspeakable horror
committed against court nailing.
I mean, it was.
As exactly what it was.
That's exactly what it was.
And he was the ringleader.
The judge actually acknowledged the petition
that had been sied by the members of the church
and said the defendant abandoned his religious training
to commit a crime of indescribable brutality and unrelenting torture.
Yeah, that's the thing. This is not... It's bad enough when somebody stabs someone or somebody
shoots someone. It's murderous murder. Yeah, but this is so far beyond. And it's like you want to
sit here and say like he was a good church going boy. Okay, he might have been, but exactly what this judge said, he abandoned ship.
Well, and honestly, that's honestly not even helping the case.
Because it's like, honestly, that scares me more.
Yeah, that he had the fear of God and well, still did this.
And that he sat in a church and like did whatever he did in there.
And then he comes out and this is what he does.
Like that's even scarier.
You think about it?
Okay, so his dad is up that is the pastor at this church.
His grand father's involved in this church.
There's this huge community.
Remember, Cordell Richards wasn't found for a month.
Yeah.
So a month went by where he sat in that church
and pretended to be a good church going boy, knowing full well that he had lit a man on fire
two times and tortured him, tortured him and sliced his neck because he couldn't break his neck when he tried to.
And it's like that. You just sat there. In church knowing that you did that. That's so much scarier.
That's the thing. I'm like, you guys probably hurt the case for you. That didn't, that didn't help. Not at all. Now, in 2002, Ronald appealed his
death sentence on the grounds that Judge Thomas Remington had not given his age to consideration
when the sentence had been imposed. I think he did. And he was like, wow, that's even scarier.
Yeah. Now, during the sentencing, the judge had concluded that Ronald's age at the time
of the murder was of little consequence.
He noted that Ronald had no history of abuse and had come from a loving support of family.
And on appeal, Ronald's attorney argued that the judge was laboring under a misapprehension of what the legal principles were, that he was to take into account at the time of the weighing
process. All right. So Ronald's age, he said, was not given consideration.
But the Supreme Court ruled four to three in Ronald's favor, saying that even though a killer
will become eligible for the death penalty, youth remains an important consideration in deciding
whether punishment should be life in prison or death. So the death sentence was reversed,
and now Ronald is serving life and prison without the possibility
of parole just like crystal.
I would take that.
Yep.
Now in 2019 actually both Ronald and crystal appealed their sentencing based on that 2012
US Supreme Court ruling about no life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Yep.
I feel like I think I say that in my sleep pill.
Yeah, truly.
But the appeals court reviewed both sentences and upheld.
Oh, good.
OK.
I was like, don't you dare.
Effectively recentencing both of them to life and prison.
Good.
Now, one of Cornell's daughters commented on this recentencing saying,
quote, the only thing I can say is my family and I are just still in shock
that we had to go through this in court. I thank God the judge found the wisdom to rule the way he did.
It's like those two little girls had their father taken from them.
In the most horrific way. Exactly. For no reason.
And I had their father's reputation like ruined after his brutal murder.
After his brutal murder because of what this girl says about him.
Which is like now that we know what this girl did.
Right, like we're really gonna take that.
I'm not taking anything she says without a grain of salt.
This one person who said that there are three kids who said this happened,
but every adult in his life, his ex-wife, the mother of his children,
his grandparents, his co-workers at IHOP, his house cleaner, all agreed that
he would have done anything for anyone.
And it never made them uncomfortable in any way.
That's a truly horrific and tragic tale.
It is.
And all that to say, even if he did make some kind of advances that made her uncomfortable,
that's fucked up.
You don't tie someone to a tree and light them on fire because they are acting like that.
No, no, no, no.
It's, I think we can all agree.
No, nope, you don't do that.
Not at all, you go to the police.
Yeah, exactly.
You let the law do what the law needs to do.
That's a thing, it's like, you do not.
This is not justified in any way, shape form on any galaxy.
Nope.
I mean, this is truly one of the most, just like Nope. And this is truly one of the most
just like that is truly one of the worst things I've ever heard.
Mind boggling.
Oh, and I just feel so hard, so bad for his family.
I know.
But yes, that is the case of Cordell Richards
and the three teenagers who brutally murdered him.
That's horrific.
So that's what being said.
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