Murdaugh Murders Podcast - TSP #81 - From Alex Murdaugh to Lee Gilley: True Highlights From 2024 + More Churchy Businesses For JP Miller?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I don't know where the truth will lead us in 2025. But before we go down that road, we need to do something that we don't do enough on this show.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Look back on our last season of work and reflect on all of the sunshine we spread across the world in 2024. So here we go. My name is Mandy Matney. This is True Sunlight, a podcast exposing crime and corruption previously known as the Murdoch Murders Podcast. True Sunlight is a Lunar Shark production. Hello and Happy New Year from our new sound booth. Over the last few days, David and I,

Starting point is 00:01:06 along with the help of our awesome friend and premium member, Tammy Daniels, put together a recording booth inside Lunashark Studios. Check it out on my Instagram. And wow guys, we are three years into podcasting and I finally feel like we are doing this thing for real. I cannot thank y'all enough for that. I was always scared to do something permanent,

Starting point is 00:01:31 like build a recording booth in our studio because I think deep down I was never confident that we would be going for this long. But because of y'all, every single listener, every single Lunashark Premium member, supporter, sponsor, and partner, we are doing this podcasting thing for real now. Hello 2025. David? We are so excited for 2025. With our new billboards around the state and our coverage seeking answers, we hope to shake loose information in Stephen Smith's case and his mom Sandy hopes to hear back

Starting point is 00:02:12 from SLED early this year. We are also actively seeking partners to sponsor a new event in July that will celebrate Stephen Smith's life and draw attention to the 10 years that have passed without justice since his death. If you are an event professional and want to support our mission giving voice to victims, please reach out to us by emailing or on social media. Links are in the description. And with the scripted series coming to Hulu in late 2025,

Starting point is 00:02:44 we intend to host local premieres in Columbia, Charleston, and or Hilton Head Island for our amazing Premium members. Stay tuned for details. And are you ready for it? We have a very exciting new benefit coming to Lunashark Premium, our new Lunashark Media Club featuring live and virtual events with all the deets shared on COJ. Each month starting in January, we'll select a book, podcast, documentary, scripted show

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Starting point is 00:03:42 So join premium as soon as you can to participate in our live discussion later this month. Click the link in the description to learn more about the schedule. And in 2025, we are planning even more travel. We'll be headed to the set of the Hulu show in Atlanta. We'll be going south to Florida, out to Montana, up to Canada, and down the road to Virginia, Maryland, and beyond

Starting point is 00:04:07 to meet y'all in person. As always, your support is immensely appreciated and keeps us motivated to expose the truth wherever it leads, give voice to victims, and get the story straight. Cups up to an amazing 2025 ahead, and thank you to each of our listeners for supporting our mission.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Happy New Year and stay in the sunlight. Before we get into today's episode, we have got to talk about the churchy business madness that has been happening up and around Myrtle Beach in the last few weeks involving Solid Rock and JP Miller. Last week, journalist Beth Braden reported on the establishment of JP's new churchy business, Living Water at Market Common,

Starting point is 00:04:56 and it appears they used Micah's email address for that LLC registration. Weird. We shared some strange updates to Solid Rock's business filings and the records for Mercy Church Ministries, the new churchy business where JP's 95-year-old grandmother, the one he oddly mentioned in a sermon announcing Micah's sudden death, she is apparently the registered agent.

Starting point is 00:05:22 Well, this week we have some quick news about two more filings with ties to JP. Two weeks ago, Beth asked the Secretary of State's office to send us a list of all the business filings related to Horry County between August 1st and December 19th so that we could search for anything else that we might have missed. It turns out there are two other entities we are seeing with the same names coming up.

Starting point is 00:05:50 Which brings us to a total of five different entities related to Solid Rock. According to a receipt from the South Carolina Secretary of State's office, Mark Brunty paid the fees to incorporate Forge Church. And yes, MMP fans, I said Forge Church. And he used the F. Bowen's paralegal at gmail.com email that we saw in the filings for Mercy Church. As Beth said a couple episodes ago, we found a Mark Brunty,

Starting point is 00:06:21 who was a former South Carolina lawyer, suspended from practicing law by the South Carolina lawyer, suspended from practicing law by the South Carolina Supreme Court in 2012 and charged federally with four counts related to a fraud scheme. We don't know if these are the same two Mark Brunty's, but that's weird, right? Anyways, the registered agent for Forge Church is Tina Corley. The dark-haired woman who has been spotted with JP recently, including when he was bailed out of jail in November, and the same woman on the receipt for the Mercy Church filings. Yes.

Starting point is 00:06:57 And again, yes, the fact that we are dealing with another business called Forge involving another South Carolina man-baby is deeply ironic and strange. This is the crossover none of us asked for. On December 13th, another entity called My Tribute LLC was filed with the Secretary of State's office. In the initial filing, the registered agent was listed as Suzy Skinner, JP's alleged paramour.

Starting point is 00:07:27 The receipt for that filing, however, lists the payer as JP with Suzy's address, and the customer information has JP's name but Mark Brunty's email. A week later, on December 20th, the address for My Tribute LLC was updated to the same pro-pack and ship, just with a different box number. Then on December 23rd, the registered agent and address were changed again. Now Mark Kaufman, JP's alleged bestie and business bro, at Crocodile Rocks is the registered agent of My Tribute LLC, and his home address is the new registered address. According to the receipt, the fees for that update were paid by Tina Corley,

Starting point is 00:08:14 but she appears to have logged into the Secretary of State's website using Mark Brunty's email address. So what's with all of these new LLCs? It's giving us a lot of PMPED and December 2021 vibes when several of their lawyers created new LLCs as PMPED was dissolving. We are not saying that is happening here, but it appears to be major chaos in this churchy business world, circling J.P. Miller that seems like the opposite of what a person under

Starting point is 00:08:51 a serious FBI investigation would be doing right now. And we just hope that the feds are watching this. What we told you today about these churchy businesses is not even the half of it. These receipts also introduced us to some more physical addresses that we haven't seen as well as some repeated IP addresses that appear to be affiliated with JP's crew. We are diving into each one of these and discovering a whole lot of connections. But it's a holiday week, so we're going gonna hold off on unraveling the whole web for now. This week, we need to look back on our work from the past year and all the light we shed

Starting point is 00:09:33 on those who needed it the most, from Elick Murdoch. Yes, the justice toll shutdown happened in 2024 to Michael Colucci, to Bowen Turner, to Corey Fleming, to JP Miller, to Russell Letucci, to Bowen Turner, to Corey Fleming, to JP Miller, to Russell Lethe, and to Lee Gillie. We threw a whole lot of information at y'all in the last year, and before we dive into a new season with more twists and turns in these same cases, our team wanted to share the highlights and bask in the sunshine that we have already spread. So let's talk about what went down in 2024.

Starting point is 00:10:12 After months of bluster, innuendo, and the press picking up everything Dick and Jim put down regarding alleged jury tampering, on the part of Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill, Justice Gene Toll told Alex Murdoch in January that, no, you may not have a new trial. Of course, the Murdoch camp immediately appealed her ruling to the state Supreme Court. Here's Justice Toll from True Sunlight 36. But I will say this about the record now that I have read it. And I will say this about the testimony that I heard Friday and today. Judge Newman said it best in his sentencing when he discussed the weight and the measure of the case presented, the testimony and evidence

Starting point is 00:11:05 submitted in this case when it was tried. It is a very compelling case supporting the verdict that the jurors reached. He said it with a lot more detail than I do. But now that I've read the record, I say as the successor trial judge, I agree that the evidence was overwhelming and the jury verdict not surprising.

Starting point is 00:11:30 This matter is now adjourned. In February, we continued pushing for answers in Steven's case, and we reviewed our files and notes that we have collected since 2019. We were also able to talk to one of Stephen's former teachers from high school who told us what she remembered about having Stephen in her class. One thing Michelle told me that really stuck out about Stephen,

Starting point is 00:11:58 he had a lot of close friends. He was very confident in himself and often had a pack leader mentality. He was by no means a loner in school. This is again important as people continue to spread baseless rumors that Stephen would have intentionally walked into a moving vehicle. Well, I'm observing from the teacher standpoint, but in the classroom, you always have those students

Starting point is 00:12:25 that stick out in the leadership role. And the neat thing about that medical terminology class was that I had freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, but he easily established himself as someone that other kids, hey, what, you know, what's the answer to this? How do we do this? And I was always putting them in small groups or are pairing them off and mixing them up. And yes, he was a beloved member of our class. It's almost like a little community that you create every with every class and every class

Starting point is 00:13:00 has a personality. And he had one of his near dear good friends in there. When he passed, I went to the funeral. And I remember I sat with another teacher, there were some teachers there. And I walked out and I ran smack dab into his good friend in there. And I was fine. Well, I say, No, you're never fine. But I was holding myself together. But the minute I saw her, I said, you were his friend. And I just lost it. I just lost it. And another young man that had been on the trip,

Starting point is 00:13:38 I said, y'all were his friends. Y'all were his friends. But I never, yes, they loved him. And you know, you see students in the cafeteria, out in the courtyard and all, but he always had a group of kids with him. In March, we started covering the death of Sarah Lynn Moore Colucci and the upcoming trial of Michael Colucci, her husband, who was accused of murdering her. Colucci maintained Sarah Lynn Moore Colucci and the upcoming trial of Michael Colucci, her husband, who was accused of murdering her. Colucci maintains Sarah Lynn hanged herself

Starting point is 00:14:09 with a rubber hose looped around a fence post. His first trial in 2018 ended in a hung jury. The facts in this case and Colucci's wealthy family prompted us to shine some much needed sunlight on the state's attempt to retry Colucci. Here's a clip from True Sunlight 41. On May 20th 2015, 38 year old Sarah Lynn Moore Calucci was found dead outside of the jewelry warehouse in Somerville, South Carolina that she owned with her husband, whose stepfather was a well-known and well-respected jeweler.

Starting point is 00:14:50 Sarah's husband, Michael Colucci, a man who ran with highly connected circles in Charleston, which reportedly includes members of law enforcement, told police that his wife hung herself with a garden hose. But like Elick Murdoch, the story that Michael Colucci told police about the circumstances surrounding his wife's death shifted several times and ultimately just didn't add up. In fact, Elick Murdoch and Michael Colucci have a lot in common.

Starting point is 00:15:22 While Elick is a South Carolina native, Michael moved to Charleston from New York City when he was five years old with his mother, brother, and stepfather and five step siblings. Despite that, like Ellic, he was well-entrenched in the good ol' boy system we so often warn the world about. In fact, Ellic and Michael both had enough connections among law enforcement and the courts that warranted the local solicitor's offices and the sheriff's offices to recuse themselves in their cases, leaving Sled to investigate and the AG's office to prosecute the cases.

Starting point is 00:16:00 Both Ellic and Michael have last names that mean a whole lot to them. Legacy, money, and power. In fact, Michael even changed his last name to that of his stepfather when he was 18. Some say that was Michael adopting the credibility and the esteem of Ivo Colucci, credibility and esteem he had not earned on his own. Thrice accused rapist Bowen Turner was out of prison for less than four months before he was arrested for DUI,

Starting point is 00:16:32 open container, and not wearing a seatbelt in Florence County, South Carolina. Following his arrest, he almost bonded out of jail, but victims advocate attorney Sarah Ford and Carl Stahler, the father of one of Bowen's alleged victims, appeared in court to make sure the magistrate knew that Turner was already on probation. Later, when we got our FOIA request

Starting point is 00:16:58 for dash cam footage from the day of his arrest, we were stunned and appalled at his behavior toward the state trooper who took him to jail. Here's Liz from True Sunlight 47. Last week we gave you a little bit of a preview about what was in that FOIA that we'd gotten back right as we were finishing up True Sunlight. It was the dashboard camera footage from Bowen Turner's March 9th arrest after he flipped his father Chevy Silverado on Papermill Road in Florence, South Carolina. Bowen was

Starting point is 00:17:31 charged with DUI, open container, not wearing a seatbelt, and, surprise surprise, resisting arrest. I say surprise surprise because last time when Bowen was arrested in 2022, he threatened to bite the finger off of a deputy and he called the female employee of the bar where he had just been drinking underage a quote unquote bitch because she wouldn't drive him home. Also, we had heard that this dashboard camera footage in this arrest was particularly egregious. So foeing for it was a no-brainer for us. Plus, we wanted to see for ourselves whether the boy who keeps getting second chances

Starting point is 00:18:12 has made good on the grace that has been given to him. Spoiler alert, the answer is a hard no. Before we play the audio of this, we want to warn you that it's intense. If you've ever been in an emotionally abusive relationship or any situation involving sexual assault, this could be particularly difficult to listen to. Obviously, this doesn't involve an assault, but as you all know, rape is about power. And on this car ride to jail, Bowen's sole objective is to gain power over the situation, specifically over the will of the female patrol officer. To achieve this, he uses all the tricks. He's loud. He's belligerent. He's insulting and then immediately apologetic. He acts like a child having a tantrum. He lies. He gaslights and he tries to play the victim.

Starting point is 00:19:05 He asks for favors and he acts like he's being wronged because he's not being extended any sort of special treatment. Anyway, it's a lot and we just want you to know that before we get into it. But that said, boy were we all right about this guy? We were ready to cover Michael Colucci's trial live in May when we got the word at the last minute that the trial would be postponed yet again. The reason? The court had only allowed for one week for the trial. Despite the fact that the 2018 trial took a full two weeks,

Starting point is 00:19:42 it seemed like once we began shedding some light on the case, the state realized that they needed more time to prepare. I know I sound angry. That's because I am. We both are. Why? Because of what postponements do to victims and their families. Victims arrange their entire lives around court dates. And it's not just with things like work schedules and getting babysitters and putting their lives on pause. Which all of that is a big deal.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I don't mean to sound snotty when I say this, but not everyone can afford to take six weeks off like the Murdoch family did. In fact, most people can't. There is also an emotional attachment to a court date. It signifies a light at the end of the tunnel. It mentally serves as a demarcation for victims and their families. I will have an answer and whatever that answer is, I will finally know it and can focus on healing.

Starting point is 00:20:41 Bishop Vieira, Sarah Lynn's smart, witty, beautiful 20-year-old daughter, who has lived almost half her life waiting for justice, is set to get married in June. Because of this screw-up, she will not get the peace that would come with being at her wedding where she will marry the love of her life and having this trial be in her rearview mirror to finally know the conclusion to this nightmare. On top of that, there was talk of rescheduling this trial for the end of June where it would most likely have meant her getting a verdict

Starting point is 00:21:13 right before her wedding weekend. Mandy and I are both so sick of watching people who have already had the very worst things happen to them repeatedly get beaten up by a system that pretends to care about them. People who so badly wanna believe that the system has their back. Not only has Sarah Lin-Kaluci's family

Starting point is 00:21:34 been waiting nine years for justice, they've had to suffer through the past six years waiting for Michael to be retried. In June, we were deep in the Micah Francis case and just beginning to understand the depths of the alleged abuse she had suffered from prior to her death. We also learned that South Carolina is one of several states that do not have a law criminalizing coercive control, despite the fact that one had been introduced to the legislature in 2020. According to the Francis family's attorney Regina Ward, Micah Francis was a

Starting point is 00:22:10 victim of coercive control. JP Miller has denied all accusations that he ever abused Micah in any way. Liz takes us through it on TSP 54. Perhaps the most important part of the press conference though was the announcement that Regina and the Francis family are now working toward creating Micah's Law, a law that would criminalize coercive control in South Carolina. have criminalized, quote, the act or pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation, manipulation, and intimidation or other abuse, including emotional abuse that is used to harm, punish or frighten the victim by fraudulent representations. It basically expands the idea that domestic violence

Starting point is 00:23:03 is solely a physical act of abuse but that bill failed. Regina said that had it passed in 2020, JP would have been arrested because the police would have had a law to follow. They wouldn't have been able to just throw up their hands and act like there was nothing they could do about it, which we still think there were things law enforcement could have done to help Micah. Regina said that as part of their pursuit of a coercive control law, they want to include a misuse of legal documents clause that would criminalize the use of the legal system for

Starting point is 00:23:35 purposes of intimidation and control. This is where we should remind you about the police reports that Solid Rock appears to have filed against Micah, accusing her of stealing from them even after it looked like a judge had declined to issue a warrant declaring that no crime had been committed. This accusation weighed on Micah. We told you a few weeks ago about how Micah had spoken with the FBI about apparent financial anomalies at the church and how she was convinced that JP and his enablers would try to pin it on her. We'll talk a lot more about coercive control laws in the future, but we'll say this for

Starting point is 00:24:13 now. It's a much needed law and it's going to take a big village to help get this passed. And you know why? Because a coercive control law will protect women and it will really mess up bad men. And we all know that our mostly male legislators across the country really hate laws that they can picture being used against them

Starting point is 00:24:36 because they know their own behavior toward women over the years hasn't been so great. Because they hate giving women any control over their own safety. And we'll be right back. July 8, 2024 marked nine years since 19-year-old Stephen Smith was found dead on Sandy Run Road with massive head trauma. This year, we've been going back to review everything we know in Stephen's case, and

Starting point is 00:25:10 we realized there was something weird about the final tip in the case file before the whole thing went frustratingly cold. What am I getting at here? Well, it's simple. The Patrick Wilson- Sean Connolly theory is officially traced back to Nick Ginn. Nick Ginn, who went on the record to officially point investigators

Starting point is 00:25:34 toward Patrick Wilson and Sean Connolly. Then it was basically case closed or case abandoned anyway. Investigators hit a wall with those names and that was pretty much it. In other words, this makes the origin story of that information very important. Proctor learned about Darryl from his co-worker Duncan, who took no notes about this major development in the case and yet took plenty of notes about other small developments. Proctor was unable to get into contact with Daryl or Patrick. So he only had what his co-worker Duncan told him.

Starting point is 00:26:17 Meaning at that juncture the Patrick and Sean theory was just a tip. It was just another piece of information along with many other pieces. It had the same weight as everything else. But Nick going on the record with this information legitimized it. He is the only person in this case file talking with certitude about anything. It is not I heard a rumor. It is my stepfather was told by someone who says he was there.

Starting point is 00:26:52 We have a sworn police officer giving his account of what he was told by his stepfather in the death of Stephen. His word meant something. And Mick Ginn's word is where investigators appeared to have stopped investigating Stephen's death. So let's talk about something we discovered earlier this year after receiving a FOIA request back from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy, which keeps track of law enforcement

Starting point is 00:27:21 officers' training as well as their resignations and terminations from various departments. According to Nick Ginn's file, before he worked at the Hampton Police Department, he worked for the police department in Walterboro, which as y'all know is where the Murdoch murders trial was held. A personnel report from when Nick left the Walterboro Police Department notes that he had been terminated for misconduct and that Walterboro would not rehire him. The reason listed in the report is intimidating officer interfering with investigation and unbecoming conduct of an officer. So, Nick Ginn, the man whose word seems to have stalled the Stephen Smith case, has a history of intimidation and interfering with an investigation.

Starting point is 00:28:16 That's notable, right? In August, the Murdoch team was back in court to argue why Justice Jean Toll was wrong to deny Alec a new trial based on allegations that former Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill tampered with the jury. This court appearance came with a prologue of the egg lady juror going on a media blitz to drum up buzz before the court date. Here's Liz from True Sunlight 64. If you don't know by now,

Starting point is 00:28:49 our position on the South Carolina Supreme Court's decision to allow Ehrlich to bypass the Court of Appeals in his murder case is okay. And in contrast to what seems like most of the media right now, we just don't see it as a sign that he is any more likely to get a new trial than he was before their decision to take the case. That said, get ready for some serious deja vu because The Clown Show is officially back in town. Over the past few weeks, we have noticed a resurgence in the pro-Ellic Murdoch trolls. They still believe that he was robbed of a fair trial

Starting point is 00:29:26 because of Carleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. Which fine, we'll give them this and it's pretty much exactly what Justice Jean Toll wrote in her opinion denying Ellic a new trial. Becky should not have said anything to any juror about any aspect of the testimony during the trial, so we're all agreed. Becky did some dumb things. But she didn't tamper with the jury, at least not according to the evidence that has been made public. Which brings us to the news of the week. And it's concerning the Egg Lady juror, also known as Juror 785, Myra Crosby, and Juror 630, Mandy Pierce. There, we can now say their names because they have finally put them on the public record. So why did they do that? Well, in part, to sell books. Duh.

Starting point is 00:30:13 Remember back in the day when Dick and Jim's story was that the jurors came to speak to them, and ostensibly not the other way around, to tell them about Becky's behavior because of Becky's book, that it had angered them, and that that is the origin story of how the Becky jury tampering plot came together. First of all, what irony that one of Dick and Jim's jurors has now written a book. But also, stick a pin in that part about the origin story because I'm going to come back to that. Also, we're going to keep calling them by their juror numbers in addition to their names for consistency. So obviously, the headline game is being played again. It's the same tactic that Team Murdoch used leading up to the Justice Toll hearing in January. They were hoping that some of their overblown

Starting point is 00:31:05 rhetoric about Becky that the media was repeatedly eating up with a spoon would somehow resonate with Justice Toll or subconsciously seep into her soul to influence her decision. And now they're taking that same tactic with the state Supreme Court justices. You would think the media would be onto their games by now, but no, They're like, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, gah, g I'm not kidding, from egg to Z. Z being a reference to Juror 630. The episode is live streaming on Fox Nation right now, and it went live on the very same day that Myra's book was published. Her book, by the way, is called Juror 785 because enough is enough.

Starting point is 00:32:01 A tell-all book on how Juror 785 was wrongfully kicked off the jury at the Alec Murdoch trial. We haven't read it, but if ever there was a title for a disgruntled manifesto of utter nonsense, there it is. In September, victims' rights attorney Sarah Ford and appellate attorney Malia Bowers Jefferson made a first-of-its-kind argument in front of the South Carolina Court of Appeals when they questioned the court's decision to accept Bowen Turner's 2022 plea deal without consulting the victim in the case. According to Ford and Bowers-Jefferson, the victim, Chloe Bess, should have been allowed to address the court before the judge accepted Bowen's plea deal.

Starting point is 00:32:57 So the main issue here is that switcheroo plea deal hearing. Judge Dennis would not allow Sarah Ford to argue the merits of her motions. Sarah immediately appealed the decision in April 2022. In her pre-hearing briefs, she told the appellate court that Judge Dennis denied Chloe justice by refusing to hear from her before accepting Bowen's guilty plea. Chloe was only allowed to speak after the judge accepted Bowen's plea, a decision that could not be undone at that point. Sarah called this a meaningless show, noting that the process denies the victim of any meaningful input and thereby circumvents the constitutional provision that she should be allowed to present.

Starting point is 00:33:37 That is a big deal. And it appears to be the first time that a lawyer is taking on what is a procedural norm that seems to fly right in the face of the state's Victims' Bill of Rights. Sarah wrote in her brief, in South Carolina, the recommended plea becomes a done deal once it is accepted by the court. The trial court's custom of delaying the victim's statements until the sentencing phase of the plea denies the victim procedural justice. If the victim is not allowed to present until after the plea is accepted, the court is just going to go through the motions when it listens to the victim's impact statement and the victim's input, rendered after the fact, is reduced to a mere formality. In other words, on Tuesday, when Malia Bowers Jefferson

Starting point is 00:34:30 made her arguments in front of the South Carolina Court of Appeals on Tuesday, she was making history. And depending on how the court ends up ruling, the future might look different for victims of crime. If victims are allowed to weigh in on a defendant's plea deal before the judge accepts the terms of it, it could end up influencing the deal for the better. If prosecutors know that a victim is not happy with a proposed plea deal, they might be less inclined to pursue these gentlemen deals for defendants who are represented by

Starting point is 00:35:05 lawyer legislators who hold power over the state's judges. If they knew that the victim is going to call them out in open court and that the judge is required to listen to their input, well, prosecutors might want to save themselves from potential humiliation. Because after all, they are supposed to care about putting the bad guys behind bars. They are supposed to care about protecting the community from further harm. They are not supposed to be repeatedly cutting deals for defendants who don't seem to care about the law one bit. We got great news as summer turned to fall.

Starting point is 00:35:49 Alec Murdoch's attempt to appeal his 40-year federal sentence was thwarted by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This denial means that even in some bizarro world where the Murdoch camp could somehow get a new murder trial and then somehow be found not guilty, he's still never getting out of prison because this federal sentence will still be there waiting on him if he ever sets foot out

Starting point is 00:36:16 of state prison. Here's Liz from True Sunlight 69. from True Sunlight 69. So, big news. On Tuesday afternoon, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Elick Mardoch's appeal of his 40-year sentence for the financial crimes, meaning Dick and Jim lost again. And yeah, we're gonna include Dick in this loss, even though he never signed his

Starting point is 00:36:46 name to any of ELEC's federal appeal filings and sent his associate Phil Barber in his stead. Dick's chicken prints were still all over this. Year after year, we kept getting told that Team Murdock was going to dazzle everyone. Don't underestimate them, Liz and Mandy. They work magic. They play chess where other attorneys are playing checkers. Well, guess what? These guys can't even win a game of Connect Four at this point. And thank God for that because Elick Murdoch will never be free ever again. In 2023, Elhrlich pleaded guilty to 22 federal counts involving more than $9 million in thefts from his clients and his law firm. Much to his chagrin, he was then sentenced to 40 years in prison by Judge Richard Gergel. Ehrlich definitely did not anticipate

Starting point is 00:37:40 this even after Judge Gergel announced that he was going to give him more than the Bureau of Prisons had recommended in its sentencing report. So that was fun to watch. But not as fun as watching this. If Ehrlich ever planned to live a life beyond prison walls before he died, this pretty much ends those dreams. As you all know, we strongly believe that Ehrlich had a multi-phase, let's say a ten-year plan to get out of prison in his late 60s and reclaim his Hampton County throne. Getting his federal sentence reduced was a critical component of that. We believe Ehrlich was counting on his murder conviction getting overturned, if not in the state Supreme Court than in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Starting point is 00:38:31 Once he got that overturned, he could then delay a retrial until the state's case eroded enough through the increasingly foggy memories of witnesses and maybe even the deaths of some witnesses. Then Ellic could give it another go, this time with perhaps a better chance of winning, especially now that he knows what the state's case against him looks like from the inside out. We also believe that Ellic would eventually seek to reduce his 27-year state sentence from the financial crimes by using the substantial assistance

Starting point is 00:39:06 law. That's that same law that was used in the secret closed-door meetings with a judge in the Gerard Price case, the one that allowed for that murderer to have his sentence reduced to time served based on virtually nothing. We really believe Ellick regarded his state sentence in the financial crimes as an easily fixable irritant. Then, with those two things out of the way, he'd be moved to better facilities in federal prison for a short period of time before getting released. The only problem to that plan was that unexpected 40-year decision from Judge Gergel. Hence, why Elec was appealing it. He wanted it vacated completely, or he wanted to get a redo. And now it's over.

Starting point is 00:39:54 The court rejected his argument that he hadn't waived his right to appeal. Why? Because he totally waived his right to appeal. But remember, in Elec's mind, he apparently just gets to say something is true with the expectation that the people around him will find a way to make it true. And we'll be right back. In November, Lunashark took a leap as we began covering the alleged murder of Krista

Starting point is 00:40:25 Bauer Gilley, a Somerville, South Carolina native who died at her Houston, Texas home on October 8, 2024. Her husband, Lee Gilley, initially told police that she overdosed after an argument. Police say that Lee Gilley strangled her to death. Christa was nine weeks pregnant with the couple's third child at the time of her death. Thankfully, the judge mostly agreed with Christa's parents and granted them temporary managerial conservatorship over both children that will likely last into Lee's trial,

Starting point is 00:41:02 while Christa's sister-in-law, Kristin Gilley, was given joint responsibility to consult with them on the children. She was also granted one weekend a month with the children. This week, we obtained some of the records in the civil case for custody of Christa's children, and we have to share Christa's father's affidavit with you. It gives a heartbreaking account of the aftermath of Christa's death and how Lee Gilley showed himself after his wife died. This affidavit was filed before Gilley was released on bond and before the judge granted Christa's parents custody of the children.

Starting point is 00:41:42 Here is David reading the document where Christopher Bauer described the day that he found out that his 38-year-old pregnant daughter was dead. On the morning of October 8, 2024, I woke to an alarming text message and two missed calls from Lee indicating something had happened to Krista. Lee stated Krista was taken to the hospital after he tried to perform CPR on her but never told me what state Krista was in. Panicked, I tried to reach Lee to no avail. I also tried to reach Lee's parents but got no response. Terrified, we called our daughter Samantha to find anyone who could check on Krista and

Starting point is 00:42:25 our grandchildren since we live in South Carolina and couldn't do it ourselves. Eventually, our worst fears were realized after Heights Hospital confirmed our daughter and unborn grandchild were dead. To be clear, Lee told Krista's parents via text message that something happened to Krista and that she was taken to the hospital, but he never said what state she was in. Krista was pronounced dead at 12.25 a.m. So what time did Lee text her parents? Was he trying to pretend that she was alive and that there was still hope? Christa's dad couldn't reach Lee or his parents after he saw those two missed calls

Starting point is 00:43:10 and one text message. Then the family was able to get a hold of someone from the Heights Hospital who told them that Christa was dead. In December, Mandy, Liz, and Beth started reviewing all of the initial reports we received in the first few weeks after Micah Francis died, and they zeroed in on what could have possibly caused her to veer off course that day. By all accounts, and by the evidence we have, it appears Micah was headed to work when she left her apartment.

Starting point is 00:43:44 What happened after she left her apartment that caused her to go to Dick's pawn shop and purchase a gun instead of going to work? It's hard to look at a suicide where the victim is someone who explicitly said, if I'm found dead, it's because my husband killed me, and not think that there's not something else going on here. Even when we're presented with evidence of Micah buying that gun. And it's hard to believe it's a suicide when you consider we don't believe that JP's alibi is as rock solid as the police do. And

Starting point is 00:44:15 we'll say it again, when you consider he seems like from every angle to be a man who is hiding something. So we're simply asking a question here. Did serving JP with divorce papers again set JP off? And if it did, did he resort to behavior that we've seen from him in the past? And could that behavior have included what might have been considered the worst case scenario for a woman like Micah? Because a woman like Micah, young, broke, tired, trying her best every day, mustering the courage to fight every day, looking for the silver lining

Starting point is 00:44:54 in the light at the end of the tunnel, trying to build a new church life with a new church family, and trying like hell to forget a past that haunted her. Wouldn't just not like to see a sexually explicit video of herself posted somewhere online. It would have had the potential to bring that woman to her knees. A woman like Micah, who found no help from police every time she reported her estranged

Starting point is 00:45:21 husband for stalking and harassment, might have had nothing left in her mental reserves as she were to see that a sexually explicit video of her had been posted somewhere online. Meaning, she might not have had any fight left to find out how to get such a video taken down, to find out who might have seen the video, to figure out if her friends, her family, her new pastor, her new church knew about it.

Starting point is 00:45:45 A woman like Micah might think this is never going to end. I'm never going to get away from this. There will always be a threat hanging over me. People call it revenge porn, but that is not the right term for it at all. It doesn't capture the victimization of it, and it almost assigns a justification to it like there's something righteous about the revenge like it's an equal and opposite reaction to something

Starting point is 00:46:10 the victim of the posting did to the person posting it. Posting sexually explicit content that involves a person who has not consented to it being posted means that person who didn't consent has lost complete and total control over her own body, the one thing in this world that should be completely and totally hers. And there is no way to describe the utter pain and helplessness a person experiences when they have no say in the matter of who views their body and when. In 2025, we plan to keep tabs on Corey, Russell, Ellic, Carmen, Peter, Bowen, Lee, Michael, JP, Wayne, and the whole Solid Rock gang, plus all the other folks that need continued sunlight around them. I'm excited to say that our Calucci coverage will heat up again this year as we prepare for

Starting point is 00:47:12 Michael Calucci's long overdue second murder trial in June. We believe the injustice done to Sarah's family by forcing them to wait nearly 10 years for adjudicated justice could be coming to a conclusion finally. The clock is ticking down to zero as Michael Colucci is brought to account for allegedly strangling Sarah with his bare hands for over two minutes until she was dead. Again, he allegedly lied to investigators about an absurd suicide by garden hose, evading justice with minimal, if any, supervision for so long.

Starting point is 00:47:53 Our coverage of Christa Bauer Gillies' alleged murder will continue in January, as her husband Lee will be arraigned in Houston, Texas later this month. Our video team will be there every step of the way, if allowed, to shine much-needed sunlight on this extremely disturbing and horrible case surrounding Krista's death. We are also waiting to hear back from the South Carolina Court of Appeals in Chloe Bess's monumental case.

Starting point is 00:48:31 And we've started looking into a few other shocking cases that we cannot wait to tell y'all about. Until then, stay tuned, stay pesky, and stay in the sunlight. Happy New Year from Lunashark Media. Music True Sunlight is a Lunashark production created by me, Manny Matney, and co-hosted by journalist Liz Farrell. Learn more about our mission and membership at lunasharkmedia.com. Interruptions provided by Luna and Joe Pesky.

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