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The Jesse Madison Holton Case
113 Plays2 years ago
On September 11, 2016, officers responded to a call to the Holton residence. When officers responded, Jesse "Madison" Holton, April and Michael Holton's 17-year old son was waiting with his hands cuffed behind his back. His parents had called police over a party the teen had thrown. After learning that juvenile court would not open until the following Monday, Madison's parents decided to wait until Monday to potentially press charges. However, eleven minutes after leaving the Holton residence, police returned. This time, officers found Michael Holton dead and April clinging to life. Both had been shot in the head, and Madison was still waiting with his hands cuffed behind his back. Join Kayley and Siera as they ask the question: What happened to April and Michael?
Sources:
https://thecinemaholic.com/where-is-jesse-madison-holton-now/
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Transcript
Introduction to Episode Five
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, I'm Kaylee. And I'm Sierra. And this is True Crime and Punishment.
00:00:06
Speaker
episode five Today's episode will be a little bit different from our normal format You've heard the saying there are two sides to every story. Well today we will be putting that saying to the test That's right today Sierra and I are gonna go over a case together We're both gonna tell you details from this case and we're both gonna be telling you the absolute truth based on our source information However, each side of the story might lead you to a different conclusion
00:00:32
Speaker
Now, neither of us will be using incorrect information or half-truths to deceive you, but based on how the information is presented, you might arrive at a different culprit without further ado, Sierra. So without further ado, Sierra is going to tell us the story of Jesse Madison Holton.
Incident Overview: The Night of Sept 11, 2016
00:00:51
Speaker
Our story begins on September 11, 2016. On this day, a deputy sheriff arrived at the home of former Mayor Michael Holton in eclectic Alabama.
00:01:03
Speaker
Michael called the sheriff because his son, Jesse Madison, who goes by Madison, had thrown a party while Michael was at work. Madison and his friends had apparently trashed the place. The deputy found Madison with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He was on the couch and he appeared to be quiet. According to one article, the deputy said that Madison was stolen on the couch.
00:01:26
Speaker
Madison's parents, Michael and April, were both present. They both seemed to want to teach their son a lesson, and they asked the deputy how to file a petition to make Madison go before a juvenile judge. They couldn't do anything about it that day, but the deputy told them how they could arrange for that, and then he'd left at 448 p.m. Around 459 p.m., a neighbor called 911, again for a disturbance at the Holton House.
00:01:55
Speaker
And that's only 11 minutes later, correct? Right. During those 11 minutes between the deputy's departure and the 911 phone call, Madison, still handcuffed, had run to his neighbor's house, claiming that his mom and dad had gotten into a physical fight. He claimed he had kicked open a bedroom door to find his dad holding his mom in a headlock. Madison claimed he grabbed two cell phones and ran out the front door.
00:02:19
Speaker
After the neighbor called 911, the police arrived on the scene to find both Michael and April Hamilton on the ground, a gun in between them. Michael was pronounced dead at the scene. He had a bullet hole. The entrance wound was on the back left side of his head and the exit wound was on the right front side of his head. April had a bullet wound in her head and her right hand was also injured as if she had been trying to defend herself. Both victims' wounds were described as close contact.
00:02:48
Speaker
Although it seemed from Madison's report that this was a grisly murder-suicide, the police department was not convinced.
Questioning Madison's Story and Behavior
00:02:55
Speaker
The main issue was Michael Holton's head wound. In order for him to shoot himself, he would have had to use his left hand, even though he was right-handed, and he would have had to hold the gun basically upside down to get the proper angle for the bullet's trajectory.
00:03:10
Speaker
Sheriff Bill Franklin said, I've been in law enforcement for 39 years. I've never seen somebody try to commit suicide in such a weird, unique manner. There were also a few things about Madison himself and his testimony that made the sheriff's department question his story. The bedroom door where the bodies have been found showed no signs of being kicked open, according to the department.
00:03:33
Speaker
There were also a few things about Madison's demeanor and his testimony that made the sheriff department question his story. The bedroom door where the bodies have been found showed no signs of being kicked open. And Madison himself seemed to be acting a bit strangely. Leading up, in the days leading up to the event, Madison had been going through a rebellious phase that troubled both of his parents, according to different sources that I looked at.
00:03:59
Speaker
On the day of the deaths, he appeared to show a lack of emotion or remorse, and that lack of emotion seemed to continue according to different reports throughout his time in jail and the different hearings that would occur after.
00:04:14
Speaker
The Montgomery advertiser made this the opening line while they were reporting on the preliminary hearing. Jesse Madison Holton was smoking a cigarette at his next door neighbor's home mere moments after he allegedly shot his mother and father in the head. An investigator testified Wednesday morning. So they were commenting that even in this time period where he just saw his parents apparently fighting with each other, he seems to be just sitting at his neighbor's house just smoking a cigarette.
00:04:43
Speaker
Another news outlet said that during the hearings after the event, Holton laughed while waiting for his preliminary hearing and showed no emotion when attorneys and an investigator discussed the gruesome deaths of his parents.
00:04:58
Speaker
On the day of the murder, Bill Franklin said that Madison seemed to be more concerned about missing school than about the deaths of his parents. And according to a sheriff office investigator, Madison made different bizarre comments after being taken into custody. And he also had some interesting phone conversations from jail. He wanted to know what the girls he had slept with felt about sleeping with a murderer, according to the sheriff investigator. He also allegedly stated that he didn't care if his parents were alive or not.
00:05:29
Speaker
Also, one article explains that Sheriff Bill Franklin contended early in the investigation that Madison Holton had a self-proclaimed issue with becoming agitated if he had not used marijuana and Adderall. So he could have been in a mindset to potentially cause some damage on this day if he did not have his Adderall or marijuana.
00:05:49
Speaker
Now, although Madison had been handcuffed when he appeared at his neighbor's house, police officers believed that a couple things could have happened. He either could have slipped out of the cuffs in time to go into the room and shoot both of his parents, or perhaps he found the key in the living room and unlocked the cuffs, allowing him to go in and shoot them, and then he slipped them back on before he went to his neighbor's house.
00:06:14
Speaker
but they believe that there was a way
Exploring Alternative Perspectives and Motives
00:06:16
Speaker
where he could have gotten out. After all, it seemed very unlikely that Michael Holson could have shot himself and the only other person in the house at the time was Madison. There seemed to be no other option for the killer.
00:06:30
Speaker
Police officers were also suspicious because Madison claimed that he had never heard the gunshot, not even when he was running across to the neighbors. However, given the distance between the two houses, this seemed quite unlikely. At first, a grand jury indicted Madison on a murder charge just for the death of his father. A second grand jury indicted Madison for the murders of both parents.
00:06:59
Speaker
There seemed to be a clear killer, a clear motive as well for these deaths. However, in October of 2018, the charges against Madison were dismissed. The reason? There was not enough evidence to conclude that he was responsible for his parents' deaths. So what led to this reasonable doubt that led to the dismissal of these charges? What could have led to this conclusion?
00:07:30
Speaker
That's where I come in. Now, everything that Cyrus just told you is true. Those are all the facts of the case. But I think it would be beneficial to hear a little bit beyond the average facts. Let's go back to Mike and April. Cyrus said they were married and that is true. However, at the time of the incident, they were legally, in the process of getting divorced, they were separated.
00:07:55
Speaker
Now, why were they getting separated, you may ask? They had been together since high school. They were high school sweethearts. However, Mike had a bit of a drug problem. Actually, at the time of the murder, Mike was on hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol. All three of these are controlled substances, opioids to be exact.
00:08:14
Speaker
They're within the opioid family, they're all extremely addictive, they're all types of painkillers. And being on all three at once is not good for you, let's say it that way. Speaking of drugs, a lot of reportage from this case comes from the fact that Madison was on Adderall in marijuana at the time, and he told officers that he gets agitated when he's not on that.
00:08:33
Speaker
that Adderall was legally prescribed. He had ADHD, and many people with ADHD when they're off of their Adderall get agitated when it comes to marijuana. Any sort of drug that you have to wean yourself off of, you're going to get agitated. I don't believe he was telling officers that he was going to be violent or he resorted to violence when he was not on these medications. That was misrepresented grossly. When he wasn't on his Adderall medication and he wasn't smoking marijuana, he could become agitated from the withdrawal. Now, when you hear about the party that Madison threw,
00:09:03
Speaker
You hear often about the drugs that were at this party, which yeah, it was a teenage party. There was alcohol and drugs around, specifically homemade bongs. So there's a lot of dope being smoked and there was some drug paraphernalia, but there was never any specifics about drugs that are harder than that beyond just marijuana leaves and cigarettes and alcohol. It's not like these kids were doing coke, or at least it's not reported and stuff like that, just that drug paraphernalia, which when you consider the fact they had homemade bongs,
00:09:32
Speaker
which you can make out of a water bottle. That's what was at this party. Now, Madison's story seems a little bit too perfect. Oh, my dad got me arrested or was going to have me arrested in juvenile court and then all of a sudden he ends up dead because he's told me I can't party anymore. It does seem very convenient. I will give you that.
00:09:54
Speaker
However, we need to go back to those handcuffs, which Sarah did mention. The police believe that he got the handcuffs off and then put them back on before running for the neighbor after shooting his mother and father. I take a little bit of issue with that and here's why.
00:10:09
Speaker
The secondary phone call is placed 11 minutes after the police left the Holton residence. Now, this is just Mike Holton's home. April Holton no longer lived there. She actually had a boyfriend, which we will get to later, as the couple had been separated for some time. It's plausible to believe that he was able to get these cuffs off, I guess.
00:10:27
Speaker
Madison's hands were cuffed behind his back. That is how his father had him cupped. That is how officers saw him when they came to the house the first time. Now when they came back 11 minutes later, his hands were still behind his back, still cupped together. So while it is plausible that he could have gotten those cuffs off, shot his mother and father, hidden any evidence of this, and then run to his neighbor's house, that seems a little bit hard to believe and here's why I say that.
00:10:55
Speaker
First, there was no blood on Madison. There was no gunshot residue on his hands. In fact, when the gun was fingerprinted, there was only one definitive set of fingerprints that could be found on the gun and they were April's. So Madison's fingerprints were not on the gun and his father's cannot be determined to be on the gun either. So to believe that Madison shot his parents, here's what would have needed to have happened. First, he would have needed to either have been freed from the cuffs
00:11:24
Speaker
by maybe one of his parents, or he would have had to be able to take them off himself. Now the key to the handcuffs were in the living room. So yes, he could have grabbed the key, could have gotten his hands in front of him somehow, which is possible by stepping over your own hands. It is a bit difficult if you've never had to do it before.
00:11:45
Speaker
I mean, take a second, stand up. Link your hands together and try and step over your own hands from behind your back. It's possible, but it takes a little bit more coordination than you might think. So he would have had to step over his own hands, somehow unlock his own cuffs, which might have been somewhat difficult because your hands are usually cuffed together very closely, gone into his parents' bedroom, shot both of his parents without any fight from whichever one he did not shoot first.
00:12:13
Speaker
clean himself up from any blood, take his prints off the gun, clean any gunshot residue off of his hands, recuff himself, get his hands back behind his back, and then run out of the house over to his neighbor. Now, possible!
00:12:34
Speaker
But he would have had to have become a mastermind of criminology in that moment. To have come up with all of that on the fly in under 10 minutes. Because yes, it took 11 minutes for that call to be placed. But you have to consider that he would have had to wait for the cops to leave. And then he would have had to run over to his neighbor's house. And now this house from based on the map images that I saw, they're not right next to each other. They're not a great distance away. But they're not like duplexes.
00:13:01
Speaker
He would have had to free himself from the handcuffs, shoot and kill both of his parents, wipe his prints off the gun, potentially place his mother's prints on the gun, or wipe his prints off and somehow miss his own mother's prints on the gun, clean himself of blood and gunshot residue, recuff himself, get his hands behind his back, and then run to the neighbors to have them call the cops, all in under about 10 minutes.
00:13:22
Speaker
Now that seems a little unlikely to me, but I've never plotted to kill my parents, so who knows? It is a lot to do in a short amount of time. It really is. Madison's story is that he walked into his parents' bedroom or his dad's bedroom because it's not his mother's house. Walked into the bedroom and his father had his mother in a chokehold and was attacking his mother.
00:13:44
Speaker
Now, Madison also tells us that their relationship was not in a good place because his father was very, very distressed about his mother and their separation and also the fact that his mother had a new boyfriend at the time. To quote Madison directly, he said he like freaked out and then he called her and he was going off on her about it. He was like, I need you. I can't live without you. Stuff like that. Whenever we got back home, I had never seen my dad cry before, but he was bawling.
00:14:16
Speaker
Now, we can't take the word of our prime suspect that his father was at this drastic place. However, we can take Mike's word for it. Because in Mike's journal, he documented his own depression and distress over his wife leaving him. Writing in a letter to his estranged wife, I just can't go on knowing that you are with somebody else. It was either me or the both of us.
00:14:43
Speaker
Madison believes and told police that it was a murder-suicide, that his father shot his mother and then killed himself. But as Sierra mentioned, the original coroner's report was believed that Mike could not have shot himself in the back of the head. First of all, Mike was well-respected. He was the former mayor.
00:15:05
Speaker
which according to the mic himself, he stepped down from that position due to wanting to spend more time with his family. However, if you ask his extended family, specifically I believe April's brothers, he stepped down due to a continuing and worsening drug habit.
00:15:22
Speaker
So I can see how it's hard to swallow that the former mayor, someone who was well-known, well-liked, enough to be an elected official at one point, could commit such a heinous act. And then you have the evidence that the gun was in his non-dominant hand, despite the fact there are reports that he was ambidextrous, and that he shot himself in the back of the head. Now one thing you'll see a lot is that the gun, his hand, would have had to be upside down.
00:15:46
Speaker
Now I've already asked you to get up and try and step over your own hands in this episode, and I apologize for that, but I'm going to ask you to do one more thing. Take your hand, specifically your non-dominant hand, which for me would be my right hand, and put it to the back of your head in the shape of a finger gun. It's really awkward to hold that barrel up straight with your thumb pointing towards the air. Now take your hand, put it behind your head, and twist it as you would naturally would your arm. Your hand will naturally bend over upside down.
00:16:15
Speaker
just because that's a more comfortable shape. So when trying to do the motion yourself, which is a bit morbid, and I apologize for that, it's more natural to flip your hand upside down. It's more comfortable. So it is completely possible, and I would
00:16:33
Speaker
wager, more likely, that the barrel of the gun, it's a small gun, would be upside down. And just because when you turn to put your hand behind your head, your hand automatically turns over so that your thumb is pointed down towards the ground. So I don't think it's strange that he shot himself with an upside down gun. I think that would be the more natural movement.
00:16:55
Speaker
So all of this could technically be circumstantial, considering we can't find Mike's prints on this gun either, and I could not find any information about gunshot residue being found on Mike's hand.
Madison's Innocence and Dropped Charges
00:17:07
Speaker
We can look towards April's face. Now, Sierra mentioned that her hands have been in front of her face and one of her fingers had been damaged by a bullet wound. Another thing we see, underneath her fingernails they found skin cells. When they ran these skin cells for DNA analysis, it wasn't Madison's DNA that popped up, but Mike's.
00:17:27
Speaker
Mike also had scratches on his face. So it looks like defensive wounds from April who was trying to fight back against her husband who according to her own son had had her in a chokehold when he ran out.
00:17:43
Speaker
When you factor in all of this information with the journal entry that have wounds on Mike's face, his DNA being found under April's fingernails, it makes things like not hearing the gunshot seem a little less important, but that still could be important. How can you not hear that gunshot?
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, actually, I can't explain that one away, but let's consider adrenaline. You have just seen your father, who you have noticed becoming more and more depressed and more and more upset about your mother moving on from their relationship, attacking your mother. You've been at a party, you've been busted for partying, where marijuana was found, you have most likely been drinking.
00:18:28
Speaker
and you see that and you're running for help with your hands cuffed behind your back because your father has put you in handcuffs. Some would say that's probably an odd day to have. So let's consider that perhaps he did not hear the gunshot because first of all it's a small gun. Second of all he is running for help in an extreme situation.
00:18:48
Speaker
I think it's probably normal to have not heard that. Do not be too focused on listening for a gunshot when your parents or when your father is attacking your mother. I'm convinced of who I think is guilty, and I'm not sure where you stand at this point, but I do know where April's brothers stand. Madison's uncle, Chris Owenby, did believe that Mike snapped and just committed suicide after murdering his wife.
00:19:18
Speaker
In quote, he said, I think Michael couldn't face the world knowing that he killed his wife and the only option left for him was to end his own life. And remember, Mike had been under the influence of hydrocodone, oxycodone, and tramadol when this all took place. So he was on three opioids. He was struggling with some depression.
00:19:39
Speaker
When you look at April's family, we didn't mention this earlier because it's not necessarily relevant. Madison has two brothers, and at the time of his parents' death, his brothers were taken in by his mom's family. When Madison himself was released from jail after charters were dropped, he was also taken in by his mother's family. They do not think he did this. His mother's brothers do not think this was his fault that he did this. They fully believe that Michael did it.
00:20:07
Speaker
Supposed victim, her family, does not believe that he did this. He has not re-offended in the years since this has happened and the charges have been dropped. He leads a quiet life and he is still assuring people of his innocence. So you look at all the facts together and you look at the drug use on both sides. You look at the circumstances. You look at journal entries from Mike himself. You look at history of addiction. It's kind of looking like it wasn't Madison.
00:20:37
Speaker
We'll add to that the words of District Attorney Randall Houston, who had this to say when the charges against Madison were dropped.
00:20:47
Speaker
From the beginning, this case has been open to interpretation as to what is actually the truth. Either Jesse Holton killed his father and mother, the father of Jesse Holton killed Jesse's mother, then Jesse killed his father, or the father of Jesse Holton killed Jesse's mother and then killed himself. My office has reason to believe any of these three scenarios could have occurred, but we have no proof to support any of the three theories beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore,
00:21:15
Speaker
We are ethically obligated to dismiss the murder charges against Jesse Holton. The Elmore County Sheriff's Office has left no stone unturned in the case. And I thank them for their relentless search for truth and justice. So that's the same story, different facts. Now, everything Sierra said was 100% true, according to our sources. Caveat. Everything I said was 100% true, according to our sources. But had I not said what I said,
00:21:43
Speaker
Would you not walk away thinking that Madison was 100% guilty? And that all the evidence pointed towards a disgruntled party boy teenager who was frustrated with his parents, who was about to be sent to potentially juvie some sort of community service or who knows and acted out in accordance to that anger. But when you look at the facts across the board, it points you in a completely new direction.
00:22:13
Speaker
this
Media Literacy and Bias in Crime Reporting
00:22:14
Speaker
episode was important to both of us because i think it really shows how important media bias is and being able to look beyond what is sensational now from this point on we're going to be discussing our personal opinions about this case just because this case lends itself to so much personal opinion and interpretation and i think it's an important conversation to have but from here on out it's all opinion so if you come here for the facts you can turn you can turn them so
00:22:43
Speaker
I don't know, let's talk about it. What are your thoughts, Sierra? Who do you think done it? Okay, so I was a little bit, I wasn't certain during this thing because as I kept reading different articles, I began to wonder maybe Madison didn't kill his mom, but he came into the room in time to see his dad kill his mom and then he shot his dad. However,
00:23:05
Speaker
There's still the issue of his fingerprints not being on the gun. I actually did not know that it was April's fingerprints on the gun though. That is very interesting to me. Right. There was only one solid set of fingerprints that could be lifted off and those belonged to April. Now that could be that she fought off her husband allegedly. Um, and that's why her fingerprints ended on the gun or
00:23:28
Speaker
I don't know if his hands were like clammy or he was sweaty or if he was coming down off of opiate, which are one of the side effects of being on those drugs is sweating or fatigue or things like that. So maybe he had clammy hands or he was shaky and didn't leave a solid fingerprint on the gun. But what's for certain, Madison's could not be positively identified either.
00:23:49
Speaker
Right. So even though I was wondering, maybe he shot just his dad. I still don't even think that could have happened because 11 minutes is not that much time to get all of those things done. And also, if he was consuming marijuana or alcohol at the party, like those are both depressants. They really they slowed down your reaction time. They slowed down your thinking, not that I'm an expert in marijuana, but I would assume it doesn't heighten your
00:24:18
Speaker
like thinking abilities to be able to do something like that. Well, typically I'm not a marijuana smoker. I don't participate in the devil's lettuce. It's not my, not my thing, but, um, I have family. Um, no, I had a family member who was on medical marijuana for some years for an amputation and it was, it was a pain relief to him. It never made him angry. It chilled him out.
00:24:46
Speaker
And that's just my singular experience, but I can vividly remember one Thanksgiving where he had two bait pins, one in each hand, and he looked at me and he was like, this one makes me hungry, and this one chills me out, and that's how I'm going to survive this holiday. And so, you know, weed typically is something, it's the stoner, a stereotype where they're always like chilled out and
00:25:08
Speaker
They're not really violent people. Well, who knows? They're not really known for, it's not like a steroid. You know, where roid rage is a thing or a side effect is known rage. So being on marijuana, I don't see how that would make you angry. I could see how it could cloud your judgment. And I will tell you for a while, there's some facts to this case that even I know I came across really strong as.
00:25:30
Speaker
I don't believe he did it, and I don't believe he did it. I'll say that right now. That's my bias. I don't think he did it. The evidence does not point to him, and I think that the right call was made here, that he should not be prosecuted for this. The whole grabbing two cell phones thing on the way out. I think that's weird. I've seen parts of his interrogation. He does seem very, very cavalier. I've seen the picture of him laughing in the courtroom. But again, all of those things can be explained.
00:25:59
Speaker
When he's in court, he's been in custody for a while or he's been under the situation for a long time. It's, I'm sure, very stressful. Some people deal with stress by humor. I'm not saying that's what he did. Maybe he was just countless and he didn't care. But as for him not being very emotional in his interrogation, that could be chalked up to a great many factors. The fact that he'd been at a party, he could be on marijuana, he could have had alcohol, he could have been in shock. I mean,
00:26:29
Speaker
you never know. And then within his own interview, he comes across as a very 17-year-old boy. And I say that as someone with siblings like that. Sometimes they're just so earnest that it's just kind of like, oh, well, what I'm saying is true. And it's kind of how he came across. He wasn't over the top and his uncle wasn't there, wasn't the integration with him. I believe Chris was in there with him.
00:26:55
Speaker
And they called him in. He didn't know what happened. The uncle has stated at some point, or Chris has stated at some point that he wasn't sure if he was guilty or not. There's a Dateline episode where they interview all of these people. I couldn't find the full episode, but I was able to watch clips of it. At one point, the sheriff tells Madison that the doctor downstairs believes that he had shot his parents and that his dad couldn't have shot himself. And Madison says, I don't care. I didn't shoot my parents.
00:27:25
Speaker
So it could just be that he's not overly emotional because he knows he didn't do it. But who knows? There's a million different reasons that a million different people could react in a million different ways.
00:27:35
Speaker
That's right. We can never just expect one distinct type of emotional reaction from someone, especially not someone like you mentioned, who's possibly been consuming alcohol, marijuana, all of these different drugs that will alter your mood dramatically. And of course shock, like you said as well. Right. And mixing those things with Adderall, bad idea. Yeah. And Adderall also is supposed to calm you down because it's supposed to help people with ADHD focus and stuff. So.
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's very, very odd. I do think this was a case of mental health getting the better of somebody and causing them to act in a way that was irreversible. I know April, she was taken out of the scene alive, and she passed away the next day due to her injuries. But she was taken away, and it's one of those cases that you just wish. Because it's also reported that when they got on scene, she was calling for help. And I don't know how true that is, or she'd been fatally shot in the head. But it's one of those things where you wish
00:28:29
Speaker
if only she could have been able to say something or speak. But I think the DNA evidence under her nails and the scratch mark on her estranged husband's face are very damning. Yeah, that's very compelling. This is one of the reasons. Obviously, both of us are writers. We've taken courses in journalism. I've written journalistic pieces in the past.
00:28:54
Speaker
one thing that just kind of floored me about these articles that I was reading with some of the misinformation you'd find, the conflicting information within articles, which I know Sierra had some trouble with that as well. Yeah, like for one thing,
00:29:07
Speaker
One article said that 911 was called because of a gunshot, but Madison never said he heard it and I couldn't find other articles if the neighbor actually heard a gunshot or if it was because of what another article said was there was trouble at the Holton residence. One article and a caption called them Horton instead of Holton. Granted, that wasn't through the whole article, but you know, changing the name, just different details or the way things were presented. I wasn't sure of the exact timeline.
00:29:36
Speaker
Right. And media bias is such a huge problem. We have in this, we are obviously we're American. It's a huge problem in this country. It's a polarizing topic. It's very, we hear fake news, fake news all the time. And I don't really think we have a problem as much with fake news as we do with bias and presenting the news.
00:29:58
Speaker
I have something I wanted to say about that. Going back to the Montgomery advertiser with their opening line about him smoking a cigarette at his next door neighbor's home where mere moments after he allegedly shot his mother and father, that was the opening line to that article. And that was very intentional. You do not start a piece that way unless you're trying to present your key person in a certain light. Exactly. They make sure they include that he is smoking, so we know that he's acting casually.
00:30:28
Speaker
Um, which smoking can also be a stress reaction. I was about to say that also I know smokers and they smoke when they need to chill out. So that went like, when they need to calm themselves down after something stressful. So. Right. That could be, you know, he's just seen something horrible and, um, he needs to calm down for a second. And the word allegedly in there, that's to avoid libel, but it's not to avoid.
00:30:53
Speaker
i love and i hate the word alleged because allegedly it's great because you can't just say oh so and so did something that's libel and you can be sued for that because libel is written defamation and defamation which is when you speak of fun writing terms with kaylee and sierra um defamation is a false statement that is
00:31:09
Speaker
damaging to somebody. That defamation is verbal, libel is published or written, that's what you would find in a newspaper that would be libel. So you throw the word allegedly in there to save yourself from a libel lawsuit if it ever comes out that this kid is not guilty. It's not to save your reader from any, it's not to save your reader from coming to a conclusion that is not accurate. You are trying to lead them to that sort of understanding.
00:31:38
Speaker
So the alleged is not for the reader. It's for your, it's for your lawyer. And, you know, sometimes you have to, you have to use words like alleged or suspected when it comes to things when you do reportage on car accidents. The driver was allegedly doing this. It's not been officially charged, but you need to be able to say this is what, you need to be able to say this is what's been reported, but it's not been charged. We can't say that otherwise it's liable.
00:32:07
Speaker
It's very useful, but when it comes to pieces like this, I just find it to be sneaky because you're telling your reader how to feel right in the beginning. You're letting them know this kid is casually smoking a cigarette and he just allegedly shot his parents.
00:32:20
Speaker
Yeah, I was irritated by that first line. I was so irritated. It's irritating. And as someone who's done journalistic work, I had a professor in college. Loved her to death. Scary woman. He is intense. But one thing she did on one of the first days of class, she, first of all, she told us she was going to make us all journalists. And I walked in there as someone with creative writing. Ideation, that's what I wanted.
00:32:50
Speaker
never gonna change me. She changed me. I did my internship in journalism, and I'd love to get back to those roots. I still have a love of creative writing, but journalism is just so fun. Thank you, professor, who I won't name. But one thing she said, and I wonder if she said this in your class as well, Sierra, because we had, we graduated from the same college, we had the same degree, but we did classes in different years.
00:33:18
Speaker
She asked us if we thought we were biased or if we had bias. And of course, we're not stupid. We all said, no, we will not write with bias. We don't have bias. And she said, wrong.
00:33:36
Speaker
Everyone has a bias. Your job is to let it get into your pieces as little as humanly possible. And to consider everything you say, and then to consider it again. And think about how no matter what you say, that can influence someone. That could be a leaning word. That could be showing bias.
00:33:56
Speaker
And while it is impossible to not be biased, it is not impossible to write unbiasedly. And that just did not happen with this case. No, it didn't. I don't want to get too far off on a tangent with journalism and bias and everything, but that's why I personally have a really hard time with reading journalistic pieces because journalism in America
00:34:19
Speaker
you need to stay relevant so you have readers so you can make money so they make the story sensational they try to make them sound like stories and the problem is that sometimes the facts will get muddled and i always tell my friends do not trust a journalistic piece that uses a lot of adjectives or adverbs because those are not quantifiable the art the writer is trying to sway you a certain way.
00:34:42
Speaker
Right? And that's so true because you don't have to come out and say everything directly. You can just use enough leaning words to let you know this is what the writer thinks. And with a true crime podcast, clearly we're creatively presenting these facts. And we're not trying- But it's not journalism. It's different. Right. We're not trying to, we're not reporters. I'm not breaking any news. Every story that I tell you about is someone's story and I'm being respectful and cognizant of that.
00:35:12
Speaker
But the facts are out there so That's different some of these like articles if they were writing doing a write-up on the situation years later, that's different However, they're not some of these are breaking news and that's how they chose to write this story because it's sensational.
Impact of Media Sensationalism on Public Perception
00:35:30
Speaker
It's You know, it's it's easy to get people to click on an article that leaves with local boy kills parents over party and
00:35:40
Speaker
and or local teenager kills ex-mayor father over blah blah blah and there's some sensational details to this case like I think most of us I'm not a parent but I can't imagine wanting to handcuff my child
00:35:55
Speaker
Mean I can I can say that I understand that kind of zero and I have both with children and sometimes You just kind of you need a moment. You need them to sit down and reflect So I'm not saying that it's completely outside their own possibility for this to happen but it's not a typical everyday punishment you see and Michael Holton met the cops outside and was like just so, you know, I have my son handcuffed Inside and I want you to take him into custody
00:36:21
Speaker
That's not a normal place for a parent to be pushed to. Right. I don't think that's inflammatory to say. It's not every day. Right. Yeah. So there was a buildup. Like there was apparently a lot of the articles said that he was going through a rebellious phase and some even went so far as to say that was the one thing April and Michael could agree on. Like that they were working together to try to help their son get through this phase or something like that. Right. That effect.
00:36:51
Speaker
So taking the lawn to his own hands was a bit strange, and we can see that there's clearly some sort of imbalance there. So even though it's being touted that it was an opportunistic murder from Madison's perspective, it was also a very opportunistic moment from Michael's perspective where he had in fact said, you know, it's either me or it's both of us.
00:37:11
Speaker
Right. And his son, who's 17, so he's probably I mean, he's young, but he could still be a force if he wanted to. His son is restrained in a different room. So he's alone with his wife. He has a chance. Crime of passion makes sense. And they could have gotten into an argument because who knows? Maybe one of them or maybe she didn't want charges to be pressed. Maybe they disagreed on how to handle the situation or you never know. We weren't in that room.
00:37:36
Speaker
And everyone who was in that room is now deceased and it's, it's, it's wild, but I definitely don't think, I don't think Madison did it. And I don't think that media really, I think they went with what they had, but I think this just shows you why when even breaking news happens, yeah, gotta be.
00:37:56
Speaker
You got to be cognizant of the fact that things can be said that are not quite, they're not unbiased just because it's coming from a new source. And Dateline did an episode about this. It's season 10, episode 43. I could not find it on any streaming service. I even tried to pay for it, which never happens. But I couldn't find it. I hope I find it because I'd like to see it. But they have a clip of it on YouTube. It was posted on March 3rd, 2022.
00:38:25
Speaker
And looking through the comments, there are a couple of comments that just kind of show why it's important to have some like media literacy. Here's one that just made me laugh and made me kind of sad. Someone said, what happened to that couple in just one word? Madison. Case closed. I didn't even finish watching this. Yikes.
00:38:50
Speaker
And that was just wild to me. First of all, this individual spelled Madison wrong, two D's, it's the only one. This is a symptom of media bias and this is poor writing in general. If you were to have only read the first lines of that one article that Sierra mentioned,
00:39:12
Speaker
right about him smoking the cigarette at the mere moment. Mere moments. There's one of those adjectives again. Mere moments. I don't have that pulled up. Hold on. I had that earlier.
00:39:25
Speaker
If you just read that first line of that article where it says, mere moments after Madison allegedly shot his parents and then he smoked on a cigarette, blah, blah, blah. If that's where you stopped, what do you know about that case? Alabama teenager shot his parents.
00:39:43
Speaker
That's all you need to know. And by reading biased media and dishonest reportage of facts, you walk away with the, I don't want to say wrong opinion because it's an opinion, but you walk away with an incomplete picture. And when it comes to guilty versus innocent, having the whole picture is so important.
00:40:05
Speaker
This has been, soon I've been talking about having a podcast for several months. And this is one of the first things I said I wanted to do was I wanted us to go over this case. I wanted us each to take a part of it and just show how you can see both sides and how by not giving all of the facts, your opinion can be vastly different. Now you want to listen to all of that and still think, yeah, Madison did it.
00:40:30
Speaker
valid. I'd love to know why. What has made you believe that? Because again, we can't talk to April. We can't talk to Mike. We can just go off what we know. Yeah. Be careful with your news media out there. Yeah. Look out for those adjectives and adverbs. Yeah. Keep an eye on those. And emotional verbs and nouns. Emotion. Yeah. Because what gets me clicks? A good emotional article.
00:40:57
Speaker
So draw you in, make you feel bad, make you feel sad. And I don't know, I still think it's a pretty big indication of how the family feels about this, just based on the fact that they took Madison in afterwards. They are still, you know, on his side. They don't think that he did this, which, you know, I think could say a lot about Madison. They could also say a lot about Mike.
00:41:25
Speaker
from what kind of man that he was. Anything else you'd like to add, Sierra? I agree with you that the family's reaction speaks volumes. And again, we still have those scratch marks on Michael's face, the DNA under April's fingers. I do think it was Michael who did it personally. I would agree with that just because I find it very unlikely that a teenager who's potentially under the influence
00:41:54
Speaker
has become a criminal mastermind in under 10 minutes and has managed to take out both parents.
Podcast Reflection and Future Episodes
00:42:02
Speaker
Because it's kind of alluding to it earlier, I think it's a bit unlikely that he was able to shoot one parent and then shoot the other, especially since I guess it could be really quick, very fast, but if his mom had the time to kind of throw her hands up and protect her face or try to protect her face,
00:42:22
Speaker
I feel like that would have given enough time for at least one parent to try and wrestle for the gun or something. Yeah. At the very least, it shows me a little bit more than 10 minutes would have been needed there. But if it was just one individual attacking the other and then taking their own life, that makes more sense to me. Yeah.
00:42:41
Speaker
Yeah, overall it's a very sad situation. But I'm glad that the charges were dropped against Madison and he can kind of go on with life now. I mean obviously that's always in his past and something that he'll have to remember and you know for his brothers as well. Such a dread. Right. They lost both of their parents the same day. Or well, essentially the same day. And they could have lost their brother too.
00:43:04
Speaker
Is the case on the importance of media literacy? I think it's a good skill to have to be able to to pick out what could potentially be biased media coverage. Yep, I agree. It's very important, especially in the US. Especially in the US where we love to get emotional. Alright, that wraps us up for this week. Next week it is my case and we'll be going over both the Tylenol and the Excedrin murders.
00:43:35
Speaker
which will be fun and make you lose faith in over-the-counter medication. So I don't think Sarah's familiar with this case, are you? I am not familiar with this case. All right. Well, it'll definitely be interesting. We'll be kind of merging the two together, focusing more on the Excedrin side of it because that is a solved mystery and we tend to avoid unsolved because we're both perfectionists and we need to know what happens. But we'll be doing an overview of the Tylenol and go into the Excedrin murders.
00:44:05
Speaker
I'm looking forward to it. All right, we will see you all next week. Until then, be aware, take care, and we'll see you there. Bye.