324. The Morehouse Student Murder - The Murder of Carlnell Walker

On this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the murder of Carlnell Walker, a promising Morehouse College student with big dreams for the future. When a welfare check uncovers a disturbing scene, investigators begin unraveling the events that led to his tragic death. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources:EastBayTimes.com - https://www.eastbaytimes.com/obituaries/memoriam-carlnell-walker/ SFGate.com - https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Arrests-in-torture-slaying-of-college-student-2515641.php Legacy.com - https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/carlnell-walker-obituary?pid=18529575 Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/the-real-murders-of-atlanta/crime-news/keith-roberts-ringleader-behind-torture-murder-of-carlnell Caselaw. Findlaw.com - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ga-supreme-court/1694566.html WISTV.com - https://www.wistv.com/story/5135551/morehouse-student-found-dead-in-car-trunk/ UPI.com - https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2006/07/22/4th-suspect-sought-in-Morehouse-slaying/52631153610371/ BlackCollegeWire.com - https://blackcollegewire.org/news/060726_morehouse-walker/ TheEduledger.com - https://www.theeduledger.com/home/article/15088959/former-morehouse-student-gets-life-in-torture-killing-case BET.com - https://www.bet.com/article/xuqij1/former-morehouse-student-gets-life-in-prison MyLifeOfCrime.com - https://mylifeofcrime.wordpress.com/tag/carlnell-walker/ HenryHerald.com - https://www.henryherald.com/news/man-sentenced-in-morehouse-student-s-torture-murder-gets-two/article_ef2e376a-cf99-54b7-8a91-d10dc940accb.html Law. Justia.com - https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/supreme-court/2015/s14a1430.html Atlanta Magazine - https://books.google.com/books?id=sg4AAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=carlnell+walker+obituary&source=bl&ots=FlYdgj1piX&sig=WQm9R7WdCm4CyA5Lse6elGpCUjw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd5tnqsZHTAhUpilQKHX4PDjkQ6AEIQzAH#v=onepage&q=carlnell%20walker%20obituary&f=false The Real Murders of Atlanta on Peacock.com - https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/_/99d0061c-9f02-3093-819d-c397049a8106 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 0:04Speaker 01

  With Monday Note Taker, the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Action items, owners, deadlines. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.

• 0:16Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with my Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 0:23Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:24Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:25Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. How is everybody doing? Any fun plans? Anything good going on? How's work for everybody? How's life? What's everyone up to? Thanks to any of everybody who says hi to me at the shop. Appreciate it. What else you guys got going on? I want to hear something cool. Give me some, give me some good news. Anything crazy going on? Anything good going on? Yeah, I don't know what you guys are up to, so leave it in the comments on social media. And that's what I got. Peyton's got a pretty cool sweatshirt on.

• 0:56Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, if you're watching on video, you can obviously see my shirt, but if not, I'll explain it to you. I have our newest merch on. It's kind of like a university line, kind of like a, what's that called? What's the cut?

• 1:10Garrett Moreland?

  Varsity.

• 1:10Payton Moreland?

  Varsity, varsity, not university.

• 1:12Garrett Moreland?

  I got you, baby.

• 1:16Payton Moreland?

  That's what I meant.

• 1:17Garrett Moreland?

  I know what you meant.

• 1:17Payton Moreland?

  It's like similar.

• 1:18Garrett Moreland?

  There's a lot going on. It's okay.

• 1:20Payton Moreland?

  Okay, varsity. It's like a varsity cut, so it's, we really haven't done anything like this. So cute, cute colors, a higher neck, like it's like a crew neck, but even higher. It's super cute. But yeah, this is our latest drop. If you want to go check it out.

• 1:36Garrett Moreland?

  We'll put links everywhere.

• 1:39Garrett Moreland?

  So if you want to go check out the merch, go check it out. And what else?

• 1:44Payton Moreland?

  Nothing. I think we're ready to give you your 10 seconds.

• 1:47Garrett Moreland?

  Peyton and I were talking about this the other day. And it's something I've, how do I say this? Not that I've been into, but I think about like, I love zombie apocalypse movies. I love the end of the world movies. I don't know. I just, I love those type of movies. I don't know why. Maybe I'm crazy. But let's say we had an EMP go off. All the electricity went off everywhere, just our.

• 2:12Garrett Moreland?

  The electrical system in the US is just shot like our electrical grids down. Like, how long before people stop using cash to pay for things and we start bartering? Like, how long does cash and digital payments or cash? How long is it still looked as a commodity, like something we want? You know what I'm saying? So Peyton and I talked about this the other day for a second because I was like, I think like a week or so and people are just over it. And like you go to like cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, medicine, like guns, like all that stuff starts becoming the commodities. Instead of like, I think pretty quickly people stop using cash.

• 2:54Garrett Moreland?

  Because I've read a couple of books on this and it's surprising. I mean, it's not surprising to me, but maybe it's surprising to you guys. How fast a society would become hostile? And maybe not, but there's a lot of people that would like when people start fighting for their, for their lives or their families or their loved ones. I just think it turns hostile so quick, which is unfortunate, but.

• 3:20Payton Moreland?

  I've, yeah, I've like had this sudden realization lately that modern day, like currently we live in a very different world than majority of history has lived in. It would just revert back to history, like we would, we would almost just rewind, right? To earlier times.

• 3:38Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I mean, I guess depending where you're, where you are at in the world. Yes, I would say we are a more civilized.

• 3:45Payton Moreland?

  Um, yeah, I'm obviously talking about like our current civilizations, but I also think.

• 3:50Garrett Moreland?

  Depending where you're at, I would say we are the most civilized we've ever been. And I think it continues to get better to an extent each year. There's lots of, there's lots of different things you can say about that. But yes, I agree. And I think pretty quickly if says like things were to go south and go wrong, we would like, well, just your natural human tendencies take over. And I think it would get, I just think it'd get crazy so fast. We're kind of rambling, but that's my 10 seconds.

• 4:16Payton Moreland?

  That's a very deep 10 seconds. Cause this has been a thought that has been plaguing me lately. And then you just came out and we're like.

• 4:21Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. So if you guys have any thoughts on it, feel free to leave it in the comments. Yeah, that's all I got. Anyways, on that note, on that deep thought of EMPs and society collapsing, let's hop into this week's episode.

• 4:36Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are eastbaytimes.com, sfgate.com, legacy.com, oxygen.com, caselaw.fine law.com, wistv.com, upi.com, blackcollegewire.com, theeduledger.com, bet.com, mylifeofcrime.com, henryherald.com, law.justia.com, atlanta magazine, and the real murders of Atlanta on Peacock. There are a lot of people in this world who work really hard to break the cycle of the past. Whether that's getting out of a tough neighborhood, escaping age-old stereotypes, breaking generational trauma, it's not an easy thing to do,

• 5:18Payton Moreland?

  but everyone deserves a bright future regardless of where they came from or what has happened before. And moving forward means trusting the path you are on and trusting those around you to help support you along the way. And that was Carlnell Walker. He was a focused, driven, 23-year-old college student, determined to succeed in life. He created his own opportunities. He saw positivity even in the negative, but not everyone around Carlnell was rooting for his future. Some were actually planning to rob him of it, even if that meant taking his life along the way.

• 6:03Payton Moreland?

  So today, we are headed to Atlanta, Georgia to meet 23-year-old Carlnell Walker. A miracle child, as his mother Peggy described him, and honestly, in more ways than one. Peggy said doctors originally told her she couldn't have children. And then along came Carlnell. He was born on January 13th, 1983. He had actually grown up in Richmond, California. This was a tougher neighborhood about a half hour drive right over the bay from San Francisco. Now, growing up, Cornell was always energetic. According to his cousin,

• 6:44Payton Moreland?

  he was the kind of person who could turn any dull situation into a good time. Type person you always wanted around when you were feeling down. And he also had that quality where you just knew he was going to be successful at whatever he set his mind to. He had, as some people like to call it, the sauce, that charisma and appeal. Plus, he was extremely determined. For example, when Cornell was a junior in high school, he told his mom out of the blue that he wanted to join the tennis team. Now, usually, high school sports are something you work your way up to after years of practice, but Cornell didn't even need that.

• 7:26Payton Moreland?

  He joined the team that year and was a natural at it, becoming the top tennis player in Contra Costa County. But junior year also had its downsides for Cornell, too. He was kicked out of high school for drug possession, and he later spent some time in juvenile detention. And when he violated his parole, a judge actually sent him to Byron Boys Ranch. This was a youth rehab facility, and he was sent there for six months in high school. But Cornell knew he wanted to turn things around.

• 8:04Payton Moreland?

  He worked hard, he completed the program early, and went on to graduate high school with honors in 2001. He then took the year after graduation off to focus on himself and really figure out what he wanted to do with adulthood, which he eventually realized was music and songwriting. By the following summer, Cornell told his family he was ready for college. He tried out two different schools, one in Tennessee and one in North Carolina, before he set the bar even higher for himself. He decided he wanted to transfer to Morehouse College in Atlanta, and he got accepted there on a tennis scholarship.

• 8:50Payton Moreland?

  Now finally, in the fall of 2004, now 21-year-old Cornell arrived in Georgia, ready to attend the prestigious, historically all-male, black college. Now, I say that because Morehouse is nicknamed "The Black Harvard." It's known for shaping important icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., director Spike Lee, and actor Samuel L. Jackson. It's actually been around for nearly 160 years now. So, becoming what's called a Morehouse man was something Cornell and a lot of other young men dreamed of.

• 9:31Payton Moreland?

  And with its great reputation for academics, it set Cornell up for a bright future and plenty of opportunities. But Morehouse also sat within its own little bubble in the middle of downtown Atlanta, which, back in the mid-2000s, was a city on the rise. A lot of students were flocking to the area because there were so many other historically black colleges and universities there. But Atlanta itself was still dealing with a notably higher crime rate compared to the rest of the country. This didn't deter Cornell, though, and while he lived alone in an off-campus house, he

• 10:12Payton Moreland?

  felt confident that he could handle this new journey at this college. So Cornell kept his sights set on his studies, majoring in business administration, but ultimately, he did want to produce music, rap, and hip-hop, to be specific.

• 10:29Garrett Moreland?

  Cool.

• 10:30Payton Moreland?

  He even set up his own record label called Triple Goldmine Records, and he went by the nickname "C-Money," and posted on MySpace about how he was looking-

• 10:43Garrett Moreland?

  MySpace, let's go.

• 10:45Payton Moreland?

  I know, early 2000s.

• 10:46Garrett Moreland?

  That's a throwback.

• 10:47Payton Moreland?

  About how he was looking for fresh, new talent to basically produce.

• 10:51Garrett Moreland?

  MySpace was awesome.

• 10:54Payton Moreland?

  I never had it. I was a little too young.

• 10:56Garrett Moreland?

  I had it for a little bit, and I thought it was cool, but I mean, it's also been so long, so, I don't know.

• 11:01Payton Moreland?

  But Carlnell was also incredibly focused on keeping his life on track since he had had those slip ups in high school. And to do that, he made sure that he stayed connected with his religion and a local church in Atlanta. Now, his mom Peggy actually claims that she found this surprising at first. Carlnell didn't go to church much back when he lived home in California, but she was excited to hear that he had found this community near school. Peggy said she could hear the excitement in his voice after he had joined this church and how he just spoke about it with such passion and high regard. It seemed like it was really bringing Carlnell peace,

• 11:45Payton Moreland?

  especially when he had an unexpected accident in March of 2006. Now, I wasn't able to find too many details on this, but I know Carlnell was in a pretty significant car crash just outside of Atlanta. He was okay, I believe. There was no terrible injuries from what I found. And Carlnell was told that because the other driver was at fault, he might be getting anywhere from a few thousand to $50,000 in insurance payouts for the damage from this crash. It was something that he actually began banking on when he made his

• 12:27Payton Moreland?

  trip back home to visit his family in May of that year, 2006. He told them all about how he was waiting for the money to arrive. And though it was looking closer to just a few thousand dollars, it was still a lot for a young college student. Maybe because of that, Carlnell was really in good spirits during that trip home.

• 12:50Garrett Moreland?

  I remember in college, I'd save a box of pizza for like the whole week.

• 12:54Payton Moreland?

  I know.

• 12:54Garrett Moreland?

  Like this is my food.

• 12:56Payton Moreland?

  I know.

• 12:56Garrett Moreland?

  Anyways.

• 12:57Payton Moreland?

  So on this trip home, he gets to spend Mother's Day with Peggy. He went to a cousin's wedding, and then he returned back to his off-campus housing in Atlanta around the first week of June.

• 13:10Payton Moreland?

  And around mid-month, he called his grandmother for a long overdue chat. And during this phone call, she said Carlnell seemed like his same old usual self. They talked about his upcoming semester at Morehouse, where he'd be going into his junior year, according to most sources. And he also mentioned how he'd be sending her some money soon to pass on to his 10-year-old cousin. And then after this phone call with his grandma, two weeks go by, okay? July rolls around and on the 8th, Peggy gets a call from one of Carlnell's neighbors saying

• 13:53Payton Moreland?

  she hadn't heard from him in a few days, so she was now reaching out to his mom to see if he's okay. And Peggy tells the neighbor, well, I haven't spoken to him recently either. They weren't necessarily a family that chats every day, so it wasn't unusual for her to go a week or so without hearing from her son. But this specific day when the neighbor calls also happens to be Peggy's birthday. And so she does find it alarming that she hasn't heard from her son Carlnell yet. So this is when Peggy decides to call the Clayton County Police Department and ask, hey, can you stop by my son's home in Atlanta for a welfare check?

• 14:38Payton Moreland?

  So after this, an officer goes to his rented home where Carlnell, remember, lives by himself. And they find that the front door is locked, so they go around the back and the back door to his house is wide open.

• 14:54Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 14:55Payton Moreland?

  Now, as the officer steps inside, she sees there's actually quite a bit of blood in the kitchen that's leading towards the living room. And I imagine if you're a cop doing a welfare check and the first thing you see when you open the door is blood leading into a different room, you're immediately like, okay,

• 15:15Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 15:16Payton Moreland?

  this welfare check was warranted, we've got something going on here.

• 15:19Garrett Moreland?

  It's just crazy. It's some of these professions out there just.

• 15:25Garrett Moreland?

  I think you get, and maybe not, I'm not in these professions, but I would assume after a while of doing something over and over, like being a, um, oh my gosh, what's it called? Someone who inspects people when they're dead. What's that called?

• 15:42Payton Moreland?

  A mortician?

• 15:43Garrett Moreland?

  A mort- yeah, mortician, a mortician. Like, I guess you get used to it after a while.

• 15:48Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 15:48Garrett Moreland?

  Of just seeing that many dead bodies, but as someone new, I'm sure it's just like, whoa.

• 15:54Payton Moreland?

  Well, also, I, I would hope that most welfare checks don't end up bleeding with blood, and you know what I mean? And so I'm sure it's still alarming, yeah.

• 16:04Garrett Moreland?

  Like, this happens.

• 16:05Payton Moreland?

  Uh, the cop also notices that there is stuff everywhere, as if someone has rummaged through this place. We are talking tables turned over, couch cushions on the floor, drawers were pulled out. The panel leading to the attic was out of place. It was clear immediately that there had been some sort of struggle that had happened here. The blood, number one, but there were also bloody handprints on the wall, as well as drag marks around the house that implied someone or something had been pulled. And then there's a bunch of items in the middle of the living room floor piled together,

• 16:47Payton Moreland?

  next to an empty bottle of lamp oil, almost like someone had like, made this pile and then was planning to set it on fire using the oil. And among them were these pieces of hair, like there was hair in this pile, dreadlocks, to be specific.

• 17:05Garrett Moreland?

  Ooh.

• 17:06Payton Moreland?

  Now.

• 17:06Garrett Moreland?

  Interesting.

• 17:08Payton Moreland?

  Obviously, you've probably put two and two together, but Cornell had dreadlocks. And they also, nearby is a pair of scissors that had seemingly been used to cut the dreadlocks.

• 17:21Garrett Moreland?

  I don't like this. This all, this already sounds like some, like he had been tortured.

• 17:26Payton Moreland?

  Right? This re- like, it's just not-

• 17:27Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I already just know. Uh-uh.

• 17:29Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. But the thing that is most concerning is there is a terrible smell of decay lingering around the house. And that's when the cops know, okay, it is time to call for backup. And as soon as the other officers arrive, they kind of follow the smell into the garage. And inside of the garage, there's Carlnell's old mobile. And the trunk is cracked open ever so slightly. I'm sure the officers are like, please, please, don't like, this is the last thing they want to see. But inside his own trunk is 23-year-old Carlnell.

• 18:12Garrett Moreland?

  God, okay.

• 18:12Payton Moreland?

  He has been tied up and gagged with a computer cord, TV cables, and electrical tape. Again, his hair has been cut in sections. He has been beaten and stabbed. They noticed he's missing some of his teeth.

• 18:27Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 18:29Payton Moreland?

  And from the level of decomposition, detectives actually believe he's been dead for several days, if not weeks, by this point.

• 18:38Garrett Moreland?

  Why? Like, what? Yeah.

• 18:41Payton Moreland?

  So-

• 18:42Garrett Moreland?

  No, just why? Like, what's going on?

• 18:44Payton Moreland?

  So it's around 1:00 PM Peggy's time, when she finally gets a call back from the police in Atlanta. And you can imagine, like, she's called, said, hey, can you just do this welfare check? It's my birthday. He hasn't called me. What she's gonna hear on the other end of this call, when they finally call her back to report in about that welfare check, like, I, I can't even imagine the devastation.

• 19:05Garrett Moreland?

  Well, I, yeah, I just, I can't imagine being a parent or a loved one and having to just go through that trauma and just awful situation. Like, truly, I can't imagine it.

• 19:17Payton Moreland?

  Obviously, the news they delivered of Peggy on her 50th birthday is something no one ever deserves to hear. Her son, her miracle child, has been found dead during that welfare check.

• 19:32Payton Moreland?

  And it looks like it was the result of a heartbreaking and gruesome homicide. We are getting into an ad and I have great news. Right now, all of Mint's plans, Mint Mobile, are $15 per month, even unlimited. So free yourself from big wireless and their gimmicks and gotchas, and switch to Mint for high-speed data and coverage on the T-Mobile 5G network. Honestly, it was shocking to me when I got on and saw the price difference from switching from my current network over to Mint Mobile, but you're still getting the same coverage. Honestly shocking. You should check it out. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right with premium wireless for 15 bucks a month. All plans come with high-speed data and unlimited talk and text

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• 21:00Payton Moreland?

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• 21:08Garrett Moreland?

  This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support, and for a lot of people, cost is one of them. With BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide with an average copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning too.

• 21:30Payton Moreland?

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• 22:02Garrett Moreland?

  And Peyton and I are big advocates for therapy. Give it a try. Life can be crazy. There's a lot going on. Like we were talking about, sometimes it feels like you need to have everything figured out. You don't. Go talk to someone. Go see what's going on. Visit betterhelp.com/husband to explore your payment options. That's betterhelp, H E L P dot com slash husband.

• 22:24Payton Moreland?

  Now, knowing they obviously have a murder scene on their hands, police cordon off the area and begin searching for more clues inside Cornell's home. And all throughout the house, they find bloody shoe prints. When they compare them to all of the shoes found inside Cornell's place, there isn't a match. So immediately, police are like, hey, this must belong to the killer. Now, in the laundry room, they also discover one of the weapons used on Cornell. It was a claw hammer with blood on the handle and the head. But the blood patterns in the house suggests there might have actually been more than one person committing this crime. So police collect a lot of DNA samples

• 23:08Payton Moreland?

  and fingerprints. They photograph the bloody shoe prints. Basically, they collect anything with blood on it. Honestly, it's a gold mine for potential evidence, since so many of Cornell's things have been moved around and gone through. But testing this much evidence is going to take time. So if they want answers right now, they're going to have to try to turn to eyewitnesses. And unfortunately, those are a little harder to come by. After canvassing the area, none of Cornell's neighbors reported seeing anything of note.

• 23:44Payton Moreland?

  And remember, they don't even know the exact day, maybe even week that this happened. Carlnell lived alone and in a cul-de-sac, so there weren't many like random people passing by. When they speak with Peggy, she's like, listen, Carlnell was not involved with drugs or gangs. The only time he had been in trouble with the law was that one event back in high school. He hadn't done anything like it since. So next detectives speak with one of Carlnell's mentors. A Morehouse alumnus named Myron Johnson, who said he actually had been a bit worried about Carlnell lately. Ever since he'd befriended and started, quote, hanging around with the wrong crowd. So this is what his mentor tells police.

• 24:29Payton Moreland?

  And this made sense to the police because it did seem like Carlnell may have known his attackers. There didn't appear to be evidence of forced entry. And whoever was in there was looking for something specific. So they had to have known something about Carlnell's life. Now, when the medical examiner does Carlnell's autopsy, he determines that Carlnell has been dead for two to three weeks before being discovered.

• 24:55Garrett Moreland?

  That's a long time.

• 24:57Payton Moreland?

  He found extensive stab wounds on Carlnell's hands and thighs.

• 25:02Garrett Moreland?

  Also, it's going to make it even harder to find out who did this.

• 25:05Payton Moreland?

  He showed multiple signs of blunt force trauma, likely from a hammer. But none of those injuries actually resulted in his cause of death. That was from hyperthermia, AKA heat stroke. So that means Carlnell was definitely beaten, stabbed, but alive.

• 25:26Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, gosh.

• 25:26Payton Moreland?

  When they placed him inside his trunk.

• 25:28Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 25:29Payton Moreland?

  But because it was such a hot summer day and the humidity was so high, not to mention the position of his body was probably made it difficult for him to breathe and get more oxygen. But just that discovery alone is heartbreaking. At least investigators feel like they have a lot of leads to work off of in this homicide. And they start with one of the more obvious things they found in Carlnell's driveway. It was a black BMW that didn't belong to Carlnell, but instead belonged to his landlord, a guy named Terry Alexander. Now Terry.

• 26:09Payton Moreland?

  His landlord was someone that Cornell was known to not get along with, which means Mr. Alexander is one of the first people of interest in this case. And when police first speak to Terry, he tells them that he lives on the property across the street from the one he'd rented to Cornell, and he sometimes parks his car in Cornell's driveway since there's space. And when they tell him, okay, well, we found Cornell dead inside the garage, and he's been there for a while, Terry seems more like annoyed than upset that there's a dead body on his property he's gonna have to deal with. Police are like, okay, lack of empathy, like this is a red flag.

• 26:55Payton Moreland?

  But Terry also told the detectives, he didn't have a lot of interaction with Cornell. They mostly communicated through notes, which he does admit were often contentious because Terry said Cornell wasn't exactly the best tenant. Apparently Cornell had some issues with respecting the property. He had done some damage to the unit. He'd gotten at least one threat for eviction. So knowing about the tension between the two detectives bring Terry in for more formal questioning. And they ask him when the last time he saw Cornell was. And he claimed it was back on June 19th. This was 19 days before Cornell's body was found. And sometime between June 19th and July 8th,

• 27:41Payton Moreland?

  Terry went over to Cornell's to give him another letter saying, hey, you're overdue on rent. He's annoyed. And Terry says Cornell wasn't home at the time, so he let himself in and put the letter on the couch. Now, I need to be clear, it's possible that by this point Cornell was already dead and in the trunk of his car. So the house would have been in complete disarray. When the landlord like let himself in to leave the note.

• 28:11Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 28:11Payton Moreland?

  Though detectives can't be certain if it was before or after Carlnell's death, they still don't really have a concrete timeline. If it was after, you would think Terry would have noticed the same things police did when they went inside on July 8th. I mean, he's basically entering a crime scene. So either way, the timing is suspicious. So they end up collecting the landlord's shoes to run them against the bloody ones that were found at the crime scene. And when the tests come back, it ends up ruling Terry out. It seems the shoe prints don't even match his size. So he's kind of let off the hook, which is when the police pivot. And this time they take a look at Carlnell's cellphone records prior to his death.

• 28:53Payton Moreland?

  And they find that Carlnell's last call was actually at 2 a.m. on June 16th. It was made to a friend named Vincent Dillard. And when police speak with her, she tells them that the last time she saw Carlnell was two days later. So now June 18th. So now we know he was at least alive until June 18th. But when they're talking to her, she's also hysterical. She tells police there's something she needs to get off her chest because she actually thinks she knows who killed her friend Carlnell.

• 29:29Garrett Moreland?

  Which is, okay, if you needed to get it off your chest that bad, you would have called the cops earlier. So.

• 29:34Payton Moreland?

  So.

• 29:35Garrett Moreland?

  A little weird.

• 29:36Payton Moreland?

  Vincent Dillard tells the police this story. She's like, listen, I had known Carlnell for about three and a half years. We were pretty close, the type that kind of looked out for each other. So when Carlnell got a part-time job with a cleaning service, he called her to ask if she would be interested in working for them too. Maybe they could just like do this on the side, have a little fun, make a bit of extra cash. And Vincent Dillard says she's in. So Carlnell introduces her to a guy named Ari Baum. Now, one of their first jobs, at least together, is cleaning Ari's friend's parents' house. So they go, they show up to this house for this cleaning job.

• 30:15Payton Moreland?

  It is a big three story place and Carlnell and Vincent Strah spend the whole time busting their butts to get this place sparkling clean. But afterwards, something strange happens. Vincent Strah gets a call from Ari, the guy she'd been introduced to, asking if she had heard what happened. And then he tells her, your friend Carlnell stole $2,000 worth of stuff from my friend's parents' home.

• 30:41Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 30:41Payton Moreland?

  Now Vincent Strah thinks this is super weird because not only has she known Carlnell for years and has never known him to be a thief. She was in the house with him the whole time. And then things get stranger. Ari tells her, he spoke to Carlnell and he says he's gonna pay it all back. So Vincent Strah's like, okay, why are you calling me? What's the problem? And Ari says, well, I don't want to get the police involved, but I have to do something to get him back. Like, he can't just steal. And that's when he starts getting angrier and angrier. Ari begins yelling that Carlnell messed everything up and that, quote, "I'm gonna kill him. I want him dead." In fact, he tells her several times on this phone call that Carlnell was a dead man.

• 31:26Payton Moreland?

  And he mentions to her, he's gonna cut off his dreads.

• 31:30Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, there's something else going on, obviously.

• 31:32Payton Moreland?

  So Vincent Strah tells police, "I'm so sorry. I regret not coming to you just immediately after this conversation when this man was threatening my friend's life." And she's like, "I am so positive that Ari was the one who killed Carlnell." So the police think, okay, maybe this is the lead we've been waiting for. They get the address to Ari's business, which also happens to be where he lives. They find him, they bring him in for questioning, but Ari seems completely baffled. He says, "I don't know anything about a murder. Detectives aren't buying it."

• 32:06Garrett Moreland?

  I think I know who might have done it.

• 32:08Payton Moreland?

  They impound his Mustang. Who?

• 32:11Garrett Moreland?

  I think the friend's lying and she's involved or and they're involved somehow.

• 32:15Payton Moreland?

  Vincentstra?

• 32:16Garrett Moreland?

  Correct.

• 32:17Payton Moreland?

  Interesting.

• 32:18Garrett Moreland?

  Maybe not then, maybe not.

• 32:20Payton Moreland?

  They impound his Mustang, they get his fingerprints and confiscate his shoes. But the one thing they can't really do in this case is check an alibi because there's still such a vast window of time during which the crime could have been committed. So it takes a little while, but eventually the CSI texts do come back and say, hey, Ari's not a match for those shoe prints either. He doesn't match the fingerprints that were found on Carlnell's car. So is it just a coincidence that someone else had beef with and spoke about killing Carlnell around the same time he was actually murdered?

• 32:56Garrett Moreland?

  No, I think, I think the friend might've been lying.

• 33:00Payton Moreland?

  So they let Ari walk, but things become a bit clearer a few days later. After detectives hold a press conference asking for help from the community. Now I'm going to back up a second, back to the crime scene because there was one big thing the police did take note of, I haven't mentioned, and that was a letter. It was not the one from his landlord Terry, but it was a letter from his car insurance provider about a recent claim. So this is going to come full circle when a few days after calling for help from the public, the police get a phone call. It's from an attorney who apparently had been helping Carlnell with his settlement from that really bad car accident.

• 33:46Payton Moreland?

  But he says Carlnell hadn't received a dime of this settlement yet. He was told he would be getting about three grand back here pretty soon.

• 33:56Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, now I think I know what happened.

• 33:59Payton Moreland?

  And that's when police start to realize Carlnell had brought this up to a few different people, like he had mentioned to some of his friends around campus, yeah, I got in this really bad car accident. I'm actually going to get money back, thousands of dollars. And shortly after zeroing in on the insurance letter on July 18th, detectives receive another call and this time it was from the Morehouse College Campus Police. And they say, hey, we have someone with us. It's a cafeteria worker at the school who claims they know someone who apparently witnessed Carlnell's murder. So police are like, okay, let's sit down with this person.

• 34:42Payton Moreland?

  They sit down with that worker later that day and they get that witness's name. It was a 20 year old Morehouse student named Braylon Garland. Now Braylon had started at Morehouse the same year as Carlnell. They were both from California originally, though they didn't know each other back home from what I can tell. Braylon was from Lancaster. This is over 350 miles away from Carlnell's hometown in Richmond. Braylon was the son of a police officer and a teacher. He was on the track team. He did well in school. He never had any run ins with the law, but things changed for him once he got to Morehouse. Apparently he goes to college.

• 35:27Payton Moreland?

  He tries to reinvent himself. He talks about previously being in a gang. He claims he was actually from Compton, not Lancaster. He starts hanging out with a different crowd than he had in the past. But when he got in front of the police the following day to be like, hey, we heard like you've been opening your mouth and talking about this murder, possibly witnessing it. That tough persona he's tried to put on at college, it kind of falls away. Braylon's like, no, no, no, I'm afraid for my life. I'm willing to talk just so I can kind of put this behind me. And here's what he tells police.

• 36:04Garrett Moreland?

  All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad and it is the one and only Skims.

• 36:09Payton Moreland?

  We love Skims and I'm so excited. I get to talk to you about their loungewear and pajamas. If you follow me on Instagram, I just posted, but I did get one of their sleep sets. That's like a deep burgundy color. So cute, so rich, so soft. And then I also got a fleece set that's like this chocolate brown. So freaking cute. I love a good matching set and I love Skims. Again, the sleep set I got is the soft lounge sleep set. I always get asked like what exactly it is.

• 36:50Payton Moreland?

  So yes, the soft lounge sleep set, it has the perfect weight, the perfect stretch. The fabric will not irritate your skin. Honestly, I recommend SKIMS to everyone due to just the quality and the comfort that it brings. So go check out their cotton fleece sets or their sleep sets right now.

• 37:10Garrett Moreland?

  Shop Peyton's favorite loungewear and pajamas at SKIMS.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that follows.

• 37:23Payton Moreland?

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• 38:08Payton Moreland?

  I'm talking healthier alternatives. They're very transparent with what is in the ingredients. You can trust that what you're getting from Hungry Root is top notch. It completely changes the way of shopping and also for me has really helped ease my mind when it comes to this new diet. So you're going to love Hungry Root as much as I do. For a limited time, you can get 40% off your first order. Plus get a free item in every box for life. Go to hungryroot.com/husband and use code HUSBAND for that, you guys. That is hungryroot.com/husband code HUSBAND to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. On the night of the murder, he woke up to his phone ringing.

• 38:51Payton Moreland?

  It was his friend, 21 year old Miles Allen. This is another Morehouse student who said he needed a ride. So now we just have some, some of the college kids. Now, Miles tells Braylon, he had run into Carnell earlier, and they were now going over to his house to smoke marijuana. And that he was with two other people as well, 22-year-old Morehouse student Keith Roberts, and another he knew only as Rahim. So, he's basically getting invited to this little shindig at Carnell's house with a bunch of either current or past students from Morehouse.

• 39:31Garrett Moreland?

  No, I get it. I'm just, so if the friend wasn't involved, like, if it's just random people, this is crazy.

• 39:37Payton Moreland?

  So we have Braylon, his friend Miles, who knows Carlnell, so the three of them at Carlnell's home with Keith and Rahim, so five guys at the house. Now Braylon and Miles obviously get together and they go to Carlnell's home. They knock on the door, they're there to just, you know, hang out, smoke marijuana, but according to him, there's no answer. So Miles picks Carlnell's lock with a credit card, and that's when Braylon said he could just tell something was off. They go inside, they wait for Carlnell, who came home a short while later.

• 40:18Payton Moreland?

  And according to Braylon, the second Carlnell walked through his door, Miles knocked him unconscious. Now Braylon is like, I had no idea any of this was happening. I thought we were just going with five dudes to smoke marijuana, but then we end up breaking into this guy's home. He comes home and now my other friend is knocking him unconscious. He says they tied him up, said they were going to interrogate him until he told them where the money was from his settlement. They had heard Carlnell talking about this huge payout, it had gone around campus, they figured the money was probably somewhere in his house. Now, of course, according to Braylon, Carlnell's insisting at this point, like, no, I haven't been paid yet, like, I don't even have the money.

• 41:04Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 41:05Payton Moreland?

  And he's like, yeah, and instead of believing him, we just interrogated him for the next eight.

• 41:10Garrett Moreland?

  Interrogated is a crazy word to use instead of tortured and killed.

• 41:14Payton Moreland?

  For eight hours.

• 41:15Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's insane.

• 41:16Payton Moreland?

  He says, we cut off his hair. Again, like Garrett just said, torture, torture. Okay, that yeah, he cut off his hair. They cut off his hair. They beat him with a hammer.

• 41:25Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh, I can't.

• 41:27Payton Moreland?

  And as Cornell was basically begging for his life, they turn his house upside down. They keep up this torture. And as the sun started to rise, they bound and gagged Cornell, doused him in flammable liquid and stuffed him into the trunk of his car. So according to Braylon, as he's talking to police, they knew he was alive when they put him in this car. Braylon said the ringleader of this entire thing was Keith Roberts, one of the other four men. And when Braylon himself tried to push back about locking Cornell inside the trunk after these eight hours of beating and torturing him, Keith told Braylon, you better do what you're told or you're going in there too.

• 42:13Payton Moreland?

  So Braylon's like, obviously I listened. I did what I was told. And he goes, after this, we all just parted ways, went our separate ways and left without finding the money. But Braylon claimed he actually did go back to Cornell's house later that day to check on him. But when he popped the trunk and touched Cornell's leg, he could tell he was no longer moving. That's when he got scared and left and decided to keep the story to himself, which that part kind of makes sense because the trunk was slightly popped.

• 42:44Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, no, it could very well be true. Yeah.

• 42:46Payton Moreland?

  So at the end of it all, they had only found $20 in Cornell's home.

• 42:51Garrett Moreland?

  Bro.

• 42:52Payton Moreland?

  Eight hours of torture for $20. The most heartbreaking part of all of this, though, is these were guys that Cornell thought was his friends, fellow college students from campus who he hung out with. These were people that Cornell

• 43:08Garrett Moreland?

  Freaking losers.

• 43:09Payton Moreland?

  Called his friends. Now Braylon is arrested that day after the confession and then later that afternoon, Morehouse campus tracked down Miles Allen. This is Braylon's connection. And during Miles's confession, he also claims that Keith Roberts was the one who like, put this all together and was calling all the shots. So Miles is then arrested and then they arrest Keith Roberts that day. So Braylon and Miles have both confessed after being, you know, brought in for questioning, but Keith, the ringleader supposedly was far less eager to cooperate. He told the police he wanted a lawyer as he was thrown into county jail. But we obviously know there's still a fourth suspect at large.

• 43:53Payton Moreland?

  Former Morehouse student known as Rahim Muhammad. Well, it takes a little longer to track Rahim down, but a month later, on August 22nd, they actually find him living under the name Theodore Holloman.

• 44:08Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 44:09Payton Moreland?

  In Chicago. So they do track him down. They do find him under his fake name and they bring him in and he is also arrested and brought back to Georgia to face charges. So now all four of the guys involved have been arrested. The four men were charged and tried separately. So all separate trials. And they were each facing murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping and burglary. Now unfortunately, it took three long years before Carlnell's family could start to get justice.

• 44:42Garrett Moreland?

  That just sucks.

• 44:44Payton Moreland?

  Now, shockingly, Braylon Garland, who was the now 24 years old, who was the first one to confess, he was acquitted at his trial.

• 44:54Garrett Moreland?

  And, okay, I'm not saying maybe that should have happened, but.

• 45:00Payton Moreland?

  According to him and his story, he had no idea what was happening.

• 45:04Garrett Moreland?

  I'm sure there's some sort of deal. I mean, they probably would not have got as far as they did without him. Not saying he should be acquitted. I'm just saying.

• 45:11Payton Moreland?

  Well.

• 45:12Garrett Moreland?

  There's deals happen, like stuff happens.

• 45:14Payton Moreland?

  Apparently, this is what the jury said. They were like, if it wasn't for him, if he hadn't have originally confessed and told the truth during his first confession, apparently, the case might have never been solved. And as well, according to his confession, he had no idea. He tried to go back and save him. They're just, I think the jury was like, in comparison to all four men who've been there, Braylon is the least guilty and to them, that meant acquitting him. You don't have to agree with that. That is just, that's their side of the story.

• 45:46Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 45:47Payton Moreland?

  Now, Miles Allen and Rahim were both convicted and sentenced to life in prison. But then there was Keith Roberts, the supposed ringleader that all of the other boys agree on. And the evidence seems to support it. There were call logs that showed Keith himself had reached out to Miles, Braylon, and Rahim. But it didn't seem to be about the money, at least not at first. Keith said he felt disrespected by Carlnell over what? I'm not sure. But Keith planned to right that wrong by breaking into Carlnell's house, stealing the money he'd gotten from the settlement. So, all the boys' story is the same, that like this was Keith's idea. He was the ringleader. He's the one who put, put the entire scheme together.

• 46:32Payton Moreland?

  Now Keith was found guilty and sentenced to life in prisons.

• 46:35Garrett Moreland?

  Good, okay.

• 46:36Payton Moreland?

  Now, as for Carlnell Walker, he spent his life trying to prove that your past does not have to define your future. But in the end, it wasn't even the past that caught up to him. It was the people around him in his new life that took his life away.

• 46:52Garrett Moreland?

  So, it's, it's horrible. It sucks. I just wish people wouldn't kill people, man. Why are you torturing someone? Like who, like, hello?

• 47:02Payton Moreland?

  And like, I'm sorry.

• 47:04Garrett Moreland?

  Like what?

• 47:05Payton Moreland?

  A couple thousand dollars.

• 47:07Garrett Moreland?

  Insane.

• 47:08Payton Moreland?

  Carlnell would have eventual, after eight hours of torture, if that money was there, he would have told him. Like, they knew that.

• 47:14Garrett Moreland?

  Like rot in prison. Like absolutely just rot, throw him in, like throw him in a cell that's two by two and just rot in prison.

• 47:24Payton Moreland?

  Because hear me out. By the time they left him alive in that trunk, they knew he didn't have the money. They just knew they had taken it too far.

• 47:35Garrett Moreland?

  I just, yeah.

• 47:36Payton Moreland?

  To like, just up and walk away and leave him alive.

• 47:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 47:40Payton Moreland?

  Like that, that's just the reality. Let's take today and think about Cornell's family. As I just cannot imagine the pain and suffering they had to go through, especially with so many people involved, the years it took to get justice. And on top of that, we have a, another crime that just does not seem to even have a motive.

• 48:03Garrett Moreland?

  I mean,

• 48:03Payton Moreland?

  I mean, yes, you have money, but it wasn't even real.

• 48:06Garrett Moreland?

  It just does, it's.

• 48:08Payton Moreland?

  They didn't even get it.

• 48:09Garrett Moreland?

  It blows my mind.

• 48:11Payton Moreland?

  Thank you guys so much for listening to today's episode, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 48:18Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 48:19Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 48:27Speaker 00

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