Episode 368

When 33-year-old Lashaun Keith’s body is discovered in a remote Michigan hay field, detectives have almost nothing to go on. There are no eyewitnesses and no clear suspects. All they find is a single glove. Sixteen months later, that glove points them to three men, each telling a different story about the same deadly night. Get instant access to all episodes, including premium unreleased episodes, commercial-free at swordandscale.com

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like, I'm too drunk to even really run. What do I do? Oh my God, like, this is actually happening right now.

• 0:23Mike Boudet?

  Episode 367, episode 267, episode 276. Who gives a shit? Will you quit correcting me? It doesn't really matter. Just listen to the goddamn show and enjoy it, or don't. I don't care. Stop telling me things. I don't want to hear it.

• 0:50Mike Boudet?

  I am not having a good week. As you can tell. But that's not your problem. A duck keeps shitting in my pool, if you must know. I can't get rid of it. Anyway, um, that's not your problem. Let's get to some murder. Shall we?

• 1:35Mike Boudet?

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• 2:20Mike Boudet?

  you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way. And long after you leave a lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow. A Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota. Let's go places.

• 3:09Mike Boudet?

  Michigan State Police Detective Chris Hayward walks into a cluttered interrogation room in the Van Buren office. It's been 16 months since the body in the field was discovered back in November of 2022. He checks the thermostat setting and then starts preparing for his next interview. It's the one he hopes will finally explain how a dead man ended up in that field.

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Oh, hey. How you doing? Where do I sit? I have a chair here, sir. You're Mr. Ochoa. I'm Chris Hayward. Nice to meet you. It's my partner Kyle. I reckon you guys have probably already met.

• 3:51Mike Boudet?

  Mr. Ochoa was taken into custody for what he assumes is a traffic violation. But he won't be surprised by what Detective Hayward wants to discuss. He's hoping Ochoa can provide all the answers.

• 4:05Speaker 01

  I guess we're hoping to talk to you about another case, one of our many cases we've got going. It's a case that ties you into it with some DNA.

• 4:14Mike Boudet?

  Detective Hayward has been doing this for quite a long time. He's served the state of Michigan for 25 years and is close to retirement. This case might very well be his last. But his years of experience taught him a gentler approach to interrogation.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  Did I ask what it's for, if you don't mind me asking? Yep, it's tied into a body that was found in a field up by Geneva. Got you.

• 4:40Mike Boudet?

  It was November 3rd, 2022, when he had been called to a field in Van Buren County, just east of South Haven. A man had called in and said that he found a body while scouting for hunting locations. The field wasn't easy to access, not by vehicle, anyway. The only way into the field was a muddy path cutting through the woods.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  It's on some of the background that we've done on you. I kind of have my thoughts on, we do too, our thoughts on maybe how this thing went down. But we still got to put it together, so, um, yeah, your DNA was found right there at the scene. So you know which one I'm talking about? Uh, no, sir.

• 5:24Mike Boudet?

  In this field, next to a large pond, was the body of a man. The first thing Detective Hayward noticed was the man's position. His body lay east to west directly between a set of tire tracks. Everything about the scene suggested that the body was dumped in that field. A theory further supported by the lack of shoes on the body. No one walks into a field in their stockings, especially in November. The man's T-shirt was pulled up under his arms, as if he'd been dragged. His clothes were disheveled and badly worn. It was the kind of wear that looked older than the night he died.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Because I ain't gonna lie, some of the stuff I was talking about, a friend of mine did bring something up to me about something like that.

• 6:14Mike Boudet?

  The body was beaten and bruised, but the most noticeable injury was on the leg. His right leg was contorted in an unnatural position. It appeared his femur was broken. Identifying the body wasn't difficult. In one of his socks was his wallet, which contained his license. His name was LaShawn Keith. He was a 33-year-old, 310-pound, 6-foot-1 man, whose only relatives lived in Georgia. The only clues as to where he came from and who put him there were the light-colored sand covering his body and a single glove found nearby.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  You know, he said somebody that he knew needed something. Not like no weapon or nothing, but just like gloves and all of this. And the guy that he was telling me about, he said he do construction, so I'm thinking it's for a job job.

• 7:09Mike Boudet?

  Hayward hadn't mentioned a glove yet, but Ochoa did. It was a small thing, easy to miss, except it suggested that Ochoa already knew exactly which piece of evidence had brought him into that room.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  Frankly, we know more than what we're letting on here. I want you to be a little more at the front of it, because like I said, we do it. Your gloves, I'll lay it right out there. Your gloves, your DNA is right there at the scene on those gloves, which you brought up, so you already knew about that, because then things got dropped and left behind. So you already understand that that, with no other explanation, that looks bad.

• 7:49Mike Boudet?

  At first, the whole scene where they found the body confused Detective Hayward. It seemed like a spot that you would have to know about to find. While forensic techs took impressions of the tire tracks and sent off samples from the gloves, Hayward tried to eliminate his first person of interest, the man who reported the body. His whole story about scouting hunting locations didn't really make sense. It wasn't even hunting season. Hayward interviewed him, as well as the people who lived nearby. He took the caller's vehicles and processed them for evidence. He spent the first few weeks of the investigation looking into this man,

• 8:32Mike Boudet?

  but eventually ruled him out. Now, he finally had someone he knew was involved in front of him. Hayward continued his delicate approach. He didn't have to bully Ochoa. He only had to let him talk long enough to tell on everyone else.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  A friend of mine, he told Zach to contact me. So I was a little confused on it. And I talked to him and he said him and a buddy of his, and I'll be honest, this is his words. He said him and a buddy of his, they fucked up bad. And I'm like, what is you talking about? He said, we fucked up, fucked up. Uh, he told me that him and a guy got into it. He said, I think he was a homeless man or something like that. And him and his friend that he was with at the time, uh, they had, he said they beat on him, but they hit him with a slug hammer and broke his bones or legs or something like that.

• 9:35Speaker 01

  Don't know if that was true. But he said they came back the next day for work, because it was over by his job site. He went back to see if the dude was okay, and he was still there, like, still laying there.

• 9:51Mike Boudet?

  Initially, the DNA profile from the glove didn't match anything in the combined DNA index system, otherwise known as CODIS. But every once in a while, they would run it again. It took six months before it returned a match to Ochoa. But by then, no one could find him.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  He said the man was dead already, and he wanted help moving a body or something like that. Another reason he asked me to help him move that was because he had a cast on his hand. I don't know what happened. He said, uh, uh, yeah, my hand broke, but he never told me how it broke. And then I'm gonna be honest with you. One night he picked me up and he took me to where everything he said happened, happened at. He showed me what we was moving. We had to walk down a dirt hill, like where they do road work at. It was train tracks at the bottom of it. It was a dirt hill. Like the dirt was soft to where your foot sink into it.

• 10:49Mike Boudet?

  It took another nine months before detectives finally had Ochoa in an interrogation room. And Detective Hayward was right. He had a lot of answers. The more Ochoa talked, the more his story lined up with the evidence Hayward had been staring at for months. LaShawn Keith was a homeless man. His body was covered in soft dirt. His leg was broken. A sledgehammer was a new detail, but it lined up with the injuries discovered in the autopsy. In addition to a broken femur, LaShawn also had several broken ribs.

• 11:25Speaker 01

  He did have me helping move something. It was super heavy, but it was wrapped up. I did not know what it was. It was, it was a carpet wrapped inside of that plastic that I was telling you about. The, the, the plastic is wide, like it almost looked like it was for furniture. After a certain while, I wanted to know what I was moving. But yeah, as we was going up the hill, his side starts unraveling more and I was able to see him. Then I'm gonna be honest with you. I seen something slip out. It looked like fingers. I believe I saw fingers. There's no way around it. I know what a hand looked like. We all got hands. I don't know what color a body changed after so long of being dead, but

• 12:05Speaker 01

  the, the dude's skin looked a dark when I seen a finger. And it didn't look like his skin was that color. I don't, I don't think he was supposed to be that color. He was like a purplish, purplish white. But that made my body go cold. I'm not used to seeing, you know, dead bodies. And I'm gonna be honest, I, I do, I do, what, what else can I do? That's, you don't see shit like that every day.

• 12:33Mike Boudet?

  When faced with the accusation of murder, Ochoa came clean. He claimed a friend of a friend accidentally killed a homeless man and he helped move the body. But he was adamant he wasn't involved in the murder.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  We went, we was just driving down this, this trail. Just driving and driving and driving. And then he hit a field and then off to the left, if I'm not mistaken, there was water. It was like a lake or something or a pond.

• 13:02Speaker 03

  In my belief, if I'm trying to believe everything you're saying, which I am, like I said, I'm gonna do a polygraph test. I, I believe you. Just, just hear me out on this one point. Is yeah, I believe you helped load the body and go out here, but it seems like you're getting hung up on not getting out of the truck and helping. And I'm trying to make this.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  I got out the truck to help him load it onto the truck. But he didn't ask me for help to, to unload nothing off the truck.

• 13:28Speaker 03

  Did you personally kill this man?

• 13:31Speaker 01

  No, sir.

• 13:32Speaker 03

  Did you beat him at all?

• 13:34Speaker 01

  No, sir. I don't, I don't have anything like that. He told me he did it with a sledgehammer. And it was still in his truck. I seen a sledgehammer in the back of his truck. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't, I couldn't eat. It was hard for me to get that image out of my head.

• 13:48Mike Boudet?

  Ochoa wasn't the end of the story. He was the beginning. This friend of a friend was someone he knew from school years ago. His name was Zachary Traynor.

• 13:59Speaker 01

  Have you ever heard of Zach doing anything like this before? Is he, is he that type of guy? See, in school, he didn't even seem, he didn't even seem like the bad type of person. I mean, yeah, you seen little, little signs of anger issues that he had in school, but it wasn't nothing major to where he seemed like he was actually physically do something to somebody.

• 14:17Mike Boudet?

  According to Ochoa, Traynor hadn't acted alone.

• 14:21Speaker 01

  If y'all could talk to the friend, he's going to say something to you. I'm telling y'all. Because he seemed like he was too scared to help Zach. So who do you think he was out there drunk with? Who was with? It was one of his coworkers.

• 14:33Mike Boudet?

  He was most likely telling the truth, but the story wasn't complete just yet. Now they needed to find Zachary Traynor and identify this coworker. Ochoa was the first piece of the puzzle. Now they knew how LaShawn got into that field. They just needed to know why he was murdered in the first place.

• 15:11Mike Boudet?

  Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer. Make a smart buy on the off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and long-lasting trucks. Built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventures, and the rugged style for everything in between. Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus available hybrid power on many models,

• 15:56Mike Boudet?

  you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way. And long after you leave a lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you can trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 16:26Speaker 04

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• 17:11Speaker 04

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• 17:33Mike Boudet?

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• 18:28Mike Boudet?

  After a year and a half of dead ends in the death investigation of LaShawn Keith, a DNA match brought Detective Hayward a man with answers. Ochoa only helped Zachary Traynor with body disposal, not murder. Finally, Detective Hayward had the first part of the story, but he couldn't just take Ochoa's word for it. I mean, would you take the word of someone who just admitted to moving a body? He needed a fact check. So he went to talk to Ochoa's baby mama. She essentially corroborated his story, even if a few details

• 19:08Mike Boudet?

  were slightly off. The details weren't really big enough to cast too much doubt on him. Besides, Ochoa led detectives right back to that field from a year and a half earlier. Now Detective Hayward needed to speak with Zachary Traynor and whoever this coworker was. It wasn't difficult to find Zach. He lived in the small city of Waterfleet. Really small town, 20 miles south of where the body was found.

• 19:40Speaker 05

  Hey.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  Hey, sorry. I was just trying to get somebody to answer the door.

• 19:44Speaker 05

  Who are you?

• 19:45Speaker 03

  I'm, uh, I'm Chris Hayward. I'm a detective with the state police. You're Zack, right?

• 19:49Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 19:49Speaker 03

  Hey, how you doing?

• 19:50Speaker 05

  I'm good.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  All right. Um, listen, I was hoping to talk to you. There's been a complaint made against you. And...

• 20:00Speaker 05

  What's going on?

• 20:00Speaker 03

  Are you able to go down to talk with us at, uh, the Water Fleet Police Department?

• 20:05Speaker 05

  About what?

• 20:05Speaker 03

  About this allegation made against you?

• 20:07Speaker 05

  What allegation?

• 20:08Speaker 03

  I think this is something you're gonna want to talk with me about.

• 20:10Speaker 05

  I'm gonna need to hear what you're talking about.

• 20:13Speaker 03

  Okay, I'd be happy to tell you then. Um, and I think it's in your best interest. This case has progressed. I've spent a lot of time on it. I've got everything. I've got the what. I guess I'm just looking to find out from you, you know, what kind of guy you are and what was going on in your head. But this is about the body up in the field in Geneva. And I know this is hitting you like a ton of bricks. It would do the same for me.

• 20:34Speaker 05

  I'll come with you guys.

• 20:35Speaker 03

  Okay. Sorry, I don't want to be involved in this, frankly. I wish, I can't wait till I retire. As you can see, I'm getting close in this, uh... I'm hoping to be able to treat this thing a little bit different because in all the background that I've done on you, I don't see you as a... That kind of guy that I deal with so often, that we have to deal with so often.

• 20:54Speaker 05

  Sir, I know what you're...

• 20:55Speaker 03

  I hope you feel like I'm approaching you and that I'm...

• 20:57Speaker 05

  I know what you're talking about. I do.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  So it's been weighing on you?

• 20:59Speaker 05

  You knows. I, I know. So I, I know what you're talking about right now. I do.

• 21:04Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 21:04Speaker 05

  Yes, that...

• 21:05Speaker 03

  Okay. So that's the gist of it, is just to get, gather your...

• 21:08Speaker 05

  So shoes on and...

• 21:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 21:10Speaker 05

  Do I have to ride with you guys or drive my car?

• 21:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:13Speaker 05

  I'll follow you guys down there. I'll be down there.

• 21:15Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 21:16Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 21:17Speaker 03

  You, you're okay to drive?

• 21:18Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 21:19Speaker 03

  You sure?

• 21:19Speaker 05

  Yep. Yep. I'll meet you guys there.

• 21:21Speaker 03

  Okay, I just want you to crash on me because you're stressed or something, okay?

• 21:24Speaker 05

  I will be there.

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Hey, big dog. All right, thank you.

• 21:27Mike Boudet?

  The initially confrontational Zack softened as soon as he understood why Detective Hayward was there. His five foot eleven, hundred and sixty pound frame shrunk. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. I imagine he'd been looking over his shoulder for the last sixteen months, expecting it to happen at any moment. He admitted he knew what detectives were talking about and said it had been weighing on him. He agreed to meet them at the station to talk, but he wasn't arrested. Detectives pulled down the street and waited just to see if he would actually come and not try to flee. About fifteen minutes later, Zack sat down in an interview room with detectives.

• 22:10Mike Boudet?

  He would tell his version of events and identify his coworker. Afterwards, Detective Hayward accompanied him back to his parents' house to break the news that the district attorney would eventually file charges and that he would be arrested. It was almost nine PM when he arrived. As darkness fell over the city, Zack broke the news to his mother, grandmother, sister, and brother-in-law. His grandmother didn't take the news well at all. He didn't tell her the specifics, but she knew it wasn't good.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  Did you talk with her? Did you have a chance to talk with mom yet?

• 22:46Speaker 05

  I told all of them.

• 22:48Speaker 03

  Okay. Well, I don't know much. But I know it used to be something bad. It was wrong with the family. No. You guys, like I said, take it, take care and, uh, take care of yourselves.

• 23:05Mike Boudet?

  Then he pulled Zack's sister aside. Zack said he had confided in her in one drunken night at the casino. Detective Hayward needed to know how much he confessed and if it matched.

• 23:19Speaker 03

  He and another guy wound up killing somebody. Did you hear about that in the casino parking lot or whatever he's alluding to?

• 23:26Speaker 06

  Alluded to, yes. I've heard.

• 23:30Speaker 03

  I guess what story did he tell you?

• 23:33Speaker 06

  I just know his friend that he was hanging out with at the time was a really bad person to be hanging out with.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  You know who he is?

• 23:39Speaker 06

  Brian Wimbley.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:42Speaker 06

  He used to work there in that area. Him and Brian would, you know, get into a lot of bar fights and stuff. They would get into shit. Um, he says that he did something he had regretted with Brian, that Brian was like the main person and...

• 24:00Speaker 03

  Okay. Because he knew you'd be there for him, right?

• 24:03Speaker 06

  Absolutely, yeah.

• 24:04Speaker 03

  Did he say he did something he regretted? He stole a hop cap off a car or he killed somebody? Did he get into any details of that?

• 24:12Speaker 06

  No, he didn't tell me that.

• 24:13Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 24:14Mike Boudet?

  Is it me or are people getting less and less sensitized to the act of murder? Maybe I'm just a bit old. Maybe I'm old fashioned. But if enforcement told me that someone I knew had killed someone, my reaction wouldn't just be, "Oh, well, you didn't tell me about that," as if it's some sort of minor detail. I mean, like, what the fuck? Listen, half an hour later, Detective Hayward was back in the interview room. This time, he was getting Brian Wimbley's side of the story. But sometimes, there are three sides to a story. Once Detective Hayward had both Zack and Brian's sides, he now had two versions of the same night.

• 24:57Mike Boudet?

  They agreed on almost everything except for, you know, the one thing that the critics of this show hate I keep talking about: Personal responsibility. So back in fall of 2022, Zack and Brian became something sort of like friends. They weren't that far apart in age and both were working for the road crew doing construction on an overpass. That's when they first became acquainted with LaShawn Keith.

• 25:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, there was a homeless guy that lived under the bridge. I mean, I can't tell you what his name was or anything like that. I really don't know. He didn't mess with us really for the most part, uh, until there started being more people there. Okay. That's when there was more people. Then it's like, "Oh, you guys are disturbing my home," you know?

• 25:42Mike Boudet?

  LaShawn was living under that overpass. He had a little impromptu campsite next to the train tracks. When more and more of the road crew started showing up week after week, he was pissed. "Why are these people in his home?" That sort of thing. Anyway, to LaShawn, this was his home, this piece of public property. And they were disturbing his peace.

• 26:08Speaker 07

  Tried to offer him a bottle of water one day because it was hot and he was like, "Fuck you." And whatever, and he just went off to like the violent stage. But one of the bosses tried to, I remember. He tried to give him a coat and some like pants because it was getting cold towards the end of the season or whatever. It was starting to get chilly or whatever. And, uh, he pretty much told the boss to go fuck himself too. He had problems with the train guy too. He kept coming after the train guy. That's why the train guy would take one of us would.

• 26:43Mike Boudet?

  Even in the face of kindness, LaShawn was combative. His antisocial homeless man behavior only escalated.

• 26:51Speaker 05

  When Brian and his dad and all them come down there later on in the job site, uh, he had started like tormenting people, messing with them, throwing rocks at people, stuff like that. Uh, family threw rocks at Brian one day.

• 27:05Mike Boudet?

  Zack said LaShawn started to target Brian. But Brian said it was Zack who had the issue with LaShawn, that he didn't take death threats lightly.

• 27:15Speaker 07

  And homeless, homeless dude had issues, I guess, throughout the job. I guess he was the, the guy was throwing rocks and stuff at him and threatening his life, whatever. Let me see him after work. Well, I thought it was just bullshit about that part, that after work part. The homeless guy had threatened Zack. "Say I'll fucking kill you and I'll end your whole family" or some shit like that. I remember him telling him that he was gonna kill Zack. And then Zack's like, "I'll see about that. I'll see you after work and we'll see who ends up dead first." I didn't think that he was serious with that statement because like I said, I thought he was just a big bullshitter.

• 27:53Mike Boudet?

  At the same time, Zack claimed that it was Brian who became obsessed with teaching LaShawn a lesson.

• 28:00Speaker 05

  Brian, he's talking about, "Oh, this guy, he needs to get an ass whoopin'. He needs to pay. Something needs to happen to him." And I was like, "Dude," I was like, "Fucking, I go," you know? It was like a week, I think. Like he really sat there. He thought, he talked about it like every day. He was like, "Really just gonna beat this house to hell or something?" I don't know. I was like, "Dude," I was like, "Are you still on that?" Get over this. This is, you know, this is crazy.

• 28:26Mike Boudet?

  Whatever resentment had been building between the road crew and LaShawn didn't boil over immediately. Halloween came and went like any other workday. Earlier that evening, LaShawn walked to a nearby Circle K before returning beneath the bridge he called home. Hours later, after a night of drinking, Zack and Brian decided to go back and confront him.

• 28:49Speaker 07

  Decided, he's like, "Hey, let's go to the bar one night." Like, "All right. Yeah. I need a DNE."

• 28:56Speaker 05

  We went out on a, on Halloween night, actually. And we got pretty drunk. I mean, it was real. Yeah, you know, it was about as drunk as we could get. And he brings up, uh, he's like, "Hey, let's go to the job site." He goes, "Let's see if he's there."

• 29:16Mike Boudet?

  That auspicious Halloween night, they closed down the bar. What a menace alcohol can be. When it came to leave, Zack said it was Brian's idea to go back to the job site, but Brian said he didn't even remember leaving the bar.

• 29:31Speaker 07

  I don't even really remember leaving that night. We, uh, ended up back at the job site, I believe. So I was kind of like nodding off on the way there, but I know we ended up back there. Once we got there, part we... I, I assumed he was just using John or something and whatever and...

• 29:58Speaker 07

  I kinda, I, I think I remember him saying something about, "I'm gonna grab a sledgehammer." At that point, you know, I'm drunk, I'm like, "The fuck am I gonna get a sledgehammer for? Like, you know, we're not working right now." It's like, like, we just went to the bar, like, there's no way in hell I'm doing anything if the boss asks right now. Like, I'm gonna tell him I'm drunk and I'm not gonna be able to do it. Uh, and then, of course, I follow him down the hill.

• 30:25Speaker 05

  We walked down the hill and, uh, he had his claw hammer, it was this blue and like black grip on it. You know, I mean, it was a claw hammer and I, I remember it because he lost it out there somewhere. And he was freaking out about it the whole way home.

• 30:44Mike Boudet?

  Each man said the other had a problem with LaShawn. Then they said it was the other's idea to go back to the job site that night. They both said it was the other one with the hammer. It's no surprise that each said the other was the first to approach LaShawn. These are basically two murderers who have no loyalty to anything or anyone. If you don't respect human life, even if it's someone that's of no use to society, then you yourself are probably the bigger problem.

• 31:20Speaker 05

  And Brian walked over there and he was like, "Hey, I know you're fucking awake."

• 31:26Speaker 05

  "That's a hammer, you swung at it and I think you made contact or something, I mean, the sound was pretty loud." "But the guy jumped up, I mean, right away."

• 31:34Mike Boudet?

  But from Brian's perspective, that was all Zack.

• 31:37Speaker 07

  Cause I kinda like stayed back a little bit once I realized he was walking towards the barrel where the dude was sleeping. He, uh, walked over and he like, he takes the hammer and, "Wake up, motherfuckers." Bam, I said, "Get the fuck up." And, uh, it was definitely like, he smacked the barrel a couple times. Tell him, "Get the fuck up."

• 32:01Speaker 05

  With his hand or his foot?

• 32:03Speaker 07

  With the hammer, he smacked it with the hammer. The guy gets out like, "Yo, what?" You know, he gets out and he's like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, like, what the hell?" He's like, "Remember me? I mean, you told me to meet you after work while I'm here. Well, it's good. What's going on?" Starts yelling at the guy and the guy gets out and like bucked up to him. They got, they got in each other's face and then next thing you know, Zack kinda like pushed him a little bit and he kinda, you know, your, your reaction is to push back when you're pushed. So the guy pushed him back and then, and then they're kinda like pushing his, whatever, it's getting heated. I'm like, "All right, ain't too bad, ain't too bad. Still don't know why he has the hammer." And then they got closer to the tracks.

• 32:46Speaker 07

  And I'm like, like I said, I'm probably twenty, thirty foot away from him, just keeping my distance.

• 32:52Mike Boudet?

  This is the part where their stories start to diverge the most. Who was the first person to assault this homeless man?

• 33:00Speaker 07

  He was here and I didn't, look, they were coming towards me, so I went this way and kinda like hid by like some bushes. And then that's when I heard that first like crack and I'm like, "That did not sound like a fist. Like, that was a solid hard hit." I heard the dude like gasp for air after I heard like the sledgehammer, like smack him. I'm assuming in the chest.

• 33:25Mike Boudet?

  Brian said he watched from a safe distance as a shoving match ensued. But Zack said Brian was the one in a rage-filled frenzy.

• 33:36Speaker 05

  So Brian hit him a couple more times in the back and the guy fell and he went down in a ditch. And I took him off of him and I told him like, "Dude, I'm like, let this go, like, let him go." "You just taught him a lesson, you know, like, let it go." And, and that time he threw his hammer at him because he was mad, so he wanted to keep going and I wasn't letting him.

• 33:55Mike Boudet?

  Zack said he stood by as something of a referee while Brian taught LaShawn a lesson. Regardless of who the aggressor was, the violence of the confrontation only grew. And no referee stopped it.

• 34:09Speaker 05

  So the guy, you know, he picked the hammer up and he tried swinging it at us, hitting us. Because, all right, for your life at that point, you know, you don't know what's gonna happen in the world. And, uh, I punched him because I was like, "I'm not about to get hit by this fucking hammer." And when I punched him, I connected wrong. I hit something around here. And I think he hit him up into his tooth. And I broke my hand. Okay. So I was very pissed when I broke my hand. So I took the hammer and I fucking took it and I swung down his ribs. I took it out his hand, I hurt him to the ribs, right? And I dropped the hammer. I walked away because I was like freaking out at that point. I'm like, I can't believe I just fucking did that in the house.

• 34:54Mike Boudet?

  Zack said he was a reluctant participant, only there to watch Brian's back. But when he got involved, he broke his hand and cracked LaShawn's ribs. So there's that.

• 35:06Speaker 07

  I hope that the start of it was him and then obviously things got a little more intense where it was, they were kinda both tussling a little bit and he yelled for my help because he started to fall. And of course I come out of the spot I didn't wanna come out of.

• 35:29Speaker 07

  And the guy came at me once I got over there. Me being a littler guy, I definitely started to get scared because, well, he's coming at me now. Zack had gotten my hammer out of the truck as well as his sledgehammer. I did not even know that he had had my hammer out in the first place.

• 35:51Mike Boudet?

  The hammers were central to both sides, but they changed hands depending on who was telling the story.

• 35:58Speaker 07

  Pulled out my hammer and was like, "Here," and threw it at me and I'm like, "Ah, God."

• 36:05Mike Boudet?

  Brian said Zack yelled for help. LaShawn was getting the best of him. He said Zack tossed him his own hammer and that's when LaShawn came at him. He must've been so scared.

• 36:18Speaker 07

  So I freak out and kinda like out went for his legs, tried to take his legs, knock him out so he wouldn't come at me. And he got a guy that's

• 36:27Speaker 05

  He's a big guy, I know.

• 36:28Speaker 07

  A giant compared to me coming at me, like, I, I didn't want to and it just kind of got worse from there.

• 36:39Speaker 05

  I know.

• 36:40Speaker 07

  Um.

• 36:40Speaker 05

  I know it was a melee.

• 36:42Speaker 07

  A what?

• 36:43Speaker 05

  Yeah, melee is like a hustle where everybody's elbows and assholes all over the place, you know what I mean?

• 36:49Speaker 07

  Yeah, I know.

• 36:51Mike Boudet?

  Elbows and assholes. Never heard that one before. It's almost like poetry.

• 36:59Mike Boudet?

  In addition to having a small vocabulary, Brian was a man of small stature. He was only five feet, four inches tall and a hundred and twenty pounds. When LaShawn, a three hundred and ten pound, six foot one man came at Brian, he just swung the hammer.

• 37:17Speaker 07

  Got him in the leg, got him in the leg with the hammer. The guy, you know, obviously when we doing that, he did kinda like buckle as he buckled down. Zack came over, tackled him down, bam, bam, bam, started hitting him. The guy ended up kicking me in my chest a couple times, really good. And I kinda went into a fog. Uh, uh, kinda like a blackout. Like, I, I kinda blacked out because, I don't know. I'm assuming it got worse and I don't even fully, fully know too much after, after I blacked out. I'm not even really sure.

• 37:59Speaker 05

  And when he got on the train tracks was when he actually hit him hard enough that he was able to fall. Okay. And that was the time he got in my body that caused him to fall, if you remember. It was, I hit his lower knee, I think he, he hit it and then he just popped. You remember him getting popped or something? I mean, I moved the guy's leg and he completely watched it just.

• 38:23Mike Boudet?

  LaShawn let out a blood-curdling scream when Brian hit him in the leg. Zack pantomimed to detectives what LaShawn's leg looked like after Brian hit him with the hammer. He wiggles his limp hand in the air. Brian had broken LaShawn's femur clean through and turned his leg into jelly.

• 38:42Speaker 05

  And when the guy was on the ground or whatever, you know, I told him, I was like, "All right," I was like, "Get the fuck up and leave." You know, I was like, "This is, enough of this shit. This is done." And, uh, he did get up and he started like running. And he was like hobbling, trying to run away, you know, on one leg. And I was letting him go. I turned around going the other way. And Brian went and picked the hammer up and he chased him. And he went and he just hit him in the back of the head. He just hit him. He just keep fucking beating him. And I listened to the guy and he was just screaming, "Somebody help me." And I'm walking the other way, fucking throwing my hands up and down, like covering my ears. I don't wanna hear this man begging for someone to stop beating him.

• 39:24Mike Boudet?

  This guy puts his hands over his ears and goes la, la, la, la, la, la, while a homeless man is being murdered in front of him. I mean, what a fucking pussy. What a piece of shit. What is this, Clockwork Orange? Was Kubrick right about society? What is wrong with people? How do you put your hands on someone who just hurt your feelings with words, you know? Even if it's a threat, it's just a fucking threat. It's just letters strung together in a sound that comes out of your mouth. It doesn't hurt you unless you let it, unless you're a weak, sensitive bitch. You don't put your hands on someone just because they hurt your feelings.

• 40:08Mike Boudet?

  That's not how society works. And I keep seeing more and more examples of this in general. LaShawn had several broken ribs and a broken leg. He was lying on the ground begging for the beating to stop, but Zack and Brian got a few more licks in.

• 40:27Speaker 05

  So he's down at this point then, is, is he begging for help? I'm pleased he got stopped. He's like, "Yeah." Okay, well, he was remembering like begging, like, "Please don't touch me anymore. Don't hurt me anymore." He's like, "Please just stop." Did you both stop? I did. Brian hit him a few more times because With fists or with? With the hammer because he kept on, he said, "I'm demanding respect from you." He goes, "You don't get the point. I want respect. I don't want anything else. I want respect." And that's what he kept repeating.

• 40:59Mike Boudet?

  Brian, though, said Zack was the one to land the final blow.

• 41:03Speaker 07

  I realized that Zack was, at this point, on top of him.

• 41:07Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 41:08Speaker 07

  Literally just giving him what to. And then the guy gets up, tries to walk away and Zack just shoves him back down.

• 41:19Speaker 05

  So he went, he went down when you hit him in the leg? With the hammer, he went down and Zach jumped on top.

• 41:26Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 41:27Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 41:28Mike Boudet?

  And then it was over. The melee had come to an end. The pair left LaShawn lying on the ground next to the train tracks. That's when the enormity of what just happened hit Zach. Apparently, he can't think when he's angry. Seriously, what has happened to men? Why are we such emotionally weak trash these days?

• 41:53Speaker 05

  Because I told him, I said, "Look, I said, you killed this guy." I said, "Believe it or not, I said, you're gonna kill him." I said, "Look at the fucking light leaving his body right now." He was like, "Oh, no, he's fine." I said, "No, I said, watch the heat leave his body." I said, "You just killed him." So, we went to the gas station. I bought the guy two Gatorades and some food. Uh, he drank one of the Gatorades, ate some of the chips. Oh, you brought him right back to him? Yeah, I brought him right back.

• 42:21Mike Boudet?

  Do they teach that in med school? All you need to bring the dead back to life after a hammer to the back of the head is some gas station snacks and the Gatorade. A thirst quencher.

• 42:32Speaker 05

  Was he, was he awake? He was awake. Yeah, he was awake and he was talking to me. He drank the Gatorade in front of me. More pain? He was definitely in pain. What did he tell you, hurt? Everything. He thought, he said, he couldn't feel his, uh, his lower half of his body. Okay. He was just like, uh, you know, "I'm gonna try and make it. I'm gonna try and do good." He said, "I'm gonna try and make it." Okay. I told him, I was like, I was like, "You're coming to, you know." Okay, good. So, you just, you know, know I'm lying to the guy, but... What are you supposed to do in that situation? Well, you could have called an ambulance.

• 43:11Mike Boudet?

  Holy shit, this guy's dumb. Seriously, criminals are dumb as hell. That's why they're criminals. They never think to call an ambulance. I mean, if they had, they'd be in far less trouble. Unless he died, of course. But he could have lived if only they had sought medical help. Instead, they got him a bag of chips and a Gatorade. What a bunch of nincompoops.

• 43:38Speaker 07

  Since when we left? I don't know. I, I thought the guy was still walking around, last I knew. Like I said, I was drunk too, so like, he might not have been standing or walking or anything, but as far as I remember, he was still up and moving.

• 43:54Mike Boudet?

  LaShawn was alive, but badly injured. He lay on the ground, unable to feel his lower half, while Zach gave him a pep talk. Brian just assumed he'd be fine. But did the two intend to kill him or just give him an ass beating?

• 44:10Speaker 05

  My intention just was not to kill anybody. That was not my intention. I wanted, yes, to hurt him and be like, "Here's, here's a lesson." Some people are not to be fucked with in this world, but it was never my intention to kill somebody. Well, from what you've described, it kind of sounds like an ass beating gone wrong, but I don't know how you would characterize it, you know? I mean, it was never my intent to take anyone's life. Okay. That was never the goal. You know, that's what I thought. I said, "If I wanna, you know, beat this guy's ass at a point across, I don't fuck with people."

• 44:53Speaker 05

  Yes, do I wanna fucking take someone's life, never. You know?

• 44:58Mike Boudet?

  But Brian said...

• 45:00Speaker 05

  So, you guys are, went there, but you went there to have a confrontation with this guy, right?

• 45:07Speaker 07

  Mainly at him.

• 45:08Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 45:09Speaker 07

  At the bigger...

• 45:09Speaker 05

  Because it was time to send a message to him, I guess. Did you set out with the idea in your mind? Because this is the important part, is, did you intend to kill him?

• 45:20Speaker 07

  No, no, no.

• 45:21Speaker 05

  That's the critically important part and...

• 45:23Speaker 07

  Absolutely not. Not even the slightest, I couldn't imagine killing it. I can't even kill a possum.

• 45:28Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 45:29Speaker 07

  Or a squirrel or a raccoon that's in a cage.

• 45:31Speaker 05

  No.

• 45:31Speaker 07

  To be taken out, can't even...

• 45:33Speaker 05

  To your knowledge, did Zach go there to try to kill him?

• 45:37Speaker 07

  I, I mean, I would think so, just from the conversation that happened earlier that day, like...

• 45:43Speaker 05

  I mean, from you riding along with him, did he say, "We're gonna kill that guy," or did he say, "We're gonna give him a beating?"

• 45:47Speaker 07

  He said, "We're gonna kick his ass."

• 45:48Speaker 05

  Okay, that's not...

• 45:49Speaker 07

  That's not, it wasn't very good.

• 45:51Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 45:52Speaker 07

  To understand, you know, that's as far as it was gonna go.

• 45:55Mike Boudet?

  Whether they intended to kill LaShawn or not, didn't really matter. Because he was still dead. Of course, they wouldn't realize this until they returned to work.

• 46:07Speaker 07

  I remember waking up at home the next day. I knew something, when I woke up, I could just tell something wasn't right. Because we woke up, went back to work the next day. Me and the train guy, I would help the train guy, help him take the, the railers off, off the tracks. And we go back down there, and we're walking, and we seen the guy laying there. And me and the train guy both said, "Uh, man, he ain't, he's not moving. He's just, maybe he's sleeping." So, I don't know if he's still there or not, I don't know.

• 46:49Mike Boudet?

  The train guy was gonna call the cops if LaShawn was still there the next day. So, when Brian saw he hadn't moved, he went to find Zach.

• 46:58Speaker 07

  Because I walked up to him after walking back, and I'm like, "Dude, that dude's not moving." And he goes, "Yeah, I know, I looked, he's, I felt his pulse, and you don't have a pulse, he's dead." And I'm like, "What? He's dead?"

• 47:12Mike Boudet?

  This seems to be the moment that Brian suddenly realized the seriousness of what they had done. Hindsight is always 2020, but sometimes if you're this dumb, you're just fucking blind. You're just an automaton, acting on just emotion alone with zero impulse control. I don't think you're even human at that point. You're just a walking, large language learning model. And not a good one.

• 47:42Speaker 07

  I don't even know...

• 47:44Speaker 05

  Did he try to get you to go back out and help?

• 47:47Speaker 07

  He did, and I'm like, "I don't want no part of that." Like, I'm like, "I can't even, I can't, I can't even mentally bring in the fact that this is a real situation right now." And my, like, I've only seen this on crime shows, and I don't even like to watch them because it's like, it just turns my gut.

• 48:03Mike Boudet?

  Aw, poor little baby, can't watch true crime shows because they're too scary.

• 48:08Speaker 05

  He said, "The guy didn't move." By the next day, he was gonna call the police and get him up there. Yeah. So, that's when I told Brian, I said, "Look, I said, we gotta do something." I said, "He cannot stay sitting on these tracks." Brian would not help me deal with that situation. You know? Tried to deal with it by myself, I couldn't because my hand was broken.

• 48:34Mike Boudet?

  Brian immediately started to distance himself from the situation and from Zach. He refused to help Zach move the body, he said.

• 48:43Speaker 05

  And then I had to make a phone call to one of my friends who, and he called somebody else that, you know, I guess, know how to deal with things like that, and I didn't.

• 48:58Mike Boudet?

  Zach called his closest friend, a man who had since moved to Florida, of course. And this friend hooked him up with Ochoa.

• 49:07Speaker 07

  Saturday, we come back, and he wasn't ours to be found. He was gone.

• 49:16Speaker 05

  So, what happened to the body then?

• 49:18Speaker 07

  He said, "Him and one of his buddies..."

• 49:20Speaker 05

  Did he tell you who it was?

• 49:21Speaker 07

  He wouldn't give me a name at all, so I don't even have the slightest clue. He's, and he's like, and then the next day, he showed up at the house, he goes, "The guy is gone." And I'm like, "What do you mean, he's gone?" He goes, "We dissolved him." "You dissolved him? What do you mean, you dissolved him?" Like, "I don't get your concept." He was like, "We, we covered him in acids and ate, ate his body alive."

• 49:47Mike Boudet?

  Brian didn't help move the body and didn't help Zach pay Ochoa either. In the weeks and months to follow, the two separated. Brian lost Zach's number, and Zach eventually gave up on getting Brian to pay his half of the money for Ochoa. They stopped talking completely. They built separate lives, but neither man ever managed to leave that night beneath the bridge behind.

• 50:16Speaker 05

  Has this affected you, you know, personally, mentally? And you, I mean, I mean, it's changed the way that I think about life in general, you know? Like... So, is it a paradise, even living through some hell? Yeah.

• 50:34Speaker 05

  Yeah, always have it in your mind. You can close your eyes at night, see someone begging for their life.

• 50:40Speaker 07

  Like, I feel so bad about it, I've been at the church.

• 50:43Speaker 05

  Okay, good for you.

• 50:44Speaker 07

  Way more than I, I mean, I'm there every Sunday, I talk to my pastor, I was like, "Pastor, it's like, there's, there's something on my mind, it's not good." I said, "And I need help getting, I, I, not getting over it, but I need help with, like, like, mental, like, help of getting through this." Like, I, I don't know, like, I, I don't want to, I was like, "It's unspoken." I said, "Just know it's, it's not good at all."

• 51:11Mike Boudet?

  You heard that, right? He was about to say he tried to get a pastor to help him get over it, before he realized just how bad that sounded out loud and corrected himself. Remember, people will always tell you who they really are if you pay close enough attention.

• 51:29Speaker 07

  Oh, there's so many times, like, on that trip to Florida, I'd just start tearing up and start crying.

• 51:35Mike Boudet?

  By the end of the interviews, Detective Hayward heard the same story twice. Both men agreed on almost everything. They both admitted to their roles while trying to shift blame onto the other. But one thing wasn't in dispute. LaShawn Keith was dead because of what happened under that bridge. There wasn't one reason LaShawn died, there were weeks of resentment, too much alcohol, the wounded pride of young men, and one terrible decision after another. They had each expressed remorse. For the last 16 months, Zach and Brian had each been carrying the weight of that night. Zach said it changed the way he looked at life.

• 52:18Mike Boudet?

  Brian said it still haunted him. But remorse and responsibility aren't the same thing.

• 52:56Mike Boudet?

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• 53:39Mike Boudet?

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• 54:09Speaker 04

  Hey, y'all, it's Lauren LaRosa, and y'all know I always have the latest. So on my new audio series, Love Lately, I'm getting into the conversations we're really having about love, relationships, and our sexual health. Every week, it's me and Dr. Contessa Metcalf, my big sister with a medical degree, breaking down what the culture says versus what the doctor says and helping make sense of it all. Get into it. You know, the thing me and my friends don't really talk about is like how you're having conversations with people about getting tested. I'll be honest, so many women don't feel comfortable talking about it, and they don't feel comfortable advocating for themselves. But let's go ahead and just put you in a position to where you can kind of empower yourself, and it isn't some, it's not a judgment thing.

• 54:53Speaker 04

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• 55:15Mike Boudet?

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• 56:00Mike Boudet?

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• 56:15Mike Boudet?

  After 16 months of an investigation that was going nowhere, a DNA match brought detectives their final real break. After talking to Ochoa, they spoke with the two men who were responsible for LaShawn Keith's death, Zachary Traynor and Brian Wimbley. Zachary Traynor and Brian Wimbley both told the same story, but distanced themselves from responsibility, placing blame on each other. They minimized their roles, as most suspects do. But who were these two men when they were not trying to save themselves? Detective Hayward had done background research on the two young men. They were both holding down jobs and had supportive families.

• 56:58Mike Boudet?

  So which one's story was more credible?

• 57:01Speaker 03

  I guess, what story did he tell you? I just know his friend that he was hanging out with at the time was a really bad person. Do you know who he is? Brian Wimbley.

• 57:14Mike Boudet?

  Zach's sister had mentioned that Brian was the bad influence. And when Detective Hayward went to Florida to speak with Zach's friend, the one who connected him to Ochoa, he said something similar.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  I never really liked him because he was a bad influence. That's something I will tell you. He was always a bad influence. He got him into shit I would have never got him into. He's just a bad influence. I was only on the phone with Brian about once or twice. And the first time, he was cool, but the second time, he started fucking Zach. So I wasn't with all that shit. I'm gonna be a hunter with you. He's gonna be lying about some shit. Zach is probably gonna be cooperating more. Brian is just trying to cover his own ass.

• 57:52Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 57:54Mike Boudet?

  But Brian wasn't afraid of the police. He was afraid of Zach.

• 57:58Speaker 07

  Pretty much this stuff happened, and I kind of like cut ties with him because I was like, ah, I don't want to be associated with you. You are bad news. I haven't even talked to him.

• 58:09Speaker 03

  Zach?

• 58:10Speaker 07

  I lost his number. I had all communications. Like, I wanted nothing to do with him. I still don't care. I can get two, sorry about the language, but I can get two books left to even see his face again.

• 58:24Speaker 03

  Oh, I got you.

• 58:25Speaker 07

  Like, he stayed far away from me. He pulled the knife on my dad when me and my dad were arguing one day.

• 58:32Speaker 03

  Oh, no kidding.

• 58:33Speaker 07

  And he said, "I'll fucking kill you right now." And he's, he's told, he's told me before, when I was working at the gas plant, he's like, he told me that he had killed somebody before. And I was like, ah, he's just bullshitting, you know? Like, seems like a bullshitter.

• 58:53Speaker 03

  No.

• 58:54Mike Boudet?

  But when Brian followed Zach beneath that bridge that night, he began to wonder if those stories had been true after all.

• 59:02Speaker 07

  Like, he's already killed one person. He honestly, it looks like, is coming here for another reason than what he told me he was coming for. And now I could be the third body.

• 59:16Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 59:17Speaker 07

  So at that point, my brain was just like, semi-go with the flow. So if he tells you to do something, just, just, just obey him. Just, just do what he says. But I was, like I said, I was scared shitless at that point as soon as I heard that first cry.

• 59:33Speaker 03

  So you heard the thud, and you don't know who hit who then, or?

• 59:35Speaker 07

  No, I, I was assuming because he, the, the one dude kind of like grabbed his chest and like went back.

• 59:42Speaker 03

  The homeless man?

• 59:43Speaker 07

  Like grabbed his chest and went back. And that's when I was like, dude, what the fuck are you doing? Like, we're not trying to fucking kill the dude. Like, you said you're gonna kick his ass. Let's not kick his ass, dude. And his eyes like, almost demonic.

• 59:57Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 59:58Speaker 07

  Looking dead at him like, what the fuck are you doing? Like, you need to stop.

• 1:00:02Speaker 03

  Then what happened next?

• 1:00:03Speaker 07

  Uh, he's like, don't fucking worry about me. I think I at one point tried to walk away, and he's like, you better not fucking walk away or you're next. But the, the voice, his voice didn't even sound the same at that point. Like, his voice had like changed, like deeper.

• 1:00:22Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:00:23Speaker 07

  Which was scary. That, that kind of told me, oh, man, maybe he wasn't joking about the other person that he had killed.

• 1:00:30Mike Boudet?

  Brian wasn't the only person who described a different side of Zach. Months later, after they were both arrested, another man would tell Detective Hayward about conversations in jail. These conversations offered a very different picture.

• 1:00:46Speaker 03

  I got some information that you might have had to sell you at one point that, uh, had done a homicide.

• 1:00:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, like my son, he's, he's so stupid. He talking about it right there in court. I mean, uh, in the holding tank, waiting to go to court.

• 1:01:03Speaker 03

  And, uh, what was he, was he talking to you or was he talking to somebody else?

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  Talking to me.

• 1:01:07Speaker 03

  Okay. What did he, uh, what did he say about this?

• 1:01:11Speaker 01

  He said, uh, first, he was like, prosecution is stupid. He said, the prosecution, everybody's stupid. Him and Wimbley.

• 1:01:21Speaker 03

  Oh, he told us the guy's name too?

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's the guy that's in a widdy. That's what made it start it because, uh...

• 1:01:27Speaker 03

  Were they both in the holding cell or no?

• 1:01:29Speaker 01

  Wimbley or whatever was in the cell next to us. But he was like, he's code-fitted. That's what gave it started. I'm saying, dude, this is code-fitted. He said, the dude told on him. This man crazy as fuck. Tell them about this. He did a murder and he telling, oh, and he said, uh, he telling people, uh, I think I'm trying to off Wimbley in jail.

• 1:01:52Speaker 03

  Okay. You think he... Was giving you an accurate call? Or you think he was trying to be a tough guy?

• 1:01:59Speaker 01

  I think he was telling the truth. He was telling it. He's laughing the whole time. Like, he don't have no remorse. He laughed. That's another thing. Like, damn. Like, he just, like, he didn't have no remorse. He was laughing the whole time, like.

• 1:02:11Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? I'm saying, like, he, like, I'm only gonna get 12 years. That's, that's this whole thing. It's getting 10 to 12 years. And he said, well, he's supposed to be getting like 25 or like something like that.

• 1:02:25Mike Boudet?

  Whether Burton was telling the truth or simply repeating jailhouse bravado, he challenged the image of Zack that had emerged during the interviews. But Detective Hayward already had what he needed. Ochoa had admitted to moving the body. Zack and Brian had each admitted in taking part in the assault. Their stories differed on who threw the first punch and who struck the final blow, but they've already figured out all this shit in the law. If you go to a location with the intent of committing a crime, no matter what it is, whether it be assault or robbing a Snickers bar, and in that act, something goes wrong and someone dies, well, guess what?

• 1:03:10Mike Boudet?

  You're responsible for that. That's what the law is. So, doesn't matter who threw the first punch. It doesn't matter who struck the final blow. Stupid people don't realize this because they're stupid. 16 months earlier, Detective Hayward had stood in a muddy field looking at a body with no witnesses and only a single glove to guide him. That glove eventually led him to three young men with three very different stories, but enough truth between the three of them to hold each one of them accountable. In the end, both Zachary Traynor and Brian Wimbley were charged with second-degree homicide.

• 1:03:54Mike Boudet?

  Neither Zack nor Brian asked a jury to decide whose version of events was true. Both accepted plea agreements and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Ochoa was charged with accessory to a felony after the fact. He was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. Zack and Brian, though, were sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison for their roles in the death of 33-year-old LaShawn Keith and dumping his body in a hayfield. LaShawn Keith didn't have many material possessions, but he had a life and he had a family and he was a human being. And that's all that matters.

• 1:04:36Mike Boudet?

  He didn't deserve to be beaten, bloody, and broken, left to bleed internally until he finally passed away alone in the dark, under a bridge. That's absolutely no way for anyone to go.

• 1:05:11Mike Boudet?

  Our latest episode of Sword and Scale Television is available right now at swordandscale.com. It's called Frail. You should check it out. And if you still don't know why there's some episodes missing from the free feed, why some are marked plus and unavailable to you, well, that's because we're not a nonprofit and you're probably not smart enough to be part of our audience. Anyway, you can find them at swordandscale.com. Duh.

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