Last Chance

>> Do you remember the case of Crystal Champagne?

“>> Yes. In my business, most of the time you're doing autopsies on bad guys.”

But doing autopsies on children is something that quite often will stay with you. [MUSIC] >> My name is Fraser McKenzie. I'm a forensic pathologist and in 1996 I was doing autopsies for the Jefferson Parish Corners office. >> Crystal Champagne was a 14 year old loving carrying child that would help anybody.

She loved sports, she loved animals, and she wouldn't hurt anybody. Somebody amiss very much. I am Don Champagne and I'm Crystal Champagne's mother. Everything we've seen like it was just a regular day going on. I want to say she left my house about 515 and went to the store. She wanted to get her some noodles. She liked her Chinese noodles.

And that was the last time I see her. [MUSIC] >> I was asking people what they see her. I couldn't find her. I called the police. >> I need to get a cops in the house. I'm 14 year old daughter since the last 24 hours. >> She's missing. >> Yes.

“>> Okay, what's your daughter's name now?”

>> Crystal C or Y. >> Crystal Heart isn't in my life. [MUSIC] >> 14 year old white female had been reported missing approximately 24 hours prior to her discovery. [MUSIC] >> Deputies found the champagne's oldest daughter under the Huey P. Long Bridge last night.

>> She was found under sponsor, a legature was found around her neck. >> Matter of death is considered to be homicide. >> Authorities believe she may have also been sexually assaulted. [MUSIC] >> Damon Tibdo was a 22 year old drifter who came to town recently as a cousin of the family.

I got a job here as a deckhand. >> Tibdo was someone the family trusted. >> Police were questioning Damon when news came of Crystal being found dead. By the end of the questioning, Damon confessed to the rape and murder of Crystal Champagne. >> We have the wire twice.

>> Yeah. >> You tell them you did do. >> Yeah. >> You confess. >> Mm-hm. >> I was in shock.

[LAUGH] >> You don't just say that you murdered or you say you raped her. >> Mm-hm. >> It was surprising to hear that he confessed to doing it. >> My name is Damon Tibdo.

>> Until someone is in the position that I was put in,

they will never understand why someone confesses to a crime they didn't commit.

[MUSIC] >> Like so many places along the banks of the Mississippi, West Wego, Louisiana, attract strangers in search of work on boats and barges. >> It is why 22-year-old Damon Tibdo who had come to town for a family wedding stayed.

He had been in town for only a month when Crystal Champagne was killed. [MUSIC] >> He's very high profile cases. There's a great deal of pressure to get the case solved and ease the worried mind of the public. >> Attorney Denny LeBuff remembers the day in July 1996 when Damon was arrested for murder.

>> These pictures in the paper the next day, we got the guy that killed the girl. [MUSIC]

>> The Champagne family had befriended Damon when he first arrived at the New Orleans suburb.

He was a distant cousin whom they barely knew, says Crystal's mother, Dawn. >> He just seemed to be an ordinary person.

“Was he ever inappropriate with your daughter, not that I haven't noticed?”

>> We did you consider them as part of your family? >> Yeah. >> Damon was with the Champagne's on the hot Friday afternoon when Crystal said she was going to walk to the store. >> Had she asked you for a ride?

>> Yes. >> And you said now? >> I said no. >> When she didn't return and her mother panicked had called police. >> Okay, what's your daughter's name?

>> Damon joined family and friends in a search all through the night. >> We checked a park where she played softball at, we checked the shopping center, ride around the neighborhood, you know? Just looking for.

police brought in Damon and others for questioning.

“He was still there when the case became a homicide.”

>> She keeps going on till the end of the go and he found the whole girl stands out of rooms. >> Crystal's body was found by a family friend, near the levy in Bridge City, about five miles from her home. >> It's now murder investigation.

It's no longer a missing person. >> And the conversation he says got rough. >> I was increasingly under the impression that I was not going to be able to leave. >> Because they thought you had done it. >> Around 1 a.m., Damon agreed to take a polygraph.

And what did they tell you? Did you pass it? >> No, they said I failed it.

That's the point where I realized I was never going to walk out of there.

“>> Damon says he felt doomed as the grilling continued for another three hours.”

>> They kept asking the same questions over and over and over again. >> Finally, he says he was too exhausted to take anymore. >> What did you tell them? >> Whatever they wanted to hear. >> Damon told investigators that he had found Crystal at the store

and drove her to the levy. When she resisted having sex with him, he said. >> He killed her. >> When you left, how will she live? >> But you're confessing to a rape and murder.

They were not going to let me go until I did it. >> Our later, when Damon met with an attorney, he denied having anything to do with Crystal's death. But he had already been arrested and charged with rape and murder.

“Help me out with this little bit, Damon, because I can't imagine in my wildest dreams”

and meeting to a horrific crime, including giving some grizzly details if I didn't do it.

>> It's first I thought so too.

But after not sleeping, not eating, I'm thinking well, okay. I'll give them what they want to hear and evidence will come out and it'll show I didn't do it. And people will see that. >> In fact, almost nothing, Damon said, match the evidence as attorney Danny LeBuff. >> They could have known within 24 hours that the confession was really stinky.

That it almost couldn't be true. >> At first glance, it did appear that Crystal had been raped. >> Her shorts and her underpants were down about her knees. >> But when Dr. Fraser McKenzie conducted the autopsy, he found no sign of sexual assault. She didn't have those kind of injuries.

>> No. >> Nor did he find any seminal fluid. >> Damon also told investigators that he choke Crystal with his hands, not likely says Dr. McKenzie. >> There's no kind of injury that would be associated with using your hands. >> Instead, the neck injury was caused by red industrial wire.

Police found its source hanging on a nearby tree. >> They asked him where to get the wire and he said from the trunk of my car. They say what color is the wire? And he said it was clear like speaker wire. >> I've got black wires and green wires in my car.

>> And when the interrogator finally says, "Did you have any red wire?" >> Come on. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> We did believe that we had the right guy. We did believe that it was a good case.

And we believe that he was the perpetrator. >> Paul Connick became the Jefferson Parish District Attorney six months after the murder. >> It's hard to believe that anyone would confess to such a terrible crime if they didn't commit it. >> When David Tibita went on trial in 1997, he was confident that facts would show that he had falsely confessed. >> I'm thinking, well, this is all going to come out in the courtroom.

And this jury is going to see what this guy didn't do this. And that'll be the end of it. >> There was no physical evidence tying him to the crime. >> He had 84 pieces of physical evidence in this case. And not one went back to David Tibita.

>> But a detective explained the lack of evidence of rape by suggesting that insects had consumed all the fluids.

A theory that he never discussed with the state pathologist.

>> We're actually laughing. Is his explanation laughable? >> In my opinion, but I'm knowledgeable. For a jury, they're not knowledgeable.

>> No, no.

“>> The jury's also heard from two women who claimed seeing someone who looked like Damon on the”

levy the day of the murder.

Damon did not take the stand. So he did not explain why he admitted to the crime before recanting. His incriminating words echoed in the courtroom. >> David, you said we must prove to the best of knowledge. Yes.

>> Or went through your mind, it's addressing to these. Why couldn't I be a little stronger? [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO] >> What was it like seeing Damon in the courtroom?

It hurt. I just want to ask him why.

>> Don Champagne was convinced that Damon Tivotow killed her daughter.

These are people you consider family, and they think you killed Crystal. What was that like? >> It was weird. I mean, what do you tell someone in the situation like that? >> jurors took just one hour to reach their verdict.

>> You get the sinking feeling that this isn't going to go right and then here it comes. >> What do you remember hearing? >> Guilty. >> Guilty. Damon was convicted of the rape and murder of Crystal Champagne.

>> I was glad because it meant that they had who did it. >> His sentence, death by lethal injection. And in October 1997, Damon Tivotow was sent to Louisiana's notorious Angola prison. He began to despair.

“>> You get to a point where you don't want to be in that cell anymore and that's the only way out.”

>> Execution? >> That's the only way out of that cell. >> What made you change your mind then? >> Denny. >> Denny, as in Denny LeBuff.

>> She walks in one day. She said, look, I read your case. >> She's an anti-death penalty attorney who fights to get inmates off of death row. No matter what they did to get there. >> You make no bones about it.

>> Most of your clients are guilty. >> Absolutely. >> And the work that I do, I want to do on behalf of people who have tragically committed a homicide. >> That ain't Damon. >> LeBuff was convinced that Damon Tivotow was innocent.

She immediately appealed the verdict. But two years after Damon's to trial, the state Supreme Court reaffirmed his conviction. A major victory for Jefferson Parish district attorney, Paul Khanic. You still feel it's a good firm. >> Absolutely.

>> We had the confession. We had two witnesses who put him on the scene of the murder around the time of the murder. >> Denny LeBuff couldn't give up, but she was overwhelmed. She sought help and found it in a place 1,200 miles away in Minneapolis. >> Here's where the body was found down here.

>> Steve Kaplan was a partner at Frederickson Embiron, a well-heeled civil law firm. That takes on a few select criminal cases. >> Pro Bono. >> As soon as I met him, it completely changed the stakes for me. It was not clinical, it was deeply personal.

It was the luckyier man's, he was saying goodbye.

That I remember, well always remember.

>> His life is in your hand. >> Correct.

“>> How big a difference did it make when you got help from Minneapolis?”

>> Everything. >> Right away, the attorneys took another look at the witnesses, who said they saw a man who looked like Damon on the loving. But they then said, and the police tape was around and the police were here. Well, that was the night they found her, not the night she was killed.

>> They also reached out to the now retired state pathologist, Dr. Fraser McKenzie. When he testified at the trial, he didn't know the details of the case. >> All I know was there was a confession. I have no knowledge whatsoever of what is contained in that confession. >> None.

>> And when you find out? >> Then I'm really upset. The confession does not match the physical evidence. >> When you heard that he was convicted of rape, what did you think? >> I was just the guest, because at my examination, there was no evidence of a rape.

>> McKenzie signed an affidavit for the defense.

>> I want the truth to come out and for it to be known. >> What's more, McKenzie was able to help establish the time of Crystal's death. Sometime before darkness fell at 750 p.m. About two and a half hours after she left her home.

“That's crucial, because Damon Tibbito was with Crystal's family for most of that time.”

>> There was absolutely no time within which Damon could have possibly committed the crime. >> The defense contends that Damon was only on his own for about a half hour to 45 minutes. >> I sat in the parking lot in my car. >> And how long were you gone? >> Just long enough to smoke a joint.

>> It's 10 minutes from the apartment of the crime scene. Another 10 to come back, that's 20 minutes. >> And would have left no time for him to have done the murder, cleaned up, disposed of all the incriminating evidence, cleaned his car and gotten back to the champagne. Presumably fully composed and ready to rejoin the search.

“>> Was there anything about Damon that made him more likely to be manipulated?”

>> I think so. He was only 22, he had never been through anything like this in his life.

>> And his background made him even more vulnerable, Kaplan says, I'm not asking a specific spy, you're abused as a child, aren't you? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Drop that a school? >> Yes. >> Damon had a childhood that was very, very tough and that produced a guy who would just rather walk away from a fight.

>> After spending nearly a decade in the most hopeless place there is, by 2005, Damon had dozens of legal professionals, all volunteers fighting to get his case heard and overturned. >> I said, well, these people are going to fight to prove I didn't do this, I'm going to fight with him. >> Also on his side, attorney Barry Shack and the innocence project based in New York. >> Well, this was a no-brainer for us. You can see that this confession was quite problematic from the start.

>> Shack says that while 25% of the country's exonerated inmates had confessed to crimes they didn't commit. The hard fact is, no court is likely to release a man who admitted to such a brutal murder. >> So he came up with a novel and controversial idea instead of fighting lengthy court battles that were iffy at best.

“>> Why not take Damon's case directly to their adversary?”

>> We believed that we could persuade the Jefferson County District Attorney's office that they were dealing with an innocent man. >> But that would mean showing the DA everything they had.

>> There's always the danger that all of a sudden you'll come up with some horrible evidence of guilt.

That can happen. >> If you don't get Damon out, he's going to die. >> I have been in the deathhouse of midnight when they kill my client and watch that. And I know how real it is. [ Music ] >> 450 miles away from Angola Prison in the rule town of Hansville, Alabama.

A 14-year-old boy got a shocking letter from a death row inmate. >> I was like, what? Who is this? >> It was a birthday card from the father he had never known. >> I hope this card finds you well. You have questions and I want to answer them. I want to know you so please write.

>> How did you sign your letter? >> Damon. >> Not dad. >> And I didn't think I'd earned a title dad.

You know, because that was never there.

>> Damon Tibbito was 17 when his son Josh was born. Damon lost contact with him when he broke up with Josh's mom. >> I wanted to be part of his life, but I was a stranger to it. >> I wrote him back and pretty much asked him who he was. >> I wanted Josh to know that I wasn't a murderer.

>> At that time, I didn't know if he was guilty of it or not. >> After many letters, over several years, Josh began to believe in his father. >> I wanted to meet him. I wanted to meet my dad, and he didn't want me to do that. >> Did I want to see him? Yes, very badly.

How again without having changed on my feet?

>> But fighting a case post-conviction takes time, lots of time. So in May 2007, having already spent nearly 10 long years on death row, Damon agreed to allow Barry Shack and his other lawyers to show the district attorney all the evidence they had gathered. >> There was some skepticism.

>> The man is on death row. He's on death row. It's a horrible murder. >> And surprisingly, Jefferson Parish, district attorney Paul Khanic, was willing to hear them out. >> He came in, along with his team. I had all of my chiefs in the room.

The easy thing to do would be to rely on the conviction.

This is going to be politically a hypothetical year. Why are we going to reopen this case? >> I bet there are people in your office who said that.

“>> This is good conviction. Why are we going down this road?”

But certainly, there was enough presented to me. Whereas I sat there, I'm thinking, I got to look at this. >> Khanic was troubled enough by what he saw that he agreed to open an investigation, not just working alongside the defense team, but also splitting costs. They would re-examine the physical evidence.

This was a bloody crime scene and a bloody struggle. They would have to be some transfer of trace evidence on the person who committed this crime. >> Let's take another look at what was already tested. >> Using today's technology. >> This is a very scary thing.

>> The risk haunted Denny Loboff, who feared Damod's DNA could have innocently ended up on Crystal. They're going to test his clothing and his car for hairs. And she lived in the house where he slept on the sofa. She'd written in his car.

“It would stop this case cold, I believe.”

If one little bit of forensic evidence matched Damod. >> But there was little choice. So every bit of the clothing that Damod and Crystal had worn was scrutinized for any speck of telltale DNA. In all, the testing took another two years.

>> Was any DNA from Damod Tibodo found on any of the evidence? >> No. >> Was anything from Crystal found on anything belonging to Damod Tibodo? >> No. >> Was there anything that connected Damod Tibodo to the crime scene?

>> No. >> I was expecting those ourselves. >> But you had to be thrilled. >> Oh, yeah, definitely I was thrilled. Because now I have something tangible to stick in front of the DA.

And say, look, you got the wrong guy. >> But Connick saw other problems with the case. Like the defense claim that Damod didn't have enough time to kill Crystal. Was that true? It all hinged on Crystal's mother, Dawn.

She first told police Damod was back at her home when she called 911. >> But later at trial, she said he wasn't. >> When we questioned her about her trial testimony, she went back and forth and finally said whatever I told the police is my best recollection. >> If that's right, and Damod was with the family by then,

it was virtually impossible for him to have driven Crystal to bridge city. >> Yet, since he confessed so soon after Crystal's body was found,

the police never looked into who else might have taken her there.

>> There was never a wide-ranging investigation as there should have been after a homicide. >> The both says there were plenty of people to question, like the friend who said he spoke with Crystal on the phone just hours before she disappeared, or the relative with an arrest record for violent crimes who lived close to where her body was found. And Crystal did have friends in Bridge City, including one now serving life for aggravated rape of a juvenile.

>> I can't tell you if any one of those men did the murder or knows anything about the murder. I can't tell you sitting here, what I can tell you is that any decent investigation would have asked them.

“>> And what about that family friend who found Crystal's body hidden deeply in the brush along the Mississippi river?”

>> Just how did he manage to do that? >> What made you go look that one other spot? >> Because it had rain, that's all I can say, because of the rain.

>> Do you have a dark curiosity?

Heart starts pounding, horror's hauntings and mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me and Kaelanmore. Each week I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwards horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the darkly curious, check out Heart starts pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

And remember, stay curious. [ Music ]

“>> You have to look at the case and say, let's start with the oddities.”

The things that really don't add up. What really doesn't add up says private eye gen victory is how and where 14-year-old Crystal Champagne was found. >> This is the Huey P-Long Bridge and at the foot of the bridge here comes into a community called Bridge City. >> Vittree, who was part of Damon Tibbiddo's post-conviction defense team,

is a CBS news consultant. >> When we walked down and we were seeing where she was found, Crystal's body was discovered deep in the brush around five miles from where the teenager had disappeared alone on foot. >> Everybody in the entire police department is looking for her in West Wego.

It's just 15 minutes away. >> So how did this man, John Tomlinson,

happened to find her in the very first place he looked?

>> It's something about me. >> See, there's weird things that people don't understand about me. I can have a dream and it'll actually come true. And it scares me. >> A dream Tomlinson now claims led him to the body.

Although back in 1996, he told police, it was his intuition. What did you actually dream? >> All I, in my dream was,

“remember just staring up and being standing right underneath the Huey P-Long Bridge.”

>> We tracked down Tomlinson to ball Louisiana, where he was working as an auto mechanic. Back in 1996, he was a 30 year old tugboat deckhand, living in the same West Wego apartment complex as Crystal's family. >> It enhanced me every day that I found her body.

It chills me every day. What do you mean, Tomlinson? >> She's a good kid, she did the third. She had a lot of light to go. >> Tomlinson had been dating a close friend of Crystal's mom,

Stacy Melonson. Crystal often babysat for Stacey and was at her home just hours before she disappeared. Tomlinson insists he was on a tugboat, a sleep when Stacey called to tell him that Crystal was missing.

>> I never really run my mind that she would run away.

I mean, she was too good of a kid, she was too happy. >> The next evening he says, Stacy picked him up at the dog and they handed out flyers in the neighboring bridge city, even though they were far from Crystal's home.

At a convenience store, he says, a woman told them she had seen a girl who looked like Crystal walking alone on the levy about a mile from the bridge. >> So I said, okay, Stacy, let's go take a little trip.

>> But Tomlinson didn't search the area where Crystal was reportedly seen. Instead, he drove on for about a mile, stopped the car and told Stacy to stay behind. >> That dream is what drugged me there.

>> Then, without hesitation, he says, he followed a path into the woods. >> Well, there's a little trail here, you know. When I walked in and got up there, she was. >> Where was she?

>> That under the Heepypid on the bridge. When I looked up, I was looking at the same thing that I was looking at in my dream that I, when I was standing on a drug boat.

“>> I mean, how did you know that that's where you would find Crystal's body?”

>> The hunch. Just the hunch. Based on the dream, just the hunch. >> That story obviously didn't go down well with investigators who took Tomlinson in for questioning.

>> And I walked in about ten feet. Found a box. >> What made you go then? >> Get to Washington. >> I went through nine and a half hours of intense interrogation

because it was the same thing over and over and over. I really felt like they were trying to make me say that I did it.

going through his own interrogation down the hall, told police that he did it. Police then lost interest in Tomlinson, especially since his alibi,

“claiming that he was on a tugboat that was far down river”

on the night Crystal was killed, appeared to be backed up by the boat's logs. >> I proved while I was on that boat that there's no way that I could do it. >> But how airtight was that alibi?

Today, Tomlinson concedes that crew members covered for each other all the time. Now, at the time, now you told him it was impossible to get off the boat. >> Well, sure. >> I mean, no, it's not.

It's never is.

But I always let my boss know when I was getting off that boat.

>> But you could get off. >> Sure. >> What have to know? >> Sure. >> And you could get right back on. >> Sure. You can get off and get right back on.

It's no problem. I mean, it's a boat. >> But some night, you would sneak off there and go see Stacey. >> When you were supposed to be sleeping in the bed. >> And I was sleeping in home.

>> You didn't meet up with Stacey on that Friday night. >> No. >> What's more troubling is that Tomlinson was convicted of a sex offense two years before Crystal disappeared. His crime.

>> Indies in the air with Tuna. >> Here's how he explains it. >> I picked up a 14-year-old girl. She was 18 at least at a bar. And gotten trouble for it.

I paid my dues and done my time.

>> And you never were inappropriate with Crystal?

>> Never. >> That's the wrong thing. You know, I was raised the right way. He never tried her to job. >> Crystal was also 14.

But Tomlinson denies having anything to do with her murder. You had nothing to do with her death. >> How am I the soul? I never touched her. >> He blames the crime on the man who once said he did it.

Damon Tibbito. >> He admitted to what he did wrong. He should be punished. >> That confession is no doubt the biggest obstacle to Damon's freedom. Especially for the man who agreed to take a new look at the case.

District Attorney Paul Connick.

“After all of a sudden you still had this thing like why would somebody confess?”

>> Why? >> I'm not going to take the boilerplate explanation for false confessions. >> Connick was skeptical that the interrogation tactics were to blame. So we turned this man. >> I don't believe there exists evidence of any false confession in which a person confessed falsely

to murder because he didn't get a meal. >> Dr. Michael Wellner. A tough forensic psychiatrist who often sides with the police. >> I needed to know. Can't I rely on this confession because that's all I have.

>> False confessions are extremely rare. I trust him. I really do. >> Dr. Wellner insisted on talking to Damon Tibbito by himself. >> There's no lawyer process.

>> That had to drive the defense crisis. >> And we knew it. >> With his life writing on this interview. Damon Tibbito agreed to meet with Dr. Wellner alone. >> I was afraid that he would paint Damon as a different person that he is.

“>> Was Damon the person you were expecting to meet?”

>> From the background that was presented to me. I anticipated meeting somebody who would have been crushed crumpled and spit out. And the person that I met was composed. Self-possessed. I was shocked.

>> What was going through my mind is. Did we make a big mistake? [MUSIC] >> But everything we said was true. >> Was Damon Tibbito coerced by the police into giving a false confession?

>> My professional opinion he was not. >> Forensic psychiatrist Michael Wellner does not believe that Damon was forced into confessing. But he does believe that if Tibbito had committed the crime, there would be some physical evidence. >> It was a bloody event.

It was a physical event that required restraint that required contact. Still, Wellner says that Damon did blame himself. Believing that if he had given Crystal a ride to the store on that faithful afternoon, she might still be alive. >> Had she asked you for a ride?

>> Yes. >> And you said no. >> I said no. >> On top of that guilt was Damon's failed polygraph.

>> To some people, failing a polygraph is powerful evidence.

You might be better off confessing.

Damon was admitting to a rape that didn't happen.

“As you said here today, do you believe that Damon Tibbito falsely confessed?”

>> I do. There are many things about this case that I can't answer, but one thing that I can say is that I believe there's to be a false confession. >> And now, so does the man who once put Damon Tibbito on death row. >> We relied too much on the confession in the beginning.

When we should have gone further. >> Five years after that first meeting with Damon's team, District Attorney Paul Connick makes an extraordinary decision. He will not fight Damon's bed for freedom. >> There's no way I can keep his man in jail.

There's no way. >> The defense and Connick file a joint motion in court. That same day, a judge orders the conviction vacated. Adding in a handwritten note, the Damon should be immediately released. In September, 2012, 16 years after Damon's arrest,

his legal team gathers anxiously at the gates of Angola. >> Danny, have you ever come here then and watch someone walk out of here? Is this the first time ever? That you've ever watched him and walk out alive out of Angola? >> Yes, it is.

>> First time. >> Good luck.

>> Hope I never see you over here.

Don't take it all away. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. How does it feel to time we need to breathe?

>> Good. >> Seems like you're overwhelmed, no words. I'll take care of it. >> Yes, I am in the car, rather than we're keeping. Time to feel free.

[LAUGH] >> Five hours later, say free. >> Damon is in New Orleans. >> Yeah. >> Reunited with his family.

His son Josh finally gets the meat as father and person.

When you first saw him and you realized that was your son.

What were you feeling? >> Relief. I finally got to medium. It's indescribable. >> Well, I love the water.

>> Yeah, it's great. >> They spent three days trying to catch up on all the lost years. >> And what did the two of you do today? >> We walked, we walked, we talked. We got to know each other a little bit.

The grounds on death row kept like a mansion's grounds. >> So what do you think of your son? >> I'm proud. I mean, he's a great guy. He's a good man.

You know, and I'm glad that I'm alive to see it.

“>> I think one of the great things of this is the opportunity now for father and son to have”

a real relationship with each other. That's just unbelievably special. >> You got it all? >> You got it all. >> A Torny Steve Kaplan's commitment to Damon is an over yet.

>> But this is the back. >> Damon is moving in with him until he gets settled. >> We're coming up on Yuppi Long Breasian. >> And so they embarked on the 1200 mile journey to Minneapolis. >> We're headed north.

And I get to sit in the front seat. There you go. No chains. No chains. It's not not the back seat.

And I don't have bars in the windows. I'm shaking the chains on. And I'm starting over. [ Music ] >> This is a man that your office convicted.

>> Right. >> Put on death row. >> Right. >> And then 15 years later, to turn around, so I've got to let him go.

Wasn't that a very tough decision. >> The process was tough. But in the end, it's what should have been done in my heart. I knew what I did was the right decision. >> And the fact that so much time now,

it's passed to start taking a new look at this case.

“Isn't it going to make it very difficult to find the real killer?”

>> It is. Again, once the alternative, we can't, we can't stop. That's what we do. It's our job. >> The murder of Crystal Champagne is now an open case.

So can it cannot talk about specifics. But the state is actively reinvestigating. That's sure to mean taking a fresh look at several people. Including John Tomlinson. >> Don Champagne can only hope that the renewed investigation will pay off.

>> There's a lot of things I don't understand. A lot of things I don't know. All she wants is justice for her daughter,

who went out to a store and never made it home.

After his release, Damon Tibido earned his GED and testified before a senate committee about conditions on death row.

Damon died in September 2021.

Due to complications from COVID-19.

[MUSIC]

“>> The critically acclaimed serious comment from accounts returns for a brand new season.”

>> He proposed to me drunk out of nowhere at my best friends wedding.

>> I was being spontaneous. >> You have a ring, it's just gross.

“>> All episode streaming September 10th.”

>> Still will they won't they who is. >> But what is it? >> We have to get a lead. >> We're friendly together. >> With a dog.

“>> Colin from accounts new season streaming September 10th.”

Only on Paramount Plus.