Free Michael Clark - an innocent man serving LWOP
BACKGROUND
In many wrongful convictions cases the police focus on one suspect and one suspect only when in fact there are often other suspect(s) that could have committed the crime. This is known as a rush to judgment and tunnel vision by the police. The police select a primary suspect and they do not want any outside influence or evidence to take the focus of off "their" suspect and impact their theory of the case. This is what happened in the case against Michael Clark. There were other suspects that had the motive, means and opportunity to murder Marty Grisham on November 1, 1994. In this section possible "other" suspects are listed and we question why the police didn't do a more thorough job of investigating them instead of putting all the focus of their investigation on just Michael Clark. Could any of these people listed below have anything to do with the murder of Marty Gresham?
KRISTEN GRISHAM
Kristen Grisham was considered a suspect until 2010. Although Kristen was not considered the shooter the police suspected she might have conspired with Michael Clark to have her father, Marty Grisham killed. We know Kristen didn’t conspire with Michael Clark but what if she conspired with Dion Moore or someone else?
The motive the prosecution used for Michael killing Marty Grisham was check fraud, that is he stole Marty's checks, wrote checks to himself and cashed them. But the ironic thing about those stolen checks was when Marty's girlfriend, Barbara Burger asked him who he thought stole the checks he didn't hesitate for second and said he felt that one or both of the twins (Kristen & Loren) stole them. Marty went to his death never knowing the twins hadn't stolen those checks.
Kristen had much more motive(s) to kill her father than Michael Clark. Kristen's relationship with her father was a very difficult and contentious relationship. "We had a very difficult family life. My father was at times very wonderful and at times very horrible so it was a very dysfunctional family relationship." Kristen testified at trial her father was very emotionally abusive to her mother, her brother, and her, and it was just very hard to deal with. There were a lot of problems in the family. There was also the greed factor. Kristen stood to inherit money from Marty’s insurance policy that was due to expire at midnight the day he was murdered. In addition Kristen also received money from Marty’s Public Employment Retirement Account benefits.
The day of the murder Kristen was to have dinner with her father and Barbara Burger, Marty's girlfriend, but Kristen left a voice mail message on Marty's answering machine saying she wasn't up to making it to dinner that evening. That disappointed Marty but didn't seem to surprise him. After dinner Marty and Barbara were listening to music when the doorbell rang. Marty got up to answer the door but before opening the door he looked through the peephole and turned around to Barbara and rolled his eyes up as though he recognized the person at the door.
Kristen’s alibi was she was watching a movie, The Age of Innocence with her mother Pam Grisham, Marty's ex-wife. But was Pam covering for Kristen, after all there was no love lost between Pam and her ex Marty. Kristen would have known Marty was going to be home, on the evening of November 1, 1994 because she was to have dinner with him and Barbara Burger at 7:00 PM. Her story varies regarding contact with him about dinner. She turns off the phone and the answering machine. Kristen states, Marty calls her around 6 PM but she does not check the answering machine until 8 PM. According to Pam, Marty’s message on the answering machine was for Kristen to call him. Kristen stated the message was something to the effect, “Sorry I missed you”. Could Kristen have changed her mind about dinner or just coming over to visit or actually planned on killing him or having him killed? Shortly after Marty was murdered the police dispatched two Louisville police officers (Goodard and Ray) to the house of Pam Grisham, Marty's ex-wife and where Kristen was living. Before entering the residence the police officers (Goodard and Ray) checked the car (4-door Acura registered to Pam Grisham) in the driveway and according to an audio (radio traffic recordings) found in Discovery one of the police officers (Badge #594) says the car had a warm hood. Yet when Louisville police officer Robert Goodard, who was at Pam Grisham's house that evening testified at trial he said "As I recall, it (the car in the driveway belonging to Pam Grisham) did not appear to have been driven recently, it (the hood) was cool; there wasn't any warmth or heat or anything coming off the areas (hood and tailpipe)". If that hood was warm it would have ruined Kristen and Pam's alibi because they stated to the police they were watching a movie and never left the house that evening. Kristen said upon notification of Marty’s death, "he could be a jerk, but I didn't think he was that big of a jerk."
Detective Trujillo volunteered at trial that Kristen took a polygraph test in connection with Grisham’s murder, administered by Jeff Janks. The search warrant for Clark’s DNA confirms that Kristen took a polygraph in 1994 in connection with her father's murder, administered by Jeff Jenks, and that in Jenks’ opinion Kristen engaged in purposeful non-cooperation measures indicating that she wanted to avoid detection of deception in one or more of the areas under investigation and tried to defeat the test.
At the trial Kristen tried to distance herself from Michael Clark, yet when going through Mike’s high school yearbook it appeared that Kristen had been much more interested in Mike than she let on at trial (Yearbook1,Yearbook2).
LOREN GRISHAM
Sgt. Donald Breier, Garfield County Sheriff’s Office notified Loren Grisham on Nov. 1, 1994 at 11:20PM at the campus of Colorado Mountain College of the death of his father. Sgt.Breier testified the distance from the Glenwood Springs Sheriffs Office to Boulder is 170-175 miles at about 3.5 hours. If the murder of Marty Grisham occurred at 9:34 PM and Sgt Breier arrived at Loren’s dorm at 11:20 PM it’s pretty certain Loren couldn’t have shot Marty and then returned to his dorm before Sgt. Breier arrived. Although Loren had a pretty ironclad alibi could he have conspired with someone to kill his father?
Like his twin sister Kristen, Loren had motive to kill his father. He had a tumultuous and often volatile relationship with his father, and like Kristen was due to inherit money upon his father’s death.
LG also took a polygraph on the same date, following which the examiner opined that LG was not telling the truth when he denied planning with anyone to shoot Grisham.
Loren was also identified at one time as forging checks that belonged to Marty. Like his twin sister Kristen Loren also took a polygraph on the same date, following which the examiner Jeff Jenks opined that Loren was not telling the truth when he denied planning with anyone to shoot his father.
Loren Grisham had multiple wives prior to committing suicide in 2007. Did Loren ever mention to any of his wives if he had any involvement in the death of his father?
PAM GRISHAM
Remember when Marty Grisham went to the door he looked through the peephole turned around and rolled his eyes when he glanced back to his girlfriend Barbara Burger. Who would Marty have been more surprised to see at the door than his ex-wife?
Marty Grisham was very emotionally abusive to Pam during their marriage. She certainly would have wanted her two children to inherit the money from Marty’s insurance policy and his retirement fund. Although she had an alibi, watching a movie with Kristen could both of them be covering up for one another? When the police arrived to notify Pam of Marty's murder she was reported as answering the door wearing a trench coat, this was never explained at trial and one has to wonder what was this about? Pam also called in sick to work that day after the murder and claims that she never left her house.
And don't forget that audio in Discovery stated when the police arrived at Pam's house the hood of the car was warm. If Kristen and her had never left the house that evening, as both of them claimed how could the hood of her car been warm?
DION MOORE
Although it appeared Dion did not have a motive, but could he have been used by one of Marty Grisham’s twins (Kristen and/or Loren) to commit a murder for hire. Kristen stated she did not know Dion but it appears Dion appeared at a party thrown by Kristen.
In fact Dion did have motive. His motive was to cover up any tracks he may have had in the murder of Marty Grisham and to make sure the police continued their focus on the investigation on Michael Clark.
Dion bought the guns and bullets that were suspect in the murder of Marty Grisham. Dion Moore stated in a police report, dated March 16, 2010 that Michael Clark returned the full metal jacketed round bullets to him and that he noticed Mike had hallow point bullets loaded in his gun. The bullets found at the crime scene were full metal jacket round bullets. Michael Clark did NOT have those bullets loaded in his gun but Dion Moore DID.
Dion Moore stated that his friends Vanessa and Summer saw the gun, purported by police to be the murder weapon in Mike Clark’s car on November 1, 1994, the day of the murder. Neither Vanessa nor Summer was ever called to testify by the defense or prosecution. It is believed and highly likely that these two girl's would have contradicted Dion’s Moore’s statement about the gun being in Mike’s car on 11/1/94. Neither testified at trial. If these two girls had testified and contradicted Dion Moore’s statement it would have destroyed his credibility and showed that Mike did NOT have that gun in his car the day of the murder, and might have taken the focus of Mike and put it on Dion.
In 1995 Dion Moore negotiated a deal to testify against Michael Clark in exchange for dismissal of pending cases against him.
Dion Moore had three very good reasons to keep the focus on Michael Clark for the murder of Marty Grisham and off himself.
UNIDENTIFIED WALKER
Tanya Augustine saw a man in the complex as she was walking towards the laundry room somewhere around 9:15 PM right before the murder of Marty Grisham. Augustine said this man scared her and she described him as a young white male, short dirty blonde hair, clean shaven with no facial hair, ears sticking out, glasses, a large man someone 6’2” or more. When Augustine saw a photo of Michael Clark she said that was NOT the person she saw that night. Augustine was walking east to west so this person would have been walking west to east. This was very important because the time frame, approximately 9:15-9:30 PM fits within the time frame of Marty Grisham’s murder? Mark Zondlo the man who was reported to be in the composite that Augustine had done was a resident of the complex and came home after the shooting, not before the shooting when Augustine saw the man that scared her. The police never asked Augustine to view Mr. Zondlo to determine if this was the person she saw that night walking in the complex. This was sloppy police work and this lack of identification of Mr. Zondlo by Augustine was never brought up at trial. Probably Mark Zondlo was NOT the person Augustine saw on the walkway that evening. If not Zondlo who was the man Augustine saw that night and did he have anything to do with the murder of Marty Grisham?
PROFESSIONAL HIT MAN
Marty Grisham was known at times to not be a particularly nice person. Could he have had an unknown enemy(s) or relative that might have had a motive to shoot and kill him, someone the police never investigated? Could a hit man been hired by someone to kill Marty Grisham? If so who is that person(s).
What kind of a person could commit a crime by shooting someone in their house with someone else present and not leave a shred of evidence? This was never brought up at trial. Makes the hit man theory seem viable.
The police had their sights set on Michael Clark and once that happened they did little else to investigate other possible suspects, which is often the case with wrongful convictions.
OTHER SUSPECTS
