Episode 275

<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
<v Speaker 1>not intended for all audiences.
<v Speaker 2>Listener discretion is advice.
<v Speaker 3>I thought that maybe he just had an injury, or
<v Speaker 3>maybe had fallen or something like that. I wasn't expecting
<v Speaker 3>to see what I had seen when I got there.
<v Speaker 1>Hello, folks, this is a little something I like to
<v Speaker 1>call Sword and Scale the show that reveals that the
<v Speaker 1>worst monsters.
<v Speaker 4>Are real.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, I don't know if you know, but we have
<v Speaker 1>a TV show. It's called Sword and Scale, and if
<v Speaker 1>you like this you might like that. You can find
<v Speaker 1>it at swordscale dot com. We just put up our
<v Speaker 1>seventh episode and we're getting ready to start delivering two
<v Speaker 1>episodes a month, which is quite an undertaking. So if
<v Speaker 1>you support what we're doing here, if you like true
<v Speaker 1>crime and you want to see more of it, pad
<v Speaker 1>on over to Sword and Scale dot com and consider
<v Speaker 1>joining us at the super supporter level so you can
<v Speaker 1>see all of the interesting stories we've covered on Sword
<v Speaker 1>and Scale Television. It's it's something I'll tell you, ladies.
<v Speaker 1>I have a question, and I know a lot of
<v Speaker 1>you listen to this show. Do you remember what it
<v Speaker 1>was like to be a teenage girl? I grew up
<v Speaker 1>around a bunch of teenage girls cousins, and they always
<v Speaker 1>had some kind of drama or trauma in their life.
<v Speaker 1>It's probably where I get my flair for the dramatic.
<v Speaker 1>But I've heard that being a teenage girl is well
<v Speaker 1>hell at times, much worse than boys. Teenage girls hormones
<v Speaker 1>are raging, they are irritable, testy, and reactive. They're like
<v Speaker 1>a live wire. Everything is annoying to a teenage girl,
<v Speaker 1>especially her parents. So when you think back to those
<v Speaker 1>days were you were you difficult? Were there things that
<v Speaker 1>you look back and regret on? Maybe things that you
<v Speaker 1>said to your parents when they wouldn't let you get
<v Speaker 1>your way, anything still haunt you to this day. How
<v Speaker 1>many times did you scream I want to kill my
<v Speaker 1>dad when he told you no? How many times did
<v Speaker 1>you wish your parents would disappear forever so you could
<v Speaker 1>just get on with your life free from the burden.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, you never really meant it, did you, But
<v Speaker 1>have you.
<v Speaker 5>Ever thought about what would have happened if that wish
<v Speaker 5>had actually come true?
<v Speaker 1>On October one, twenty twenty one, sixty four year old
<v Speaker 1>Conrad and Mirowitz found himself at the hospital in Grand Blanc, Michigan. Yes, yes, yes,
<v Speaker 1>I know it's Grand Blanc or some shit. Nobody really cares.
<v Speaker 1>Just pay attention to the story, Okay. Anyway, Conrad was
<v Speaker 1>in rough shape when he arrived at the emergency room.
<v Speaker 1>He had severe chemical burns all over his head, torso, arms,
<v Speaker 1>and legs. Conrad's fingers were so burned that the skin
<v Speaker 1>had peeled off, exposing the fleshy, raw red tissue underneath. Yup,
<v Speaker 1>his legs were turning green. He was hanging on by
<v Speaker 1>a threat. Conrad was also confused and drunk, very drunk.
<v Speaker 1>Let's just say he blew almost four times the legal
<v Speaker 1>limit when he was admitted into the emergency room. So
<v Speaker 1>Conrad wasn't totally sure what had happened, and everyone at
<v Speaker 1>the hospital was equally as confused as to what had
<v Speaker 1>caused his burns. Here's one of the nurses in the
<v Speaker 1>er who dealt with him that night.
<v Speaker 2>And even before Girland brought the patient in, the paramats
<v Speaker 2>approached me and be like, hey, we should probably take
<v Speaker 2>a look at this guy because we don't know what's
<v Speaker 2>the cause of these burns, and we were concerned about
<v Speaker 2>the possible chemical or some type of chemical exposures to
<v Speaker 2>the physician at the time said that we should decon
<v Speaker 2>this patient being we don't know what the offending Asian is.
<v Speaker 2>So we put him into our decontamination room and started
<v Speaker 2>rinsing the patient down for any type of chemical materials
<v Speaker 2>or anything like that.
<v Speaker 6>Done other bore No, actually ahead fifteen years your first
<v Speaker 6>time correct.
<v Speaker 1>In the emergency room, Conrad was cleaned to remove any
<v Speaker 1>potential hazardous chemicals. He ached and moaned, but with the
<v Speaker 1>alcohol in his system and the severity of his burns,
<v Speaker 1>he was floating through the pain. Most of his nerve
<v Speaker 1>endings had been damaged by the chemicals, so he was
<v Speaker 1>falling into comfortable numbness.
<v Speaker 2>I was a paramedic as well, and so I've seen
<v Speaker 2>like house fire burns that weren't that bad.
<v Speaker 1>As the nurses tended to Conrad, he tried to ask
<v Speaker 1>them what happened.
<v Speaker 2>I started asking him what was going on, What's what happened?
<v Speaker 2>And he stated that he's like, oh, I did bomb
<v Speaker 2>my house used like an a stect beside bomb a
<v Speaker 2>couple of days ago. He's like, maybe that's what caused this.
<v Speaker 1>So the nurse called poison control to get more information.
<v Speaker 2>He said what I was describing was more like an
<v Speaker 2>alcoholitic type burn. After I got off the phone Points
<v Speaker 2>Control I reported my findings what I spoke with fun
<v Speaker 2>Points Controls to the physicians, and I received no further
<v Speaker 2>orders at that time.
<v Speaker 7>Were you able to stabilize him?
<v Speaker 2>I didn't get another IVY like I wanted to, but
<v Speaker 2>his vitals were stable at the time.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad seemed to sober up, and as the pain medication
<v Speaker 1>kicked in and the treatment soothed his skin, he was
<v Speaker 1>able to collect himself. Soon two of his sons arrived
<v Speaker 1>at the hospital, and the nurse overheard them talking with Conrad.
<v Speaker 2>They were trying to discuss their like most of us like,
<v Speaker 2>what had happened at this point that the patient did
<v Speaker 2>seem slightly more responsive than when he first came in.
<v Speaker 2>Disgusting with that that he remembered his daughter throwing a
<v Speaker 2>white powder on him when he was on the couch.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad remembered that he'd gotten into a fight with his
<v Speaker 1>teenage daughter, Megan in Merrowitz. That's the last thing that
<v Speaker 1>he recalled. She threw something at him. The concerned nurse
<v Speaker 1>who heard this called the police and reported the assault
<v Speaker 1>as soon as they showed up, they wanted to talk
<v Speaker 1>to Conrad.
<v Speaker 8>She wondered, Yeah, he would be placed earlier for whatever reason.
<v Speaker 8>So there was at an hotel she wanted to hear colored.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad said something had pissed Megan off. He wasn't sure.
<v Speaker 1>He remember she had a hair appointment or something. His
<v Speaker 1>memory was foggy, but Conrad's memory was often foggy. He
<v Speaker 1>was kind of a big drinker.
<v Speaker 8>Yes, last night, you know, she threw a bunch of
<v Speaker 8>stuff at me, got mad.
<v Speaker 7>What do you what stuff meaning?
<v Speaker 9>But there's a.
<v Speaker 8>She rearranged her bedroom so there was a mattress on
<v Speaker 8>the wall.
<v Speaker 7>He dad went crazy on that stuff.
<v Speaker 8>You know, if I Baskedard take out the gardens several times,
<v Speaker 8>his dad hasn't been working.
<v Speaker 7>But is this is this kind of I'm trying to
<v Speaker 7>gauge this.
<v Speaker 10>Is this a normal behavior that she would throw stuff
<v Speaker 10>on you to burn you.
<v Speaker 7>No, you know she usually is an argument.
<v Speaker 8>No, I get mad at her, she gets mad at me,
<v Speaker 8>bad around with each other. It's normal, okay, right, But
<v Speaker 8>this is this is very very good.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad and Meghan lived alone in a split level home.
<v Speaker 1>He drank a lot, and she was your typical eighteen
<v Speaker 1>year old girl, always on her phone and often irritated
<v Speaker 1>with her father. They bickered a lot, but they also
<v Speaker 1>loved each other.
<v Speaker 8>We had a half to suit her off. Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 8>a bottle down. It's a quarters, a little.
<v Speaker 10>One off party calling ice.
<v Speaker 7>Oh a beer like the beer fest. Yeah, like the
<v Speaker 7>Seltzer drink. Loving me so to have to move wife's
<v Speaker 7>of movies.
<v Speaker 11>Set it off my phone.
<v Speaker 9>It's falling at night, and it was pretty early this morning.
<v Speaker 8>Gun it up, says by smear off surrests of the movie.
<v Speaker 7>Way back to that, okay, they said, Oh, I got
<v Speaker 7>all kinds of people in the house.
<v Speaker 3>It's still.
<v Speaker 6>You are you Were you sleeping when this happened.
<v Speaker 9>Or were you conscious?
<v Speaker 12>No sleeping.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't have anything drink.
<v Speaker 10>I won't bother you that much.
<v Speaker 7>All I need if you don't remember, you don't remember all.
<v Speaker 13>I just want to know.
<v Speaker 7>If you go in your house to insay.
<v Speaker 13>What happened, go ahead, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Another nurse on the scene gave her two cents to
<v Speaker 1>the cops.
<v Speaker 12>I'm trying to he said, sit down on a couch.
<v Speaker 13>He doesn't know when it happened.
<v Speaker 9>And then his family friends family with you.
<v Speaker 14>So he was.
<v Speaker 15>He was super lucky. If you have a husband, all
<v Speaker 15>three hundred al would be a point free kind.
<v Speaker 9>So he doesn't have a red laving it from the restaurant.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, So.
<v Speaker 16>All right, well we're going to go talk with the daughter.
<v Speaker 7>Understand Yep.
<v Speaker 13>I appreciate it, and I guess it's really all I need.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, So I appreciate tea green hine away.
<v Speaker 1>To be clear, if you're blowing a point three blood
<v Speaker 1>alcohol level, you're almost dead. We're talking like ten to
<v Speaker 1>fifteen drinks. Although that was me or nothing for an
<v Speaker 1>immortal like myself back in my heydays of drinking. To
<v Speaker 1>the average person, that would kill you. Most people would
<v Speaker 1>black out or end up with their stomachs pumped. But
<v Speaker 1>not Conrad. He was a seasoned drinker, a real vet.
<v Speaker 1>Soon the police found Megan at a hotel where she
<v Speaker 1>was partying with her friends. She was nonchalant as they
<v Speaker 1>quizzed her.
<v Speaker 7>Do you know why we're here?
<v Speaker 13>I know that they told me that he had some
<v Speaker 13>kind of burned behind.
<v Speaker 7>So when was the last time you were at those around?
<v Speaker 4>Telling me.
<v Speaker 17>I left around.
<v Speaker 10>Thirty okay, okay, and right now you're not in trouble.
<v Speaker 10>You're not under arrest. I'm just seeing what you know,
<v Speaker 10>what happened. Okay, we heard there was a little stuff up.
<v Speaker 13>Okay, I left, but.
<v Speaker 12>And I realized that it was my hair appointment.
<v Speaker 14>Obviously I had to give one take me you dron't
<v Speaker 14>have money.
<v Speaker 13>And I walked over to him and I woke him up.
<v Speaker 12>But I could tell he was a little drunk, so
<v Speaker 12>I got.
<v Speaker 7>I was upset.
<v Speaker 14>Obviously that's fine, but he kept saying, like I can
<v Speaker 14>I'm drunk, can't take the car, and I like, I
<v Speaker 14>can't take it, and he just keeps telling me that.
<v Speaker 14>I started yelling at him to find because obviously that's
<v Speaker 14>like a start thing.
<v Speaker 12>You know, he drinking.
<v Speaker 7>He breaks my heart, totally stop. I totally understand.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad was too drunk to drive Megan to her hair appointment,
<v Speaker 1>so she got mad. But this wasn't just danny hair appointment.
<v Speaker 1>This was Megan's eighteenth birthday and she had big plans
<v Speaker 1>to party with her girlfriends at a hotel and now
<v Speaker 1>her stupid father was drunk again and he was screwing
<v Speaker 1>it up like he did everything.
<v Speaker 13>I just kind of got mad.
<v Speaker 14>And I'm like all I threw in him was a
<v Speaker 14>vagabriad and I know that didn't hurt him because it's
<v Speaker 14>a vagabrit.
<v Speaker 1>As mad as she was. Megan swore that all she
<v Speaker 1>threw at Conrad was a bag of bread. That's it.
<v Speaker 7>So I'm gonna be honest with you. Your dad's in bad shape.
<v Speaker 7>So there's there's a lot of burning on your dad, Okay,
<v Speaker 7>consistent with what come on? Hot right? You said you
<v Speaker 7>were fighting with your dad.
<v Speaker 10>That's fine, you know, I totally understand if he's drinking,
<v Speaker 10>that's absolutely not how he should be running his household.
<v Speaker 10>Totally understand that, you know, but it's just not it's
<v Speaker 10>not I'm not understanding. Did he is this self inflicted?
<v Speaker 10>Like if you I mean, make sure put you and
<v Speaker 10>you own my shoes. You two are the only people
<v Speaker 10>in that house and you leave it two o'clock and
<v Speaker 10>he's perfectly fine, right and all of a sudden, you
<v Speaker 10>know what I mean?
<v Speaker 7>So how did he get these? You know?
<v Speaker 9>I mean he had stuff over there. You have pats
<v Speaker 9>and dogs over all the time.
<v Speaker 13>It could have been I don't know.
<v Speaker 14>If I knew that there was temples over there, I
<v Speaker 14>wouldn't sing up.
<v Speaker 1>The a Mirrowitz house was a mess, a complete pig
<v Speaker 1>sty Alcoholism isn't just deadly, it's gross. Maybe one of
<v Speaker 1>their many cats accidentally knocked something on him. Well, he
<v Speaker 1>was passed out on the couch. Megan said she didn't
<v Speaker 1>throw anything harmful at her father.
<v Speaker 13>Maybe think like I do.
<v Speaker 1>But when the police searched the Mirrowitz home they found
<v Speaker 1>what had burned Conrad so badly. Lie, Yes, Lie, we
<v Speaker 1>all saw that movie Fight Club right. The alkali chemical
<v Speaker 1>is found in everything from soap to silver polish and
<v Speaker 1>drain cleaner. Depending on its form, Lie, can be very dangerous.
<v Speaker 1>The entire couch was covered in the white powdery substance,
<v Speaker 1>and the bottle of drain cleaner had been left on
<v Speaker 1>the cushion. There was no bread to be found. By
<v Speaker 1>the way, the whole story was messy, and the only
<v Speaker 1>two witnesses were not very credible. The man who was
<v Speaker 1>so intoxicated he blew nearly four times the legal limit,
<v Speaker 1>and a hormonally fueled teenager late for her birthday party
<v Speaker 1>who was kind of the main suspect. It was going
<v Speaker 1>to take a lot of digging to find out exactly
<v Speaker 1>what happened, but luckily for the police, others had shown
<v Speaker 1>up at the house after Conrad had been burned. Sixty
<v Speaker 1>four year old Conrad and Merowitz had ended up in
<v Speaker 1>the hospital after waking up on his couch covered in
<v Speaker 1>chemical burns. He was drunk when he showed up at
<v Speaker 1>the er and confused as to what had happened, but
<v Speaker 1>as he sobered up, he remembered a fight with his
<v Speaker 1>teenage daughter Megan, and that she threw stuff at him
<v Speaker 1>as she left the house on the day he was burned.
<v Speaker 1>It was determined that Conrad had been burned with LYE,
<v Speaker 1>which contains sodium hydroxide when in its pure powder form,
<v Speaker 1>which is what it was when it was thrown at Conrad.
<v Speaker 1>Lie burns are extremely painful and severe. It was no
<v Speaker 1>different with Conrad. He had been dowsed in lye while
<v Speaker 1>he was sleeping on the couch, and by the time
<v Speaker 1>he was found his skin was peeling off. In fact,
<v Speaker 1>it was a friend and neighbor of Megan's named Kayla
<v Speaker 1>Basquet who first found Conrad that day. Kayla was also
<v Speaker 1>planning to go to Megan's hotel party later that afternoon
<v Speaker 1>when she received a strange message from her friend on Snapchat.
<v Speaker 1>Megan sent Kayla a photo of herself crying.
<v Speaker 7>So he said, she got.
<v Speaker 13>A photo of her crime.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, okay, and then you talked to her that yeah, okay.
<v Speaker 13>How did you.
<v Speaker 7>Converse with her?
<v Speaker 9>I said that you know what's wrong?
<v Speaker 13>Well, let me ask you.
<v Speaker 7>Did you send her a message?
<v Speaker 17>Oh?
<v Speaker 9>Yeah, I tested her on snapshot.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, and you said what's wrong?
<v Speaker 13>Yes?
<v Speaker 7>And then she said that.
<v Speaker 16>She said that her jah got drunk and she he
<v Speaker 16>didn't care because she had stuff to do today and
<v Speaker 16>she threw.
<v Speaker 14>Stuff at him.
<v Speaker 7>Okay. Do you know what was special about that day?
<v Speaker 9>It was her birthday?
<v Speaker 17>Okay.
<v Speaker 7>She was like a party that night, is that right?
<v Speaker 14>Yeah?
<v Speaker 7>All right, So she was crying when she in that photo.
<v Speaker 13>Yeah.
<v Speaker 7>Did she contact you again?
<v Speaker 9>Yes?
<v Speaker 13>When was that?
<v Speaker 9>A few hours later?
<v Speaker 17>She asked me to drive her to her party over
<v Speaker 17>the hotel.
<v Speaker 1>But Kayla didn't pick up Megan for the hotel party.
<v Speaker 1>She got a ride with someone else. But Megan did
<v Speaker 1>call Kayla later again that afternoon.
<v Speaker 7>And you were talked around the sunny Yes.
<v Speaker 17>How did she seem?
<v Speaker 9>I don't know, just normal?
<v Speaker 7>Okay. She wasn't crying there, no, all right? So this
<v Speaker 7>was three forty seven walks over first Yes, what did
<v Speaker 7>she ask.
<v Speaker 4>You to do?
<v Speaker 16>She asked me to go over to the house and
<v Speaker 16>get the credit card information from her.
<v Speaker 9>Dad because it wasn't working when she was at the hotel.
<v Speaker 1>Kayla was familiar with the amir Wake's house. She lived
<v Speaker 1>only a two minute drive away, so she said she
<v Speaker 1>would stop by to get the card information from Conrad.
<v Speaker 6>And you said you've noticed family for a while, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 6>even over the house n eighty times. Yeah, the house
<v Speaker 6>was pretty messy, wasn't it.
<v Speaker 7>Yeah, in fact, it was.
<v Speaker 6>Let's uscriv it is dirty, yeah, and gross.
<v Speaker 1>Dirty and gross is a bit of an understatement. Conrad's
<v Speaker 1>house was a wreck, a sliver away from a garbage dump.
<v Speaker 1>Here's Conrad's ex wife and Megan's mother, Julie, describing the house.
<v Speaker 12>A lot of trash. You could not walk into the kitchen.
<v Speaker 12>There was trash bags, ye, various trash all over.
<v Speaker 13>It's the couch.
<v Speaker 12>There's just a little like one foot wide trail to
<v Speaker 12>the couch.
<v Speaker 1>Let's just say that Conrad sat and drank on his
<v Speaker 1>leather couch all day every day. He didn't clean very much,
<v Speaker 1>he didn't cook very much. He just he just sat
<v Speaker 1>there and drank. He often drank so much that he
<v Speaker 1>would relieve himself in plastic bags instead of getting up
<v Speaker 1>to use the bathroom. Yeah, it was that bad. These
<v Speaker 1>bags were often strewn around the living room. What a picture, huh.
<v Speaker 12>The bathroom, it needed a good clean. And the downstairs,
<v Speaker 12>the lower levels, the bi level, the basement, not a
<v Speaker 12>lot with cat urine pieces. The lower level bathroom. I
<v Speaker 12>gagged and as a was fall all the theses brutal.
<v Speaker 1>So the house was utter squalor. But Kayla arrived and
<v Speaker 1>let herself inside like she usually did. She walked up
<v Speaker 1>the stairs and found Conrad in the living room.
<v Speaker 7>Can you tell us about how he was on the couch?
<v Speaker 9>He was kind of leaned.
<v Speaker 16>I don't remember which way he was leaned, but he
<v Speaker 16>had like one leg crossed over the other. He wasn't clothed,
<v Speaker 16>but there was a blanket across his torso.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, yeah, all right. When you got up the stairs,
<v Speaker 7>you saw him on the couch.
<v Speaker 17>How did he look? I he looked very bad. He
<v Speaker 17>looks very out of it.
<v Speaker 16>He had I didn't know what it was at the time,
<v Speaker 16>but it was like burns or blood or bruises or
<v Speaker 16>something on him. It looked like it was on his head,
<v Speaker 16>on his chest, on his hands, on his stomach.
<v Speaker 9>His legs were very green.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, it green?
<v Speaker 9>Yeah?
<v Speaker 7>How did that make you feel? When you saw in
<v Speaker 7>that way?
<v Speaker 9>Very ill?
<v Speaker 16>I started to panic because I had never seen anyone
<v Speaker 16>in a state like that before.
<v Speaker 7>Did you know what happened at that point?
<v Speaker 11>Yeah?
<v Speaker 7>Okay, did you say anything to him? But he saw
<v Speaker 7>in that way?
<v Speaker 9>Yeah? I said, what's wrong?
<v Speaker 16>And then he told me his hand hurt, and then
<v Speaker 16>that's when he reached it out said all five of
<v Speaker 16>his fingertips were the red purple color, and his fingernails.
<v Speaker 9>I curled up.
<v Speaker 1>Kayla was in shock. She'd never seen an adult man
<v Speaker 1>that injured and vulnerable before. As she helped Conrad look
<v Speaker 1>for his cell phone, her own phone started ringing.
<v Speaker 9>And then I got a call from Megan.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, so making call to you at this point?
<v Speaker 14>Yeah?
<v Speaker 7>All right? How long had an instance you talked to her?
<v Speaker 9>Last?
<v Speaker 16>So maybe ten or twenty minutes. It was like the
<v Speaker 16>last time was when I was about to leave my house. Yeah,
<v Speaker 16>she asked me for the credit card number because it's
<v Speaker 16>like that's what she wanted, and so he started saying
<v Speaker 16>the credit card numbers, and she said that they weren't working,
<v Speaker 16>and then she hung up.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, so had you been able to speak through it all?
<v Speaker 11>Really?
<v Speaker 9>Not really?
<v Speaker 7>Okay, so you weren't able to tell her what happened
<v Speaker 7>to her dad at not really.
<v Speaker 17>I didn't know what to say at the moment.
<v Speaker 1>Kayla was panicking, so she excused herself and went out
<v Speaker 1>into the front lawn to call her mom for help.
<v Speaker 1>That's when Megan called again.
<v Speaker 17>I said, Meghan, something's wrong with your dad?
<v Speaker 7>And what did she say?
<v Speaker 9>She says, oh, he used to just drunk.
<v Speaker 6>And then last she laughed, yeah, Okay, did you tell
<v Speaker 6>her anything else?
<v Speaker 9>I was like, no, something is wrong. And then what
<v Speaker 9>she told me? To call Austin? She said, Paul Austin, Yeah,
<v Speaker 9>who was awesome? Her brother?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Austin and Merrill. Wicks picked up his phone promptly,
<v Speaker 1>and unlike Meghan, he was actually concerned when Cayla told
<v Speaker 1>him what was going on with his phone. He got
<v Speaker 1>a ride over to the house from his friend and
<v Speaker 1>asked Kayla to call nine one one.
<v Speaker 3>I thought that maybe he had just had an injury,
<v Speaker 3>or maybe had fallen or something like that. I wasn't
<v Speaker 3>expecting to see what I had seen.
<v Speaker 1>When I got there, Kayla and Austin went to the
<v Speaker 1>hospital behind the ambulance. Meanwhile, Megan was still at the hotel,
<v Speaker 1>struggling to pay for her party room. She kept calling Austin.
<v Speaker 6>So while you're at the hospital, you talked to Megan
<v Speaker 6>on the phone.
<v Speaker 7>Yep, do you recall who called who?
<v Speaker 9>She had called me? Okay, she called you? What did
<v Speaker 9>she say she called?
<v Speaker 3>She had called me and it had gone that she
<v Speaker 3>was asking about to find new Dad's pain or whatever.
<v Speaker 9>I told her, no, why because he's at the hospital.
<v Speaker 9>And that's when she was like, oh, and I just hung.
<v Speaker 13>Off and that was it.
<v Speaker 1>Megan was frustrated. She needed Daddy's card to work, God
<v Speaker 1>damn it. So she tried calling Kayla again.
<v Speaker 17>And I told her we were at the hospital and
<v Speaker 17>she hung up on me.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's take a little pause here. How much
<v Speaker 1>do you hate Megan right now? Are you just seething
<v Speaker 1>with rage at this entitled little brat or do you
<v Speaker 1>have any kind of glimmer of sympathy at all? After all,
<v Speaker 1>Megan was living in filth and chaos with an alcoholic father,
<v Speaker 1>and there is nothing easy about that. But to hear
<v Speaker 1>your dad is greatly injured in the hospital and have
<v Speaker 1>this kind of reaction. It's kind of despicable. No, and
<v Speaker 1>what about the bread story? Are you buying it? You
<v Speaker 1>got a lot of breadline around the house and little
<v Speaker 1>individual baggies. The house was a total mess, and Conrad
<v Speaker 1>blew a point three when he arrived at the emergency room.
<v Speaker 1>It is possible, I guess that he accidentally knocked over
<v Speaker 1>the lie onto himself. It's not likely, but I mean,
<v Speaker 1>anything's possible. You also have to know that Megan and
<v Speaker 1>Conrad's relationship was complicated when they were married. Conrad and
<v Speaker 1>Julie had a mix of biological and adopted children, Austin
<v Speaker 1>and Megan. The older two of the four kids were
<v Speaker 1>adopted and ended up with Conrad after their parents' messy
<v Speaker 1>divorce and custody battle.
<v Speaker 12>The end product was that he had custody of the
<v Speaker 12>older to Meghan and Austin one percent of the time
<v Speaker 12>physical custody. I had physical custody of the younger to
<v Speaker 12>Morgan and Ian one percent of the time. Now the
<v Speaker 12>children could decide when or even if they wanted to
<v Speaker 12>see the other parents. It was up to them. With
<v Speaker 12>one accepts and being new for Christmas Eve, they had
<v Speaker 12>to be with their dad and sons day they had to.
<v Speaker 11>Be with me.
<v Speaker 1>Meanwhile, at the hospital, more family members arrived to check
<v Speaker 1>in on Conrad, including Julie, who pressed him to find
<v Speaker 1>out what had happened.
<v Speaker 12>He just SPT, I don't know. I don't know, and
<v Speaker 12>he said he actually showed me many of his friends
<v Speaker 12>and I was feeding up ice chips.
<v Speaker 1>Conrad's condition worsened over the next twenty four hours, and
<v Speaker 1>he was soon taken to a new hospital to further
<v Speaker 1>treat his injuries. While Conrad was being transported, the police
<v Speaker 1>found Megan at the hotel. First, she gave the whole
<v Speaker 1>bread story. We know that one. It's a riot, but
<v Speaker 1>then the lines started to change.
<v Speaker 7>Really, does you remember what it was that you were
<v Speaker 7>Do you remember?
<v Speaker 18>Do you not remember?
<v Speaker 1>Remember?
<v Speaker 10>Okay?
<v Speaker 7>Is it possible that you do do some other things
<v Speaker 7>with typing road?
<v Speaker 12>I mean, I don't know.
<v Speaker 7>Okay.
<v Speaker 13>So there was this this canister.
<v Speaker 1>Stuffs called lie Okay, so.
<v Speaker 4>It looks like it could have been throwing over his
<v Speaker 4>head and it landed over Okay.
<v Speaker 11>Is there any reason why.
<v Speaker 8>You're finger printing beyond that?
<v Speaker 15>I mean, that's my job Okay, well.
<v Speaker 4>You remember throwing anything at him that caused like this
<v Speaker 4>white power of laying on not intentionally try we're going
<v Speaker 4>about this landing.
<v Speaker 13>I don't think so.
<v Speaker 7>I mean it was like way where what.
<v Speaker 16>Kind of like.
<v Speaker 10>Probably like water.
<v Speaker 12>I don't like.
<v Speaker 7>A water bottel or water.
<v Speaker 19>It was at the bottle.
<v Speaker 1>When lie is mixed with water, it creates an extremely
<v Speaker 1>potent exothermic reaction. In other words, it fucking burns like
<v Speaker 1>a motherfucker. You don't want to experience it. Just take
<v Speaker 1>my word for it. Weirdo. It burns your skin right off.
<v Speaker 1>So if you're into that sort of thing, hey, knock
<v Speaker 1>yourself out. Start with your face. Anyway. Megan admitted that
<v Speaker 1>she got mad and just started throwing a bunch of stuff,
<v Speaker 1>but she wasn't sure what she was throwing. She was
<v Speaker 1>in that kind of possessed teenage girl rage, the kind
<v Speaker 1>that cancels people for posting a meme when.
<v Speaker 10>You were throwing stuff, right, you're unintentionally throwing, so I'm
<v Speaker 10>not you know, I understand, it's totally get it.
<v Speaker 7>They're right, that's fine when you threw anything. Because we
<v Speaker 7>need to help out here.
<v Speaker 10>They're trying to figure out what's going on, because, like
<v Speaker 10>I said, he's in a rough shape day. Was there
<v Speaker 10>any substance that blew out of something when you threw
<v Speaker 10>something at them or anything?
<v Speaker 7>We're trying to help your dad out here, I think
<v Speaker 7>so yeah.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, So where on the body did you see that
<v Speaker 4>white stuff.
<v Speaker 15>Who mostly went on the couch a little like on
<v Speaker 15>his like lower legs.
<v Speaker 4>Okay, mostly covered with the blanket?
<v Speaker 7>Okay, you know what that I was?
<v Speaker 13>It looks like like teather something.
<v Speaker 1>And there it was a confession.
<v Speaker 7>I mean, we're both for both smart individuals.
<v Speaker 13>I didn't think like a powder alone can do that.
<v Speaker 7>Well, you said you threw water to right, you see
<v Speaker 7>how the water.
<v Speaker 13>And the drain open next.
<v Speaker 10>Okay, so you know at this point, I'm gonna have
<v Speaker 10>you turn around on her arrest.
<v Speaker 7>Okay, all right, so.
<v Speaker 10>Turn around place. Okay, we'll try not to make it speak. See,
<v Speaker 10>I always want you what's going on?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 13>You're a bad person?
<v Speaker 7>But yea.
<v Speaker 1>So they're in the parking lot of her own eighteenth
<v Speaker 1>birthday party. Megan was arrested. After a week in jail,
<v Speaker 1>she sent this video to a friend, who later shared
<v Speaker 1>it with police.
<v Speaker 13>Really, so here see.
<v Speaker 4>And everyone saying everyone who.
<v Speaker 16>Was there, because what and they.
<v Speaker 11>Didn't know what happened? Did know?
<v Speaker 9>So?
<v Speaker 11>Received?
<v Speaker 12>So why?
<v Speaker 1>Megan went on about how now she has to live
<v Speaker 1>with her mom and at least she can be the
<v Speaker 1>girl she's destined to be a teenagers. What a pain
<v Speaker 1>in the ass right the whole school everyone, But everything
<v Speaker 1>would not turn out so good. Conrad was soon transported
<v Speaker 1>from one hospital to a burn unit specialist at another hospital.
<v Speaker 1>He spent one hundred and fifty one days in that
<v Speaker 1>burn unit, being treated for wounds on forty one percent
<v Speaker 1>of his body. He was put on dialysis because his
<v Speaker 1>kidneys were shot. His burns became infected over and over again,
<v Speaker 1>to the point where both of his legs had to
<v Speaker 1>be amputated. He had a tracheotomy. Then, after five months,
<v Speaker 1>he decided he wanted to be taken off life support
<v Speaker 1>and go home on hospice. Conrad only made it three days.
<v Speaker 1>He died in March of twenty twenty two, and everything
<v Speaker 1>changed all of a sudden. Megan was not just a
<v Speaker 1>little brat who may or may not have burned her
<v Speaker 1>father in a hissy fit. She would soon be on
<v Speaker 1>trial for his death. When Conrad Amerowicks was taken to
<v Speaker 1>the emergency room for severe chemical burns caused by a
<v Speaker 1>bottle of lye. No one expected that his teenage daughter,
<v Speaker 1>Megan would be responsible. It was Megan's eighteenth birthday and
<v Speaker 1>she had a hair appointment before her party, but when
<v Speaker 1>Conrad got too drunk to drive her to the salon,
<v Speaker 1>she had a fit and threw a bottle of lye
<v Speaker 1>at her father. Conrad's injuries got worse over the course
<v Speaker 1>of five months in the hospital, and then he died.
<v Speaker 1>Megan was now facing murder charges. The Ameerick's family had
<v Speaker 1>become even more broken than they already were. Conrad's eldest son, Austin,
<v Speaker 1>became super protective of his father before he died, not
<v Speaker 1>allowing his mother to visit Conrad in the hospital.
<v Speaker 12>And I ended up calling Austin, and he told me
<v Speaker 12>that a plan was put in place where no one
<v Speaker 12>could come up there except for himself and one other
<v Speaker 12>and you had to have the tast code or the
<v Speaker 12>tast words in order to get any information or to visit.
<v Speaker 12>And he told me I'd better not ever try to
<v Speaker 12>go around that he was I know you're good at
<v Speaker 12>talking your way into things, and not to ever come
<v Speaker 12>up there or do anything, or you're done for.
<v Speaker 1>At first, Megan was looking at murder charges, but the
<v Speaker 1>prosecution put it down to domestic violence and the unlawful
<v Speaker 1>possession of harmful devices or irritants causing death. The state
<v Speaker 1>had a tough case to prove. No one saw Megan
<v Speaker 1>throw the lie at her father. Her confession was half
<v Speaker 1>baked at best. In June of twenty twenty three, Megan
<v Speaker 1>showed up in court to face the consequences of her
<v Speaker 1>alleged actions. She remained quiet beside her lawyers, wearing a
<v Speaker 1>paisley blue sun dress and little makeup on her round face.
<v Speaker 1>She didn't smile. She barely opened her mouth as the
<v Speaker 1>prosecution began their opening arguments and the media turned on
<v Speaker 1>their cameras.
<v Speaker 6>Criminal cases are always about choices and consequences. A person
<v Speaker 6>will make a choice to do something and the consequences,
<v Speaker 6>and so in our society we hold people accountable for
<v Speaker 6>the choices are the consequences of their choices, and that
<v Speaker 6>is why we are here today. Because on October first,
<v Speaker 6>twenty twenty one, Megan Amroits made a choice to act,
<v Speaker 6>and the action left the death of her father Conrad
<v Speaker 6>of MROs.
<v Speaker 7>Megan turned eighteen on September.
<v Speaker 6>Twenty ninth, twenty twenty one.
<v Speaker 7>She was supposed to have a birthday party on the
<v Speaker 7>night of October first.
<v Speaker 11>Twenty twenty one.
<v Speaker 6>She'd also made a hair appointment that day, so she
<v Speaker 6>was going to go go and get her hair done
<v Speaker 6>and then go to his birthday party. So she woke
<v Speaker 6>up at home on October first, at the home she
<v Speaker 6>shares with her father, Conrad, and that was in Ortonville,
<v Speaker 6>Michigan pre in Open County. Now, Megan does not drive,
<v Speaker 6>so she needed Covondrad to take her to the hair appointment.
<v Speaker 6>So she goes to get it and she finds what
<v Speaker 6>do I think you're gonna hear as a familiar site,
<v Speaker 6>which is that Conrad, even at ten o'clock in the
<v Speaker 6>morning or so, was drunk, and he was actually so
<v Speaker 6>drunk key was effectively passed out.
<v Speaker 7>And this made her enriched.
<v Speaker 1>Megan scowled and hung her head as the price Secutor
<v Speaker 1>Jason DeSantis continued telling the jury her story, and she.
<v Speaker 6>Starts throwing things at him, just everything that's lying around,
<v Speaker 6>and you're gonna see in the photos there was a
<v Speaker 6>lot of stuff lying around. But one of the things
<v Speaker 6>that you're going to find out that she admitted if
<v Speaker 6>throwing at him was water. And another thing that she's
<v Speaker 6>going to admit to throwing at him is you're going
<v Speaker 6>to see on a police interview video is a white
<v Speaker 6>powder cleaning in patients that she's going to say got
<v Speaker 6>you know, miss gotting around his legs.
<v Speaker 7>The product, of course, would lie.
<v Speaker 6>And I think you're going to find that statement that
<v Speaker 6>there was a little bit of white powder was probably
<v Speaker 6>an understatement that she made have to herself because it
<v Speaker 6>was not just a.
<v Speaker 7>Little bit of white powder.
<v Speaker 6>Live of course is a common product. It's an alkali
<v Speaker 6>be using tons of things soaked fertilizer, but.
<v Speaker 7>It's also a household cema.
<v Speaker 6>It's available at pretty much any store by the ASR ware,
<v Speaker 6>and she used very commonly for drive people for dream cleaning.
<v Speaker 7>It is dangerous to humans.
<v Speaker 6>So she puts this on him and it gets everywhere,
<v Speaker 6>and it's all over his skin because unfortunately Conrad was
<v Speaker 6>asleep on the couch and he was effectively naked at
<v Speaker 6>the time, so all this got in direct contact with
<v Speaker 6>his skin. Now Megan has a trend and to come
<v Speaker 6>and pick her up and she leaves to go to
<v Speaker 6>her hair appointment. Conrad is still passed out, so this
<v Speaker 6>stuff is just sitting on him.
<v Speaker 7>Eating away of his flesh. For a very long time.
<v Speaker 1>The state was very strategic in its charges. They wanted
<v Speaker 1>to hold Megan responsible for her father's death. But this
<v Speaker 1>wasn't an intentional murder. This wasn't even a crime of passion.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, they couldn't even use the word murder or manslaughter.
<v Speaker 6>So the elements of the offense of the things I
<v Speaker 6>have to prove, so are the only things I have
<v Speaker 6>to prove. Now, you probably heard of words like motives.
<v Speaker 6>I don't have to prove motives. I think we will,
<v Speaker 6>but I don't think I have to. What I do
<v Speaker 6>have to prove is that honor about October first, twenty
<v Speaker 6>twenty one in Open County, Michigan, that the defindant place
<v Speaker 6>used or released a substance, that that substance then was
<v Speaker 6>that she possess, placed, use, or release, was a chemical irritant.
<v Speaker 6>The law defines that as a solid, liquid or gas
<v Speaker 6>that there it's chemical or physical properties, alone or in
<v Speaker 6>combination with one or more other substances, can be used
<v Speaker 6>to produce an irritant. Effect in humans, animals, or plants. Third,
<v Speaker 6>that the defendant possessed, place, used, or released the chemical
<v Speaker 6>irritant to frighten, terrorize, intimidate, threatened, harass, injure, assault, batter,
<v Speaker 6>or kill conrade murrods.
<v Speaker 7>Fourth, the possession in place and re.
<v Speaker 6>Use or release of the chemical urritent resulted in the
<v Speaker 6>death of Conrad Ammerins. You do not have to all
<v Speaker 6>agree upon which intent of the list that you have
<v Speaker 6>there that it is. One of you may think it
<v Speaker 6>was to scarem, one of you may think it was
<v Speaker 6>to hurt him. One of you may think it was
<v Speaker 6>to kill him. You don't have to agree on that part.
<v Speaker 6>A verdict has to be unanicus. But your rationale for
<v Speaker 6>getting there here does not. You only throw things at
<v Speaker 6>someone when you want to hit him with it. You
<v Speaker 6>only do that when you're angry. And you only throw
<v Speaker 6>things or put things on people when you want to
<v Speaker 6>hurt them or scare them, or do any one of
<v Speaker 6>those things that you want to do, And that's a
<v Speaker 6>negative action towards them because you're upset and angry. And
<v Speaker 6>I would say this, I think you only put drain
<v Speaker 6>clear on someone when you want to hurt them. So
<v Speaker 6>with the industry, I'll ask you for a verty of
<v Speaker 6>the holds are responsible for her choices, and that will
<v Speaker 6>be a vertist of.
<v Speaker 15>Guilty at charge.
<v Speaker 1>Megan's defense was what you might expect, and it involved
<v Speaker 1>a lot of blame on Conrad's problem with alcohol. Apparently
<v Speaker 1>alcohol makes you throw things around the room that yourself.
<v Speaker 20>Now, what happened on that day was tragic, no question,
<v Speaker 20>but there's some more facts.
<v Speaker 12>You need to know.
<v Speaker 20>His son when he went to the hospital talk to him.
<v Speaker 20>His statements were, I don't remember what happened, mister andrwith happened.
<v Speaker 20>Blood alcohol ever was very high. And his son said,
<v Speaker 20>look what he told me. Him and Meghan had a fight. Okay,
<v Speaker 20>they had a fight. They had an argument, submitted he
<v Speaker 20>threw some bread at him in a couple other things.
<v Speaker 20>But that doesn't mean that he's through this stuff at him.
<v Speaker 20>This is a tragic situation. Throughout all the medical records,
<v Speaker 20>and I think we're going to have meant to medical records,
<v Speaker 20>there's and total probably twenty thousand pages. Never once does
<v Speaker 20>he say I remember what happened. Never once does he
<v Speaker 20>say Megan did it. Never once does he say or
<v Speaker 20>blame anyone for this. Now he went through a horrific experience,
<v Speaker 20>but he was also an extreme alcoholic. So this is
<v Speaker 20>a bad situation. You're gonna have to look at all
<v Speaker 20>the facts, all the situation, listen to all the testimony,
<v Speaker 20>and make up your mind.
<v Speaker 1>Megan's trial was long and highly publicized. Her brother Austin
<v Speaker 1>and former friend Kayla both testified for the state, whereas
<v Speaker 1>her mother Julie got up to support her daughter. In fact,
<v Speaker 1>Julie was one of the only people who was on
<v Speaker 1>Megan's side. A little bit of that cluster b you know, we.
<v Speaker 21>Don't know what happened that day. There's no few French
<v Speaker 21>from the bottle. When I returned with Meghan on the
<v Speaker 21>Wednesday after this happened for her retrieve for stuff, when
<v Speaker 21>we were escorted by a state trooper, the bottle.
<v Speaker 12>Was sitting on the couch. It was still there. Anyone
<v Speaker 12>could have touched it. While why was a more thorough
<v Speaker 12>investigation not done it? These are my questions of how
<v Speaker 12>you know the two plus two with all the facts
<v Speaker 12>that are known, the actual facts, not the hearsay or
<v Speaker 12>the testimony, but the physical facts. Tuplus two has just
<v Speaker 12>not aboke for.
<v Speaker 1>This trial wasn't just about whether or not Megan through
<v Speaker 1>the lie on her dad, but her behavior afterwards. Both
<v Speaker 1>Austin and Kyla testified after they told Megan and Conrad
<v Speaker 1>was in the hospital, she just huffed and continued to
<v Speaker 1>harass them for his credit card pin. All she cared
<v Speaker 1>about was her birthday party. The selfish teenager? Isn't that
<v Speaker 1>a oxymoron? Now, let's do a put yourself in Megan's
<v Speaker 1>shoes for a second. Would you react like this if
<v Speaker 1>you found out that your dad was in the emergency room?
<v Speaker 1>What if he was just a drunk piece of shit? Nah,
<v Speaker 1>that changes things, doesn't it? Or maybe not? Maybe you
<v Speaker 1>drop everything and just rush to go see him. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>that's the kind of person you are. What if your
<v Speaker 1>dad hit you? Ooh, I'm not saying that this dad did,
<v Speaker 1>but what if he did? What about then? Would you
<v Speaker 1>change your behavior at all? What if he hurt you emotionally?
<v Speaker 12>What?
<v Speaker 1>Now? It's not so black and white sometimes, but it
<v Speaker 1>didn't take long for the jury to decide Megan's fate.
<v Speaker 9>May do you have morn?
<v Speaker 19>You can be seated, sous and gentlemen, the jury.
<v Speaker 9>I understand that you haven't heard.
<v Speaker 13>It is it correct.
<v Speaker 9>Family, you're my poor person.
<v Speaker 19>I'm gonna ask that you hand the end holp to
<v Speaker 19>my clerknstars. I mean if you could please stand and
<v Speaker 19>read the verse to the courtroom.
<v Speaker 9>Guilty of chemical irrisis. Unlawful youth called it this.
<v Speaker 1>Megan hung her head and clutched her coat to her chest.
<v Speaker 1>As the guilty verdict was announced, the state asked to
<v Speaker 1>remove her bond, and Megan's lawyer began scrolling through his
<v Speaker 1>phone trying to figure out what dates were best for sentencing.
<v Speaker 1>Megan began to sob, and the camera zeroed in on
<v Speaker 1>her face, but it just looked like forced tears, like
<v Speaker 1>she knew the world was watching, and they sure were.
<v Speaker 1>When it came time for sentencing, Megan chose to read
<v Speaker 1>a statement.
<v Speaker 15>Sometimes in life we are face to trouble those we
<v Speaker 15>don't wish for, and most start up for a minute.
<v Speaker 15>It's true, yet we face the many ways. Nineteen years
<v Speaker 15>ago I was faced.
<v Speaker 13>Into the arms of the first mans ever loved me,
<v Speaker 13>the man are lucky enough to call my dad. Growing up,
<v Speaker 13>he became so much more.
<v Speaker 9>He was a storyteller or to a fairy.
<v Speaker 13>A friend and perro. But do it all the one
<v Speaker 13>thing that never changed was that he was mine. One
<v Speaker 13>of the biggest things overlooked in this case is that
<v Speaker 13>me and my siblings lost our dad too. That loss
<v Speaker 13>has severely broken us. My little brother was diagnosed with
<v Speaker 13>severe depression, and at his age that will probably take
<v Speaker 13>over most of his life. He wasn't allowed to say
<v Speaker 13>goodbye to my dad. He's fifteen and not only has
<v Speaker 13>to live with that car at the same time has
<v Speaker 13>to watch and thanks sisters thanks to come home. My
<v Speaker 13>little sister is still traumatized from having her car surrounded
<v Speaker 13>and her sister taken away and works the phone until
<v Speaker 13>the police blurted out, our dad has gone. We had
<v Speaker 13>no idea. She always kept from saying goodbye, and it's
<v Speaker 13>also struggling as she watches me go through this. My
<v Speaker 13>mom lost him too. Nobody sees that, but that's true.
<v Speaker 13>They were in loved ones. She mothered his kids and
<v Speaker 13>she loves him.
<v Speaker 22>And then there's me.
<v Speaker 13>It's almost been two years and I have been able
<v Speaker 13>to moorn. I refused to think he's gone because no
<v Speaker 13>part of me can handle me.
<v Speaker 1>Megan sobbed through her entire statement. It was hard not
<v Speaker 1>to feel a little bit bad for the girl. She was,
<v Speaker 1>after all, a child by law. She was eighteen, but
<v Speaker 1>we all know that doesn't make you mature, not mature
<v Speaker 1>enough to understand the real world, the harsh cruelty of it,
<v Speaker 1>the fact that things aren't always fair and stay that way,
<v Speaker 1>and there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it.
<v Speaker 1>Megan barely lived in the adult world, and now here
<v Speaker 1>she was in a courtroom, begging a judge to see
<v Speaker 1>how she too lost her father, even if the state
<v Speaker 1>did believe it was all her.
<v Speaker 13>Faults, taken every belief of Louvo and happiness to destroyed it.
<v Speaker 13>I am the best.
<v Speaker 22>Parts of him.
<v Speaker 13>I'm his daughter. What would have him? I don't know
<v Speaker 13>who I aim anymore. He was my reason, you know,
<v Speaker 13>every day I battled.
<v Speaker 11>With so far.
<v Speaker 13>When I was younger, I had count the names until
<v Speaker 13>I could live with my dad full time. And when
<v Speaker 13>that day finally came, the first time in my life
<v Speaker 13>I could find me exhal. He was my best friend
<v Speaker 13>and the person I talked to about boy is the
<v Speaker 13>one who know every single thing about me. And my
<v Speaker 13>favorite person alive is my dad, who's always been the
<v Speaker 13>one const in my life. Is that alone, and that
<v Speaker 13>created an unbreakable bond maintunas, and no one, not especially
<v Speaker 13>mister DeSantis, can take that away from me. I never
<v Speaker 13>got to say goodbye, and that the scar I'll never
<v Speaker 13>be able to lose. I get so scared that he
<v Speaker 13>thinks I didn't love y because I wasn't allowed to be
<v Speaker 13>there and hold the sands. If all the peason land,
<v Speaker 13>that shouldn't be one of them. Nobody even wants to
<v Speaker 13>talk about him, like we're just supposed.
<v Speaker 6>To have on.
<v Speaker 13>But I can't.
<v Speaker 1>To close her tearful statement, Megan turned her focus on
<v Speaker 1>the female judge presiding over her case and turned up
<v Speaker 1>the water works.
<v Speaker 22>Once upon a time, you dreamed of being a judge,
<v Speaker 22>and part of me believes it's because some people deserve
<v Speaker 22>another change. You've accomplished your dream, and I guess now
<v Speaker 22>I'm asking for you to help me accomplishm in a
<v Speaker 22>world full of wrongful judgment. I'm asking going to be
<v Speaker 22>the change to believe you.
<v Speaker 13>Need the way my dad did. I'm gonna ask for
<v Speaker 13>the lower into my guidelines, but even lower impossible. I'm
<v Speaker 13>not a spread society, but an asset for the future.
<v Speaker 1>Megan begged for freedom. She needed to finish high school.
<v Speaker 1>She had big dreams of becoming a marine biologist. Don't
<v Speaker 1>all girls dream of that? She was so young. She
<v Speaker 1>made a mistake, and she didn't want to be locked
<v Speaker 1>away forever. She didn't want consequences to her action.
<v Speaker 23>Miss Ameriwitz Case number twenty twenty two to eight one
<v Speaker 23>five one nine FC harmful devices iritants unlawful possession or
<v Speaker 23>use causing death And with regard to this matter, the
<v Speaker 23>Court has reviewed the PSI. It has reviewed your compass
<v Speaker 23>score and your prior criminal history. The circumstances that you
<v Speaker 23>have endured during your adolescent life are somewhat detailed in
<v Speaker 23>the PSR. The report indicates physical abuse and attempted sexual
<v Speaker 23>assault by a friend of a sibling, which was not
<v Speaker 23>addressed by your parents. Your adoptive parents separated when you
<v Speaker 23>were eight and a half years old. You endured both
<v Speaker 23>physical abuse and While you indicate that you were raised
<v Speaker 23>by both of your parents, the court does recognize that
<v Speaker 23>your father was a severe alcoholic. His disease could not
<v Speaker 23>make him a fit parent, and he always puts you
<v Speaker 23>in harm's way. Your childhoods would aligned with abuse. The
<v Speaker 23>inability to grow mentally as a child Your only criminal
<v Speaker 23>history was driving offense that your father was unable to
<v Speaker 23>drive you. The PSI indicates that he would pick you
<v Speaker 23>up all intoxicated and that you had to quit your
<v Speaker 23>job to care for your father. Your father described you
<v Speaker 23>as an angel, making it clear that you do not
<v Speaker 23>have malice. It is clear that your father's addiction and
<v Speaker 23>the denial of his addiction alienated his family. Your parents
<v Speaker 23>divorced when you were approximately eight and a half years old.
<v Speaker 23>Your younger siblings could not endure visiting your father anymore.
<v Speaker 3>Father.
<v Speaker 23>Your younger sister testified that the last time that she
<v Speaker 23>was at the house, she shared a bathroom with your father,
<v Speaker 23>and that there was vomit in the shower, in the sink,
<v Speaker 23>and toilet paper all over the bathroom. The first responders
<v Speaker 23>could not attend to your father because of the filth
<v Speaker 23>inside the house, that it was not fit for habitation.
<v Speaker 23>Garbage bagged and unbagged garbage filled the home. The home
<v Speaker 23>was infested with visible fleas and bugs, and the PSI
<v Speaker 23>describes plastic bas eggs filled with urine near the couch.
<v Speaker 23>Your mother testified about human feces around the couch as well.
<v Speaker 23>Your mother, your younger siblings and your other older brother
<v Speaker 23>all left the home, leaving you with the daunting task
<v Speaker 23>of caring for your father. The denial of the disease
<v Speaker 23>from your father and your brother's believed that your father
<v Speaker 23>was not an alcoholic weight on your shoulders. You did
<v Speaker 23>not have the luxury of being a child, as you
<v Speaker 23>indicated that you had to be an adult in the house.
<v Speaker 23>This is a serious crime that you have been found
<v Speaker 23>guilty of. The Court does not believe that a child
<v Speaker 23>your age new or understood the consequences of throwing the
<v Speaker 23>items at your father or the damage that it would
<v Speaker 23>cause him. At the time of the incident, you were
<v Speaker 23>barely eighteen years old. You were three days past your birthday.
<v Speaker 23>It is clear that your brain is not developed. The
<v Speaker 23>United States Supreme Court, in Roper versus Simon in two
<v Speaker 23>thousand and five case recognize that juveniles have less culpability
<v Speaker 23>and are less deserving of the harshest punishment due to
<v Speaker 23>the inherent immaturity and vulnerability. The Court recognizes that you
<v Speaker 23>have indicated that you have professional goals of becoming a
<v Speaker 23>marine biologist and that you plan to open a rescue
<v Speaker 23>from marine life after completion of high school and college,
<v Speaker 23>and that you would like to start a charity to
<v Speaker 23>help recovering alcoholics. Regards to this matter, the court is
<v Speaker 23>going to sentence you to one year in jail with
<v Speaker 23>five hundred and six States credit.
<v Speaker 1>That was it. One year in jail. She spent longer
<v Speaker 1>in jail waiting for trial than she did for her
<v Speaker 1>actual punishment. What's that old saying slap on the wrist, Well,
<v Speaker 1>Megan barely got touched on the rest. She barely got
<v Speaker 1>a tap. She sure was lucky with the sympathetic judge
<v Speaker 1>there wasn't she. I wonder if she'd be just as
<v Speaker 1>sympathetic if she was a seven foot, two hundred and
<v Speaker 1>fifty pound black man. Makes you wonder. Not everything's fair
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes it just stays that way.
<v Speaker 23>I want you to understand that with regard to this opportunity,
<v Speaker 23>that if you are not successful with regard to probation,
<v Speaker 23>the prison term of five to twenty five years is
<v Speaker 23>on the table.
<v Speaker 1>Megan served her year in jail and didn't waste a
<v Speaker 1>moment of it. In fact, she became good friends with
<v Speaker 1>Jennifer Crumbly, and the media went crazy. For those of
<v Speaker 1>you who don't know Jennifer Crumbly, is the mother of
<v Speaker 1>Ethan Crumbly, the Oxford High school shooter who murdered four
<v Speaker 1>students and injured seven while on a rampage in November
<v Speaker 1>of twenty twenty one. Ethan's mother, Jennifer, was charged with
<v Speaker 1>involuntary manslaughter for purchasing the handgun that her son used
<v Speaker 1>to kill his classmates. Anyway, Megan and Jennifer really hit
<v Speaker 1>it off in the Slammer. Not sure why, but they
<v Speaker 1>just did. Here's Megan.
<v Speaker 18>I had no idea who she was when I first
<v Speaker 18>got there, but she had sent down a little care
<v Speaker 18>package for me, and that was the first time she's
<v Speaker 18>ever done anything like that, so I thought it was
<v Speaker 18>really kind of her. Well, when I moved in with her,
<v Speaker 18>we were, you know, together twenty three hours a day,
<v Speaker 18>and when I moved out every day for my hour,
<v Speaker 18>I would just stand at her door and talk to
<v Speaker 18>her and we talked through the event, like when I
<v Speaker 18>was in my phone. We would yell and talk to
<v Speaker 18>each other like that, and we'd always find a way
<v Speaker 18>to talk to each other every single day.
<v Speaker 1>In all the interviews she did, whether it was on
<v Speaker 1>some YouTube channel or some major news network, Megan said
<v Speaker 1>the same thing. She only threw bread at her dad.
<v Speaker 1>She was innocent. All that stuff she told cops, she
<v Speaker 1>was just she was coerced.
<v Speaker 9>I was really scared.
<v Speaker 18>I had thought that my dad had hurt himself again,
<v Speaker 18>and I didn't want him to get in trouble for anything,
<v Speaker 18>because they would have taken him away, put him in
<v Speaker 18>a mental hospital. And I was just really freaked out.
<v Speaker 18>I didn't know I could stop talking.
<v Speaker 13>I didn't know that I didn't have to talk to them.
<v Speaker 13>I was I just wanted to get over with do
<v Speaker 13>what they wanted me to do.
<v Speaker 1>Megan also thinks maybe her dad put the lie on
<v Speaker 1>himself as a suicide attempt. Weird way to commit suicide,
<v Speaker 1>but drunks have done weirder things, you know.
<v Speaker 18>Part of me thinks that he could have done it
<v Speaker 18>to himself. I know that he has always been released suicidal,
<v Speaker 18>but he also does get hurt a lot on accident,
<v Speaker 18>sometimes on purpose, and that's where most of his hospital
<v Speaker 18>visits come from. Is us finding him hurt and he
<v Speaker 18>has to go to the hospital. So I guess that's
<v Speaker 18>one of my theories. I know my truth, and I
<v Speaker 18>know what happened, and so does my dad, and that's
<v Speaker 18>what matters.
<v Speaker 1>Megan knows her truth, but we will never know the truth.
<v Speaker 1>There were no witnesses, but a part of me thinks
<v Speaker 1>Megan did throw the lie. I think she knows deep
<v Speaker 1>down that she did. I don't think she really expected
<v Speaker 1>it to burn him that badly, and I don't think
<v Speaker 1>she expected it to lead to his death. But she
<v Speaker 1>threw it, and she knows she threw it. That part
<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty sure about could be wrong, and it's just
<v Speaker 1>my opinion, but that's how I see it. Be curious
<v Speaker 1>to hear how you see it. Leave a comment sortinscale
<v Speaker 1>dot com. Megan was frustrated. She was angry. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>why wouldn't she be. She was living with a bumbling
<v Speaker 1>drunk in a filthy, disgusting house. She must have finally
<v Speaker 1>just snapped. She didn't deserve to live like this. She
<v Speaker 1>didn't deserve to have this be her life. She didn't
<v Speaker 1>deserve this drunk in her life. But there he was,
<v Speaker 1>ruining her eighteenth birthday party. I don't blame her for that. Actually,
<v Speaker 1>I blame her mother for allowing Megan to live in
<v Speaker 1>such squalor with someone she knew had a severe alcohol problem.
<v Speaker 1>Julie's kind of a shitty mother, and Megan didn't really
<v Speaker 1>deserve that either. This whole family could have been saved
<v Speaker 1>if they had just attended a couple of meetings.
<v Speaker 12>I still think about it a lot.
<v Speaker 18>I know that now I have to listen.
<v Speaker 11>To my dad.
<v Speaker 1>As the judge said, Megan A. Merriwick's was just a
<v Speaker 1>kid when she lost her father because of her unhinged actions.
<v Speaker 1>But Megan was living in a highly stressful situation that
<v Speaker 1>no kid her age should have to be in. Taking
<v Speaker 1>care of a drunk all day, day in and day
<v Speaker 1>out is just too much for most grown adults to bear,
<v Speaker 1>let alone a kid. An eighteen year old, she was
<v Speaker 1>tasked with the impossible and did not understand what a
<v Speaker 1>burden her father's alcoholism was on her mental well being
<v Speaker 1>until it was too late. But Megan, believe it or not,
<v Speaker 1>was lucky. She got a sympathetic judge who looked at
<v Speaker 1>her horrible upbringing and also felt kind of bad. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if a year in jail was enough for
<v Speaker 1>Megan to really fully understand the consequences of her actions.
<v Speaker 1>Only she knows if she threw the lie on her
<v Speaker 1>dad or not, whether she intended to or not, that's
<v Speaker 1>all something she's got to struggle with for the rest
<v Speaker 1>of her life. She has to come to terms with
<v Speaker 1>that somehow in her brain, or maybe it'll just self
<v Speaker 1>destruct like her father's did. The thought of what she
<v Speaker 1>may have done intentionally, well, you'd away at her like
<v Speaker 1>the lie did on her father's skin for eternity, and
<v Speaker 1>that's probably just about the worst punishment a daughter can have.
<v Speaker 1>It's amazing how shitty humans can be.
<v Speaker 11>Huh.
<v Speaker 1>Well, that does it for another episode of Sword and Scale.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much once again for joining us. Remember,
<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale Television is available right now at Sword
<v Speaker 1>and Scale dot com. There's seven episodes available right now
<v Speaker 1>and plenty more coming. You can go watch it twenty
<v Speaker 1>four to seven. You don't even need permission from the
<v Speaker 1>dick Suckers and Reddit. It starts at just twenty bucks
<v Speaker 1>a month, and you get all of our content commercial
<v Speaker 1>free early access in a high bandwidth audio feed.
<v Speaker 14>Oh.
<v Speaker 1>Our TV show is also four K, of course, but
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna be launching some feature improvements to the app
<v Speaker 1>soon that'll allow you to cast to your actual television
<v Speaker 1>set so the whole family can watch together all of
<v Speaker 1>the horrible, horrible murder, stories of decapitation and dismemberment that
<v Speaker 1>we tell here at Sword and Scale. It's a family
<v Speaker 1>building exercise. Throw some popcorn in the microwave, turn the
<v Speaker 1>lights down, make sure to lock your doors, and watch
<v Speaker 1>Sword and Scale television right now sword scale dot com.
<v Speaker 1>We have widgets and whatnots available in our store store
<v Speaker 1>dot sordscale dot com. And I know I'm forgetting something.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, stay safe.
<v Speaker 11>Uh uh uh uh uh at all too.
<v Speaker 9>M