Surrounded by Evil /// Part 2 /// 914 | Forensic Files

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[music] >> Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always, a man who eats green eggs and ham on St. Patrick's Day. Here
he is, the [music] Captain. I will eat them in a box, I will eat them with the fox.
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[music] [music] >> Police want to talk to all the auto shop employees. They're in the process of
doing so, and as said, two that they decide to hone in on will be Ross Hellams and Billy Minkley.
Now, law enforcement will quickly learn that the person whose job title, he's he's basically, I don't know his job
title, but basically, Captain, he's the shop handyman. He's he's your fix-it guy, but he's not somebody fixing
vehicles. He's not a mechanic. The shop handyman, his name is Ross Hellams, he drove an SUV that the police describe as
not unlike the one captured on surveillance video. >> So, maybe he's the guy. And then he
would have access and probably knowledge of the surveillance footage. Well, and remember, they're at a disadvantage of
having to review surrounding surveillance footage rather than the actual auto shop's
surveillance footage. And so, at that distance, the best they can make out is not exactly what SUV pulled up there,
but as they said, his SUV was not unlike the one that they captured on that video
footage. So, obviously, interview this guy. During his interview, Ross Hellams said
that when Leah Martin disappeared, he had worked at the shop that day up until about 5:30 p.m. So, this is about the
same time that my man, Rafael, said that he was leaving. After this 5:30 marker leaving work, he says that he went off
to a friend's home. The intention was to hang out and drink until the early morning hours. The friend, his name is
Michael Brown. He tells police, he's like, "Yeah, I didn't see Ross that night."
>> Liar, liar, pants on fire. >> "I was with my wife and my kids, and not with Ross Hellams." Right. "So, I don't
know why he told you guys that." So, they sit old Rossy boy down. Our boy, George Olivo, would like this.
Ross Hellams fails a lie detector test. I don't know what questions he was asked, but the record states that he
failed the polygraph. >> Not a good sign. Yeah. Well, >> So, he's lying to the cops about his
whereabouts and his alibi. He fails the polygraph test. Not good. Mhm. Fails the
poly, so what do you got to do here? You go looking for the paper trail. So, let's go looking for that paper trail.
Phone records are great. The phone records showed Ross Hellams and his co-worker, Billy
Minkley, made several calls to one another on the night of Leah Martin's disappearance. Interesting, right?
>> Mhm. Fish sticks. Mhm. So, by the time that we get to our next event here, we
are about a month and a half into the ongoing searches for our missing mother here. Now, authorities are talking to
everyone they know, and they learned that Hellams' relative, so a hell a relative of Ross Hellams, her name is
Armonique Jefferson. And it looks like she can provide some information here for our
investigators. She told investigators that Ross paid her $20 to call Leah and make threats to her.
Armonique also said that she was at Ross's house on the Friday night that is in question. And then at some point that
night, she says late Friday night, Ross came out to the house with a friend who she later identified as Billy Minkley.
Remember, we know from phone records, they were on the phone with each other several times that night. Now, we have a
person who's saying, "I saw the two together that night at Ross's home, and oh, by the way, he paid me 20 bucks to
call a couple times and make these threatening calls to this person that I don't know." Leah's aunt, somehow this
information makes its way to her aunt, Renee Martin. She takes it upon herself to do a little snooping,
and she visits Ross Hellams' property. So, her and a friend walked the property,
and then they report back telling police what they found. They say that they saw
evidence of a fresh dig Mhm. >> and the smell of decomposition. Not good. Now, authorities acted
swiftly, leading to the grim discovery, the unfortunate, sad, grim discovery of Leah's body buried
on Ross Hellams' property. So, this is August 2015 when they recovered the body. She was
bound and concealed in a blanket. This is August 5th, 2015 when authorities exhumed the body of
Leah Martin. She was found covered in a blanket and bound with duct tape with a plastic bag wrapped around her head.
Quote, she had a rock stuck in her mouth. The rock that was stuck in her mouth was to keep her from biting the
plastic bag that had been put on her head, end quote. That quote came from her aunt, Renee Martin. She said that
while she was very very sad, crying about this discovery. Leah Martin's remains were
found and recovered from 5656 FM 209. The property belongs, as I said, to Ross Hellams
him and his wife, Ross and Krista Hellams. It's a property just off of Farm Road
209, just outside of Graham, Texas. But this changes everything because we go from
she's missing, what happened? We've covered a lot of missing person cases. You start speculating. Did she run away
with another guy? Did she run away to start a new life? Did did something bad happen to her? Did she get hurt and
doesn't know who she who she is or where she's at? But because of this surveillance footage at
the car shop, I think you go, well, it looks like there's a good possibility that there's foul play. Now we have all
those answers by finding the body. And then obviously now this is narrowing down our suspect pool. So we're going to
at least be able to and and not always, but it's it's hard to bring a no body case to trial. Yes, it doesn't happen
very often. And in fact, you you don't want to we've talked about double jeopardy over the years. You don't want
to bring something to trial until you feel like you've you've tapped into everything that you
could put in your arsenal to get a conviction. And that is a difficult hurdle to clear. Now here what you have
is you have enough to charge this guy with murder. I you know, he you have a an SUV
that isn't unlike the one you saw on the surveillance footage, pulls up, person gets out of that SUV, goes into the
shop. This man works at the shop, Ross Earl Hellams. And you see the vehicle you believe belonging to
Leah, you believe Leah getting out of that vehicle going into the same garage bay. Later you see the person leaving,
getting in that SUV and you never really see Leah leaving. And now you have found her
remains and in the state that they're found, buried, concealed, wrapped, bound, in the ground on Ross Earl Hellams'
property. And then you also have uh Armonique telling him or telling police about, well,
I was paid to make these threatening phone calls. I also saw This is your kink in the hose here. I
also saw Billy Minkley out here or a person that she later identifies as Billy Minkley
at the house on the night in question, where the body's later found. So we got to tap everything we can here on this
Minkley situation. So law enforcement here they catch another break. We learned this
from the arrest warrant affidavits cuz I [snorts] couldn't this wasn't found outwardly in in any one particular news
source, but if you dig for the arrest warrant affidavits here, you get some more of the
information nuggets. So this shows that the investigators got their break in the Leah Martin case
after a man told them that Ross Earl Hellams had come to his house the day after Leah Martin vanished
and he goes to the house carrying a paper bag that contained clothing and a sawed-off shotgun. Hellams
told the man he intended to throw these items away, to trash them. He wanted to put them in a random trash bin. This
man, look, I'm not I'm not going to befriend him because he was friends with Ross
Hellams, but God bless him for doing this because he says he talked Ross out of getting
rid of the shotgun. He says he persuades Ross Hellams to give him the gun because he says, look, if you
just put it in some random trash bin, some kid could find it. Right. And we we don't want to deal with the outcome or
result of what could be a horrific accident here based off of just throwing a firearm in a random trash bin. Well,
and it has value. So give me the gun and I'll either take care of it or I will sell it myself. He just wanted to secure
it. And he still has the gun when he comes after he after the finding of the body, he now realizes that his friend
Ross Hellams is not is no friend at all. He goes to police and says, hey, this happened the
day after this Leah person went missing and oh, by the way, here's a gun that I talked him into giving me. And so he
gives this gun to the police. They're talking to Ross Hellams, of course. Hellams claims he got the gun
from Billy Minkley. Surprise, surprise. You're working to buy some time here if you're the police,
if you're the investigators. You're working to buy some time. This is to collect more answers.
You've just recovered the body. You are going to be seeking more answers from the autopsy that's going to take place.
You're also working to build a case as everything is coming nicely into the purview here. Yeah, but with every step
you're turning up the heat, right? Okay, you lied to me about where you're at. Now I got you lying on a polygraph. Now
we find the body. Now we can do a autopsy. Every little step. Oh, now we got this friend of yours that has one of
your guns. Every little step in this investigation starts turning up the heat. And that's just the information
that these two suspects know about. They don't know about some of the details that the cops and law enforcement are
working behind the scenes or what else is coming out, who else is talking to law enforcement.
>> Well, and you can arrest a person, you can hold them, but you can only hold them for a certain period of time before
you actually put charges to that hold. So >> Right. Ross Hellams, we talked about
trying to buy buy some time here to get those autopsy results and some more information. Ross Hellams
and Billy Minkley, they are arrested on gun charges, but it's stated very clearly and publicly this is not
connected to Leah Martin's disappearance or her her death. So you're holding these guys
here. Billy Ray Minkley Jr. is arrested and charged with tampering with physical
evidence, possession of a firearm by a felon. So he's already a felon before any of this happens. And possession of a
prohibited weapon. Ross Hellams also arrested and booked on similar charges. These men, even though they're arrested,
they're being peppered with questions about Leah Martin's disappearance, how did she die, why is she on your
property, so on and so forth. These men say very little, very little until Billy Minkley Jr. And this is presented
to him by law enforcement. They say, you know what? Since you won't talk about Leah Martin, Minkley, you are our number
you have just become our number one suspect in an unrelated 2014 triple homicide. This is a strange turn
of events. Yeah, I was going to say. How does that happen? >> So here we go, Captain. This is from a
Fort Worth, Texas triple homicide, a case that truly truly [clears throat] was starting to go cold.
The details, I'll summarize everything cuz we we're going to run through it, not crawl through it. On June 2nd, 2014,
the bodies of Ronnie Jackson, age 57, his common-law wife Elizabeth Bernard Sessums, age 47, and their friend,
a visiting friend to their home, David Adams, age 50, they were discovered inside Jackson's
Fort Worth home located in the 200 block on Sunset Lane. Each of these three victims had been
shot once. Okay, uh two of them had been shot in the head, found in one room, and I believe it was
Ronnie Jackson who was found shot in the chest dead in a bedroom lying on a bed.
This discovery of these three dead individuals at the home of Jackson and Sessums
came about because a neighbor was concerned. So a neighbor a concerned neighbor, Jackson and Sessums,
they couldn't say no to a stray cat. Stray cat shows up, they feed it, they keep it, they care for it.
So they had like I don't know, a dozen stray cats, let's say. And this neighbor said that like
clockwork every day at 7:30 a.m., Ronnie Jackson and most times Elizabeth would join him, he would be seen outside of
the home in the early morning feeding all of the cats. And this neighbor had noticed several
days had gone by and these cats hadn't been fed. She hadn't seen Ronnie. She hadn't seen Elizabeth.
Now Ronnie Jackson's father actually owns the home. So this neighbor calls Ronnie's father.
And Ronnie's father's 80 years old in 2014. And she tells him, hey, I've not seen
your son, these cats haven't been fed in several days. I've not seen Elizabeth. I've not seen anybody come and go from
the house. So she contacts this this the father, Elton Jackson is his name. He says he goes out there
to the home and he didn't he didn't go inside. He approaches the house, he looks in a
window when nobody responds. He said immediately he really felt like something terrible had happened. He
looks through the window and he says that he saw a person who appeared to be dead on the couch
and a person who appeared to be dead on the living room floor. Jesus. Yeah. He calls police, of course,
there and they're going to they're going to dig through this this crime scene. Homicide detectives believe that the
murders occurred on the evening of May 28th. So, this is several days before they're
found. So, nearly a week before the bodies were found. Detective Kyle Sullivan is the one that catches this
case. He stated to the media that Ronnie Jackson and Elizabeth Sessums, who lived
there, they they were renting the home, they were known drug users. And he believed because they
were the occupants of the home and known drug users, they were likely the intended targets here.
On on what they were saying was no sign of forced entry, so they theorized that the killer was someone that they had
that they knew. Right. >> And knew enough that they were willing to let this person into their home. Now, quickly, I
don't I don't want to create a whole two other episodes on this particular case, but I went into
the investigation in this case and found it fascinating. One thing they were able to to figure
out was while neighbors reported that a lot of people came would come and go from this
house, maybe a little more activity than you would want to see, all the neighbors said that these they
were very I hesitate to use the word street smart because it just seems like too vague of a statement here, but they
they were very particular about who they let into their home. And so, that's interesting for your investigation
because this is saying this isn't somebody that they just knew, this is somebody that they knew well and for
whatever reason felt comfortable letting them into the home. And and it's possible that they have drugs. It's
possible that they owe somebody money. It's possible that they have money for drugs. It's possible that
because they are drug users that maybe they felt like well, maybe we should sell some drugs.
So, there's a lot of motivation or there'd be a lot of motives here that you could look at if you're law
enforcement, but it's all revolving around that drug lifestyle. And police knew this
the detectives knew this very early on. I would say almost immediately, but what
they purposely kept from the the media was it was about 3 days before they announced that this wasn't a
murder-suicide situation. They kind of let that linger for a little bit, probably to see what would shake loose
in the meantime. Now, they would go on to say that this wasn't a murder-suicide, that it was Jackson and
Sessum were the likely targets, that Adams appears to have just been an unintended victim, simply in the wrong
place at the wrong time. And they would later report that there were items that were missing from the
house, no signs of a struggle, no signs of forced entry. They never reported what those items were that were missing
from the home. And in all likelihood, they probably didn't fully understand every item that was missing
from the home. But it's interesting that they knew stuff was missing from the home. The
victims family members described these victims as kind-hearted individuals who struggled with addiction. Ronnie Jackson
was remembered by his father as a giving man, almost to a fault, he says, uh who battled addiction for years.
Elizabeth Sessum was described by her sister Donna Lott as very beautiful and outgoing before her lifelong struggle
with drugs began in her later years. Yeah, it's one of the saddest things to see is somebody
that seems like they have a good life and a lot of things together and then they
get sucked in and and their their life seems to be controlled by this this dark drug entity. Yeah, and Elizabeth had a
lot of uh personal tragedies that I think may have led to her addiction. >> Yeah, self-medication that turns into
addiction. David Adams was a 10-year Navy veteran and former city water department employee. He was
described by his brother Joe Adams as a very smart individual. In fact, I I read
uh some statements where Joe was saying David was always the really smart one and he he wished he had David's brains,
his intelligence, but he said, you know, and at some point he falls into addiction as well, but he he still
kept up with his family, kept in contact with his family. He was still working odd jobs as a handyman. And very sad, he
was he was still caring for their elderly mother at the time when he was killed. He was
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>> [music] [music] >> So, when Billy Minkley is presented with this information, Yeah, if you're the
detective, you're going got him. >> in this interrogation, and there's clips of video of this. Uh
this is actually later obtained and released by the TV show Buried in the Backyard. Right. Billy Minkley is
yelling and crying, and he's confessing to this triple homicide shooting. Okay, but let me just
see if I'm following you. They they basically know that this individual is connected some way, somehow, so then
when they present it to him, he's like, ah, [ __ ] Time to spill the beans. Well,
the remember the break in the case? What was not so clear as to why was that a big break in the Leah Martin case?
Right. The the big break was that shotgun. She wasn't killed with a shotgun, so it
seems strange to go, well, that's a big break in the case when this guy comes forward with this random shotgun saying
that I got it from Ross Hellums, who says he it was given to him by Billy Minkley,
but then you have three dead people all killed by gunshots a year prior in another city, Fort Worth. That gun was
the gun that killed those three people. Right. So, why does he have this? Got him, but also, okay, if he killed
these three individuals, he's capable of killing Oh, yeah. Yes, in fact, that goes goes with the very quote that I was
going to cite right We're we're all on the same page here, my friend, because >> want to hear the quote, though. Quote,
"The Fort Worth triple homicide made us realize that Billy Minkley is a person that could have no problem killing Leah,
said Lieutenant Smith. Bingo bongo. So, Billy Minkley agreed to discuss Leah Martin's murder, the details of her
murder, because he now needs to avoid facing the death penalty in the triple homicide case. This triple homicide case
is going to be pretty easy for them, okay? As far as investigators go to taking it from finding the guy,
arresting the guy, and and getting a conviction. Why? Because well, Billy Minkley actually confessed to a
couple people during that time period. So, keep in mind, it's almost a year between the time that between the two
the two crimes, right? And over a year before Leah is found. During that time period, he had confessed. Not a full-on
confession, but I'll give you the first one, the second one's better as far as getting a conviction. The first one
comes from his father. His father says, Billy told me that he killed those three people, but he told
me it was in self-defense, that one of them pulled the gun on him, he took the gun, and he shot him. Right. Minkley's
girlfriend, who lived with him, This is why you should never have a girlfriend. She was sitting in the car when he shot
and killed those three people. Oh. Not only that, she went into the home after they were killed. He told her the
He told her the same story. Right. He told her the same story, that he did it in self-defense, that he In fact, he
says Ronnie pulled a gun on him, he shot Ronnie, and then was forced to shoot the
other two. I don't really believe that, but she goes into the home, she says that she witnessed the three of them
dead, and the two of them collected items. So, Billy lived at that home, not at the
time of the murders, but months and months prior. Right. And there was some kind of property dispute between Billy
and Ronnie. Well, also, like Billy had gone there, according to the girlfriend, to collect
this property, and he collected He was going to take it whether Ronnie was going to turn it over to him or not, and
that's what I think happened here. The result is three people dead, and then Billy and his girlfriend were moving
items from that home. Yeah, it's one thing if you show up and you're wearing a Colt .45, right? You
it's Texas, everybody's carrying, but your story is that this guy pulled a gun on me, and then I pulled a shotgun on
him. Right? >> that's the part that's unclear, that I couldn't sort out. There was not enough information
available to Yeah. >> clearly decide Did Did he arrive at the home with this gun and just shoot three
unarmed people out of anger? Or was portions of his story true? Now, But either way, you killed three people.
Yeah, I glean that he showed up with a gun, but then throwing that into the equation, you'd
have to charge the girlfriend, and I was unclear as to whether they charged his girlfriend with with anything
substantial, anyway. So, but now he's he's scared. He's got to sing like a bird, because
they're threatening him with the death penalty for killing three people. And so,
this is what they figure out. And this is according to statements released by the prosecutor. Remember, they've
already They're charging these two with crimes unrelated to Leah's case, but very soon
going to be charging them with with Leah's murder. So, according to this prosecutor, he says, what we learned
from Billy Minkley Jr. was that E.C. Blair was at the center of all this. The shop owner, the Leah Martin's
employer, Billy Minkley's employer, Ross Helms' employer. The grandfather to her child.
Billy Minkley tells investigators that E.C. Blair was not happy with Leah and the difficulties that it was causing
with his marriage, and that E.C. Blair wanted something done with Leah. In fact,
um there was some report out there, but I couldn't absolutely confirm it, where there was a statement
by Billy Minkley, I believe, that he says that that E.C. believed that Leah Martin wanted to get back with Aaron
Blair, his adopted son, the the father of their child. Right. >> Um and that had a big had a big issue with that as
well. Now, I I don't I Again, I couldn't back that up other than that one statement. But the the prosecutor
believes that E.C. Blair lured Leah Martin to the office on the night of her murder. And this would make some sense.
She tells Dad, I'm going there to pick up some items, but remember, her parents don't know that
she had any kind of relationship with E.C. Blair, so she might just tell Dad that I got to stop by work. Oh, why? Oh,
I got to pick some things up. For whatever reason, the prosecutor seems to have information suggesting to them that
E.C. Blair lured her to the office that night that she was killed. She Once she's at the office, according to Billy
Minkley, Leah is sitting on a couch in the office, looking at her phone, so she's not completely paying attention
to the room, and Billy Minkley comes up from behind her and violently strikes her in the head with a crowbar. Or a
tire iron. Pry bar, crowbar, tire iron. Big, heavy metal object. Ouch. In a different news article, it is stated
that according to Billy Minkley, he struck Leah with a crowbar at E.C. Blair's request.
Describing a chilling sequence of events, Minkley and Helms then placed a bag over her head to, quote, keep the
blood from dripping everywhere, end quote. Right. Billy said that he saw she was still alive when the bag began to
fill up with air, so he hit her one more time, and then the men put her body in Ross Helms' Chevy Tahoe. The following
day, Billy Minkley rented a backhoe, and he and Ross Helms buried Leah on Helms'
property. The rental came from Westside Rental in Graham, Texas. And here's a quote from the show. It
says, quote, I went back there and I dug the nicest hole I could, end [clears throat] quote. That was a quote
by Billy Minkley, said in an interrogation video obtained by the TV show Buried in the Backyard. So, he
says, I went back there to bury a nice hole. I dug the nicest hole I could. Wow. Minkley and Helms were charged with
murder and tampering with physical evidence of a corpse, to which Minkley pled guilty to
the first charge, and Helms to both. Right. Okay, so now, Graham police Graham City Police promptly arrested
E.C. Blair, owner of E.C.'s Auto Repair. Blair was arrested and charged with murder after a search warrant was
executed at the body shop. And Graham Police sent out a press release. This is on Tuesday, September
22nd, 2015. Right. The press release is as follows. It says, Graham Police and Texas Rangers
conducted a third search of Blair's Auto Repair, and are formally charging three
individuals in the murder of Leah Martin. On September 8th, 2015, investigators interviewed Billy Minkley
Jr., and during that interview, he implicated himself and others in the murder of Leah Martin.
And also confessed to participation in a homicide that occurred in Fort Worth in
2014. That case is still being pursued by the Fort Worth Police Department. Because of
the facts that came to light during the interview of Minkley, a search of the premises where Leah Martin worked was
conducted to search for evidence that was unknown to investigators at the time of the previous search warrant. Suspects
being charged with capital murder in the death of Leah Martin are identified as Billy Ray Minkley Jr., age 42, of
Graham, Texas. Ross Earl Helms, age 42, of Graham, Texas. And Elton Carroll Blair, age 43,
of Graham. Blair and Helms will also be charged with tampering with evidence and a human
corpse. Oh, we got three pieces of [ __ ] right here. So, we got these guys a confession, plus
guilty pleas to the charges. And that's what >> like he has to probably testify on on
some level Oh, yeah. against the other two. Yeah, so he's going to he's going to testify. And and then I mean, of
course, they got Ross Earl Helms dead to rights, right? I mean, they found the body on his property, and and
other people pointing the finger at Helms as well, not just this Billy Minkley Jr. But what's left
hanging out there? Yeah. As Jerry would say, that's a big matzo ball. Excuse me,
sir, but your balls are showing. 18th, 2017, E.C. Blair. Old E.C. Blair. He doesn't
admit to anything. Of course, he doesn't. So, he's going to face a capital murder trial, and that trial
began on said date. And again, at this trial, everything we've already discussed, everything that we've already
uncovered, everything that Billy Minkley Jr. was saying is all presented at trial. Right.
>> And the prosecutor's suspicions, all presented at trial, including the prosecutor pointing out and highlighting
for the jury his belief, not only was E.C. Blair involved, but he was at the center of
this. That he was the mastermind of In fact, you look at it, when you look at the story, he's the only one he may have
ordered the murder, he may have brought all the the the players together to the same venue to watch it play out. But
when you review the information, he's got evil in his heart and on his soul, but he don't have no blood on his
hands, according to the story that I've just reviewed. Billy Minkley did the killing, Ross Hellams helped him, and
then the two of them were the ones that took care of the body afterwards. They're the only two that were charged
with tampering with evidence. And for what? For I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
>> I I've no idea how this worked out. I have no idea why these people Now, Billy Minkley Jr., it's not it's only a
hop, skip, and a quick jump to get from triple murder to killing somebody a year
later. Right. It may mean nothing to him. They The cops never liked this Ross Hellams either. I couldn't quite put my
finger on it uh why they wanted to look at him. It's also a little unclear as to
who became important first, right? Chicken or the egg? Ross Hellams or Billy Minkley? But at some point they
know based off of records that Well, with Ross Hellams, it's actually clear as day now that I
think about it. His alibi for the night doesn't check out. Right. And then you figure out that he's talking to Billy
Minkley Jr. who has a record. Yeah. So, the prosecutor's saying at this trial, you have Leah on the
night that she goes missing talking on the phone and texting with E.C. Blair. According to the prosecutor, that's
fact. It's his shop. She got there somehow. She was lured there somehow. The defense theory [snorts]
for E.C. Blair was Oh, no, no, no. He didn't have anything to do with it. He just happened to be the shop owner who
at one time had some affair with this girl, and she went there as said to collect her belongings like she told her
father, and you got these two losers, these two criminals in there at the shop at the time, and she
Their defense was E.C. Blair had nothing to do with it. Leah Martin walked in on
some sort of felonious behavior. She witnessed something that she shouldn't have witnessed. Maybe a drug deal was
going on. We know that Billy Minkley had drug ties, methamphetamine. We can base
that back to the the triple homicide in 2014 in Fort Worth. Yeah, or you also maybe wonder like because it's a
car shop or or or >> They doing a chop shop after hours. Yeah. But but but whatever you surmise,
whatever you are hypothesizing, you have to kind of Well, you don't have to kind of you you
need to show some proof that that was happening and that you weren't involved. And then you have
these other two individuals that I guarantee you they're making the statements of, "Well, we wouldn't have
done any of this if it wasn't for E.C. Blair." True. I mean, yes, that's a fair statement, but it's also the you know,
the way that it should work is that you that they have to prove your guilt more than you have to prove your innocence.
And in this case, it was too big of a hurdle for the jury to get over, unfortunately. The defense
idea and positioning of these two We know these two guys did this. Was Leah Martin
just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Did she walk in on something? Did she witness some type of felonious
behavior? Did she witness something where they where Billy Minkley Jr. and Ross Hellams just needed to kill her so
she couldn't talk? However, the defense packaged that, they packaged it in a way
that the jury could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that E.C. Blair was involved with the murder,
and therefore he he was acquitted despite the prosecution's best efforts, despite law
enforcement and detectives' best efforts and work. Yeah. >> He was acquitted. And we already know
that he's a piece of [ __ ] but he gets acquitted of this. He can't be charged again unless
they can find some kind of other angle, right? To But then it would be different
charges, and so this guy just goes back to Graham, Texas, and he or close to Graham, Texas. I I guess he
lives just outside >> move away, but >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I don't think he goes out much. I
don't >> Yeah. You know, again, like I said, this this because it's such a small community and
such a small population, these shops were big deals, right? And so this this shop is then This is a reminder of the
the bad parts of of humans. It's a constant reminder. Yeah, the the shop didn't was no longer in operation
after 2015. That's um Yeah. I guess some form of punishment for this E.C. Blair.
I I hope his wife kicked him out of the house. To kind of put a bow on this here,
August of 2018, Ross Earl Hellams, 45, one of the three men accused. So, this is after the trial, right? After
the trial where they don't get the conviction on E.C. Blair. Ross Hellams' body found on his
property, one of the three men accused in the murder of Leah Martin. He accepted a plea deal. He pled guilty to
three counts, murder, a first-degree felony, tampering with and fabricating evidence with the intent
to impair a human corpse, a second-degree felony, and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, a
third-degree felony. He was sentenced to 20 years, 20 years, and 10 years, respectively.
Hellams is credited with 3 years for time served from August when he was when he was arrested in 2015 up until the
time of accepting the plea deal in 2018. So, uh his time on that 50 years starts
in 2015 rather than in 18. So, he's serving 20 years for the murder conviction, another 20 years for
tampering. He's at the Allred Unit in Iowa Park, Texas. He's still there being held there.
And then we have Billy Ray Later learned that his nickname was Tank, but judging by his picture,
dumbass would have been a better nickname. Billy Ray Minkley continues to serve life without the possibility of
parole at Telford at the Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas. Minkley was accused of digging Martin's grave. As we said,
Martin's body was found 10 miles west of Graham, and he pled guilty to Martin's murder in exchange for life in prison to
avoid that death penalty. And unfortunately, that E.C. Blair he got lucky. He got lucky, and they
couldn't get a conviction. Here, as said, that the case is featured on that show titled Buried in the
Backyard. That's season 6, episode 2 from the folks over at the Oxygen network. And then what's left here,
Captain, is you have all these people without these four. Unfortunately, we stepped into this thinking we were going
to have to carry with our hearts one victim. We leave carrying carrying four victims, excuse me, with
our hearts here, and one of them very sad that she was a mother to a little girl, Avery, who was only 2 years old at
the time that her mother was was so brutally and and coldheartedly killed at her place of work, and she at the age
of 12, she went online to her mother to her mother's obituary, online obituary, and left a very nice message for her
mother there, and it sounds like as of 2024, that she was was doing well, living with
still living with her father, and her they're doing their very best to move on and carry on.
She has a stepmom, stepbrothers, and pets that she loves, and had some very nice, thoughtful things to say about her
mother that she misses misses [music] very dearly. >> [music] >> All right, I want to thank everybody for
joining us here in the garage each and every week. Thanks for telling your mother. Thanks for telling your brother.
Hey, try telling your sister this week as well. Colonel, do you have any >> listen. Probably not.
Do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners? Oh, I'll tell you what. This one
>> I tell you something. was a delight. So, I had a road trip. I didn't read this
one, I listened to this one. Shout out to the good folks over at Audible, and I had told you prior cuz I had a bit of a
road trip coming up, so I knew I was going to be facing 9 hours-ish in the car, and so I
listened to this one, and it was a delight. Might not be for everybody, but it was for me, Captain. You'll remember
this one. Hannibal Lecter: A Life by Brian Rafferty. Yeah. And really interesting, he he he basically creates
a biography about a fictional character. And I'll give you the summary here, and
it says a portion of it, anyway. "Drawing from exclusive interviews and previously
unseen archived materials, this is a one-of-its-kind biography of Hannibal Lecter
that documents the cannibal's journey from terrifying villain to unexpectedly adored antihero." This one was really
interesting to me because it was as much about the fictional character of Hannibal Lecter. I learned a lot about
the author who who gave birth really and brought into this world Hannibal Lecter,
Thomas Harris, who is a been a rather reclusive celebrity if you will or a a well-known
individual. So, you learn a lot about Thomas Harris. You learn a good deal about the makings of some of those
Hannibal Lecter films and the TV series as well as the actors and actresses that
were involved in the making of those films. And as said, of course, you you learn a whole lot about Hannibal Lecter.
It was a fun read for me and it's it feels a little true crime without having having
the heaviness of real life true crime. So, that's Hannibal Lecter a life by Brian Rafferty. You don't have to write
that title down right now because we will have it listed for you on our website on our
recommended page. And our website, of course, is truecrimegarage.com. Hey, and while you're there, sign up on
the mailing list. And until next week, be good, be kind, and don't litter. >> [music]
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Surrounded by Evil /// Part 2 /// 914

Part 2 of 2

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22 year old mother and professional Leah Martin went missing on her way to work. Her family was aware of threatening calls Leah received prior to her disappearance. Investigators find traceable evidence and search for the young mother. What clues and information were in those mysterious calls and were they connected to her disappearance? It’s a small town mystery with a lot of potential suspects. Grab a chair and grab a beer and go searching for answers with Nic and the Captain.

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Brief Summary

The episode details Leah Martin's murder, the suspects involved, and the investigation leading to their arrests and trials.

Key points

Mind of a Monster: The Hollywood Ripper. Explore the chilling life of serial killer Michael Gargiulo and his crimes in Los Angeles.
Ross Hellams Fails Polygraph Test. Ross Hellams, a key suspect, fails a lie detector test regarding Leah's disappearance.
Discovery of Leah Martin's Body. Authorities find Leah Martin's remains buried on Ross Hellams' property, revealing foul play.
The Tragic Fall into Addiction. Elizabeth Sessum's beauty and outgoing nature masked her lifelong struggle with drugs.
Confession and Chilling Details. Billy Minkley confesses to the murder of Leah Martin, revealing gruesome details of the crime.
E.C. Blair's Acquittal. Despite strong evidence, E.C. Blair is acquitted of murder, leaving many questions unanswered.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She had a rock stuck in her mouth.

Renee Martin describes the grim discovery of Leah's body.

8:54WatchMar 19, 2026

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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