21min chapter

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Episode 559: The Murder of Timothy Coggins

Morbid

CHAPTER

Unearthing Evidence in the Well

Coleman, Broder, and Dix use a Hydravac machine to clean out an old well, revealing crucial evidence in the murder of Timothy Coggins. The discovery of items such as sneakers, a blood-stained t-shirt, a logging chain, and a broken knife shifts the case, leading to the arrest of suspects and a long-awaited trial. The chapter delves into the emotional struggles of the Coggins family, the challenges faced by the prosecution in proving guilt, and the eventual conviction of one of the perpetrators.

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But fortunately, Coleman located a
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new company in Atlanta that actually used a machine called a Hydravac to clean out old wells. So, using a high-pressure hose, the Hydravac company forced water into the ground, which forced all the debris out of the earth, and then all of that gets sucked up by a large vacuum, all of which was done without causing any damage to the trailer. So Coleman, Broder, and Dix spent nearly eight hours at the site, watching as the vacuum sucked up and spit out decades' worth of trash, until finally they started seeing things that they recognized. Among the items pulled from the well were a pair of Adidas sneakers that matched the pair Tim was wearing the night he was killed. A white blood-stained t-shirt that appeared to be torn by multiple stab marks. Decades old. A piece of old logging chain. And most importantly, a broken kitchen knife that matched the stab wounds on Tim's chest and neck. Holy shit, Broder called. It's been sitting under the earth. Thirty, I believe it's 33 years. 33 years. And they were
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imagine
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the satisfaction of being on the right side of this. And seeing those things come out. Finally, we have these. And being like, there it is. We can get this family justice. And that that guy has been, that all those people saying, this is what he said to me, are telling the truth. Because he said, I threw it down the well. And now it's being confirmed. They might be fucked up. They might be fucked up. For some reason, they were telling the truth. The city it was telling people the stuff. So he's admitted it several times. Yeah. Marie Broder recalled it was exciting. This was huge for us. So she took the shoe to Tim's family and his sister, Talissa, instantly recognized it as the one her brother was wearing the night that they went out to the people's choice the last time she ever saw him. The evidence was circumstantial, but now there was a lot of it. And it all seemed to point to Frank Gebhardt and Bill Morris, Tim's killers. Marie Broder said that was the turning point. There had been so many obstacles along the way. But after the well, we knew we got him. Yeah. How do you can't argue that away? No way. So based on the evidence they gathered, Broder and Griffin, Judicial Circuit District Attorney Benjamin Coker, I believe, were able to get a rest warrants. And it seemed that after more than three decades, somebody was finally going to stand trial for the murder of Timothy Coggins. It was about time, man. By the time Oscar Jordan was taken off the Coggins case in 1983, he had a pretty good idea of who killed Tim Coggins and why. Yeah. And knowing that much of his removal from the case had affected Jordan, Coleman called the former Sheriff Stephanie. I was so hoping that this I've been thinking this whole time. Please tell me that this guy got to be part of this whole thing in some way. Actually, you're going to shit yourself. Coleman called him in mid October and asked him if he would like to be among the officers to make a rest. Oh, shut the fuck up. I am so happy right now. I was thinking this whole time. I'm like, if anybody Coleman is such a real one. Such a real one. Yeah. Jordan happily accepted Coleman's offer. And on October 13th, 2017, after being deputized by Sheriff Dix, Oscar Jordan led a team of officers that arrested Frank Gebhardt and Bill Moore for the murder of Timothy Coggins. Also arrested that day were Milner Police Department employee Lamar Bunn and his mother Sandra and Spalding County Sheriff's Officer Gregory Huffman for the role that those three played in obstructing the original investigation. Amazing. In his statement to the press, Sheriff Darryl Dix emphasized to the reporters, there's no doubt in the minds of the investigators that this crime that the crime was racially motivated. And if it occurred today, it would be presented as a hate crime. When asked why the case had been reopened by the GBI and the sheriff's department, Dix explained many of the witnesses interviewed said they'd been living with the information since Coggins death, but had been quote unquote afraid to come forward or had not spoken of it until now. Wow. So some people hadn't even talked about this because they were so scared of these two men. Holy shit. And the people they were associated with. Yeah. So they were harboring these secrets for 33 years, just for fear of their own safety. Exactly. But with Frank Gebhardt and Bill Moore in their older years, now those witnesses weren't intimidated by the many longer and wanted to do the right thing. So for Darryl Dix, the arrests felt like a major step in the right direction toward rebuilding the trust with Spalding County's black community. When asked whether reports from 1983 accurately described the murder, he replied, he replied, yes and no, it was more than a simple murder. It was done to send a message. It was overkill. And Coleman echoed the sheriff's opinion, telling your reporter, the death of Mr. Coggins was very clearly allenching. Wow. Which it was. Absolutely. Left him underneath a hanging tree after torturing him. Absolutely. For who knows how long. Now at Frank and Bill's arraignment a few days later, district attorney Ben Coker argued both men should be denied bond, citing their long history of witness intimidation and the frequency and pride with which they boasted about the murder, both of them. Superior court judge Fletcher Sam's agreed with the district attorney and denied bond, noting that to decide any other way would be quote unquote inappropriate, which like hell yeah. Yeah. In early December 2017, a probable cause hearing was held to determine how the case would proceed. An interstate into the judge, Marie Broder explained the theory that Tim had been murdered because of his relationship with a local white woman and the crime had 100% been racially motivated. Frank Gabbart and Bill Moore quote wore the crime as a badge of honor, she said, which can you? They just went around town or this with like a badge of honor and they were treated like it was. I was going to say other people in the community, like other people in the community feel any different. Yeah. No one contradicted that way of thinking. No. So they just thought, yeah, what we did was good. Yeah. We're hometown here. They were treated like hometown. Yes. For that's almost too much to really comprehend. To comprehend. Like that truly is. It's hard to comprehend that even a couple or a few people are this gross depraved and depraved. But it's like when you really think of the far reach of this, you're like, like it's almost too much for your mind to even go to. Absolutely. I can't deal with the fact that there's that many people in like that are like this. That are like so for this and justify this and would do this or support this or just turn a blind eye to this. Like that's a lot to think about. It's scary and to think that like we're all human. Like we're all the fucking same. We're all the same on the inside. Like, yeah, we all got the same stuff. Like people will do this to one another. Like a human will do this to another human. And other people will pat them on the back instead of consuming it. Go into the police and exactly condemning them. It's heinous. It is. In his testimony, Jared Coleman elaborated on their theory telling the judge they were proud of what they had done. They felt like they were protecting the white race from black people. Wow. Which is like what? The deluloo. The deranged decanetive dissonance. The detachment from reality. Aye. Monsters. Absolute monsters. To support the case though, broader sighted the numerous accounts from witnesses detailing the men's proud confessions and the recordings in which Frank can be heard saying, if you give me a name of a witness, they won't testify. So he was going to continue to fuck with witnesses and to scare people and intimidate them. For the Coggins family, many of whom were hearing the details of the murder for the very first time, the grand jury was obviously a very difficult experience to say the least. Sitting directly behind Frank Gabbhardt during the hearing, Heather Coggins said, it's always difficult when someone isn't sorry for what they've done. When you understand they're not sorry for what they've done, it makes it easier for you to not be sorry for what's going to happen to them. Yeah. Because it's like he sat in court unapologetic completely without any remorse whatsoever, sitting in front of this man's family. Yeah. And knowing that like, oh, hi. And for Tim Coggins family to have to sit behind this man and see this man's fans were capable of doing what they did to their loved one, to be in the same room with somebody that hateful toward your race must be one of the scariest, like most intimidating experiences, like the fact that they had to sit there for this and were willing to is remarkable. It's, yeah, it's just it's and for this guy to be completely unapologetic and zero remorse and to fat and only worried about his own ass. It's like, yeah, that must be a whole new level of just to sit in the same room with him to fathom that that guy is is breathing the same air is yeah. But luckily the judge ruled in favor of the prosecution. And on December 5th, the grand jury was convened, who also sided with the district attorney, agreeing that the case against both men should go to trial. So Frank Gebhardt's trial began in late June of 2018. And in our opening statement, Marie Brader, who played the theory that Tim was murdered because of his relationship with Mickey Guy, but also noted that the murder likely would have been solved decades ago had it not been for the racist ideologies that permeated local law enforcement agencies. She told the jury the sad and incredibly bleak truth. She said they didn't care about Timothy Coggins. And then she asked them to atone for the sins of the past. Frank's defense attorney Scott Johnston seized on broader surmarks about the shoddy initial investigation, emphasizing that the state's case was built on nothing more than circumstantial evidence and hearsay testimony from several known criminals. Oh, please. He noted the the missing pieces of critical evidence, including the makeshift club, extra clothing and the Jack Daniels bottle asking rhetorically, where did it go? According to Johnston, it was incumbent upon the state to prove his client's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And the prosecution quote shouldn't get a pass just because the case is old. The fact that this is even being like brought into the conversation is wild is insane. And also like the what about the evidence that is there? I'm sorry. I'm like, I'm not sharing that in your backyard. What's in your backyard? Well, that's it. I'm like, I'm sorry. You got you got bloody shirts in your backyard and also a victim shoes. You got to explain to me logically and realistically how these inmates regardless of how shitty they are knew that these things were in that well. If that man didn't put them in that well and tell them that he put them in that well, exactly, even though that well existed, he said he hit it. It literally built a shed over it. And he did. But then you found all the stuff that people said he's going to be there there. He I mean, Jesus, this guy even said of all the knives that they confiscated, they're not going to find the one that I did it with because I threw that down the well. Well, and then they found it in the well. I'm sorry. How do you explain that? Exactly. Like legal bullshit doesn't do shit for me with that. It's like, no, explain it. Explain it in reality. Exactly. Every step. Exactly. How that makes any fucking sense. Any other way. But he put that shit down there after he committed the crime. His argument essentially was like, they didn't have some of the clothing and the Jack Daniels bottle and or the makeshift club. It's like, okay, but they found the murder, one of the murder weapons, because again, there were various and the victims clothing and shoes. Like, I'm sorry. No, we're not a church. There comes a time when you have to you have to hang it up. Exactly. Hang it up. But it wasn't just the missing evidence in questionable character of informants that was working against broader in the district attorney's office. Much of the newly collected evidence like the recordings of Frank and the evidence discovered in the well did present challenges. The defense pointed to the discrepancies in the various confessions, noting specifically that the motive seemed to differ between racism and drugs, depending on who was asked. And after more than 30 years, it was reasonable, quote unquote, to question whether the rumors and boasting from Frank were exactly that, exaggerations and lies. Finally, when it came to the evidence in the well, the defense noted that it had been so degraded by the elements that it was impossible to conclusively connect it to Tim Cogans. Maybe, forensically, what come the fuck on? Like, I get that if you're coming down to like brass tacks and like, forensically, we cannot conclusively link this. Okay, that's reality. Like, that is reality. I get that. But for me, science, that's it. But if I was sitting on that jury and I heard six people said this specific shit was going to be found in this well, and then it was found in this well, and this man confessed to murder, and his girlfriend was cheating on him with this man that was murdered. And he had known ties to the KKK and KKK infiltrated law enforcement. There's a lot there's a lot here that's a lot. It's like, you'd call it all circumstantial, but that's a lot. That's a lot. And there are cases that there's way even way less circumstantial evidence that have been still gets a conviction. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But despite the, I don't know, despite the quote unquote lack of evidence, it's hard to even call it. I know. It literally is quote unquote. But, you know, broader remained laser focused on the brutality of the killing and the racist motive for the crime. She said, it deserved fire and passion. I wanted those jurors mad about what happened to Tim Perkins. I wanted them rocking back on their heels. So the prosecution called more than a dozen witnesses and used every piece of evidence to demonstrate how Frank Gebhardt's racist views and connections to the KKK had not only led to Tim's murder, but also contributed to a casual conspiracy to cover up his involvement in the crime. In his closing arguments, the defense made one last attempt to undermine the case against his client. He insisted it's a made up story. It's a reasonable doubt because it's a made up story. But are all the things they found in the well made up? Is that made up? Like, I guess that physically something that you can look at. No, the well, I'm sorry, I can't get past the well. If they didn't have the well, I could see there being a reasonable doubt. Yeah, because I could see just just there's just no evidence. Legally, I could see there being reasonable doubt. Legally, exactly. But I can't get past the well. I can't get past the well. But reminding the jury where the witnesses had come from, he said, it's just trash. That's what those witnesses amount to. That's what all your jailhouse witnesses amount to is just trash. The same thing that was found in the well. To say that that evidence that was found in the well is just trash. If they're all singing the same tune and the tune happens to be correct, they had the other garbage, but they were right. I don't know what to tell you. Call that evidence that they found in that well, trash. I take my trash out once a week. Never have I ever found a murder victim shoe. No. Never have I ever had a bloody t-shirt covered, like, tattered because somebody was stabbed wearing it. Never have I ever found a murder weapon that matched the exact murder weapon of a victim that I had ever been tied to. No, that's not just trash. That's what doesn't. It just doesn't vibe with me. That's not a riveting argument. But despite the degraded evidence and the questionable and criminal character of the witnesses, the jury did not take long in their deliberation before returning to the courtroom to announce that after 33 years, Frank Gebhardt was guilty on five counts, including first-degree murder, battery, and assault. After sentencing him to life in prison plus an additional 30 years, Judge Fletcher Sam's address Frank Gebhardt saying, hopefully, sir, you have stabbed your last victim. Wow. Later, when asked what it was that swayed the jury the most, the foreman said, we counted 17 times that Mr. Gebhardt admitted to the murder in some kind of way over the years. And that's just the way the ones that have come out. 17 times. 17 times he is admitted to that. 17 times that they have been able to find, like, you don't. You don't accidentally high on drugs admit to a murder seven, seven times that you didn't commit. No. Exactly. It doesn't. It doesn't fly. Now, remember, there's another person here for Bill Moore, who was scheduled to go on trial in a few months. The conviction was an ominous sign of things to come. So a few days later, he agreed to a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Man's slaughter. I don't know why this deal was presented. I think they could have convicted them. Wow. I don't know all the logistics, but wow. He got a 20-year sentence. A 20-year sentence. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the murder weapon was found in Frank's, wow, on his property and the fact that he had in many of those confessions said he was the one who stabbed Timothy Coggins, but manslaughter 20 years for this crime. That's outrageous. Were they at least, they must have been older at this point, at least like middle-aged. Absolutely. It was 33. I think they were around the early 20s when this happened. So like in their 50s or something like that. Yeah. And Frank was already in jail. And but on October 19th, 2021, Moore died at the Augusta State Medical Present after serving just two years of his sentence. Rest in distress, asshole. Yeah. Whoops. For Coleman and broader, the investigation and trial were just the first important step to writing the countless wrongs that have been committed against Spalding County's Black community by local law enforcement for decades. broader told a reporter, this case changed me forever. I had never experienced evil purely based on someone's skin. You really know nothing and you have to recognize that and say this happened. It happens. And in order to confront this evil, you cannot shy away from it. You have to confront it head on. Wow. It gives me a chills. Yeah. For the Coggins family, the convictions were a remarkable turning point. They never expected to see. No, they've really thought 33 years. They would go to their graves, never having anything happen in this case. For more than three decades, they had been denied justice and just left to wonder, not wonder what happened to Tim because they saw that he was brutalized, but they didn't know the specifics and they didn't know who had done this to their loved one. And some of them were unable to ever get those horrific images of his brutalized body out of their minds because remember, law enforcement was circulating a photo trying to get an ID on Tim. But thanks to the hard work of Jared Coleman, Oscar Jordan, Daryl Dix, and Marie broader, among others, they could put those thoughts to rest somewhat and move forward, remembering and celebrating Tim for the person they've remembered him to be. Unfortunately, Tim Coggins mom Viola didn't technically live to see justice carried out. But in this will make you possibly cry or like, have chills in some otherworldly way, she did see justice. And Wesley Lowry's article about about Tim's case for GQ, which I definitely recommend it's going to be linked in the show notes, definitely read it. He opens up by recounting the night that Viola had somewhat of a vision into the future. She was pretty much on her deathbed. And her daughter, T'Lissa was there making her comfortable. And Viola declared just seemingly out of nowhere. They found out who killed Tim. And this was before anything. I literally just it went, she continues. And she continued, they found out who killed Tim. I ain't going to be here for it, but they're going to get who killed Tim. Oh my God. I feel you do you ever feel chills in your head? Yes. Yeah. I just like, it went all the way up to my skull. It's like a whoosh. Holy shit. She just I don't I don't know what she saw. I heard to say I'm not going to be here for it, but but they're going to get it. Fuck yeah, they are mama always knows. And I'm happy that while she didn't get like, like physical piece that she knew she knew she got to happen. She got some kind of piece like she saw something wherever she was. Whoo.

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