#106 Jason Flom with Nick Yarris Pt. 1
Wrongful Conviction
Lava for Good Podcasts
4.4 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2019
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On December 16th, 1981, Linda Mae Craig was found beaten, raped, and stabbed to death in a church parking lot about a mile and a half away from where her car was discovered. A few days later, Nick Yarris, a troubled young man linked with petty crimes and substance abuse, was pulled over for a traffic violation in a stolen car and got into an altercation with the arresting officer that included an accidental discharge of the officer’s service pistol. This incident spiraled into a laundry list of charges. Yarris had seen the news about Linda Mae Craig, and in a desperate attempt to save himself, he tried to trade false information about her attacker to garner leniency. When authorities got wind of his trickery, they turned the charges on Nick. The prosecution manipulated several eyewitness testimonies, hid or destroyed the case history, and employed misleading serology in order to obtain his wrongful conviction. However, between his first day in prison to exoneration by the biological evidence that put him there, Nick Yarris lived (and continues to live) out one of the greatest and most unbelievable stories ever told. In part 1 of Nick Yarris’ story, he tells us about surviving sexual assault, repeated run-ins with the law, getting waylaid by his own lie, his trial and conviction, “Gladiator Sundays,” and accidentally (yet successfully) escaping from death row, only to turn himself in when he reached Florida - a state where he is still not welcome as a free man. Comparing Nick Yarris’ story to a rollercoaster ride would only serve as a compliment to roller coasters. For example, in 2008, Nick Yarris sued Delaware County and won $4 million. Then, it was stolen from him, and we didn’t even cover that in this episode.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On December 15, 1981, Linda May Craig, a sales associate at the Tri-State Mall in |
| 0:07.8 | Claymont, Delaware, was abducted in her car at the end of her shift. After not arriving |
| 0:12.4 | home, hours after she was due, her husband called the police. Her body was found the following |
| 0:18.2 | day beaten, stabbed, and raped, and a church parking lot about a mile and a half away from |
| 0:23.1 | where her car had been discovered. |
| 0:26.3 | Nick Yaris was a troubled young man with serious substance abuse issues growing up in Southwest |
| 0:31.3 | Philadelphia. One fateful night, he was pulled over for a traffic violation in a stolen |
| 0:36.5 | car while high on meth, and he got into an altercation with the arresting officer, whose |
| 0:41.2 | gun accidentally discharged. |
| 0:44.1 | While in jail and facing a laundry list of charges, Yaris spotted a newspaper article |
| 0:48.4 | about Linda May Craig and tried to trade false information for leniency. But what authorities |
| 0:53.4 | discovered his trickery, they turned the charges and the tables on him, manipulating false |
| 0:57.7 | witness testimonies, hiding or destroying the case history, and using some misleading |
| 1:02.6 | serology in order to pin the rape and murder on Nick. |
| 1:06.4 | The biological evidence, as it turned out, that was used to convict him, though, would |
| 1:10.6 | one day be the same evidence that would set him free. |
| 1:13.8 | Now, I'm not even going to try to summarize the rest of Nick's story here. It's why |
| 1:18.1 | we're splitting this episode into two parts, which are both available now. But to compare |
| 1:22.7 | Nick's story to a rollercoaster ride of twists and turns would feel like a compliment to |
| 1:27.5 | rollercoasters or it would be actually underselling the story of Nick Yaris. As one journalist |
| 1:33.1 | put it, Nick Yaris is living one of the greatest stories ever told. And this is wrongful |
| 1:40.4 | conviction. |
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