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The Killafornia Dreaming Podcast

#112 The Tale of Who Murdered Stacey Stites? A Vacation Series [Part 2]

The Killafornia Dreaming Podcast

Roseanne

True Crime, Killers, Non-fiction, Mystery, Justice System, News, Podcast, Criminal, Murder, California, Law Enforcement, Discussion, Crime

4.42K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2019

⏱️ 87 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The 1996 Murder Of 19-Year-Old Stacey Stites And The Possible Wrongful Conviction Of Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed [Part 2]

**KD IS NO LONGER WITH ORBITAL JIGSAW OR BLUBRRY**

The is Part 2 of our series entitled the Tale of Who Killed Stacey Stites. On April 23, 1996, 19 year old Stacey Stites was strangled to death and her body was dumped off the side of a road in Bastrop, Texas. Swabs taken revealed the presence of semen, leading authorities to surmise the motive for the murder was sexual assault. Her fiance, Giddings Police Officer Jimmy Fennell, emerged as a strong suspect early in the investigation until it was revealed the DNA of the semen was not a match to Fennell. The case was at a standstill for about a year when investigators finally caught a break – a match for the DNA was found in the criminal database belonging to an African American Bastrop resident named Rodney Reed. While he first denied knowing Stacey, and denied having anything to do with her murder, when he was told his DNA was found in her body, he changed his story – he did know Stacey. They were having a consensual sexual relationship and he said he had intercourse with her a couple days before she was killed. But he wasn’t believed, and that, along with the forensic and scientific evidence presented at trial was enough to convict Rodney and he was subsequently sentenced to death. In the years since, information has come to light that no only points to Rodney having had an affair with Stacey, but also the science used to convicted him was junk. He is one month away from being executed, as all of his appeals have been denied, and the Texas Governor Greg Abbott has refused to grant Rodney clemency. Is Texas about to execute an innocent man? Listen and decide for yourself. And if you believe in his innocence, please take action NOW and sign the petition on Change.org – Stop the Execution of Rodney Reed.

UPDATE: Rodney Reed's execution was stayed by the Governor of Texas and the Supreme Court will be hearing an appeal calling for further DNA testing in his case

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello again Dreamers. This is part two of California Dreaming Series, The Tale of Who Killed

0:09.1

Stacey Stites. If you haven't listened to part one, pause this, go back and listen to episode 1111 and then come

0:19.3

back to this one and you will be caught up.

0:22.4

And again, I must provide you with this warning.

0:25.0

This episode contains details involving graphic violence and sexual assault

0:31.0

and is not suitable for young listeners.

0:35.0

Listener discretion is strongly advised.

0:38.0

So in part one, we went over many of the facts of the case involving the murder of

0:46.4

Stacy Stites, as well as a good portion of the main pieces of evidence the

0:51.8

prosecution presented to the jury that led to

0:54.9

Rodney Reed's conviction and subsequent death sentence for her murder.

0:59.6

The theory the state presented told the following narrative.

1:07.0

On the evening of April 22, 1996, Jimmy Finel told Stacey's mom Carol that he was going to drive Stacy to her job

1:16.1

where she had an early morning shift that started at 3.30 a.m. at the H.E.B. in Bastrop, Texas.

1:24.0

Despite Carol's offer to give Fonella ride later on in the day to Bastrop to meet up with Stacey so he could sleep in.

1:32.0

Once Stacy was going to get off work that afternoon,

1:35.0

she and Fidel had a couple of errands to run,

1:38.0

so he needed to make his way out that direction

1:40.0

towards the end of her shift to meet up with her.

1:44.4

When Stacy failed to show up for her shift the morning of April 23rd,

1:48.8

Fennel told investigators that they had changed their plans for him to drive her to work and he ended up sleeping in while

1:55.4

Stacy left for work at her usual time at approximately three in the morning in his truck.

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