S5: From What If They're Wrong: The Justice Who Won't Let Go

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 30 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Amber's other podcast, titled What If They're Wrong? After the Accusation: After charges against former death row inmate Elwood Jones were dismissed, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters—the former prosecutor who originally secured Jones’ conviction—went on talk radio insisting Jones was still guilty. The next day, phone records show Justice Deters had a 10-minute call with his former colleague, Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco. Four days later, the coroner announced false forensic evidence about the victim—evidence that collapsed within 24 hours. Through phone logs, text messages, and public records obtained exclusively for this investigation, this episode reveals the coordination between a sitting justice, former prosecutors and county officials after the case was supposed to be closed.

What If They're Wrong? After The Accusation is published early and ad-free for subscribers over at www.grabbagcollab.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everyone, this is Amber.
0:10.0	I'm dropping a bonus episode into this feed today because I want to introduce you to another project I've been working on.
0:17.0	In 1994, a woman named Rhoda Nathan was murdered in Blue Ash, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.
0:23.8	A man named Elwood Jones was convicted and spent more than 26 years in prison, most of that on Ohio's death row.
0:30.8	I started covering his case in 2019, and last month, Hamilton County's new prosecutor dismissed all the charges against him, saying
0:40.0	she believes Jones is actually innocent. You'd think that would be the end of this story, but it
0:45.7	wasn't. What happened in the days after that dismissal involved some radio appearances, phone
0:51.2	calls, text messages, and false forensic claims, and that's what this episode is
0:56.7	about. It involves a sitting Ohio Supreme Court justice, a county coroner, and questions about what
1:03.1	happens when the original prosecutors won't let a case go. This is from the podcast, What If They're Wrong, After the Accusation, where I'll be
1:13.5	tackling investigative journalism projects of this sort, work that's backed by my
1:18.0	independent network Grab Bag Collab. If this episode interests you, please subscribe. A full series
1:24.1	on a new case will be coming there soon.
1:46.0	Previously on, what if they're wrong, after the accusation? I'm hoping this come to him and I'm tired now.
1:51.0	Elwood Jones is a murderous bastard.
1:56.0	In your opinion, was Dr. McDonna wrong about the Iconella infection?
2:03.3	Absolutely.
2:04.8	And doctor, to you, is this a matter of opinion?
2:08.1	I mean, where he was wrong was actually, I mean, he was factually wrong.
2:13.8	Today's a pretty important day.
2:15.9	Just moments ago, I dismissed the case against Elwood Jones.
2:19.1	This is the result of a months-long intensive review of trial paperwork, of court filings, of evidence.
	...

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