Kit Cleland News Today

Unable to identify gloria as the woman who came to the door. and i think she finally said, well, it could be. >> despite these struggles, cleland did not call joanne masse to implicate gloria. joann was now suspected of committing similar robberies with her husband. so the case came down to clelands star witness, gary masse. >> gloria is almost relieved. theyre not going to take the word of a career criminal over me. that would make no sense. >> the jurors are instructed, they dont have to belie...

Must do more than cast doubt on the prosecutions case. >> youve got to present an alternative explanation about how this could have occurred if gloria wasnt involved. >> cleland had argued that gloria pried information from coin shop operator virgil fletcher and used it to orchestrate the heist. >> they were able to make it seem as if gloria was the link between virgil fletcher and gary masse. and if it wasnt her, how else was this going to happen? >> well, gary lee smith was the missing piece. ...

It seemed like gary was being nudged into things. >> but in order to get a new trial for gloria, carlson would need clear evidence that cleland had struck a deal and he deceived the jury. >> it took a long time. they were closing doors and he had to make enemies in the sacramento courts before that letter showed up. >> what carlson found was a letter that had been sealed from the public, a letter to masses sentencing judge. >> when i saw that, my jaw dropped.

>> the make or break witness. if you have reason not to believe him, then you have some lack of confidence in the jury verdict. >> the testimony of a thoroughly discredited perjuror, thats what they said. we would say he is a [ bleep ] liar. >> cleveland also should have disclosed his deal with masse. >> gary masse should have been confronted with the fact that he really did have a deal with the prosecution. in a fair proceeding, a jury should hear it all. >> together, hawkins wrote, "these erro...

People generally believe if a person is in prison, she deserves to be there. thats not necessarily the case. >> joyce sent private investigator darryl carlson to visit gloria. >> she said i dont want you doing this. she said, ive had enough of this for the last few years. i dont want it anymore. i cant handle it. >> i think she didnt want to get her hopes up needlessly. and she didnt want to see me waste my money. i did have some inheritance money from my father which i went through rather quick...

The beginning. gary doesnt implicate gloria, then theyre not going to support a reduction in his sentence. simple as that. i was very excited but certainly no guarantee we were going to win. >> while it was clear prosecutor cleland had hidden the deal genego still had to prove gary masse had lied on the stand. he got help from an unexpected source. two lawyers appointed to appeal gunman stephen desantis death sentence. >> it seemed to us that we should know as much about this as the district att...

Mastermind. the prosecutor called coin dealer virgil fletcher who once told police that his tenant, gloria, plied him for information about davies. >> virgil didnt directly say that gloria killian was involved but she had talked to him about wanting to meet mr. davies and does he date younger women, will he go out on his wife, so she had an interest. >> virgil said i was asking about mr. davies. but i didnt know the davies. i didnt know they had money. i didnt know they shopped at allied coins. ...

Would see who is there. and then dont approach at coin shop. okay. now it sounds like someone casing the davies themselves. and the question, where garage, that would be where the silver is that the perpetrators are looking for. thats frankly damning to miss killian. >> gloria explained that during law school she moonlighted serving subpoenas. >> i had a lot of one, two-word notes. i had descriptions of houses. 30 miles out of town in elk grove or next door. >> she had pages and pages of all kin...

Of the deal. but after masse was convicted he told cleland what he wanted to hear, that gloria planned the crime. >> the testimony completely changes. yeah, yeah, she might have been involved in the beginning but really, she had nothing to do with it. >> thats not unusual for witnesses to hedge but gary masse never came off the point that gloria killian told him about the davies and that she went with him to the house a week or so before. >> so he is trustworthy? gary masse says to the judge, i ...

Which made it very hard for the defense to discredit him. >> gary masse was so loaded during this crime. so he got around an awful lot of it by saying, i dont remember, i dont recall. it is all very hazy. it was like trying to fight your way through a bunch of cobwebs. >> gloria took the stand still insisting she didnt know the robbers or the victims. cleland hammered away at glorias credibility starting with her first statement to police, i always get caught. >> we were just about to lock up an...