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His escape from prison and his proximity to the murders. >> i lived on the main streets of pittsburgh when i was growing up. i became a car thief. i landed in the california institution for men in 1983 because of a burglary conviction in los angeles. i was there a couple months. i was out of walking around, there was a hole in a fence and i just ran. >> mr. cooper started wandering through farms and pastures, areas that were off the roadways and ultimately found his way to the lease house. >> wh...

Tobacco found at larry leases home link him to the murders? >> a couple of deputies went over to the lease house, walked through it and really didnt see anything suspicious. a day or two later, other deputies were asked to go search the lease house again. by then, they knew the hatchet had been used in the murders. and they found a sheath to a hand ax laying right out in the middle of the floor in a position that the first deputies walking through the house could not have missed it. they would h...

>> kevin cooper escaped an almost two-month-long murder manhunt, and police caught him trying to swim away from the scene of an alleged rape. >> the rape allegation was never pursued, because cooper now faced four counts of first degree murder. each carrying the death penalty. >> i hope you die! give him the gas chamber! >> when cooper was returned to san bernardino, racial tensions boiled over. >> local authorities say theyve received several calls from outraged residents who demanded cooper be...

I landed in the california institution for men in 1983 because of a burglary conviction in los angeles. i was there a couple months. i was out walking around, and there was a hole in the fence, and i just ran. >> mr. cooper started wandering through farms and pastures, areas that were off of the roadways. and ultimately found his way to the lease house. >> when i got to the lease house, i called a couple ex-girlfriends, asked them to send me money. i watched tv, ate, tried to figure out whats ne...

Over to the lease house, walked through it, and really didnt see anything suspicious. a day or two later, other deputies were asked to go search the lease house again. by then they knew a hatchet had been used in the murders. and they found a sheath to a hand ax laying right out in the middle of the floor in a position that the first deputies walking through the house could not have missed it. they would have had to been blind to miss that sheath. >> cooper also said that during his two days in ...

It wasnt me. it must have been someone else who did this. >> kottmeier countered the testimony by showing the jury the hatchet found in the lease house and the bloody footprint found in the ryens bedroom. >> in the folds of that sheet was a half-bloody footprint. now those soles were unique. and we were able to determine that the shoe print was made by a prison-issue pro ked tennis shoe. >> blood found at the murder scene also led back to cooper. >> a-41 was a single drop blood in the hallway an...

>> i cross-examined him for a day and a half. cooper said, yeah, i was at the lease house. i never went up to the ryen house. it wasnt me. it must have been someone else who did this. >> kottmeier countered the testimony by showing the jury the hatchet found in the lease house and the bloody footprint found in the ryens bedroom. >> in the folds of that sheet was a half-bloody footprint. now those soles were unique. and we were able to determine that the shoe print was made by a prison-issue pro ...

What they did in this case was exactly the opposite. as word of the murders got out, the sheriffs department learned that kevin cooper had escaped and that started what we refer to in law enforcement as tunnel vision. sheriff tidwell held a big press conference. they started with a suspect and they then started collecting evidence to prove their theory. >> but if kevin cooper wasnt the killer, why did the hatchet sheathe and prison-issued tobacco found at larry leases home link him to the murder...

>> i lived on the mean streets of pittsburgh when i was growing up. i became a car thief. i landed in the california institution for men in 1983 because of a burglary conviction in los angeles. i was there a couple months. i was out walking around, and there was a hole in the fence, and i just ran. >> mr. cooper started wandering through farms and pastures, areas that were off of the roadways. and ultimately found his way to the lease house. >> when i got to the lease house, i called a couple ex...

Chamber. >> shouldnt get away with it. >> seek the death penalty as we have all along. >> coopers trial began on october 23rd, 1984. >> i cross-examined cooper for a day and a half. cooper said, yeah, i was at the lease house but i never went up to the ryen house. it wasnt me. must have been somebody else that did this. >> kottmeier showed the hatchet in the lease house and the bloody footprint found in the ryans bedroom. >> in the folds of the sheet was a half-bloody footprint. now, those soles...