Live Breaking News & Updates on Old thomas cogdale
Stay updated with breaking news from Old thomas cogdale. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
that on the other side of the interrogation room walls, his paternal grandfather, steve harris has come to assist him. >> i said i'd like to see my grandson. and they said well we're interrogating him. i said, does he have a lawyer or a child advocate? they said, no. and the strangest thing they said was since 9/11, that's all changed. >> officers point out that thomas's mother, melody jones is also in the building. and has gwynn them permission to interview the boy. >> i said, she's bipolar, she has just lost her daughter, she's in a destroyed state, she's not competent enough to help him or help herself. and they said, as long as she says we can talk to thomas, that's all we need. >> i just wanted, for the record, that you did allow us to talk to thomas.
i feel like they were trying to find some friction between us. >> now, you said you have, you have some anger problems? >> yes. >> who is your anger directed to most of the time? >> my sister. >> and why is that? >> because she argues with me. she bosses me around. she doesn't respect me because i'm older. she just supposed to respect me. >> i don't know what's going on. my sister's gone. why aren't we trying to find the person who did this. why are you asking me all these questions? >> do you know what time it is? cause i'm getting very hungry. >> 90 minutes into the interrogation, thomas is brought into another room to eat. law enforcement officials stay with him the entire time. >> they took that child off camera for three hours and 30, 40 minutes.
is that correct? >> yes. >> melody jones declined to be interviewed by msnbc. >> a parent should not be able to give up your rights, especially when she's the only other person that could have done it. >> even worse for thomas, he's giving investigators information that's starting to work against him. like details of a game he played with kaylee. using handcuffs made of yarn. >> could you have been in a room since mama was in bed, and, and y'all decided to play and tie each other up. >> no, i don't tie her up with leashes. >> yeah, but you could have been in there and say come on, let's play prison break, or whatever. >> i don't remember. >> and then tie her up. >> i don't remember. >> and that's fine. because you're playing a game. >> could i have tied her up and did this by accident?
caylee's head into the pillow. when i asked the medical examiner if the cause of death was consistent with a large person straddling caylee and holding her head in the pillow, he said yes, that was consistent with her suffocation. not saying it was the only way, but he said that was certainly consistent. >> i approached her bed, got down on the bed and put the bags over her head. >> nonetheless, thomas' words in the interrogation room are too powerful for the judge overseeing the case and thomas is convicted of second degree murder. >> i was shocked. i figured, how could he come to that verdict when it's so obvious that i didn't do it.
i guess they didn't want us to know what was being said because they certainly had the ability to record it. >> while thomas eats, melody jones replaces her son in the interrogation room. >> were you in any way involved in the death of your daughter? >> no. i don't like thinking death. i wouldn't do that. and i don't think thomas would either. >> when you watch that tape, whenever you get past thomas wouldn't hurt her sister, then generally speaking, you get some tears, followed by something derogatory or negative about thomas. that he blows up, he's on medication, he doesn't have friends, he doesn't like church. things of that nature. >> when you catch him doing something, is he good about going ahead and fessing up, or
>> during nearly three years in juvenile detention, thomas is a model inmate while his lawyer fights to have the verdict overturned. >> it simply says what you're saying, you're doing of your own free will. >> the decision will come down to an error made in the interrogation room. in 2010, the arkansas supreme court unanimously throws out the confession based on police giving thomas the wrong definition of the word "waiver." his battle with the legal system ends when prosecutors take no further action. the case is dismissed. >> it's very hard for me to wrap my head around the belief of the police that thomas actually committed this murder. >> i didn't kill her! >> and that the only reason he's
if we, me and my sister were playing, we got too loud or anything, my mom would flip out and start yelling and screaming and grab something and hit one of us. so i stayed away from her. because i didn't know how she would act. >> on august 7th, shortly after they find kaylee's body in her bedroom, both thomas and his mother are asked to come to camden police headquarters. thomas enters the box. or interview room. what follows is a remarkable window into the interrogation process, from the suspect's point of view. >> did you argue with your sister very often? >> every now and then, maybe once a day. >> i just answered the questions. i didn't think there would be anything wrong in telling them. so i just said this is what happened in our house. this is how our house functions.
confess, we will charge you with the death penalty as an adult. and they start telling me these little bits of information i could work into a story, maybe i got angry because she wouldn't listen to me. maybe we were playing around, it was an accident, or maybe i just blacked out and don't remember any of it. i don't to want die. so i told them i did it. >> yet, thomas says he thinks he's going home that night. and he tells his mother, he knows the one fact he's sure will set him free. [ male announcer ] legalzoom has helped start over 1 million businesses.
>> i didn't do it. >> unlike rex, thomas is a complete stranger to the criminal justice system. >> here, he's 12. his sister's dead. he's emotionally an infant at this point. emotional wounds were visible, this child would have bled to death before the first interview was over. >> in the summer of 2006, thomas is about to enter the eighth grade. while living here with kaylee and their mother, melody jones. melody is on disability, she tells authorities she suffers from mental illness. and has attempted suicide at least once. >> she could go from one emotion to the other in a snap.
free is because they made a mistake in telling him what a waiver is. >> authorities say thomas' juvenile status at the time of the murder prevents them from discussing the case. in a statement to msnbc prosecutor robin carroll did say "a prosecutor is the only one in a criminal action who is responsible for the presentation of the truth. through our efforts in this case, we believe we have achieved that goal." >> someone killed my sister and they just dropped the case. justice has not been done. >> back in camden, thomas moves in with his grandparents. he says he rarely communicates with his mother and hopes to study astrophysics. this is the first time he's ever spoken about his interrogation. >> what the cops did was not right. i believe they were unprofessional. they thought they knew