SECOND INTERVIEW

1994, juniors, Ambassador College

Jennifer: When you initially learned about the threats to Amy’s life from the FBI, did they examine yours and Amy’s phones and computers?

Steve: The FBI did take both Amy's and my devices. I think they took my phone and my personal computer, but I don't think they took my work computer (the Mac). I wish they did, because I believe it would've cleared it up to that date. 

Jennifer: I also learned that what links you to the dark web is the iPhone labelled S Allwine and a MacBook Pro laptop also labelled S Allwine. I agree with what you said about ineffective counsel. You should have definitely had a computer forensics expert because that was the most damaging part of the prosecution’s case.

Steve:  They make a huge deal about those 60 devices taken from my home to try to make me look like some major hacker, but most of those were flash drives and thumb drives that Amy used to film the dogs that she trained. The state's computer expert said that there was only "interesting" information on 2 devices.

Jennifer: Yes, when they said they seized 60 devices it sounded suspicious. A person would have to listen carefully to note that, like you said, it included thumb drives, hard drives. I personally have about 6 thumb drives just for all my writing. In addition to my Mac, an iPod, two old phones, a new phone, the hard drive from my previous Mac. And that’s just what I can look at right now. There are probably some things I’m missing, and I’m not even a techie!

Steve: The bitcoin address in the deleted note is also interesting. First there's no evidence of it on my iPhone, which is supposed to be where it originated. Next, it was supposed to be created in March, but it didn't show up in the cloud backup until August. Guess when the FBI approached the lady that Amy suspected for an interview ... August. The State's computer expert said that it's possible to pre-date a file, and the backup could be made from a different phone.

Another one of the things that I think is funny (sad) is the police comment that "he thought he was covering his tracks,” yet there is no evidence that I deleted my search history or browser history, so what exactly was I doing to cover my tracks? Like Adam, I had my personal phone, and then a phone for each of the two companies that I worked for and, of course, like Adam, they try to make that look nefarious.

Jennifer: Yes, when you’re under investigation, everything becomes suspicious to the authorities. That scares me because so many of our every day activities could be turned around to make us look guilty of something. For example, I know that you legitimately used bitcoin. In the Probable Cause statement they say there’s a bitcoin app on your Samsung Galaxy phone. And that on March 7, 2016 you reported to Cottage Grove police that you had been defrauded in a bitcoin transaction, for Cisco training and test preparation materials. 

Steve: The money is another interesting thing, because I was scammed out of that first bitcoin transaction, but in the emails between dogdaygod and Besa Mafia, she sent more money to Besa Mafia and there's no money leaving my accounts to match that. 

My theory is that the lady who knew Amy and ordered the hitman was behind the initial scam and she thought that would've been it, but then Besa Mafia kept asking for more and she paid that from her business account. The emails indicate that, and then say that she basically ran out of money to spend. Even that first bitcoin, my bitcoin address, doesn't show up on the bitcoin transaction log for Besa Mafia's bitcoin address, so that shows that I didn't pay them.

Jennifer: I read the email exchange between dogdaygod and Besa Mafia. In the end, it was decided to kill the victim in her home and then burn down the house. This doesn’t seem like something a spouse would agree to, particularly since you work from home. Can you tell me more about why it appears that you didn’t return to work after lunch, which opened you to suspicion that you had spent the afternoon killing your wife, moving her, and cleaning up the blood?

Steven: The Optanix "issue" is another joke. The prosecution allowed a police officer to opine on whether I was working or not when he doesn't know our business, and my lawyer didn't object or cross examine on it. The report from Optanix said that I didn't log back into the phone queue, but that's only for priority 1 calls. If we end up on a P1 call, then we can't get off without handing it off to another engineer, which could take an hour. Since Amy wasn't feeling well I chose not to log into the queue, but we still see all the calls that come in and we're still in a group chat where we can help others. Sundays are slow anyway and there are 4 engineers on shift, so there was no need for me to log in. There are other housekeeping tasks that we can do as well. If I wasn't on the group chat, then I would've been written up by the supervisor. 

Jennifer: What is one of the biggest challenges you face in proving your innocence?

Steve: No one wants to look at the actual evidence when you have someone convicted for it already. The big shock to me was that the prosecution will lie and cheat to get someone convicted because then the burden of proof shifts, and now the inmate must prove he's innocent rather than having the assumption of innocence.

Jennifer: I agree. Without that presumption of innocence, you become the person who has to explain everything to everyone, including things that you had no responsibility for. For example, after the allegation that you hired a hitman, the second most serious allegation is that you purchased scopolamine on the dark web to use on Amy. Can you tell me more about how Amy might have gotten scopolamine in her?

Steve: I never knew anything about scopolamine before this. Amy made lunch that day and Joe was there the whole time, so I couldn’t have slipped anything into it. Also, they don’t know when or how she was drugged. My impression is it’s used for motion sickness and after surgery. 

Jennifer: You’re right, it’s mostly for nausea and used for surgeries. But when it’s used as a street drug it has the reputation for making a person susceptible to suggestion. Some people call it a truth serum or say that it turns people into willing zombies.

If the killer wanted to make Amy suggestible to the idea of committing suicide in order to save her family’s life, that would definitely be the drug to use in terms of the reputation it has for causing people to basically empty out their bank accounts and give away all their jewelry under its influence. 

The difficult part about really studying the effect it has when it’s used on people in a criminal way is that the people suffer memory loss, and by the time they go to the doctor, it’s all exited their system, so they’re just left trying to piece it together based on circumstantial evidence. Since its origins are in Columbia and the people are tourists who have been out eating and drinking in a club, they conclude that it was slipped into their food or drink. 

Steve: I did hear that it wasn't a toxic dose which made me wonder why it was used. Where did you get information about "willing zombies" and "truth serum"?

Jennifer: It was at a medical website that was separating the facts from the myths about scopolamine. As you said, though, despite being a high dose, it wasn’t toxic. Was it possible that when an intruder entered that day, after you left, that Amy immediately went for the gun, but didn’t pull the trigger, and the intruder was able to disarm her?

Steve: We kept the gun right under Amy's side of the bed, so I'm not sure if she grabbed it and didn't get a shot off, or if they incapacitated her and saw it sitting on the floor. Either is possible, but I would think she would grab it and threaten an intruder, but I'm not sure either of us could shoot to kill someone. So they probably could've taken it from her.

Jennifer: Yes, I 100% agree that Amy couldn’t have killed a person, even with her life threatened. She was obviously a person who loved life and it would be unfathomable to take a life when it came down to it. Or at the very least, she hesitated and then was disarmed.

Steve: I miss her so much. She is the "Woman of my dreams" because that's where I get to spend time with her now. We did so much stuff together that I have wonderful vivid dreams about doing all kinds of things with her. So from that standpoint she's never really gone.