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The Case of Chris Smith
📻 Episode #435
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Mar 14, 2024
About This Episode
In 2007, a man wearing a wig and sunglasses entered a Bell Wireless store on the west side of Cincinnati, OH brandishing a gun. He ordered the patrons to the floor, demanded money from the store manager, and fled with the store's till. A witness across the street allegedly saw the man put on the…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
In 2007, a man wearing a wig and sunglasses entered a Bell Wireless store on the west side of Cincinnati, OH brandishing a gun. He ordered the patrons to the floor, demanded money from the store manager, and fled with the store's till. A witness across the street allegedly saw the man put on the wig and sunglasses, enter the store and flee a few minutes later in a Ford Expedition. The witness later identified that man as Chris Smith. Soon after the robbery, police found the Ford Expedition, a wig and sunglasses in the vicinity of Chris’s residence. Despite DNA test results performed on the wig and sunglasses that pointed to another man, Chris was still convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 26 years in prison.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWVPwQ_EQ5KpY52SgneVAGw
https://open.spotify.com/artist/22mtNHFVtFOzdsPPuuJCJt
https://soundcloud.com/olhound
https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2020/04/n20907729.html
https://law.uc.edu/real-world-learning/centers/ohio-innocence-project-at-cincinnati-law.html
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:49“Speaker 1: Chris, have you ever been a light skinned man? Speaker 2: No, I've been pretty dark on my life. Speaker 3: I'm glad you pointed that out. So the robber hopped Speaker 3: in this getaway car, a blue Ford expedition. The a Speaker 3: nine to one one caller tried to follow him but”
00:18:48“Speaker 2: you don't deserve nothing more from being an adult and Speaker 2: having correctional officers have a key to yourself that's ten Speaker 2: fifteen years younger than you, and you have to say Speaker 2: miss such and such or CEO, and it dehumanizes you. Speaker 2: And so you go through that for years and years”
00:32:56“Speaker 2: to Chilhall or having your port a job and being Speaker 2: going on back to Yosee. Speaker 3: So where his case technically stands now, there's kind of Speaker 3: two parts to it. Sixth Circuit remanded it back to Speaker 3: the District Court again to rule on the merits of”
Listen to the Episode
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← #434 Kim Hoover #436 Evaristo Salas →
Also on the podcast: #76 Doug DiLosa and Chris Pourciau on Amendment 2 · #129 False Confessions - Chris Tapp · #203 Chris Fabricant, Tucker Carrington and John Grisham on Eddie Lee Howard