Just when I think I finally understand this case, another file appears.

Another report. Another interview. Another video. Another question that somehow survived for years without a clear answer.

In Episode 29 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, I continue Chapter Sixteen: But Wait There's More.

This episode is not about pretending every new discovery proves Austin Burke is innocent. I've learned to be more careful than that.

Now I want to know what the evidence actually shows, what it does not show, and whether the questions it raised were ever fully investigated when the information was still fresh.

We look at surveillance footage from Dinesol Plastics near the bike trail where Brandon Sample's Malibu was recovered, including the unresolved question of when that footage was actually recorded and how it fits beside the timeline presented at trial.

Then there is Cody Snyder.

Years after Austin's conviction, Jamie found Cody's police interview buried in the prosecutor's files. Cody did not claim to remember every minute of that night, but he remained firm about one thing: he picked Austin up around 9:35 PM and brought him back to his house.

The question becomes simple.

You do not have to believe Cody.

Verify Cody.

We also revisit leads that appear to have gone nowhere, surveillance footage connected to the Pizza Joe's investigation, a City of Niles dispatch record the jury never saw, and later-obtained phone records that raise new questions about another witness's timeline.

None of these pieces solves Brandon's murder by itself.

But that is not the point.

The point is that years after Austin Burke was convicted, Jamie and I are still finding questions that may have been answerable in 2017.

And the more I go through these files, the more I keep coming back to the same question:

What was actually verified?

Episode 29: Chapter Sixteen — But Wait There's More, Part Two.

Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book.

In Part One, I corrected something I wrote in my own book: Austin's defense did challenge the State's case.

Part Two asks a harder question:

What did they investigate for themselves?

We look at Brandon's Malibu, his final phone activity, the video evidence witnesses claimed supported their stories, the experts Austin's defense did—and didn't—have, and physical evidence that was lost, destroyed, untested, or inconclusive.

Then we reach one of the biggest decisions of the trial:

Austin did not testify.

His jury heard other people explain what Austin supposedly said, where he supposedly went, and what he supposedly confessed.

But they never heard Austin explain his own timeline.

Would putting him on the stand have been risky?

Absolutely.

Would it have changed the verdict?

I don't know.

That's the point.

Austin didn't have to prove who killed Brandon Sample.

The State had to prove Austin did.

So the real question is:

Did his defense do enough to make the jury see every reason to doubt that conclusion?

This is Episode 28 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book.

Chapter Fifteen:

Defense Mistakes? Part Two.

When I wrote Chapter Fifteen of Wrong Ride Home, I believed Austin Burke's defense attorneys failed to challenge the State's case.

After spending thousands of hours going back through the trial transcripts, exhibits, testimony, phone evidence, and court records...

I need to correct my own chapter.

Because Bradley Olson did challenge the case.

He pushed Detective Greaver on what investigators failed to verify.

He exposed weaknesses in the cellphone evidence.

He challenged witnesses whose stories changed.

He pointed out contradictions in the State's timeline.

He questioned Brandon's missing phone, wallet, and keys.

And at times, he got exactly the admissions a defense attorney should want in front of a jury.

So my question has changed.

The problem may not have been that the defense failed to find reasonable doubt.

The problem may have been what they did with it.

In Episode 27 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, I go back through Austin's trial from a completely different perspective—not simply looking for defense mistakes, but looking at what Olson and Hartwig actually accomplished, what they preserved, what they missed, and whether all of those individual courtroom victories ever became one clear story for the jury.

We also take a closer look at one issue I believe deserved far more attention:

the jury itself.

A juror disclosed that she had taught students who were friends with Brandon Sample. Later, Jamie learned that Austin's younger brother had reportedly been one of her students and had spoken with her about the case.

Does that automatically prove the juror was biased?

No.

But if the defense knew about that connection, I believe the questions should have been asked.

On the record.

Because sometimes the importance of an objection isn't simply whether you win it.

It's whether the issue exists in the trial record for another court to review later.

Then we return to the State's witnesses.

Jessica.

Nathan.

Rickey.

Tim Cook.

Hayle.

The defense did attack their credibility.

They exposed changing timelines, prior statements, incentives, hearsay, and contradictions.

But did twelve jurors ever get a simple explanation of what all of those contradictions meant together?

The same problem appears in the phone evidence.

The State mapped Austin's phone.

Yet those records could not place his phone at the location where Brandon's body was found.

The body was on every map. Austin's phone never was.

Then comes what I now believe was one of the biggest missed opportunities of the entire defense:

the timeline.

The pieces were there.

Willow Lake.

Brandon.

Josh.

Cody.

The Roupe house.

The phone calls.

The cell data.

The witnesses.

Olson saw the conflicts.

He even argued many of them.

But he never put them into one unmistakable timeline and tell the jury:

These things cannot all be true.

And maybe that is where my opinion of Austin's defense has changed the most.

When I wrote this chapter, I thought the defense failed to expose the holes.

I don't believe that anymore.

They exposed a lot of them.

And somehow...

Austin was still convicted.

So now the question is harder:

Was the evidence missing... or was the defense story missing?

And we're not finished.

In Part Two, we'll leave the courtroom and look at what happened—or didn't happen—behind the scenes:

Brandon's car.

His final phone calls.

The videos.

The expert help Austin's defense did and didn't have.

Evidence arriving at the last minute.

And eventually...

the one person Austin's jury never heard from.

Austin Burke.

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One question should have been easy to answer:

Was Preston Whitacre confined on June 12, 2017... or wasn't he?

There should have been records.

Admission dates. Release dates. Facility records. Something created at the time that could tell us where Preston actually was.

Instead, that question opened another door.

In Episode 26 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we continue Chapter Fourteen and follow Jamie deeper into the post-conviction fight.

By this point, Cassandra Boyes and Lisa Cope had submitted sworn statements that brought Preston Whitacre into the story. The State responded that Preston couldn't have been involved because he was confined in juvenile detention.

My response is simple:

Don't ask me to pick Cassandra. Don't ask me to pick Lisa. Don't ask me to pick the State. Show me the record.

Because if Preston was locked inside juvenile detention, that matters whether it helps Austin or not.

That's the rule.

But getting to the record wasn't simple.

Jamie pushed for juvenile detention records. A facility record containing admission and release dates eventually reached Judge Logan's court—and was sealed.

Then came an affidavit attributed to Richard Owen, the Director of the Trumbull County Juvenile Detention Center, stating that the juvenile had been confined from June 6 through June 13.

That affidavit became important.

Courts relied on it when considering allegations involving another possible suspect.

Years later, however, Jamie went looking for the paperwork behind that answer.

And what she found didn't necessarily prove anything improper had happened...

but it created more questions.

What exactly was the Rich Owen affidavit?

What underlying records supported it?

Why did the Juvenile Division later say it had no affidavits responsive to Jamie's public-records request?

And who actually had access to the records the courts relied upon?

Then we reach another major moment.

Austin's new witnesses never testified at an evidentiary hearing.

Their credibility was evaluated largely on paper.

The courts said no.

But two Ohio Supreme Court justices weren't comfortable simply moving on.

Justice Michael Donnelly, joined by Justice Jennifer Brunner, raised concerns about the handling of the affidavits and sealed records—and wrote words that hit differently when you've spent years questioning a conviction:

"One of the worst injustices that we judges can perpetuate is to let an innocent person remain in prison."

It didn't free Austin.

It didn't give Jamie the hearing she wanted.

But for the first time, someone inside Ohio's highest court was acknowledging the danger she had been fighting against.

And Jamie still wasn't done.

Another attorney.

Another legal process.

Another court.

Another avenue.

As Austin's case moved toward federal habeas, the questions began expanding beyond individual trial errors and into something larger:

How was this case built in the first place?

Which leads were investigated?

Which weren't?

What evidence was available?

Who had access to it?

And did any of those choices affect Austin's constitutional rights?

Episode 26 isn't about proving every allegation true.

It's about something much simpler.

If the record is supposed to answer the question... show me the record.

This is Chapter Fourteen: Injustice Downloading, Part 2.

The trial was over.

The courts had said no.

And Jamie kept asking anyway.

The trial was over.

Austin Burke had been convicted, sentenced to 47 years to life, and transferred into the Ohio prison system.

But for Jamie, the fight was only beginning.

In this episode of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we enter Chapter Fourteen and a completely different part of the justice system.

Appeals.

Deadlines.

Attorneys.

Post-conviction relief.

And eventually...

eleven affidavits containing information Austin's jury never heard.

Some challenged witnesses who had testified at trial.

Others introduced new names, new timelines, and new allegations.

Cassandra Boyes swore that Rickey Roupe and Preston Whitacre made statements implicating themselves in Brandon Sample's death.

Lisa Cope described events from the morning of June 12, 2017 — including Preston's movements, a social worker, an alleged fight, and a disturbing account involving blood.

Other affidavits raised new questions about Josh White and Shawn Marx.

And then there were the things still lingering around the edges of the case:

The missing shoelace.

Brandon's final phone calls.

Nineteen unrecovered text messages between Brandon and Austin.

None of these things automatically prove Austin innocent.

An affidavit is not the same thing as a fact established in court.

A new allegation doesn't erase a conviction.

But each one created something the original jury never had:

another question.

And for me, this chapter became something more personal.

Wrong Ride Home didn't begin as a full investigation into Austin's conviction.

The original project was called Hear Me Now: Families of the Wrongly Convicted — a book meant to follow families and the impact a conviction had on the people left behind.

Jamie was the only one who returned the contract.

So the project changed.

And eventually, so did I.

I stopped simply documenting a mother's belief that her son had been wrongly convicted...

and started investigating the case that put him there.

The more I saw, the more my question changed from:

Did the State prove Austin guilty?

to something much harder:

What if Austin Burke didn't kill Brandon Sample at all?

Today, based on everything I have personally reviewed, I believe Austin is innocent.

That is my belief.

You don't have to borrow it.

We'll keep doing what we've done from the beginning:

Look at the records.

Separate facts from allegations.

Test what can be tested.

And keep asking questions.

Because questioning Austin's conviction has never required caring less about Brandon.

Brandon was murdered.

His family deserved justice.

And if the wrong person was convicted...

then somebody still owes Brandon Sample the truth.

This is Chapter Fourteen: Injustice Downloading...

And this time...

we're listening to the witnesses the jury never heard.

A guilty verdict ended the trial.

But it didn't end the questions.

In Episode 24 of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we move into Chapter 13 and the day Austin Burke learned just how much of his life the State of Ohio intended to take.

Before sentencing, his attorneys made one last attempt to challenge the conviction. They asked for an acquittal. They asked for a new trial. They pointed to conflicting witnesses, questions surrounding the evidence, and issues they believed had affected Austin's right to a fair trial.

Those motions were denied.

Then Austin stood before Judge Logan.

Brandon Sample's family spoke about the life they had lost and the sentence they believed justice required. The prosecution asked for Austin to never come home. The defense asked the court to consider that the person standing before it was only eighteen years old.

And Austin was given an opportunity to speak.

His answer was two words.

"No, sir."

Judge Logan sentenced him to 47 years to life.

But Austin's morning wasn't over.

He was taken to another courtroom, before another judge, for sentencing in a separate case involving a modified spoon found in his jail cell.

His family remembers being left outside.

The media apparently had access.

Austin was asked again whether he wanted to say anything.

Again:

"No, sir."

Then another judge added 11 years and ordered Austin removed from his courtroom.

The records surrounding that morning leave us with an extraordinary window of time.

Twelve minutes.

So in this episode, I'm not simply going to tell you that twelve minutes isn't very long.

We're going to experience it together.

I'm starting the clock.

And for twelve minutes, I want you to imagine what it would feel like to hear numbers that could determine the rest of your life...

while still maintaining that you didn't commit the murder that put you there.

This episode isn't only about sentencing.

It's about two grieving families living two completely different realities.

It's about what happens after a jury says guilty.

And it's about the beginning of Jamie's transformation from a mother trying to understand the legal system...

into a mother who would have to learn how to navigate it if she ever hoped to bring her son home.

Chapter 13: 12 Minutes.

Sometimes twelve minutes can change everything.

In Part One, we looked at how the State's case was built.

In Part Two, we test it.

This episode looks at what happened after the pieces had already been arranged into one complete story. What evidence was lost, destroyed, never collected, or never fully tested? Which witnesses stayed closest to what they actually knew? What did the defense successfully expose? And what happened when closing arguments turned uncertainty into certainty?

Because during testimony, there were limits.

The phone records did not place Austin at Brandon's body.

The gun was traced to its original retail purchaser, but not tied ballistically to Brandon's murder.

The Pizza Joe's surveillance video did not show the robber entering Melanie Engle's apartment.

The recovered money did not equal the amount missing from the restaurant.

Brandon's phone, wallet, and keys were never recovered.

And yet, by closing argument, many of those unanswered questions had become answers.

Similar became same.

Missing became hidden.

A general area became an exact location.

And possibility became proof.

In this episode, I also take a hard look at credibility, the defense's strongest accomplishments, and the difference between exposing reasonable doubt and giving a jury a story they can actually carry into deliberations.

Then, for the first time in this series, I ask a different question:

What might a closing argument have sounded like if every limitation in the evidence had remained attached?

Could that evidence have proved each charge beyond a reasonable doubt?

Because the jury heard a complete story.

The evidence never told one.

By the time the State rested its case against Austin Burke, the jury had been given what sounded like one complete story.

There were witnesses who said Austin confessed. There was Hatchet Man Road. There was a distinctive silver gun Austin had been photographed holding. There were phone records, deleted messages, gray clothing, cash found inside an apartment across from Pizza Joe's, and eventually, a witness who pointed across the courtroom and identified Austin as the man he saw running from the robbery.

Piece by piece, it looked like everything fit.

But did it?

In this special bonus episode, I step away from reviewing the trial one witness at a time and look at something bigger: how the State's case was actually built.

We follow the alleged confession witnesses and ask whether five voices really meant five independent sources. We look at Hatchet Man Road—the detail that made so much of the State's story feel confirmed—and trace how that information actually reached Detective Greaver.

Then we turn to the physical evidence from Pizza Joe's and the apartment where Austin was arrested. A distinctive gun. Gray shoes. Gray sweatpants. A plastic bag. Cash. Ammunition.

Each piece was suspicious.

But somewhere along the way, similar began becoming the same.

This episode is not about pretending there was no evidence against Austin. There was.

It is about separating what the evidence actually established from the complete story eventually built around it.

Because repetition can sound like corroboration.

A collection of similarities can start to look like identification.

And when enough uncertain pieces are placed beside one another, they can begin to feel like proof.

This is Part One: How the Pieces Became a Story.

In Part Two, we turn the case around and look at what that story left behind.

For nearly two weeks, the jury listened.

They heard detectives explain the investigation. They heard friends accuse friends. They watched surveillance videos, examined photographs, and listened as experts tried to make sense of the evidence left behind.

Now, the witnesses were gone.

The evidence had been admitted.

There would be no more testimony.

Only two stories remained.

In this episode of Wrong Ride Home: Beyond the Book, we step inside the final day of Austin Burke's trial as both sides deliver their closing arguments. The prosecution asks the jury to rely on "common sense" and connect the pieces they believe prove Austin's guilt. The defense responds with a different challenge—not to solve Brandon Sample's murder, but to decide whether the State truly proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

As the attorneys make their final appeals, twelve strangers are asked to make a decision that will forever change the lives of two families.

Then, after nearly four hours of deliberation, the jury returns.

The verdict is read.

But for Jamie, the verdict wasn't the end of the story.

It was the moment her search for answers truly began.

Chapter Twelve: Closing Statements and a Jury's Verdict takes you inside the final hours of Austin Burke's trial—the arguments, the waiting, and the decision that set the course for everything that followed.

Because sometimes the end of a trial...

is only the beginning of the fight for the truth.

After three days of testimony, the State rested its case.

Jurors had heard from investigators, forensic experts, eyewitnesses, jailhouse witnesses, family members, and friends. They had been shown photographs, surveillance videos, phone records, and countless exhibits. By the end of the day, the prosecution argued it had proven Austin Burke was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

But was the case really closed?

In this episode, we follow the final day of testimony as the state finishes its case against Austin. We will see how the defense believed that the State had not actually met its burden of proof. We also take you inside one of the trial's most important legal moments as the defense asks the judge to dismiss the charges before the case ever reaches the jury.

Outside the courtroom, another story was unfolding. Families waited in the hallways, emotions ran high, and one unexpected encounter served as a reminder that behind every trial are real people whose lives will never be the same.

As Chapter 11 comes to a close, one thing is certain: the testimony is over, but the questions are not.