Dad Sentenced To 50 Years Freed As Family Dog Thought Dead Reveals Daughter’s Lie

Dad sentenced to 50 years freed as family dog thought dead reveals daughter's lie But before we start please take a moment to give this video a like Subscribe to happy world and hit the bell, so you'll never miss these great stories When a person is tried of a crime their innocence or guilt hinges on what can be proven in a court of law That usually means the prosecution and defense call witnesses to give their testimonies and evidence is presented to bolster each side's case Usually all the evidence presented is some physical material from the scene of the crime a fingerprint a bit of DNA Maybe a scrap of cloth But in one particular case the most important piece of evidence could be canine in nature terrible crime In March of 2017 a man named Joshua was in an Oregon courtroom Defending himself after being charged with an unbelievably heinous crime He was accused of one of the most universally reviled acts the sexual abuse of a minor Heartbreaking accuser and even more despicable in this case the person accusing Joshua and the supposed victim was his own daughter She alleged the beginning in 2006 when she was just five years old Joshua began to abuse her right around the time that her parents divorced long running She testified that the abuse continued off and on until 2013 Saying that she didn't come forward and tell anyone about the abuse until 2014 because she lived in terror of her father Joshua had allegedly threatened to harm her family and her pets if she talked Poor Lucy What would he threaten to do with your animals as the prosecuting attorney kill them? She replied he followed through with it When the prosecutor asked her to elaborate she said he shot my dog Lucy right in front of me. I had enough He was just trying to touch me again, and I really had enough of it and Lucy had to pay for it She continued to hear these things coming out of his daughter's mouth was a nightmare for Joshua The 41 year old from Redmond, Oregon completely denied her claims and said that nothing even close to what she had described happened It's a lie Not only had he not abused his daughter Joshua Horner said her story about him killing her dog Lucy was a complete fabrication He said the dog hadn't been killed or even shot and that he'd given the dog away himself little evidence But as it is with most child abuse cases there was no evidence to prove or disprove the alleged victims claims It was a heart-wrenching case of he said she said that if true made the father a monster and if false made the daughter one the verdict Ultimately the jury found Joshua guilty though the decision was not unanimous Oregon is one of only two states that allow a juror to deliver a non-unanimous guilty verdict and In all but one of the charges against him they were split That didn't stop the judge from sentencing him to 50 years in prison in April of 2017 Still Joshua maintained that he hadn't done anything wrong. He was determined to prove his innocence and approached it from two different angles He appealed against the first trial on the grounds that the defense had not been allowed to present certain pieces of evidence That would have helped exonerate him an appeals court granted his request for a second trial innocence project Joshua also reached out to the Oregon Innocence Project to see if they could help When the organization's legal director Steve Wax read through the details of the case a lot of red flags stuck out to him The first of which that he believed the timing of her accusations was questionable curious timing The girl had been living with her mother at the time that she revealed the abuse She regularly visited her father Joshua who lived with his new girlfriend Kelly apparently without any issues But her allegations suddenly emerged when the family dynamic was about to change Potential motivation The allegation that the complainant made was made the same week. She learned. Mr. Horner was going to remarry Wax said According to her own testimony in court. She didn't like Joshua's new wife She'd also made a previous assault allegation against Kelly that police investigated but found to be baseless one solid thing But to wax there was one thing that could poke a hole too big to ignore in the allegations against Joshua the killing of the dog Lucy in This work especially in a case where you have no other witnesses and no forensic evidence You try to find something objective prosecutors and the judge can look at he said This was one objective thing Finding her if Lucy was still alive as Joshua claimed it would show that his daughter had lied about a major element to the story The trouble was finding the dog that Joshua said he'd given away years prior The first obstacle to finding her was that Joshua only knew the man he'd given the dog away to as Fred Can't keep her Fortunately Lucy was a distinctive looking dog. She was a black lab mix with unusually long ears Joshua had originally given her away. He said because she kept escaping from his yard into his neighbors to kill his chickens He was able to point the attorneys at the Oregon Innocence Project to a local veterinarian who had treated Lucy her whole life Finding Fred The vet remembered the dog and knew the man she was currently living with whose full name was Fred Croman Still there was the matter about tracking the man down The Oregon Innocence Project brought their concerns about Joshua's conviction to the district attorney John Hummel Who upon hearing the evidence agreed to help in tracking down Lucy and assigned an investigator to work alongside the attorneys Happy pup Eventually, they were able to track down Fred Croman in Gearheart, Oregon a town four and a half hours away on the coast They arranged to meet with him and when they did Lucy was there She was drinking a bowl of water and sitting in the shade underneath the porch. We played with her petted her It was wonderful said Lisa Christian an investigator assigned by the DA Attempting contact With this clear evidence that Joshua's daughter had lied about at least one element of her story Prosecutors immediately tried to contact her She failed to show up for a scheduled meeting in August then disappeared When she was later spotted in September at her mother's house outside Redmond, they tried to contact her again She's a runner My investigator immediately jumped in his car and sped to the home Hummel said as he pulled up the driveway, he saw the named victim sitting on the front porch He parked his car, but when he got out she was already sprinting down the driveway and disappeared in the distance reasonable doubt Because the accuser refused to cooperate with the district attorney Hummel announced that his office would not seek the second trial against Joshua Horner Well, I cannot say without certainty that mr. Horner did not sexually abuse the name victim I can say I'm not convinced by a preponderance of the evidence That is now available that he did and I'm certainly not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt. He wrote in his motion