When Josh SanSoucie went for a sleepover at a pal’s home again in 1998 on the age of 15, he had no thought he would land in the midst of a homicide investigation. More than 20 years later, Josh, now 39 years previous, is giving his first TV interview to “48 Hours” about that evening in Hopewell, Missouri that modified his life perpetually and landed his pal in jail.
“48 Hours'” correspondent Erin Moriarty stories on the case in “The Case Against Michael Politte.”
Washington County Sheriff’s Department
The story begins on Dec. 4, 1998, when Josh SanSoucie and his schoolmate, then-14-year-old Michael Politte, met up at a normal retailer within the small city of Hopewell, Missouri, the place they lived. Michael invited Josh to sleep over and the pair headed to Michael’s home to play chess and video video games. When they received bored round midnight, they are saying they headed all the way down to the railroad tracks close to Michael’s home and Michael set a hearth, one thing Michael says the youngsters in his rural neighborhood usually did for enjoyable. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than the boys say they returned to Michael’s home. Soon after, Michael’s mother, 40-year-old Rita Politte, returned house from working at a neighborhood bar and everybody turned in for mattress. Michael and Josh say that simply earlier than 6:30 a.m., they awoke to a smoke-filled home. The pair say they crawled in the direction of the entrance door, whereas Michael yelled for his mother. He did not get a reply.
“Michael, what are you feeling at this point?” requested Moriarty.
“Panic, fear,” Michael replied.
When Michael approached his mom’s room, he says he was met with a grisly sight: “I seen her laying. … I seen blood on her legs, and she was on fire from the waist up. … I didn’t know what to do.”
Politte household
Rita Politte had been brutally murdered — bludgeoned and set on fireplace — all whereas the 2 teenagers mentioned they have been sleeping a few rooms away. Both Josh and Michael have been questioned by authorities repeatedly within the hours and days following the homicide. They each denied any involvement, however two days after the crime, Michael was arrested for his mom’s homicide. Investigators mentioned Michael Politte confirmed a scarcity of emotion within the wake of the crime. They additionally mentioned an accelerant sniffing canine alerted to Michael’s footwear on the morning of the homicide, and that he failed a voice stress check. Voice stress assessments are controversial, and the outcomes are sometimes inadmissible in court docket.
Also, previous to Michael Politte’s arrest, Josh SanSoucie gave a videotaped interview to police that appeared to poke a gap in Michael’s account of the night. Josh had slept on the ground subsequent to the place Michael had been sleeping in his mattress. In that videotaped interview, Josh indicated that he woke as much as a noise in the midst of the evening, and Michael wasn’t within the room.
“I don’t remember ever saying that,” Josh SanSoucie instructed “48 Hours” in his first tv interview since then. “And I feel like if I said that, then it was maybe at a weak point or something.”
Josh now says that though he did get up briefly within the evening, he by no means noticed Michael lacking from the room. He instructed “48 Hours” that the police questioning was so relentless that he remembers telling his mother on the time, “They keep saying that I’m lying. I don’t even know if I’m telling the truth anymore.”
In a deposition earlier than Michael went on trial, Josh did make clear his assertion. Josh mentioned that he by no means sat up from the place he was sleeping on the ground and that, “It’s not that I did not see him in his bed. It’s I couldn’t see him in his bed.”
In January 2002, three years after the crime, Michael Politte’s trial started. The prosecution introduced proof that an accelerant had been used to set Rita Politte on fireplace and the jury was instructed how an accelerant had been detected on Michael’s footwear. The jury additionally heard about that fireside Michael had set on the railroad tracks previous to the homicide.
But maybe essentially the most damaging proof in opposition to Michael at trial was the prosecution’s declare that Michael had confessed to the crime throughout a suicide try whereas incarcerated. Three witnesses who labored on the juvenile detention heart wrote in stories that Michael mentioned, “I haven’t cared since … I killed my mom.” But Michael maintains he mentioned, “I haven’t cared since they killed my mom,” alluding to whoever the true killer(s) is perhaps. The jury didn’t hear from Michael, nonetheless, as a result of when it was the protection’s flip to current their case, he did not take the stand. Instead, the protection argued there was no direct proof tying Michael to the crime: no homicide weapon had been discovered and, regardless of the violence of the assault, Michael had no accidents and no blood on his clothes.
Josh SanSoucie didn’t testify, and the jury by no means heard or noticed his videotaped interview with police.
After a three-day trial, the case went to the jury. Deliberations lasted over 4 hours after which the jury discovered Michael Politte responsible of second-degree homicide. He was later sentenced to life in jail.
Although the trial was over, Michael Politte’s battle to clear his identify wasn’t. Five years after his conviction, Michael wrote to the Midwest Innocence Project, they usually agreed to tackle his case. The group labored on it for years and, finally, attorneys Tricia Bushnell, Megan Crane and Mark Emison grew to become concerned.
Michael Politte’s new workforce of protection attorneys picked aside the case in opposition to him.
“Mike was convicted because he was a kid, pure and simple,” Megan Crane instructed “48 Hours.” “They said … he wasn’t emotional enough. … Trauma doesn’t look like what people think it should look like.”
Michael’s new attorneys additionally recognized what they are saying are issues with the scientific proof used to convict Michael, beginning with the prosecution’s declare that an accelerant was used to set Rita on fireplace. They say there isn’t any proof an accelerant was used within the fee of the crime.
The attorneys additionally say that there isn’t any proof of an accelerant being current on Michael’s footwear. Instead, lawyer Mark Emison says a chemical used within the shoe manufacturing course of was wrongly recognized as gasoline and even the Missouri state crime lab agrees. In a 2020 letter, the crime lab says, “… it is now known that solvents found in footwear adhesives have similarities to gasoline. … But that in the late 1990s, this knowledge was not widely known.”
Michael Politte claims he is aware of who is admittedly liable for his mom’s homicide. His attorneys imagine police did not correctly examine the crime, they usually have filed court docket paperwork that identify various suspects.
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For years, Michael’s workforce of attorneys fought unsuccessfully to get his conviction overturned however then in 2021, there got here an surprising improvement. A invoice handed in Missouri giving juvenile offenders convicted of significant crimes a second likelihood. As a consequence, Michael was granted parole. In April 2022, he walked out of a Missouri state jail. Incarcerated at simply 14-years-old, he was now 38. But Michael tells Moriarty on this week’s “48 Hours” that his freedom shouldn’t be sufficient as a result of he nonetheless has a felony conviction for his mom’s homicide on his file. He stays dedicated to clearing his identify and is hopeful.
Josh Hedgecorth, the present prosecutor of Washington County, Missouri, the place the homicide occurred, filed a movement on May 16, 2022, asking for Michael’s conviction to be overturned. Hedgecorth agrees with Michael’s protection workforce that the scientific proof used to convict Michael is problematic.
“To me, it all — always comes back to the science,” says Hedgecorth.
Hedgecorth has revealed to “48 Hours” that the Washington County Sheriff’s Department has reopened the investigation into Rita’s homicide.
“We wanna do the right thing. If someone else did this, we wanna know that,” Hedgecorth tells Moriarty. “Even if it’s new evidence that it was Michael.”
Despite Michael’s optimism that his identify will finally be cleared, his case simply received extra difficult. Earlier this month, Hedgecorth misplaced his bid for reelection. And simply this week, the Missouri Supreme Court briefly halted Hedgecorth’s effort to overturn Politte’s conviction.
Josh SanSoucie says he feels badly for Michael and his household. Thoughts of “what if” have haunted Josh for all of those years. The evening of the sleepover, Michael had requested Josh if he would fairly sleep on the sofa in the lounge, or in Michael’s bed room on the ground.
“Is there anything you would have done differently when you look back?” Moriarty asks.
“I wish I … slept on the couch,” Josh replies.
If an intruder got here in via the entrance door, they might have needed to go by the sofa to enter Rita’s room. If that’s what occurred, Josh believes that particular person might have seen him and left. “You think if you had slept on that couch, Rita would still be alive?” Moriarty asks. Josh replies that he does.
Michael instructed “48 Hours” that he needs Josh to know that he feels that Josh did not do something fallacious. The pair have not seen one another since they have been youngsters, however they hope to reunite sooner or later. “He didn’t do it,” Josh instructed Moriarty. “I don’t know who did, but I know it wasn’t him.”