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CHAPTER ONE - A TIME OF PROMISE
The summer of 2002 seemed to be a time of real promise and excitement.
Neil was married. He and his dad were busy doing pest control. When they could, they helped me with my dream, which was the
Commons Project. The Fall Festival that year was fantastic. In a little more than a year Neil would be
murdered, our dreams for the Commons would be forever changed, and our view of the local justice system as a good institution
would be gone. Honesty and truth would be hard to come by. We can tell you what people said but cannot always say that
what they said is a fact. These are the facts we do know. Neil was murdered on November 22, 2003 by a single gunshot wound
to the heart. His body was discovered in the parking lot of Gregory's Roadhouse. To try and establish a time line we will
quote from testimony given by various individuals. Don Gregory's testimony at the preliminary hearing. "...so I know that
2:15 when one of the girls that worked there left, I walked her to the end of the deck, and Neil was in the van, because he
said something to me,...That was at 2:15 when a little girl that works there, Misty Hayes, I walked her to the end of the
deck and watched her get in her truck and leave." Question from Prosecutor Gray, "What happened then?" Gregory, "Well, we
continued to clean up, and of course the vacuum was pretty well done by then, they were doing the credit card machine, the
register, Keno machine. It was about, you know, I can't be exact on this, but about 2:38. I remember looking at my watch,
someone was pounding on the back door, and I told them don't worry about that, that's somebody probably wanting to buy some
illegal beer...." The pounding on the door was being done by one of the two women who had just found Neil's body. Notice what
a short period of time there is between 2:15 and 2:38. Twenty three minutes. My cousin is a retired detective who was a major
in one of the east coasts biggest cities. He said that one of the first people that law enforcement should have interviewed
was Misty Hayes. She was sober, and she might have noticed what vehicles were in the parking lot. Flash forward to July 26,
2006. Misty (Hayes) Pennington is being deposed by the Maxwell,s attorney in preparation for the civil trial. After he has
asked Misty a number of questions the lawyer asks "Is there anything that you can think of that I didn't ask you.." Misty's
response was "The only thing I thought was odd is how--when the whole--I guess when the whole trial--I don't know how important
my testimony would have been, but I thought that was strange how they did not ask for--for me to testify. I thought that was
odd." Then later the lawyer asks her "What's your sister's name". Misty replies, "Trish Hayes." Misty Hayes was never interviewed
at all by law enforcement AND the prosecutor knew who she was because Trish Hayes was his assistant.
Next installment--Fingerprints or lack thereof.
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