Camp Swamp Road Ep. 6: Your Side, Their Side and the Truth

23:33Valerie Bauerlein:Did you see Mr. Spivey fired? I absolutely saw Mr. Spivey fired. Were you afraid when he raised that gun? I knew exactly what was going to happen next. Boyd says he dropped his phone and reached for the gun in his waistband. Then he and William started shooting. Do you have any doubt about what you saw with respect to Mr. Spivey fired? There's no doubt in my mind that that man shot at us first. Boyd's testimony is very different from Frank McMurrow's. McMurrow said that before the shooting started, he saw Boyd gripping his gun with both hands, propped on the dashboard, aimed towards Spivey. Boyd testifies that that was impossible.

24:18Valerie Bauerlein:I believe, and I'm not going to call anyone, I'm not going to call him a liar, I believe McMurrow, he did not see my gun because I had a phone in one hand, I had another hand on the steering wheel, I was trying to go between shifter, which is up here, shifter down here. I don't know where a gun would have been in that moment.

24:46Ken Moss also asked about what happened after the shooting. He questions Boyd about the note written by Horry County Police Officer Damon Viscovi. The note that read, act like a victim, camera.

24:59Valerie Bauerlein:Was it a surprise to you that some officer you don't know showed you this note? I didn't know what he meant, but I was totally dumbfounded by it. I mean, what do you say to that? What do you do to that? Act like a victim. I mean, I am a victim. I'm sitting here at a scene where someone just tried to shoot me and we had to shoot back. And you walk up and you just flash that at me. and then I, I mean, immediately I knew this was bad because I didn't ask for that. That is not what I needed you to do. It's not what I asked you to do. I don't know this guy. He just walked up and did it to me. Well, you've had a couple years to reflect on it.

25:44Do you have any idea what he might have been doing now?

25:51Valerie Bauerlein:I have thought about this over and over and over because this has made me look guilty of something that I didn't do. And all I can do is just try to figure out why he did it, why he felt led to do it. The only thing that I have come up with is I was in a frantic state. I was up. I think my adrenaline was probably still going. I'm pacing back and forth. I'm trying to get people on the phone. I don't know if maybe he just wanted me to calm down and just chill. I don't know if he thought that he was helping. I can't speak for why someone else did something. All I can do is try to understand it, but I don't know why he did it.

26:37Well, that goes for Mr. Spivey, too. You can't speak for why he did what he did. Very much so.

26:49In the days after the shooting, Boyd is on dozens of recorded phone calls talking about what happened and making light of it. In court, Ken Moss asked Boyd about that time period and how he was feeling. Boyd testifies that he was struggling. Within the next days, I tried to get back to it. I just tried to—I got a business to run.

27:14Valerie Bauerlein:I got to get back to it. I don't know how that's supposed to work, but I got to do it. So I tried to get to work. I ran errands. What have you told me in the past about what you learned at home in the military? What's that? What have you been told to embrace? You embrace the suck. When things are hard, you make a joke out of it and get the hell over it. You keep going. What's lying around crying about it going to change? It's not going to change a damn thing. You just go. That's what you did. You just. Is that what you did? Yeah. I tried to just be tough. I just tried. I made light of it. I made jokes of it.

27:57Valerie Bauerlein:It just pushed it out. It's just we got to get past it. There's shit. Excuse my language. I'm sorry. There's stuff that needs to be done. We got to keep going. You can't. You just. It's no big deal. You just keep going. That's how I handled this. and I made it about a week. And then what happened? I crashed. I had a panic attack. I just fell. I made it to my bed and I stayed in that bed for weeks. I would get up and shower and I'd get right back in the bed. I was broken. I didn't work for eight, around eight to ten months. I didn't even walk in my business. I couldn't. I mean, I just, I broke.

28:58Valerie Bauerlein:And I'm still broken.

29:04Boyd testifies that the things he said on the calls were dark humor, a way to cope with stress.

29:10Valerie Bauerlein:Just another. Just take some money. They're disgusting. Have you hurt them? Most of them. I mean, I have a hard time listening to them. I can't, I hate listening to them. They're awful. They're just, they're just disgusting. After hours of testimony, Kim Moss concludes by again asking Boyd about the shooting. Did you intend to hurt that man? No.

29:40Valerie Bauerlein:Did you have fired him had he not fired you? No. I gave him every chance I ate. He really just got back in the truck.

30:02Now, the Spivey's lawyer gets to cross-examine Weldon Boyd. Mark Tinsley zeroes in on Boyd's credibility. He asks about the act like a victim note. Now, you remember you questioned why on earth Damon Viscovi would hand you that note, and then you said that you were pacing back and forth. You're going to need you to bring up that video. You pacing back and forth, and I don't know if you said you think he felt sorry for you or what, but you couldn't fathom why he did it. Tinsley plays some footage from Viscovi's body cam before the officer writes the note. The court sees Boyd sitting on his trailer, talking on the phone.

30:45In the video, Viscovi asked Boyd who was on the call.

31:04Boyd was on the phone with his lawyer, Ken Moss. Boyd hands his phone to Viscovi.

31:24He said, Ken, this is Damon, right? Yes. About a minute after Viscovi talks to Boyd's lawyer, he writes the note. and he walks back to his car, writes the note, he comes back, he shows it to you, correct?

31:43Valerie Bauerlein:I believe that's what happened, yes. And Boyd's earlier testimony, he said he was, quote, dumbfounded by the act like a victim note, that he had no idea why Viscovy would show it to him. But Boyd skipped over the detail about the phone call with his lawyer. Next, Tinsley moves on to another person who Boyd called after the shooting. Deputy Chief of the Horry County Police, Brandon Strickland. In a call, Strickland had promised Boyd that he had, quote, the right people coming to Camp Swamp Road. Tinsley plays a call from the following day. You were taken care of us. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, I don't even, I don't, I mean, there's already people saying that I shot him because he's dating my ex.

32:29Valerie Bauerlein:I mean, I don't even understand this shit. I don't even know he got it. Tinsley asked Boyd, quote, why do you need to be taken care of if it's a clear-cut case of self-defense? I answered a phone call and someone started talking to me. I didn't request to be taken care of. You actually did. You picked up the phone immediately and you called him to come down there right away. Right? You just heard that. I did call him. I did ask him to come. I didn't ask for anyone to take care of me.

33:08Another big question about Boyd's story has to do with what was in his hands when the shootout started. Was it his phone, as Boyd testified? Or was it his gun, as Frank McMurrow testified? Here, Tinsley plays a call between Boyd and his mother from two days after the shooting.

33:25Valerie Bauerlein:When he got back in his vehicle and quit shooting at us, we quit shooting. You hear me? He's still being on 911. All of us recorded. I made sure the phone was sitting right between me and Bradley when this was going on so it could all be recorded. Even the dispatcher. I made sure it was sitting right between you. Right? You didn't drop it. You had it sitting there so it would all be recorded on 911 when you did this. I dropped the phone. It ended up there, and the shuffle went around. It ended up on the floor. That's not what you told your mom, right? We just heard it. Truth's just not in, really.

34:06Valerie Bauerlein:I dropped the phone. It landed in between us. I assume in the shuffle around, it ended up on the floor.

34:17Next, Tinsley confronts Boyd about the calls he described as dark humor.

34:43Valerie Bauerlein:I truly believe that in these days I was going for a traumatic event. I believe I was having kind of a trauma situation. And I was saying things that just made no sense, trying to cope. And using dark humor, trying to cope. But I'm not denying any of these things. I'm eating them. I'm telling you that these things were said. Tinsley plays a call between Boyd and Williams, where the two friends say that they should commemorate the killing. We have to find somewhere in our body to put a teardrop. I'm doing it. Me and you are going to fucking do it. I don't give a shit. We're doing it. Oh my gosh.

35:20Valerie Bauerlein:Bad movies. Bad movies. Dark humor. Now that you're called, it's dark humor, right? No, it's always dark humor. That's how I cope. You giggle like a little girl when you're coping? I do giggle. Especially when you're having fun, right? I've had a very difficult time with all of this. And this was filmed, this was recorded in the immediate days after when I am still in a state of confusion, shock, trauma. And I'm trying to cope best I can. I use dark humor. I have ups, I have downs. I'm crying, I'm laughing, I'm happy I'm alive. I'm paranoid. It is an up-down episode. And from everything I've seen, that is a totally normal situation.

36:08Valerie Bauerlein:for someone to be in after they go through something like that.

36:17After about an hour of questioning Boyd, Tinsley stops and looks up at Judge Griffith.

36:25Judge, all of these audio calls are in the record. I've cited to them. I can do this for—there's eight hours of calls, and I can do this for hours. I'm going to rely on what we've put in the record. I don't think I need to play anymore to demonstrate what you've seen here. It's the case. The cross-examination is over.

36:57According to my reporting, the Spivey's legal team tried to make a deal with Bradley Williams. In exchange for testifying against Boyd, the family said they would ask the judge to grant Williams immunity. That means he would never risk being charged, never risk going to prison. But instead of taking the deal, Williams takes the stand. The first time I seen him, he was pointing a gun at me. I exclaimed, well, I said other words, but I'm going to skip that. He was driving erratic. He would jump in front of us. he would start slamming on the brakes, speed back off, slamming on the brakes again. He ran us off the road.

37:38The whole time he's doing this, he's also pointing the gun at other people, pointing the gun at us, waving the gun out the window. It was madness.

37:49Williams backs up most everything that Boyd testified to. There was no chase. Boyd was just relaying information to 911. It was Scott Spivey who caused the conflict. and Spivey Shot First.

38:07Williams Lawyer, Morgan Martin, asks the questions. In the seconds before you or Weldon shoot the gun, are you in fear for your life? Absolutely. Do you believe any reasonable man would have been in fear for his life? Yes, sir, I do.

38:29And in your words, why did you shoot when you shot? Because I had no other option. Other than what? There was nothing else I could do. I couldn't, I can't retreat. I can't get out. I'm there. The Spivey's lawyer, Mark Tinsley, cross-examines Williams for about half an hour. The thrust of the questioning is that Williams wasn't just Boyd's passenger. He was an active participant in the killing.

39:02After Williams leaves the stand, Boyd and Williams' side rest their case. And after calling a couple of witnesses, the Spivey side rests theirs. Now, it's up to the judge. All right, good time for a break. We'll be right back.

39:29I'll see you next time.

39:59With Visor-Steuer.

40:14Y 'all have asked for brief summaries.

40:22I think 10 minutes each is enough. That's brief. After a short break, Judge Griffith makes it clear that he's not interested in hearing long, drawn-out closing arguments. Thank you, Judge. Please, the court. Yes, sir. Morgan Martin, for Boyden-Williamsside, goes first. I am going to make this abbreviated. You'll be happy to hear. But there are some things that I do think are worth mentioning, and I would like for you to take with you when you leave the courtroom. First of all, there's a lot of... This is Martin's final chance to convince the judge that Boyd and Williams should have immunity for the killing of Scott Spivey.

41:03He says that Spivey's dangerous behavior on the road is not up for debate. As the old old Malice used to say, he was a guy who was devoid of social duty and fatally bent on mischief. And that's what happened. If you want to get down to why this happened, he caused it. His fault. He didn't withdraw. Martin argues that what Boyd and Williams did on Camp Swamp Road is what any reasonable person would do. Self-defense, self-preservation is an instinct that comes from the gut. You got it, I got it, everybody in this room's got it. The great buck on the hill, mightiest in the woods in the forest, if he hears a snap of a twig, he's gone.

41:51He's not going to let trouble get him first.

42:00As Martin ends his remarks, Thank you, Judge. Mark Tinsley starts to stand up. Ms. Tinsley, I want you to stay there.

42:10The judge tells Tinsley to sit back down. It's not clear what's happening. The lawyers look confused. Both sides had told me it could take weeks or even months before the judge would issue his ruling. But at this moment, I realize that Judge Griffith doesn't want any time to deliberate. He's already made up his mind. I've listened to this whole thing, this withdrawal or trying to get away from the thing. Driving over 115 miles an hour trying to get away sounds like a reasonable trying to withdraw. I don't know what else you could have done to get away from there. That's getting away, that's withdrawing.

42:49at least that's indicative of it to me and it wasn't working anyway this is a this is immunity here not a guilt or innocence it's not a money thing this is immunity and this not in fault and bringing on the difficulty that's a tricky but credibility is huge here I look at Weldon Boyd He's leaning over the defense table, his hands clutched together. I really question the credibility of Weldon Boyd. I find his testimony lacking credibility in many places. I'll give a few, for instance, I'm not going through them all, but a few. He called Mr. Strickland, the deputy, but he wasn't looking for help.

43:45Called a lawyer looking for help. I get that. called the chief deputy, but wasn't looking for help. It's not credible.

43:56The differing descriptions of Spivey's behavior outside the truck.

44:05Compared to McMorrow's description to these two's description, totally different. I don't know how you confuse those. Even if you look at the rearview mirror, you'd see a big difference. and whether you call it pursuit, following, I'm chasing, they know, both guys in that truck know that the guy they're following at a rapid, trying to keep up, has got a gun.

44:35Stay back. He's acting like a fool. He was. Bobby was acting like a fool that day. No question about that. But foolish behavior don't require you to foolishly act yourself. And it seems that driving over 100 miles an hour trying to keep up with a guy with a gun is foolish. On the plaintiff's side of the gallery, Jennifer and Deborah are sobbing. They're holding each other tight. The phone calls Boyd made after the fact shows

45:10his I don't know, trying to get his story straight maybe. Trying to get help. Trying to make certain that they're going to be free and clear of any responsibility, liability, responsibility, whatever the words you want. And he's certainly communicating to Mr. Williams to get help in that regard.

45:38So, here's what I want. I find that Mr. Boyd's request for immunity is denied. Weldon Boyd has lost his immunity. The judge finds that South Carolina's stand-your-ground law does not apply in this case. And with that, the powerful shield protecting Boyd from civil penalties and criminal prosecution is gone.

46:08In an interview, Boyd's lawyer, Ken Moss, told me that he was disappointed in the judge's decision. He said that Boyd's recorded phone calls seemed to have overshadowed any evidence that his client acted within the law. As for Bradley Williams, his fate is still up in the air. The judge says he needs to study the evidence a bit more Because Williams was a passenger, he didn't necessarily choose to be there. Judge Griffiths says he will make a decision on Williams' immunity in the next few weeks. All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you. That concludes your hearing.

46:49A few days later, I talked with Jennifer about the ruling. It was so relieving to hear somebody else come to that same conclusion. to someone else to say, he's not credible. Your story doesn't match. It just was so much like, this is what we've been saying all along. Finally, somebody else sees it. It's exactly what I had been saying from day one to the police and to everybody else. You know, they said, the detective told me there's three sides to every story, your side, their side, and the truth. What was told in court is the closest thing to the truth that anybody's ever going to get. And so after the hearing, what did y 'all do?

47:34We had our receiving line of friends and family that came and loved on us afterwards. And as we made our way downstairs, we had lots of congratulations. We went downstairs, and then me, Mama, and my husband, we loaded up in my car, and I said, I don't know about y 'all, but I want some ice cream. I think this deserves it. I think we deserve milkshakes after today. So we went and got ice cream sundaes. I had a hot fudge brownie, and Mama had a waffle cone. It was a good day.

48:16Now that Weldon Boyd's immunity is gone, the Spivey civil suit against him is moving forward. Separately, a grand jury is considering criminal charges against Boyd and possibly Bradley Williams. What has this experience taught you about the justice system? It is far from perfect. And the easiest thing is the thing that the justice system is going to do. You cannot expect the justice system to advocate for you. It will not do it. You have to advocate for yourself. You have to advocate for your loved ones. And even then, the justice system's still going to do only what you push them to do. Jennifer told me that now, her family's at the point where they can finally start to grieve.

49:09Something that my and my mama talked about when we were eating our ice cream was that we've got plans this week to go pick out a headstone, finally. We have not been able to do that for two and a half years. I feel like this is a step in the direction of healing for our family, to getting some answers. Obviously, we still have tons of questions, but it started to help get some answers last week. What do you want to say on the headstone?

49:44Jeremiah 119. They may fight against us, but they will not prosper.

49:58Camp Swap Road is part of The Journal, which is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. I'm Valerie Borlein. The Journal is full of deeply reported stories like this one, involving danger. If you want to survive, you need to pay money and then leave this place. Conspiracy. What she's doing is a scam. and what the scam is called is laptop farming. And mystery. What was your reaction when you first heard that this multi-billion dollar fortune had gone missing? I mean, I think like... WTF? Yeah, WTF, exactly. I hope you check out more from the journal. I'm so proud to be a part of it.

50:42Follow or subscribe for more great work. Episodes are out every weekday afternoon. For Camp Swamp Road, our producer is Heather Rogers. Our senior producer is Enrique Perez De La Rosa. Editing by Colin McNulty. Fact-checking by Nicole Pasulka. Music, sound design, and mixing by Nathan Singapak. Our theme music is by So Wiley, remixed for this series by Nathan Singapak. Special thanks to Catherine Brewer, Miguel Bustillo, Sam Enriquez, Maddie Gray, Rachel Humphries, Jennifer Levitz, Ava Lubel, Bruce Orwell Philana Patterson Sarah Platt Cam Pollack and the entire Journal Podcast team Thanks for listening and stay tuned We're still following this story Keep an eye out for updates in the Wall Street Journal and the Journal Podcast feed