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00:00:12it was after one in the morning we heard this popping sound we didn't know what was going on
00:00:20at first and I looked out the back door and we could see the flames coming out of the house
00:00:26over
00:00:26here and so I called 9-1-1 just to think that it could go up that fast it's horrifying
00:00:34I just
00:00:35figured the whole house was going to go we had a call roughly 1 35 give or take a few
00:00:47minutes
00:00:48for possible structure fire structure fire when we hear structure fire for call it's kind of just
00:00:54dangerous for everybody it kind of clicks you over into like it's game time everybody just
00:01:00gonna jumps out of bed starts putting their gear on and we jump on the truck to take off they
00:01:06respond
00:01:07urgent because you just never know if there's people inside the home if there's anybody trapped
00:01:12how rapidly the fire is going to spread of course you're glued to the window because you want to see
00:01:17what you're pulling up to coming down the street you can see it because there's fire out of every
00:01:22dorm window it was coming out of the garage the picture window in the front the front door kind
00:01:28of looked like a movie because inside is you can see everything in real life it's it's never like
00:01:34that and something else could be going on might not be it was just a typical accidental fire kind of
00:01:42made
00:01:42you think okay there could be something more to this it's definitely had to jump on us this fire is
00:01:49really just the beginning it's going to connect back eventually to another case a murder case that
00:01:55happened about a hundred miles away a mystery that had gone unsolved for many years a man accused in
00:02:03multiple crimes decades apart it's one of the region's oldest lingering questions who killed Regina
00:02:10Roe Hicks her mother was found in a Huron County pond he didn't just take her life he messed with
00:02:16everybody's life calculated deviant evil they were dealing with a monster we got a call in at 1 35 a
00:02:34.m we
00:02:36were there within 10 minutes rolled up have fire coming out of almost pretty much every window we
00:02:41deployed our hand lines and started knocking the fire down from there you don't know if someone's
00:02:48inside of the house that's on fire to put it simply how long could you hold your breath not very
00:02:53long they
00:02:55don't necessarily know that the homeowner is not there that night it's in the middle of the night there
00:03:01could be people sleeping in here two different crews one went up and then we went downstairs we
00:03:06didn't find anybody no victims in the house no one is there we crossed through the living room and we
00:03:14crawled over I believe it's a five gallon gas can and during the search I crawled over another gas can
00:03:20I believe was in a bedroom something's not right and he went and told the fire chief and he had
00:03:26the
00:03:27arson team dispatch to investigate the fire and they requested the Claremont County Sheriff's Office
00:03:33to come up and to handle the investigation in conjunction with some of the fire investigators
00:03:39because they believed it to be an arson the owner of the home was a gentleman named Paul Hicks he
00:03:48had
00:03:49purchased the home about six to seven months earlier we learned that it was an investment type of home he
00:03:56didn't specifically live there but he would stay random nights Goshen Ohio is a suburb of Cincinnati but
00:04:04you are just on the edge of getting to farmland mr. Hicks was a railroad foreman and he would
00:04:14specifically work around parts of Ohio fixing crossings or intersections of the railway and he worked for a
00:04:22company CSX fire investigators we're trying to reach out to the homeowner once contact is made he identifies
00:04:31that he's in a hotel up in Bluffton Ohio where he's been staying throughout the week for his job and
00:04:39very
00:04:39quickly he identified that he had a surveillance system within his home and also on the exterior of
00:04:47the home pointing towards the residence this surveillance had survived the fire and we were
00:04:53told that it survived because it happened to be in two fireproof gun safes so eventually mr. Hicks shows
00:05:00up at the fire scene he helps us retrieve that DVR system the camera system had four cameras one outside
00:05:09in
00:05:09the back one outside in the front two inside the DVR that the footage was on was extremely well preserved
00:05:16for having been in a fire investigators they have all of this surveillance video which is a little
00:05:22bit uncommon the two people approach and they first come into the view of the camera it appears that it's
00:05:28about 1 14 ish in the morning 1 15 in the morning when they initially show up it's an infrared
00:05:36camera so
00:05:36it's kind of black and white but it appears that they're wearing some sort of like Tyvek suit the male
00:05:43arsonist has a couple of gas cans with them and they walk up to the house and they come right
00:05:49to
00:05:49the front door they go into the house it doesn't appear anybody kicks the door or does anything like
00:05:55that they kind of walk meander through the house but one of the subjects in the house who we believe
00:06:01is a male carries out a TV they carry it out the back door so they've got this Tyvek suit
00:06:07to cover
00:06:07themselves up but the hair and the face are exposed right on camera camera angle that she walks under
00:06:13she has all this long curly blonde hair that's hanging out the male does the majority of the
00:06:20pouring of the gas that could be seen on surveillance and ultimately ignited the house on the backside or you
00:06:29can see how quickly it goes up to essentially had kind of like an explosion in the middle of the
00:06:34fire
00:06:34which pushed out the front of the building it is an absolutely massive fire
00:06:42Paul Hicks is very stern in his beliefs right away as we're reviewing the surveillance he has his theory
00:06:50and he identifies the female arsonist that's definitively her and he's identifying her based
00:06:57upon her size her facial features her hair what her nose looks like that person stopped looked at
00:07:06the surveillance camera and almost looked at the camera in a sense of here I am this is this is
00:07:12who
00:07:12I am after immediately pointing the finger he's also saying that she's done this before he's basically
00:07:18saying that she is violent out to get him and she would do this type of thing that was kind
00:07:25of our
00:07:26first level of what's going on here it kind of made us think twice
00:07:49there are some odd things that are immediately apparent to the investigators as they're looking
00:07:54through all the surveillance video that they have didn't pass the smell test if you will they take
00:08:02precautions to cover themselves up but the hair and the face are exposed and the hair is almost laying
00:08:09on the shoulders in display if your hair was that unique why would you not take the time to conceal
00:08:14it
00:08:17you would typically think that if someone's committing an arson and there's neighboring properties and
00:08:21potential witnesses that they are going to be in and out do it quickly get out and that that's not
00:08:27what you see on the video for this this fire they definitely seemed very calculated and very smooth in their
00:08:36moves the owner of this house Paul Hicks he immediately tells them that he believes that the woman in this
00:08:43video is his ex-girlfriend Kelly he says they've been having problems especially child custody issues and he
00:08:51immediately points police in her direction okay June 18 2015 approximately 10 10 I'm at reference a house fire
00:09:02determined to be incendiary fire and what the homeowner Paul Hicks mr. Hicks had told us that he had had
00:09:10a bad
00:09:10relationship with the mother of his child his ex Kelly has been blowing him up blowing him up for
00:09:17multiple calls continued to call night just told her stop calling me and she called I think 95 times in
00:09:24a
00:09:24row okay this was last night yes when we got the phone records back it appeared that Kelly's phone had
00:09:31called his phone in excess of 100 times so you've had some problems with her in the past oh yeah
00:09:37she has
00:09:38been threatening to you in the past oh yes Paul had said that this isn't the first time that Kelly
00:09:46has
00:09:47been out to damage my house and he's saying I also have this on surveillance that she came out to
00:09:52my
00:09:52property she actually came out twice in one day it was you got the video of her chopping up a
00:09:58hot tub two
00:09:59months ago this is when she did that you referenced a prior criminal damage that had happened at that same
00:10:06residence earlier in the year that kind of supported his reason why he said he needed the surveillance
00:10:15system and with that hot tub incident it was very similar the hair was on display the body type was
00:10:21the same because of the prior hot tub incident Goshen Township Police Department had put a warrant out on the
00:10:30so at this point investigators want to confront Kelly and they set things up with Paul Hicks to have her
00:10:38meet
00:10:38him for a child custody exchange of their son we did that out of Kroger's once she went there to
00:10:45meet him
00:10:46we arrested her on the outstanding warrant so I didn't do anything wrong I understand my head comes
00:10:51like a criminal I have no record at all what you have is a criminal damaging warrant so it's not
00:10:58you
00:10:58know if you haven't gone out and killed anybody or anything it's just a criminal damage warrant okay
00:11:04doesn't make these off now I have to leave the cuffs on unfortunately but I did nothing
00:11:09from that day forward she remains anonymous never publicly revealing herself until now break here too
00:11:18it was I sat down with Kelly to talk about all of this her first time on national television and
00:11:26she
00:11:26remembers this day very clearly and before I know it both are both my doors were open and there was
00:11:33taser guns pointed at me and my mom's head and what did they say they didn't tell me anything until
00:11:37I
00:11:37got after they arrested me what are you thinking is happening what did Paul do yes it's being
00:11:42recorded is that cool oh yeah good authorities obscured Kelly's space in this video now do you have
00:11:50your records from uh June 17th that night yeah because the records I find is that you made a lot
00:11:57of phone calls to him you guys have been texting back and forth on the 17th so this was the
00:12:01night before
00:12:02the fire's the whole text message conversation okay I know he's you're you know he's talking about hey
00:12:06he's gonna go for full custody and all that stuff and then after that after between about 8 o'clock
00:12:11and
00:12:1110 o'clock that night there's numerous numerous phone calls from your phone to his phone oh no
00:12:17that's not showing you right here I never called him at all after the last time that I spoke with
00:12:22him is at 625 okay and after that his number's nowhere I never called him so there was no phone
00:12:27calls none zero none I never called him at all they tell you about a woman who was caught on
00:12:34tape who
00:12:34looked like you what are you thinking there's no way that's me I was at my mom's house sleeping and
00:12:39she
00:12:39lives 30 35 minutes away did it resemble you from what you can see a little bit if you didn't
00:12:46know
00:12:46me you're like oh that might you know like yeah so was your head spinning like who could this be
00:12:52yes
00:12:52it was wild she was surprised and she was very stern and adamant that she had no involvement in the
00:13:01arson in that hot tub incident she said just I was in bed I wasn't out you know out in
00:13:07the country in
00:13:08Goshen committing this arson this is the girl that is right there's trying to say it's me but it's not
00:13:12me and here's the obvious and you guys do resemble each other just like I like the eyes the cheeks
00:13:17and the eyebrows other than I don't have that distinctive chin so after the Kelly interview we
00:13:23start trying to just do our background on both of them we learned that neither one of them were
00:13:28really in the area of the residents she told us she was over in the Norwood area which was
00:13:33consistent with the records we got and Paul Hicks told us he was up in the Bluffton location and we
00:13:40were able to verify that too if it's not Paul who's there and it's not Kelly who's there who
00:13:47is this woman investigators are about to uncover something that is pretty stunning kept telling people
00:13:54like before the final straw telling you he's gonna do something something's gonna happen the results
00:14:01come back is to this day is the most incredible response I've ever gotten it's in black and white that
00:14:08was the game-changer for me for sure
00:14:19I'm your old wiring and why you're obsessing over polar whispering white delight well you're forgetting
00:14:25what's hiding behind your wall I'm Zachary McCune I'm a partner with Rolfus Henry which is a law firm
00:14:43in Cincinnati Ohio a significant portion of my practice relates to fires and explosions and representing
00:14:52insurance companies in relation to those Zach McCune is not someone who's got the same powers as a police
00:14:58officer but he emerges as the super sleuth of this case you have a very small universe of people who
00:15:06could have been involved in this it's either him or it's her Kelly was extremely cooperative she
00:15:14came in and gave a voluntary sworn statement Kelly tells me that when she first met Paul she thought
00:15:20he was the kind of guy she'd been looking for he's tall he was handsome and he just he was
00:15:29funny
00:15:35did you feel like you kind of had met the apprentice charming or a guy who was could possibly I
00:15:41did I've
00:15:42never met anyone who had like seemed like that life together I ended up pregnant within the within
00:15:47three or four months that had to be a surprise yeah so but he wanted you to move in with
00:15:54him yes and did
00:15:55you know right away that you wanted to stay with him what were the plans oh we were excited for
00:16:01you
00:16:02know because I thought oh you know the beginning all that everything's perfect you know until things start
00:16:07to show Kelly says she and Paul would be on and off again for the next seven years connected by
00:16:16their
00:16:16son Daniel even as she says the relationship grew more volatile she told us about prior domestic violence
00:16:25scenarios there was an incident where he from her perspective threw a gas can at her and said I wish
00:16:31she would burn there was an incident where she said he left the bar came home took her clothes out
00:16:37in
00:16:37the front yard and lit them on fire Paul denies those domestic violence allegations and was never charged
00:16:44in connection with them he would break stuff or he would say he's gonna get custody and things like
00:16:50that and I was just I was just done and he knew it so it was an ugly breakup yeah
00:16:56this fire comes at a
00:16:58really pivotal time in the relationship between Paul and Kelly they've broken up they share a child
00:17:05and they are at a flashpoint in their child custody battle where it's about to be time for child support
00:17:12payments to be coming from Paul Hicks and then another concern was there were these really odd
00:17:20cell phone communications the night of the fire his iPhone's incoming call logs show that she had called
00:17:27him 90 some odd times but then her cell phone records came back and it showed that she only had
00:17:33five cell phone communications with him that night they pulled the records and they figured out it wasn't
00:17:39me so that's really where the ball got rolling like what's going on here at first glance it appears
00:17:46somebody is going to great lengths to harass Paul Hicks but then investigators begin wondering could that person
00:17:54be Paul Hicks himself when we realized that the hard records didn't match somewhere along the line in a
00:18:01conversation with Kelly there was mention of spoofing spoof card what spoof card is it's a company that would allow
00:18:07you to
00:18:08change the number that shows up on their caller ID how did you know that he was using that I've
00:18:16seen
00:18:16him do it he told me so spoof cards legal compliance were actually great in responding all that information
00:18:22comes back this program was used this is the real number that made all those calls they faked Kelly's
00:18:27number that was not Kelly once investigators have this piece of the spoofing of a phone number they're able
00:18:33to trace it to an IP address and that IP address belongs to a woman who they don't know much
00:18:40about
00:18:40how she's connected to this case it takes a number of subpoenas to figure out who this woman is she
00:18:46comes
00:18:46in and says yes I do know Paul Hicks we were in a relationship but I don't have a cell
00:18:54phone I don't
00:18:54have any cell phone communications I had this relationship we go our separate ways I don't know why people are
00:19:00asking me about the fire and I just want to be done with this kind of a thing we believe
00:19:06the phone
00:19:07was originally purchased by the female but it was in the hands of Paul Hicks Paul admits to using apps
00:19:16like spoof card in the past but denies having anything to do with those calls investigators begin
00:19:21digging into the background of the woman who says she dated Paul they start pulling her records and they
00:19:27did discover some unusual purchases made under her name in her financial records there was a purchase
00:19:34for a wig at a store called case wigs a wig almost identical to Kelly's hair and they find something
00:19:45that's even more stunning of a purchase than the wig this $368 purchase from a company called that's my face
00:19:54this
00:19:54is a website where someone can give a photograph of any individual and that company will print out a
00:20:01mask of that person's face and we were able to send a subpoena to that's my face and the results
00:20:10came
00:20:10back to this day is the most incredible response I've ever gotten from a subpoena it showed that a mask
00:20:17was
00:20:17purchased under this woman's name and it had all of these photographs of Kelly's face a number of these
00:20:26pictures we had seen either on Paul Hicks physical cell phone or in his social media accounts
00:20:34they find a custom-made mask that is made to look like you what the heck did you think was
00:20:40going on
00:20:41I was shocked who even does that this is not the movies for his part Paul Hicks has denied any
00:20:47connection to the purchases of that wig and the custom mask you have the surveillance video and you
00:20:53have a woman who's looking at the camera with curly hair out and face bare it makes you put the
00:21:02pieces
00:21:02together that could be the reason that she was fine with showing her face on camera insurance company they
00:21:09decide that there's no coverage for the claim for this this fire Paul Hicks sues them for breach of
00:21:15contract and bad faith and then Allstate countersues him for among other things fraud the civil lawsuit
00:21:22ultimately ends in favor of the insurance company Paul Hicks he agreed that there would be a judgment
00:21:28against him and in favor of Allstate for $400,000 so the civil case is wrapped up but investigators are
00:21:37still
00:21:37considering criminal charges in that fire and across the state another set of investigators are also
00:21:45looking into Paul Hicks a decade or so earlier he was connected to something much darker that was still
00:21:53unsolved did you start to think that he could be capable of murder they were going with a monster
00:22:14after Kelly's arrest Paul Hicks her ex files for temporary custody of their son Kelly says even as
00:22:22investigators began to doubt her role in the fire the allegations still followed her for years in family
00:22:28court he tried to destroy my whole world and he he got away with it for a long time taking
00:22:32my son from
00:22:33Lisa he essentially had your son Daniel yes it was horrible his nightmare like he's not he's everything
00:22:40to me it took two years just to be able to see him without supervision you want to tell me
00:22:48that I need
00:22:49supervision for my own child the initial allegations and accusations against Kelly pertaining to the
00:22:59arson we never ended up charging her we never got to a point where we believed that she was the
00:23:05person
00:23:05held responsible the hot tub incident she wasn't the person involved in that and those charges were
00:23:12ultimately dismissed on her behalf as well after the civil case is over criminal investigators are
00:23:22able to charge Paul Hicks with aggravated arson perjury and insurance fraud Paul Hicks pleaded not
00:23:29guilty to that are you thinking now that he's going to be held accountable maybe he's going to go to
00:23:34jail
00:23:35so hopefully finally you know justice is finally happening 43 year old Paul Hicks accused of
00:23:41organizing the elaborate scheme to have his house set on fire deputies say Hicks told them his ex-girlfriend
00:23:47was one of the two people but detectives say she is innocent and they do believe that Hicks is behind
00:23:53this plot Paul Hicks was making a lot of headlines in Ohio for the arson case what was actually happening
00:24:00not too far from there is another type of investigation that involves something that happened back in 2001
00:24:11Mr. Hicks was originally from Willard Ohio or Huron County I ended up speaking to the elected sheriff they
00:24:21told me that from 2001 they had a victim by the name of Regina Hicks who was Paul Hicks's first
00:24:28wife
00:24:28and she was a victim of a homicide
00:24:38Willard is rural it's a railroad town it's a hard-working town
00:24:44not too far from Cedar Point everybody knows where that's at
00:24:50everybody knows everybody if you want to know something about somebody just ask somebody they'll
00:24:55tell you Regina was a tomboy so she was used to working on like four-wheelers and dirt bikes and
00:25:02things like that and she enjoyed it her parents bought her a grand dam we would drive around the
00:25:10back roads and listen to country music Hank Williams jr Regina love that was her favorite you would feel
00:25:18protected around Regina she would always make you feel safe wanted loved
00:25:25Regina met Paul Hicks in school and they started dating each other I think she was like 16.
00:25:33they went on after high school to get married they had a son together Regina was a great mom she
00:25:39would take
00:25:40Montana everywhere she went once she met Paul Hicks Regina couldn't hang out as much and when we did
00:25:48hang out together Paul would always have to be there she had to sneak and see us before Paul she
00:25:55was loud happy
00:25:56and more vocal Paul made her more silent more small then at some point there's a fire that happens at
00:26:07their home there's a fire at their house in the summer of 2001 the fire happened around 11 o'clock
00:26:14at night
00:26:16Paul Hicks decides I'm gonna go fishing Regina goes with him
00:26:22when they come back the house is on fire it was determined that it was an electrical fire that
00:26:28started in the bathroom shortly after they left Regina was really upset about that fire her dad's
00:26:34things that she was given to remember him by was in that house
00:26:44after they split the insurance proceeds of sixty thousand dollars they start to live separate lives
00:26:50and she starts to do her own thing that money really changed Regina's life she was able to
00:26:56break away from Paul and get some independence
00:27:01she finally started acting like herself again and doing stuff and buying stuff and going places
00:27:08with the money she went and she bought a white Camaro
00:27:13she wanted a fast car and everybody knew that that was hers there wasn't any other white Camaros in town
00:27:21she was ready to turn the page on the chapter of Paul Hicks and just living it up she finally
00:27:27met
00:27:28somebody she had filed for divorce and she was smiling like herself again laughing
00:27:41it's a clear crisp October evening in 2001 Regina Hicks has got her car she's got her freedom and she's
00:27:49got plans for the evening ahead she is expecting to pick her son up from Paul Hicks then she is
00:27:56going to go
00:27:57to her mother's and drop off her son and then end the night with a guy that she is dating
00:28:02with a night
00:28:04on the town she has to pick Montana up at eight o'clock our mutual friend called me and asked
00:28:08me if
00:28:09i had heard from Regina or if i had seen Regina she was supposed to go pick up her son
00:28:15and Montana was
00:28:16four years old she did not pick up her son she would have never left Montana there's no way she
00:28:25was
00:28:25going to leave her little boy and not pick him up when she was supposed to no one believed that
00:28:29Regina
00:28:30would just disappear on her own and everyone was on the lookout for her signature white Camaro
00:28:37where was it where was she almost instantly you knew something was really bad
00:29:00Regina Hicks you have 10 unheard voice messages
00:29:07what do you mean honey i need to hear about please give me a call i'm pretty worried about it
00:29:16you know if you can give me a call please give me this message along with the other 20 people
00:29:22who
00:29:22are looking for you i don't know where you're at or where you're doing but i'm so glad you're not
00:29:30hurt
00:29:37four days have now gone by since regina hicks has gone missing and understandably her relatives
00:29:43are frantic with worry this is my son's field right here he had a four-wheeler he rode around
00:29:50to the end of the property and when he come up on top of the pond here he seen something
00:29:56out in the
00:29:56center of the pond something that was unusual yeah he just didn't know whether it was a plastic bag or
00:30:03what but it's something that shouldn't have been there and uh come up the farm and told me
00:30:11monday morning we came down here he reaches down the water up to here and
00:30:19we was thinking maybe it was a jet ski but you didn't know we didn't know and he said dad
00:30:25it's not
00:30:26a jet ski and so i uh run up the farm and got a chain real quick and we hooked
00:30:36onto it and he drove the
00:30:37truck when he started to pull i was standing on the bank and i hollered at him oh it's a
00:30:43car
00:30:46i drove to the farm and called the sheriff all of the different agencies descend on this scene
00:30:56you had the huron county sheriff's office the crime scene unit from bci willard fire department
00:31:02and the divers the dining team go into the pond to determine if there was a body in the pond
00:31:12they tried to search the driver's side compartment and they initially thought they may have felt
00:31:18something but they realized it wasn't anything and then they went to the passenger side of the vehicle
00:31:24and reached in and felt the shoulder of a person i said do we have a body they're like oh
00:31:33yeah we have
00:31:33a body in there so when they pulled this car out it's a white camaro regina drove a white camaro
00:31:42correct it's pretty clear they found regina's body absolutely
00:31:49my mom called me late and she says lisa i need you to promise that you're going to stay home
00:31:57but they think they found regina's car and just your heart just drops
00:32:09people are showing up standing out the yellow tape line at the street
00:32:14they said they found a car in a pond and then when we all got out there it was regina's
00:32:27but she was on the passenger side they didn't cover her up until everybody saw
00:32:35because of the people there we left her in the car and we just towed the car to the local
00:32:41police station
00:32:55we put it in a garage bay removed her from the car there and sent her to autopsy the next
00:33:03thing that
00:33:03is really critical to the case is the positioning of her body inside of that car her feet were clearly
00:33:11underneath the passenger side council for her to start in the driver's seat and float over and end
00:33:17up in that position probably next to impossible odds that meant someone else was driving when it went in
00:33:23the driver's side the seat appeared to be pushed all the way back she was a smaller person so obviously
00:33:29somebody bigger had driven the car she was covered in mud to the point of being caked inside of the
00:33:35back of
00:33:36her folded jeans mud inside the back of her boots there were no gunshot wounds stab wounds anything like
00:33:44that there was some minor bruising but nothing that really stuck out deputies started to trace
00:33:51these steps of regina the day that she disappeared one of the pieces of evidence from the vehicle
00:33:59included some receipts one where she went shopping at jc penny she went shopping to mansfield ohio with
00:34:07her boyfriend mikey perkins and then went back to town to drop mikey off she was supposed to pick up
00:34:17montana at eight o'clock at the steve gates property where paul was located steve gates would be paul hicks
00:34:23his best friend they did everything together steve gates tells police that paul hicks was at his house
00:34:30with their son montana and they were all waiting for regina to come pick up her son but he said
00:34:36that
00:34:37never happened obviously that was completely out of the norm paul hicks was a person of interest and
00:34:47mikey perkins her new boyfriend was also a person of interest paul is someone that the
00:34:53investigators want to talk to and they tell him to come down to the sheriff's office regina was
00:34:58supposed to come pick up montana at steve's house yeah and she never showed her so what'd you do with
00:35:05montana well i took it back to my sisters and i figured she's gonna show up she show up there
00:35:10show
00:35:10up the next morning paul had an alibi indicated that he tried to get a hold of regina when she
00:35:16didn't
00:35:16show up on time he was putting a lot of impetus on well she did drugs so this could have
00:35:39been you
00:35:39know she getting drugs and it didn't go right i don't know if she was taking it or what she
00:35:43was
00:35:43and the pills should be at the house if she didn't sell them and then well she got busted today
00:35:54regina didn't do drugs so none of that made sense she's got a
00:36:01the minute westward i guess you could say that uh she don't want to see me here no emotion the
00:36:09fact
00:36:09that she's deceased now so there was observations and behaviors there that made you wonder exactly
00:36:15where he was coming from and now investigators are also about to get regina's autopsy back
00:36:21which will reveal just how she died was she deceased prior to going into the water
00:36:27or was she alive and then drowned in the car
00:36:43we're on the property of the huron county sheriff's office and so here today what we have is we have
00:36:48the
00:36:48camaro that miss regina hicks was driving back on october 18th of 2001. this is the car that was pulled
00:36:56from
00:36:56the lake yes ma'am 20 plus years ago yes it's still covered in mud inside and out uh pretty
00:37:04much
00:37:04preserved it looks like what did you notice right away when i started looking at the vehicle obviously
00:37:10i i realized that the passenger side seat was laid back and the vehicle was actually stuck in second gear
00:37:18and the driver's side window was down and regina's positioning in the passenger side of the car
00:37:23convinces investigators that she was placed there by someone then driven into the pond whoever drove the
00:37:31car was pretty big wheels tilted up so they needed space knowing that they had to get out of the
00:37:37car
00:37:37the door was closed so they crawled out the window once it was in the water
00:37:43this is the actual shoe regina was wearing
00:37:47you saw a shoe print somewhere yeah and it was a swipe okay so you've got a swipe so what
00:37:53the
00:37:54anticipation was is that her upper torso would have been placed inside the vehicle here if she had been
00:38:02driving this car there's no way her foot would be swiping this side of the door getting into the car
00:38:06on that side correct this essentially was your smoking gun to prove that this was a homicide this was a
00:38:12very very key piece of evidence to show and prove that regina was not driving this vehicle and that
00:38:18she was put in the passenger seat and the autopsy results also support the theory that regina didn't
00:38:25end up in that pond by accident there were three strikes on the top of her scalp those strikes were
00:38:33not
00:38:33hard enough strikes to where it would physically kill somebody but they were strikes that could ultimately
00:38:41incapacitate somebody we also knew that when she went into that pond she was unconscious but she
00:38:48was alive because of the fluid that was inside her nose cavity she was breathing in the water from the
00:38:56pond the toxicology report was negative she had no drugs in her system while investigators were looking
00:39:05into regina's boyfriend at the time mikey turns out he had an alibi and was cleared of any involvement in
00:39:12regina's murder paul hicks is at the top of the list for officials who are digging into this they're
00:39:19hearing from family members of regina who say that there were troubles in their relationship there are
00:39:25also red flags that investigators are seeing when it comes to that custody battle paul hicks did not want
00:39:33to have to pay child support for montana once the divorce went through you're about to foster your
00:39:40boy yep yes if you give me joint custody i'll give you everything you want the furniture everything and
00:39:47she said okay i'll do that she decided to change her mind she's not going to give me joint custody
00:39:51somebody told her she's not going to get child support if i get joint custody it's been a pretty nasty
00:39:56affair huh yep two days after sheriff's deputies sat paul down for an interview
00:40:02they ask him to come back in this time for a polygraph hey first of all i guess i'm going
00:40:08to ask
00:40:08are you willing to to take the examination yeah i want to ask you something though sure absolutely
00:40:13does it matter if you've been drinking or if you're not any type of pills well it depends what type
00:40:17of
00:40:17pills you're taking three uh number 10 xanax that's xanax how much have you had a drink today
00:40:25a couple of shots of you the polygraph examiner immediately determines that he's not going to be able
00:40:32to actually do the polygraph test because the inebriation would invalidate the results and as the
00:40:39investigation moved forward everything continued to lead to paul hicks but there was nothing to
00:40:46definitively link him to the crime no admissions no dna so it's a hard case and then as time passed
00:40:57we would stop getting information that's why lasella kind of started doing more of the investigating
00:41:03herself regina's mother lasella is desperate to find answers lasella put up all kinds of billboards
00:41:12and talked to news stations we just want justice somewhere somebody knows something it's just a
00:41:20matter is the people afraid to speak up she full-heartedly believed that paul murdered regina
00:41:27paul's mother also spoke to the media i know paul didn't do this i raised paul i know what kind
00:41:32of
00:41:32child paul is lasella was also trying to get custody of montana montana legally went to live with paul
00:41:41but he was actually living with paul's mother paul's mom raised montana lasella would buy birthday
00:41:49presents and christmas presents for montana every year um hoping she would be able to get to see him and
00:41:55give them to him herself and it just never happened tell me about your mom she used to buy me
00:42:03toys a lot
00:42:05you miss her huh lasella was strong she wasn't gonna give up until she got justice for her daughter
00:42:13she just ended up getting cancer before that happened i mean she was pretty sick
00:42:21she only weighed about 87 pounds lasella told me to never give up on finding who did it to regina
00:42:28who
00:42:28killed her i mean even until she died she kept she kept fighting she never got the answers that she
00:42:35was
00:42:35so desperately seeking for and this case goes cold there's not any development in it for over a decade
00:42:48i was assigned to the special investigations unit the huron county sheriff at that time asked us to
00:42:53take over the regina hicks cold case homicide so bci we accepted that request and then started the
00:43:00investigation the sheriff provided us with all the investigative material we had boxes and boxes of
00:43:07investigative files that were all transported back to our office here at bci in this world of investigations
00:43:16we tend to look at patterns with paul's relationships after regina's passing there's that consistent
00:43:23pattern there of mental and physical abuse he finds women he pays them attention maybe buys them things
00:43:32and then when he's done he moves on to the next adventure and still wants to control their lives
00:43:37as he did with regina when you heard about those details broken relationship you know domestic
00:43:43violence a custody battle did you start to think that this is a real pattern with this man oh yeah
00:43:50there's all control in the seven years that passed between regina's death and paul meeting kelly
00:43:56she says rumors swirled around him did people talk did people say anything to you about oh he would leave
00:44:03the room and people come up behind me like you know he killed his wife i'm like what people would
00:44:08say to you yes he killed his wife and what did you think i'm like what the hell and then
00:44:13you know he's
00:44:14like oh people just they're just jealous of me that's all that is that was paul's story but bci was
00:44:20actually looking into him for regina's murder and then he's indicted on arson charges for that claremont
00:44:28county fire back in 2015. i actually thought well if he doesn't go to prison for killing regina at
00:44:35least he'll go to prison for arson paul hicks eventually pleads to an insurance fraud and he's
00:44:41sentenced to probation it's a break for paul the perjury and arson charges are dropped he just has to
00:44:48pay back the insurance company that he defrauded and it was a huge letdown how'd you feel i just shot
00:45:00down broken again waited for so long and nothing paul wasn't being held accountable for everything
00:45:10that paul was doing and people were getting tired of it but things are about to change someone new
00:45:16steps into the picture who's going to shine a light on regina's cold case regina deserves somebody to
00:45:23fight for her
00:45:45i'm regina's cousin
00:45:49we grew up together we'd have you know slumber parties get togethers and we would just have so
00:45:58much fun laughing and talking when regina would laugh it would just light up a room
00:46:06i miss that sound
00:46:10knowing the person that you love is murdered
00:46:12and that everything seems to be pointing to her husband but there's no evidence it's frustrating
00:46:20and it's hard
00:46:25good evening welcome to allegedly with ashley ford
00:46:31ashley ford is a podcaster and for some reason you either really love her or you just don't like her
00:46:45i have no criminal justice background i have no criminal justice background i have no law enforcement background
00:46:51i don't like when things are unfair if i see something that's solvable i can't leave it alone
00:46:56you know i'll take a look at this she's someone who looks closely at unsolved cases
00:47:03ashley ford calls herself a troublemaker and she's someone who is controversial especially to law
00:47:10enforcement she goes further than just talking about it on her podcast she calls out people
00:47:19one of my friends was like wow ashley's really riling people up and i'm like
00:47:23ashley who and she's like ashley ford so she's like you got to check it out
00:47:31people started asking me to look at regina rohick's case
00:47:36going to ashley ford we had nothing really to lose
00:47:41because nothing was happening what would it hurt getting somebody talking about regina
00:47:46regina deserves somebody to fight for her
00:47:51regina's mom lasella holbrook had a massive file of everything that she could get her hands on for 15 years
00:48:01i looked at the files and i agreed with them it was enough it's been 24 years since chad roh
00:48:08got a call
00:48:08his sister regina was found dead in a pond and now local podcaster ashley ford wanted to help find out
00:48:16i wanted to see if we could get some attention to a cold case that definitely deserves justice i think
00:48:23most of
00:48:23the family felt like finally somebody's listening opening doors i'm investigating a case that is 23
00:48:34years cold and it makes it a little bit difficult specifically for the main reason i wasn't there in
00:48:42the beginning ashley was pretty much recapping everything we had already known this is one of the more
00:48:50intricate and information-laden cases that i have ever done it didn't start getting more interesting
00:48:56until later on when she was doing more digging everything kept coming back to stephen gates
00:49:06he was paul's good buddy during the time bff back in the day they were as tight as you could
00:49:11get
00:49:13regina was supposed to pick up her son from her estranged husband at stephen gates home she was
00:49:19supposed to pick my son up she called me at 753 that's what my cell phone said i don't know
00:49:24exactly
00:49:24what she exactly said but she goes i'll be there it was stephen gates and paul hicks testimony in 2001
00:49:32she never showed up i pulled every report i could find that mentioned paul hicks and stephen gates
00:49:39and she finds something pretty interesting a sheriff's report from just weeks before regina went missing
00:49:47we have to consider this tip that was called in like 30 days before regina actually was found dead
00:49:54in september of 2001 regina hicks is pulled over by willard police they search her car and they find
00:50:01marijuana and pills she says she believes that they were planted by her estranged husband to try to set
00:50:08her up regina is never charged i realized that stephen gates called in a tip that regina was coming back
00:50:17with a load of drugs told them exactly where she was it looked to me like they were trying to
00:50:24get her arrested
00:50:26and remember paul had mentioned this to investigators when he first talked to them she had marijuana and
00:50:33she was going to kentucky and she got busted though no well she got busted here in willard
00:50:41stephen gates is the property owner of property that regina was headed to when she went missing
00:50:47if it were my daughter i would want to expose whoever had to be exposed to get to justice and
00:50:54she
00:50:55doesn't back off of sharing his name publicly in a way that hadn't been shared before i found that
00:51:01releasing the information about stephen gates brought more information forward behind the scenes the bureau
00:51:09of criminal investigation there in ohio they are also simultaneously working on their own criminal
00:51:15investigation we had a very long list of individuals that we wanted to interview or re-interview to
00:51:25include steve gates we needed to ask the tough questions did you see her there can you tell us if
00:51:38she was
00:51:38there but he hasn't said anything all these years why is he suddenly going to talk now well we felt
00:51:44that
00:51:44he would we had it we had a try i called bernard davis his lawyer talked to him on the
00:51:49phone set up a meeting
00:51:53steve had been holding this in for 24 years he said i'm ready and i need to tell you everything
00:51:57that
00:51:58happened at that point he becomes very emotional
00:52:11there was a date and time that was set up for special prosecution
00:52:16he wanted to give us information on our investigative team to meet with steve gates in mansfield ohio
00:52:22when we arrived there there was somewhat of a hesitation of how the meeting would go
00:52:28what is he going to say
00:52:32one of the first things he said is i'm ready and i need to tell you everything that happened
00:52:38he wanted to give us information on what actually happened the night of the incident which is what we've
00:52:43been waiting for and praying for i guess the whole time for it actually to come was pretty exciting
00:52:52his lawyer told us look my guy's going to give you paul hicks but he wants immunity after 24
00:52:58years earlier he told them her camaro never arrived on his property steve gates wants to make
00:53:04sure that he has immunity so that he doesn't get charged in any way for lying to police in the
00:53:10initial
00:53:10investigation what does he tell you so they made an arrangement where regina is going to pick montana
00:53:20up he had just turned four so regina drives to that steve gates's property parks her car and immediately
00:53:35gets into an argument with paul hicks the two were yelling at each other he tells us that he had
00:53:40seen
00:53:41and heard so many arguments between the two of them he didn't want to get involved in it so he
00:53:46walked
00:53:46into his garage he turned on wiot
00:53:53and was turned on his tractor and was working on his tractor
00:54:01eventually he came out of the barn and he noticed regina hicks's white camaro was now parked in a
00:54:08different area of the driveway closer to the road
00:54:17according to steve gates he said he's seen the dome light on
00:54:22he's seen the passenger side door open and he's seen paul hicks standing next to the passenger side door
00:54:30he noticed that the driver's side window was down he looked in he seen regina questioned what was wrong
00:54:39with her uh and according to him at that time he was told that she was dead
00:54:52when he gets to that point in his interview the emotions really hit steve and he becomes very emotional
00:55:04steve gates he immediately says you got to call 9-1-1 we got to get her help paul hicks
00:55:09says no they
00:55:09get into a little argument paul told steve you're now involved and we need to get rid of this
00:55:20paul hicks gets in regina's car steve gates gets in paul hicks's car with montana in the back seat
00:55:28sleeping
00:55:30according to steve gates he eventually followed paul hicks to the pond location
00:55:39where according to steve gates paul hicks
00:55:42drove the white camaro into the pond
00:55:52so he drove her into that pond jumped out of the car escaped the car himself left her there to
00:55:58die
00:55:59correct and then got back in the car with steve gates
00:56:02on the way back to uh steve gates's house paul hicks calls regina
00:56:10steve gates said i couldn't understand why he took his phone out and called regina
00:56:16hicks's cell phone well that would make sense why her phone records indicate a call after
00:56:23the time she was supposed to pick her son up
00:56:28what was steve like revealing all of this very remorseful emotional remorseful and i said well
00:56:36who else have you told he said well other than my lawyer i haven't told anyone he lived with this
00:56:40information all these years correct and never shared it correct i said did you tell your wife
00:56:44he said no i said you're going to tell her tonight so he had been carrying the information that he
00:56:52knew
00:56:53within himself for decades out of concern for his own safety and well-being out of fear for his family
00:57:01for his children and then i come around the corner okay and that's when i was like
00:57:07as a condition of this immunity deal steve gates has to provide investigators with a tour of his
00:57:13property where regina hicks would have been hurt they were like standing maybe here somewhere i just
00:57:22remember this little swale they were in this little and they were like they were like yelling at each
00:57:28other and you were over there so when you came out of the garage where were they at down there
00:57:33down
00:57:34by the fence or behind the dump trailer i just remember being like amped up and just
00:57:41not thinking clear at that point because i'm like right you're involved and everything else you know
00:57:48and just how long you think you were standing by the car with hits minutes and then you get in
00:57:56his car
00:57:57and follow he was very specific and we were able to corroborate that the attorney general dave yost and
00:58:06prosecutor surly got together had a discussion the agreement was made that we would give him immunity
00:58:13uh nothing he could say to us could be used against him unless he lies to us i'm glad steve
00:58:19gates came
00:58:20forward and i think it did take some courage to say yeah i sat on this and here's the truth
00:58:28uh and he
00:58:29gets points for that but it wasn't courageous to ask for an immunity deal wasn't courageous to say
00:58:36talk to my lawyer he was a witness
00:58:44steve gates was the key to solving this case all these years correct and once he gave you his story
00:58:50everything changed everything changed all right we're lighting them up
00:58:56and now after two decades 24 years everything is about to change for paul hicks
00:59:07so what am i going to wrestle for
00:59:09all right here we go
00:59:30he's been walking the streets we're going to go over here to the cruiser
00:59:35he's been vacationing in hawaii with a girlfriend vacationing in florida with a girlfriend he's been
00:59:41living his life for 24 years while regina's been encased in a coffin outside of willard ohio
00:59:48april 22nd 2025 he's indicted
00:59:59so paul hicks is finally arrested me what did you think i had a panic attack because i was excited
01:00:06and terrified at the same time charged with the murder of his wife you file for emergency custody
01:00:14by the way oh the very next day and went straight up there and got daniel oh i don't think
01:00:19he saw it
01:00:20coming and i think it was a surreal moment for us at that point
01:00:28paul was ultimately transported back to the huron county sheriff's office
01:00:31office and myself and chris attempted to interview paul
01:00:36it's not disrespectful can we cut and do what you need to do and show me the charges so i
01:00:41can make
01:00:41my call do you want to know what the indictment is no i want to make my phone call okay
01:00:45yeah so we
01:00:46would like to talk to you about what that happened i don't want to talk about nothing so you don't
01:00:51want to have anything to say i have nothing to say to you okay my phone call they were supposed
01:00:54to
01:00:55bring my phone which i know is a lot they're not going to well you'll get your phone call when
01:00:59you get into the jail oh i'm not in the jail no this is a this is an interview room
01:01:04oh take me to
01:01:05jail so yeah yeah let's go so yeah you're not running the show here why don't you remain silent
01:01:12well then that's fine that's fine and they'll get to you when they get time to get to you
01:01:16oh i know i said in the cars we don't get it i know you don't you guys we don't
01:01:21well it's all about
01:01:22you paul yeah so we then had first-hand knowledge on how he treated people because he didn't want to
01:01:28hear what we had to say either it was all about the control for him which was what i expected
01:01:34going
01:01:34in there correct paul hicks is accused of killing his ex-wife and the mother of his child regina roe
01:01:41hicks the day after his arrest paul hicks pleads not guilty to the murder and kidnapping charges
01:01:5124 years later what was that moment like for you to come in and now make this kind of a
01:01:57leap in a long
01:01:57cold case i made arrangements for two of regina's family members to meet with them they were emotional
01:02:03and that something's finally been done at least now we're in the system at least now he's been charged
01:02:11now a jury is finally hearing a case over what happened to regina hicks 24 years is a long time
01:02:19to
01:02:19wait for a case and a trial to get started there's a big question that hangs over it of what's
01:02:27different
01:02:27now this was a case that was made without any forensic evidence no dna or anything no dna no
01:02:33fingerprints no hairs straight witness testimony and some circumstantial evidence what was your
01:02:39biggest worry going to trial cooperating with steve gates told us the jury almost had to believe steve
01:02:46gates all rise please right out the gate during the opening statements the prosecution lets the jury
01:02:53know that their star witness is a known liar the prosecution laid out for this jury the potential
01:03:14motive for paul hicks to kill regina he had lost his job had blown through a lot of that insurance
01:03:20settlement money that they got from the fire at their home and he was getting closer to having
01:03:25to pay some steep child support payments to regina the defense doesn't make an opening argument correct
01:03:32that was the first time in 37 years i've experienced that all right six years first with it there was
01:03:38a lot of information that came to light in regards to regina hicks and paul hicks's relationship
01:03:56a lot of witnesses a lot of family and friends that had first had knowledge and had seen
01:04:01not only these domestic altercations but the emotional abuse that they say regina hicks endured
01:04:10throughout this relationship he was always yelling at her fighting with her did you witness an
01:04:16incident like four or five months before her death uh that turned physical yeah he pulled her hair
01:04:23in the cementer of other houses prosecutors have got a witness contradicting paul hicks claim
01:04:30that regina never arrived at gates's place jimmy patrick regina's uncle he had saw regina's car
01:04:39at steve gates's house around eight o'clock on that thursday evening october 18th of 2001.
01:04:45i was driving by gates's house i just glanced over looking i said that looks like her car
01:04:52when you'd seen that car you said it was getting dark yeah dusty dark
01:04:58at the time jimmy patrick's statement couldn't be corroborated by investigators
01:05:04a statement called crystal hicks so crystal hicks that is paul hicks's sister so she was very
01:05:10reluctant to speak with investigators getting off of work the night of the 18th of october 2001 she
01:05:17actually got home earlier than what she had anticipated paul was living at her house at the time i came
01:05:28and he was headed to the bathroom and he tried to cut me off who's who's he my brother and
01:05:32he said
01:05:33it was a mess i would be mad and when i proceeded to go to the bathroom anyhow his muddy
01:05:37clothes were
01:05:38floating in the bathtub we've been trying to clean them and how much mud was in the bathroom a lot
01:05:42have you ever seen that much mud before no and who was at your house when you when you came
01:05:48home
01:05:48steve gates and my brother and what were they doing steve was sitting on the couch and like i said
01:05:54i i think i surprised him both because i got off earlier than normal did you notice anything uh
01:05:59about the defendant's face or neck area he had scratches on his neck or part of his face somewhere
01:06:06in this area he's got a tree of bone and scratched him at the time regina disappeared paul hicks had
01:06:15moved on he had a new girlfriend and she's about to tell the jury something unusual she remembers him
01:06:22telling her he told me that that there were ways to beat a lie detector test
01:06:47we are following a once cold case out of ohio courtrooms can be really intense places you had a packed
01:06:55gallery of people who were supporting paul hicks and regina's loved ones they were all there in the
01:07:02same space waiting to see if there was going to be justice one way or another
01:07:10it's day three of testimony and the jury is hearing from jansen phipps paul's girlfriend at the time of
01:07:17regina's disappearance and she remembers some strange things from that night what happened after
01:07:24you went to bed i went to sleep i woke up and paul was gone but i didn't think anything
01:07:31of it and went
01:07:32back to sleep what did he tell you about that he had a pair of money boots from the day
01:07:40that regina went
01:07:41missing because they were digging the pond and he put him on his sister's back porch and somebody stole
01:07:47him he gets up in the middle of the night he does something with the boots she also testified to
01:07:52what
01:07:52he did that weekend they went to a dance they were together friday night saturday even though his
01:07:59estranged wife is missing correct jansen phipps on the stand told this jury that she remembers conversation
01:08:05from paul hicks or he said that he could beat a polygraph examination did he talk to you about
01:08:13things like breathing techniques things like that yeah he had a book i feel in my memory like it had
01:08:20a
01:08:21yellow covering it was a softback wasn't a hardback book um but yeah it was how to beat a lie
01:08:28detector
01:08:28told me he was just trying to protect himself did he also watch crime shows we watched a lot
01:08:35of like forensic files and just shows about how people would get rid of evidence and things like
01:08:45that during cross-examination the defense was able to highlight the things that the prosecutors lacked
01:08:55there's nothing that you found when you reviewed the dna to implicate paul hicks isn't that true
01:09:01there's nothing at all that that i can compare to anybody it's just simply not sufficient for
01:09:05comparison purposes you didn't find any dna of paul in the car i didn't find any dna of anybody
01:09:13nothing to implicate paul in regards to the testing of the soil that's correct okay there was no dna
01:09:22linking paul to this case yes sir you would agree with me that there were no hair samples that linked
01:09:32paul to this case that's correct during the cross-examination of the sheriff the defense
01:09:37asked a lot of questions about why there are all of these other potential suspects who were not
01:09:43investigated further you testified you're trying to rule people out you got her best friend telling you
01:09:49she's having sex relations with four guys and you don't send anything to bci in regards to those
01:09:55four men we did not send anything in regards those four men that's right so then as you sit here
01:10:00today
01:10:00you didn't rule out those four potential men the suspects in this case nothing led us to believe those
01:10:07four people were suspects the defense was really suggesting that these investigators had tunnel vision
01:10:13investigation when they locked in on paul hicks oh i don't know if they told you that we got a
01:10:17we
01:10:17got a warrant for your arrest okay nobody's telling us the state conceded that steve gates has lied for
01:10:2624 years is that your position that's what i've been told you and you can't rule out as you sit
01:10:33there that
01:10:34he is going to lie tomorrow i can't no sure i can't state's next witness steve gates who does not
01:10:47want to
01:10:48be recorded in any way all right no audio no video for this witness in the state of ohio they
01:10:54do allow
01:10:55cameras inside of the courtroom but if a witness wants to opt out of being shown the court will grant
01:11:02that
01:11:04so this guy comes to court and he's lied to law officers before and now you're asking a jury to
01:11:11believe him you have to have credibility with the jury you can't pull punches or try to pull the wool
01:11:18over anyone's eyes that's what we said about steve gates look he's a liar he lied in 2001 he lied
01:11:24in
01:11:242002 i'm not going to sugarcoat it but he's not lying now sitting in the courtroom i was
01:11:33that was the one testimony i wanted to hear i wanted to hear from steve's mouth what happened
01:11:38and we would get answers we would know gates tells jurors exactly what he told investigators
01:11:44that regina did in fact come to his home to pick up her son and that she and paul got
01:11:50into an argument
01:11:51he said he saw regina's body crumpled on the floorboard of her camaro
01:11:56steven gates said paul hicks told him that she is dead gates doesn't mention that he in any way was
01:12:04involved in regina's death but he does say that he followed the instructions of his friend
01:12:09and that he did keep his mouth shut
01:12:14he gave the bare minimum information but it was more of what he left out it's like
01:12:22you know where was montana at during this time that they were fighting
01:12:27i mean you're not going to ask what happened what did you do
01:12:37the defense highlighted that he had multiple opportunities over the years to tell the truth
01:12:44to police and that he continued to say that regina was never there their whole case was based upon
01:12:51speculation and conjecture the defense spoke to the jury for the first time during their closing
01:12:58arguments and he said the prosecution's case is full of holes and did not have any substance
01:13:03remember back in the 70s or 80s with the where's the beef commercials where's the beef where's the beef
01:13:08but let's get to the beef in the case zero forensic evidence linking paul to the alleged crime scenes
01:13:18more importantly far more importantly zero forensic evidence to corroborate
01:13:27the scientifically unverified fiction of charlatan gates the line was an olympic event that guy wins
01:13:37the gold the silver and the bronze thank you thank you you prepared with your vote uh yes your honor
01:13:46the state in their closing argument wanted to make sure that the jury understands that everything in
01:13:52this case points to paul hicks and no one else if not paul hicks then who motive motive that's what's
01:14:03about you regina's independence regina wanted child support regina wanted custody regina fought back
01:14:12you'll fight back against paul hicks uh at this time then we won't take a a time for the jury
01:14:19to begin
01:14:20their deliberation when everything is in the hands of the jury it it's one of those anxious moments
01:14:38all right folks we have breaking news out of ohio the jury has reached a verdict in the murder trial
01:14:44of paul hicks there are some cases where jury deliberations can take days weeks but in this case
01:14:52this jury came back within three hours all right please the emotions that you have as an investigator
01:15:01when you're sitting there waiting for the verdict i truly can't explain in the state of ohio versus
01:15:07paul daniel hicks the jury finds the defendant guilty
01:15:16that was a great moment um when they said guilty it was a huge weight lifted a big sigh of
01:15:26relief
01:15:28finally we got justice and paul's reaction was priceless he just threw his head back like he
01:15:38couldn't believe it the roe family have suffered immensely they've gone so many years without answers
01:15:48to be able to watch them get that verdict it seemed like justice
01:15:56it was like probably the best christmas present ever
01:16:03my sister lay solo and regina loved christmas and after regina got killed lay solo never celebrated
01:16:11christmas so for them to do it and they were playing christmas music outside it was kind of like perfect
01:16:20what was that moment like for you winning finally my baby's home we're safe
01:16:26um he's where he belongs he's gonna be where he belongs for kelly life is finally moving forward
01:16:34though amazingly to this day investigators haven't definitively determined who the two people were
01:16:40that set that fire after the verdict comes down then is the matter of sentencing this is the
01:16:51opportunity for the victim's loved ones regina's family to be able to address the court and share
01:16:59some things that they haven't been heard publicly on for over two decades we appreciated uh i made sure i
01:17:07made eye contact with him i would lean in so he would he would know i was talking to him
01:17:14regina was
01:17:15intelligent far more intelligent than you she had a rare kindness and a heart that would have only
01:17:20grown stronger with time i wanted paul to know how angry and horrible all of this was she would
01:17:30have made a real impact on this world during sentencing paul and regina's son montana is offered
01:17:37an opportunity to speak he doesn't come in person he gives a letter to a victim's advocate to read
01:17:43when he gives his victim impact statement he reminds the court that he is the victim who lost the most
01:17:50here i can't escape this to me there is no justice as to lack of evidence nothing has been solved
01:17:57and
01:17:58nothing will be until the truth comes out about who really did this to my mother he also says that
01:18:05now
01:18:05i have to hear what has to be decided for my dad do i feel like he should be punished
01:18:10no but anyone who
01:18:12committed a crime should pay i lost my mom and now i'm losing my dad i'm glad that it was
01:18:18solved i'm glad
01:18:20that people are talking about regina again but i just hate that her son is learning all the things that
01:18:28he's learning and in so much pain you know i think we need to realize what montana's been through
01:18:36throughout this entire not only this entire process but the last 24 years and what he's going to have
01:18:43to live with for the rest of his life there is no reason for any leniency in this case the
01:18:48defendant
01:18:48had the benefit of roaming free for the last quarter of a century before facing justice here today
01:18:55paul hicks sentenced to life in prison with a possibility parole after 25 years 15 years for
01:19:01the murder and 10 years for the kidnapping
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