S1:E3 Hostile State

Panic Button

In the ongoing nightmare of April and Terry's relationship, the event that catapults them into pure chaos starts on the night of December 6th, 1997. April has been staying away from Terry, but ends up going to his house to ask for the money he owes her. His place is wrecked and he doesn't look so good. What happens next launches Terry and April into an unbreakable cycle of violence that no one was able to stop--except April herself.

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Resources:

• For pictures of exhibits introduced at trial of the scene of the rape, April's injuries, and more visit okappleseed.org/episode-3-show-notes
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• LA Times article about Don Carlton's bribery scandal: https://web.archive.org/web/20211117194929/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-03-16-fi-34784-story.html%C2%A0
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• TIME Magazine story on Honda scams: http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,3976,00.html
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• Instagram post containing the Affidavit of Federal Judge Claire Egan: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQWQJrUDy-m/
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• Detailed Timeline of Events in April's Case: https://aprilwilkensblog.wordpress.com/2022/02/12/timeline-of-events/
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• Sign the Change.org petition to support April's release: https://www.change.org/p/oklahoma-pardon-parole-board-commute-the-life-sentence-of-abuse-survivor-april-wilkens?signed=true
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• Donate to keep our work going!: neappleseed.org/okappleseed
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• Learn more about Oklahoma Appleseed: okappleseed.org
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• If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at www.thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-7233. You can also search for a local domestic violence shelter at www.domesticshelters.org/.
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• If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at www.rainn.org or call 1-800-656-HOPE.
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• Have questions about consent? Take a look at this guide from RAINN at www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent.
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• Learn more about criminalized survival at www.survivedandpunishedny.org/.
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• Learn more about the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act at www.nysda.org/page/DVSJA.
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• Follow the #freeaprilwilkens campaign on Instagram at @freeaprilwilkens, on Twitter and on their webpage at https://aprilwilkensblog.wordpress.com/.
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Colleen McCarty is one of the hosts, executive director of Oklahoma Appleseed, and producer. Leslie Briggs is the other host who is a civil rights and immigration attorney, and producer. Rusty Rowe provides additional production support. We're recorded at Bison and Bean Studios in Tulsa. Additional support from Amanda Ross and Ashlyn Faulkner. Our theme music is Velvet Rope by Gyom.

Panic Button is created in partnership with Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and Leslie Briggs. Follow OK Appleseed on Twitter and Instagram at @ok_appleseed.

If you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, please join our Panic Button podcast community on Bookclubz at bit.ly/3NRHO8C.

TRANSCRIPT:

Colleen McCarty 00:01

If you're just tuning in, I suggest you go back and start listening from chapter one. Before we start a content warning: this episode contains accounts of domestic and sexual violence. Today's episode is a little longer than usual, we hope you'll stick with us. It's better for the story. If we tell you this chunk all together, the amount of violence, abuse, and frankly astounding acts of coercive control detailed in this episode are overwhelming. So take breaks when you need to. In early December of 1997, April's childhood friend Carrie was struggling. She had an infant child, and she was about to lose her house if she couldn't make the mortgage. April and Carrie had known each other since the eighth grade. When Carrie called April that night near Christmas in 1997, she was in tears. She was going to lose the house; she could lose the baby. Carrie wanted to know if April could loan her some money, just this once, to help her get out of this financial crisis. April's business had been going through bankruptcy. She'd struggled to show up to work the past few months because of everything that had been happening in her personal life. She was in no position to loan her old high school friend any money. But there was one person that owed April money. If she could get the money from him, she could give it to Carrie. The person who owed April money was Terry Carlton. This is Panic Button, Chapter Three: Hostile State. I'm Colleen McCarty,

Leslie Briggs 01:45

and I'm Leslie Briggs. In this episode, we're detailing the months of December 1997 to the night of the murder on April 28, 1998. It's hard to comprehend the chaos that April's life had become by this point. So there may be some skipping around in this episode because there's just so much that's going on. April had been doing her best to stay away from Terry after what had happened with the guitar neck. She was avoiding his calls, refusing to see him. But ever since April had stopped talking to Terry, unsettling things began happening around her house. April was being stalked. She had a prowler. Prowler was visiting her house multiple nights out of the week. There was often evidence of someone inside the house. At night, April would catch the shadow of a man lurking outside her windows. She even heard someone on the roof a few times. Throughout the fall and early spring, she was reporting the Prowler to the Tulsa police constantly. Curiously, the police would arrive mere moments after the Prowler had run off. April was also having problems with her door locks. Of course April suspects the Prowler was Terry, but the police were never able to catch him. And even though the police never managed to catch the Prowler, April's neighbor, Glinda McCarley, testifies about seeing Terry constantly speeding away from April's home in the spring of 1998. Quote, "It was just uncanny. How, when the police were called, his timing was impeccable. He could be in his car and gone just as they rounded the corner and only on one occasion do I know that they got there before we left." But back to December 1997. April, in her desire to help Carrie, reaches out to Terry about money for her friend's family. Terry agrees to pay April some money he owed her and April would give the money to Carrie. So, Carrie, her husband Alan, and April all go over to Terry's house in early December 1997 to get the money. Once at Terry's house, April notices that he's not looking so good. It looked like he hadn't left the house in a while. He had not been taking care of himself. He had no groceries. He looked like a wreck. In any event, Terry writes April a check and tacts on an additional $2,000. Terry asks April to cash the check and bring him that extra $2,000 in cash. He also gave April his credit card and the keys to his car. He asked her to go to Walmart to get him some things - some groceries, bring him some supplies. Bring back the cash, the credit card, and the car. So April leaves with Carrie and Alan and the three of them cash the check. April gives the rest of the money to Carrie and Alan and keeps the $2,000 for Terry. Then they part ways. Then, as instructed, April goes to Walmart at at first and Louis in Tulsa. As April goes into the Walmart, she actually sees an old high school friend of hers, Shannon Broyles, and that's just classic Tulsa. I mean, everybody knows everybody here. It's a big little city.

Colleen McCarty 04:39

It's actually not clear from the testimony if Shannon saw April heading into the store, or when she was at the checkout. April buys all the items that Terry had requested and heads to the checkout stand. The credit card didn't match April's signature, so the clerk asked to call Terry to make sure April had permission to use the card. April gave the clerk his number and then Terry got on the phone. April testifies the conversation went something like this. Clerk, quote, "Are you allowing a miss April Wilkins to use your card today Mr. Carlton?" Terry, quote, "No." Terry told the clerk "No." Even after he had given April the check to cash, the card to buy groceries and his car to transport everything. Terry tells the clerk to hold April there until he can come get his belongings. Shannon remembered that April seemed scared. To quote Shannon's testimony at trial, quote, "It was in the early morning hours and she - she said she couldn't even talk to me after not seeing me a long time. She couldn't stop and talk to me. Because she had to get out of there. She was afraid. She said she needed to leave. Question. All right. Did she say what she was afraid of? Answer from Shannon. Yes, sir. Question from the attorney. Okay. And what was that please? Answer from Shannon. She was afraid that Terry Carlton, she said, her boyfriend, said his name was going to come up there because he was mad at her for I believe it was using a card and for being gone too long."

Leslie Briggs 06:13

So, Terry shows up at Walmart and who drives him there? The Tulsa police officers walk Terry inside and he stirs up a confrontation. He's belligerently saying she's not supposed to be doing this. Despite the fact that Terry is alleging that April has committed the crimes of credit card fraud and auto theft, he tells the officers he doesn't want to press charges and he just he's going to take her home. So the officers leave, and Terry takes April back to his car and drives her to his house. No one in this situation seems to have thought it was odd that the victim of credit card and auto theft by his crazy ex-girlfriend just takes the thief with him to his car, and the two of them leave together. The police simply take Terry at his word. There's no effort on their part to find out if that his report has been made in good faith or if it's utterly false, which if he had made a false report would be a crime on Terry's part. But no, his word is taken at face value by the police. Now on the car ride home, Terry's mood has shifted wildly. April, looking back now, believes he must have been running out of drugs. He had asked her to make a large cash withdrawal while she was cashing that check for Carrie. And she knew the cash would be used to replenish his stash. Here's April talking about what happened at Walmart.

April Wilkens 07:35

He shows up with the police. All I remember is him telling them you know, "I'll take her . I don't want to press charges. I'll take her in." He probably neglected to tell them hey, I wrote her this $2,000 check -or I mean I - it was more than that. I don't remember how much we got for Carrie off hand right now. And tells them, "You know, I'll take her in." I'm just still kind of stunned by it all. I'm like, "Here is your money. Here's your $2,000. It's right there. You know, you asked me to do this." I remember the $2,000, as I remembered and I and I knew he wanted it for drugs. I was drug money cash, right. So. So we got that. And I remember when I got back to his house, that's when I just took off running, you know? And that's when I locked myself in that upstairs room. And it has a - it's an old house and it has a - you can lock it from the inside or the outside. So he locked me in the room and I had the room locked from the inside. It kind of goes blank from there. And I remember - it's - I don't know how long it was in there and that he - might have to go - I may have testified to it. I don't remember how long I was in there. At some point he tries to get in and he can't because I've got it locked from the inside. And that's when he kicks it - kicks it in and comes in. And that's when he yeah raped me at his house.

Colleen McCarty 09:03

As a small aside April and Shannon's relationship seems to be rekindled after they saw each other in Walmart. April begins to reach out to Shannon and tell her about the terror she's been going through. At one point, Shannon drops by April's house to show it to her boyfriend, a former police officer. Shannon rings April's doorbell but there's no answer. Quote, "April didn't answer the door at that time," end quote, Shannon later testifies. She goes to the back of the house and April tells her to come in through the backyard. Shannon, who lived with April their senior year of high school, knew that April was a neat freak. She was shocked to see the state of April's house. The door to April's bedroom had been kicked in and there was broken glass everywhere. And remember in episode one, when we told you that April called someone from her neighbor's house the night of the murder to ask if she could borrow a guard dog? That was Shannon Shannon had a doberman....

Leslie Briggs 10:02

Let's go back to the aftermath from the Walmart incident. Terry is driving April to his house and April and has a hard time remembering all of the details. But she knows that as soon as she was able to she was running. And she was running up the stairs and into the guest bedroom of Terry's house because it has a lock both a key lock and a deadbolt. And the room could be locked from either the inside or the outside. April is utterly terrified. And she knows that Terry's going to hurt her. And for some time, he has her locked inside the guest room from the outside. As soon as he unlocks it to come in, she locks it from the inside. Here's April at trial, quote, "I remember being locked in the room for a very long time. And then I remember you know, I had locked - I had locked him out. And then he locked me in I guess, and then I was there for quite some time. At some point he beat the door and kicked it in and attacked me. He tried to unlock it to come in and when he saw that I had locked it too, he - so he attacked me." Again, just a quick warning that this portion of the episode details another rape. So if you want to skip ahead, now's the time... So Terry is furious and breaks down the door to his own guestroom. He comes in shoves a valium pill wrapped in bread down April's throat. At trial, April's attorney had introduced photos of the doorframe and the door that Terry had broken down and we'll probably drop those in the show notes if we can get them.

Colleen McCarty 11:41

Terry violently raped April and caused vaginal injuries as well as injuries to her lower back. Her neck was also injured. She was drugged, she blacked out. And the next thing she remembers is waking up in the guest bed completely unable to move. She was terrified thinking that she had been paralyzed. She cried and screamed for Terry to call 911. "Please call 911." Terry must have been alarmed because he actually did call. When they arrived, April tells police that she was raped. Terry told the female officer at the scene that April was just one big bruise. The officers handcuffed Terry. So here we are: a critical moment where things might have gone differently. Terry's in handcuffs for the first time after all of April's reporting to the police. He's going to be taken in and booked for raping April. Finally, the system is going to work for her. Finally, law enforcement have the bad guy. Finally, April is going to get some distance and time between her and Terry and maybe she's going to get away, get help, and get out. Except. That's not what happens. Over the radio comes Sergeant Rick Hellberg and order for this officers to quote Uncuff him and just make a report. Terry is released and the officers do make a report. Officers documented the scene taking pictures of the bedroom and of April's injuries to her chin and neck. They drove her to Hillcrest hospital where she got a SANE exam. SANE stands for Sexual Assault Nurse exam. The exam showed signs of rape and sexual abuse including bruising, redness and a laceration. A female officer from the scene followed after to be with April at Hillcrest and then drove her home. April realized that her purse was still at Terry's. April tells us that she asked the officer, quote, "Can you go get my purse and bring it to me?" end quote. She obviously didn't feel safe going to her rapist's house, understandably. According to April, the female officer refuses. She apparently tells April that she will not go back to Terry's house for her purse because, quote, "Terry creeps her out."

Leslie Briggs 14:06

Later that week, Terry showed up at April's house. April testified at trial quote, "He was very concerned about rape charges being filed and my cooperation. He was very interested that I not cooperate. So he was staying very close to me."

April Wilkens 14:21

And that's when Tim Harris makes a big deal out of "Well you were with him." He came and got me; he had this form on supposed to sign this form that it was not rape, that it was consensual sex and, you know, and like and "I'm not signing this." It wasn't consensual and so he was keeping me with him then till I was signing this form, right? Here we go.

Leslie Briggs 14:41

So Terry intimidates April with a form that he's had drawn up. He wants...