April 16, 2025 • 41 mins
This is a three-part podcast series dedicated to understanding how serial killers form, and how we can stop them before they strike again. Hosted by award-winning crime scene investigator Sheryl McCollum, each episode features a guest expert who brings unique expertise into the psychology, behavior, and patterns of serial offenders.
Guest Bio and Links:
David Quinn is a retired Atlanta Police Department homicide detective and a co-host and producer of the true crime TV series "ATL Homicide" on TV One. He was promoted to homicide detective in 2000 and worked on numerous cases for Fulton County. He has over 30 years of experience in law enforcement, including time as a beat cop and a homicide detective. He is currently involved in the true crime series "ATL Homicide," where he and his former partner, Vince Velazquez, discuss their experiences solving some of Atlanta's most difficult cases.
Connect with David Quinn on IG @david.quinn56
Aeman Presley is a currently incarcerated serial killer who is serving life sentences for four murders committed in Georgia. Before his crimes, Presley worked as an actor and performer, appearing in commercials and on television. Now, from prison, he shares his story in an effort to help law enforcement and society understand the psychological trajectory that led to his violence.
Phil Chalmers is a 40 year American Criminal Profiler, true crime writer, and host of the Dennis Quaid owned podcast “Where The Bodies Are Buried.” His live trainings are legendary in the law enforcement world, as he trains police officers, the FBI, probation officers, school administrators, and many other professionals. You may have seen Phil on A&E’s Killer Kids, or Fox’s Crime Watch Daily. He has interviewed hundreds of violent killers, including serial killers, school shooters, mass murderers, family annihilators, and spree killers. Names you might know on his interview list include Charles Manson, The Son of Sam, BTK, The Hillside Strangler, The Gainesville Ripper, The Zodiac Copycat, The Smiley Face Killer, and the Amityville Horror Killer.
Learn more about at Phil Chalmers at his website, on IG @philechalmerprofiler and his podcast - Where The Bodies Are Buried
Resources:
Part 1 - The Anatomy of a Serial Killer: Psychology, Profiling, Prevention
Part 2 - The Anatomy of a Serial Killer: Inside Aeman Presley’s Hunt
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum and Phil Chalmers come together for pt. three of Preventing a Serial Killer. Former Detective David Quinn sits down with Aeman Presley for the first time since their unforgettable six-hour interrogation. For Quinn, this wasn’t just another case; it was the final chapter of a 30-year career in homicide, one that forever changed how he views justice, redemption, and even the death penalty. He reflects on the spiritual moments that guided the investigation, calling them nothing short of divine intervention. Aeman opens up about the pain and trauma of his upbringing, the influences that shaped his descent into violence, and the regret he carries every day. Together, they discuss the human side of tragedy, how community, media, and personal choices intertwine to create paths that sometimes end in darkness, and how, even then, healing and understanding are still possible.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Y'all, this is probably one of the most incredible conversations
that I've had the privilege to witness. Detective David Quinn
interviewed Amon Presley for six hours. Mister Presley confessed to
killing his four victims. David Quinn one of the best
(00:32):
cops in Atlanta history. We have been able to work
together on some cold cases. You know him from atl homicide.
He and Vince Velasquaez. We call them Hollywood and HollyHood
and tonight, HollyHood. Honey is in the house. He is kind,
(00:53):
he is smart, he is gracious, he is kind, he
is kind. He's one of the best people that I know.
He is street smart, but he's got away with people
just this easy connection. He truly legitimately cares. And tonight,
(01:14):
Detective David Quinn and Amon Presley are reunited for the
first time since that interview. Detective Quinn, I'm gonna let
you take it away.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, first and foremost, Cheryl, thanks for having me on
this incredible show you have. I mean, we know in
this business that there are no winners. There are no winners,
but you know, going forward, the future becomes the winner.
And how we respond and we react to these awful situations.
So as a longtime friend, I'm just I'm extra gracious.
(01:51):
I'm glad you have me on your platform. This is
the case that I have to say tragic as it
was my life and it changed a lot of things
the ways I do things. It was my very last case.
I was in my thirtieth year. It was my very
last homicide that I was assigned, and I never knew
(02:12):
it would take, you know, these kinds of avenues. That
five and a half six hours in the room with
Amon Presley, that was one hell of an epitaph on
a career that I've been doing since I was twenty
years old, when i was fifty when we were doing
that interview, Amen.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, I remember every day of my life, every single day.
Are you doing to take a question?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
What's going on? Amen? You know we definitely connected in
that room, and I mean I've always wanted to have
another opportunity to speak with you, probably even meet with you.
I mean, it was a heavy situation and as as
awful as it was, I mean, you gave me all
(02:57):
the truth you had, and you know, all my love
goes to my victims and my victims families first and
foremost I worked for those families and all the cases
I work. But you know, this whole thing in law enforcement,
it's all about healing, and in a retirement space, I
want to be part of that healing, in whatever form
(03:19):
it comes in. So it's good to hear your voice,
my brother.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You take Queen and Field and sure truth be told.
I do have a little sense as a human being,
as a criminal or the you know, as a convict.
I have nothing against him. I have nothing against detecting
Quinn whatsoever, because he was doing his job, and his
job is to serve and to protect, and his job
(03:44):
was to bring justice the killer of these ency of
these innocent victims, and so he was doing what he
was supposed to do in the universe. He was doing
what he was supposed to be doing, Like he was
doing the call. He was askering the calling that God
gave him. And so I have nothing against they talk
with Quinn. But what I want to throw out there,
(04:05):
and and it's kind of like this is healing me
as well, detect because this is almost therapeutic for me.
I just look back sometimes and I give you guys
can take it from here with any other questions of
what you may have for us. But when I look
back sometimes I remember when I was a kid going
up with Chicago and we used to play cops and marbles.
And a childhood friend of mine told somebody did interview
(04:28):
with them one time. And I used to always to
be one of the robbles, you know what, you don't
care be the everybody wants to.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Want to be.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
And we were just playing with water guns then on
the South side of Chicago. And you know, but when
I think about the day to court, Detective Quinn and
I met, and when I think about the first forty
eight of that episode, and to this day, people are
still asking me about that episode. People are still uh
in the ads, Officer, I just and I know, you
(05:02):
know they sat on question. God, you know, you just
never know. Things happened for a reason. But I just
want I just don't know why I had to grow
up and be the bad guy, or why I don't
need to grow up and become the monster that I
became when I was trying to be an actor and
be professional. I just don't.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I just wish I would have never grown up with
those kinds of domes. I wish I would have never
been exposed to climb, criminal activity, guns, gangster or all
the gangster rap music, just gang banging.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's just I just don't know why. I just will
never know. I mean, I guess I will because of ignorance,
my father not being there, you know, us not doing
what we need to do in our communities, the men
not being there. Is an answer, it's just not why.
But I know it's because my father didn't do his job.
The older men in the community didn't do you know,
leave me in the right direction. But it still just
(05:57):
hurts when not when I'm when I seen the episode
of the first Ward is stid, just hurts. Like the
first time I sold me the episode that the technically
that I own called blood lust, I washed And it
just broke my heart to know that instead of growing
up becoming a professional actor, of being a father because
I got kids, or being a husband, I grew up
and became a monster. And I just, you know, this
(06:21):
is just even too, you know, I never I just
have to deal with it every day. So this is
why I kind of find peace and songs and giving
back to the world like this, because if we can
help to understand the roots of violence, like I know,
that it was the way I was raised, the seeds
that was sown.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I was running a lot of biodies, gangster rap movees,
just around a bunch of chillers.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
So I'm come to South Side of Chicago. The Rapper
King one actually the Rapper King bond his father and
now actually rain together, so like we all know about him.
So this this is who I came from, you know.
And it's just like I just know, I just know
it is the violence that what you feed the human beings,
what's gonna come out of us. And so I was
(07:08):
just feared a lot of violence's youth and that's what
that's the only thing I give back to the world.
But now that that's overweight, I'm just happy to be
giving back answers to the world so that we can
eradicate Bonduce and I work on being a better man,
I actually believe it or not. As well, I had
the opportunity to trying to help save somebody's life in
here and in prison, you know, so you know, I
(07:30):
know it's about saving lot what counity was continued. He
continued to probe. He continued to probe my brain as
far as like uh continued he answers, I'll never forget it.
He was like when he said the first time, he said,
help me to understand this, man, help me to understand this.
And he just kept showing me the pictures of the
(07:52):
victims and just explained like, whoever did this right here,
I'll never forget it. Whoever did this right here, whoever
killed this guy is somebody who checked out mentally, someone
who checked out mentally. And I'm sitting there like, oh,
and that's me in the back of my mind, and
whether I could get away with it or not, it
(08:12):
was almost like I needed to confess like something.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, listen, I don't mean to interrupt you, hay'men, but
you know that was a tough day, a tough night
going into warehouse of the morning for both of us.
I mean in that in that situation when we come
into the room, you know, both of us. I'm not
gonna say we had agendas, but we were trying to
we were trying to go somewhere. And if you remember, Amen,
(08:38):
for two hours, we wasn't talking about nothing but life,
like we were talking nothing but life. That that videotape
I still have it on my desk right now. That
that uh that disk. We were talking about your life,
so for me for you to pour out your life.
And you started almost from the crib and you came
(08:59):
all the way up through Chicago, all around the fact
that your father was law enforcement. He showed you no attention.
You know. It was it was almost like I felt
like if I could get my left knee to touch
your right knee, I thought we were going to go places.
And I don't know if you remember it, because you
were you were really grooving, because you know you can
(09:20):
talk right, you know, you long winded right. So so
once I connected that knee, it was almost like I
felt some explosion coming. We would touch it yeary, you know,
we that table was in the room was no longer there,
Like it was me and you in that room, and
we were just floating through the ether, right and you
(09:42):
were just talking. And I was saying to myself, has
anybody ever listened to this young brother? He's ever been counseled?
You know, I raised six kids, two sons, so I
kind of knew the road map. But once we connected
right knee to my left knee, it's like we were joined,
and I knew it was gonna come. I knew it
(10:03):
was coming, so my job was to sit back and
let you just get it out, not to judge you,
because ultimately, and I found that in this business only
our maker can judge es. I'm not judging you. I
feel awful for my victims and their family. It's the
worst thing imaginable for them. And to be a part
of that. And let me tell you something dealing with
(10:24):
you and your attorney. I'm not gonna say her name.
She was amazing. She changed my mind about the death
penalty because it was so much death in that room
that I'm never gonna shake that off. I had never
had a homicide, working nineteen years straight, a murder where
they were focused malice. Murders always for some end, some
(10:45):
financial gain, some personal vendetta. I mean, that stuff really
got in me. I'm not you know, I'm old and gristled,
but that whole exchange got in me, and it was
a good thing. Was my last case. That was his
last case, Amen, As you know that, I remember all
I think. I remember.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Detect Quinn telling me that note because he said, I
got all the way to my last case. I'm getting
ready to retire. He said he never wanted to serial
to kill a case.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Never wanted one, never wanted one. Velaskaz was the serial
killer guy in the room. You know. We started the
same day in homicide, the year two thousand, Me and
Velaskas and he used to get them all the time.
I was like, man, I'm gonna stay here, down here
in the city and just take care of these brothers
and sisters and make sure they're safe and work these murders,
these you know, rudimentary crime scenes and just the nuts
(11:36):
and bolts of the street. And then on my way out,
I'm nine months from getting you know, thirty years is
the finish line. So I'm nine months from getting my
thirty I'm fifty years old. I'm like, Wow, this is crazy,
and this happens, and I hope we can get into
God moments in this case. There were some God moments
in this case. The stuff that was happening on this
(11:57):
case was biblical. Like. The first example is the fact
that we're in a situation where I got nothing, and
I had the brass telling me it's Thanksgiving Eve, We're
gonna let this rest until after Thanksgiving. No media want
(12:18):
it too. This was Thanksgiving Eve when this happened. I
get you. I get the Tommy Mims murder, and I
get the UH and I've got the dory and the
first victim's murder, and everybody wanted to shut it down
for the Thanksgiving week, and I was like, oh no,
I'm not eating Thanksgiving. I'm gonna be out here in
these streets all night. I couldn't get one reporter initially
(12:39):
to come out. Everybody usually comes out of these types
of cases, but nobody wanted to deal with this Thanksgiving,
even though we got the big race, the half marathon,
all that's happening the marathon the next day. Rachel Stockman
is the only one who showed a bit night and
wrote me all night long, spreading the good news, trying
to keep people safe because I knew it was gonna
(13:00):
happened again. And one news reporter hung out with me
all night long, and that's when I gave her and
she she and she onways got the exclusive when I
identified the gun, you know, and what kin we were
looking for. And the other biblical moment was at the
(13:21):
end that I'm skipping across all kind of information. But
in the end, the murder of Karen Pearce, nobody that
was watching everybody was watching on the monitors. Nobody went
all on the because everybody went to see what was
going to happen with me and Haymen. They were sticking
in there. And when he got to Karen Pierce, God
bless her soul. God bless her soul. Nobody, including her parents,
(13:41):
believed that Aiming killed her. Aimon told me he threw
her wallet that he took from her in a dumpster
across the street from his house, his apartment on Memorial Drive.
The trash had already been collected out at dumpster. Her
her wallet was in there. That was the lak nobody,
(14:01):
no people would say, oh, now he's just adding that
white lady. There's no way to happen. How that thing
hung in there and didn't get done with the rest
of the trash. It's crazy. It's crazy. It was malice
murder on steroids, and it was it was. It was awful,
and I just I was. I was married to it.
(14:22):
From the GUIDEA. I knew about the Decab County murder
a couple of days in because I called the cab
and I said, if you had anyone that's urban camping
or in a homeless situation that's gotten killed and they
had one and it was mister mister Goldson. It was him,
and I put that on my pad, but I didn't
(14:43):
still make the connection because it was three months before.
So I just was going off God, Man and energy
and uh, I just wanted to it was. And then
then I had a guy that in the middle of everything,
there's a guy in a homeless shelter that gives a
(15:03):
third party confession to some guy. He comes forward. So
and this guy's fleeing to Seattle, He's going to Washington,
and I got to go track him down. So I
didn't believe he was gonna be the guy, but I
had to. I had to ferret that information out as well. Yeah,
I was giving it to God because I just wanted
whatever this evil was to be off these streets. I love.
(15:25):
I love Atlanta. Everybody knows it. That's my city. I
love it. And I just the killer didn't have a face. See,
I'm not a profiler. I mean, we had an FBI
profiler that nailed this whole thing, but I don't deal
with them. I'm in the stream in the trenches. Let
those profilers figure all that out. I'm following the evidence
and I'm following the stories on the street. I've always
(15:48):
kept my you know, my forensic ladder, a step stool.
I'm very I'm just basic and how I get things done.
It works for me. I love the experts. Like I said,
profile and it stepped in. He nailed it. That was
fifteen days of horror in the city and everybody was shook.
Everybody was scared. And uh but see, I know my lane.
(16:12):
My lane is just to beat those streets.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Hey, I got to jump in here too, because amen,
I want to ask you a question. You said a
little while ago that you had thought about that six
hours with Detective Quinn every day. What occasionally when you're
thinking about that night, what have you thought about saying
to him if you ever got the chance and say
(16:41):
it right now, honey.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I think I don't know if did tell the Quinn
if you remember, but I said it to him that
after the after the interview, after the interrogation, and the
first thing I remember about that night, I didn't even
realize six hours had gone by that fast. My time
showed me to BEDEO. I guess because where my mind
was at that point of time in my life, like
(17:04):
it didn't even say I don't even remember that being
six I didn't even know it's six hours hell bottle,
Hey man.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We didn't we didn't even take a bathroom break. Neither
one of us I got I had a fifty year
old bladder man, and neither one of us left the room.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I don'tn't even I guess because I was oblied at
the time, being a mental individual. It just I just
didn't feel six hours go by at all. And it
feels like to me, it still feels like it was
just ten or fifteen minutes. But at the end of
it all I said, took the technical Do I remember that, Detective,
I say, hey man, I'm sorry, you know, I do
(17:43):
remember saying that, and I do what. I don't mind
saying it again today to detect the queen to you
show to feel to people out there listening. You know,
I'm still regretted that was my contribution to society that,
you know, I grew up and become I grew up
and became a monster, and there's nothing I can do
(18:05):
about it. Sometimes I feel like I, as much as
I hate to say this, it's like somebody had to
be the devil on somebody had to and it's like, well,
maybe that's what God told me for maybe that maybe
the devil told me for this, But I think the
devil told me for this as a youth. But I
believe what I'm doing now, this interview today is what
(18:26):
God told me for the help and get But I
apologiz if I say anything to protechnic quay, I'm glad.
I'm glad that I was stopped because I know that
my mother passed when I was twenty six. That would
be the path that I was on would not have been.
That was not the path that my mother would have
wanted me to can tell you on. That was not
(18:46):
the path that I wanted my children to see me on.
That was not the path that I should have been on.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It what shocked me. And because I never you know,
I've had I don't know, hundreds of interviews on criminal
homicides and you might not remember it. But at the
end of the I don't know if it was still taping,
I don't know what was going on all Right, before
I left the room, you said you told me, and
I never had anybody say this. She said, I wish
you had been my father. I had never heard that
(19:12):
before I had interviewed juveniles, older people, middle you know,
middle of the way. I never had anybody. I never
had anybody say that. And one more, I gotta I
gotta add a context here, but I gotta go through
it another god piece. So, Cheryl, you are the forensic queen,
(19:33):
like you understand the collection of evidence, and firearms evidence
in particular. Right, So the martyr police make that arrest
of aimmen for going through the turnstile without paying. All right,
they're gonna get him for that. He's going down, right,
That's that's how he got caught. He's got the gun
(19:55):
in the book bag. He's going to jail. They haven't
connect did the story I did less than twenty four
hours before on the news, giving up all the evidence,
the box of Blazer forty five caliber ammunition stay with me,
the kind of gun which was consistent of forty five Revolver.
(20:15):
The crime scene tech people ran out of paper bags
to put the ballistics evidence in and they used plastic.
The guy that comes by to calibrate the tasers is
coming by the precinct and he sees this evidence in
plastic bags, which we know firearms evidence doesn't go in. No, no, no,
(20:37):
uh no, glad bags you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Ever correct, And he can see.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
The blazer ammunition in the clear plastic and the gun set,
everything set on the table ready to be transported to
wherever they take their in evidence. And he says, the
only guy in the precinct. That's that five points Marta precinct.
He says, did you all see the story that Quinn did,
because you know my brother used to be a Marty
police officer. Quinn's brother did a story on this last
(21:04):
night talking about that same box of ammunition. Now, if
that had been in paper and they would have went
on to jail for jumping the turnstop, they would have
never seen it. It would have been incorrugated rap. But
because that's the god thing, God got rid of the
got rid of the corrugated bags. Because nobody else saw
the story. The night before I showcased all the evidence,
(21:26):
I had one guy coming by to calibrate the tasers.
He saw the story and bam we were off to
the races.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That is a hand of God moment and the God.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Man I'm telling you, man, I I it just it
was something. I was so nervous when Marta called me
and they said they have a box of blazer ammunitions
in the forty I mean I was buckling at the knees.
It took me an hour to get myself together to
negotiate two blocks of traffic to get up there tomorrow.
(21:59):
Five point pre sink you know what headquarters is. And
I was just I was so nervous. I was nervous.
I ain't gonna lie. I was nervous. I knew he
lawyered up. I just wanted that interview so bad. And
you know, y'ad was good.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah, I want to share this with the Tendy Quinn
and Charlotte Field. Here's the other side of it. I
was at a hotel one night. The hotel I was
even Windings in the three hundred, and I saw the
news come on and they were talking about men's and jankies.
(22:35):
And I saw her explain on the news that these
were brutal murders and there was nothing that the police had,
no nothing. I knew they I'm nick At that point,
I had gotten away or it was everything was cold case.
But I still kept that gun on me because when
I was a teenager had gotten a lot of I've
(22:58):
gotten away with other things back in like the nineties
or whatever, but I was. I don't want to say
I was the scuper criminal in this case, but you know,
I got away with some other tas. But the point
I'm trying to make is this, while I was at
that hotel role, I was watching the Cartoon Network and
snorting colclaine and drinking alcohol in the hotel and I
(23:21):
had the on the counter next to the bed, on
the dresser next to the bed in the hotel room.
I was in there by myself, and I'm watching the
cartoon Network, be a dull swim channel, and snoring cocaine
and drinking alcohol. And I saw the news come on
and they talked about MINIMW. Jenkins and it was just
like a commercial to Bavie. It was like I wasn't
even the same person who had done that, but I
(23:42):
knew there was you know, the police didn't have anything,
and I could tell you to watch the cartoon Network
and commercial came on. I think Scooby Do was something
was on and a commercial came on. And when the
commercial came on, it was like the commercial was in
Vegas somewhere and a slack machine came on the television.
It was like something paranormal or super supernatural like otherworldly.
(24:07):
A slot machine came on the commercial on the whole
on the on the television hotelne and somebody like it
was a cartoon commercial, and the cartoon hand pulled the
slot machine handles, just like in Vegas, and the three
slotting shines, you know, the thing go. The first one
stops and it's like a cherry, you know, just like
on those slot machines, and the third one stops on
the other side, and it's like a cherry, and then
(24:30):
the the second one stops, which is the one in
the middle, and it was a cartoon PicTel over a
revolver fire arm, and all of a sudden, on the
television screen, all these police sirens and stuff start going on,
and I just hear the words murder weapon on the television,
murder weapon. And right there that night, I knew that
(24:53):
I was supposed to get rid of that gun, but
because I was slew in cocaine and drinking alcohol, I
got SATs right, and I never got rid of the gun,
and I ended up leaving their hotel won't and I
moved it to my new Eastern line of apartment with
the fire arm now in the East Atlanta apartment. I
didn't have a television yet because I was just moving
and just getting started and like an air mant with
(25:13):
some kind incense. And so when I moved it to
the eastern line of apartment, by the time the detective
Queinn was in jenjis know to say, Okay, let's put
the gun and the ammunition on the news. That's all
we have. I'm in this my new apartment, and I
can't see the moves because I don't have a television,
and so I don't know that they're broadcasting the gun
(25:34):
and the ammunition on the news. And I saw that
I may have gotten rid of the gun and the ammunition,
and that was the only thing connecting me, but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
It was it was it was discontinued ammunition. They weren't
even selling it on the open market. It was four
years removed from the market. And I'm telling you, let's
just like, let's just quantify this thing for a minute.
So had that gun gone off the proper for a
misdemeanor and a and a and a and a a
BS probation by what I don't know. He was charged with, uh,
(26:07):
the gun even though it was a state case of Famiony.
I guess they would have found out it would have
sat in property, probably never TESTI fired. I mean it
might have just I don't know what MARTA does over there.
I'm not familiar with their with their h procedures, but uh,
that gun just could have got a lot, could have
just been sitting in some uh in some in some
(26:27):
proper unit somewhere.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So Quinn, we can go one step back from that.
If he had just paid the fare, he had four.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Hundred dollars check in his back pocket. I remember that
you had a four hundred dollar pay check in your
back pocket.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And you know what was crazy?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What was even crazy?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And because I got to think about it every day
when I got when I left my apartment that morning,
I was smart. It appears when I was really stupid
on this KVE, but I was. When I left my apartment,
I told myself, when you get to Georgia State train station,
do not go into the train station. We not paying
(27:06):
the fare because you don't know where undercovers are, and
that will be how you get caught with this gun.
Because you know you shouldn't have a firearm to big
get felling, not because of what was on it. Just
I'm gonna convec your fellow. I should have a fire
arm in the first place. So don't go through the
Martle Station train station to Georgia State. Don't go through
the turnstile in Georgia State Training Station without paying. When
I got to Georgia State train station, I grew up
(27:28):
in Atlanta too, so I know it. In Atlanta, if
you don't have the fare, they'll give you a courtesy
pass if you ask them a lader employe or if
bart buzz driving. Hey, when I get to Georgia State
train station, you think you could give me a courtesy
science fall. So I get on the train, and when
I get to art and Funting Station, I was getting
to the banking by Arsenal trying station to cash the
(27:48):
kit and to reload my Martin brutal guard because I
paid you to get on the trail. So I wasn't
even one of these while, you know, on the track.
When I got to Georgia State that morning, my my
plan was to wait, and so the Martyr employees show
up to say, hey, excuse excuse you, ma'am, My sir,
sirh man, can you give me a courtesy signance so
I can go from Georgia State to Arsenal Training Station.
(28:09):
When I get off to the Arsenter Training station, I'm
brought to the region's bank. I'm gonna catch my check.
I'll reload my Martin Breeze card for the week. And
so while I'm standing there waiting on a Martin employee
to show up, I already know don't go in the
train station without paying, because you don't know what undercoverles
are and if you get stuck, you have ANR on one.
And what happens is while I'm standing there waiting on
the Marting employee, I turn around and I see an
(28:32):
old lady. If you look at the videotape when I
got stuck, you can see the old.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Lady right up.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I see an old lady with her trouble grocery shopping bags.
She gets stuck over the time stop and I go over,
being a good samaritan aside from who I really was
going to be a good samaritan said, I go over
and say, hey, ma'am, or do you need help with
your bags? Come on, I help you with your bag.
And I picked up her Kroger bags and let her
(28:59):
go through and handed her Kroger bags, and another lady
getting off the train coming out of the train station
thought that that was my mother, and she's like, hey,
you and your mom need more. She tapped to Martin
Brede card and the Mart of Lakes opened up. The
old lady went on. She took her Croger bags with her,
and I had split second think, Okay, maybe it's not
any undercovers in here, maybe I could just go ahead
(29:21):
to get on the train. And it was the split
second decision that was the worst decision on my life.
And I ended up going into the train station without
paying anyway and being stopped by undercovers. And I moved
that that's how I would be caught.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now, Quinn, I asked Amen what he would say to you?
And now I want to ask you you now have
the opportunity to speak with him for the first time
since that faithful night. What would you say to him?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
What I say to him is out. And I know
Amen has children, and uh, I always was, you know,
he told me had kids in the interview, and I
just hope that you know there was some something positive
happening for those children if if you know, and you
know because I've I raised six kids. I got five grandchildren,
(30:10):
so I have a soft spot for kids. I always wonder,
you know, what happened with those children? Were they okay?
Were they in good situations? You know, I didn't want
them to be part of, you know, some kind of
lack for better terminology, a generational curse, you know, I mean,
is it something? Are they being taken? Are they okay?
That's that's what I wanted to know, if he, if
(30:31):
he knew, because I know Amin is on the healing track.
I've listened to several podcasts with Aiming over the years.
You know, I'm a I'm a podcast homicide junkie. I still,
you know, even though I did it forever, I still
listen to something every day, and I've come across them
a few times. I just always wanted about your kids, man,
(30:54):
how are they?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
My oldest son, his name is Jordan Presley. He's twenty three.
I talked to him earlier today. He remembers the good
day that I was aside from the demons that his
father Russell with and so he still loves me. I
still love him. He's doing great. He's a working young man.
(31:16):
He's driving, he has his own place, he's thinking about
different career paths. And you know, he's one of those
kids that, aside from myself and his mother, that was
raised by his grandmother. So you know, sometimes the grandmother's
the grandparents cant of learn from from the kids he's
growing up in A twenty three, I'm proud of my
(31:37):
oldest son. Now I have a little girl in Los Angeles.
Her name is Amarna Presley and it's spelled A M
A R n A. And her last name is Presley,
like my last name. I don't know I lost my daughter.
She's alive, but I mean she's in LA. And this
was eleven years later. She was like one or two
(31:59):
when I left LA, and now she's twelve and I
have seen her twenty fourteen, and I have no idea
what's going on with her. I just drank from her
and bring to reunite with her one day.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Okay, great, great, that's that's good that I always wondered
about that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well, I'll tell you something, amen. I don't know why
those innocent people had to die, and I don't know
why you had to become a killer, but I will
tell you it's not in vain. It's not what you're
doing what Detective Quinn is still doing, what feel and
what hopefully I'm helping. You know, we're training people, we're
(32:43):
teaching people, We're teaching the next generation of law enforcement
that's going to be able to stop some of these
killers and solve these cases. And we're able to do
it because of information you get. So again, I appreciate
your honesty. I appreciate you coming up on. I appreciate
Detective Quinn wanting to talk to you. I appreciate you
(33:06):
wanting to talk to him. I think it is absolutely
one of the most powerful things I've ever sat witness to,
and to me, this is a hand of God moment
that two people on opposite sides can come together as fathers,
as people that you know wanted to do the right thing.
(33:28):
One couldn't. And there's a lot of reasons you couldn't
name and that you had nothing to do with. But
you know, when I listened to the two of you,
I just get invigorated that we've got more training to do,
and what Phil is put together, I am thrilled to
be able to offer my own department they need to
(33:48):
hear it.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
I'd just like to say that for me, it all
started with and you talk about this in your books
Feel for Me and in your podcast for Me. It
all started in my youth. I was we all start
off as choosing. I remember when I was a kid,
somebody guy that were a friend of my mother's, and
I told one of my other childhood friends and you like,
(34:10):
So I was like, what, man, you don't you don't
care about somebody?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
God? Man, you're wrong.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Man, God is gonna punch you. I had no idea
that I would grow up and become a monster.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
How does that same.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Style grow up to do what I did? So with
that being said, I know how. And it all started
in my youth. To parents out there are raising teenagers,
it all started in my youth. It was the medium,
the music, the poopol on around, the television shows and
the company you keep, and what you feed your children's
(34:41):
brains and what you feed your children, What we feed
the youth in society is what they're gonna give back.
That's where it started for me. Violence And it was
violence that I was said.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So if we get.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
If we get eradicate violence, it starts with what you
feed you, what we feed our kids in.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You just something quick. So the lives of Dorian, Tommy, Calvin,
and Karen, and I call them by their first name.
Is because these people are connected to me for the
rest of my life. That was my last case, and
there's not a day goes by. I don't know why
I don't think about them. It's just, you know, nothing sad,
(35:22):
you know, because I'm a happy person. I love every
sunshine it hits the sky. But those people, you know,
you know, I feel for them, and I just I
pray for their souls and their families healing. I mean,
this is the worst thing could have ever happened. It's
the most horrific murder I was ever a part of.
(35:43):
Yet I was able to be civil, which I am
with all my suspects. But there was just something biblical
about this thing. It wasn't just me. It was a
God moment, you know, wrapped up a tragedy. So I
just I don't even know these people. I just want
people to understand they were good people that left this
(36:05):
earth in a violent way, and I just that's what
my thoughts lie with them.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
And you know, Quinn, this case affected you, but it
affected us as your friends too, because it was twenty twenty.
I'm sitting at the house. The news comes on and
they talk about a homeless man being shot multiple times.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Oh yeah, that was a trigger.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Sleeping on the you know, sidewalk, and I'm like what.
I was like, Oh, man, that's right. And a little
bit of time goes by and we have another homeless
person sleeping in a tent. Then we have a woman shot.
And I reached out to you because I was so
confident this was a copycat, because I'm like, I know
(36:51):
this case, we lived this case, and I mean I
reached out to you and I was like, uh, does
this not sound familiar.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I was a little concerned. I was too. I was too.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
I can't believe I brought this up to you, Cheryl.
How would we talk to Amon presently? I didn't know
you guys really knew him or whatever.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
The first thing I thought about is I've got to
talk to Quinn because.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I got a lot of calls that week. I got
a lot of calls that week.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh I guarantee you know this case, Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And still, I mean, a lot of this is this
is against a homicide detective credo, but this case, in
this case alone, it changed my mind on the death penalty.
It really did, because I'm gonna tell you that I
was ordered when when you're dealing with the capital defender,
(37:42):
you know, they're trying to save the life of their client.
That was Amen's defense team, And they called me numerous
times before the trials, wanted to have a sit down,
because you know, that's their right. They can put that
into the record what they talked to me about. I
refuse to go to office. I was surly, I was indignant.
(38:03):
I mean, I was a complete asshole with them. I'm
not even gonna lie because, like they talking about, this
is a death penalty. You know, I'd never had a
death penalty, but I was like, this fit the dictionary
definition in my mind. And so I got ordered by
the full county judge to go meet with them at
their office. You know, I remember going up there and
(38:24):
I don't know if I even say her name. It's
not what she said. It was her eyes, something that
she was. It was just like she was so sold
for her clients and saving lives. She didn't she knew
it was guilty. It was just the way she presented herself.
She was so dignified about the whole process, so much
(38:46):
so that I went to pH you know what that is.
And I go up to the DA's office and I
tell PS said, look, he's going to plead he played
under the cab stuff because pH would listen to me.
I mean before he you know, out of favor. That
was my dude. And I said, look, let's just let's
let these families heal. It's gonna be an ugly trial.
(39:07):
Let's let's do the right thing here and let him
and let him do the plea l wop. Push this
thing away. It gives these families time to heal. And
he went for it. I mean, we were cool like that.
And it changed my mind. And that's a that's a
whole other conversation, but it changed my mind again on
(39:28):
my way out. So I'd always thought one way this case.
It was a profound impact on the rest of my life.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
In Cheryl, everything you and I talked about prior to
all this happening, you know, it's what we talked about,
the blackmail, shooting people, hard to catch serial killers, you
got to get lucky, uh checked and basically told you
it was a god thing. And they would have never
connected these four murders together because he completely changes mo
(39:57):
O which is what they do.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
That was it that the wallet and the dumpster, a dumpster,
a dumpster that had been dumped, the wallet and the
crazy I don't even understand it, but it was in there.
It would have know. It wouldn't have given any credibility
of this case if that wasn't found. But Aiming produced
all the evidence. That's the best confession that I've ever
(40:19):
and I used to get him, you know, hand over fist.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Excuse to hear from you again. To Quinn and night, bro.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
All right, be strong, Aiming, be strong. I'll be in
touch now that we connected, I'll be in touch with you.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Amen, I will too. You'll get a letter from me soon.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
All right, thank you, all right, brother, take care, I
take care.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Phil Chalmers. I cannot thank you enough for coming on
to Zone seven and I cannot wait to host you
in Atlanta. Son, Honey, Detective Quinn, David Quinn, my friend,
you know, I love you, respect you just can't get
enough of you. I'll tell you were just amazing and
(41:02):
what you gave us tonight, I mean it was just
a sermon and I'm glad I was on the front row.
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
I love hearing your voice and I love what you do.
So your platform is amazing. I love following you. Keep
up this important work is so necessary and thanks for
having me on y'all.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I'm going end Zone seven the way that I always
do with a quote. Your life is fluid, brother, your
life is meaningful. Detective David Quinn
Y'all, this is probably one of the most incredible conversations
that I've had the privilege to witness. Detective David Quinn
interviewed Amon Presley for six hours. Mister Presley confessed to
killing his four victims. David Quinn one of the best
(00:32):
cops in Atlanta history. We have been able to work
together on some cold cases. You know him from atl homicide.
He and Vince Velasquaez. We call them Hollywood and HollyHood
and tonight, HollyHood. Honey is in the house. He is kind,
(00:53):
he is smart, he is gracious, he is kind, he
is kind. He's one of the best people that I know.
He is street smart, but he's got away with people
just this easy connection. He truly legitimately cares. And tonight,
(01:14):
Detective David Quinn and Amon Presley are reunited for the
first time since that interview. Detective Quinn, I'm gonna let
you take it away.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Well, first and foremost, Cheryl, thanks for having me on
this incredible show you have. I mean, we know in
this business that there are no winners. There are no winners,
but you know, going forward, the future becomes the winner.
And how we respond and we react to these awful situations.
So as a longtime friend, I'm just I'm extra gracious.
(01:51):
I'm glad you have me on your platform. This is
the case that I have to say tragic as it
was my life and it changed a lot of things
the ways I do things. It was my very last case.
I was in my thirtieth year. It was my very
last homicide that I was assigned, and I never knew
(02:12):
it would take, you know, these kinds of avenues. That
five and a half six hours in the room with
Amon Presley, that was one hell of an epitaph on
a career that I've been doing since I was twenty
years old, when i was fifty when we were doing
that interview, Amen.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, I remember every day of my life, every single day.
Are you doing to take a question?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
What's going on? Amen? You know we definitely connected in
that room, and I mean I've always wanted to have
another opportunity to speak with you, probably even meet with you.
I mean, it was a heavy situation and as as
awful as it was, I mean, you gave me all
(02:57):
the truth you had, and you know, all my love
goes to my victims and my victims families first and
foremost I worked for those families and all the cases
I work. But you know, this whole thing in law enforcement,
it's all about healing, and in a retirement space, I
want to be part of that healing, in whatever form
(03:19):
it comes in. So it's good to hear your voice,
my brother.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
You take Queen and Field and sure truth be told.
I do have a little sense as a human being,
as a criminal or the you know, as a convict.
I have nothing against him. I have nothing against detecting
Quinn whatsoever, because he was doing his job, and his
job is to serve and to protect, and his job
(03:44):
was to bring justice the killer of these ency of
these innocent victims, and so he was doing what he
was supposed to do in the universe. He was doing
what he was supposed to be doing, Like he was
doing the call. He was askering the calling that God
gave him. And so I have nothing against they talk
with Quinn. But what I want to throw out there,
(04:05):
and and it's kind of like this is healing me
as well, detect because this is almost therapeutic for me.
I just look back sometimes and I give you guys
can take it from here with any other questions of
what you may have for us. But when I look
back sometimes I remember when I was a kid going
up with Chicago and we used to play cops and marbles.
And a childhood friend of mine told somebody did interview
(04:28):
with them one time. And I used to always to
be one of the robbles, you know what, you don't
care be the everybody wants to.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Want to be.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
And we were just playing with water guns then on
the South side of Chicago. And you know, but when
I think about the day to court, Detective Quinn and
I met, and when I think about the first forty
eight of that episode, and to this day, people are
still asking me about that episode. People are still uh
in the ads, Officer, I just and I know, you
(05:02):
know they sat on question. God, you know, you just
never know. Things happened for a reason. But I just
want I just don't know why I had to grow
up and be the bad guy, or why I don't
need to grow up and become the monster that I
became when I was trying to be an actor and
be professional. I just don't.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
I just wish I would have never grown up with
those kinds of domes. I wish I would have never
been exposed to climb, criminal activity, guns, gangster or all
the gangster rap music, just gang banging.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It's just I just don't know why. I just will
never know. I mean, I guess I will because of ignorance,
my father not being there, you know, us not doing
what we need to do in our communities, the men
not being there. Is an answer, it's just not why.
But I know it's because my father didn't do his job.
The older men in the community didn't do you know,
leave me in the right direction. But it still just
(05:57):
hurts when not when I'm when I seen the episode
of the first Ward is stid, just hurts. Like the
first time I sold me the episode that the technically
that I own called blood lust, I washed And it
just broke my heart to know that instead of growing
up becoming a professional actor, of being a father because
I got kids, or being a husband, I grew up
and became a monster. And I just, you know, this
(06:21):
is just even too, you know, I never I just
have to deal with it every day. So this is
why I kind of find peace and songs and giving
back to the world like this, because if we can
help to understand the roots of violence, like I know,
that it was the way I was raised, the seeds
that was sown.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
I was running a lot of biodies, gangster rap movees,
just around a bunch of chillers.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
So I'm come to South Side of Chicago. The Rapper
King one actually the Rapper King bond his father and
now actually rain together, so like we all know about him.
So this this is who I came from, you know.
And it's just like I just know, I just know
it is the violence that what you feed the human beings,
what's gonna come out of us. And so I was
(07:08):
just feared a lot of violence's youth and that's what
that's the only thing I give back to the world.
But now that that's overweight, I'm just happy to be
giving back answers to the world so that we can
eradicate Bonduce and I work on being a better man,
I actually believe it or not. As well, I had
the opportunity to trying to help save somebody's life in
here and in prison, you know, so you know, I
(07:30):
know it's about saving lot what counity was continued. He
continued to probe. He continued to probe my brain as
far as like uh continued he answers, I'll never forget it.
He was like when he said the first time, he said,
help me to understand this, man, help me to understand this.
And he just kept showing me the pictures of the
(07:52):
victims and just explained like, whoever did this right here,
I'll never forget it. Whoever did this right here, whoever
killed this guy is somebody who checked out mentally, someone
who checked out mentally. And I'm sitting there like, oh,
and that's me in the back of my mind, and
whether I could get away with it or not, it
(08:12):
was almost like I needed to confess like something.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Well, listen, I don't mean to interrupt you, hay'men, but
you know that was a tough day, a tough night
going into warehouse of the morning for both of us.
I mean in that in that situation when we come
into the room, you know, both of us. I'm not
gonna say we had agendas, but we were trying to
we were trying to go somewhere. And if you remember, Amen,
(08:38):
for two hours, we wasn't talking about nothing but life,
like we were talking nothing but life. That that videotape
I still have it on my desk right now. That
that uh that disk. We were talking about your life,
so for me for you to pour out your life.
And you started almost from the crib and you came
(08:59):
all the way up through Chicago, all around the fact
that your father was law enforcement. He showed you no attention.
You know. It was it was almost like I felt
like if I could get my left knee to touch
your right knee, I thought we were going to go places.
And I don't know if you remember it, because you
were you were really grooving, because you know you can
(09:20):
talk right, you know, you long winded right. So so
once I connected that knee, it was almost like I
felt some explosion coming. We would touch it yeary, you know,
we that table was in the room was no longer there,
Like it was me and you in that room, and
we were just floating through the ether, right and you
(09:42):
were just talking. And I was saying to myself, has
anybody ever listened to this young brother? He's ever been counseled?
You know, I raised six kids, two sons, so I
kind of knew the road map. But once we connected
right knee to my left knee, it's like we were joined,
and I knew it was gonna come. I knew it
(10:03):
was coming, so my job was to sit back and
let you just get it out, not to judge you,
because ultimately, and I found that in this business only
our maker can judge es. I'm not judging you. I
feel awful for my victims and their family. It's the
worst thing imaginable for them. And to be a part
of that. And let me tell you something dealing with
(10:24):
you and your attorney. I'm not gonna say her name.
She was amazing. She changed my mind about the death
penalty because it was so much death in that room
that I'm never gonna shake that off. I had never
had a homicide, working nineteen years straight, a murder where
they were focused malice. Murders always for some end, some
(10:45):
financial gain, some personal vendetta. I mean, that stuff really
got in me. I'm not you know, I'm old and gristled,
but that whole exchange got in me, and it was
a good thing. Was my last case. That was his
last case, Amen, As you know that, I remember all
I think. I remember.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Detect Quinn telling me that note because he said, I
got all the way to my last case. I'm getting
ready to retire. He said he never wanted to serial
to kill a case.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Never wanted one, never wanted one. Velaskaz was the serial
killer guy in the room. You know. We started the
same day in homicide, the year two thousand, Me and
Velaskas and he used to get them all the time.
I was like, man, I'm gonna stay here, down here
in the city and just take care of these brothers
and sisters and make sure they're safe and work these murders,
these you know, rudimentary crime scenes and just the nuts
(11:36):
and bolts of the street. And then on my way out,
I'm nine months from getting you know, thirty years is
the finish line. So I'm nine months from getting my
thirty I'm fifty years old. I'm like, Wow, this is crazy,
and this happens, and I hope we can get into
God moments in this case. There were some God moments
in this case. The stuff that was happening on this
(11:57):
case was biblical. Like. The first example is the fact
that we're in a situation where I got nothing, and
I had the brass telling me it's Thanksgiving Eve, We're
gonna let this rest until after Thanksgiving. No media want
(12:18):
it too. This was Thanksgiving Eve when this happened. I
get you. I get the Tommy Mims murder, and I
get the UH and I've got the dory and the
first victim's murder, and everybody wanted to shut it down
for the Thanksgiving week, and I was like, oh no,
I'm not eating Thanksgiving. I'm gonna be out here in
these streets all night. I couldn't get one reporter initially
(12:39):
to come out. Everybody usually comes out of these types
of cases, but nobody wanted to deal with this Thanksgiving,
even though we got the big race, the half marathon,
all that's happening the marathon the next day. Rachel Stockman
is the only one who showed a bit night and
wrote me all night long, spreading the good news, trying
to keep people safe because I knew it was gonna
(13:00):
happened again. And one news reporter hung out with me
all night long, and that's when I gave her and
she she and she onways got the exclusive when I
identified the gun, you know, and what kin we were
looking for. And the other biblical moment was at the
(13:21):
end that I'm skipping across all kind of information. But
in the end, the murder of Karen Pearce, nobody that
was watching everybody was watching on the monitors. Nobody went
all on the because everybody went to see what was
going to happen with me and Haymen. They were sticking
in there. And when he got to Karen Pierce, God
bless her soul. God bless her soul. Nobody, including her parents,
(13:41):
believed that Aiming killed her. Aimon told me he threw
her wallet that he took from her in a dumpster
across the street from his house, his apartment on Memorial Drive.
The trash had already been collected out at dumpster. Her
her wallet was in there. That was the lak nobody,
(14:01):
no people would say, oh, now he's just adding that
white lady. There's no way to happen. How that thing
hung in there and didn't get done with the rest
of the trash. It's crazy. It's crazy. It was malice
murder on steroids, and it was it was. It was awful,
and I just I was. I was married to it.
(14:22):
From the GUIDEA. I knew about the Decab County murder
a couple of days in because I called the cab
and I said, if you had anyone that's urban camping
or in a homeless situation that's gotten killed and they
had one and it was mister mister Goldson. It was him,
and I put that on my pad, but I didn't
(14:43):
still make the connection because it was three months before.
So I just was going off God, Man and energy
and uh, I just wanted to it was. And then
then I had a guy that in the middle of everything,
there's a guy in a homeless shelter that gives a
(15:03):
third party confession to some guy. He comes forward. So
and this guy's fleeing to Seattle, He's going to Washington,
and I got to go track him down. So I
didn't believe he was gonna be the guy, but I
had to. I had to ferret that information out as well. Yeah,
I was giving it to God because I just wanted
whatever this evil was to be off these streets. I love.
(15:25):
I love Atlanta. Everybody knows it. That's my city. I
love it. And I just the killer didn't have a face. See,
I'm not a profiler. I mean, we had an FBI
profiler that nailed this whole thing, but I don't deal
with them. I'm in the stream in the trenches. Let
those profilers figure all that out. I'm following the evidence
and I'm following the stories on the street. I've always
(15:48):
kept my you know, my forensic ladder, a step stool.
I'm very I'm just basic and how I get things done.
It works for me. I love the experts. Like I said,
profile and it stepped in. He nailed it. That was
fifteen days of horror in the city and everybody was shook.
Everybody was scared. And uh but see, I know my lane.
(16:12):
My lane is just to beat those streets.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Hey, I got to jump in here too, because amen,
I want to ask you a question. You said a
little while ago that you had thought about that six
hours with Detective Quinn every day. What occasionally when you're
thinking about that night, what have you thought about saying
to him if you ever got the chance and say
(16:41):
it right now, honey.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I think I don't know if did tell the Quinn
if you remember, but I said it to him that
after the after the interview, after the interrogation, and the
first thing I remember about that night, I didn't even
realize six hours had gone by that fast. My time
showed me to BEDEO. I guess because where my mind
was at that point of time in my life, like
(17:04):
it didn't even say I don't even remember that being
six I didn't even know it's six hours hell bottle,
Hey man.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
We didn't we didn't even take a bathroom break. Neither
one of us I got I had a fifty year
old bladder man, and neither one of us left the room.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
I don'tn't even I guess because I was oblied at
the time, being a mental individual. It just I just
didn't feel six hours go by at all. And it
feels like to me, it still feels like it was
just ten or fifteen minutes. But at the end of
it all I said, took the technical Do I remember that, Detective,
I say, hey man, I'm sorry, you know, I do
(17:43):
remember saying that, and I do what. I don't mind
saying it again today to detect the queen to you
show to feel to people out there listening. You know,
I'm still regretted that was my contribution to society that,
you know, I grew up and become I grew up
and became a monster, and there's nothing I can do
(18:05):
about it. Sometimes I feel like I, as much as
I hate to say this, it's like somebody had to
be the devil on somebody had to and it's like, well,
maybe that's what God told me for maybe that maybe
the devil told me for this, But I think the
devil told me for this as a youth. But I
believe what I'm doing now, this interview today is what
(18:26):
God told me for the help and get But I
apologiz if I say anything to protechnic quay, I'm glad.
I'm glad that I was stopped because I know that
my mother passed when I was twenty six. That would
be the path that I was on would not have been.
That was not the path that my mother would have
wanted me to can tell you on. That was not
(18:46):
the path that I wanted my children to see me on.
That was not the path that I should have been on.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It what shocked me. And because I never you know,
I've had I don't know, hundreds of interviews on criminal
homicides and you might not remember it. But at the
end of the I don't know if it was still taping,
I don't know what was going on all Right, before
I left the room, you said you told me, and
I never had anybody say this. She said, I wish
you had been my father. I had never heard that
(19:12):
before I had interviewed juveniles, older people, middle you know,
middle of the way. I never had anybody. I never
had anybody say that. And one more, I gotta I
gotta add a context here, but I gotta go through
it another god piece. So, Cheryl, you are the forensic queen,
(19:33):
like you understand the collection of evidence, and firearms evidence
in particular. Right, So the martyr police make that arrest
of aimmen for going through the turnstile without paying. All right,
they're gonna get him for that. He's going down, right,
That's that's how he got caught. He's got the gun
(19:55):
in the book bag. He's going to jail. They haven't
connect did the story I did less than twenty four
hours before on the news, giving up all the evidence,
the box of Blazer forty five caliber ammunition stay with me,
the kind of gun which was consistent of forty five Revolver.
(20:15):
The crime scene tech people ran out of paper bags
to put the ballistics evidence in and they used plastic.
The guy that comes by to calibrate the tasers is
coming by the precinct and he sees this evidence in
plastic bags, which we know firearms evidence doesn't go in. No, no, no,
(20:37):
uh no, glad bags you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Ever correct, And he can see.
Speaker 2 (20:42):
The blazer ammunition in the clear plastic and the gun set,
everything set on the table ready to be transported to
wherever they take their in evidence. And he says, the
only guy in the precinct. That's that five points Marta precinct.
He says, did you all see the story that Quinn did,
because you know my brother used to be a Marty
police officer. Quinn's brother did a story on this last
(21:04):
night talking about that same box of ammunition. Now, if
that had been in paper and they would have went
on to jail for jumping the turnstop, they would have
never seen it. It would have been incorrugated rap. But
because that's the god thing, God got rid of the
got rid of the corrugated bags. Because nobody else saw
the story. The night before I showcased all the evidence,
(21:26):
I had one guy coming by to calibrate the tasers.
He saw the story and bam we were off to
the races.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That is a hand of God moment and the God.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Man I'm telling you, man, I I it just it
was something. I was so nervous when Marta called me
and they said they have a box of blazer ammunitions
in the forty I mean I was buckling at the knees.
It took me an hour to get myself together to
negotiate two blocks of traffic to get up there tomorrow.
(21:59):
Five point pre sink you know what headquarters is. And
I was just I was so nervous. I was nervous.
I ain't gonna lie. I was nervous. I knew he
lawyered up. I just wanted that interview so bad. And
you know, y'ad was good.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Yeah, I want to share this with the Tendy Quinn
and Charlotte Field. Here's the other side of it. I
was at a hotel one night. The hotel I was
even Windings in the three hundred, and I saw the
news come on and they were talking about men's and jankies.
(22:35):
And I saw her explain on the news that these
were brutal murders and there was nothing that the police had,
no nothing. I knew they I'm nick At that point,
I had gotten away or it was everything was cold case.
But I still kept that gun on me because when
I was a teenager had gotten a lot of I've
(22:58):
gotten away with other things back in like the nineties
or whatever, but I was. I don't want to say
I was the scuper criminal in this case, but you know,
I got away with some other tas. But the point
I'm trying to make is this, while I was at
that hotel role, I was watching the Cartoon Network and
snorting colclaine and drinking alcohol in the hotel and I
(23:21):
had the on the counter next to the bed, on
the dresser next to the bed in the hotel room.
I was in there by myself, and I'm watching the
cartoon Network, be a dull swim channel, and snoring cocaine
and drinking alcohol. And I saw the news come on
and they talked about MINIMW. Jenkins and it was just
like a commercial to Bavie. It was like I wasn't
even the same person who had done that, but I
(23:42):
knew there was you know, the police didn't have anything,
and I could tell you to watch the cartoon Network
and commercial came on. I think Scooby Do was something
was on and a commercial came on. And when the
commercial came on, it was like the commercial was in
Vegas somewhere and a slack machine came on the television.
It was like something paranormal or super supernatural like otherworldly.
(24:07):
A slot machine came on the commercial on the whole
on the on the television hotelne and somebody like it
was a cartoon commercial, and the cartoon hand pulled the
slot machine handles, just like in Vegas, and the three
slotting shines, you know, the thing go. The first one
stops and it's like a cherry, you know, just like
on those slot machines, and the third one stops on
the other side, and it's like a cherry, and then
(24:30):
the the second one stops, which is the one in
the middle, and it was a cartoon PicTel over a
revolver fire arm, and all of a sudden, on the
television screen, all these police sirens and stuff start going on,
and I just hear the words murder weapon on the television,
murder weapon. And right there that night, I knew that
(24:53):
I was supposed to get rid of that gun, but
because I was slew in cocaine and drinking alcohol, I
got SATs right, and I never got rid of the gun,
and I ended up leaving their hotel won't and I
moved it to my new Eastern line of apartment with
the fire arm now in the East Atlanta apartment. I
didn't have a television yet because I was just moving
and just getting started and like an air mant with
(25:13):
some kind incense. And so when I moved it to
the eastern line of apartment, by the time the detective
Queinn was in jenjis know to say, Okay, let's put
the gun and the ammunition on the news. That's all
we have. I'm in this my new apartment, and I
can't see the moves because I don't have a television,
and so I don't know that they're broadcasting the gun
(25:34):
and the ammunition on the news. And I saw that
I may have gotten rid of the gun and the ammunition,
and that was the only thing connecting me, but I didn't.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
It was it was it was discontinued ammunition. They weren't
even selling it on the open market. It was four
years removed from the market. And I'm telling you, let's
just like, let's just quantify this thing for a minute.
So had that gun gone off the proper for a
misdemeanor and a and a and a and a a
BS probation by what I don't know. He was charged with, uh,
(26:07):
the gun even though it was a state case of Famiony.
I guess they would have found out it would have
sat in property, probably never TESTI fired. I mean it
might have just I don't know what MARTA does over there.
I'm not familiar with their with their h procedures, but uh,
that gun just could have got a lot, could have
just been sitting in some uh in some in some
(26:27):
proper unit somewhere.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So Quinn, we can go one step back from that.
If he had just paid the fare, he had four.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Hundred dollars check in his back pocket. I remember that
you had a four hundred dollar pay check in your
back pocket.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And you know what was crazy?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
What was even crazy?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
And because I got to think about it every day
when I got when I left my apartment that morning,
I was smart. It appears when I was really stupid
on this KVE, but I was. When I left my apartment,
I told myself, when you get to Georgia State train station,
do not go into the train station. We not paying
(27:06):
the fare because you don't know where undercovers are, and
that will be how you get caught with this gun.
Because you know you shouldn't have a firearm to big
get felling, not because of what was on it. Just
I'm gonna convec your fellow. I should have a fire
arm in the first place. So don't go through the
Martle Station train station to Georgia State. Don't go through
the turnstile in Georgia State Training Station without paying. When
I got to Georgia State train station, I grew up
(27:28):
in Atlanta too, so I know it. In Atlanta, if
you don't have the fare, they'll give you a courtesy
pass if you ask them a lader employe or if
bart buzz driving. Hey, when I get to Georgia State
train station, you think you could give me a courtesy
science fall. So I get on the train, and when
I get to art and Funting Station, I was getting
to the banking by Arsenal trying station to cash the
(27:48):
kit and to reload my Martin brutal guard because I
paid you to get on the trail. So I wasn't
even one of these while, you know, on the track.
When I got to Georgia State that morning, my my
plan was to wait, and so the Martyr employees show
up to say, hey, excuse excuse you, ma'am, My sir,
sirh man, can you give me a courtesy signance so
I can go from Georgia State to Arsenal Training Station.
(28:09):
When I get off to the Arsenter Training station, I'm
brought to the region's bank. I'm gonna catch my check.
I'll reload my Martin Breeze card for the week. And
so while I'm standing there waiting on a Martin employee
to show up, I already know don't go in the
train station without paying, because you don't know what undercoverles
are and if you get stuck, you have ANR on one.
And what happens is while I'm standing there waiting on
the Marting employee, I turn around and I see an
(28:32):
old lady. If you look at the videotape when I
got stuck, you can see the old.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Lady right up.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I see an old lady with her trouble grocery shopping bags.
She gets stuck over the time stop and I go over,
being a good samaritan aside from who I really was
going to be a good samaritan said, I go over
and say, hey, ma'am, or do you need help with
your bags? Come on, I help you with your bag.
And I picked up her Kroger bags and let her
(28:59):
go through and handed her Kroger bags, and another lady
getting off the train coming out of the train station
thought that that was my mother, and she's like, hey,
you and your mom need more. She tapped to Martin
Brede card and the Mart of Lakes opened up. The
old lady went on. She took her Croger bags with her,
and I had split second think, Okay, maybe it's not
any undercovers in here, maybe I could just go ahead
(29:21):
to get on the train. And it was the split
second decision that was the worst decision on my life.
And I ended up going into the train station without
paying anyway and being stopped by undercovers. And I moved
that that's how I would be caught.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now, Quinn, I asked Amen what he would say to you?
And now I want to ask you you now have
the opportunity to speak with him for the first time
since that faithful night. What would you say to him?
Speaker 2 (29:48):
What I say to him is out. And I know
Amen has children, and uh, I always was, you know,
he told me had kids in the interview, and I
just hope that you know there was some something positive
happening for those children if if you know, and you
know because I've I raised six kids. I got five grandchildren,
(30:10):
so I have a soft spot for kids. I always wonder,
you know, what happened with those children? Were they okay?
Were they in good situations? You know, I didn't want
them to be part of, you know, some kind of
lack for better terminology, a generational curse, you know, I mean,
is it something? Are they being taken? Are they okay?
That's that's what I wanted to know, if he, if
(30:31):
he knew, because I know Amin is on the healing track.
I've listened to several podcasts with Aiming over the years.
You know, I'm a I'm a podcast homicide junkie. I still,
you know, even though I did it forever, I still
listen to something every day, and I've come across them
a few times. I just always wanted about your kids, man,
(30:54):
how are they?
Speaker 3 (30:55):
My oldest son, his name is Jordan Presley. He's twenty three.
I talked to him earlier today. He remembers the good
day that I was aside from the demons that his
father Russell with and so he still loves me. I
still love him. He's doing great. He's a working young man.
(31:16):
He's driving, he has his own place, he's thinking about
different career paths. And you know, he's one of those
kids that, aside from myself and his mother, that was
raised by his grandmother. So you know, sometimes the grandmother's
the grandparents cant of learn from from the kids he's
growing up in A twenty three, I'm proud of my
(31:37):
oldest son. Now I have a little girl in Los Angeles.
Her name is Amarna Presley and it's spelled A M
A R n A. And her last name is Presley,
like my last name. I don't know I lost my daughter.
She's alive, but I mean she's in LA. And this
was eleven years later. She was like one or two
(31:59):
when I left LA, and now she's twelve and I
have seen her twenty fourteen, and I have no idea
what's going on with her. I just drank from her
and bring to reunite with her one day.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Okay, great, great, that's that's good that I always wondered
about that.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Well, I'll tell you something, amen. I don't know why
those innocent people had to die, and I don't know
why you had to become a killer, but I will
tell you it's not in vain. It's not what you're
doing what Detective Quinn is still doing, what feel and
what hopefully I'm helping. You know, we're training people, we're
(32:43):
teaching people, We're teaching the next generation of law enforcement
that's going to be able to stop some of these
killers and solve these cases. And we're able to do
it because of information you get. So again, I appreciate
your honesty. I appreciate you coming up on. I appreciate
Detective Quinn wanting to talk to you. I appreciate you
(33:06):
wanting to talk to him. I think it is absolutely
one of the most powerful things I've ever sat witness to,
and to me, this is a hand of God moment
that two people on opposite sides can come together as fathers,
as people that you know wanted to do the right thing.
(33:28):
One couldn't. And there's a lot of reasons you couldn't
name and that you had nothing to do with. But
you know, when I listened to the two of you,
I just get invigorated that we've got more training to do,
and what Phil is put together, I am thrilled to
be able to offer my own department they need to
(33:48):
hear it.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
I'd just like to say that for me, it all
started with and you talk about this in your books
Feel for Me and in your podcast for Me. It
all started in my youth. I was we all start
off as choosing. I remember when I was a kid,
somebody guy that were a friend of my mother's, and
I told one of my other childhood friends and you like,
(34:10):
So I was like, what, man, you don't you don't
care about somebody?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
God? Man, you're wrong.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Man, God is gonna punch you. I had no idea
that I would grow up and become a monster.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
How does that same.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Style grow up to do what I did? So with
that being said, I know how. And it all started
in my youth. To parents out there are raising teenagers,
it all started in my youth. It was the medium,
the music, the poopol on around, the television shows and
the company you keep, and what you feed your children's
(34:41):
brains and what you feed your children, What we feed
the youth in society is what they're gonna give back.
That's where it started for me. Violence And it was
violence that I was said.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
So if we get.
Speaker 3 (34:54):
If we get eradicate violence, it starts with what you
feed you, what we feed our kids in.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
You just something quick. So the lives of Dorian, Tommy, Calvin,
and Karen, and I call them by their first name.
Is because these people are connected to me for the
rest of my life. That was my last case, and
there's not a day goes by. I don't know why
I don't think about them. It's just, you know, nothing sad,
(35:22):
you know, because I'm a happy person. I love every
sunshine it hits the sky. But those people, you know,
you know, I feel for them, and I just I
pray for their souls and their families healing. I mean,
this is the worst thing could have ever happened. It's
the most horrific murder I was ever a part of.
(35:43):
Yet I was able to be civil, which I am
with all my suspects. But there was just something biblical
about this thing. It wasn't just me. It was a
God moment, you know, wrapped up a tragedy. So I
just I don't even know these people. I just want
people to understand they were good people that left this
(36:05):
earth in a violent way, and I just that's what
my thoughts lie with them.
Speaker 1 (36:11):
And you know, Quinn, this case affected you, but it
affected us as your friends too, because it was twenty twenty.
I'm sitting at the house. The news comes on and
they talk about a homeless man being shot multiple times.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
Oh yeah, that was a trigger.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
Sleeping on the you know, sidewalk, and I'm like what.
I was like, Oh, man, that's right. And a little
bit of time goes by and we have another homeless
person sleeping in a tent. Then we have a woman shot.
And I reached out to you because I was so
confident this was a copycat, because I'm like, I know
(36:51):
this case, we lived this case, and I mean I
reached out to you and I was like, uh, does
this not sound familiar.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I was a little concerned. I was too. I was too.
Speaker 5 (37:03):
I can't believe I brought this up to you, Cheryl.
How would we talk to Amon presently? I didn't know
you guys really knew him or whatever.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
The first thing I thought about is I've got to
talk to Quinn because.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I got a lot of calls that week. I got
a lot of calls that week.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Oh I guarantee you know this case, Cheryl.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
And still, I mean, a lot of this is this
is against a homicide detective credo, but this case, in
this case alone, it changed my mind on the death penalty.
It really did, because I'm gonna tell you that I
was ordered when when you're dealing with the capital defender,
(37:42):
you know, they're trying to save the life of their client.
That was Amen's defense team, And they called me numerous
times before the trials, wanted to have a sit down,
because you know, that's their right. They can put that
into the record what they talked to me about. I
refuse to go to office. I was surly, I was indignant.
(38:03):
I mean, I was a complete asshole with them. I'm
not even gonna lie because, like they talking about, this
is a death penalty. You know, I'd never had a
death penalty, but I was like, this fit the dictionary
definition in my mind. And so I got ordered by
the full county judge to go meet with them at
their office. You know, I remember going up there and
(38:24):
I don't know if I even say her name. It's
not what she said. It was her eyes, something that
she was. It was just like she was so sold
for her clients and saving lives. She didn't she knew
it was guilty. It was just the way she presented herself.
She was so dignified about the whole process, so much
(38:46):
so that I went to pH you know what that is.
And I go up to the DA's office and I
tell PS said, look, he's going to plead he played
under the cab stuff because pH would listen to me.
I mean before he you know, out of favor. That
was my dude. And I said, look, let's just let's
let these families heal. It's gonna be an ugly trial.
(39:07):
Let's let's do the right thing here and let him
and let him do the plea l wop. Push this
thing away. It gives these families time to heal. And
he went for it. I mean, we were cool like that.
And it changed my mind. And that's a that's a
whole other conversation, but it changed my mind again on
(39:28):
my way out. So I'd always thought one way this case.
It was a profound impact on the rest of my life.
Speaker 5 (39:35):
In Cheryl, everything you and I talked about prior to
all this happening, you know, it's what we talked about,
the blackmail, shooting people, hard to catch serial killers, you
got to get lucky, uh checked and basically told you
it was a god thing. And they would have never
connected these four murders together because he completely changes mo
(39:57):
O which is what they do.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
That was it that the wallet and the dumpster, a dumpster,
a dumpster that had been dumped, the wallet and the
crazy I don't even understand it, but it was in there.
It would have know. It wouldn't have given any credibility
of this case if that wasn't found. But Aiming produced
all the evidence. That's the best confession that I've ever
(40:19):
and I used to get him, you know, hand over fist.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Excuse to hear from you again. To Quinn and night, bro.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
All right, be strong, Aiming, be strong. I'll be in
touch now that we connected, I'll be in touch with you.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Amen, I will too. You'll get a letter from me soon.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
All right, thank you, all right, brother, take care, I
take care.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Phil Chalmers. I cannot thank you enough for coming on
to Zone seven and I cannot wait to host you
in Atlanta. Son, Honey, Detective Quinn, David Quinn, my friend,
you know, I love you, respect you just can't get
enough of you. I'll tell you were just amazing and
(41:02):
what you gave us tonight, I mean it was just
a sermon and I'm glad I was on the front row.
I appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
I love hearing your voice and I love what you do.
So your platform is amazing. I love following you. Keep
up this important work is so necessary and thanks for
having me on y'all.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
I'm going end Zone seven the way that I always
do with a quote. Your life is fluid, brother, your
life is meaningful. Detective David Quinn
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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