The Best Theory

It’s strange how theories have come to dominate to criminal justice system. We would like our detectives to be like Sherlock Holmes, who as a fictional character, would solve all crimes from his second floor window on 221B Baker Street, while smoking his huge pipe. Law And Order, the TV series not only solves the crime within 60 minutes, but even conducts the entire trial.

In real life, all over America, it is much different. Actual crimes are not easily solved unless there is a a confession or a smoking gun in the suspect’s hand. Convicting someone can become hard, so hard that the “system” has become lazy, so lazy in fact they now only have to invent a “theory” that can be sold to a jury. Often, this is not so hard to do. There are hundreds of innocent people who have been set free by the Innocence Project, who were put in prison based on theories.

Becker County convicted Kenneth Andersen based only on a theory that Ken shot his best friend in the back twice for fear Chad Swedberg would testify against him in a theft trial involving a stolen ATV. This still remains a theory as the trial and testimony never took place.  Based on the evidence the prosecution presented I have a different theory. I admit I was not there to witness what happened, so I am just as qualified as Mike Fritz or Al Zdrazil to formulate as to what may have happened. The difference is I don’t have to prove an agenda. Here are what the testimony of Leslie Fain, Ken Swedberg, Al Baker, and Thomas Covington strongly say as to what happened on April 13, 2007.

Chad Swedberg was under tremendous pressure by April 2207. His friend, Ken Andersen, was trying to borrow money to help him financially. The trial concerning the theft of the ATV was in a few days and it may be shown he was responsible instead of Ken Andersen, and there goes the main source of income to the house. Chad and Thomas Covington were on bad terms and Chad had only recently allowed him to move back in. Tommy had threatened Chad with murder before,  as he had demonstrated by shooting his cousin in their living room.

Devon Green hears a domestic 911 call. It is cancelled and there is no record because the system was down that day.  I believe that Chad and Tommy were arguing and it got out of hand. I believe Tommy shot Chad and the house tried to cover it up. This explains why Leslie Fain says it took 2 hours to call 911. They could not say the shots were heard at 9:58am and then call 911. Neighbors heard shots before 8am. Leslie calls Ken Swedberg. Al Baker shows up at the the maple stand and there is no Chad. He comes to the house at the time Ken Swedberg arrives. There is Chad. Leslie hurries Thomas Covington on the bus and they go to work carrying Chad out to the maple stand. He is dumped there in a strange position. Leslie has the foresight to even sit down and write a check to double his life insurance. She calls 911 and they begin their tale of lies.

Guess what? They got very lucky.

All of these people faked outrage and grief which was pretty easy as the shock of Tommy’s action was fresh on their minds. Chad was dead. They hoped the police would think Chad was killed by a stranger out there in the woods.  They had plenty to worry about but all that was unfounded. The police would never search the house for clues. They would let  Ken Swedberg controll the crime scene and destroy all clues. They would let him drive them around the lake “looking for clues.” They never tested anyone with a paraffin test to see if they fired a gun that day.  These people were lucky enough to have Joe and John McArthur on the case. These men hated Ken Andersen enough to plant evidence, even though the bullets wouldn’t match.

They got even luckier with an all white jury who were simply presented with an “Indian Killed A White Man” theory.  It didn’t matter that Ken Andersen had an alibi and none of them did. All that mattered was that Mike Fritz and Al Zdrazil said he did it. They taped the phone calls between Ken Andersen and his attorney, which is against the law and the constitution, in hopes Ken might say anything that could be used against him (he didn’t). They let the jury talk to the community and did not declare a mistrial. The odds of this happening should be a million to one. Still it did.

Sherlock Holmes could have figured this out easy. Why is Ken Andersen in prison?