She's So Cold, The Stephanie Crowe Murder Case - Second Edition
A Defense Attorney’s Inside Story of coerced confessions of innocent teenage boys.

Publication date: January 21, 2021, J&E Publications

This second edition has been revised and updated to highlight the relevancy of this case to current police and justice-system reform efforts and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Think this couldn’t happen to your family? Think again.

In January 1998, the small town of Escondido, California, woke up to the breaking news that 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe had been brutally stabbed to death in her own bedroom. Her lifeless body had been discovered about 6:30 a.m. by her grandmother.

The Escondido police, finding no physical evidence that could lead them to the killer, began questioning Stephanie’s older brother, Michael Crowe, and two of his friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. At the time, all of the boys were 14 years old. Michael was at home at the time of the murder, which police believed occurred while the family slept. Joshua and Aaron said they were at their homes, several miles away.  

             Following long hours of intense interrogation that stretched well into the night, Michael, then Joshua, “confessed” to the murder. Aaron maintained his claim of innocence. Although the boys had been advised of their right to remain silent and to be represented by an attorney, they waived their rights. They (and their parents) naively believed that because they were innocent, they had nothing to fear. Three weeks after the murder, all three boys were arrested, charged with murder, and held in juvenile hall.

             Because they were juveniles, San Diego County Juvenile Court held a fitness hearing to determine if the boys could be tried as adults. During the hearing, which went on for three weeks, the three defense attorneys—including Donald McInnis, the author—argued that the confessions were coerced by detectives, who had used a well-known psychologically manipulative questioning process specifically designed to obtain confessions from suspects. Even so, the court ruled the boys would stand trial for murder as adults in Superior Court. They faced life sentences.

             She’s So Cold guides the reader through the twists and turns of a gripping real-life mystery that changed forever the lives of fifteen people and cost a district attorney his job.

             In an effort to prevent this type of injustice from occurring to others, the author has proposed a new Miranda warning specifically worded for juveniles, as well as a Children’s Bill of Rights. Both are detailed in the book’s appendices, and are the subject of two law journal articles written by the author. These reforms would require a parent to be present during questioning, and would require an attorney be consulted before any rights are waived.