Episode Three - Tax Day 1993

In this episode, we slow down the night of April 15, 1993, minute by minute.

When did Chapel leave the fire station? Where did he go next? And did he actually have enough time to commit the murder the state said he did?

Using trial testimony, original police interrogation audio, witness interviews, and case records, Episode 3 examines the timeline at the heart of Michael Chapel’s conviction and the accounts that call it into question.

When the minutes matter, what does the timeline really tell us?

Evidence Files: The Rooster

D.E. “Rooster” Stone — Early Statements

Two early records attributed to Sgt. Donald “Rooster” Stone place Michael Chapel at Fire Station 14 substantially later than the timeline later presented at trial.

In the April 23, 1993 record, Stone said he, Brian Reddy, and Chapel went to Fire Station 14 between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. and “stayed until after 2200.” He said Chapel left approximately 20 minutes before he did, either after receiving a call or to check on his gym.

In a separate handwritten statement, Stone said the officers were watching a regular television channel, not cable, and were following storm radar. He specifically said he could not remember what television show was on. He again stated that he left “a good 20 mins or more after Chapel left” and that “it was after 10 PM.”

Together, these statements place Chapel at the fire station much later than the 9:20–9:30 p.m. departure time later used by the prosecution and raise questions about the TV Guide/Cinemax reconstruction used to establish that earlier timeline.

Rooster’s Later Recorded Accounts

In later recorded conversations with Henry Ball and Ryan Stone, Donald “Rooster” Stone alleged that Gwinnett County Police “hounded” and pressured him during the investigation, including, according to Stone, threatening to implicate him in the earlier LongHorn robbery. Stone said he believed Michael Chapel was innocent and that he still loved him.

Yet despite those allegations—and despite his own earlier statements placing Chapel at Fire Station 14 until much later—Stone has consistently refused to recant the 9:20–9:30 p.m. departure time he gave at trial.

He acknowledges the conflict between his early statements and his trial testimony, but maintains that the later time is the one he will stand by.

Captain Ronald Davis — Trial Testimony

Captain Ronald Davis testified that four days after Emogene Thompson’s murder, Sergeant Donald “Rooster” Stone told him that Michael Chapel had remained with him at Fire Station 14 until approximately 10:00 to 10:15 p.m.

Davis confirmed that he documented Stone’s account at the time because it was fresh and potentially important to the investigation. That early account conflicts sharply with Stone’s later trial testimony placing Chapel’s departure between 9:20 and 9:30 p.m. 

                Fire Station 14 Firefighters                  1993 Statements vs. Trial

The firefighters’ statements taken twelve days after the murder generally placed Michael Chapel at Fire Station 14 much later than the timeline ultimately presented by prosecutors.

David Pierce: In his April 27, 1993 statement, Pierce wrote that “at 2200 hrs the movie was over. Officer Chapel put his rain coat on and left.” He did not identify the movie, the channel, or any television schedule. At trial, prosecutor Danny Porter characterized Pierce’s departure time as keyed to the end of the movie, then showed him a TV Guide identifying A Time to Die on Cinemax, scheduled to end at 9:30 p.m.

That reconstruction moved Chapel’s departure approximately thirty minutes earlier than the time Pierce actually recorded twelve days after the murder. 

Robert Sloan: In his 1993 statement, Sloan reported that when he went to bed at approximately 10:30 p.m., all three officers were still in the day room watching television. By trial, more than two years later, Sloan said his memory was unclear and acknowledged that he could not independently say when Chapel came or went that night. 

The key difference: The firefighters’ contemporaneous 1993 accounts placed Chapel at the station until approximately 10:00 p.m. or later. At trial, the prosecution used the TV Guide identification to move the critical departure time back to approximately 9:20–9:30 p.m.—the window necessary for its murder timeline to work. 

Dana Blount 

Dana Blount told investigators that Michael Chapel was at Iron World around 10:00 p.m. She says Burnette and Latty responded by putting her in the back of their car, pressuring and badgering her, and feeding her false information about Chapel. When the defense later tried to let the jury hear how the investigators had treated her, the judge excluded that testimony. And when the jury returned, the defense never asked Dana the question that mattered most: Where was Michael Chapel? Her answer—that Chapel was at the gym during the State’s critical murder timeline—never reached the jury.

              Amanda Kermes Creekmore                Iron World Witness

In a 2023 sworn affidavit, Amanda Kermes Creekmore stated that she was 15 years old on April 15, 1993 and walking through Buford during the rainstorm when she saw Michael Chapel arrive at Iron World in his patrol car. She said Chapel was wearing a yellow raincoat, entered the gym, and remained inside only a minute or two.

Amanda specifically recalled checking her watch because the gym normally closed at 10:00 p.m.; she said it was about five minutes after 10:00. Chapel then came back out wearing his dark trooper-style hat, carrying what appeared to be a bank bag, and drove toward Hill Street. Amanda told her mother what she had seen, but after being discouraged from coming forward, she never became part of the 1993 investigation or trial.

The jury never heard from a second witness placing Chapel at Iron World at approximately 10:05 p.m.—during the State’s critical murder timeline.