Proof: A True Crime Podcast · Red Marble Media

Murder at the Bike Shop | Ep. 5 – SAFARI SAFARI

·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

Prosecutor Stuart Fenton claimed Stacey knew about stolen bank bags, but they were found intact at the crime scene.

Scott Baldwin was convicted in 1988 for the murder of Earl O'Byrne, who was killed at a bicycle shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where both men worked. The reporters on this podcast have been building a case that the conviction rests on faulty witness testimony and prosecutorial choices that did not withstand scrutiny. This episode focuses tightly on four witnesses whose accounts shaped the trial. Stacey is described as the prosecution's most important witness: she testified that Scott confessed to her, and her account includes specific details about placing flowers at the crime scene at a time when she claimed to have spoken to him. The reporters reconstruct the timeline and argue that the sequence of events Stacey described is physically impossible given the documented movements of other people and the distances involved. James Long testified that he saw Earl O'Byrne walking outside near the bike shop late on the night of the murder. The reporters examine Long's account in detail and find it unverifiable — no corroborating witness, no physical evidence, no documentation — and note his claim contradicts the known timeline of Earl's evening. Amy Kennedy testified that Scott threatened Earl's life out loud, on a daily basis, at the shop. Hollis Vanderloon, who worked alongside Scott at the shop and was present for virtually all of Scott's working hours, says he never once heard Scott threaten Earl. The reporters treat Vanderloon's account as materially significant. Virginia Bice gave investigators a CD of the song Butterfly by Tapping the Vein, claiming it reflected Scott's state of mind. Prosecutor Fenton reportedly read the lyrics as a confession. The reporters examine what the song actually says and the logical gap required to treat it as incriminating. The episode closes by introducing Hyland Sterling, a man with a connection to the bike shop whose case the reporters say will be central to the episodes that follow.

As heard by us

A courtroom-heavy true-crime hour that makes Butterfly the sharpest point of dispute.

The hour centers Scott Baldwin's murder trial and Stuart Fenton's closing argument, using Butterfly, Virginia Bice, and the trial transcripts to build the case for guilt.

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Why you'd press play

You want a murder case where one song becomes the prosecution's central theory.

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