Fright Night by Kris Morris

Now I will tell you about the night that changed my life. this is how it really happened. After I tell you how my trial went and the way the state wrongfully convicted me based on a false theory. After I tell you the truth of things I will tell you how my trial went and the way the state wrongfully convicted me based on a false theory Hopefully, I will prove to you through the evidence and testimonies that my story is the true story of what happened that night. Here I will give you the names of the people involved in my case. There is me, my best friend Paul, and three girls that we know named Kim, Erica and Stacey. This incident occurred at the Shortridge house. At their house was Cliff Sr, Glenna his wife, Cliff Jr their son, and a family friend named Russell who was also their bodyguard.

The day in question is July 11th, 2004. I was with Kim and Erica at Kim's apartment. While at Kim's apartment I called my friend Paul and we made plans of me picking him up and going over to the Shortridge home to buy some pills so we could go drinking and partying that night. After picking Paul up we drove over to Cliff Sr.'s house. Once there me and Paul got out of Kim's car and went into Cliff's house to buy some Xanax pills. Cliff was a friend of mine that sold drugs, was a fence for stolen property and ran a tree cutting service. Once inside the house me and Paul went into the dining room area and sat at the dinner table where Cliff was sitting. This is where we usually conducted business. I asked Cliff if he had any Xanax pills for sale. He said yes and I told him I wanted 30 pills. He told me the price and I gave him the money for them. At that point Cliff got up and walked to the back of the house. He then came back and told me he only had 10 pills on him right now. He asked me if it was alright if he kept the money for the remaining pills until later that night. He said he would give me the 10 pills now that he had and asked if I would come back later to pick the rest up. Cliff and I had a great business relationship so I told him yes. He told me he had just came back from his farm land and wanted to unpack and put his dirt bikes up. He then asked if I would also be interested in some cheap weed that he grows on his land. I told him I was interested and would check it out when I came back. At this point Paul is showing his Ruger 9mm pistol to Russell. Russell is showing his gun to Paul also. Cliff also wanted to see Paul's gun. After checking it out, I noticed Cliff looking for something to wipe his fingerprints off the gun and I handed him my handkerchief. He wiped the gun off and handed it back to Paul. At that point we all got up from the table and Cliff gave me back my hankie. Cliff walked us to the door where he asked who was in the car waiting on us. I told him it was a couple girls I was with. Cliff was the type of person to get angry easily and I could tell he was frustrated at the girls being at his house. He told me, "Don't be bringing no strange bitches to my house anymore. I don't know them, and I don't want to be snitched on by some strange bitches I don't know." I said, "Cool, I won't bring them back to your house anymore."

At that point we left and me, Paul, Kim and Erica went to the bar where we all took some Xanax and began drinking. As we were partying Erica called a friend named Stacey to come to the bar and party with us. She arrived and Paul gave her some Xanax too and we kept partying. When the bar closed at 2:30 a.m. we were pretty much drunk and trashed out of our minds. As we were leaving Paul, Erica and Stacey left in Stacey's car and I left with Kim.

We left to go back to Cliff's house and I told Paul to follow me because we we're going to park down the street so Cliff wouldn't freak out about the girls and we were in two cars now. On our way back to Cliff's, Paul stops off and gets some cigarettes so then our cars got separated. As I got close to Cliff's house I told Kim to park a little down the street where nobody at Cliff's house could see our car. As we waited for Paul to come join us I called to see where he was. When he answered he told me he was coming down Cliff's street and I told him I was in the church parking lot waiting on him. At that moment, he drove right past me and then I heard a real loud gunshot. I asked Paul what the hell he had just done. He said he was just fucking around and shot his gun off out of his car window, the Ruger 9mm. I told him to turn back around and I would walk to the street where I was parked so he could see me and then park his car. As I walked out to the street about three yards I could hear and see the Shortridge family partying on their porch. Paul turned his car around and drove to me and he parked. I walked back to Kim's car and got back in. I was very upset at Paul for shooting that gun off. Paul got out of his car and walked over to my car door as I was telling Kim to take me home. looked at Paul and asked him why he just shot that gun off. He just laughed it off saying he was paying around showing off for this Stacey chick. I told him that I was going home and I wasn't going over to Cliff's because Cliff was going to go crazy about that gun shot. He said, "Come on, Kris I was just playing. We need to get the rest of our pills and check that weed out." Plus, he wanted to go back to his house and party some more with the girls. I told him "NO" I'm going home and he said fuck it he would go get our pills and started walking to the house. At that moment I made the worst decision of my life! I told myself I couldn't let him go over there by himself. For one, Paul barely knew Cliff and also I knew there might be trouble over that gunshot and I couldn't leave Paul by himself.

I got out of Kim's car and started following Paul over to Cliff's. As I got to the porch of the house Cliff's wife, Glenna, was on the porch with some other people drinking and talking. As I got close she said to me, "Go on in, your buddy is already in there." As I walked into the house I walked to the dining room area where Paul was standing talking to Russell. At that moment, Cliff came out of the back area of the house wearing just his boxers. Just for understanding purposes, Cliff is a big time hillbilly and you can catch him in his house just wearing boxers all of the time. As Cliff came to the edge of the dining room area, Glenna came into the house from behind me. As she came in she told Cliff that one of us dumb asses just shot a gun off in front of the house. Cliff looked at Russell and Russell shook his head in reassurance. Cliff immediately started going off. He asked who shot the gun and why, asking if we were trying to bring the police to his house. I tried to calm the situation down by explaining to Cliff that Paul was just playing and kidding around. Then Paul started getting defensive and standoffish. Cliff then started saying, "Fuck both you bitches I will show you how to use a real gun." He told Russell to watch us and then headed to the back of the house. Russell immediately grabbed a gun he had in the front of his pants and started pulling it out. That's when the world and time froze for me. I found myself stuck, feet glued to the ground not believing what was taking place. Stuck in FEAR! Paul, without hesitation, pulled his own gun and started firing on Russell. I can't remember how many times but, it was a lot. After firing on Russell, Paul ran after Cliff in the back of the house. I don't know what happened next because I was frozen in fear in the dining room. I did hear more shots. Afterwards, I asked Paul what happened and he told me he ran to the back of the house because he was afraid Cliff would shoot us in the back as we were leaving if he didn't stop him. He said as he encountered Cliff in Cliff's bedroom, that Cliff's younger son, Cliff Jr, came out of the back room with a shotgun. Paul did not know that it was Cliff Jr. and he was only 17 years old. All Paul knew was that he was a threat to his life. Paul shot Cliff Jr. in the shoulder and then turned his gun on Cliff Sr. as Cliff Sr.'s hand was reaching into a side drawer for a gun. Paul shot Cliff Sr. in the chest one time. The whole time I was standing in the dining room. Glenna even ran past me twice during all of this gathering her youngest son. If not for Paul, I would have been stuck there until the police arrived but, Paul ran back through the house and said, "Kris, come on we have to go." He grabbed my arm to go and we both ran back out to the cars and left the area.

We went to Paul's house and he tried to get me to stay but, all I wanted was to get the hell away. At this point, I was so confused in such a state of shock that I couldn't think straight. Really, I just blocked the whole situation out of my head like it didn't even happen. I told Kim to take me home and she drove me home. Once I got home, I was so trashed and in a state of shock that I just fell asleep. Now that is the true story of what happened that night. It wasn't until the next day that I found out that anyone had died. Russell died and Cliff Jr. died while Cliff Sr lived with a shotgun wound to his chest. I will not go into what happened the next day because it is very hard for me to talk about. What I will say is, I was apprehended and my best friend and co-defendant in this case committed suicide.