OKLAHOMA CITY – Richard Glossip is sitting on Oklahoma’s death row for a crime he says he didn’t commit, although a jury decided he deserved death for the murder of Barry Van Treese.
Now, a new documentary takes another look at the alleged motive of the crime.
Glossip’s legal team has been investigating the evidence from Glossip’s case.
Prosecutors said Glossip wanted Van Treese killed because he’d been embezzling money from him.
But now an expert says based on what she’s analyzed, that theory doesn’t add up.
Glossip is set to be executed as early as this summer.
Glossip’s attorneys asked a forensic accountant to review all the financial records from the case.
Van Treese’s wife, Donna, had testified at trial that her records showed $6,100 were missing and alleged Glossip had stolen it.
“Donna Van Treese’s computation is an average daily rental times the number of rooms for the month. That calculation is a projected figure. It’s not a real amount,” forensic accountant Pamela Kerr said.
Two sets of numbers were given to prosecutors: the projected income and the actual income.
The difference between those is $6,107.
“The difference is not an embezzlement. It’s the difference between your projections and your revenue,” Kerr said.
Prosecutors stand by their theory that Glossip paid Justin Sneed to kill Van Treese because he’d found out about the alleged embezzlement.
“First of all, I would say this case clearly merits the death penalty. The weakness in this case to this day is, Glossip never laid a hand on Barry Van Treese,” former prosecutor Gary Ackley told Investigation Discovery.
“A first year accounting student would probably be able to look at this schedule and say that doesn’t make sense. You’re comparing projected revenue to real revenue. That’s not a calculation of embezzlement,” Kerr said.
KFOR reached out to Donna Van Treese Wednesday but never heard back.
“Killing Richard Glossip” airs April 17 and 18th on Investigation Discovery.
Anyone with new information in the case is asked to contact Glossip’s legal time at 844-540-0171 and richardglossip.com