Between September and December 2022, a murder-for-hire conspiracy in Mobile, Alabama produced one of the most spectacular criminal failures in recent memory. John McCarroll recruited shooters, provided illegal weapons including machineguns, and directed attack after attack against his target: Milton Carter.

The result? Two innocent people murdered. One permanently paralyzed. Six others wounded. Nine victims who had nothing to do with McCarroll's vendetta.

Milton Carter? Never got a scratch.

Even more damning: the defendants documented their own crimes on Instagram and Facebook—bragging about shootings, mocking failed attempts, and continuing to obstruct justice on recorded jail phone lines.

This is True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. I'm Steve Rhode. This case comes directly from federal court documents, FBI evidence, trial testimony, and jury verdicts.

All details in this episode come from court documents, official records, and sworn testimony.

To stay updated with the latest episodes, join my exclusive email notification list at https://TrueCrimeUnheard.com and get access to the behind the scenes case files.

It was about 2 AM when I realized the Lobster Trap Murder case wasn't what I thought it was. I'd been reading court documents for hours—the victim, the violence, the assumptions. But then I got to the transcripts about the accomplice who got dragged in. She wasn't a criminal. She was trying to help someone she thought cared about her. Bad choices in a moment of misplaced loyalty destroyed her life.

That's what you don't hear on Wednesday mornings.

This week, instead of a case, I'm pulling back the curtain on True Crime Cases You Haven't Heard. How my background as a police dispatcher, morgue technician, 30-year investigative journalist, surveillance photographer, and search-and-rescue pilot (callsign: FIRE DEMON 1) shapes every episode. Why I obsess over court documents instead of trusting summaries. What 20-60 hours of research actually looks like. Why listeners tell me they sat in their driveway because they couldn't stop listening until they knew what happened.

Plus: what's coming next, including cases about emergency response failures and institutional protection of predators.

No AI narration. No sensationalism. Just documentary storytelling with the receipts to prove it.

This episode: 25 minutes of what really goes into the work.

After 14 brutal months in a Colombian maximum-security prison, 71-year-old fashion designer Nancy Gonzalez stood before a federal judge in Miami for sentencing. Her crime? Smuggling handbag samples made from exotic leather to meet Fashion Week deadlines.

In this conclusion to Nancy's story, prosecutors compared her to a "cocaine kingpin" and argued she deserved years in federal prison. Her defense attorneys called it selective prosecution—pointing out that the luxury retailers who sold her bags for thousands of dollars faced no charges, no investigations, and no accountability.

What happened in that courtroom divided everyone who heard it.

Judge Robert N. Scola sentenced Nancy to 18 months—below federal guidelines but still devastating for a woman who'd already lost her son, her business, and her freedom. Meanwhile, 300 Colombian women who depended on her for employment lost their jobs. The couriers she recruited now carry federal convictions. And the retailers? Business as usual.

This episode explores the sentencing hearing, the character letters, the personal tragedy, and the three competing truths that all exist simultaneously: Nancy broke the law. The fashion industry created impossible conditions. And selective prosecution is real.

Was justice served? Or did the wrong people pay the highest price?

📁 Download complete court transcripts, sentencing memoranda, and character reference letters at TrueCrimeUnheard.com

🔍 Research Opportunity: Help investigate luxury retailers' exotic leather sourcing policies at tapyournews.com/tc-research

All facts verified through federal court documents and official records.

Host: Steve Rhode - 30-year investigative journalist, former police dispatcher, SAR pilot

New episodes every Wednesday. Case updates Tuesday & Saturday.