Alvin Melleth

A millennial in flannel and jeans, where Greg opts for the jacket and tie.

Jeremy is essentially Greg's co-captain on this case.

He works at a federal public defender office, where he runs a capital habeas unit, CHU for short.

CHUs often get involved in the final run-up to an execution, bringing a whole team of lawyers and investigators on board.

Today's plan is to try to get the local press interested in their mission to test the DNA.

Greg thinks if there are news stories about the problems in David Wood's case, maybe that will push Montoya to meet with him.

So we head to KVIA, El Paso's ABC station.

And it's there, talking to the nightly news anchor, that the lawyers get their first glimmer of good news.

We get to KVIA in the early afternoon.

The place is decorated for Christmas, garland and tinsel everywhere.

The nightly news anchor here is named Stephanie Valle, and she greets us with a big camera-ready smile and walks us into a conference room.

Stephanie already knows David Wood's case pretty well.

A few years ago, she covered the desert murders on her podcast called Borderland Crimes.

Greg heard it and was not a fan.

He thought it made his client sound stone-cold guilty.

But Greg asked for this meeting anyway, so he must think he can sway Stephanie to at least consider his side.

Greg wants Stephanie to do a story where she interviews Montoya and asks him pointed questions like, why won't he take on the case?

And why hasn't DNA been tested?

Greg himself doesn't want to go on camera.

He doesn't want to risk personally antagonizing Montoya.