Morgan Absher

And which side are you going to take?

Yeah.

If you don't get on the state side, you're going to jail.

Yeah.

And so she picked T. Missouri.

She did not want to go to jail for this.

And in exchange for immunity, she told the detectives everything she knew.

As word spread about Lindley's arrest, there was a lot of outrage in the snake lover community.

Fellow breeders had rallied around Lindley and her children after Ben's death.

They raised $40,000 for her.

That's a lot of money.

And now Ben's fans were realizing that they may have sent their money to ultimately his killer.

Ben's friends and fans would have to wait a while for justice, though, because first, Michael Humphrey had to go to trial.

And also there was a global pandemic because that was around the time that COVID happened.

On February 19th, 2020, Michael was officially charged with one count of first degree murder and one count of armed criminal action.

And a few weeks later, COVID happened and it shut down the courts.

Jury selection for Michael's trial officially began, get this, on October 14th, 2021.

That was more than four years after Ben's murder and over a year and a half after everything got started for his trial.

And the trial started just four days later on October 18th.

Michael's defense attorneys pointed the finger at Lindley.