Netflix’s new true-crime show Making a Murderer condenses three decades’ worth of legal drama into ten episodes, meaning there’s a lot pertaining to the case of Steven Avery that gets left out. But the prosecutor who convicted Avery of a murder Avery claims he did not commit is now accusing the directors of omitting crucial evidence pointing to Avery’s guilt. Ken Kratz, speaking to People, says that records of Teresa Halbach’s fear of Avery were not shown, and that not all crime-scene evidence was mentioned. “You don’t want to muddy up a perfectly good conspiracy movie with what actually happened,†he says, “and certainly not provide the audience with the evidence the jury considered to reject that claim.â€
He specifically claims that Avery “targeted†Halbach, and that she told her employer she was “scared of him.†He cites phone calls from Avery to Halbach’s employer and her personal phone on the day of her murder, non-blood DNA belonging to Avery found underneath the hood of Halbach’s car, and a bullet with Halbach’s DNA on it recovered from a rifle owned by Avery as evidence that the show should’ve included. “[Halbach’s murder] was planned weeks ahead of time,†Kratz says. “[Avery] asked for that same girl to be sent. He was ready for her.â€
Directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos have responded to similar claims Kratz has made, telling BuzzFeed, “I would say that Ken Kratz is entitled to his opinion, but he’s not entitled to his own facts.†Kratz — who resigned in 2010 following a sexting scandal and has received a barrage of criticism on his firm’s Yelp page since the show premiered — had previously said he wasn’t allowed to offer his side of the story in the show. But Ricciardi says that she has proof from motions filed with the local court that show they wrote “a letter to Ken Kratz from September 2006 inviting him to participate.†Kratz now tells People he was contacted by the directors and “declined to be interviewed for the series.â€