Texas Woman Freed of Charges over Death of Her Boyfriend in Faulty GM's Car
BERMAN: Tonight a "360 Follow" that we are very happy to bring you. Recently, we told you the story of Candice Anderson, a young woman from Texas who was been racked with guilt for the past decade believing she was responsible for her boyfriend's death in 2004. He was killed when her car crashed into a tree. Miss Anderson ended up pleading guilty to criminal negligent homicide making her a convicted felon. This year though, GM recalled Miss Anderson's car and millions more for an ignition switch defect that so far has been tied to 38 deaths with the number expected to rise. It came out that GM knew about the defect years earlier when Anderson was pleading guilty but didn't tell her. Now, after our first report, a judge agreed to hear her appeal and now her conviction has been overturned, her record cleared. Poppy Harlow has the latest.</s>POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel free now?</s>CANDICE ANDERSON: I do. I feel like a big weight has been lifted off me. I can walk to tell it.</s>HARLOW (voice over): After a decade of agony, Candice Anderson is finally free. (on camera): People in this town called you a murderer for a decade.</s>ANDERSON: Mm-hmm. It's a hard thing to get past.</s>HARLOW (voice over): Free from living a nightmare.</s>ANDERSON: I feel like I was robbed from a part of my life, in ten year - and ten years is a decade. It's a long time. I feel robbed of part of my youth, where things were supposed to be fun and making memories, you know, having a good friend to share it with. I just feel like I was robbed of that.</s>HARLOW: It started with a fatal car crash. Candice was behind the wheel when her brand new Saturn Ion slammed into a tree on this East Texas country road in 2004.</s>ANDERSON: This one right here.</s>HARLOW (on camera): This is the tree you hit. (voice over): Her boyfriend Michael Erickson was in the passenger seat. He was Candice's first love.</s>ANDERSON: I was through the windshield on the head of the car and then his face was face down in my lap.</s>HARLOW (voice over): The father of two young girls, Michael was instantly killed. Candice still bears the scars of that day. Her liver lacerated and nearly all of her ribs broken. (on camera): Do you ever have moments when you think, why did I survive?</s>ANDERSON: Oh, yeah. I felt that way the whole ten years.</s>HARLOW (voice over): The police report says neither Candice nor Michael was wearing a seat belt. The airbags did not deploy. After the crash, Xanax was found in Candice's system. She was not prescribed the drug but said she took one pill the night before.</s>ANDERSON: Do I think I was intoxicated that day? No, I wasn't intoxicated.</s>HARLOW: But she was indicted on a felony charge of intoxication manslaughter. She pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide and was sentenced to five years-probation and fine. She lived each day as a felon. (on camera): You could have gone to jail for 20 years.</s>ANDERSON: I don't think about that all the time. I really do.</s>HARLOW (voice over): But there is now proof that for a decade, General Motors knew about a deadly defect in Candice's car and millions more, but kept it a secret. Faulty ignition switches causing the engine to stop suddenly while driving disabling the air bags and as Candice was prosecuted, GM did nothing to help her. In fact, in 2007, the same year Candice pleaded guilty, GM did their own internal investigation of her crash calling it unusual and noted the airbags should have deployed.</s>ANDERSON: I'm fighting for my justice. I want vindication. I want them to say, you know, I want people to know that it was the car and it wasn't me.</s>HARLOW: In this courthouse, the same one where she pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide, Candice Anderson, finally got her justice. The judge placing the blame squarely on General Motors. Writing in the court opinion, "While Miss Anderson pled guilty to a crime for which she was not at fault, GM had evidence that would have demonstrated her actual innocence and identified the true culprit and cause of the accident, General Motors." Candice's conviction overturned, she is now acquitted of any fault in the crash that killed Michael. (on camera): What would Michael say?</s>ANDERSON: I pictured him rooting us, you know, in the courtroom and just, you know, it's a good feeling to think that he's, you know, had a lot to do with this. (voice over): GM would not comment on the judge's opinion but for the first time in this letter to Candice's attorney, General Motors admits it may be to blame, writing "GM has determined that the crash involving Miss Anderson is one, in which the recall condition may have caused or contributed to the frontal air bag non-deployment in the accident." (on camera): Is it enough?</s>ANDERSON: No, I don't think it's enough. You know, I think they should have been there that day to support me, to put in some words before the judge also. I really do.</s>HARLOW: Have you directly, Candice, heard from General Motors?</s>ANDERSON: Never. And at this point, at this point I don't think I ever will.</s>HARLOW (voice over): So why didn't GM reach out to Candice Anderson when it investigated her crash years ago? We asked GM CEO Mary Barra. (on camera): Why didn't GM ever reached out to here?</s>MARY BARRA, GM CEO: She looked at - Valukas reports documents that there were - there were opportunities where in this specific situation, a series of mistakes were made over a long period of time and that's why we've taken some of the extraordinary steps.</s>HARLOW: Do you think, looking back, do you think someone at GM should have, when they saw this happen and there was an internal investigation, reached out to Candice Anderson?</s>BARRA: Again, Poppy as you look across this, we have - you know, making the right changes that we need to make with the learnings that we've had from the Valukas report, we are working to make sure we're the industry leaders in safety as we've moved forward and we've taken steps to do the right thing.</s>HARLOW (voice over): GM is fixing its defective cars and has apologized to victims and their families.</s>BARRA: I am deeply sorry.</s>HARLOW (on camera): When you come back to the crash site now being vindicated, knowing this wasn't your fault, what do you think?</s>ANDERSON: The guilt is definitely lifted. But what happened in the tragedy, of course, it's still there. The pain is still real.</s>HARLOW (voice over): And nothing will bring Michael back. For the past ten years, Michael's mother, Rhonda, couldn't bring herself to lay a headstone for her son. Now she finally has.</s>RHONDA ERICSON, SON KILLED IN 2004 SATURN ION COLLISION: It was like the story of David and Goliath where we took a little slingshot and we threw a rock at a giant and we won. That's how I felt. That it was all worth it. And we weren't scared and we stood up and we got what we wanted.</s>HARLOW (on camera): Vindication.</s>ERICSON: Right.</s>HARLOW (voice over): Their fight may be over but the Department of Justice investigation into General Motors continues.</s>ANDERSON: There's someone within General Motors that should be held responsible.</s>HARLOW (on camera): Are you saying that you think individuals at General Motors should stand trial?</s>ANDERSON: Yeah. I do. They didn't have a problem sitting by while I was charged. Convicted.</s>BERMAN: What a story. Poppy Harlow joins us right now. And Poppy, this is really unbelievable. Given all of this, is Candice going to sue General Motors?</s>HARLOW: She's not. And that is one of the hardest decisions of her life, John. She can't. Candice and Rhonda, Michael's mother, accepted their kept in money, a payment from GM's victim compensation fund but in order for them to do that, they have to give up their right to ever sue General Motors over this crash in the future. And I asked Candice about that, I said how hard was that for you and she said it was gut-wrenching, but I had to move on. It's been a decade. She has a 4 year old and a 6-year-old girl and she wants to move on. She's going to use the money to get through nursing school and for her kids. But yeah, she will never be able to sue General Motors over this, but she does now have her entire life in front of her.</s>BERMAN: I am sure speaking to you helped in that process of moving on. Poppy Harlow, thank you so much. Great work.</s>HARLOW: Thanks.</s>BERMAN: Just ahead for us, the discovery of the largest and most complete t-rex skeleton ever found and the battle over it. A really great preview of CNN film "Dinosaur 13" next.