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Interviews

Matt Cline
December 25, 2005

On December 14th, Melissa James's body was found in the trunk of Kelly Ryan's Jaguar. In the following week, Craig Titus and Kelly Ryan were questioned by police, and subsequently left the state of Nevada, fleeing an arrest warrant for both of them for murder and accessory to murder. They then drove to Boston, where they were eventually caught on Friday, December 23, 2005.

Matt Cline is considered one of Craig Titus' best friends. They met over 16 years ago, introduced to each other through Ed Connors. Matt recently moved away from Las Vegas to Boston about five months ago. It was here that Craig & Kelly were probably going to go to. Here is Matt's story on exactly what happened to him regarding this whole situation.


Matt Cline in 2003 with friends

Matt Cline, notes by Ron Avidan

  • So how have you been?

      I have been better. This whole thing is a fucking nightmare. The FBI basically followed the bread crumbs from Las Vegas to Boston in order to get Craig & Kelly.

  • I thought you lived in Vegas? When did you move to Boston?

      I moved to Boston in July 2005 because I had to get away from all of the bullshit - from all of the drugs and all of the drama in the Vegas scene. So I moved to Boston, which is where I was from. After I moved, Craig and I didn't talk for a while. Then a short time ago, we started to talk again because he wanted me to get involved in the WPI with him, and also get involved in this clothing line with distribution and stores, called Ice Gear.

  • So we know that they caught Craig & Kelly near your house in Boston? What role did you have in that?

      First of all, let me say that I did not rat out Craig or Kelly? I did not want anything to do with this at all, and in no way was I part of that. Craig has been my friend for over 16 years, and I don't like to hear rumors that I ratted out my friend. It just did not happen.

  • So what role did you have in this since they were going to meet you?

      Somehow Craig got the idea that he should drive to Boston, and that I was going to give him some money. He called me after it happened, but didn't tell me what happened. I knew something has wrong, but didn't ask. Craig asked me where I can get some passports for them, and I told them I didn't know. He seemed very flustered.

      After that, I started getting some weird phone calls. The FBI came to my house for three hours, and I knew they had my phones tapped, and that they were sitting around waiting for him to show up. It seemed that some people from Las Vegas told the FBI that Craig and Kelly were coming to visit me. I learned that Greg Ruiz, a business partner of ours told the cops, as did other people.

      The next day, they were in front of my house all day waiting for him, and Craig starts calling me. I am not stupid - I know my phones are tapped, and they have surveillance on me everywhere. They wanted me to talk to Craig, and set up a drop, and I said no way - I am not doing it. I told them that no way I am going to set up my best friend. You guys are the FBI, you guys do you job, and I am not going to help you on this. I know you are getting every phone call, so do you own work.

      I started to not answer my phone calls, but then Craig text messaged me. He said he was in El Paso, Texas. In actuality, as I found out later, he was in Revere, Massachusetts. Revere is a town north of Boston.

      Friday morning, I started getting phone calls at 8-9 in the morning. Finally, I picked up the phone and talked to Craig, and he said that he is actually broke, and he needed some money. I told him the feds are all over here and it is not smart to be around here. He said, dude, I just need some money and please give it to me, and I will go on my way. I told him you don't get it, the feds know you are here. I told him that it was in the papers that you and Kelly were headed to Boston. But Craig either didn't hear what I was saying or didn't believe me. He said 'I just talked to my attorney, they don't know anything'. I told him bullshit.

      Right after this conversation, the feds came over, and they knew he was in the area. Apparently, he was driving up and down near my house, and he was around a mile away from where I live. He wanted me to meet him at 4pm, get something to eat with him, but I couldn't do that. They wanted me to do a drop but I said no way. I couldn't meet him because then I would be aiding and abating. Around 3:30, as I found out, Kelly went to go get a pedicure. And that is when they got them. I did not help the FBI, I didn't know exactly where they were at any time.

      I found out later that the feds knew that he traded in his truck for another truck. It was a souped up new truck. There were no plates on the truck, and they got the truck right before they left for Vegas. They actually got them from finding the brand new truck.

  • And you were not going to help liquidate their assets?

      No - I heard about that whole 'liquidation of assets'. There was never a liquidation of assets. I was going to go and buy some of his things and perhaps invest in the Ice Gear business because Craig & Kelly were running low on funds. They wanted some start up money to fund the WPI. Originally, Jeff Schwimmer (David Schwimmer of Friend's fame cousin) was going to buy a number of Craig & Kelly's houses before this all came down. I think they own a total of three houses in Vegas. What then happened was that Jeff had to pull out because if that deal went through, then it would look like he was aiding and abetting.

  • Did you know Melissa James, the victim?

      I knew Melissa very well. I have know here for years because she had been friends with Craig for a very long time. For the last two months, Melissa was staying at Craig & Kelly's house. Supposedly, as Craig told me, they caught Melissa stealing from them, and they didn't want her in their house anymore. So Craig got her a hotel room for two nights, and bought her a plane ticket to go back home. Melissa was originally going to be running the new Ice Gear clothing store for them. From what I heard, she called her mom, told her that Kelly went crazy on her, and that she was coming home. Now Melissa is known for stealing, but she is mostly a sweet girl, but she had drug problems.

  • Stealing? How do you know that Melissa stole from them?

      Because Craig told me that. Melissa used to do identity theft when she lived in Vegas before at other stores. She has lived in Vegas a few times. She used identity theft to rent apartments, to turn on cell phones. I think she worked at a cell phone store one time and stole some identities from that. I tried to get her off the drugs a number of times, but she kept going back to it. She was addicted. She was doing crystal meth.

  • Do you think Craig killed Melissa?

      I honestly do not think Craig did it. I know he didn't do it. Craig used his credit card and purchased two nights at a hotel room, and a plane ticket back home for Melissa to Florida.

      Now, I don't know what happened after that, I don't know if Melissa went back to their house, but if Craig was going to kill her, he would of done it with his hands - not a noose or duct tape or anything. Craig would of just grabbed her by the neck or chocked her easily. I know how Craig thinks.

      I think that Kelly went crazy and lost it and that is what happened. Craig had a soft spot for Melissa. And he was having an affair with her. Now, Kelly does know that and she doesn't. Kelly was always really jealous of all the flirting that Craig did, unless she was all fucked up. But when she wasn't fucked up, it hurt her. So she finally probably snapped. Now, no one told me this. Craig never told me what happened. Craig never told me that someone had been killed. All he told me when he called was that 'I can't let Kelly sit in jail". Then he hung up the phone, and I didn't hear from him. After a few days, I got a lot of weird calls, and the FBI comes around.

      Now Melissa has been in and out of Craig's life for over 10 years. Melissa used to stay in the background, she wasn't one of those people that you would know was around. She was decent looking, but wasn't striking.

      Kelly probably knew that something was going on, but then Kelly started to get jealous, or they were doing some short of recreational drugs and Kelly probably snapped. When I lived in Vegas, Craig tried to keep all of the recreational drugs away from me because I used to freak out on a lot of that stuff. Because I am straight now - I am through with all of that stuff - I don't tough anything anymore. Craig was telling me that lately - he is only getting messed up twice a month, but I have heard otherwise from other people.

      So basically, they asked her to move in, she was there about two months, and Kelly just snapped one day. Craig already said that he was having an affair with her. I am not sure if Kelly was on recreational drugs either. I just think that Kelly just lost it pretty bad, and this is what I think happened. I know Craig said to me right after the incident that 'I can't let Kelly sit in jail'. What that meant, I have no idea. I didn't ask any questions, because I knew that I couldn't get involved, so I just shut my mouth and didn't ask. I said I will do what I can, but I didn't do anything, once I found out what really happened. I stopped taking his calls. Now Craig also told me that they found Melissa overdosed, but I think he was just protecting Kelly.

  • How did you meet Craig a long time ago?

      Well, I stayed at Ed Connors house back when I was a teenager, and that's when I met Craig. We had an instant kind of bond and friendship, and we've been best friend ever since, close to 15-16 years. Over the years, I have done a number of business ventures with Craig, including his After Parties. We've had our problems, like others. He tore his pec, I tore my hamstring, he got arrested, I got arrested, things like that. My ex-girlfriend, she was a witch and she actually said she put a spell on us - three bad things happen to him and to me. It is really weird.

  • Where did you hear about duct tape and a noose.

      I read about it on the news. Not from Craig or Kelly. You must understand, I have been having nightmares about all of this shit. After they were arrested here, I tried to call the police, I would like to visit them in jail, but they are refusing to even tell me where he is.

  • What was your relationship with Mandy Polk?

      She was just a girl that lived out the Vegas, and she had a small relationship with Kelly. She hanged around with Kelly once in a while. But she was there for Kelly to talk to sometimes.

  • People are accusing you of being a drug user, and a seller of drugs? Are you?

      Right now I am not and have not for a long time. Have I partied and used drugs? Who in this industry hasn't. But I am clean now and intend to stay that way. I left the Vegas party scene. Some of the people who are accusing me was in the party scene big time also. There is another person who is mad at me for hooking up with his ex-girlfriend after they broke up 10 years ago. So what.