00:00:12
We went to Gatlinburg and got married. There was a creek. It was really pretty, but it was just us.
00:00:22
We were in casual clothes. It was definitely a happy day. We had a friendship, just your normal
00:00:34
honeymoon phase marriage. >> How would you describe Hunter Gryom? >> He was fun and he was attractive. We had
00:00:43
some really good times until I started noticing different things that were changing.
00:00:51
He started becoming more aggressive. >> Ever hit you? [music] >> Not to begin with.
00:00:57
In September 2010, that's the first time that he physically hit me. It got progressively worse.
00:01:07
He had made the comments that if I told anybody, he would kill me. I believed him.
00:01:17
>> What's your first thought when you look back on May 15th, 2012? >> Turn around. Put your phone down.
00:01:23
>> I wish I had have kept driving. He shot it. >> Chris stated that she shot her
00:01:30
ex-husband until the gun was empty and then called 911. >> Where is he? >> He was on the ground.
00:01:38
>> I just pulled up. I saw him and I pulled up and I shot him. I chased no more. I came through.
00:01:49
>> He's walking toward you. >> Yes. Where were his arms? What was he doing? He had his arm like he was going
00:01:53
to bust through the window and it I mean it happened so fast. >> He just stared at me and he flipped me
00:02:00
out and I just SHOT YOU. I just shot you. I shot you. I shot you. >> You don't regret pulling the trigger?
00:02:12
>> No. Because if I had not done that, I'd be dead. And I believe that 100%. We all knew she was capable of doing
00:02:22
this. She hunted him down. She hunted him down. My son died running for his life.
00:02:40
I know that there's no telling what went through his mind. And then I hear him say, "Mama,
00:02:47
mama." People [music] who think that I murdered him in cold blood either don't know the whole story or
00:02:58
don't know everything that's happened. >> She has a way of making everything that
00:03:03
she has done look right. >> I'm not somebody that's mean and who would maliciously kill somebody
00:03:10
intentionally. And that's what a murderer is. And that's [music] not me. [music]
00:03:22
I'm Aaron Morardi. Tonight on 48 Hours, The [music] Girl Next Door. [music] What went through your mind when you saw
00:03:55
him on the ground? >> That I was in trouble. >> You had never been in trouble before in
00:04:05
your life. >> No. Tracy Gryom says that when she shot her ex-husband Hunter at the Bignyan Creek
00:04:13
boat landing in Northport, Alabama, she feared for her life. A fear she says she'd felt many times before.
00:04:22
>> I never thought I'd kill him. I always thought he'd kill me. I thought he'd kill me. I love him.
00:04:34
>> He had hurt me. He had done a lot of things to me. I didn't want him dead. I still don't
00:04:43
want him dead. >> Tracy, a 32-year-old mother of two, says it was self-defense. The state says it
00:04:51
was murder. She met Hunter Gryom back in 2003. Tracy was just 21, a young mother to son
00:05:01
James Michael, and going through a divorce. He absolutely loved my son. That to me made all the difference in
00:05:08
the world. >> Melanie Garner, Hunter's mom, remembers it as love at first sight.
00:05:15
>> He was sucked in immediately. >> But Hunter was 2 years younger than Tracy. And when the couple eloped in
00:05:21
2004, Melanie felt it was too soon. >> He was young. He had just turned 20, certainly nowhere near ready.
00:05:32
Eight months later, the marriage was in trouble. >> I had caught him smoking marijuana.
00:05:39
Doing illegal things could cause a problem, and I couldn't risk losing my son over.
00:05:44
>> After threatening him with divorce, Tracy says Hunter promised to stop using marijuana, and their relationship
00:05:50
improved so much that Tracy leveraged everything she owned so they could start a business together. I took out a equity
00:05:59
line to start a company which was Gris Construction. It was all in my name. >> And they had a child of their own, Anna
00:06:09
Grace. Come up. >> We tried to have a child for quite some time. We actually had five miscarriages
00:06:15
before we had her. She was premature. Her heart and lungs were not developed. >> It's stressful time.
00:06:22
>> Very stressful time. What's more, she says Hunter appeared to be acting strangely. So Tracy, a
00:06:29
registered nurse, says she gave him an over-the-counter drug test. >> It showed marijuana, oxycottton,
00:06:36
opioids, methamphetamines. I then realized that his addiction obviously was way past what I had ever
00:06:46
dreamed that it was. Tracy filed for divorce in the summer of 2010. And over time, she says, Hunter
00:06:56
became abusive. He knocked me to the floor and hit me all over my body. I ended up with a
00:07:01
black eye. I had bruised shoulders. Even after Hunter moved out, their divorce agreement allowed him access to
00:07:09
the house. So Tracy says the beatings continued, although no one witnessed them and Tracy never reported them. you
00:07:17
could have gone to the police. This man's hitting me. >> I was told if I went to the police, he
00:07:22
would kill me. And so that to me wasn't even an option. I started to notice some things that I
00:07:30
would question her about, bruising and things like that. >> Tracy's friend Lauren Richards was
00:07:35
concerned when she saw that Tracy had a black eye and confronted her. >> I said, "Now Tracy, you may have some
00:07:42
bad luck, but nobody is that unlucky. Do not give me a lame excuse. What happened? You have not fallen on a
00:07:50
baseball in your eye socket. >> And then on the night of November 22nd, 2010, when Hunter arrived to take care
00:07:59
of the children, Tracy says he flew into a rage when she told him she had spent the night with a new boyfriend.
00:08:06
>> He told me that he was going to kill me. Tracy says that at around 10:00 that
00:08:11
[music] night, Hunter took her to the bedroom, bound her legs, raped her, [music] and then threw her against the
00:08:18
bathtub. Uh, was knocked unconscious. >> Tracy says she regained consciousness around 4:00 a.m.
00:08:30
The kids were asleep downstairs and Hunter was gone. >> I called Hunter. I told him that I was bleeding and that
00:08:40
I was hurt and that I needed help. And he told me, "I hope you die." When Tracy went to the hospital, police
00:08:51
were notified, and Hunter was later arrested for rape, sodomy, kidnapping, and domestic violence.
00:08:59
>> And at that point, I feared for my life, and I fear for my ch children's life. Hunter was allowed out
00:09:06
on bail. So Tracy got a restraining order against him, purchased a handgun, and carried it with her everywhere.
00:09:14
>> It was only a matter of time until he came after us. >> Tracy took these photos the night of the
00:09:21
alleged attack and texted them to Lauren Richards. Later, both she and Tracy took
00:09:27
more. At the same time, Tracy says Hunter stopped paying spousal support and his daughter's expenses.
00:09:35
>> I lost everything and my world just fell apart. >> Tracy says she was told that Hunter
00:09:42
wasn't working, but she didn't believe it. >> And that's what led to the fateful
00:09:50
morning of May 15th, 2012. This [music] is about the same time you were on the road, isn't it?
00:09:56
>> It is. Well, >> Tracy got behind the wheel again and took us for the drive that changed
00:10:01
[music] her life. >> So, you're coming down here. This is the way you would go. >> Yes.
00:10:06
>> And what do you see? >> Okay. >> Tracy says she was on her way to an interview for a nursing job when she
00:10:12
became distracted. >> There's a break in the trees and to the right side was um a large toolboat that
00:10:20
had a billboard sign on the side that said Gryom Construction. And I immediately within about a 30-se
00:10:28
secondond period made probably the stupidest mistake of my life. And that was to pull in the parking lot
00:10:35
to take a picture. >> A photo to show that Gryom Construction was indeed up and running.
00:10:44
>> I was getting ready to take the picture and when I looked up, he was standing
00:10:48
almost directly towards the front of the boat trailer. He was looking back directly at me. He had this face that's
00:10:56
like this mean just I don't even know how to describe it but I mean I see it over and over like it's right here all
00:11:03
the time. He flipped me a bird which to me was kind of like yeah I'm working you
00:11:08
know screw you. And at that point I panicked. >> He's walking toward you. >> Yes. He's now within 5t of my car coming
00:11:17
out of my car going to bust my window out. >> In her lap was the gun she bought 18
00:11:22
months earlier. I mean, I just opened the door. >> Tracy stepped out of the car and began
00:11:28
shooting. >> The next thing I remember is a click. >> Tracy had emptied her entire gun, six
00:11:43
shots. Four of the shots hit Hunter and brought him face down on the pavement. Your name is Tracy?
00:11:53
>> Yeah. >> Okay. You killed your husband? >> Ex-husband? Yes. >> Ex-husband? What? How did you kill him?
00:12:00
>> I shot him. >> You have the gun? >> I got the gun. >> What kind of gun do you have?
00:12:06
>> I couldn't take it no more. [music] >> Okay, calm down. I couldn't take it no more.
00:12:27
>> Okay, calm down. Take it home. >> Tracy Gryom was not the first person to call 911 the morning Hunter Gryom was
00:12:37
killed. >> My boss just got shot. Somebody just pulled up and shot my boss. She's in a
00:12:41
gold uh little gold Chevrolet. I don't know. She's reloading her wood. >> As it turns out, there were witnesses to
00:12:49
what happened on the dock that day. >> What is your name? >> William Dockery. >> William Dockery and his brother Dale
00:12:59
both worked for Hunter building docks on Lake Tuscaloosa. >> He was a good friend, the best boss
00:13:05
anybody could ever ask for. It's the only job I've had in my life that I enjoyed going to work every day. Enjoyed
00:13:10
the man I was working for. The three men were getting a boat out of the water onto a trailer when Dale first
00:13:18
noticed that gold Chevrolet and then saw it move directly behind Hunter's truck.
00:13:25
>> The car obviously wasn't in park cuz they had to hit the brakes again. >> Will didn't realize the driver was
00:13:32
Hunter's ex-wife, but he saw the look on his boss's face. [music] >> There was some fear in his eyes. He he
00:13:38
knew there was fixing to be some kind of confrontation. He looked directly at me
00:13:41
and told me to call the police. >> Just as Will was pulling his phone out of his pocket,
00:13:46
>> he looked at me with an even more serious face and said, "Call the effing law." And that's when I went ahead and
00:13:51
started dialing. And by that time, she was getting out and starting to shoot. >> Hunter started running. Him and my
00:13:58
brother took off running. >> Dale ran toward the water, hiding in a boat. When he looked back,
00:14:06
Hunter was on the ground. Moments later, Will finally managed to hit send on his
00:14:12
911 call. >> She's still sitting in the car with a gun. I don't want to go around.
00:14:15
>> Okay, you stay where you are. And we're getting help on the way for him. Okay.
00:14:21
>> I don't want him to die. He's got a little girl and all. >> You do see the cops coming.
00:14:26
>> I hear some sirens now. >> I don't see anybody yet, but I hear some sirens. Finally, in a poignant moment caught on
00:14:36
a police car dash [music] cam, the brothers were reunited just feet away from Hunter's lifeless body.
00:14:47
>> Tracy was yards away on her own 911 call. >> I just pulled up. I saw him and I pulled
00:14:53
up and I shot it. I just pulled up and I shot it. If you remember, Tracy told me
00:15:00
Hunter made an obscene gesture and was moving toward her car. >> Hunter was coming towards my vehicle in
00:15:07
an aggressive manner um and was within 3 to 5t of me. >> But Tracy doesn't tell the 911 operator
00:15:17
Hunter was coming toward her, and she never says it to investigators hours later. I don't I
00:15:27
don't know what happened. I don't know why I did it. [music] >> He never made a single motion towards
00:15:35
her. Never raised his hand. Any of that. The only motion he was making was getting away from her.
00:15:42
>> Hunter's mom believes the Dockery brother's version of events [music] and says the crime scene report proves it.
00:15:49
>> 12 feet. 12 ft from the first shot to where Hunter stood and there was blood at that first point. 12 ft.
00:16:00
>> Is it possible that he was coming after her that he was going to hit her? Is that at all
00:16:08
possible? >> I don't see how he could hit her at 12 ft. >> What's more, if Tracy was trying to get
00:16:13
a photograph of the Gryom construction sign, why would she pull behind it? Shortly after Hunter was shot to death,
00:16:21
the sheriff's department came to Melanie Garner's office to inform her in person.
00:16:27
>> I immediately started saying, I said, "The [ __ ] did it. The [ __ ] did it. The
00:16:30
[ __ ] did it." >> That's shocking. But Hunter's mother believes her former daughter-in-law is
00:16:37
dangerous. >> Borderline demonic. I mean, I absolutely believe um that she is that troubled.
00:16:45
And Hunter's aunt, Gina Prris, says Tracy had a motive. She wanted to kill him before the rape case went to court.
00:16:53
>> Hunter had moved on. There was some court dates coming up that would prove that Hunter was innocent.
00:17:01
There was court dates coming up that he would get visitation to his daughter. She had a lot to lose.
00:17:08
>> I know that's a hard question to ask of a mom. Is it at all possible that your
00:17:14
son abused Tracy? >> Oh, I don't believe so. I don't believe so far for a minute.
00:17:19
>> He did not have an abusive and angry bone in his body. In fact, we kind of laughed at him because he was too
00:17:27
laidback. >> In 2011, Hunter was arrested for marijuana possession, a misdemeanor, but
00:17:34
there is no evidence he ever did harder drugs. What's more, his mother says if anyone
00:17:40
was abused, it was Hunter. >> And I fully believe that Hunter was abused by her.
00:17:45
>> Yes. >> Just weeks before the alleged rape, Tracy turned up at one of Hunter's job
00:17:50
sites. >> She's screaming, jumping on him and said something about him having another
00:17:56
girlfriend and used the expression about, "You are mine. I'll kill you. I'll kill you. You are mine."
00:18:03
Melanie believes Tracy's rape accusation is completely false. But then what about
00:18:09
those graphic pictures of Tracy with deep bruises and that head wound? Hunter told his mother the cut on Tracy's head
00:18:17
was a result of an accidental fall. You're saying your son didn't do any of that?
00:18:22
>> I don't think he did. >> But that would mean she would have had to do that to herself.
00:18:26
>> Absolutely. But why would she do that damage to herself? >> To try to prove the lies. To try to
00:18:32
prove the accusations that she made against Hunter were true. [music] >> So, was Tracy Gryom a liar who killed in
00:18:41
cold blood or a domestic abuse victim and loving mother? It will be 12 strangers, a jury, who
00:18:51
will decide. >> [music] >> It was early August 2014, just over 2 years since Hunter Gryom had
00:19:10
been gunned down by his ex-wife [music] Tracy, and her trial was finally about to begin. A moment that Hunter's mother,
00:19:17
Melanie, had been dreading. >> I knew that it was going to be hard. You know, I even referenced to some [music]
00:19:22
people, some friends that I thought the trial would be worse than death. And to some degree, it was.
00:19:30
>> Walking into the courtroom was was tough. >> Tracy's brother Travis flew in from LA
00:19:38
to sit on the defendant side of the courtroom. to sit down and and see a court divided,
00:19:45
a family divided, a family that had spent time together, share grandkids. >> These photos taken by the Tuscaloosa
00:19:53
News are all we have of the trial. TV cameras were not allowed inside. >> Going to trial, it's an honor to
00:20:01
represent her. Even as the trial began, Tracy's defense attorney, Warren Freeman, was hoping the prosecutor or
00:20:09
judge would reduce the murder charge to manslaughter. >> In my mind, this was a manslaughter
00:20:15
case. Why? Because there is no intent. I could easily easily see this being at the worst manslaughter. At its best, it
00:20:25
was self-defense. But the charge would stand and the jury would have to decide whether Tracy was
00:20:33
guilty of murder or whether she was just defending herself. Warren Freeman hoped
00:20:39
to support her defense case by showing the jury those dramatic photos. >> And I explained then, I'm not trying to
00:20:45
try a rape case judge. I simply need to demonstrate to a jury what my client's state of mind was at the time of the
00:20:53
offense. >> But the judge would not allow it. Covering the trial for the Tuscaloosa
00:21:01
News, Stephanie Taylor says the state argued the motive was money. The prosecutors claimed that Tracy shot
00:21:10
Hunter to collect a $103,000 insurance policy that she had on him. >> Thank you for calling at life. This is
00:21:19
Pam. May I please have your name? >> Tracy Gryom. The evidence. This recording of Tracy's call to the life
00:21:26
insurance company. A call she made on May 14th, 2012, the day before she shot Hunter.
00:21:34
>> They said that she was angry that he had stopped making payments that they had
00:21:40
agreed to in their divorce. >> It's Hunter Grayson. Thank you so much. And can you please verify his date of
00:21:45
birth? A representative from the insurance company testified during the trial that Tracy called the day before
00:21:52
Hunter was killed to verify that they had her correct address. >> Is there anything else I can do for you
00:21:57
today? >> That's going to be it. >> On May 14th, you called that insurance company. Why?
00:22:03
>> Well, May 14th was just like any other day. Um, however, I had moved four different times. Um, me and my children
00:22:11
were running. We were running from Hunter. So, I had called the company to let them know that they had my old
00:22:16
address and to make an address change. >> She also called a few weeks afterward to
00:22:22
inform them that he had died. >> And how can I help you today? >> Well, I was actually calling cuz I
00:22:28
didn't know what I needed to do. Hunter passed away May 15th, and I actually am going through a court case right now cuz
00:22:38
it was due to self-defense. Even through the times when she's screaming that she's destitute and has no money, she
00:22:44
continued to pay life insurance premiums. >> I really thought that that was just the
00:22:51
prosecution pulling it straws to have a motive. My sister's smart, but I don't think my sister concocted a story just
00:22:57
so she could get insurance money. But that's all they had. >> But that wasn't all they had.
00:23:03
Prosecutors also called a pathologist who testified that Hunter's wounds indicated that when Tracy shot him, he
00:23:10
was not coming at her. He was running away. Tracy, I have to ask you this. Is it
00:23:17
possible that you misread that situation and you shot and killed a man who just intended to get away from you?
00:23:25
>> He was coming towards me. So, no, I do not feel like he was trying to get away.
00:23:32
>> [music] >> I feel like he was he was fixing to kill me. [music] >> If in fact he was coming at you and you
00:23:41
were in fear for your life, why didn't you tell the police that you had an opportunity when you called 911?
00:23:47
>> Tell me what happened. >> I knew I saw him, but I shot him. >> You had an opportunity when you left the
00:23:54
scene and went to the police. >> I don't know why I did it. >> Why didn't you tell them? He was coming
00:23:59
after me. I had no choice. I know I was an absolute wreck at that point. I don't remember so much. I
00:24:07
remember the initial shot and then I remember a click which undoubtedly was the emptying of the gun.
00:24:15
>> Still, Warren did get the pathologist to admit that it was also possible Hunter
00:24:21
was coming towards Tracy when she started shooting. >> Think about this just a moment. You had
00:24:27
a shot here [music] and then you had another shot here and then two that were in the back.
00:24:38
But what made sense to me and he said this would line up with his findings was that somebody could have been coming
00:24:46
forward then turned after the first shot was fired. >> If it was not her intentions to murder
00:24:53
Hunter and the first bullet hit his arm, couldn't she have stopped then? What about the second bullet that entered his
00:25:01
back? Couldn't she have stopped then? Six were fired. Four hit Hunter. How many times did she shoot you?
00:25:10
>> Until it wouldn't shoot no more. >> She unloaded the gun. She in interrogation, she said she fired till
00:25:17
it wouldn't fire anymore. >> Freeman claims that Tracy shot Hunter because she was suffering from
00:25:23
post-traumatic stress from earlier abuse, but he couldn't find an expert who would say that in court. [music] So
00:25:30
now there was really only one way to get jurors to understand why Tracy pulled the trigger. Tracy had to take the stand
00:25:40
and tell them herself. >> That was the only way to to let them know that I was defending myself and
00:25:49
[snorts] the only way that I felt that they would understand what I was going through that day. Tracy was allowed to
00:25:58
tell the jury about the alleged rape and that she lived in fear of Hunter, but she could not show those graphic photos.
00:26:05
How did you feel about that? >> Devastated. I don't think anybody could understand what I was going through
00:26:12
without knowing what I had already been through. >> Tracy's trial lasted only 2 days. And
00:26:20
then just before the case went to the jury, the judge made a stunning reversal. The judge said that he
00:26:27
believed that this was a manslaughter case. [music] >> Out of the blue. >> Out of the blue.
00:26:31
>> If both sides could agree, the judge would let the jury consider a charge of manslaughter.
00:26:38
When the prosecution agreed, it was then up to Tracy. >> It was my decision. And I felt good
00:26:45
about what had been said and what had been told in court. And I still didn't feel like I had done anything wrong. And
00:26:52
I still didn't feel like I would be convicted of murder. He said, "Do you think they'll convict me of manslaughter
00:26:56
if we if we do that?" I said, "Yes." [music] And she said, "I don't want to do it."
00:27:00
>> And so I chose not to take it. >> And and I understood her reasons. >> That's a big gamble though, Warren. Big
00:27:06
gamble. >> It's a huge gamble. As Tracy Gryom waited to hear her fate, she remained optimistic that the jury
00:27:25
would see it her way and would not convict her of murdering Hunter Gryom. >> I did think the jury would understand
00:27:32
the fear that I had that day and the fear that I had of that he was was going to hurt or kill me.
00:27:40
>> I feel like they know that there was more to the story, but it wasn't allowed in court.
00:27:52
You thinking there's going to be a hung jury in this case? >> At least I think that's what Tracy felt
00:27:59
that the worst that's going to happen here is a hung jury. >> But just 90 minutes later, they get word
00:28:08
the jury had reached a [music] verdict. >> I was standing between my brother, Connor's dad, and my nephew, and we were
00:28:16
holding hands. I remember that they didn't look at us. >> Not a good sign. [music]
00:28:25
>> It's not a good sign. >> Who read the verdict? >> The judge did. He said guilty. Guilty of
00:28:30
murder. And [clears throat] I immediately was devastated. >> Tracy's gamble to not give the jurors
00:28:40
the lesser option of manslaughter had failed. >> She just hung her head. She was
00:28:45
picturing that little 5-year-old girl of hers that would look at her and get grab
00:28:50
her face, she said, and say, "Mama, when are you coming home?" >> Another mother, Hunter Gryoms, forced
00:28:56
herself to stay calm. >> We were told that we had to maintain our composure even through that. So, that
00:29:03
was um kind of hard to suppress those feelings. >> But just moments later, the judge threw
00:29:10
a curveball that took everyone in the court by surprise. The judge did not revoke my bond. In fact, he didn't even
00:29:19
raise my bond. And I was able to walk out of court that day, get in my truck, and go home. Tracy, now a convicted
00:29:27
killer, would be allowed out until she was sentenced. And the surprises didn't end there.
00:29:33
>> The day after the trial, a juror calls me and she's very upset. >> Basing this decision off of what you
00:29:39
heard. After the trial, one of the jurors, Janice Kelly, read newspaper accounts of the rape allegations Tracy
00:29:45
made against Hunter. She told Warren she never would have convicted Tracy had she
00:29:50
seen those graphic photos. >> Two sized ever story. We didn't know why she was so scared of this man.
00:29:57
>> You made a mistake. >> Yeah, I fell made a mistake. And if I had to do over again, it'd be a whole
00:30:02
jury. But it's sentencing with no jury in the room. The judge will allow Tracy's attorney to introduce those
00:30:09
graphic pictures of her injuries. Warren hopes it will convince the judge to be lenient.
00:30:15
>> He knows that she was raped. He knows the brutality that she went through. And
00:30:19
I'll be asking him to take that in consideration. This isn't just a normal murder sentencing. The judge properly
00:30:27
kept out these photos from the trial because they're evidence of the rape allegation. And Hunter Gryom never lived
00:30:34
long enough to defend himself against that accusation. If he had, his family and friends say, we would have heard a
00:30:42
very different story. Do you believe that Tracy Gryom has told the truth of what happened?
00:30:48
>> I do not. >> Shelley Standridge was Hunter Gryom's lawyer. She says Hunter denied ever
00:30:57
raping or assaulting Tracy, but he did admit that on the night of the rape, he and his ex-wife had consensual rough
00:31:05
sex. >> Do you believe if Hunter Gryom had gone on trial for rape that he would have
00:31:10
been convicted? >> Absolutely not. >> Do you think Tracy knew that? >> Probably.
00:31:19
>> This is what Hunter said happened the night of the alleged rape. So that night, Hunter says that she was
00:31:26
depressed and claiming she was going to kill herself. She was saying she wanted their
00:31:33
relationship to work. >> Tracy was taking the anti-anxiety drug clonopin. And according to Hunter on the
00:31:40
night of November 22nd, he watched Tracy take more than her prescribed dose. It's
00:31:46
[clears throat] similar to alcohol where where you your balance is impaired, your
00:31:51
uh speech is impaired. >> And that's the reason Hunter said that Tracy fell and cut her head. It was an
00:31:58
accident and the injury seemed minor. Somewhere around 10:30 p.m., Hunter said he left and went to his father's house.
00:32:06
He confirms that Tracy called him much later at 3:20 a.m. But this is how Hunter described that call. He said that
00:32:15
she threatened him. If you don't want the responsibility of these children, I'll make it to where you don't ever get
00:32:20
to see them again. >> Then why would she cry rape if it didn't occur? >> I don't know what her motive is, but I
00:32:28
will tell you that she told me under oath that she was upset that he had a girlfriend.
00:32:35
>> Hunter said he heard nothing about an assault or rape until he was arrested almost 12 hours later. So, it kind of
00:32:43
comes down to he said, she said, >> but what she says is not true. I never found anything independently that
00:32:51
verified any of her claims. >> Start with Tracy's claim to police that she was thrown against the bathtub
00:33:00
around 10:00 p.m. and was unconscious until about 4:00 a.m. the next morning. >> But her phone records um show she was on
00:33:08
the phone all night. So, she was never unconscious. She was using her data at 10:42 p.m. that night. She was using it
00:33:15
again at 10:50 that night. She sends a text to her boyfriend at 1:49 a.m. She sends a text to her friend at 2:07 a.m.
00:33:26
She sends another text to her boyfriend at 2:07 a.m. >> How does Tracy explain it? She blames
00:33:31
the calls on Hunter. >> I do know I was not the only person that was using my phone that night. Tracy
00:33:37
insists she was unconscious, but Shelley quotes from medical records that describe Tracy's head wound as purely
00:33:45
superficial. That required how many sutures to close? >> One suture. >> Those same records also seem to
00:33:52
contradict Tracy's claim that the rape left her with internal tears. And while Tracy did have bruises on her ankle and
00:34:00
legs, the photos taken by police at the emergency room look nothing like the photos that Tracy and her friend Lauren
00:34:07
Richards took days later. >> Something doesn't add up. This picture is a area of her body that investigators
00:34:16
photographed on November 23rd, which would have been some hours after the alleged rape. And then she provides
00:34:26
this. >> I mean, this shows discoloration here that you see nothing there. >> Warren says that Tracy was on blood
00:34:35
thinners, which caused her to bruise more easily. But he says it doesn't explain the severity of her injuries.
00:34:42
But then what about this? A deep bruise on Tracy's inner thigh that isn't seen either in police photos or those taken
00:34:51
by Lauren Richards. It shows up in a photo that according to digital records was taken on December 9th, more than two
00:35:00
weeks later. But if Hunter Gryom didn't cause these injuries, then either someone else did or she did it to
00:35:08
herself. >> She was a nurse. One of her listed specialties is wound care. >> Shelley says Tracy isn't just lying
00:35:18
about the alleged rape. She says that Tracy knew Hunter was working. Two months before the murder, Shelley says
00:35:25
Tracy's own lawyer had submitted a list of 18 jobs that Hunter had been doing. >> I don't know what her attorney's time
00:35:33
frame was on that, but she I tell you, she had not seen that document. >> Which story will the judge believe it's
00:35:42
sentencing? Tracy Gryom's future depends on it. >> So, how are you trying to spend these
00:35:49
last few days? I'm trying to prepare for the worst, but hoping for the best. >> When you say prepare for the worst,
00:35:55
what's the worst? Life in prison. [music] [snorts] This is the day when Tracy Gryom finds out her future,
00:36:15
[snorts] [music] if and when she'll see her children again. She bids a tearful farewell to friends.
00:36:26
>> And makes a last call. >> I love you so much, Bubba. >> To her brother, Travis.
00:36:31
>> And that's so not fair. I ain't done nothing wrong. >> One month after being found guilty of
00:36:37
murdering her ex-husband, Hunter, Tracy heads back to court for sentencing. The prosecution is asking for 40 years.
00:36:49
Tracy is hoping for 20, served mostly on probation. It's all writing on whether the judge
00:36:56
believes that she suffered abuse at the hands of her husband and then [music] shot him dead, believing he would do it
00:37:02
again. I hope that he will take the mitigating things that have happened to me and the
00:37:10
things that happened to me prior to May 2012 into consideration even though they
00:37:15
weren't allowed in to court as why that happened that day and to allow me to go home to my babies.
00:37:25
Attorney Warren Freeman argues the battered woman [music] defense, calling social worker Miriam Waters, Tracy's
00:37:32
rape counselor, to the stand. Cameras were allowed to shoot through the window, but without sound.
00:37:38
>> I wanted the court to know that she had been through a very, very brutal beating
00:37:45
and sexual assault because that's how I feel. That's what I think happened. Also on the stand is that juror who had
00:37:56
a change of heart after hearing about the alleged rape. She tells the judge she wishes she had instead hung the
00:38:04
jury. As you heard from one of the one of the jurors that was here. Uh they wanted to
00:38:12
hear more about the rape. They want they felt like they were not allowed to see enough of the evidence.
00:38:19
Tracy's friend Lauren Richard says she has seen enough. I believe that he raped and sodomized her
00:38:28
and I believe that she felt like he was going to hurt her, abuse her, rape her, assault her, kill her that day.
00:38:37
>> And she believes that even when confronted for the first time with [music] those contrasting photos taken
00:38:43
by investigators. Did that concern you at all that the pictures taken right afterwards of Tracy's injuries don't
00:38:52
seem as severe as the injuries that she shows up with at your house 2 days later?
00:39:00
>> It didn't concern me and it didn't surprise me because bruises progress. You know, I watched that exact same
00:39:06
bruise continue to progress. [music] >> Then Tracy gets another chance to tell her story. She describes the gruesome
00:39:15
details of the alleged rape and the terrible fear that she says haunted her life.
00:39:23
>> I feel 100% that if I had not done what I did, I'd be dead and the situation would be totally different.
00:39:33
>> For 5 hours, the judge listened [music] then made his decision that made nobody happy.
00:39:44
>> [music] >> Tracy Gryom got 25 years. Not the maximum, but not the minimum either.
00:39:54
>> So unfair. It's so nuts. >> But Melanie Garner believes Tracy is where she should be.
00:40:03
>> I feel like Tracy's a very, very troubled young woman. >> Tracy, is there anything else you'd like
00:40:08
to say? I JUST HAVE SOMEBODY ELSE. >> And I just feel like that she is exactly what she was convicted of and that she
00:40:19
is a murderer. >> One, two, three. >> Hunter's mom will now raise that little 5-year-old girl
00:40:30
who will grow up with only a distant memory >> of the father who loved her. She wants to hear her father's voice.
00:40:44
>> She knows what he looks like because we have so many photos of him. But she said, "I I want to hear my daddy's
00:40:49
voice." >> Oh, good girl. >> Good girl. >> It's great sadness that he is not there
00:41:00
for her. Despite the murder conviction, despite the evidence against herc >> Despite the 25-year sentence, Tracy
00:41:17
Gryom still maintains she's a victim, not a cold-blooded killer. A story she's sticking to, even behind bars.
00:41:27
>> It's no longer about me anymore. Domestic violence is such an epidemic in this country.
00:41:36
>> [music] >> know that it does happen to the girl next door. [music] [music] >> [music]
00:42:08
[music] [music] >> People are so much more than how they are trying to survive in this world.
00:42:39
I wasn't making ends meet. So, I made the decision to post nude photos [music] of myself on the internet
00:42:47
to make more money. And I was definitely concerned about [music] the risks of being so exposed on the internet and you
00:43:00
never know what's going to happen. [music] Sometimes I think about Cat West and I
00:43:07
think about where she would be today and [music] how much more of her life she could have fulfilled.
00:43:16
[music] I started getting Facebook messages that a murder had happened in Caller.
00:43:29
[music] You know, a beautiful woman nude in a street in a nice subdivision. That is what doesn't happen every day
00:43:39
around here. And that's [music] what drove the story. Cat West, she was 42, was found dead on
00:43:48
[music] January 13th, 2018. She was a beautiful woman. She looked a little bit like Marilyn Monroe.
00:44:00
>> Female in the roadway, naked. CPR no longer in progress. Female not breathing.
00:44:06
>> You believe it was murder? >> I do. >> It's a mysterious murder case of a married mom found dead outside her home.
00:44:14
We didn't know much about Cat West at all, and we certainly didn't know that her husband Jeff was a suspect.
00:44:22
Jeff could not have possibly done it. I believe Cat was murdered, but I do not believe that it was by her husband.
00:44:31
It really turned out that Cat was a lot more than just a wife and a stay-at-home
00:44:36
mom. Cat was the very out there, exuberant, lively. She was the limelight of everything that we did. Cat West was
00:44:47
posting pictures on Only Fans, which [music] is a website where people pay a subscription to see racy photos.
00:44:55
It's sort of the happy median between [music] porn and the Brady Bunch. She had several hundred followers.
00:45:07
Everybody was a suspect to begin with. >> One of her subscribers, [music] did they
00:45:12
come through with rage or jealousy or wanting something that they couldn't have?
00:45:18
>> We were concerned that do we have somebody out there that's actually killing people?
00:45:24
>> Had you heard of Only Fans? >> No, ma'am. There was a lot of things I learned in this case.
00:45:47
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> One look at her online presence made it clear.
00:46:29
Kathleen West put the social in social media. >> It was out there for the whole world to
00:46:36
see. >> And friends like Britney Dler say Cat was very extroverted. In the real world,
00:46:44
she was always the life of the party as well. Cat would get on stages and sing. She couldn't sing for the life of her,
00:46:52
but she would sing. Cat was proud of who she was. So on January 13th, 2018, when the
00:47:03
42year-old wife and mother, widely known as Cat, was found dead in the street near her Alabama home, veteran reporter
00:47:11
and CBS consultant Carol Robinson smelled a story. In the tight-knit Birmingham suburbs, she's known as the
00:47:20
Coco Chanel of crime. I don't let what I cover dictate what I wear. She later arrived at the scene and
00:47:29
started hunting to see if Cat's past could help explain her death. >> She loved to be outside. That was that
00:47:38
was her big deal. She had a swing set. >> Cat's parents, Nancy and John Martin, say as a kid in Florida, she doted on
00:47:46
her dolls. >> And did she want to be a mom someday? Absolutely. [music] Yes. >> When she got a little bit older,
00:47:57
she wanted to do modeling. >> What was the obsession with Marilyn Monroe? >> She kind of looked like her. She says
00:48:04
she tried to recreate some of her photos, her hairds. She loved her. She was obsessed with Marilyn Monroe and was
00:48:13
trying to emulate her in every way. As Carol Robinson retraced the lines of Cat's life,
00:48:20
>> there were always self-esteem issues there. >> She realized her resemblance to the
00:48:25
troubled movie star was more than skinde. >> She craved agilation from people whether
00:48:31
she knew him or not. >> You tell her she's beautiful. She's just you're just my mom and dad.
00:48:37
As time went on, Cat's parents say her feelings of isolation, self-doubt, and depression spiraled out of control.
00:48:46
>> I don't know how many different places we took her to. She went to a lot of counseling.
00:48:52
>> It was a tough few years. Her parents say she was battling bipolar disorder and drinking too much. But by 2004, the
00:49:01
broken pieces of Cat's life finally began to fall into place. It happened at a Super Bowl party
00:49:09
>> and that's where she met Jeff. >> Cat struck up a conversation with a local Army recruiter named Jeff West.
00:49:17
>> They fell in love on their first date. >> It was really love at first. >> Yes, it was.
00:49:22
>> Within the year and they were married in Las Vegas. >> They moved around the country for Jeff's
00:49:30
job and in 2005 they had a daughter, Lola. Lola was her light. Lola was her her gift and she adored her daughter.
00:49:41
>> In 2011, the West family moved to Southern California where Army veteran Britney Dler's husband was thinking of
00:49:49
enlisting at the recruiting station. Britney says Jeff West basically had her husband at hello.
00:49:57
>> What was your impression of him? >> He was just super reassuring and and nice. He was just nice.
00:50:04
>> So nice, she says, that he even invited the Dellers to his home. His wife, Cat,
00:50:10
answered the door. >> She was just in her tank top and shorts and really happy, bubbly, and hey girl.
00:50:17
Right off the bat, she was like, "You want a drink?" >> Britney [music] says as far as she could
00:50:21
tell, Cat and Jeff West were a happy, if somewhat [music] unlikely, couple. Seeing how Cat carried herself and what
00:50:30
she looked like and then seeing Jeff, I know opposites attract, but I was like, "That guy pulled that girl." Uh,
00:50:40
you know, it never really made sense to me until I started getting to know them more.
00:50:45
>> You would not describe this as a conventional marriage. >> Definitely not. When it came to the
00:50:51
unspoken rules of entertaining, she admits Cat was so colorful that she sometimes colored outside the lines.
00:50:59
>> She would jump from the kitchen counter to the the sofa and shirtless, balless.
00:51:05
>> Wait, in front of you and your husband? >> Yes, my husband would go, "Oh my gosh."
00:51:10
[laughter] >> The couples hung out at home, but also started going to bars and clubs.
00:51:16
>> She'd be lively, animated. He would just be sitting on the couch relaxing, having
00:51:19
his drink. >> Did you ever see the two of them fight? >> Cat would fight. Jeff would not. Cat
00:51:28
would get emotional. When she was drunk, she would get loud. She would get um feisty. But he would sit there and just
00:51:36
say, "Okay, boo boo. Okay, I love you. All right, baby girl." You never saw an ounce of jealousy from him.
00:51:42
>> Never. Never. That surprised me because I I don't think many men would feel that
00:51:48
way. >> Carol says Jeff was proud of having an attractive wife. In 2014, the Wests had
00:51:56
moved to Alabama where he had a job as a campus police officer. The couple always
00:52:01
made time to be together with a regular date night, including on the night of January 12th, 2018.
00:52:10
Jeff's parents had then 12-year-old Lola for the evening. They go out to a restaurant. You know, they have some
00:52:17
drinks and dinner. [music] >> After dinner, they stopped at a liquor store. Security cameras show the couple
00:52:24
shopping, apparently without a care in the world. >> Everything seemed fine. At one point, he
00:52:29
even patted her on the butt. >> But it would be the last time Cat West would be seen alive.
00:52:53
I just was shocked, baffled. I don't believe it. >> When Britney Dler learned of Cat's
00:53:01
death, she immediately contacted Jeff West. >> What happened? How did this happen? And
00:53:07
his answer was just, "I don't know. Neither did Mccorchia Puraphoy. >> It was dark. It was cold. I wasn't sure
00:53:16
like what I was seeing. >> She'd been driving to work before dawn that day when she spotted something.
00:53:22
>> I think I see a person laying in the road. Well, halfway. >> Mora went home to get her parents. They
00:53:30
returned to the scene. >> Her body was frozen. Like frozen. I was traumatized. I was just in the car
00:53:37
crying. Mccorcha's mother called 911. >> They asked to see if she was breathing or not. She wasn't and we just waited
00:53:47
for the police to get there. >> Caller Police Sergeant Mike Melhoff, a veteran criminal investigator, arrived
00:53:56
about 30 minutes later. >> Looking at the scene, Kathleen's head is laying in the road. Her body is actually
00:54:02
laying in the grass. >> And there was something else he noticed right away. It did appear that the body
00:54:09
had been moved more than once. >> Cat West was found lying in a pool of blood across the street from her house.
00:54:16
Melhof noticed there was another blood pool nearby. Next to Cat's body, her cell phone and an open bottle of absent
00:54:25
liquor, the kind she and her husband had been seen purchasing the night before. >> The absence bottle. It was just propped
00:54:32
up on the phone just like that. It just did not seem right that it would have landed in such a way if it other than
00:54:39
being staged. >> Carla Robinson, who saw the crime scene photos, also thought it looked staged.
00:54:45
>> That bottle was placed on the phone. >> By somebody by somebody. >> She says there was somebody at the scene
00:54:53
whose behavior caught authorities attention. >> Jeff West standing in the doorway. At
00:55:00
one point he was on the porch smoking a cigarette and watching. And when Melhoff
00:55:05
spoke to Jeff inside, >> his behavior was not what I expected it to be knowing that his wife was outside.
00:55:13
>> What was your reaction to it? >> It was Everybody grieavves in a different way. And that was something I
00:55:19
kept telling myself. >> Cat had a roughly 2in gash on the left side of her head. The cause of death was
00:55:26
blunt force trauma. The injury that she suffered was enough to actually fracture
00:55:31
the skull. >> The autopsy showed signs of sex, but there was no indication of sexual
00:55:38
assault. Also, her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. Still, the medical examiner could not
00:55:46
say exactly how Cat [music] sustained the injury. >> The manner of death was undetermined.
00:55:53
>> Was it an accident? Was Cat so intoxicated that she fell and cracked her head? Or was it murder? And if so,
00:56:02
who killed Cat West? Well, authorities searched the neighborhood for clues and witnesses. Jeff went to headquarters.
00:56:10
Police say he stayed for about 6 hours. Was Jeff cooperative? >> Absolutely. >> Jeff was adamant with police he had no
00:56:19
idea what had happened to Cat. He speculated she may have died by accident. He also said their marriage
00:56:27
was in a good place. Police later discovered what the couple's friends already knew.
00:56:35
I think it would be fair to characterize her as an exhibitionist. She enjoyed the attention.
00:56:41
Jeff revealed he would actually photograph [music] Cat and help her post suggestive photos
00:56:46
online where hundreds of paying subscribers knew her as Kitty Cat West. >> She was very out loud about it. She was
00:56:55
making money. >> But Britney says for Cat, it was about a lot more than money. Cat, when not
00:57:04
behind [music] the website, was not always confident. Yes, you have your husband, but you always want to be
00:57:10
pretty to others. >> And remarkably, Jeff seemed to love it. >> Jeff got the best of both worlds. He was
00:57:20
able to be with his wife. She got what she wanted, which was, I get to make my money. I get to show off what I have,
00:57:29
and he's not going to leave me. Britney says by 2018, Cat's online activity had really ramped up. She'd
00:57:39
been using that subscription only website, Only Fans, to share adult photos and videos.
00:57:48
>> She was starting to get kneedeep in that type of industry. >> And with Only Fans came a new feature
00:57:55
for Cat. Providers and subscribers could communicate. Subscribers could also make
00:58:02
requests. >> Had you heard of Only Fans? >> No, ma'am. >> Melhoff was interested to learn that
00:58:09
Jeff had photographed Cat for her site the night she died and her page contained subscriber requests [music]
00:58:16
for personalized content. Could one of her Only fan subscribers have stalked [music] and murdered her?
00:58:24
>> Do we have somebody else out there that's actually killing people? He says they knew they had to cast a
00:58:31
wider net, so they sent Jeff home. Melhoff says they spent about three weeks looking for other suspects.
00:58:38
>> There were thousands of names that had to be called through in order to properly investigate this.
00:58:43
>> As police continued gathering evidence, Carol Robinson says they had more public
00:58:48
involvement than they wanted. Cat's death had set the internet on fire. You had this huge online presence,
00:58:59
these murder discussion Facebook groups. While they may have started in Caller, you know, there were people from all
00:59:07
over and they aren't quiet about their opinions. >> It seemed everyone had an opinion on the
00:59:15
way Cat died. >> It's the husband. I vote [music] stalker. It might have been a freak
00:59:21
accident. and the way she [music] lived. >> I don't agree with her lifestyle. She
00:59:28
brought this on herself. She was proud to have such an amazing figure. Good for her.
00:59:35
She was a [music] sympathetic victim to many. She was an unsympathetic victim to many.
00:59:41
[music] >> On Facebook, Jeff later made it clear that all the online chatter had taken a
00:59:47
toll on the family. To the public, "Our tragedy is juicy gossip," he [music] wrote.
00:59:53
>> The Facebook thing was really intruding on their lives in his opinion. >> Investigators [music] had formed their
01:00:02
own opinion. Cat's death had been no accident. And on February 22nd, 2018, they made their move.
01:00:11
>> William Jeffrey West, [music] the victim's husband, has been arrested and charged with the murder.
01:00:17
Bail was set at half a million dollars. >> Brittany Dryler says Jeff should never
01:00:24
have been arrested. Firmly believing that police failed to fully investigate the hundreds of Only Fan [music]
01:00:30
subscribers who had paid to see the racy content Cat posted. Did someone else kill her?
01:00:54
Some see it as unseammly. Others call it harmless fun. Stay at home. Either way, the online venue where Cat
01:01:04
West posted her racy photos, known as Only Fans, >> welcome to Only Fans, >> is a lot more than only a website, says
01:01:13
Carol Robinson. >> It's sort of the happy medium between porn and the Brady Bunch.
01:01:20
>> Whether you're a vlogger, [music] celebrity, model, whatever, you can reward your loyal fans with even more of
01:01:26
the great content you already produce, but get [music] paid for it. Since CO 19 caused widespread lockdowns,
01:01:37
Only Fans has become a provocative and profitable platform for celebrities. Former Disney star Bella Thorne
01:01:47
reportedly made a million dollars in one day posting lifestyle content. >> There's a lot of myself in this video.
01:01:54
Yeah. So, and the site has become an exotic destination for more salacious stationers as well. [music]
01:02:08
A place to dream of living large and potentially to make a good living in the process.
01:02:14
>> I'm really excited to introduce you to Courtney Tillia. The former teacher in
01:02:19
this YouTube video told a reporter she quadrupled her income posting nudes on Only Fans.
01:02:25
>> I wear things that allow me to feel sexy because when I feel sexy, I feel powerful.
01:02:32
>> This woman says she's paying her way through a neuroscience master's program.
01:02:37
[music] >> Amen. >> And this pastor made headlines when she left the pulpit. Not for a higher
01:02:43
calling, but she did eventually make a higher paycheck. Can I get a hallelujah and an amen?
01:02:49
>> Hosting on Only Fans and now reportedly earning tens of thousands of dollars a
01:02:55
month. By the end of 2020, the Londonbased site had grown to more than a million content
01:03:02
providers and 90 million subscribers. Does it surprise you at all to hear that as soon as the pandemic hit, Only Fans,
01:03:14
the popularity and the usage of it jumped by 75%. >> Not at all. [music] >> In 2015, Lauren Quay moved to New York
01:03:24
from her home in West Virginia with dreams of making it big on Broadway. [music]
01:03:29
>> I really wanted to make something of myself. Soon frustrated with the rat race, the
01:03:35
23-year-old daughter of a doctor and nurse began studying emergency medicine [music] and became a paramedic around
01:03:42
the time the pandemic began. >> I knew that there was a job that needed to be done.
01:03:48
>> Almost immediately, she found herself treating and transporting critically ill
01:03:53
CO patients, working at the intersection of life and death. I still remember taking patients
01:04:00
away whose family members couldn't come with us. They didn't know if it was going to be the last time they saw each
01:04:06
other. That was really rough for me. Rougher still, she says, because even though she was saving lives,
01:04:16
it was impossible [music] to save any money, she was making only about $40,000 a year, less than other first
01:04:24
responders, like many New York police and firefighters. Is what you were getting paid enough to cover your
01:04:32
monthly nut? >> No, not at all. It wasn't feasible to live off of that salary. As her bills
01:04:39
piled up and employment [music] options dwindled, Lauren turned to Only Fans. >> I don't have to go outside of my house.
01:04:45
You know, this could be an easy business. >> Using an alias, she started by posting
01:04:50
lingerie pics, cropping out her face. But she says she soon stopped cropping. And before long, the paramedic, who by
01:04:59
day was covering every inch of her body in protective clothing [music] started taking it all off online. Did you post
01:05:07
full nude shots? Yes, I did. >> And she says if Cat [music] West was proud to be on Only Fans, she would have
01:05:15
had reason to be. >> The human body, I believe it should be celebrated. >> And how did it make you feel when you
01:05:21
were posting? >> I felt empowered. I did not feel like I was degrading myself. >> And just to be clear, this was money you
01:05:29
were using to put food on your table. >> 100%. But Lauren admits she [music] was
01:05:36
worried about the exposure. >> It was scary to think that, you know, I'd be taking [music] pictures of myself
01:05:42
that would be on the internet, >> especially as her pool of Only Fan subscribers started to grow. She says
01:05:50
some of the requests for personalized content were disrespectful. >> There are some really weird people on
01:05:58
the internet. >> [music] >> Did you ever consider that maybe someone from her online life could have played a
01:06:08
role in what happened to her that night? >> We looked into that and there just wasn't that evidence out there.
01:06:17
>> No evidence [music] that an Only Fans online user was involved in Cat West's [music] death. What the evidence does
01:06:24
show, says Jeff's attorney, John Robbins, is [music] that Cat wasn't murdered. She fell and hit her head.
01:06:33
>> Jeff's parents, Jerry and Susie, agree. They aren't sure exactly how Cat hit her
01:06:39
head, and they [music] don't think authorities can prove it either. >> They set out to get Jeff. There was no
01:06:45
investigation. >> I [music] know he's innocent. >> I don't care what anybody says, he did
01:06:50
not do this. >> Jeff's parents say he was [music] incapable of harming his family. Now,
01:06:57
that is exactly what you would expect to hear from the parents of an accused killer, but you would probably not
01:07:04
expect to [music] hear the same thing from the parents of the alleged victim. >> He's honorable and he loves my daughter.
01:07:12
I know he didn't do it. >> He didn't do this. >> Cat's parents, John and Nancy, say their
01:07:18
daughter was conspicuously clumsy and the drinking did not help. [music] Brittany Dler conceds anything is
01:07:28
possible. >> She could have ran outside in the street, right, because she was so
01:07:33
intoxicated. >> Authorities insist Jeff West is a murderer, but their tactics suggest
01:07:40
otherwise. John Robin says just a few months before trial, the prosecution offered Jeff West
01:07:48
a deal. It's called an Alfred plea. Jeff would not have to admit that he had committed a crime, but he would have to
01:07:56
acknowledge that the state had enough evidence to likely convict. Now, if the judge accepted that deal, it means that
01:08:03
Jeff would be led off with time served and only two years probation. He could walk out of jail almost immediately.
01:08:12
What does it tell you as a defense attorney when the prosecution is offering a deal? That tells you as a
01:08:20
defense lawyer, the prosecution has some problems with their case and they recognize that.
01:08:28
>> According to Shelby County prosecutors, plea deals are standard in every case.
01:08:33
Robin says he told Jeff it was a reasonable offer. >> He rejected it immediately.
01:08:40
>> Why did he reject the offer? >> Because he says, [music] "I cannot say that I'm guilty of something that I
01:08:47
didn't do. Jeff West [music] decides to roll the dice and take his chances in court.
01:08:54
>> He understands the risk of going to trial. For more than 2 years, Jeff West has
01:09:17
awaited trial in custody. >> We weren't getting a lot of information at the time. The police were holding
01:09:24
things close to their vest. >> Defense attorney John Robbins believes prosecutors have problems with their
01:09:31
case. He says the Friday before trial, they called him with more talk of a plea deal.
01:09:39
>> We discussed what would it take to settle the case, >> but they could not come to terms. The
01:09:45
prosecution has also notified the court it [music] will make a new filing of evidence, text messages between Jeff and
01:09:53
Cat. >> It was very apparent that it was a very volatile uh relationship. Prosecutors will tell the jury that the
01:10:02
Wests did not have a harmonious marriage. You're throwing almost 14 years of a relationship away she'd
01:10:10
written a week before she died. You don't want me. Fine, someone will. I always want you, he'd replied. The texts
01:10:20
went from erratic to erotic so fast that Robins actually wants to use them to defend Jeff. Anytime Cat said something
01:10:30
that quote can be considered an argument, his response is, "I love you. I want you. You're sexy."
01:10:38
[music] >> Today is the first day of the murder trial against Jeff West in the murder of
01:10:46
Cat West. >> [music] >> The judge banned news cameras from the courtroom, but we were at the courthouse
01:10:51
taking notes, and it soon became clear there were at least two things the defense and [music] prosecution agreed
01:10:58
on. The cause of death, blunt force trauma, and how the night began. Jeff and Cat had started drinking at
01:11:06
dinner and bought more booze on the way home. It was later the cat apparently had
01:11:12
changed into lingerie and asked Jeff [music] to photograph her for her online fans. On Instagram that night, he posted
01:11:21
this picture of the absent liquor bottle. [music] Authorities contend he would bludgeon her to death with that
01:11:27
very same bottle. But why would Jeff West want to kill his wife? I wouldn't want to speculate as to, you
01:11:35
know, what drove him to that point, but I can certainly say that I feel that yes, he's he's the one responsible for
01:11:41
his wife's death. >> At the scene, Melhoff says he found it odd that Jeff did not ask for details
01:11:50
about his wife's condition. >> I would have thought that he would have at least asked, you know, can I see her?
01:11:56
>> Carol believes what Jeff did say made authorities suspicious, too. According to Jeff, he went to bed about 10:30. Cat
01:12:06
stayed up. >> Now, that's Jeff's version of what happened. >> But before long, Milhof unearthed a
01:12:13
different story on a health tracker app on Jeff's cell phone. >> Well, the health app actually shows
01:12:19
Jeff's phone moving as late as 10 minutes after 11:00. >> And Melhoff says he believes Jeff also
01:12:26
lied about when he woke up that morning. Jeff told police his dogs got him up by
01:12:31
barking at the cruisers out front, but a neighbor reported seeing Jeff before police arrived.
01:12:38
>> She could see a man in the house pacing back and forth. >> Having laid out what they believed were
01:12:45
Jeff's movements that night. Police look at Cat's phone, which also had a health
01:12:50
tracker app. It showed her phone had stopped moving 16 minutes before Jeff's. But what had actually caused Cat's fatal
01:12:59
wound? About a month after her death, police got test results from that absin bottle.
01:13:06
It had a sliver of glass chipped off and there were two spots of cat's blood on the bottom.
01:13:13
>> We had Jeff's fingerprints on it. >> Wouldn't you expect that given that they
01:13:18
bought it together and they said they'd been drinking that his prints would be on?
01:13:22
>> Oh, absolutely. But Melhoff says there was something specific about [music] the prince that
01:13:28
helped point the finger of blame at Jeff. >> Basically, the bottle was held inverted,
01:13:34
much like he'd be holding it like a club. >> Jeff's thumb print was found in a downward position on the bottle and his
01:13:42
ring fingerprint was found over here. >> She was not hit in head with that bottle. Robin says that's clear because
01:13:49
Jeff is a righty and the prints and the bottle were from his left hand and there
01:13:55
is a good reason they're upside down. >> The bottle was in a bag. You [music] would pull it out of the bag in the same
01:14:01
way where your thumbrint would be going down. >> But to win this case, the defense will
01:14:08
tell the jury that Jeff West could not have murdered his wife because Cat wasn't murdered. I've handled well over
01:14:16
a hundred murder cases. Never went forward on a murder case where uh the manner of death was classified as
01:14:25
undetermined. >> What happened that night to Cat West? >> In a nutshell, she fell. She hit her
01:14:32
head. >> Robin says police found Jeff dressed in the same clothes as seen in the security
01:14:39
video the night before. >> There was nothing on his clothes. No liquor, no blood, no bodily fluid, no
01:14:45
tissue, no hair, and there was no hair on the bottle. There's no glass in her womb.
01:14:50
>> And despite what police told us, no real effort Robins maintains to consider other suspects or theories about Cat's
01:14:58
death. >> The only person they ever looked at was Jeff, and they really never looked at it
01:15:05
whether it was an accident. Was there ever a time when you or anyone in the police department looked into the
01:15:12
possibility of it being an accident? >> Absolutely not. Um I don't want to sit here and say that I immediately ruled
01:15:19
out an accident, but just the the head trauma alone knowing that the body had been moved. It was very hard to try to
01:15:28
look at this as an accident. >> Not hard at all, insists Robbins. The two blood pools at the scene suggest
01:15:34
that after Cat fell, she could have gotten up and fallen again >> because it's clear that she moved around
01:15:42
after uh she had that head injury. >> John Robbins has whittleled his entire case down to only one witness, [music]
01:15:51
a witness guaranteed to get the jury's attention. Cat's mother, Nancy Martin, takes the
01:15:58
stand to tell the jury about her daughter's lifelong struggles. >> It's a lot of pressure.
01:16:05
>> Yeah, it was. It really was. >> Martin testified that [music] she herself had witnessed Cat West in an
01:16:12
intoxicated state go outside barefoot in any whether it was hot or cold. She said
01:16:18
she would be in varying stages of dress. Were you surprised at how supportive Cat's parents, particularly
01:16:25
her mother was of the man police say killed her daughter? >> You know, I can't really recall another
01:16:32
case where the mother of the victim and the father of the victim were so attached to the suspect.
01:16:42
>> Cat's parents are even giving Jeff legal advice, they help convince him not to
01:16:47
testify. >> Jeff's a good mood. He's fired up. >> In closing arguments, Assistant District
01:16:55
Attorney Daniel McBreer finally ties together the state's theory of what happened that night and why. He says
01:17:03
Jeff had lost his temper with his wife. >> He had a problem with her uh drinking
01:17:09
and her social media usage. >> Prosecutors say the evidence from that night shows it. He had thrown her phone
01:17:16
into the street and clubbed her to death with a liquor bottle when she went after
01:17:20
it. And McBrier says the way the bottle and phone were positioned convinced authorities [music]
01:17:26
it could not have been an accident. >> There were those two items stacked perfectly together right there on the
01:17:32
street next to her body. >> Jeff loved his wife. >> Did you ever consider the possibility
01:17:39
that this guy just snapped one night? >> But there's no evidence of that. He has
01:17:43
does not have a history of violence. >> The trial is ending when prosecutors make a lastminute move. They convince
01:17:52
the judge to let the jury consider a lesser charge than murder, reckless manslaughter.
01:17:59
>> I think that we could see a verdict tonight. >> This is the hard part. It just we're
01:18:04
waiting. They were afraid that they were going to lose the case. >> John Robbins says he wasn't happy about
01:18:24
the last minute lesser charge that prosecutors introduced and it's easy to see why. It takes the
01:18:33
jury less than five hours to convict Jeff West of reckless manslaughter. >> Jeff [snorts] is is stunned.
01:18:41
>> Both sets of parents are also stunned by the verdict. >> That was bull and you know it.
01:18:47
>> I couldn't believe it. I I really couldn't. >> Almost 3 months later, >> Judge Bill Bostic sentenced Jeff West to
01:18:55
16 years. >> How did you react when you heard 16 years? I just wanted to cry. [music]
01:19:04
>> With credit for time served, Jeff will be behind bars for 13 more years. For the prosecutors, it's a kind of split
01:19:13
decision. >> Obviously, we would have preferred a murder verdict, >> but they declare victory anyway.
01:19:18
>> We're glad to get a sentence as we did. >> For the defense, it is a stinging defeat. Jeff knows if he had accepted
01:19:27
that plea deal from the prosecutors, he'd probably already be home. >> In retrospect, [music]
01:19:32
that probably he should have taken the deal. >> Both sets of parents stand behind his
01:19:39
decision. >> By a show of hands, who thinks Jeff [music] is not guilty? >> We all think he's not guilty.
01:19:44
>> We all think he's not guilty. >> They sat down with us as a group three days after sentencing. [music]
01:19:50
>> Who thinks that he got a fair trial? Nobody, >> no hands. [music] >> They believe the judge threw the book at
01:20:01
Jeff West in sentencing for refusing to settle the case and that from the moment
01:20:06
Cat's death made news, >> a double life, an adult themed subscriptionbased [music] business,
01:20:11
>> she was harshly judged in the court of public opinion. It was the fact that she was doing these
01:20:19
things that small towns don't understand. >> I think society is always going to be
01:20:28
hard on women for anything that we do. >> New York City paramedic Lauren Quay says
01:20:33
for her the harsh judgments did not start [music] until a newspaper reporter contacted her out of the blue.
01:20:41
He said [music] somebody tipped the New York Post that you're a paramedic with an Only Fans.
01:20:47
>> He told her he was investigating whether her Only Fans page violated her employer's code of conduct.
01:20:55
>> And in that moment, I I wanted to just like crawl in a hole and die. >> Lauren says she canled her Only Fans
01:21:06
account immediately. The expose, including her real name and where [music] she lived and worked, began
01:21:13
circulating a few weeks later. >> I opened my Instagram and saw, you know, 600 follow requests.
01:21:20
>> Were you afraid for your safety? >> Absolutely. >> What do you think would have happened if
01:21:24
you had kept your Only Fans website going after the article dropped? >> Well, I I think it definitely would have
01:21:31
made a lot of money. As it happens, she did anyway. Worried that Lauren might lose her job, a friend
01:21:40
set up a GoFundMe page for her. Supporters contributed more than $100,000. But the private ambulance company she
01:21:48
works for kept her on the clock. >> It's always really hard to watch people pass away. [music]
01:22:00
Sometimes I think about Cat West and I think about where she would be today. Sucks that she was taken so early.
01:22:10
>> Cat's friend Britney Dler is living with loss, [music] too. >> She's gone. That's that that's
01:22:16
heart-wrenching. [snorts] They have a daughter that's in the mix of everything. [music]
01:22:22
>> I think people forget that a child is involved, >> right? Every week, Lola goes with all her
01:22:33
grandparents to see Jeff. >> Are the four of you [music] sticking together just for the sake of
01:22:40
Lola? >> No. [laughter] >> No. >> They're family. [music] >> But even when Jeff West does get out of
01:22:51
prison, this will always be a family with someone [music] missing. In an honest light, how would you like
01:23:01
her to be remembered? [music] >> Kind, caring. >> Kind, caring person who loved her
01:23:06
husband and loved her daughter very much. >> 48 hours to miss it would be a crime.
01:23:17
>> Were you [music] at all prepared for what happened in this case? Heat. [music]
01:23:47
Heat. >> [music] >> 911. Where is your emergency? >> I need someone to come out here to my
01:24:08
house. >> Tell me exactly what's going on. >> My wife has been shot. She's in her van.
01:24:21
Where's the gun, sir? 3625. >> It's right here in her hand. Is there a pulse or anything?
01:24:28
>> I can't find a psych. You come over here and check >> JPR. >> Yeah. >> What happened? And I
01:24:35
>> We were arguing and last thing I remember, I was going in the house and I heard a shot, a scream, and then another
01:24:42
shot. >> Open a bag. Give me some trauma shoes. Stay close. >> Stay clear of patient.
01:24:50
>> The realization started hitting me that she shot herself. >> Analyzing heart rhythm.
01:24:56
>> Come on. Let's go. Let's stay back here. What they're going to do is try to determine if they can get a pulse. Okay.
01:25:01
>> Check airway. Check breathing. Check circulation. >> Hey, Chief. Uh, it looks like suicide to
01:25:08
me. Did anything about your relationship with Tiffany lead you to believe that she was suicidal?
01:25:18
>> Not at the time. Looking back, just seeing how depressed she actually was and reading some of the her journal
01:25:23
makes me think she was hiding a lot of stuff. >> Tiffany was one of my very best friends.
01:25:33
>> She was a big spirit. [music] She had big plans. She wanted to see the world.
01:25:38
This was a school photo. She was my firstborn, my only daughter. She was very involved [music]
01:25:46
with her children. She used to dance and sing with them all the time. Her goal was to bring people
01:25:56
together. [music] That was why she started Mothers Helping Mothers. >> MHM is a community for all moms of all
01:26:04
walks of life. It doesn't matter your background. and we want to be there to love and support you.
01:26:09
>> Do you believe she would take her own life? >> No. I had just talked to her. I do not
01:26:15
believe that. >> When we [music] learned that she had shot herself twice with her uh
01:26:22
non-dominant hand, we were fairly certain that there's no way. >> Were you certain Jason did it?
01:26:30
>> I couldn't figure out who else did it. Just no way physically possible could it
01:26:34
happen the way that he said it happened. >> To believe that she did it to herself,
01:26:37
you have to believe she used her non-dominant hand. >> Very impulsive. >> And then shot herself twice.
01:26:43
>> Yes. >> Most suicides don't involve two shots. >> Yes. Most, not all. >> We don't believe Jason is guilty of this
01:26:54
at all. They did not see blood or anything on him. They found nothing that would indicate he had fired a firearm.
01:27:01
recently. I think she gave up. I think she just fell apart and decided to end it.
01:27:09
>> Did you kill your wife? >> No. >> There wasn't anything that had ever happened through the years for me to
01:27:16
say, "Oh, he might be guilty." I never ever thought that he was guilty. >> I don't have a pulse. She's right here.
01:27:31
She's She's gone. >> [music] [music] >> Now, 911. Where is your emergency? >> Uh, my wife is shot. I need someone out
01:28:27
here, please. >> It was just after 11 p.m. on May 2nd, 2017, when then 37year-old Jason
01:28:35
Crawford called 911 from right outside his home in Coleman, Alabama. That is about 50 miles north of Birmingham.
01:28:43
>> Sir, is she breathing? >> I don't know. Yeah, I'm trying to pick her lift her up so I can see. Jason
01:28:51
remembers that night >> vividly. >> Felt like it was taking longer and longer for anybody to get there. And
01:28:58
eventually I saw some headlights. >> Body camera footage shows what Coleman County Sheriff's deputies found when
01:29:06
they first got to the scene. >> EMS on my way. Okay. >> Jason's wife, 32-year-old Tiffany
01:29:13
Crawford, was slumped over in the driver's seat of her own van. There was a pink revolver in her left hand. which
01:29:21
Jason says she kept in the driver's side door of her vehicle for protection. When
01:29:26
one of the sheriff's deputies tried to check Tiffany for a pulse, the gun fell out of her hand.
01:29:33
>> What happened tonight? >> Uh I we were arguing. I gave her her stuff so she can go. I didn't let her in the
01:29:42
house. And the last thing I remember, she said she loved me. Then I was going in the house and I heard a shot, a
01:29:51
scream, and then another shot. >> Tiffany had been shot twice in the head. Paramedics tried to revive her.
01:29:59
>> Analyzing heart rhythm to check circulation. >> I was thinking, well, there maybe was a
01:30:03
chance she's still alive, >> but it was too late. >> And they come over and told me that she
01:30:10
was [music] dead. It just made me feel sick in my stomach. To at least one of the deputies on the
01:30:18
scene that night, it appeared pretty clear that this was a suicide. >> There's nothing here so far that says
01:30:24
anything to me other than suicide. >> And it wasn't long before deputies realized who Jason Crawford was. The son
01:30:32
of Rhonda Crawford, who works as an office manager at the sheriff's office. >> Yeah, you know it's Rhonda's
01:30:38
daughter-in-law. >> Coleman County Sheriff Matt Gentry soon got word. The chief deputy called me and
01:30:45
said, "Hey, it appears that Rhonda's daughter-in-law u had shot herself." I said, "I I'll go out there and check on
01:30:54
him." >> By the time the sheriff got there, Rhonda Crawford, was already on scene.
01:30:59
It was Rhonda, Jason's mother, who called Tiffany's mom, Cheryl McGucken, to tell her what happened. I felt like I
01:31:06
was kind of frozen in time in that moment and I said, "Is Jason there? Can I talk to
01:31:16
him?" And he was already speaking with the police. >> "Is that her gun that she kept with
01:31:23
her?" >> And so, um, I got off the phone and tried to figure out what what my next
01:31:32
step was. Cheryl's thoughts soon turned to Tiffany and Jason's children. They shared a
01:31:39
5-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. Tiffany was also stepmom to Jason's then 14-year-old son, Logan. All
01:31:47
the kids were inside the house that night. The two youngest were asleep. For Cheryl, life really hasn't been the same
01:31:55
since then. >> What are the things that you miss about her? >> You know, the things I miss about her is
01:32:01
her spontaneity. >> [music] >> Tiffany was an individual that had a huge heart [music] and she just wanted
01:32:12
to engulf everyone around her and help [music] them find joy. >> That is why Cheryl says Tiffany devoted
01:32:20
much of her spare time to a support group that she had started on Facebook called Mothers Helping Mothers. We're
01:32:27
there to laugh with each other, to love each other, and to just build you up in everyday motherhood.
01:32:33
>> She saw a vision that there were other mothers that [music] needed somebody to
01:32:41
talk to, and that group took off like a wildfire and spread all over the country.
01:32:49
>> Tiffany and Jason had been married a little more than six years when she died. What did you think of Tiffany when
01:32:55
you first met her? >> I thought she was striking and beautiful. She was outgoing. A lot of
01:33:00
things I wasn't, you know, so it was more of like, I guess, opposites attract kind of thing.
01:33:05
>> When they started dating, Jason had been divorced for several years. His first
01:33:10
wife, he says, had cheated on him. Tiffany was in a relationship at the time, married. In fact, it wasn't
01:33:17
exactly a fairy tale beginning from the outside looking in. But Jason says for the two of them,
01:33:22
>> yeah, it was >> it was [snorts] >> it was like fireworks from in the beginning.
01:33:27
>> Tiffany eventually got divorced and that is when she and Jason married and started their family.
01:33:33
Just what led up to her death on that night in May 2017. >> She go >> would be up to the investigators to find
01:33:40
out. Sheriff Gentry remembers a conversation he had on the scene with the coroner.
01:33:47
>> He says it appears to be a suicide. He said the only weird thing is there's two
01:33:51
shots. >> What do you recall about what you thought in that moment? >> Well, that's weird. It's strange. Now,
01:33:58
has that happened before? Yes, but it's not normal. >> One of the shots was to her left jaw
01:34:04
area. The other was to her left temple. I said because of his mother's connection to our office for
01:34:14
transparency, there has to be an autopsy done. >> Sheriff Gentry says his investigators
01:34:19
went on to process the scene that night. >> We investigate every suicide like a homicide. So, the man was searched.
01:34:27
Evidence that was needed to be was seized. >> But the next morning, Sheriff Gentry
01:34:32
decided to turn the case over to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation. I could have told our guys to work it, but
01:34:39
because of the potential for conflict, I want full transparency. >> Joe Parish is the state agent who got
01:34:47
the case. What's the first thing you do? >> Uh went to the district attorney's office and asked him about the van.
01:34:54
>> Parish wanted to get his hands on that van in which Tiffany was shot. So, he got a search warrant for it. But there
01:35:00
was just one problem. You see, the van had been released to the Crawford family. And by the time Parish got to
01:35:07
it, less than 24 hours after Tiffany died, it had already been cleaned by Jason's family members. The sheriff's
01:35:15
office had given them the go-ahad. >> I didn't want the kids to see anything. I was worried about them when they woke
01:35:21
up in the morning. >> What did you make of that that the van had been cleaned? >> It was odd that they would clean it up
01:35:29
that quick after something like that. But Sheriff Gentry defends his decision to release the van.
01:35:36
>> There was nothing of evidentiary value [music] to the van. They processed it,
01:35:42
took uh pictures, they did everything they normally would do on a crime scene uh that night.
01:35:49
>> Right. But if you're treating it like a homicide, I'm not turning the van over
01:35:53
to the family. >> Sure. So So and I I mean I completely understand. So, it was treated, we
01:36:01
worked it like a homicide, but it was treated like a suicide. Every bit of evidence that was needed was taken. But,
01:36:09
as it turns out, that van would be significant. And so would what Jason and Tiffany were
01:36:15
arguing about right before she died. Yeah, I I could tell something was going on because she was getting more distant.
01:36:42
>> Jason Crawford says that in the months leading up to his wife Tiffany's death,
01:36:46
he noticed a change in her. >> She had been drinking a lot, too. two or three bottles [music] a week
01:36:53
sometimes. So, you had a feeling something was up. >> Yes. >> Andy says his suspicions were confirmed
01:37:00
the night Tiffany died. When just hours before she got home, Jason found messages on their computer suggesting
01:37:07
that she was having an affair. >> So, I started calling her, you know, just trying to see if she would tell me
01:37:14
anything. >> And she's like, "I don't know what you're talking about." Denying it. And I
01:37:20
was like, "Okay, well, I think you need to get home." >> Tiffany's mom, Cheryl, says she knew
01:37:25
about the affair. >> She called to let me know she was on her way home and that um Jason and her were
01:37:34
going to have to have a discussion about their problems. >> Did she sound worried?
01:37:38
>> She did not sound worried. She sounded kind of hyper and, you know, anxious. >> [music]
01:37:47
>> I just said, "Well, I love you. Be careful." >> Tiffany's friend, Lindsay Luke, says she
01:37:54
also knew about the affair. Lindsay says Tiffany told her she was making plans to
01:37:59
leave Jason and that she got a job at a local grocery store to save up money for
01:38:04
a new life on her own. >> She knew what she needed to leave him and how she was so close.
01:38:11
>> Was Tiffany afraid that Jason was going to find out about the affair? >> Yes.
01:38:16
and she didn't want him to cuz she didn't want to hurt him. >> But that night when he did find out,
01:38:22
Jason says he was hurt and angry. This was the second time a wife had cheated on him. When Tiffany got home, he says
01:38:30
that's when he confronted her and refused to let her go inside. >> I kept telling her she's not staying
01:38:37
tonight. She asked me, "Um, why can't I stay?" I was like, "You've destroyed the
01:38:42
sanctity of our marriage." >> You were really angry. Uh, yeah, I was angry, but I was controlled anger.
01:38:48
>> Jason claims they argued for more than an hour. [music] And when he remained insistent that Tiffany was not going
01:38:55
inside, he says she asked him to go and get her work clothes. >> I went in and grabbed some clothes and
01:39:01
threw them to her and then I told her I'm done talking. Um, so I went in the house and as soon as I went in the
01:39:08
house, I heard a shot, her scream, and then another shot. >> And then you did what? went right back
01:39:15
outside. >> And what position was the door in? The car door. >> The car door, it was pulled to or
01:39:21
closed. >> Jason says that's when he called 911. >> I need someone to come out here to my
01:39:27
house. >> Police are medical. >> But in that call and the police body camera footage from that night, Jason
01:39:34
never mentioned an affair. >> Last thing I remember, she said she loved me. Lead investigator Joe Parish
01:39:41
says authorities didn't learn about the affair until the next day. >> Also, when Parish listened back to that
01:39:48
911 call, there was more that caught his ear. >> He was very cold. It didn't sound like
01:39:54
somebody that was worried about his wife. >> I'm going to need some more [music]
01:39:57
information from >> And there was one question that the 911 dispatcher kept asking Jason [music]
01:40:03
that he wouldn't answer. >> Who shot her in the head? >> Who shot your wife? He was aborting the
01:40:10
question. >> I would like to play the 911 call for you. >> Okay. >> 911. Where's your emergency?
01:40:20
>> My life is short. >> You seem cool as a cucumber. >> Oh, I don't know. Maybe that's just the way
01:40:28
my tone of voice is. >> She's been shot. Who has she been shot by? >> Please have an answer, please.
01:40:38
She asked you who she been shot by. >> Mhm. >> And you didn't respond. >> Yeah. >> Why not?
01:40:46
>> Again, I just felt like if I said it into existence, it would be true. >> She's a shark in the head.
01:40:58
>> This lady gave you an opportunity to say yes. >> Yeah. >> And you didn't respond.
01:41:06
I don't know how many more times I can tell you. I just froze in thought. >> Do you understand how somebody listens
01:41:13
to that and says, "Yeah, cuz he did it." >> Yeah, I I can understand that. >> And that's exactly what Joe Parish
01:41:18
thought. A week after Tiffany died, and with her autopsy results still pending, Parish decided to bring Jason in for
01:41:26
questioning. >> Joe Parish with the State Bureau of Investigation. During that interview,
01:41:31
Jason spoke in detail about discovering the affair and the argument that he had with Tiffany.
01:41:37
>> So, you've ruined our home. He's like, "She's no longer part of this." >> And he also answered a question that
01:41:43
Parish believed was key. >> Was she left or right-handed? >> She's right-handed.
01:41:48
>> Right handed. >> Yeah. >> Tiffany was right-handed, but the gun had been found in her left hand.
01:41:56
How often in your experience do suicides happen where the individual uses their non-dominant hand?
01:42:03
>> I've never seen it personally. And it's not like I know she's like so predominantly right-handed that she
01:42:09
couldn't use her left hand. >> But why would Tiffany >> We want to be there to love and support.
01:42:13
>> A woman who devoted so much time to helping others suddenly kill herself. >> There was nothing suicidal about her.
01:42:22
>> Even Jason finds it hard to explain. Had she ever spoke about wanting to kill
01:42:27
herself? >> Not that I No, not to me. >> Coming down. >> After Parish interviewed Jason, he was
01:42:35
free to go. >> But about a week later, he was brought back in for questioning this time by
01:42:41
Parish's colleague. >> And I'm going to advise you of your constitutional rights.
01:42:45
>> Jason agreed to take a polygraph >> and investigators told him he failed. >> Your reactions were off the chain. Okay.
01:42:56
You're saying that there's no way that you shot your wife, correct? >> It wasn't long before things turned
01:43:02
contentious. >> I don't want to hear that that I didn't shoot my wife cuz I know that's a lie.
01:43:08
>> I can't get up and leave cuz arrest, right? >> You listen to me, huh? Walk out that.
01:43:13
You know what? >> That interview also ended with no arrest. >> Gave you a chance.
01:43:17
>> Because of a backlog, [music] it would take nearly a year to get the missing piece of the puzzle. those autopsy
01:43:24
results. You see, the manner of death was ruled a homicide and that is when the decision was made to present the
01:43:31
case to a grand jury. >> I have no doubt in my mind he's guilty at all. >> Jeff Roberts was the Coleman County
01:43:39
Assistant District Attorney at the time. >> I think the forensics tipped the case.
01:43:45
>> But would a grand jury indict Jason? Even Tiffany's [music] mother had her doubts. And even though I didn't want to
01:43:53
believe it was a suicide, naturally I wouldn't want to believe my son-in-law killed her either.
01:44:01
>> What do you make of Jason's 911 call? Chat now on Facebook and X. [music] It's a sad situation. Whether on one
01:44:21
side you believe somebody committed suicide or somebody committed murder. [music] Neither one of those scenarios
01:44:28
work in my mind. >> In the year following her daughter Tiffany's death, Cheryl McGuffkins says
01:44:34
she had a hard time believing that her daughter could have killed herself, but she also couldn't imagine that her
01:44:41
son-in-law Jason would have pulled the trigger. Did you ever call the investigators and say, "I want to know
01:44:46
every bit of details you have. I want to know all the details." No. >> Why not? >> I suppose I didn't want to um let that
01:44:56
cloud my time with my grandkids and my relationship with Jason and his family. >> My family and friends would never
01:45:08
question that I wouldn't kill my wife. Jason did have a lot of support, but not from the investigators or then Coleman
01:45:18
County Assistant District Attorney Jeff Roberts and his legal assistant Deborah Ball.
01:45:23
>> She was too out there to help other people. She's not going to kill herself. >> There's no way that that's what [music]
01:45:29
happened. Once Roberts had received word that the medical examiner had ruled Tiffany's death a homicide, he decided
01:45:37
along with lead investigator Joe Parish to seek an indictment against Jason. >> I couldn't figure out who else did it.
01:45:45
He's the only one had a motive to do it for one thing. >> The grand jury came back with an
01:45:49
indictment for murder for Jason Crawford. Jason called me and told me it was very shocking
01:46:01
and very confusing. >> On May 21st, 2018, just over a year after Tiffany died, Jason surrendered.
01:46:10
>> Walked in. I told him he was under arrest. He didn't seem to be worried. >> He didn't seem to be worried.
01:46:17
>> No. >> Jason wasn't in custody for very long. In fact, he was released on bond and
01:46:24
Robert Tuton and Nicholas Heatherly became his defense attorneys. >> We don't believe Jason is guilty of this
01:46:30
at all. There's no evidence. They did not see blood or anything on him. They found nothing that would indicate he had
01:46:37
had fired a a firearm recently. >> But the night of the shooting, Jason was never tested for gunshot residue, and
01:46:45
his house was never searched for bloody clothing. Still, Toutin and Heatherly say they believe Jason, who says he was
01:46:53
inside the house when the gunshots rang out. >> His oldest son heard his father come
01:46:58
back in the house right before the first gunshot. >> Both arms. >> And about that polygraph test that Jason
01:47:06
was said to have failed. >> Did you shoot Tiffany Crawford? >> Police investigators use those as an
01:47:12
investigative tool. If they think somebody is guilty, they tell them that they have failed the polygraph and
01:47:20
insist they tell what really happened. They gave you a lie detector test and you failed it.
01:47:25
>> Mhm. >> Yeah. They can make those read how they want to. >> Jason's defense team also downplayed
01:47:34
that 911 call. >> The one in which investigator Parish noticed Jason sounded calm.
01:47:40
>> Even evasive shot. If someone's never been in a high pressure situation like that where they've just been shocked by
01:47:48
what they're seeing, they probably would not understand how that affects somebody.
01:47:54
>> You just felt like I was outside my body not knowing what's going on. >> But the prosecution was confident that
01:48:04
Jason was [music] guilty. Dr. Valerie Green was confident, too. She is the medical examiner who conducted Tiffany's
01:48:12
autopsy. >> You remember saying to yourself, "I got a feeling there's more to this story."
01:48:17
>> Oh, yes, definitely. I think the thing that made me think that there could be
01:48:22
something else going on with this case is that gunshot wound on the left side of Miss Crawford's head.
01:48:30
>> Dr. Green says that based on the absence of gunpowder particles and abrasion around the wound to Tiffany's left
01:48:37
temple, she concluded that the shot had to have been [music] fired from at least
01:48:42
10 in away. >> That's indicating that, you know, she's holding her arm outward beyond 10 in
01:48:50
and trying to shoot herself. Not saying that it's impossible, but it's not likely.
01:48:57
>> It is especially unlikely, says Dr. green because Jason reported that he found Tiffany in the driver's [music]
01:49:03
seat of her own van. >> Where's the gun, sir? >> With the gun in her left hand. >> It's right here in her hand.
01:49:09
>> And the car door closed. >> That was concerning to me because I mean, for you to be able to hold up a
01:49:18
gun and shoot yourself in the head, it would be difficult to do in that such a small space.
01:49:25
>> That's not all, says Dr. Green. Neither of Tiffany's injuries were contact wounds.
01:49:31
>> She didn't have a contact wound here and she didn't have a contact wound here.
01:49:35
>> Correct. >> Most suicides involve the barrel or the tip of the gun being placed on the skin.
01:49:39
>> Yeah. And you said most, not all. >> But there was something else Dr. Green noticed specifically about that van.
01:49:46
>> I remember looking at pictures of the driver's side door and I didn't see any
01:49:53
blood on [music] that door. I didn't see any blood on the the glass or the window. I didn't see anything even low
01:50:03
on the door. That makes me think that the door was not closed. And I think that [music]
01:50:11
that door is open because he was standing [music] there. Despite the autopsy report and the fact
01:50:21
that a grand jury had indicted Jason, Tiffany's mom continued to support him. >> I never changed how I felt towards
01:50:31
[music] Jason. I mean, what purpose would that serve? You know, he's also somebody's child
01:50:43
and he's the remaining parent to my grandchildren. More than four years would pass before
01:50:52
the case ever went to trial. And during that time, the defense would retain their own medical examiner, the former
01:50:59
chief medical examiner for the state of Alabama. And he had a drastically different opinion than Dr. Green.
01:51:06
>> I believe it's a serious shot. >> See more photos from the case at 48 hours.com.
01:51:25
In November 2022, more than 5 years after Tiffany Crawford died, her husband Jason Crawford went on trial for her
01:51:33
murder. Prosecutor Jeff Roberts was confident in his case, but he knew there would be challenges. the fact that it
01:51:41
was considered by the officers on the scene apparently consistent with suicide. I thought this is going to be
01:51:46
really tough to overcome. >> Jason's defense attorneys, Robert Tuton and Nicholas Heatherly also felt that
01:51:53
they had their work cut out for them >> simply because there's no way to really find a definitive answer for exactly
01:51:59
what happened. >> We were only allowed to film the trial from outside the courtroom through a
01:52:04
window door. Tiffany's mother, Cheryl, who said she didn't want to hear the details surrounding her daughter's
01:52:11
death, chose not to attend the trial. >> I knew that there would be things said on both sides that I didn't want to have
01:52:18
in my head, >> but she did go on day one solely to testify. She was the prosecutor's first
01:52:26
witness. >> He assumed that I was on their side. Instead, Cheryl says she told the jury
01:52:35
how she really felt about Jason. >> I've never had any issues with Jason. >> Megan Brock was a juror on the case.
01:52:44
>> She was telling everybody, "Me and Jason have a great relationship." I was like,
01:52:47
"Really?" >> She thought it was weird that his mother-in-law >> might still be supporting him
01:52:54
>> as he's on trial for murder. >> Mhm. Yep. Undeterred, the prosecution moved on
01:53:01
with what they felt was evidence of Jason's alleged motive, anger over his wife's affair.
01:53:08
A friend of Tiffany's testified that Jason called her after learning that Tiffany had been cheating on him and
01:53:14
that he said he couldn't go through this again, referencing the fact that his first wife had also had an affair. Jason
01:53:23
claims he didn't say that >> his first wife cheated on him. Tiffany cheated on him. Isn't it plausible for
01:53:31
somebody on the jury to think, "Hey, look, the guy snapped, so he killed her." >> I don't think that happened at all. He
01:53:37
didn't snap over his first wife. They remain friends even to this day. >> How old is she?
01:53:42
>> Jason's 911 call was also played for the jury. >> Uh, my wife was shot. >> And they saw some of that police body
01:53:49
camera footage, too. The prosecution also called DNA analyst Angela Fletcher, who examined swabs
01:53:57
taken from Tiffany's gun. She testified she couldn't say for sure whether there was any female DNA on the gun because
01:54:06
there was only a trace amount of DNA detected, but she was certain that both the grip
01:54:12
and the trigger contained male DNA. >> Is it Jason Crawford? >> No. The profile was so limited that I
01:54:20
was unable to do any type of comparisons. >> There's other people that have touched
01:54:26
that gun that were males. My my dad gave her the gun, so his DNA may be on it. Her brother also shot it.
01:54:34
>> With so little DNA detected, the prosecution argued that Jason must have wiped the gun and then planted it in
01:54:42
Tiffany's hand. >> There's no proof. There's no evidence of it at all. No, >> her DNA would have had to be on that gun
01:54:49
if she did it herself. >> But perhaps the most damaging testimony against Jason came from medical examiner
01:54:56
Dr. Valerie Green. She told the jury how she believes the gunshot wound to Tiffany's temple was fired from more
01:55:04
than 10 in [music] away, >> which is way more consistent with him standing outside the car shooting her
01:55:11
than, you know, her trying to hold a gun, you know, over 10 in away. But the defense showed the jury a pre-recorded
01:55:18
deposition with their own medical examiner, Dr. James Luridson. >> I believe that that Mrs. Crawford uh
01:55:26
shot herself first in the left side of the face and then shot herself in the left side of the head.
01:55:34
>> Dr. Lurson also testified, "There is no way to tell how far away the gun was when that shot to Tiffany's temple was
01:55:41
fired because her hair was in the way. I do realize that [music] scalp hair can filter out gunpowder particles, but that
01:55:52
was taken into consideration. I would expect more abrasions to have been able to filter through her hair.
01:56:00
>> The defense also argued that Tiffany had been struggling emotionally. She had
01:56:05
started seeing a counselor just one day before she died. and friends of Tiffany testified that she had been drinking
01:56:12
excessively and that she was upset because the man with whom she was having an affair had recently broken up with
01:56:19
her. >> He told her he didn't want to have anything else to do with her. Basically,
01:56:23
her whole life's falling apart and I think she just gave up. >> Tiffany's journal was also entered into
01:56:31
evidence. And in an entry dated the day she died, she wrote that she was struggling with figuring out what to do
01:56:39
with herself and that she was trying to avoid breaking down. >> Isn't it possible that she was having
01:56:45
thoughts of suicide? >> I would say no. She had started seeing a counselor. That's somebody who was
01:56:50
looking forward in life. >> Jason's son, Logan, also took the stand for the defense. He testified that he
01:56:57
heard his father inside the house when the gunshots went off that night. But the prosecution questions his memory.
01:57:04
>> When he keeps hearing the same story, his story is going to start matching up
01:57:08
somewhat like all 14-year-olds would. His story never changed. He was interviewed by law enforcement and it
01:57:14
stayed consistent. >> As the trial was drawing to a close, the defense made a bold decision. They
01:57:21
called Jason to the stand. He testified that he loved Tiffany and denied killing
01:57:27
her. But both the prosecution and the defense acknowledge there was a point where he lost his cool.
01:57:35
>> He argued a little bit with the prosecutor. >> The person on the stand was the person
01:57:39
that you could easily see doing this. >> Jason also testified that he called Tiffany a degrading name that night she
01:57:46
died. >> You said to the jury, "I was trying as best I could to make her hurt inside as
01:57:52
much as I was hurting." >> Mhm. >> Yeah. I was just basically talking down to her like she was not human. I feel
01:58:01
sorry cuz I feel like maybe that contributed to what pushed her to over the edge to do that.
01:58:08
>> Even though Jason's testimony likely did him no favors. There was still no direct
01:58:13
physical evidence pointing towards his guilt. >> There's no evidence that Jason fired the
01:58:19
gun. >> And after 4 days of testimony, the case went to the jury. I said, "Oh god, here
01:58:25
we go." I don't know if this man did it or not. It was November 18th, 2022, and Jason
01:58:47
Crawford's fate was now in the hands of a jury. Behind closed doors, [music] Megan Brock says she and several fellow
01:58:53
jurors were on the fence about his guilt. >> And I was like, "So, we're going to sit
01:58:58
here for the next however long it takes." >> My stomach was in nuts. >> Cheryl McGucken [snorts] admits she was
01:59:07
nervous for Jason and his family. >> You know, this is my son-in-law. After several hours deliberating, the
01:59:18
jury requested access to that body camera footage. Then they asked for the 911 recording.
01:59:25
>> My wife is shot. I need someone out here, please. >> About 30 minutes later, they announced
01:59:30
they had reached a decision. Cheryl was in the courtroom only for the second time.
01:59:36
>> And who were you with for the verdict? I was sitting with my husband right behind
01:59:41
um Jason's parents and the rest of his family. >> As for the verdict, this is how Megan
01:59:49
says the jury came to their decision. >> When we listened to that 911 call again,
01:59:54
that was it. >> So, the 911 call sealed the deal. >> That was it. >> Really? >> The operator, she keeps asking him, you
02:00:02
know, who shot her? >> Who has she been shot by? Finally, um, she was like, "Okay, well,
02:00:09
where's the gun at?" And he said, "Laying beside her." And we were like, "Wait, what?
02:00:16
>> Where's the gun at? >> It's laying beside her." >> He clearly said, "The gun is laying
02:00:24
beside her." When in fact, the body cam footages showed her holding the gun, barely, but holding the gun.
02:00:33
>> The gun wasn't laying beside her. It was beside her cuz it's on her side. >> In her hand.
02:00:41
>> They found the gun in her hand. >> Yes. >> You understand the difference between in
02:00:45
her hand and laying beside her >> to some people? Yes. Like beside [music] her. It's beside like laying on her.
02:00:54
>> It's beside her. I just chose the wrong words to say. >> But the jury did not see it that way. I
02:01:02
said, "Oh, he's guilty." Everybody said the same thing. They were like, "He's guilty."
02:01:10
>> The verdict was guilty. >> Yes. Just felt [music] like it it shouldn't be happening.
02:01:17
It was unbelievable. So, I was just stunned. >> You know, I had a friend that said,
02:01:25
"Hallelujah." And that really bothered me because that wasn't anything to cheer about.
02:01:36
There's no justice here. Everybody loses. >> You are a grandmother. >> Mhm. >> And there are two kids left behind who
02:01:47
had nothing to do with this. >> Right. Exactly. >> But at the end of the day, this man was
02:01:52
put on trial. >> The evidence was heard. He was convicted. Mhm. >> So, he is a killer in the eyes of the
02:01:58
law. >> You know, they're they're going to do an appeal. I don't want to miss speak on this at all.
02:02:08
>> When you say you're doing appeal, what do you mean? Are you protecting him? I
02:02:11
>> I don't have any reason to protect him. Um, but I'm going to let things play out
02:02:17
as they will. Following this interview, I asked Cheryl if she had any interest in seeing the evidence.
02:02:26
>> You said you [music] did. >> Mhm. >> You asked if we could show it to you. >> Mhm.
02:02:31
>> We provided you with what was in the public record. >> Yeah. >> What do you now believe?
02:02:36
>> Well, I now believe that he did kill her. Um, [sighs and gasps] reading the evidence, going through what was said
02:02:44
during the trial, it it it made it painfully obvious. >> On March 10th, 2023, Cheryl McGuffin
02:02:55
took the stand again at Jason's sentencing hearing, but this time she spoke for her daughter. I couldn't
02:03:03
understand how my son-in-law Jason could look me in the eye for 5 and a half years
02:03:09
if he had murdered my daughter. Our cameras were again outside [music] the courtroom looking in. So, Cheryl
02:03:16
shared with us what she said directly to Jason. >> Jason, if not you, who? You were there.
02:03:26
You know the truth. I pray you will someday find wisdom and strength to speak the truth.
02:03:32
>> She said that in front of her [music] grandchildren, too. They were sitting in
02:03:36
the very front row. Cheryl didn't know that Jason's [music] parents were going to bring them.
02:03:42
As the judge prepared to sentence Jason [music] Crawford, his lawyers were still
02:03:47
pleading his innocence, just as Jason did when I first spoke with him. >> If I could interview Tiffany today, what
02:03:54
do you think she'd tell me? probably that she's sorry and she's didn't realize that it would affect so
02:04:03
many people like like it did. >> She wouldn't tell me that you're a liar and a killer.
02:04:09
>> No, I don't think so. >> Jason was sentenced to 99 years in prison, but under Alabama law, he'll be
02:04:20
eligible for parole in 15 years. What do you think Tiffany would say now having seen you on the stand?
02:04:29
>> I can hear her saying, "I'm proud of you, mama." >> Now, Cheryl just wants to make sure that
02:04:37
her grandchildren are proud of their mother and never forget who Tiffany was and what she stood for.
02:04:45
>> She was just an angel that [music] came down from heaven for a short time to teach all of us how to love.
02:04:54
And be kind and be giving. A rising star pro racer is shot. A suspect disappears.
02:05:13
>> You have to be smarter than a lot of people to get away with it. >> Leaving US marshals on a winding
02:05:19
international manhunt. >> The pressure's on. >> Pressure's on. The race to [music] get
02:05:22
justice. 48 hours next on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.