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Now, a special two-part [music] edition of 48 hours. >> People are involved here.
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Parents who work, parents to stay home. It's a type of neighborhood when the kids go to the bus stop in the morning,
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you know, the parents are there and Fred was there every morning. >> Fred was just a wonderful man. He
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enjoyed life like we all do here. >> I think his ultimate goal was to be a great dad, to have a a solid family.
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>> He was very, very involved with his children. >> The morning of [music] the 30th started
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out like any other morning. He was a fairly precise individual. He taught at the University of Richmond. It was his
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[music] regular pattern to get up, make some coffee, uh, come outside, retrieve the newspaper.
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At 6:30, Fred Jablin went outside in his slippers to go get his newspaper, and he
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was gunned down in his driveway. My name is Kobe Kelly. I'm a homicide detective with the Henriiko County
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Police. >> I lost my best friend. I lost my brother. >> Who goes through life expecting to know
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someone who gets murdered? You don't ever expect to have a friend murdered. I was in Texas. I was about ready to go
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out to a Halloween party with my sister and I got a call from a good friend of mine. She was just very, very upset and
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she said, "Fred, Fred's been killed." And I was just stunned. My name's Piper Roundtree. Fred Javelin and I were
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married for 19 [music] years. She was devastated because of his death. He's the father of her children.
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>> I met Piper and thought she was odd until I met her sister and realized that Piper was the least of the two.
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>> They were very close. Tina was an interesting character in her own right. [music]
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>> Am I going to call them both nutty? Okay, they're both nutty. From day one, I was always disappointed
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[music] that she married Fred. >> He was a very nasty, mean, egotistical person.
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>> I think that neither one of them acted in the manner which we would expect family members would normally act when
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they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered. >> My sister loves me. We're very, very
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close. She will go out to save people [music] and do things for people that no other person would ever do.
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>> It's definitely not your run-of-the-mill case. You have a suspect flying in from
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out of state carrying the weapon with them. You have someone using a different identification. You have wigs and makeup
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and that sort of thing. >> I never would have dreamed that any of that family would have done anything
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like that. I would have bet money. Absolutely not. It's not what did I think about Fred
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Javelins. Did I kill Fred Javelin? >> Yes. >> Um, >> two wigs, a gun, and a murder.
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[music] In the fall of 2004, this sleepy suburb of Richmond, Virginia was all dressed up
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for Halloween, ready for its annual visit from pint-sized ghosts and goblins. >> But for this close-knit neighborhood,
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the spookiest day of the year arrived early. >> On the morning of the 30th, I got up,
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planning on going to the gym to work out. I was putting on my running shoes when all of a sudden, my husband and I
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heard three loud sounds. Bang, bang, bang. We kind of looked at one another like, "What could that possibly be?" I
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said, "Well, maybe people are hunting, duck hunting down around Tuck Creek." Megan McCra shrugged it off and went to
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the gym for her morning workout. But just down the road, >> the windows were open and um all of a
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sudden I heard three gunshots go off. Bang, bang, bang. >> Neighbor Bob McCartel saw something he
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couldn't ignore. >> I saw someone running down the street in front of my house. It was so dark out.
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Couldn't tell if it was a man, woman. I couldn't tell. >> Marartel called 911 and within minutes,
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the police were searching the neighborhood. >> There were three police officers here
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with cars. First, they started driving with their search lights and then they were out on foot with their flashlights.
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They came back to my house about 15 minutes later. >> Police told McCartel they hadn't been
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able to find any sign of a shooter or a victim. So, I said, "All right, well, when the sun comes up, I'll take a walk
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out and I'll see if I can find anything, and if I do, I'll give you a call back."
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About 45 minutes later, my wife and I took a walk. And >> we just walked down towards Fred's
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house, and Dorene actually looked up and saw something up on the driveway. >> Oh, it was it was kind of strange
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because it was Halloween time and they had their house done up where they had like little things kind of sticking out.
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So there was just like a pile almost a lump. >> Lying in his driveway was Fred Jablin, a
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wellrespected 52year-old college professor, a devoted father to three young children.
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>> I yelled to Dorene. I said, "Call the police back." I said, "It's Fred and he's dead."
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>> My pager went off at about 7:30 a.m. There was a man down at Hearthlow Lane, uh, which is about three blocks from
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from my home. Around that time, an unsuspecting Megan McCraary returned home from working out
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at the gym. >> I came in through the door, was all set to cook everybody breakfast. Tim came
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into the kitchen and said, "Megan, you need to come outside immediately." He held on to me. He said, "Megan Fred
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Javelin is dead." I said, "What? Things like that? It's just that doesn't happen. You know, that's not this
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neighborhood." He said, "Fred Javelin is lying in his driveway. He is dead." All I could think of right then were
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those three children that were still in the house. >> I was concerned about the children. I
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made inquiry. I said, "Well, has anyone checked on the children?" >> Officer Harry Boyd's children were close
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friends with the Javelin children. >> And no one here at that point knew about any children. So I told them immediately
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there were three children somewhere. >> Police entered the home and found Fred Javelin's children, his 12-year-old son
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and [music] his two daughters, ages 10 and 15. All three children uh were asleep in their rooms. [music] Um we got
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them out as quickly as possible through another door so they wouldn't come out into the this area of the home of course
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and see Fred in the driveway. >> Officer Boyd took Fred's children to his home nearby.
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>> Did you have an opportunity to sit him down and and explain at some point what
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happened? >> Yes, we did. >> That's tough to do. >> Oh, it was the best of circumstanc. It
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was just a just a nightmare to have to do that. They were of course very upset. Um, we explained to them that their
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father had been shot and that we were trying to find out who may have done that and that they were going to be
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staying with me and my family until until we could make arrangements to get their uncle and the rest of their family
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here. >> Their uncle, Fred's older brother, Michael, lived about 2 hours away in
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Northern Virginia. >> My first reaction was was disbelief. I called my brother's home, left a
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message, called the cell phone, then no response. And then one of the Haro County officers told me this situation
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and I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe what happened. >> Fred's ex-wife, Piper Roundtree, says
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she too was stunned when she learned of his murder. >> I'd got a phone call from a friend of
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mine who had heard about it and nobody knew what had happened. >> Piper was living in Houston, Texas,
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where she'd moved after their divorce. >> It was very sad. He's the children's father. The children
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need two parents. They need a mother. They need a father. >> Back in Richmond, homicide detective
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Kobe Kelly was put in charge of the investigation. >> We saw the person had come out here
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wearing a robe, wearing uh slippers. >> Detective Kelly's theory was that Fred Jablin was on his way to pick [music] up
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his morning newspaper. I suspect that someone or something drew his attention back this direction as he was walking
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down to get the paper and that whatever confrontation took place probably happened right here in this area.
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>> So, are you speculating that perhaps Fred Javelin actually talked to this person?
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>> I I think in my mind I think so. We'll never be able to prove that. There was
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no one out here to hear anything like that, but I I believe so. >> It made sense to Detective Kelly that
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Fred Javelin may have known his killer. So, he talked to him, walked away, and was shot in the back.
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And that would explain, yeah, the bullets entering through the back of the arm and out the forearm
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and the other one entering his back and and lodging inside his body. >> After analyzing the crime scene, Kelly
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went to work on suspects. >> We were trying to find out a little bit about the victim, um, talking to
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neighbors, talking to friends and family, and just try to find out if he had any enemies or anyone that [music]
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would think to do something like this. >> Now, Fred Jablin is a professor at the
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university here. as you look for suspects or thinking about possible suspects, what what thoughts went
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through your mind? >> Well, I think initially maybe a student that hadn't done well in one of his
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classes that comes to mind. >> Police went to the University of Richmond to check out that angle.
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>> We were trying to get to his office and and see if there's anything there that
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would give us a direction to go to >> like bad grades or Fs and stuff like that looking for.
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>> Absolutely. >> But Kobe Kelly knew what all homicide detectives know when looking for
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suspects. start close to home. >> I learned pretty early on that people said, "I have no idea who would want to
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do this to Fred, but have you talked to his ex-wife?" >> Detective Kobe Kelly reached Piper
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Roundtree in Houston. >> And he said, "All the immediate family was under suspicion, uh, Michael Jablin
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and me." At the time of the murder, Piper and her ex-husband had been apart for almost four years, and she had
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started a whole new life in Houston. Not only that, [music] but police would soon
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learn that Piper had an alibi for the day of the murder. >> It was the Saturday before Halloween.
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>> A family friend and attorney, Marty McVey, remembers Piper stopping by his Houston office on the very day her
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ex-husband was murdered more than a thousand miles away. I was in my office, had my doors open
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for let the breeze come through and about 4:30 in the afternoon, Piper Roundry just walked in my office and sat
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down. Just a a casual conversation, nothing out of the ordinary. >> 2818. >> While detectives continued to check out
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Piper's story, another name surfaced. >> I know she didn't kill Freder. And unlike Piper Roundtree, this woman had
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nothing nice to say about Fred Javelin. >> He was a very nasty, mean, um, egotistical person.
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>> Piper's sister, Tina. In our conversations with some of the neighbors and and people in the area, we
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knew uh that Piper did have a sister named Tina Roundree. >> On the afternoon of Fred Javelin's
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murder, Detective Kobe Kelly got a major lead from airport officials in Virginia.
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We found that Southwest Airlines had a passenger on their manifest with the last name Roundtree and uh in fact the
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the name on the ticket was Tina Roundtree. >> So you determined that there was a Tina
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Roundtree with a flight booked a purchase ticket to Houston? >> Yes. >> Airline records showed that 2 days
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before the murder, Piper's sister, Tina Roundtree, had flown from her home in Houston, Texas to Virginia, where Fred
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Jablin was killed. And now on the afternoon of the murder, records show Tina is booked on a return
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flight [music] back home to Houston. A flight that is already in the air. >> So, did you make any contact with
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Houston PD at this point? >> We we did and uh they got their people together and it's [music] getting closer
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to the point where the plane is going to land down there. So, we were trying to explain to them a little bit about our
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situation and also get them to get to the airport where this plane was going to land to try to identify the person
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traveling under the ticket, Tina Roundree. So, what happened in Houston? >> Well, uh, the detectives arrived down
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there and, uh, they had a couple of detectives, a lieutenant that was down there and several officers. And as they
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were approaching the gate, my understanding is that the plane was unloading. >> At that time, around 4:30 on the
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afternoon of the murder, Detective Kobe Kelly didn't know what he and we at 48 Hours would soon discover. The Roundtree
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Sisters have a remarkably fierce devotion to one another. And learning more about the extent of that devotion
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would become one of the stranger twists in this already twisted tale. >> They're definitely two P's out of the
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same pod. Tina and Pipe are both the same type of person. >> Piper and I are [music] I mean we're
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soul sisters. We're we're we're incomplete without each other. She's someone that I [music] need very
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very much and I get a lot from. >> We call each other two or three times a day. We're we're very very tight.
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>> How would you describe her? >> Amazonian. That's usually the first word. >> Amazonian.
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>> Yes. There's no one out there like Tina. She is able to do anything that she sets
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her mind to doing. >> Tina Roundree is 8 years older than her sister Piper. An age difference that
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mattered when they were younger. Mother used to always make me sleep with her and I didn't like her crawling in my bed
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and having to sleep with her and she wouldn't be snuggled. You she was a child. She was wanting attention. But
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the family environment was very very close because my father was a physician in the Air Force and we traveled every
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two years and so just as we made ties we would have to break them and so there was a lot of dependency on each other.
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>> Today Tina and Piper are best friends. >> Over the last 20 years we've become
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[music] very very close. In fact, um, we sleep together frequently, [music] even
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as as adults, when when we go to each other's houses. >> She's just incredible. You you walk
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around the village where the area where she lives in Houston, and most people have a story about Tina, one thing or
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another. >> By the time Piper was in high school, the Roundtree family was living in a
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small town in Texas near the Mexican border. But Piper had bigger plans. I always admired her because she was
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brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. >> Piper headed off to the prestigious University of Texas at Austin with
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dreams of becoming a lawyer. >> She could do anything and she achieved everything from theater to spelling bees
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to boyfriends to f having lots of friends. Um and I always that was and I didn't have all that. I mean it's things
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you know you admire in other people especially that you don't have or that you want. While away at college, Piper
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caught the eye of another admirer, her communications professor, Fred Jablin. >> I suppose it was the classical case of a
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student falling for their professor. >> Fred Javelin was 29 and very driven. Piper was a free spirit and eight years
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younger. >> He is very witty and very different. He is very, very bright. >> This is as far as I can go.
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>> One of the brightest men I think I've ever met. I've always looked up to him.
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He He was exceptional. He was one of the best teachers. He also had a very quirky
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side to him as I've been described as having myself. [music] I think those two qualities between us meshed a lot.
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>> They married 2 years later in the fall of 1983. >> It was a really nice, warm relationship.
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We worked really well together. >> That's probably our strength. Professor John Daly knew Fred and Piper
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as newlyweds and was one of Fred's best friends. >> We used to have lots of fun. We went out
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drink after work at 10:30, 11:00 at night. If I remember correctly, Fred is the one who started this one night.
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We're just sitting there and working away on our typewriters. In those days, computers didn't exist. And he just
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started barking just for fun. >> I I really didn't know that he was barking at school as well.
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>> Oh, you did it at home. >> Yeah. Yeah. He he was um he used to get the dogs barking in the neighborhood. It
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was one of those things that that he particularly was proud about. >> Fred was also proud of his wife Piper
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and her plans to become a lawyer. >> Piper wanted to go to law school. So Fred said, "Fine, let's, you know, let's
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try to get us into law school." >> After graduating from law school, Piper landed a big job in Austin as an
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assistant district attorney. I was a prosecutor for oh a little over a year and then from there I went worked for
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the school districts in Texas. >> She can do anything. Um it's amazing the knowledge that she has.
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>> Her sister Tina settled in Houston and became a nurse practitioner. A few years later Fred and Piper started
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a family. Fred's brother Michael says the marriage was solid. >> They had two lovely children were born
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in Texas. Jocelyn and Paxton and they enjoyed themselves. >> But for Piper, a working mom, life was
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hectic. >> I'd be in the courtroom and I'd be looking at my watch thinking, "I've got
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to go pick up my child at daycare." Uh there were times when the kids were sick and I'd take the kids into the court
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with me and the judge would be bouncing them on his lap in the middle of a hearing.
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>> I was the main support person in [music] the first 15 years of her marriage or so
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when she lived in Texas. I would go visit them all the time. I'd babysit for them all the time. I was the primary
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other person. >> Then in the summer of 1994 life for the Javelin family changed.
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Fred accepted an offer to teach at the University of Richmond and uprooted the Javelin family to Virginia.
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>> Piper did not want to leave Texas. That was her home base. That was her family
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was there. >> Right after we moved up here within two weeks, I had a ruptured autotopic
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pregnancy and almost died. and so had a completely revised outlook on really what was important. And after that, the
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doctor told me that I would never have children again. Uh was just not going to be possible. And within about 6 months,
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I became pregnant with my third child, Callie, and she was gift from God. Piper decided to change the focus of her
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life and become a full-time mom to Cali Paxton and Jocelyn. >> She cooked for them. She played with
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them. She, you know, they made cookies. They went rock hunting together. She took them fishing and she did all the
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things that typically a father would do. >> Piper was like she was like a little
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pied piper. All the little kids would just come up and circle around her. >> Annie Williams was Piper's friend. Piper
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is wonderful about taking them outside and doing things and has more patience probably than I did. And she frequently
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would come pick up my son with rollerblades or his bike and take him out to the park for a day just being
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outside all day. >> But Piper missed the rest of her family back in Texas and her marriage started
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to suffer. >> You started to drift apart. >> Yeah. And we had pretty much two separate lives once we
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came to Richmond. Tina Roundtree never forgave Fred for moving her sister so far away.
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>> One of the main reasons that they moved to Richmond was so that Fred could get
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Piper away from her family because she's a very strong family person. >> Eventually, Piper told Fred she was
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leaving him. >> She wanted to escape and she wanted to [music] get away from him.
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>> And that's when the real trouble began. Fred Javelin decided to fight for sole
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custody of the couple's three children. >> She was devastated. She was she was shocked and I we were I we all were
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because I mean how you don't take a take children away from a mother who [music]
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is a she was a primary caregiver. >> While the idea of losing her children [music] was devastating to Piper. It was
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inexcusable to her sister Tina. >> I mean how many hours I spent with her cry I mean she was crying. It was it was
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horrible. And she had a very close relationship with them, didn't she? >> It was to see this precious
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three-year-old screaming to be with her mother. >> Piper's sister, Tina, doesn't try to
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hide her hostility towards Fred Javelin, even after his brutal murder. >> From day one, I was always disappointed
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that she [music] married Fred. He he was ugly. I thought he was a very controlling man. He built himself up by
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putting her down. But did Tina Roundtree hate Fred Jablin enough to kill him? On the afternoon of the murder,
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Detective [music] Kelly was hoping for answers. Police officers were at Houston's Hobby Airport, primed and
00:22:42
ready to greet the plane carrying a passenger named Tina Roundtree. But what happened [music] next surprised
00:22:49
everyone. The afternoon of Fred Jablin's murder, police were working their first big
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[music] lead. A tip that a Tina Roundtree was in route to Houston after spending the past two days in Virginia.
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>> It was Saturday, October 30th, 2004. Detective Brett McDaniel had raced to the airport, hoping to meet the plane
00:23:34
before it landed. >> I knew I was looking for a 40-something white female. We had some driver license
00:23:39
photos of both Tina, the sister, as well as Piper Round Tree. >> Although the ticket was booked in Tina's
00:23:46
name, Houston police were also on the lookout for another round tree, the dead man's ex-wife, Piper, who may have had
00:23:54
more of a motive than her sister. >> We were looking for females. We were looking for females and and I was
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putting my money on blondes. >> Piper had brown hair. Tina had blonde. >> I stationed a uniform officer at the end
00:24:06
of the terminal with a set of pictures and asked him as well to stop anyone he thought might be either of the
00:24:11
individuals. >> The plane landed and the passengers filed off. >> We stopped probably at least a dozen
00:24:20
women. >> After the last of the stragglers, the officers realized their target had
00:24:25
slipped through their fingers. She just got past it. So there was too many people, too few of us, not enough people
00:24:30
to stop every possible female that could have been this person. >> Everyone had come off the plane and they
00:24:35
had not located Piper, Tina, whoever would have been traveling under that name. >> In fact, that mysterious passenger had
00:24:43
managed to pick up her luggage at baggage claim without being noticed and then vanished.
00:24:48
>> She was gone. The next day, with the investigation now focused in the city where both sisters
00:24:55
lived, Detective Kelly hopped a plane to Houston from Virginia. >> Got up around 4:30 the next morning.
00:25:01
>> You didn't get much sleep that night. >> No, not at all. >> 48 hours wanted Detective Kelly to show
00:25:06
us what happened next. So, we flew him back to Houston to retrace his steps. >> We were interested in talking to Piper.
00:25:14
Now certainly we were not ignoring anything that would lead us in a different direction, but at that point
00:25:19
it was a pretty good place to begin. >> Detective Kelly met up with the Houston team working the case.
00:25:25
>> Thank you. >> And together they headed over to Piper Roundtree's house. >> Knocked on the door, rung the doorbell,
00:25:31
look in the garage. We can see the Jeep Liberty sitting in there. We were probably outside our house for a good 10
00:25:35
to 15 minutes uh milling about, peeking in windows and and knocking on the door trying to get someone to come to the
00:25:41
door. Never did. With no answer, they decided to pay a visit to her sister, Tina.
00:25:46
>> We drove the whole half hour plus down to Tina's house. >> But just in case, one of the officers
00:25:52
stayed behind at Pipers. Did Piper ever come out of the house? >> She did. We We got a call from uh
00:25:57
Sergeant Ferguson, who was sitting outside her house. He saw her vehicle leaving the driveway, a vehicle like
00:26:03
this one, and uh he followed her. Sergeant Ferguson [music] stayed on Piper's tail and relayed the route she
00:26:10
was taking to the rest of the team so they could turn around and join the pursuit.
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>> And what turned out was she began to head south on the interstate. We were heading north on the interstate. At some
00:26:20
point, we turned around and got in behind her. >> And the chase was on. >> We were certainly following her [music]
00:26:25
vehicle, hoping to be able to talk to her one-on-one when she stopped. >> Now, she had to look in the rearview
00:26:30
mirror and saw this police parade behind her. Right. >> Absolutely. At one [music] point she made kind of a
00:26:36
last minute diversion from a a oneoff ramp or back onto the interstate and of course we're doing the same little
00:26:41
serpentine move and uh yeah, I think she definitely knew >> the pursuit ended on a residential
00:26:48
street in central Houston. >> She pulled into a parking spot. I got out of the car, approached hers and
00:26:53
introduced myself. Um introduced the other people around me. She said, "Come on inside." And we walked into the open
00:26:58
door. Piper had driven to the law office of trial attorney and friend Marty McVey. As it turned out, McVey wasn't
00:27:06
alone. >> There was a also a female there, Tina Roundree, Piper's sister. >> Tina Roundtree, also a friend of
00:27:13
McVeyy's, had arrived a few minutes before Piper. >> Tina Roundtree walks in my office.
00:27:19
That's the first time I heard that Fred had been killed. She came in and said, "Did you know, have you heard Fred was
00:27:26
killed yesterday morning?" I said, "No, I haven't." >> But McVey was in for another surprise.
00:27:39
Piper comes walking in my office door with four detectives, two from the Houston Police Department and [music]
00:27:44
two from the Enriiko County, wanting to talk to her. I took Piper in my office, talked to her for a minute. She wanted
00:27:51
to talk to them. They sat right here in this reception area and had a conversation. I wanted to ask her, "Who
00:27:57
do you think would have done something like this?" And that was a good entree into getting her to talk to us.
00:28:02
>> But Piper says she had only one thing on her mind. Who was taking care of her
00:28:07
three children? >> It was just incredible, the total lack of interest that anybody had.
00:28:12
>> Until that meeting, almost 36 hours after Fred's murder, Piper hadn't been told her children were safe with Fred's
00:28:20
brother, Michael. And certainly anyone could understand that a mother concerned about her kids and the police were not
00:28:26
um putting her in touch with the kids. Anybody could understand that that would be an explanation for some of her
00:28:30
behavior. At any point did you sense that uh Piper was being accused of this murder.
00:28:36
>> To the opposite. They told her she was not a suspect. The majority of Piper's
00:28:41
conversation with them was concerning her children. >> The meeting was cut short because McVey
00:28:46
had to leave to pick up his son. Later, Detective [music] Kelly decided to try another tactic. He and a few
00:28:56
other officers drove to Tina's house, hoping to speak with her alone. >> We had a conversation with her. Um it
00:29:04
was she was fairly on target with uh where the kids kids need to be with their mother. Um those sort of questions
00:29:11
and she said, "You bring the kids here or something to that effect and then we'll talk again." We ended up getting
00:29:16
pretty much ejected from her house. Meanwhile, Piper was doing her own detective work. She needed to firm up
00:29:24
her alibi, putting her in Houston, not Virginia, the night before Fred's murder.
00:29:29
>> She asked the bartender if she remembered seeing her. >> Piper returned to this bar, the volcano,
00:29:36
where she claimed she'd been on Friday night to see if anyone remembered seeing her there.
00:29:41
>> Bartender called me and said, "Do you remember her?" And I said, "Yeah, I remember seeing her."
00:29:46
She wanted our phone number so that she could give them to the police to substantiate that she was here.
00:29:51
>> All right. You said you did remember seeing her here, >> right? >> Distinctive features and petite and
00:29:57
pixie haircut. You know, she's cute. >> Gorge. >> Yeah. >> It was the alibi Piper was looking for
00:30:04
and she passed it on to Detective Kelly. She left a message for me saying that there were two people, a guy named Kevin
00:30:10
O'Keefe and a lady named Cheryl Crrider who was a bartender at this volcano that
00:30:14
could put her in the volcano on that Friday night, which would uh would be pretty good because she obviously
00:30:20
couldn't be in Richmond the same time she was there. So now Piper had witnesses who saw her
00:30:26
in Houston the night before the murder to go along with her lawyer friend who saw her on the afternoon of the murder
00:30:33
at the same time the airplane from Virginia was landing. If what you say is true, it it would be difficult for her
00:30:40
to get to your office at 4:30 in the afternoon. >> That's correct. And if she was on that
00:30:46
flight, it would have been impossible for her to get to my office at 4:30 because I understand the flight didn't
00:30:52
come in until 4:40. It was 10 minutes late and it's at least a 30 or 45 minute drive from Hobby Airport to my office.
00:31:02
>> But Tina Roundree says she couldn't have been on the plane either because she
00:31:06
[music] was seeing patients all day. >> Wesley, can you come here just a second,
00:31:09
please? at her women's health clinic. Detective Kobe Kelly didn't know what to think, but he was sure of one thing
00:31:19
about the Roundtree sisters. >> I think that uh neither one of them acted in a manner which we would expect
00:31:24
family members would normally act when they've learned that a former loved one has been murdered. Both of them acted
00:31:30
oddly as far as I'm concerned. And it wasn't long before the investigation would zero in on just one
00:31:39
of them. >> Did you kill Fred Javelin? >> Um it's not what did I think about Fred
00:31:50
Javelin. It's did I kill Fred Javelin? >> Yes. >> Um that's impossible too. >> The answer is no.
00:31:59
>> The answer is no. As Detective Kelly learned more about the Javelin's [music] nasty divorce, It
00:32:32
was very, very, very bitter. >> He started to see the scars it left with Piper and her sister Tina.
00:32:38
>> It was very, very painful for me because I love her so much. She's we're we're a
00:32:43
part of each other. >> Fred never understood what the problem was in the marriage or why we need to go
00:32:49
through divorce. Even though we'd been through counseling three times before and it, you know, just it wasn't
00:32:57
working. They've been married for nearly 19 years and it hadn't been working for
00:33:02
quite some time. A year and a half before the [music] divorce, Pipa got a warrant charging Fred with domestic
00:33:09
violence and filed for a protective order against him. >> And you've witnessed some of this abuse
00:33:15
either physically or emotionally. >> Well, physically, no. >> Tina Roundtree only knows and believes
00:33:20
what her sister told her. >> She had told me the next day that he had hit her. The only other instance I it
00:33:26
was as far as physical abuse goes, mental abuse definitely it was sick. >> According to Tina, Fred's abuse was also
00:33:34
directed at [music] their three children. >> I saw him frequently lose his temper
00:33:38
with the kids because you know you get into a mode when you're a professor and they all say yes sir and they do what
00:33:44
you and he brought that attitude home with him. In almost all cases, we never use just one sequencing of questions
00:33:50
>> and expected that Piper or the children especially do exactly what he said when
00:33:55
he says it. >> In February of 2001, Piper finally [music] moved out of the house and later
00:34:02
filed for divorce. >> She finally had the courage to escape and become her own person again.
00:34:09
>> In July of 2002, the divorce went through. >> When they first got divorced, there was
00:34:14
like a joint custody arrangement. Piper lived down the road from my brother's home and they tried to arrange joint
00:34:18
custody. >> According to Tina, that's when Fred really tightened the screws. >> Once he had to face the fact that he was
00:34:25
going to, you know, have lose face in the community, he was going to be a divorced man. He all of a sudden
00:34:31
switched gears. >> Fred decided to fight for full custody of their three children. And according
00:34:37
to Tina, Fred Jablin was a trained expert. >> Questions are something you don't think
00:34:42
about until you really >> at winning arguments. He was like a PhD professor in persuasive communications.
00:34:47
So she that was a tough one to go against from the beginning. >> At the custody trial, Fred pulled out
00:34:54
all the stops. He wants to win and everything. >> Yes, that that was Fred. He can't take
00:34:59
losing. He can't lose face. >> Fred painted [music] Piper as an unstable mother.
00:35:05
>> Fred would say, you know, she got into this drug [music] stuff. She apparently
00:35:09
had an affair at one point. She apparently became unpredictable with the kids. >> And he told the [music] judge that Piper
00:35:16
had racked up more than $50,000 in debt without his knowing. >> He had to make her look like the bad
00:35:22
guy. >> Fred also accused Piper of being unfaithful. >> She did not have an affair. It was when
00:35:29
they were separated. They were physically separated and she was out of the house when she started seeing him.
00:35:34
Michael Jablin wouldn't go into details with us, but he believes his brother's accusations, and he wasn't alone.
00:35:41
>> Some of Piper's behaviors were questionable and some of her things she was doing for the sake of the children.
00:35:45
>> Piper seemed to have just gone off the deep edge uh over a period of time. >> I think the judge in the case reviewed
00:35:51
the facts and realized that Fred would make a better parent. >> In July of 2002, Fred Jablin won full
00:35:59
custody of their three children. >> Piper could have visitation. And I think it took a lot of decisions on the
00:36:04
judge's part to come up with that because normally mothers get custody. In this case, it was very unique. The judge
00:36:09
saw that Piper had some problems and Freddy provide more stability in the in the home life.
00:36:14
>> Did it upset you that he got custody of the children? >> Well, yeah, naturally it did. I was I
00:36:19
was very very upset. >> Did your children understand what was happening? >> As much as they were able to.
00:36:25
Uh the littlest is was you know it's just very difficult. Remarkably, Piper Roundtree not only lost her children,
00:36:33
but she was ordered to pay Fred Javelin almost $900 a month in child support in part to pay back some of the thousands
00:36:41
of dollars in debt she owed her ex-husband. >> Now, you were paying child support to
00:36:47
your husband. >> Yes. >> Which is the reverse of the way it's normally done. >> Yes.
00:36:52
>> Right. >> Yes, I was. >> Was that difficult for you? >> Yes, it very was. Piper had failed the
00:36:58
bar exam in Virginia. So after the divorce, she struggled to find a job. >> It was amazing. It was absolutely
00:37:05
amazing. She couldn't get a job. She's a licensed attorney in the state of Texas.
00:37:10
She was a prosecutor. She'd get a job at Walmart, but that's not going to pay her
00:37:14
$900 child support payment, nor put food on the table, nor provide for the children, which is her responsibility.
00:37:23
So Piper moved back to Texas to find work. >> She didn't have a choice. >> She had to leave Virginia.
00:37:31
>> Of course, they claimed she was abandoning her children. No, she had to survive because Fred gave her nothing.
00:37:38
Fred took everything. It was very difficult to begin with just starting out as sort of a new attorney because I
00:37:46
um I couldn't really step back into the field that I was in after 10 years of being out of the of the field. Uh and so
00:37:54
I started back into working just doing any type of case that walked in. I had three kids to support.
00:38:02
>> Her three children stayed behind in Richmond, Virginia with their father. >> My brother was wearing two hats. a mom
00:38:09
hat and a dad hat. He would attend soccer games, cub scout meetings, tennis tournaments, dance classes. He'd go to
00:38:16
school. He'd be there all the time. He would be a school parent many times and a classroom parent.
00:38:20
>> He was very, very involved with his children. You know, you go up to the school and he had signed up, you know,
00:38:26
for all the parties to bring napkins, drinks. >> How often was she allowed to see her
00:38:31
children? >> Well, she had to ask for permission every single time. So, actually, Piper
00:38:35
saw them six days out of an entire month. And that was it. >> She had a bitter divorce with her
00:38:42
ex-husband. Uh her ex-husband actually got custody of the children. Piper Roundtree ended up paying child support.
00:38:50
>> Marty McVey shared a law office with Piper in Texas. That's correct. >> Was she bitter about that? Did that
00:38:54
bother her? >> Yeah, she was bitter. >> And she talked to you about it. >> Oh, yeah.
00:38:58
>> What'd you say? >> She didn't understand why she was being treated like she was by the court and
00:39:05
the judicial system in in Virginia. And that was where most of her animosity was directed to. It was not directed at
00:39:15
her ex-husband, but it was the way she was being treated in her divorce case. >> She was not very happy when she was
00:39:21
having to pay alimony when she was struggling and not having much money. >> Jerry Walters became close to Piper
00:39:26
shortly after she moved to Texas. And he too says Piper never voiced any hostility towards Fred. She was not
00:39:35
enamored with Fred by no means any longer, but she did not walk around the house muttering under her breath, "I
00:39:43
hate Fred. I hate Fred." She didn't like the situation she was in, and she didn't
00:39:49
like not having her kids. But she never alluded to doing away with Fred. No. >> If Piper was bitter towards her
00:40:00
ex-husband, she hid it well. her sister Tina on the other hand >> and to see what the courts did then and
00:40:08
not and kind of understanding it seen some blatant some blatant misjustices >> and and did you ever see the children
00:40:15
once Fred got custody of them? >> I wasn't allowed to go over there. I mean how can you stop someone from
00:40:22
seeing their aunt who comes all the way and they did they went to court and said nope can't
00:40:26
do it. >> So you were not allowed to see them? >> No. Piper says she'd come to terms with her
00:40:33
situation long before Fred was murdered and so had no reason to kill him. >> The money that I was making in Texas,
00:40:41
uh, I was I was fine. You know, it was comfortable. It was uh I was able to make enough to pay the child support to
00:40:50
have a very nice uh lifestyle um and see my kids and be with my kids. I didn't have any once except seeing my
00:41:01
kids a little more maybe. >> And although she's not naming names, Piper says she's pretty sure she knows
00:41:09
who did have a motive to kill Fred Japan. >> Is it someone that might hate your husband? Have a grudge against your
00:41:15
husband? >> Yes. >> So much so that they'd be willing to murder him? >> Yeah, I think so.
00:41:22
>> But the truth was about to catch up with Piper Roundtree. >> [music] >> This special two-part edition of 48
00:41:33
hours will continue. [music] >> [music] >> Sh. [panting] It was about 6:35 in the morning.
00:42:23
>> A quiet street in Richmond, Virginia. >> As I was getting dressed, my husband and
00:42:28
I heard three loud bangs. >> Not a street where you'd expect a murder. When I arrived on the scene, I could see
00:42:40
at the top of the driveway my friend and neighbor Fred Javelin. >> He put both hands on my shoulders and he
00:42:45
said, "Megan, Fred Javelin [music] is lying in his driveway. He's dead." >> And Fred Javelin wasn't your average
00:42:52
murder victim. >> You've got a university professor killed [music] in a neighborhood that that's
00:42:58
really not the norm. >> Fred Jablin was a totally involved [music] father, a super super single parent.
00:43:10
So, who killed Fred Javelin? >> People said, "I have no idea who would want to do this to Fred, but have you
00:43:16
talked to his ex-wife?" >> I was married to Fred Jablin. We have three children.
00:43:25
>> Had a pretty nasty divorce. Certainly, she was a suspect, >> but a suspect with a seemingly rockolid
00:43:32
alibi. >> Bartender called me and said, "Do you remember her?" her and I said, "Yeah, I
00:43:37
remember seeing her petite and pixie haircut." >> I know she didn't kill Frederick Aban.
00:43:44
She was devastated because of his death. >> They're definitely two peas out of the
00:43:50
same pod. Tina and Piper. >> Police also suspected Tina. >> It's not what did I think about Fred
00:43:58
Javelin. It's did I kill Fred Jablin? >> Yes. Um, >> and now police are about to unravel the
00:44:07
clues that will lead to an arrest. >> We've got cell phone records, latex gloves, makeup, two wigs.
00:44:17
A lot of twists and turns in this one. It's definitely not your normal standard murder.
00:44:26
>> Two wigs, a gun, and a murder. I was looking for this guy, Jerry Walters, whose name this card was in.
00:44:55
We hadn't spoken to him at this point, and so one of our goals was to try to locate him. A couple of days after Fred
00:45:02
Javelin's murder, detective Kobe Kelly learned more about the roundtrip airline ticket booked under the name Tina
00:45:09
Roundtree. The person who paid for the ticket was a guy named Jerry Walters. >> We knew that a bank card and his name
00:45:16
was used and was instrumental uh in making this homicide happen, but we really didn't know what his role was in
00:45:23
it, if any. >> And so we're trying to figure out who's Jerry Walters. It didn't take them long
00:45:29
to learn that Jerry Walters knew [music] Piper. >> Piper Round Tree and I at one time were
00:45:35
girlfriend boyfriend. >> Piper started dating Jerry Walters in 2003 shortly after moving to Houston.
00:45:43
>> We exchanged phone numbers and started talking on telephone. Went out to supper
00:45:49
a time or two and and it just went from there. She was very sweet, great off-the-wall sense of humor, which I
00:45:57
appreciated. Cute, obviously, pretty much normal person. >> Even though Walters was living 4 hours
00:46:05
from Houston in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, they made it work. >> I was in Houston quite often on
00:46:12
business. So, it was it was not difficult. I mean, I was there probably two days, minimum a week. Their
00:46:19
long-distance relationship lasted for about a year. >> Then that evolved into a continuing
00:46:25
close relationship, close friendship. >> So close [music] that Walters was one of
00:46:31
the first people Piper called the night of Fred Javelin's murder. I came home from an LSU football game
00:46:39
about 10:30ish, 11ish and my cell phone rang and it was Piper and she said she was asking me to come to Houston and she
00:46:50
said it's important Fred's dead. And I said, "What happened?" She says, "Well, I'm not certain Fred's dead." And
00:46:57
she was not screaming, but she was uh not far from hysteria, I would think. and she was crying.
00:47:05
>> Walters wasn't able to go to Houston, but he did his [music] best to comfort Piper by phone.
00:47:11
>> She was very concerned with the kids, but in my whole relationship with Piper,
00:47:15
she was very concerned, but more so obviously this was to the extreme. >> 4 days after the murder, Detective Kelly
00:47:23
tracked down Jerry Walters to find out why his bank card seemed to [music] be connected to a murder. I think he asked
00:47:30
me how well did I know Fred and I didn't know Fred at all. I I never had any conversation with him in my life.
00:47:38
>> Walters told Detective Kelly he had no idea who could have used his bank card
00:47:43
during the weekend of the murder because he says it had been stolen before then.
00:47:48
>> I don't think anyone on the face of the earth was more shocked than myself to
00:47:53
find out my card was in Richmond, Virginia. I did not have a clue. Walter says he first found out something was
00:48:00
wrong with his card when he tried to withdraw cash from the account. >> They said, "Well, Mr. Walters, the
00:48:05
account's overdrawn." And I said, "Why?" And they said, "Well, you've got pending
00:48:10
ATM charges in Richmond, Virginia." And I said, "Really?" I said, "Uh-huh." I said, "Okay, get back to you."
00:48:20
That's when I started getting a little concerned that Jerry Walter's card was floating around the murder scene in
00:48:28
Richmond, Virginia. Jerry Walters called Piper immediately because if anyone was
00:48:34
going to know about his card, it was her. You see, the card wasn't really his. Although he had access to the bank
00:48:40
account, Walters had opened it at Piper's request under his name so that she could hide assets from her
00:48:47
ex-husband. I asked her, uh, "What's the deal on the card? How come my card was in Richmond
00:48:53
and not with you?" And that's when she said, "Well, the last time I saw the card was when I went to the tennis club
00:49:01
and apparently someone stole it there." And I said, "Well, why didn't you tell me?" And she says, "Well, I just had
00:49:06
missed it." She said, "If you don't go to use it, you don't know it's gone." That kind of made sense. What didn't
00:49:13
make sense to both Walters and Detective Kelly were some of the other charges found on the card.
00:49:19
>> We also were able to determine that wigs were purchased during this time with
00:49:23
that card from wigs.com. >> I personally don't wear wigs. >> Before the murder, someone had purchased
00:49:30
two wigs, one blonde, one arburn. >> We knew that they were sent to a location in Kingwood, Texas. We had an
00:49:37
address. There was a box there rented in the name of Piper Roundtree which also had Jerry Walter's name on that box and
00:49:44
that's where the wigs have been delivered to. >> He asked me did I think she did it and I
00:49:49
said I just can't fathom that that she did this. It would it's not something that I ever recognized in her. No.
00:49:58
>> But it was all starting to add up for Detective Kelly. He was convinced that Piper Roundtree had flown to Richmond,
00:50:05
Virginia, using her sister's name to kill her husband. >> As things came to light, it was apparent
00:50:11
she did have a plan and and attempted to uh disguise who she was and and thought
00:50:16
she could get away with it. >> Do you think there's any connection between the murder and this very
00:50:20
difficult divorce that she and her husband Fred Javelin went through? >> No, I think she was crushed when she
00:50:26
didn't get custody of her children. We knew that uh several weeks before this murder, she had come up and and taken
00:50:31
the children camping. I think that uh they probably had a really good time and I think that that caused her to just
00:50:38
think, "This is what I'm missing. I'm missing the [music] great time uh watching my children grow up. Um
00:50:43
experiencing them as they uh become, you know, teenagers, adults, and so forth."
00:50:47
I think it's probably around that time she started hatching a plan in her mind of uh how she could change custody and
00:50:54
uh the way to do that. She had been through the court system that had not worked in her favor and and I think she
00:50:59
was looking for alternate plans which ultimately left to her decision to kill Fred.
00:51:07
With Fred Javelin dead, Piper Roundtree wanted to win back her three kids who were staying with Fred's brother,
00:51:14
Michael, and his family. She asked for a custody hearing in Virginia family court. She had uh asked whether I would
00:51:21
go up there and testify um at her custody hearing and I said and I wasn't sure if I was going to be up there at
00:51:27
that time, but I told her I said I will be happy to. And what she was working on
00:51:32
is trying to establish that I had eliminated her as a suspect and I certainly had not at that point.
00:51:37
Detective Kelly was all for Piper attending the hearing scheduled 9 days after Fred Javelin's murder, but not for
00:51:45
reasons Piper thought. She's thinking about trying to go to Richmond and have this custody here. In the back of your
00:51:52
mind, you're saying, "Well, if she's in Richmond, it would be easier for you guys to make an arrest, right?"
00:51:58
>> Definitely. It was not a a deal breaker that she was not in Richmond, but uh it
00:52:02
saves extradition, that sort of thing. 9 days after the murder in a Richmond, Virginia courtroom, a judge made her
00:52:09
decision. Knowing that Piper was under suspicion for murder, the judge granted custody of Piper's three children.
00:52:16
Callie, aged 10, Paxton, [music] a 12, and Jocelyn, a 15, to Michael Jablin. >> My client has a constitutional right to
00:52:26
have her children, and she's been denied that right. Piper left the custody hearing shaken.
00:52:33
And little did she know that just minutes later she would be arrested for murder.
00:52:39
>> They could have taken this from a scene from a gangster movie that the police
00:52:42
just jumped out with it seemed like machine guns and dragged me off to tell me that they had uh they were arresting
00:52:51
me for the murder of my my ex-husband. After her arrest for murder four months ago, former prosecutor Piper Roundtree
00:53:14
is having a tough time adjusting to life behind bars. It's my mom, my sisters. >> But she's anxious for her day in court
00:53:24
[music] and ready to stand trial for the murder of her ex-husband, Fred Javelin.
00:53:29
>> I don't think I I would be intelligent if I weren't worried or concerned, but I have an incredible
00:53:37
amount of faith. >> All rise. >> And I I trust God. God's put me here for a reason.
00:53:47
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, good afternoon. >> In opening arguments, prosecutor Wade
00:53:52
Kaiser launches right in with what [music] he says is Piper's chilling motive. It all came down to money.
00:54:00
>> You'll hear evidence, ladies and gentlemen, that Piper Roundtree had been ordered [clears throat] to pay child
00:54:05
support to the victim, Fred Javelin, who had custody of the children. >> Kaiser says Piper Roundtree was tired of
00:54:13
struggling to pay child support to her ex-husband. So she killed him. >> She was over $9,700 in a rariges in
00:54:22
making that child support. >> She blamed Fred and held him accountable for everything that had happened to her.
00:54:29
>> But listen to all the evidence over the next several days. >> When Piper's defense attorney, Murray
00:54:35
Janice, has his turn. He tells jurors the state's explanation of a motive just doesn't add up. But you'll hear evidence
00:54:43
that she'd made a support payment in October of 2004. Hardly something's somebody's going to
00:54:51
do to send money if they in fact had planned to kill that person. And more importantly, Janice says there isn't
00:54:59
anyone who can put Piper at the crime scene >> and see if one single person says, "We
00:55:05
saw that defendant Piper Roundtree take a gun out and shoot Fred Javelin or we saw her running away."
00:55:12
>> Although Janice does admit there is a lot of evidence showing someone committed this murder,
00:55:19
>> you're going to find that somebody was in Virginia. Somebody flew on a Southwest Airlines. He insists the wrong
00:55:27
Roundtree sister is on trial. >> There's one name you're going to hear over and over and over again. And that's
00:55:34
the name of Tina Roundtree. >> And Janice says all the evidence will point to her.
00:55:40
>> I think you'll hear evidence that Tina had certainly at one time a gun herself,
00:55:46
a 38 caliber. You won't hear any evidence that Piper Roundtree owned a gun. Piper is obviously aware of her
00:55:54
attorney's defense strategy, but when she spoke with us before trial, she wouldn't flat out accuse her sister of
00:56:01
murder. >> Did your sister Tina, did she do this? >> I couldn't say. I don't know.
00:56:08
>> Is she capable of something like this? >> I'm not going to answer that. >> All right.
00:56:18
The matter now before the court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and I think
00:56:21
[cough] the truth. I'll be God. How you do? Have a seat, please. >> With the trial underway, prosecutors
00:56:26
called Jerry Walters to the stand to help show that Piper hatched an elaborate plan to get away with murder.
00:56:34
Using the bank account Walters had open for her. >> Was Piper were around his name on the
00:56:39
card? >> No, it was not. Piper purchased that blonde wig and prosecutors say [music]
00:56:45
Piper wore it the weekend of the murder so it would look like her sister Tina committed the crime.
00:56:51
>> Did you at any time order any wigs? >> No, sir. >> Okay. >> Judge, our next witness is Kathy Molly.
00:56:58
>> Prosecutors say Piper also used Walter's card to buy that airline ticket booked
00:57:03
in her sister's name to fly to and from the murder. >> How is this ticket paid for?
00:57:10
by credit card right here. >> Kathy Molly, the agent, remembers selling a ticket to a woman using the
00:57:19
name Roundtree. And for [music] the first time in court, >> M. Molly, would you um look around the
00:57:26
courtroom and see if you can identify the person to whom you sold that ticket on October 28th.
00:57:36
>> That lady right there looks familiar. A witness is able to identify Piper. In
00:57:42
fact, Molly says the brunette checked in as a blonde. >> But the hair is not like that at all.
00:57:48
It's much shorter and the color's a lot darker. >> That's not all. Molly's biggest
00:57:54
surprise. She says Piper was carrying a gun. >> What do you recall unusual about
00:58:00
checking her bags? If anything, >> nothing. She just told me right away that she needed to check a firearm. She
00:58:07
just commented that it was her father's gun and she was taking it to him. >> But that gun wasn't the state smoking
00:58:15
gun. They say Piper not only got on that plane to Richmond, they can prove she spent the weekend there within miles of
00:58:22
the crime scene. It was Piper's own cell phone that would do her in. We started looking through the cell
00:58:35
phone records and recognized the number to uh Papa John's Pizza >> and Reicho County Detective Chuck Hannah
00:58:44
was given the job of tracking the cell phone calls [music] to see if anyone could place Piper in Richmond.
00:58:50
>> So we called Papa John's Pizza and asked if a individual with the last name Roundtree had ordered a pizza. Uh they
00:58:56
stated that uh a person with the name around tree did and that person had it delivered to room 171 in the homestead
00:59:04
suites. That led detective Hannah to the manager of this hotel who remembers the
00:59:10
guest in room 171. >> She said she had a reservation and her name was uh Tina Roundry. And it's that
00:59:18
witness, Tamiko James, who was able to place Piper Roundtree in Richmond at a hotel located just miles from the crime
00:59:27
scene. >> Would you point to and identify that individual? >> Believe it's a defendant here.
00:59:32
>> And then a second eyewitness takes the stand. Raymond Seard says he saw Piper
00:59:37
on Saturday morning, just a few hours after Fred Javelin's murder. >> Uh, medium bale, medium height, and
00:59:45
blonde hair. Where is she? >> That lady right there. >> Seward remembers Piper returning a car
00:59:52
to his rental agency near the airport. The same airport where that flight carrying a passenger named Tina
00:59:59
Roundtree would later take off. >> She was just in a hurry to get to the airport.
01:00:06
>> And if eyewitness testimony wasn't enough to put Piper in Richmond, prosecutors say they have Piper caught
01:00:13
on tape. They say the woman seen walking into a Richmond, Virginia gas station is the
01:00:19
defendant, Piper Roundtree, in disguise. The tape will will show a white female enter the door.
01:00:27
>> It's a mountain of evidence that they hope will knock down any suggestion that
01:00:32
it was Tina Roundtree in Richmond the weekend of the murder. >> You You have to concede it doesn't look
01:00:38
good, right? >> No, it doesn't look good. I I certainly concede that. You know, my mouth fell
01:00:43
open when I saw these things. Like, oh my god. >> Now, prosecutors take their case one
01:00:49
step further. They set out to show how Piper made sure that when she shot Fred Jablin, she wouldn't miss.
01:00:58
>> She gave him a >> Mac. Mlanahan knows both sisters. He dated Tina and he worked with Piper.
01:01:04
When you went with uh Piper to work uh early in the week of October 25th to Galveastston, did you ride together
01:01:12
there? >> We did. >> And back? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> On one of their rides home together, Mac
01:01:19
told Piper he was going to stop at a shooting range. >> Tell the members of the jury what Piper
01:01:25
said when you brought that up. >> Uh she said she wanted to go with me. Had you taken Piper to the gun range
01:01:33
prior to that day? No. >> Piper shot a few rounds, then [music] decided she wanted to rent another type
01:01:39
of gun. So, she went to the front desk and made an exchange. >> She returned with a a 38 caliber
01:01:46
revolver. >> It was the [music] same type of weapon used to gun down Fred Javelin days
01:01:51
later. >> Did she fire the 38? >> She did. Saturday morning around 6:30 and >> and when Mac ran into Piper a few days
01:02:00
after the murder, he found out just how nervous Piper was about their [music] trip to the gun range.
01:02:06
>> I told her I was sorry to hear what had happened. And she hugged me and said, "I
01:02:10
love you." And and she said, "Please don't say anything about the gun range. It'll just complicate things."
01:02:18
>> With one of their last witnesses, prosecutors deal a final blow to Piper. It turns out the alibi Piper thought she
01:02:26
had for the night before the murder had fallen through. >> After you had a chance to think about
01:02:32
it, have checked all of your records. >> Kevin O'Keefe, who thought he'd seen Piper at the Volcano Bar on Friday
01:02:39
night, now tells jurors [music] he was mistaken. >> Were you in the volcano at all on that
01:02:45
Friday, October 29th? >> No. >> You sure about that? >> Positive. >> Thank you. After being battered by dozens of
01:02:52
witnesses against her, Piper Roundtree, a former prosecutor, knows she's in real
01:02:58
trouble. [music] And now she has to make one of the most important decisions of her life. Should she take the stand?
01:03:18
All rise. >> After listening to the 49 witnesses testifying against her, >> the court,
01:03:29
>> that lady right there looks familiar. >> Yes, sir. She's right there. >> With the state's case finished,
01:03:34
>> that lady right there, >> Piper Roundtree is looking like a goner. >> If you could look those jurors in the
01:03:42
eyes, how would you do it? What would you say? I would tell them I didn't do it because of all the things that I
01:03:49
stand for. I believe in truth. I believe in God. >> Piper realizes she has only one option.
01:04:01
>> All right. Next witness. >> Take the stand. >> Call Piper Roundry. Come on around, Mr.
01:04:05
Randry, if you would. >> But you know it's it's risky to do that to take the stand and testify. You know
01:04:12
that, right? >> Yeah. Do you tell me where I from? Let the evidence. >> So on the fourth day of trial, the truth
01:04:18
and nothing but the truth. Tell you about it. I did >> only four [music] months after Fred
01:04:24
Jablin was shot dead in his driveway. >> You are Piper and Roundtree. Is that correct?
01:04:29
>> I am. >> Fred Javelin's ex-wife, Piper Roundtree, tries to answer to a jury. Her defense
01:04:36
lawyer, Murray Janice, cuts straight to the chase. is round tree. Did you shoot and kill Fred Javelin on Saturday
01:04:44
morning, October 30th, 2004? >> I did not. >> When did you first learn that Fred
01:04:54
Javelin had been shot and killed >> that that evening? >> What was your emotional condition at
01:05:01
that time? >> Well, I don't remember a whole lot of the rest of the evening. >> Did you
01:05:09
Did you ever learn that evening where your children were? >> No. >> In a soft, shaky voice, Piper Roundtree
01:05:18
testifies it was impossible for her to shoot Fred Jablin in Virginia because at the time of the murder, she was in
01:05:24
Texas. But it isn't just Piper's whereabouts she and her defense team will use as an alibi. Their strategy is
01:05:32
based on showing the jury what kind of person Piper Roundtree really is. >> And do you love your children? Yes, very
01:05:39
much. >> And where are they as far as priorities in your life? >> Second only to God.
01:05:48
>> Piper tells jurors the last thing she'd [music] do is hurt her kids. >> Yes, it was not an easy divorce, but I
01:05:56
had no right to take away the children's father. The children need both parents.
01:06:03
How were you getting along with Fred Javelin compared to during the divorce itself?
01:06:10
>> Um, it was an answer to my prayers. We were doing very good. >> And when it comes to her alibi about
01:06:20
being at the volcano bar, she insists she was there that Friday before the murder, even though Kevin O'Keefe had
01:06:27
told prosecutors he wasn't even there that Friday night. Do you know when it was that you saw the defendant in the
01:06:34
volcano? >> Uh, Saturday, >> October 30th, >> right? >> But Piper stands by her story and says
01:06:41
she even remembers floating and drinking with a stranger. >> What was the gentleman's name uh that
01:06:47
you met up with, if you know? >> Uh, he said Steve initially and then he said, "Call him Jerry."
01:06:54
>> Have you ever seen him again since then? >> No. All right, disguise. Mr. Roundree, I believe you testified.
01:07:03
>> The prosecutors go on the attack. Piper's motive for murder is simple. A vengeful woman who had lost her
01:07:10
children. >> You had lost custody of your three children completely? >> Not completely.
01:07:16
>> Doesn't the order state that you lost physical and legal custody of your children?
01:07:22
>> Yes. >> To your husband? >> Yes. >> Wasn't that devastating to you? >> Yes. Wouldn't you do anything for your
01:07:28
children? >> I wouldn't kill for them. No. >> Piper, however, is unable to explain
01:07:37
away the physical evidence at the heart of the case. Starting with her Jeep parked at the Houston airport the very
01:07:45
weekend Fred Jablin was murdered. Can you explain why the records from the Houston Hobby Airport show that your
01:07:52
vehicle was in their parking lot on Thursday and Friday and Saturday? >> No, I have no explanation.
01:08:01
>> Then prosecutors questioned Piper about her visit to the gun range where she practiced shooting just days before the
01:08:08
murder with the same type of weapon used to kill Fred Javelin. You shot two different pistols that day,
01:08:16
didn't you? One was a 22 caliber revolver and the other was a 38 caliber revolver.
01:08:21
>> Uh, that's what they say. >> Well, you had it in your possession for a period of time.
01:08:25
>> I don't know what it was. It was a gun. >> And what about that blonde wig? Prosecutors say Piper needed it
01:08:34
desperately for the weekend of the murder to disguise herself as Tina. You wanted the blonde wig so bad that when
01:08:42
you got the box with the paprika wig in it with the note saying that they didn't
01:08:48
have it in stock and that you would have to pay an additional charge. You said send it anyway. I want it. Correct.
01:08:56
>> Uh Tina had wanted >> No, I'm not asking you what Tina said. I'm asking you. You told them I did.
01:09:02
I'll pay the extra money. Isn't that right? And you had the blonde wig? >> Yes, sir.
01:09:06
>> Where is it at? Uh, last time I saw Tina had it. >> If Tina had the wig and Tina was on the
01:09:13
plane, then >> you want this jury to think that Tina committed the murder, don't you?
01:09:18
>> I have no idea what happened. >> You have not? >> I don't. >> The evidence pinpoints Piper in Richmond
01:09:27
near the scene of Fred Javelin's murder. Hotel records and receipts show Piper used the bank card she said was stolen.
01:09:35
>> I didn't know what had happened to the card. There's one more staggering piece
01:09:39
of evidence. Those damning cell phone records. Calls made from Piper's cell phone from Richmond to Texas just after
01:09:47
the murder. >> What happened to the cell phone? >> I don't know. >> While the crime's being committed, you
01:09:53
don't know where it is. That's what you're telling these people. >> I'm telling them that I didn't have the
01:09:57
phone from probably that I remember. Last time I remember it was Tuesday. Before that,
01:10:03
>> you lost the telephone on Tuesday. Where did you find it on Saturday? >> Uh, it was at Tina's house.
01:10:10
>> Because you want to you want this jury to think that Tina committed the murder.
01:10:14
You're willing to put it on her, aren't you? >> No, sir. >> Thank you, ma'am. You can have a seat
01:10:19
next to me, counsel. >> Piper steps down. She has done all she can. Now, it's up to this man, Marty
01:10:28
[music] McVey, the lone witness, who can physically put her a thousand miles away
01:10:33
from the murder. And where is your office at the present time? >> In Houston, Texas.
01:10:39
>> Now, sir, tell us if you will, jumping up to Saturday, October 30th, 2004. Did
01:10:46
you ever see Piper Roundtree on that date? >> I did. >> And where was that, sir?
01:10:50
>> In my office. >> And could you tell the ladies and gentlemen, the jury what time you saw
01:10:55
her? >> Approximately 4:30 that afternoon, give or take 5 minutes. >> Are you sure of that time, sir?
01:11:02
>> Yes, sir. McVey is Piper's [music] very best witness because it's impossible for
01:11:08
Piper to have been in two places at once. McVey says she was in his Houston office at the exact same time police say
01:11:16
she was on an airplane returning from murdering Fred Javelin. >> How many people have you talked to about
01:11:22
the time Piper Roundtree was in your office on Saturday, October 30th? >> Since then?
01:11:27
>> Yes, sir. >> Oh gosh. Well, I've talked to the prosecutors here. I talked to the
01:11:32
detectives again in Houston in the Houston Police Department. I've talked to Paige Akens from the Times Dispatch.
01:11:42
>> Local newspaper reporter Paige Aken ends up becoming part of the very story she
01:11:47
was covering. >> Hold on, Miss Aken, if you would. >> She takes the stand to testify about
01:11:52
what Marty McVey told her. >> And how are you employed, Miss Aken? >> I'm a reporter at the Richmond Times
01:11:58
Dispatch. Have you been assigned any have you in fact been covering the uh case involving Miss Piper Roundtree?
01:12:03
>> I have. >> Paige Aken swears that McVey had told her that Piper had stopped by his office
01:12:10
the day after the murder, not the afternoon of the murder. >> Did you ask him when prior to Sunday,
01:12:17
October 31st, he had last seen Piper Roundry? >> Yes. He said it had been quite a while.
01:12:23
Uh about a year, I believe. Marty McVey is put back on the stand and sticks to his story and dates.
01:12:32
>> Had you seen Piper Round Tree before Sunday, October 31st? >> Yes. >> And when was that?
01:12:41
>> On October 30th. >> All right. We'll be at recess till tomorrow. >> All right.
01:12:54
When it's all over, Piper Roundtree seems dazed and exhausted. >> Do you think you conveyed to the jury?
01:13:03
>> I don't know. I hope so. That's all I can say is I hope so. >> Are you afraid?
01:13:07
>> Yeah. >> Yes. Yes, I'm afraid. I was amazed about the evidence that police collected,
01:13:36
the documentation they did, the witnesses. Throughout Piper Roundtree's murder trial, the brother of the victim,
01:13:43
Michael Jablin, has watched closely, focused on the woman who was once part of his family. Any doubt in your mind
01:13:51
that Piper Roundtree [music] is guilty. >> There's no doubt, and I was very sad about the whole thing, hearing it, how
01:13:58
somebody with such a high level of education could have plotted such an event. >> Piper's mother, Betty Roundtree, sat in
01:14:05
the courtroom every day. She can't believe her youngest daughter is a killer. >> Do I think she's guilty? No, I do not.
01:14:16
She's had so much love in her life and she's such a gentle, kind person. I honestly cannot believe that she did
01:14:22
this. >> The jury deliberates for less than an hour. >> Ladies and gentlemen, have you been able
01:14:34
to reach a verdict in these matters? >> Yes. Would you hand it to the sheriff, please?
01:14:39
>> We the jury find the defendant guilty of firstdegree murder. Frederick Jablin is
01:14:44
charged in the indictment. >> Joanne Lawson, is this your verdict? >> Yes. >> Beverly Owens, is this your verdict?
01:14:50
>> Yes. >> Holly Pace, is this your verdict? >> Yes. >> No one seems surprised, not even Piper.
01:14:58
>> All rise. Within an hour, the jury hears more testimony and then will recommend her
01:15:08
sentence. Anywhere from 20 years to life. >> They were extremely extremely close.
01:15:16
>> Betty Roundtree pleads for leniency so the children who'd already lost their father won't lose their mother, too.
01:15:24
>> Her whole life was just with those children, taking them different places, reading to them.
01:15:30
truth and I can let >> have a seat please. Miss Jablin >> Michael Jablin is not vindictive, just
01:15:37
sad and searching for answers. >> How do I explain to young children that their mother killed their father?
01:15:44
They've lost both parents basically. Now, how do I explain that to these children? How does anybody explain
01:15:49
something like that? >> In less than an hour, the jury decides to recommend the harshest penalty. We
01:15:58
the jury having found the defendant guilty of firstdegree murder Frederick Javelin fixer punishment at life
01:16:03
imprisonment. The 5-day trial included nearly 60 witnesses and 80 pieces of evidence. He
01:16:14
[music] has now been sentenced to life in prison. >> Is over. How do you feel right now?
01:16:22
>> I think we feel good. get the result that we anticipated having in the long run. But, um, it's nice to see the jury
01:16:28
validate our investigation and bring a little bit of justice as close as we're going to get here. Anyway,
01:16:38
>> within minutes of the verdict, we talked with Piper in a holding cell. Piper, a jury has spoken. U guilty life
01:16:48
in prison. Yeah. >> What's your reaction to that sentence? I think I'm still in shock. It
01:16:58
>> hasn't hit you yet, has it? No, not >> somewhat. I don't know. >> In spite of all the evidence and the
01:17:05
jury's swift verdict, Piper Roundtree still insists she's innocent. >> For the record, you still are saying
01:17:13
that you did not kill your ex-husband. >> I didn't. I didn't. I mean, obviously,
01:17:17
it looked like I didn't. >> You didn't do it? No, I didn't. >> Will you get an opportunity at all while
01:17:27
you're serving your time to see your children? Do you do you know anything about that?
01:17:31
>> I hope so. >> I'd be happy to talk to them. >> Anything you want to say to him?
01:17:39
>> I just love them and miss them and would want to talk to them. What kind of mother would do this?
01:17:51
>> I think that's a very good question. I don't know what kind of mother would uh
01:17:54
would would u leave them without a father and without a mother. I don't know. It's very hard to understand that.
01:18:01
It's very sad when you have to think about that. >> I really think she is so sick that she
01:18:06
thought she could do this and then just walk into the sunset with her three kids. I think that's how she thought
01:18:12
this was going to play out. >> [music] >> Megan McCraary, Fred's neighbor and friend, has no sympathy for Piper
01:18:18
Roundtree. >> And what was [music] she thinking? Did she not understand the impact this was
01:18:24
going to have on her children's lives? I mean, she [music] extinguished four lives that day. She murdered her
01:18:30
ex-husband and basically destroys the childhood of her three children. I just I don't understand what she was
01:18:38
thinking. The verdict may be in, but what was the jury thinking as they watched the
01:18:44
halting testimony of Piper Roundtree? >> Wouldn't you do anything for your children?
01:18:49
>> I wouldn't kill for them. No. >> I think that was one of the most serious moments of the trial for me because it
01:18:55
was the nail in the coffin. >> It was the nail in the coffin when she took the stand.
01:18:58
>> Yeah, for me that was going from 90% to 100% guilty. Bruce Lead, Joel Howell, and Timothy
01:19:07
James spoke to us about the impression Piper made. >> The four or five words that we got out
01:19:14
of her weren't a whole lot and they were not convincing >> when she took the stand. I mean, you
01:19:19
know, it almost seemed like a, you know, she could kind of, you know, turn her tears on and off.
01:19:23
>> And do you love your children? >> Yes, very much. >> And of all the evidence against her,
01:19:29
what was it that sealed Piper's fate? the cell phone records, you could very [music] easily track exactly where she
01:19:37
was and what she did. >> Cell phone tracked her all the way. >> Yes, [music] it did.
01:19:40
>> The whole time. >> And what if Tina Roundtree, the sister Piper pretended to be? [music] The
01:19:45
sister many people say was Piper's best friend. It's impossible to know whether or not Tina knew that Piper was going on
01:19:54
a trip to murder her ex-husband, but based on how close they were, um it's hard to imagine that Tina was not
01:20:01
knowledgeable in some sense that something very serious was going to take place.
01:20:06
>> She would stick up for her sister and I think she would do anything short of murder for her sister.
01:20:11
>> Your name came up a lot during the trial. It was almost as if the defense was to blame Tina Roundtree for the
01:20:19
murder. What's your reaction to that? >> They're just trying to set a possibility of doubt in the juror's
01:20:27
mind. >> But you didn't mind >> him being abused. >> I don't care >> in that fashion.
01:20:32
>> Doesn't matter. I you know I don't care. It doesn't make I mean it's I think it's
01:20:36
a stupid defense. >> But the jury is certain the right round tree was convicted. However, months
01:20:43
after the trial, Tina Roundtree herself would be convicted of tampering [music] with evidence after the murder of Fred
01:20:50
Javelin. She would be sentenced to [music] nine months probation. But this jury would sentence Piper to a term.
01:20:57
>> We the jury fix her punishment at life in prison. >> Far more severe. Why life in prison?
01:21:07
>> We didn't ever want her to come back into her children's lives. Because it would have been reliving [music] the
01:21:14
murder. >> [music] [music] [music]