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ryanella was telling the police that he committed suicide that couldn't be possible because my dad
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was scared to death the guns that's what I told her and I knew that he couldn't have done that if you tell the jury this
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is a suicide the jury wants to know how do I know were you at all prepared for what in fact happened in this case
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not at all I'm Erin Moriarty 48 hours and this is married to death continue with the case of raynella Lee
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who went on trial in 2017 in Knox County Tennessee for killing her husband David
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[Music] right now right now on March 13 2003 at 11 23 that morning reynella Leeds
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reported her husband's suicide reynella had been married to David Lee her second husband for 10 years when she
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says she walked into their home and found him dead of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound
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later that same day what do you want me to call you speaking with Knox County Tennessee investigators
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okay I need you to tell me tell me about this morning um she tells them her husband have been
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ill and depressed about his health for some time and have been showing signs of dementia
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listen to these old audio tapes recorded just hours after finding her husband's body
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you're doing really good helping us establish what time and everything okay okay it's difficult to believe that this
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woman this clearly distraught woman could have planned and carried out his murder
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and I should point out that suicides involving white middle-aged men are common more than 90 suicides every day
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in this country still police are doing their job and asking the Widow more questions okay so
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when you talk to him at nine o'clock when you took his breakfast in yeah um did he start eating it or I think
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that I've got to get up and see he said I'll come right back and eat don't worry because I think another way
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they're listening you cold do you know about what time you come you got back home
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um okay um you came through the Breezeway and then you came in and you hit your answering machine and you called for him
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and you came and you came back man he was laying on the bed just as it was when you found him
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was the covers up on him like that or did you cover him up all right I can't remember
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but detectives also recorded themselves as they began their investigation hi this is detective lawyers for the
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sheriff's department we're out on a uh possible suicide gunshot one the guns laying next to his
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left hand which is curled underneath thing because it appears to be an old coat we
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got three fired rounds what they find three spent ones a shooting with not one a three fired rounds
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three live ones he or someone has fired at least two rounds that we know of we just not found
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the third one yet subject is neat no underwear nothing does have a pillow between his legs one
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of those helping your back lower back and knees there's no suicide note but that's not
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their biggest issue they're troubled by the location of the bullet holes now David Leith was found
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want to have a problem is one is where the rounds at and the way he's like I'm not saying it it stains I'm just
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saying it strong just 24 hours later following an autopsy the death was ruled not as suicide but a
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homicide and all lies turn to the Widow reignella Lee [Music] fourteen years later all eyes are still
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on reynella Leaf as she goes on trial for her husband's murder and not for the first time this is her
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third murder trial her first trial ended with a hung jury she was convicted the second time around
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but that conviction was overturned and now she's back in court again reynella Lee the nurse and once a
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prominent member of Knoxville Society will stay on trial for the murder of her second husband
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sitting in the back of the courtroom with my producer Josh Gainer and the other reporters
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the lead trial like all trials run by senior State judge Paul Summers begins with the Pledge of Allegiance in the
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United States of America I've sat through so many trials where the judge can sometimes give the defense
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a very difficult time and in this case the judge was a real gentleman he wore cowboy boots to court every day here's
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my producer Josh the same variation of a tie with the Tennessee state flag on it with the
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three stars he spoke in almost a theatric wave thank you he is what you would hope a southern judge would sound
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like almost from a movie instead of wearing black robes you ought to wear black and white stripe room because all
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we really do are referees but what is Justice in the case of raynello Leith if David Lee's death was so clearly a
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homicide to the investigators why has it taken 14 years and three murder trials to find Justice the case was tried in
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the media before the case was tried to a jury defense attorney Josh Hedrick tells
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me he believes the prosecution of reynella Lee took on a life of its own in a part of the difficulty is fueled by
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the Press it's not a compelling story for the purpose of selling papers or getting viewership to
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say that a man suffering from Alzheimer's and depression finally decided he was going to end his life it's not the kind
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of story that's going to move papers off the rack when you start laying out this complex almost Master
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criminal level plan to set up an alibi and get get a weapon and make sure everything's in order and and
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kill your husband and then cover Your Tracks so perfectly that sells papers and the presumption of innocence well it
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seems long forgotten when it comes to reynella leave and the story has only grown with time
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the case makes the front page most days and is mentioned morning and night on the local TV stations
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in court reynello Leith is sitting ahead of us to our right with her other defense counsel Rebecca Legrand often
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whispering in her ear the grand practices law in DC which makes her a bit of an outsider she's a
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tiny woman in tense and comes across a little raw as a litigator she's not from the south and you can tell Josh Hedrick
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speaks in a sort of very graceful mannerly Southern way and she has an accent from somebody from the north and
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she is not as experienced in a courtroom so I was really interested to see how the jury would react to her because
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she's clearly not from here and not in a courtroom every single day and she's afraid she tells me reynello Leith was
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convicted once it could happen again it's terrifying I know she's innocent and I know she's already been convicted
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and I know that the media's the local press is going to say what they're going to say
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and I know I'm sitting next to an innocent woman who's been incredibly kind to me who's been incredibly kind to
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a lot of people in her life when we came in the deck was stacked massively against her and that's terrifying
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and that's because a lot of people in the community think reynella may be a so-called Black Widow
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as I mentioned in the first episode raynella's first husband Ed Dawson also died under very strange circumstances
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after being trampled by his own cattle initially the County Medical Examiner ruled it an accident
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but years later when rainella's second husband David Leith died investigators had second thoughts
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they believe reynella had likely killed Dawson as well but she never went to trial for it more
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on that later inside the courtroom just to our left is one woman who has no question the
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raynell is a killer her name is Cindy Wilkerson she's raynella's stepdaughter and David
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Lease Only child do you miss your dad every day Cindy Wilkerson is Tiny she's in her 50s but looks much younger her
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long blonde hair always freshly styled after all she's a barber not a hair stylist a barber just like her dad
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my dad was fun full of joy loving caring he was a great dad when she's not at court she's here just
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love to joke around and at the Suburban barber shop where her father once worked
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she still uses his chair but it's a joy to work for my dad did in the barbershop
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hello Frank and use the same chair he did Cindy was surprised even shocked when just six months after Ed Dawson died
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raynella married her dad but raynella did make him happy she fix these food and started his car in the morning and
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just whatever he wanted she just treated him like a king reynella would go out in
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the morning and start your dad's car before he went to work yes and she'd bring him lunch bring him a milkshake
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every day now this is a town where everybody knew everybody's business so if there were
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issues in raynella and David's marriage wouldn't word have gotten out Cindy and her cousin Beth Roberts are
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convinced reynella killed David but they also admit they didn't see any problems
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in the marriage besides the occasional nagging and nipping even when David suddenly retired from barbering in 2000
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Cindy says her dad seemed fine but did you begin to notice any kind of problems with your dad not 2000.
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forgetfulness no uh confusion no did he seem more emotional no you didn't see any no he was very alert very
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sharp you know he knew he knew all his surroundings he was just he was on top of it which is what she told
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investigators back on March 13th when she got to her father's house and was told he had taken his life what did you
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actually think when reynella said your dad committed suicide did you initially think well well maybe he did but it's
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just hard to believe no I never did think that I knew that couldn't be possible because my dad was scared to
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death the guns that's what I told her and I knew that he couldn't have done that and there was the way he had done
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it that bothered Cindy even more he had apparently held the gun anywhere from six inches to a foot away from his face
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with his left hand he could not have done that and what about the idea you see David Lee was not just
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right-handed he was unable to see with his left eye injured years earlier in an accident
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while chopping wood he would not have known how close to get or anything because he was totally blind
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out of that eye but if David Lee didn't shoot himself who did reynello Leith was gone from the house
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most of the morning she got up early that morning she told investigators after daughter Katie left for school
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reynella watched television with David in their bedroom and then left him breakfast on a bedside table walking out
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the door around 9 30 A.M and okay if I'm not here when you get back I'll be at the Y and I said okay he worked he
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had 12 hours a day every day for 39 years cutting hairs she's going to rain after Ray Noah left the house she went
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to Park West hospital to visit David's mother her mother-in-law and after that she stopped by the high school to bring
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her daughter Katie Madison and Reynold Leith had an alibi and almost too good to be true
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because there was something she did that morning that would come back to haunt her at 9 50 that very morning about 20
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minutes after she said she left the house she called Cindy Wilkerson who was at work at the barbershop you know she had
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asked me if we'd seen daddy and he went to work out on an empty stomach was that
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normal no she never called me at work never called you never called me at work have
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you seen your father today he did need his oatmeal this morning so he must have gone that's Stephen Crum
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the district attorney general it was the first indication on March 13 2003 that anything was unusual about David
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Lee there would have been no reason to ask if he'd worked out and there certainly would have been no reason to
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say he didn't eat his breakfast because there's no way she could have known that
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unless she had been there and unless the only reason she knew he hadn't eaten breakfast was because he was dead
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Cindy says during the call raynella handed the phone to Cindy's grandmother to say hello it was a way she thinks for
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reynella to cover her traps and prove she wasn't at home it was unusual in tone it was unusual into the fact that she
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called her at her business investigators began to suspect that raynell Elite wasn't telling the whole
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story and yet even after her husband's death was ruled a homicide nothing happened what are you expecting will
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happen investigation indictment trial it doesn't no not even close not even close David's cousin Beth
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Roberts says everyone in the family expected rainelle Elite to be charged with murder
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but months went by with no charges so Cindy Wilkerson took matters into her own hands
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she filed a civil suit against her own stepmother when Cindy filed a wrongful death suit against reynella did the
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Press jump on something there was a big news story in the local paper that the prosecutors did respond to and and
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defense attorney Rebecca Legrand says that that pushed prosecutors to bring criminal charges although there was no
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new evidence in the case in 2006 reynella Leith was charged with the murder of David Lee in my opinion
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the most the most troubling piece of evidence is that we can't prove suicide defense attorney Josh Hedrick
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aware of the burden proof being on the state we could talk about the presumption of innocence and that's
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fascinating academic discussion but the reality is is the jury if you tell the jury this is a suicide the jury wants to
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know how do I know the only the only person there's David he's gone and I can't prove 100 that this was a
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suicide I can't answer all the questions [Music] and that's what concerned me the most
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Civic Crump was not on the prosecution team for reynella's first two trials regarding the murder of David Lee
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so this is his first crack at it you feel really strongly about this case yes I do you wanted to you wanted this woman
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to be tried again yes I felt great about it I felt like hey this is a case that needs to be tried and we'll get 12 good
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people and they'll make a decision were you at all prepared for what in fact you know
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this podcast series Married to death is developed by 48 hours in partnership with CBS News Radio Judy teigart is
00:19:08
executive producer Nancy Kramer is our executive story editor Mike filet and Alan Pang are the series producer
00:19:17
editors this episode was produced by Josh Gainer Lisa freed and Luis Geraldo and edited by Mike McHugh Dwayne
00:19:27
Tolleson Jamie Benson and Meghan Marcus thanks to composer Richard fioka for his
00:19:34
original scores Gabriella de mergian and Morgan Canty are our associate producers
00:19:41
Kayla cadell is our production associate thank you to Craig swagler the vice president and general manager of CBS
00:19:50
News Radio and finally a shout out to all of you our fans we owe it to all of you the
00:19:59
millions of fans of 48 hours in the U.S and around the world don't forget to join me online I am at EF Moriarty on
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