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on this episode of women behind bars
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one woman is convicted of killing a
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devoted friend
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jackie pulls out a knife and she
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actually starts stabbing thomas with him
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he was just in and out in and out
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constantly stabbing thomas
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he was crawling towards me and he was
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saying jackie i love you
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then heather frango pled guilty to
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involuntary manslaughter when a pit bull
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mauled her two-year-old son
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to death
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his ears were removed his scalp was
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removed
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he had over a hundred bite marks to his
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body
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two women two brutal crimes these are
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the stories of jackie alexander and
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heather frango
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[Music]
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[Music]
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on june 14 1998 police made a grisly
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discovery in a burned out car
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near lake fisher in the close-knit
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community of kannapolis north carolina
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inside the trunk lay the scorched
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disfigured body of thomas hammond
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a 41 year old mill worker and
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neighborhood good samaritan
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this murder was one of the most gory
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the amount of violence that was
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inflicted upon
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the victim was the worst
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i saw in my 27 years i just just
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told up and do nothing just couldn't
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believe it
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the evidence led police to hammond's
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roommate 36 year old jackie alexander
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a former high school beauty queen with a
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history of violent outbursts
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and sixteen-year-old derrick wilkes a
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close friend of jackie's son
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i was like dude i didn't do that it was
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just like it's in a horror movie that
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you didn't even invent
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and he was trying to figure out how to
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get out of it was
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jackie alexander a calculating murderer
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or did she succumb to an uncontrollable
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temper
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[Music]
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jackie alexander the eldest of five
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children was born to shirley foggy
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a single mother who was a maid and
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cotton picker for a southern white
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family
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i don't know who my father is jackie's
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four siblings were fathered by three
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different men
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one of whom her mother married the guys
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my mom was going with would jump on her
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and
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[Music]
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fight her and i would try to help her a
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lot of times i got slapped around and
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beat on
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because of that no matter how many men
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jackie's mother had in her life
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her love for her children always shone
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through
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my mom and i was close it's like i knew
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her thoughts before she
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said it you know i know she really
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really did love her mama a whole lot
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but from an early age jackie was
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painfully aware of her family's
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difficult circumstances
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my childhood was like a kid in a grown
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body and we were poor i grew up in a
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neighborhood
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with with a lot of people drinking
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and a lot of fighting and cursing and a
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lot of violence sometimes
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people would get beat up sometimes
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people would get murdered
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when jackie was 11 her mother was
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hospitalized
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but relatives never told her why
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then they let us all go up in the
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hospital i knew then that she
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was dying and they still wouldn't tell
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us so i was angry at them
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the young teen's inner turmoil became a
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bigger problem for her
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and she began a lifelong pattern of
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acting out her anger
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that's when i started really lashing out
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in all bad ways you might say
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with fighting in school in the seventh
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grade jackie was failing her classes
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and was suspended for attacking a
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classmate
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i was drinking water out of the water
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fountain at school one of my classmates
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came up and he pushed my head on the
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water fountain
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and when he did i i just
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turned around and i just i just snapped
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i took that boy head and rammed him into
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the water fountain and
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took the trash can and started beating
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with the trash can when he got down and
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was kicking them and stuff
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i got suspended for the rest of the year
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in the school
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to make matters worse her mother died of
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cancer
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that's when everything went to pieces
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i stopped caring about everything
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jackie and her four siblings moved in
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with their grandfather
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and his wife in kannapolis a southern
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textile mill town
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25 miles north of charlotte north
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carolina although jackie was just a
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teenager
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she was suddenly charged with the
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responsibility of caring for all of her
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siblings
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i don't know the instinct just kicked in
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i just wanted to protect my brothers and
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sisters
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at any cause jackie said it was tough
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living with her strict grandfather and
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his disciplinarian wife
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just mostly the living arrangements i
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was angry
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i was taking out on them being real
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abusive to them at times
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she was known to be a hell raiser
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you know and she had a bad temper
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harriet ivy was a reporter at the
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independent tribune in kannapolis
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she grew up in the same community as
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jackie she was popular because of her
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beauty and her hair raising
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jackie's grandfather was also well known
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in the neighborhood
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he sold alcohol in the dry town out of
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his house
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my grandfather started me drinking at
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12. and jackie says her grandfather
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would often get drunk and physically
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abuse her and her siblings
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he beat us with those leather straps
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that they used in the barber shop
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when jackie was 14 she found an escape
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from her problems at home on her high
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school track team
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i don't think i ran it because i liked
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it i could do it and then
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feel good because i got a lot of
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pressure off me we were
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trackmates together she was wonderful
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she was very fast whatever event
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that she ran she ran it like she was in
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the olympics when i started winning
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well they seemed to say something good
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about it we just was never told nothing
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good we was always called names
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should have killed you as a baby you
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know those kind of things we always
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heard stuff like that we never heard
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nothing good
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so i got more into the sports after high
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school she got pregnant at age 18 by her
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boyfriend
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she gave birth to a baby girl she
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nicknamed twink
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she's just like a twinkle twinkle little
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star it looked like a star she just
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sparkled
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we was like how old mom and daughter is
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supposed to be
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that's my mama that's my daughter i'm
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there for her she did for me
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jackie never married twink's father but
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more than a year later she married
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another man and had a son named mark
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the marriage lasted only a year and a
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half because according to jackie
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she was constantly beaten she had a bad
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marriage
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and i really do feel like that it took a
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toll on her
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and it changed her to vent her anger at
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being abused
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jackie continued her pattern of
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aggressive behavior
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i had a lot of people that hated me i
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was terrible
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i had fought everybody practically in
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kannapolis
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but when thomas hammond a well-respected
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handyman who lived in the same community
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saw jackie for the first time he took an
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instant liking to her
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thomas was all-around good hearted good
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human
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country boy that cared about people he
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didn't care who he was he did a lot of
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odds and end jobs on the side like
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fixing people cars and
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cabinets he was well respected hammond
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who was six years older than jackie was
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married with a family
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but he left his wife to set up house
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with jackie and her children
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he always did treated as good just like
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you my daddy
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while living like brother and sister
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with hammond jackie continued dating
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other men
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it was a platonic relationship it didn't
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appear to be any
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type of sexual relationship
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and this went on for several years she
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had nowhere to go
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he cared that much about her and her
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kids to keep a roof over their heads
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with no love at first when it started
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off might have been but it was just a
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just because
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case to me just because you ain't got
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nowhere to go you can stay here
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i don't think he loved him but times
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were tough for this unemployed single
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mom
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and to manage her frustrations jackie
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turned to crack
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crack would outweigh us you know and
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that's just not right
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you got money am i gonna buy crack or
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i'm gonna get my kids some food
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i'm gonna buy credit well okay what we
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supposed to do
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okay feeling for ourselves and that's
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what we did jackie's drug addiction
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led to a life of crime that had her in
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and out of jail for almost 10 years
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she was convicted of assaulting another
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woman
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with a razor blade and then after she
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got off probation for that offense she
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was convicted of
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common law robbery that was where she
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took a brick
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and used it to smash over the head of a
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cabbie
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so that she could take that cabbies
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money
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while she did her time jackie's kids
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would stay with her roommate thomas
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hammond
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the one person who accepted her for who
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she was
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or they stayed with relatives i gave him
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a pretty
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bad example of a mother one several
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times they said all they wanted to do
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was spend time with me so you know that
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that hurts
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as jackie's life was spinning out of
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control thomas hammond continued giving
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jackie and her kids
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anything they needed i can just remember
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just moving a lot like just we over this
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person's house we over that person's
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house
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thomas always have been our rescue house
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you know like if
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whenever we needed him he was always
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there we could be way in freaking
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timbuktu
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he on his way to come get us and my mom
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he left his family on the other side of
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town to go be with her
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so you know there had to be some strong
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emotion going on there
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she loved him more like a friend but he
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was obsessed with her
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and it's a difference i was using him at
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in the beginning i told him and he he
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was okay with it and
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we eventually claimed became good
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friends and he became like part of the
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family
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but hammond's sisters felt that jackie
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was a troubled woman who would only
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create chaos in hammond's life
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anna hammond said the two argued often
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yes she hit him before i know of once
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when my dad died he used to tell tommy
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oldham boy that girl gonna kill you one
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day
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when women behind bars continues thomas
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knocked me on the floor and when he did
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there was some scissors on the dresser
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so i grabbed the scissors
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and i started stabbing him with scissors
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by 1998 36 year old jackie alexander had
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a long criminal history that included
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drug and assault convictions
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she had been in and out of jail she
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divorced her husband
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and was raising two children when she
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met thomas hammond
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a hard-working resident in the textile
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mill town of kannapolis north carolina
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while the relationship was supposedly
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platonic jackie had been living with
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thomas hammond on and off for more than
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10 years
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thomas would make sure we had something
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to eat he made sure we had clean clothes
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so
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it was like the safe house basically
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hammond took care of jackie and her
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teenage children
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he also helped jacquie find jobs at
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local businesses
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in the second week of june 1998 she was
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trying to straighten out her criminal
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record
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i had so many charges on me so i was
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in and out of court that week and i was
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trying to
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not get no time trying to let them work
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this
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out with me where i could pay the job i
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worked on
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you couldn't have a record just
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everything was building up it's like i
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was with a struggle with good and evil
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at that point evil eventually won out
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jackie bought some crack from a local
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drug dealer and smoked it early in the
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day
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i could always tell when my mama was
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back smoking crack or whatever it was
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she was doing yeah i was just like but
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mama why you want to go back well you
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know she's wanted to get herself right i
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guess for that day
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at about eight that evening while her
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children were out she asked thomas to
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drive her to pick up her
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fifteen-year-old niece
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shawna her son's friend derek wilkes
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joined them
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derek was a troubled teen whose parents
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were divorced he often hung around the
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house with jackie and her kids
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derek was like my play son he was my
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son's one of his best friends
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and derek was at the house all the time
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so he just fit right in he respected me
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i looked at her as you know a mother
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away from home
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i mean because she i mean she just
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embraced me with overalls
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but hammond who was like a father to
00:13:16
jackie's family did not approve of
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derek's crush on shauna
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or jackie's encouragement of it thomas
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you know had a problem with me being
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over there so often
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on the night of july 14 1998
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jackie and derrick both claim they were
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hanging outside on the porch with shauna
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and thomas had winning night we stayed
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outside he was watching the movie
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thomas had just gone to bed when jackie
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left the front porch
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and entered thomas's bedroom to ask him
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to drive her niece home
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he had gotten in the bed he wasn't
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asleep he was like
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tell derek to take her home you know he
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got smart according to jackie
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thomas was angry that she had waited
00:14:00
until such a late hour to ask
00:14:02
him to drive and thomas made insulting
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remarks about jackie's daughter
00:14:06
and her niece she says he said some
00:14:09
things to her about
00:14:10
this girl is going to turn out just like
00:14:12
her daughter she's going to be a [ __ ]
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and
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go out with drug dealers and older men
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in other words calling my daughter a
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[ __ ] jackie claims that when her
00:14:22
protective instincts towards her family
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kicked in
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she lost her temper and things got out
00:14:27
of hand i pushed him
00:14:29
and when i pushed him really hard and i
00:14:31
started hitting him and so thomas
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knocked me on the floor and when he did
00:14:37
there was some scissors on the dresser
00:14:39
so i grabbed the scissors
00:14:40
and i started stabbing him with the
00:14:42
scissors
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i hollered for derek to come and help
00:14:46
when i told her niece
00:14:47
i say uh i said stay right here when i
00:14:50
came back in the living room
00:14:52
i mean this pissed dog i'm watching
00:14:54
jackie
00:14:56
she turned around at one point and
00:14:57
looked at me and when the jacket looked
00:14:59
at me i knew it wasn't jacket
00:15:02
you just see it in our eyes he was
00:15:04
pinned around that
00:15:05
back on the bed she was still struggling
00:15:08
you know
00:15:08
he had raised his hand and went he had
00:15:11
he was holding him down i seen his arm
00:15:12
come back
00:15:13
and i thought he was gonna strike jack
00:15:15
that's when i ran in the room
00:15:17
and i grabbed thomas and we just charged
00:15:20
it
00:15:20
and i grabbed him and we were just
00:15:22
wrestling around
00:15:24
but by that time jackie had come running
00:15:26
right back into the room
00:15:28
and she had a big cast iron from ipad
00:15:31
she handed it to me and she was like hit
00:15:34
him there killed him
00:15:37
derek hit him in the head with the
00:15:38
frying pan and when he did that's when i
00:15:41
saw his eyes rolling in the back of his
00:15:43
head
00:15:43
that's when he got up and stumbled
00:15:46
thomas did as if he gonna
00:15:48
go out the front door and derrick went
00:15:50
to stop him
00:15:52
and he hit him again with the frying pan
00:15:55
and that's when it broke
00:15:57
and um thomas fell out on the floor he
00:16:00
was crawling
00:16:01
towards me and he was saying jackie i
00:16:03
love you
00:16:04
and he asked derek why at that point he
00:16:07
tried to get up
00:16:08
and they hit him with a hammer he passed
00:16:12
out
00:16:12
in the living room and was moaning and
00:16:15
groaning
00:16:16
i mean he still is breathing but at one
00:16:19
point
00:16:19
you know you could hear i think the
00:16:21
blood gargling in his throat
00:16:23
you know jackie says she left the house
00:16:25
with shauna to get help
00:16:26
but could not find any we went all over
00:16:29
the whole
00:16:29
neighborhood it's always someone around
00:16:32
but this night it wasn't nobody
00:16:34
there nobody home but investigators say
00:16:37
jackie was really trying to find her
00:16:39
niece a ride home so that she would not
00:16:41
be implicated in the crime
00:16:43
jackie then returned to the house to see
00:16:45
if hammond was alive or dead
00:16:47
at that point she told shawna to remain
00:16:49
outside
00:16:50
when we got back derek was fussing and
00:16:52
cussing at me why'd you leave me in here
00:16:57
the three-hour torture finally ended
00:16:59
when hammond was fatally stabbed with a
00:17:01
knife
00:17:02
but jackie and derek gave different
00:17:04
versions of who had the knife
00:17:06
derek had took a kitchen knife and
00:17:07
stabbed the knife through thomas neck
00:17:09
and he said there he's dead now
00:17:10
nah i never even stabbed thomas
00:17:14
jackie pulls out a knife she actually
00:17:16
started stabbing thomas with
00:17:18
her it was just in and out constantly
00:17:19
you know she was stabbing thomas
00:17:22
derrick said jackie got two trash bags
00:17:25
the first one she had put over his head
00:17:26
it started filling up immediately
00:17:29
with blood to the point where it fell
00:17:31
off
00:17:32
she went got another one and put that on
00:17:34
top of that
00:17:35
and was choking him like that no no i
00:17:38
put that up on his head because he was
00:17:40
bleeding
00:17:40
she held on to him and his head just
00:17:43
went live in her lap
00:17:45
yeah he was dead yeah i mean cause you
00:17:48
could
00:17:49
it's his bowels let loose i mean you
00:17:52
smell it
00:17:54
next they wrapped hammond's body in a
00:17:56
blanket and threw it in the trunk of his
00:17:58
car
00:17:58
they took shawna with them and drove to
00:18:00
a nearby gas station
00:18:02
they bought a gallons worth of gas
00:18:06
drove to a deserted road
00:18:13
when we got there derek took the
00:18:16
gasoline and pulled it on him that's
00:18:18
when um he said light it
00:18:20
so i was trying to light it and he was
00:18:22
running he kept yelling light the
00:18:25
light lighted light derrick said it was
00:18:27
jackie who poured the gasoline on the
00:18:29
body
00:18:30
and lit it turning the car into an
00:18:32
inferno
00:18:33
they ran back to the house to clean up
00:18:35
the bloody evidence
00:18:36
jacket had thomas wallet when she opened
00:18:39
it up she seen the money that was in
00:18:41
there
00:18:42
so when she pulled the money out i seen
00:18:44
the money and
00:18:45
she started counting it jackie tried to
00:18:48
give me 400
00:18:50
i told jack i didn't want that money
00:18:56
police found the car and the body the
00:18:58
following morning and traced the license
00:19:00
plate to thomas hammond
00:19:02
they went to his house and found jackie
00:19:04
asleep
00:19:05
according to jackie derrick was there as
00:19:07
well they also found blood throughout
00:19:10
the house
00:19:10
along with other evidence detectives
00:19:13
brought jackie and derek to police
00:19:15
headquarters
00:19:15
and questioned them separately jackie
00:19:18
had told me
00:19:19
as we were sitting on the back porch
00:19:21
that she had stabbed him with the
00:19:22
scissors in the throat
00:19:24
and that the whole thing had just gotten
00:19:26
out of hand
00:19:28
and she had to do what she did after a
00:19:30
day of interrogation by police
00:19:33
jackie confessed to her part in the
00:19:35
killing but blamed derek for hammond's
00:19:37
death
00:19:38
[Music]
00:19:45
when he said the death penalty i wanted
00:19:47
to talk
00:19:48
to my lawyers and tell them the
00:19:50
confession is not true
00:19:51
and it was too late when women behind
00:19:55
bars continues
00:19:56
i am very very sorry for what i've done
00:20:00
the part that i played in that
00:20:03
in murdering thomas and later
00:20:06
briefly the evidence was that he was
00:20:08
mauled to death by two pitbulls in his
00:20:10
home while his parents were
00:20:12
also in the home it was a situation
00:20:14
where
00:20:15
someone needs to be held accountable for
00:20:16
what happened to this child
00:20:21
on june 14 1998 36 year old jackie
00:20:25
alexander
00:20:26
along with her son's friend
00:20:27
sixteen-year-old derrick wilkes
00:20:29
was charged with the gruesome murder of
00:20:31
jackie's roommate
00:20:32
thomas hammond at jackie's trial derek
00:20:36
was the prosecution's key witness
00:20:38
he told the jury she was the killer it
00:20:41
was
00:20:42
presented to me as if just get on stand
00:20:44
to tell what happened
00:20:45
they did never make sense if we need
00:20:47
your testimony against her
00:20:49
he was considerably younger than jackie
00:20:52
and it was our view
00:20:53
that jackie to a great extent
00:20:56
manipulated him
00:20:57
based upon their relative age
00:21:00
differential
00:21:13
meanwhile jackie's trial was still
00:21:15
underway in her defense
00:21:17
jackie's attorney larry harris presented
00:21:19
several reports by psychiatrists who
00:21:22
examined her
00:21:23
they said abuse haunted her past their
00:21:26
findings were that ms alexander did in
00:21:29
fact have a
00:21:30
post-traumatic stress disorder and
00:21:34
depression among other things
00:21:37
including substance abuse of
00:21:41
cocaine marijuana and alcohol
00:21:45
that she had somehow
00:21:49
developed this mechanism within her that
00:21:51
if she were
00:21:53
attacked physically that she would
00:21:56
retaliate
00:21:59
with the intent to kill their theory was
00:22:02
that she
00:22:03
snapped at the moment
00:22:06
thomas hammond slammed her to the floor
00:22:11
but the jury did not buy that defense
00:22:13
after two weeks of testimony
00:22:15
jackie was found guilty of murder when
00:22:18
the verdict was announced
00:22:19
jackie screamed in the courtroom then
00:22:22
jackie heard her daughter crying
00:22:24
i just wanted to go grab her
00:22:29
and just tell her how sorry i was in
00:22:30
less than two hours
00:22:32
the jury rejected the death sentence and
00:22:34
decided jackie would spend the rest of
00:22:36
her life in prison
00:22:37
without the possibility of parole they
00:22:40
need to let us have us so we can do heal
00:22:42
her the same way she did him
00:22:45
but you know that'd have been wrong evil
00:22:46
for evil you can't do evil for evil
00:22:48
he cared enough for her
00:22:51
and then you got um kill him like that
00:22:55
you don't do a dog like that
00:22:59
jackie now lives in a nine by six foot
00:23:01
cell at the southern correctional
00:23:03
institution
00:23:04
in troy north carolina on the walls are
00:23:06
photos of her family
00:23:08
it's my grandbabies in me tweet my
00:23:11
daughter my grandfather
00:23:13
also among the photos are some of her
00:23:15
fiance james
00:23:17
who she met through a church group she
00:23:19
says she and her fiance hope to marry if
00:23:21
she is ever set free
00:23:23
we're trusting god that he will and
00:23:28
we're looking for a better hope
00:23:31
at age 48 jackie is working towards an
00:23:33
associate's degree in office systems
00:23:35
technology
00:23:36
these are my books my dictionary purpose
00:23:40
driven life the journal
00:23:41
and my bibles i coach volleyball
00:23:44
basketball
00:23:46
kickball softball teams
00:23:50
i'm in the women's service club i uh i'm
00:23:54
on the board i'm the membership director
00:23:57
because of her good behavior she merited
00:23:59
the highest paying job in the prison
00:24:01
washing inmate laundry at one dollar a
00:24:03
day
00:24:04
the other jobs pay 40 cents you have to
00:24:07
wait in line for it it don't just
00:24:09
come to you jackie is one of the oldest
00:24:11
inmates in her cell block
00:24:13
many of the younger ones come to her for
00:24:15
advice
00:24:16
they call this my little office everyone
00:24:18
comes in here to talk to me in my office
00:24:21
we pray a lot in here to be honest with
00:24:23
you she's suffering
00:24:25
she really is cause she missing out on
00:24:27
everything so
00:24:28
in our lives she missed the birth of her
00:24:30
grandkids first grandkids
00:24:32
and i think she's learning her lesson
00:24:33
jackie said she wrote a letter to the
00:24:35
hammond family
00:24:36
asking for them to forgive her i am very
00:24:40
sorry for what i've done the part that i
00:24:42
played
00:24:44
in that and murdering thomas well as i'm
00:24:47
concerned
00:24:48
i forgive them because like i said if
00:24:51
i die tonight i don't need nothing
00:24:53
preventing me from going to hell
00:24:56
and you got to forgive and you got to
00:24:57
care and you got to love people in order
00:24:59
to
00:25:00
go to heaven when you do die i'm not
00:25:02
even mad at jackie no more
00:25:04
but what i would say to jacket now i
00:25:08
want to know
00:25:08
i mean why me why even want to involve
00:25:12
me
00:25:13
i forgave him pretty much know that he
00:25:16
was fighting for his life
00:25:17
when i look back on the jackie that was
00:25:21
i can't blame nobody for not loving a
00:25:24
person like that
00:25:27
because i wouldn't want to help a person
00:25:29
like how i was
00:25:31
but now i don't like to see people hurt
00:25:33
people
00:25:35
i don't like them picking on people who
00:25:37
are less fortunate those these are all
00:25:38
these things
00:25:39
what i used to do all these things what
00:25:42
i used to do
00:25:43
i'm happy for the first time in my life
00:25:46
i mean
00:25:47
i i'm happy you know
00:25:52
i'm free on the inside
00:25:56
next up on women behind bars a toddler
00:25:58
dies when he wanders into a room with
00:26:01
the family pitbulls
00:26:13
for more information about women behind
00:26:15
bars go to www.wetv.com
00:26:25
on october 3rd 2005 two and a
00:26:27
half-year-old jonathan martin was mauled
00:26:29
to death in his home in suffolk virginia
00:26:33
words cannot describe the
00:26:36
the mutilation of this child although
00:26:39
the killer was an abused pit bull
00:26:42
the toddler's parents james martin and
00:26:44
heather frango
00:26:45
were at home at the time of their
00:26:47
child's gruesome death
00:26:49
jonathan had over 100 bite marks on his
00:26:52
body
00:26:55
his scalp had been ripped off and his
00:26:58
ears had been ripped off
00:26:59
it was just horrible absolutely horrible
00:27:03
was heather frango a negligent mother or
00:27:06
was she unfairly blamed
00:27:07
for an unforeseeable accident
00:27:11
[Music]
00:27:16
heather frango was born the only child
00:27:19
of sandra and stephen grenell's
00:27:21
heather's cousin alice connor remembers
00:27:23
their childhood together
00:27:25
she'd spend a lot of time at my house
00:27:27
she could be very funny
00:27:31
very outgoing very generous at times
00:27:34
wanting to please other relatives
00:27:37
describe heather as a drama queen
00:27:39
who always exaggerated a situation for
00:27:42
her own benefit
00:27:43
but according to her cousin alice
00:27:45
heather just wanted to be loved i think
00:27:48
she felt lonely
00:27:49
and left out sometimes heather's
00:27:51
loneliness may have stemmed from a
00:27:53
turbulent family life
00:27:54
relatives say her mother was separated
00:27:57
from her father a month before she was
00:27:59
born
00:28:00
heather had a hard time with growing up
00:28:03
in her early teens heather met james
00:28:06
martin a construction worker who lived
00:28:08
in the chesapeake area
00:28:09
he was four years older than her used to
00:28:12
go crabbing
00:28:12
have fun go out to water parks although
00:28:16
james maintained a close friendship with
00:28:18
heather
00:28:19
at 20 she decided to marry james franco
00:28:21
a furniture delivery driver
00:28:23
but a year later they separated her mom
00:28:26
wouldn't let her stay with her
00:28:28
heather didn't have nowhere to go so she
00:28:29
ended up moving in with me
00:28:31
they lived together for two years when
00:28:33
james was fined for keeping several pit
00:28:35
bulls without a city license or proper
00:28:37
vaccinations
00:28:39
i grew up with pit bulls my whole life
00:28:43
we always had footballs around our house
00:28:46
four or five dogs around our house
00:28:48
despite his brush with the law james
00:28:50
continued to raise several different pit
00:28:52
bulls as pets
00:28:53
in the summer of 2002 heather became
00:28:56
pregnant she was
00:29:00
talking about where now she should have
00:29:01
an abortion i told her
00:29:03
you have an abortion pack your stuff and
00:29:05
leave now
00:29:07
i was worried when heather got pregnant
00:29:10
to be honest i wasn't sure
00:29:14
she was ready to be a mother there was
00:29:16
information that she might have suffered
00:29:17
from some
00:29:19
mental disorder she told me that she was
00:29:22
bipolar
00:29:23
heather was 23 when her son jonathan was
00:29:26
born on january 4th
00:29:27
2003 i went there to the hospital and
00:29:31
he's beautiful soon after heather
00:29:34
delivered another son named daniel
00:29:36
connor
00:29:37
she continued to live with james martin
00:29:39
who supported her and their children
00:29:41
on his pay as a construction worker
00:29:44
james martin was working as a framer
00:29:47
earning
00:29:48
at least 18 dollars an hour heather
00:29:51
franco did not work
00:29:53
she relied on james martin for her
00:29:55
support i think
00:29:56
that's the way she wanted it from family
00:29:59
and friends
00:29:59
we heard stories that she was not
00:30:02
necessarily the best mother
00:30:03
police said both heather and james were
00:30:05
also known to smoke
00:30:06
pot on a daily basis he supposedly was
00:30:10
using a lot of the money that
00:30:12
he made to buy drugs he grew marijuana
00:30:16
he sold marijuana
00:30:18
in the winter of 2004 heather james and
00:30:20
their two sons moved into a home off a
00:30:23
busy highway in suffolk virginia
00:30:25
once a passerby drove past the house and
00:30:28
saw little jonathan
00:30:29
out by the road and no parent was in
00:30:33
sight
00:30:34
she definitely was not watching that
00:30:35
child according to relatives
00:30:38
james and heather often argued over the
00:30:40
children sometimes the arguments would
00:30:42
even turn physical
00:30:43
they would hit each other in front of
00:30:44
their children i didn't beat her
00:30:47
she would get very mad and want to try
00:30:49
and fight me
00:30:51
and i would restrain her to keep from
00:30:54
fighting
00:30:55
the couple often fought over james's pit
00:30:57
bulls named ox and little girl
00:30:59
whom he had chained in the backyard
00:31:02
heather had indicated that
00:31:04
she was frightened of those dogs and she
00:31:06
was so afraid of them she didn't want to
00:31:08
go out back
00:31:09
to hang up laundry in fact one of them
00:31:11
had at one point
00:31:13
bit jonathan there wasn't no marks or
00:31:16
anything
00:31:18
so i figured just nipped him or
00:31:20
something
00:31:21
not a big deal at that point to me the
00:31:24
suffolk police department
00:31:26
compiled information showing that the
00:31:28
dogs had a history
00:31:30
of growling at people they had a history
00:31:33
of
00:31:34
biting individuals a neighbor had been
00:31:37
bitten by ox the male pit bull
00:31:40
both parents were informed of that james
00:31:42
said sometimes the children would play
00:31:44
with the dogs
00:31:46
there were some allegations that james
00:31:47
martin had these dogs
00:31:50
to protect his marijuana he was growing
00:31:53
marijuana in a field in the back of his
00:31:55
house
00:31:56
they tried to say that i had dogs to
00:31:59
protect a marijuana
00:32:00
cop that's crazy sandra o'connor the
00:32:02
mother of
00:32:03
heather franco did tell me that
00:32:07
she along with heather her daughter had
00:32:10
told
00:32:10
james to get rid of those dogs numerous
00:32:13
times
00:32:14
because how they hated the dogs in
00:32:16
august 2004
00:32:18
alice connor became concerned that the
00:32:20
continual mistreatment of james's dogs
00:32:23
could have serious consequences for the
00:32:25
children so she visited her cousin
00:32:27
heather
00:32:28
alice noticed that the dogs were chained
00:32:30
in the backyard in the blazing sun
00:32:33
they were tied to the tree chained
00:32:36
with no water in the bowl and
00:32:40
the food was just out of reach in his
00:32:42
truck bed
00:32:43
they did have it but they couldn't reach
00:32:45
it and the
00:32:47
collars were embedded in the neck
00:32:49
tethering for long periods of time is a
00:32:51
bad thing for an animal and a bad thing
00:32:53
for the family there is sort of an urban
00:32:55
myth
00:32:56
out there that the pit bull just by
00:32:58
nature
00:32:59
is an innately aggressive dog towards
00:33:02
humans and other animals
00:33:04
if you have people breeding them for
00:33:06
illegal activity
00:33:07
then obviously they are going to focus
00:33:11
on those behaviors and those tendencies
00:33:14
that would be the exactly the opposite
00:33:16
of what we'd want in a pet
00:33:17
one year later on the eve of october 2nd
00:33:20
2005
00:33:21
james martin and heather frango tucked
00:33:23
their kids into bed upstairs
00:33:26
james brought the pit bulls into the
00:33:27
house and allowed them to sleep in a
00:33:29
room off the kitchen downstairs
00:33:32
put the kids to bed i fed the dogs i put
00:33:34
my mail
00:33:36
in a blocked off room with a female
00:33:38
because there was a little puppies
00:33:41
and i put him in the cage heather and
00:33:43
james then smoked marijuana in their
00:33:45
bedroom
00:33:45
and went to sleep at 6 30 the following
00:33:49
morning
00:33:50
according to heather both sons climbed
00:33:52
into bed with a couple
00:33:53
as they usually did the younger son
00:33:56
daniel
00:33:56
slept beside james while the older one
00:33:59
jonathan
00:33:59
was next to heather about an hour later
00:34:03
jonathan told his mother he had to go to
00:34:04
the bathroom which was located
00:34:06
downstairs
00:34:07
he got out of bed and wandered down the
00:34:09
steps
00:34:16
i heard like a loud thump rolled over my
00:34:19
younger son was up under me
00:34:20
but jonathan wasn't in the bed so i will
00:34:22
cut her up sorry to go check on jonathan
00:34:24
i'd be up in a second so she went
00:34:27
downstairs the next thing i heard
00:34:28
she was screaming heather called 911
00:34:40
calm down
00:34:51
i go downstairs she's in the room floor
00:34:53
just screaming i started looking for
00:34:54
jonathan
00:34:56
i find him in the room where the dogs
00:34:59
were and
00:35:00
i picked him up and he was still
00:35:03
responding to me and i
00:35:04
said it's daddy johnson
00:35:08
when women behind bars continues he was
00:35:11
screaming at the top of his lungs
00:35:13
and the two people he was most likely
00:35:15
screaming for were his mommy and his
00:35:17
daddy
00:35:18
and they were nowhere to be found
00:35:27
on a crisp october night in 2005
00:35:30
james martin had allowed his two
00:35:31
pitbulls and litter of puppies
00:35:33
to sleep in the house that he shared
00:35:35
with heather franco and their two
00:35:36
children
00:35:38
the next morning their two and a half
00:35:40
year old son jonathan wandered
00:35:41
downstairs alone
00:35:42
to go to the bathroom and get a bowl of
00:35:44
cereal when the unthinkable
00:35:47
happened the pit bulls savagely attacked
00:35:51
little jonathan his ears were removed
00:35:56
his scalp was removed he had over 100
00:35:59
bite marks to his body
00:36:01
detective jon jones was called to
00:36:03
investigate the attack
00:36:04
after police received a frantic 9-1-1
00:36:07
call from heather frango
00:36:09
she was saying something to the about
00:36:12
her dog
00:36:13
attacking her son and she was going to
00:36:16
kill the
00:36:16
dog by the time jones got to the house
00:36:19
an ambulance had already taken the
00:36:21
severely bleeding child to a nearby
00:36:23
helicopter
00:36:24
he was flown to a local hospital where
00:36:26
his parents met with doctors
00:36:28
jonathan was pronounced dead shortly
00:36:30
after he arrived at the hospital
00:36:32
the cause of death was excessive
00:36:34
internal bleeding
00:36:38
i walked out when i saw a curve
00:36:42
trying not to lose my head temporary
00:36:45
custody of james and heather's younger
00:36:47
son
00:36:47
20 month old daniel connor was given to
00:36:50
heather's aunt and uncle
00:36:52
while the couple mourned their son
00:36:53
jonathan's death detectives began their
00:36:55
investigation into murder charges
00:36:57
against the parents
00:36:59
he was mauled to death by two pit bulls
00:37:01
in his home while his parents were
00:37:03
also in the home it was a situation
00:37:06
where
00:37:07
someone needs to be held accountable we
00:37:10
had to prove child neglect
00:37:11
in this case which is very difficult to
00:37:13
do detective jones began his
00:37:15
investigation by thoroughly looking over
00:37:17
the house where the attack took place
00:37:21
he noticed one of the puppies in the
00:37:22
litter was dead
00:37:24
he wondered if it was sick or if it had
00:37:26
been killed in the attack
00:37:28
he also saw there were homemade
00:37:30
ineffective child protection barriers
00:37:32
in a home that was uninhabitable for
00:37:34
children
00:37:37
the house had rats was unsanitary and
00:37:40
dangerous
00:37:42
after jonathan's death the city
00:37:44
condemned it
00:37:46
there was a small board that they were
00:37:48
using as a
00:37:51
baby gate a barrier between the kitchen
00:37:52
in this room where the attack occurred
00:37:55
and it was according to james jonathan
00:37:57
had been known to climb over it
00:37:59
so it really wasn't serving any purpose
00:38:01
but there was blood
00:38:03
up and down all the way to the top of
00:38:05
this board
00:38:06
and across the board and including the
00:38:08
walls that were adjacent to this board
00:38:10
to me as an investigator it appeared as
00:38:12
though that this boy
00:38:14
was literally at one point probably in
00:38:16
the jaws of this pit bull and this dog
00:38:18
was slinging this boy all over this room
00:38:21
a bite expert who examined both dogs and
00:38:23
jonathan's body
00:38:24
found the male dog ox was probably the
00:38:27
dog who caused the boy's death
00:38:29
in order to have a strong case
00:38:31
investigators needed to prove that the
00:38:33
owners were aware that the pit bulls had
00:38:35
a history of being aggressive
00:38:38
the suffolk police department began
00:38:40
their investigation by interviewing
00:38:41
neighbors
00:38:42
by interviewing the family members and
00:38:45
they compiled information showing that
00:38:48
the dogs had a history
00:38:50
of growling at people they had a history
00:38:53
of
00:38:54
biting individuals a neighbor had been
00:38:57
bitten by ox the male pit bull
00:39:00
both parents were informed of that but
00:39:03
investigators could only speculate as to
00:39:05
what set off the pit bulls
00:39:06
leading to their attack on jonathan were
00:39:09
they hungry when they saw jonathan with
00:39:11
a bowl of cereal
00:39:13
or as james martin believes were the
00:39:15
dogs protecting one of their own
00:39:17
there was one puppy missing from the
00:39:19
litter i think my son
00:39:20
went down there played with a puppy i
00:39:24
imagined
00:39:25
the puppy yelp and the dog had attacked
00:39:28
him out of protection over the puppies
00:39:33
two months after jonathan's death police
00:39:36
arrested james martin and heather frango
00:39:38
they were charged with second-degree
00:39:40
murder involuntary manslaughter and
00:39:42
child neglect
00:39:44
heather says she felt and still feels
00:39:46
anger
00:39:47
hurt and disappointment towards james
00:39:49
and herself
00:39:51
their case was the first in the country
00:39:53
in which parents were charged with
00:39:55
murder and connection with a family dog
00:39:57
attack
00:39:58
james was also charged with drug
00:40:00
possession since he had marijuana on him
00:40:02
when police picked him up
00:40:04
one of the most remarkable things that
00:40:06
stood out to me when i read the autopsy
00:40:08
report was that this child's
00:40:10
throat and larynx were still intact
00:40:14
which indicated that he was screaming at
00:40:16
the top of his lungs
00:40:18
and the two people he was most likely
00:40:20
screaming for were his mommy and his
00:40:22
daddy and they were nowhere to be
00:40:25
found what was still a mystery to
00:40:28
investigators was how neither parent
00:40:30
came to jonathan's rescue
00:40:32
but while awaiting trial in jail heather
00:40:35
and her boyfriend confessed to some
00:40:36
inmates as to why they
00:40:38
did not hear their son the information
00:40:40
we had from the two inmates was that
00:40:42
they were smoking marijuana at the time
00:40:44
the attack occurred
00:40:45
they had shut the door and were taking
00:40:48
hits off of the bomb
00:40:49
weed had nothing to do with this
00:40:51
happening
00:40:52
nothing on may 15 2006
00:40:56
seven months after little jonathan's
00:40:58
death heather and james pled guilty to
00:41:00
child neglect and involuntary
00:41:02
manslaughter
00:41:03
in exchange the state dropped the
00:41:05
second-degree murder charge against them
00:41:07
they faced 20 years in prison on august
00:41:10
28th
00:41:11
heather and james were sentenced to only
00:41:13
three years in prison
00:41:14
with james getting an additional six
00:41:16
months for a previous hit-and-run crash
00:41:19
heather now says she believes god has a
00:41:21
purpose for her
00:41:22
but at the time of the sentencing she
00:41:24
was distraught he had a
00:41:26
friend go after she was sentenced she
00:41:28
was running down the hallways
00:41:30
screaming their sentences caused an
00:41:33
outcry by the public newspaper columnist
00:41:36
tamara dietrich
00:41:37
wrote about the case they faced
00:41:39
originally 60 years and then
00:41:41
when they pleaded out they faced 20 and
00:41:44
they were given
00:41:45
three and even at that time family
00:41:48
members of franklin martin
00:41:50
thought that was unfair there were many
00:41:52
people in the community myself included
00:41:54
who thought that was hardly enough
00:41:56
nothing they could do to me is going to
00:41:57
even touch that burden
00:41:59
of my son's death ain't never going away
00:42:03
alice connor believes the best gift she
00:42:05
could leave in memory of jonathan
00:42:07
is this public service announcement it
00:42:09
was sponsored by the people for the
00:42:11
ethical treatment of animals
00:42:12
peta on the mistreatment of dogs
00:42:16
chain dogs are three times more likely
00:42:17
to attack people because they don't get
00:42:19
the companionship and exercise they need
00:42:21
and crave
00:42:22
heather is incarcerated at the fluvana
00:42:24
women's correctional center near
00:42:26
charlottesville virginia
00:42:28
she is currently scheduled to get out a
00:42:30
month before james in june 2009
00:42:32
she says she will always love james but
00:42:35
most of all
00:42:35
heather says she misses jonathan every
00:42:38
second of every day
00:42:40
and thinks the point of her life has
00:42:42
diminished
00:42:45
[Music]
00:42:53
[Music]
00:43:06
today james martin is at the lunenburg
00:43:09
correctional center in victoria virginia
00:43:11
he feels he can never forgive himself
00:43:13
for his son's death
00:43:14
and commemorates him with a tattoo over
00:43:17
his heart and one on his arm
00:43:19
picture of my son close to my heart
00:43:24
two hearts me and heather with our sons
00:43:27
names on our hearts
00:43:28
we're all locked together through time
00:43:31
their younger son
00:43:32
daniel connor remains in the custody of
00:43:34
heather's aunt and uncle
00:43:36
both parents phone him and in march 2008
00:43:38
heather's aunt took him to
00:43:40
see heather in prison where he's living
00:43:42
at he's in
00:43:43
a good environment taken care of james
00:43:46
is scheduled to leave prison
00:43:48
in july 2009 i have all plans of us
00:43:51
being married
00:43:52
there won't be no more animals in my
00:43:54
house or on my property
00:43:55
none i don't want none but i don't think
00:43:58
so much she would
00:43:59
want kids after this we both feel that
00:44:06
way
00:44:08
you
