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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
00:01:47
with me as always is a man who hits St Patrick's Day like a hyper juicy Berserker here is the captain I drink
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all the green beers not just one all of them it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for
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Tona [Music] friend I am and we are extra excited to be featuring this wonderful beer from
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our good friends down in Orlando Florida that's right I'm talking about one of my
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hazy IPA and of course it's got pineapple because it would be weird if it didn't and also toasted coconut and a
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maturation of hops 6.2% ABV garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of five
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and thanks to our friends for helping us out with this week's Beer Run let's give
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a couple shout outs here Captain first up we have Katie and Aurora Ontario and a big we like your jib to Michael juel
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in Parts Unknown Mexico a little Parts Unknown springing up down in New Mexico we also have Sonia in Parts Unknown she
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wants to be in charge of litter control and I say have at it uh but we will not be able to pay you Sonia so thank you
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for your efforts and for your help well there's no littering in Parts Unknown because it's penalized that by death or
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yes or removing your hands all right everybody we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and helped us
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us out at true crme garage and that's enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a chair
00:03:51
grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] crime [Music] the St John's Sheriff's Office wrapped
00:04:14
up their investigation quickly determining that Michelle O'Connell's death was a suicide Michelle's family
00:04:23
disagreed the Hasty closure of the investigation and the rushed ruling did not sit well with them and they demanded
00:04:31
further investigation but this was very very complicated because not only was Michelle dating a deputy in the St
00:04:40
John's County Sheriff's Office her mother and brother Scott worked for St John's Sheriff's Office as well Scott
00:04:50
was a deputy like Jeremy and actually introduced Michelle to Jeremy right Patty Michelle's mother was a clerk in
00:04:58
the office but despite their affiliation with the Sheriff's Office Michelle's family realized very quickly that the
00:05:06
Sheriff's Office had closed ranks almost immediately in order to protect one of their own even at the crime scene this
00:05:14
was very interesting to me here Captain this part right here this does not sit well with me at all so let's go back to
00:05:22
the crime scene Jeremy's family was allowed in the home Michelle's brother a sheriff's office Deputy in that
00:05:34
jurisdiction was held back by his fellow officers he was not allowed to enter the
00:05:40
home that makes zero sense of course they could have been trying to Shield him from seeing his sister dying on the
00:05:46
floor I get that but for another thing here her family Michelle's family says that she would not have absolutely would
00:05:57
not have killed herself and I get it most families in suicide cases say this but I believe that there may be some
00:06:05
proof here so let's start off with this idea one fact in this case is that Michelle had just landed her dream job
00:06:13
and was supposed to start this dream job the very next day she would be working full-time in a daycare center for kids
00:06:22
this was a dream of hers teaching and working with children the job offered things that she had been striving for
00:06:28
working towards in her life these things such as benefits including health insurance for her and her daughter and a
00:06:36
retirement plan and the Clincher she could bring her daughter Lexi to work with her every day Lexi would be allowed
00:06:43
to attend the daycare with her mom the daycare that her mom would be teaching at we also know that Michelle had plans
00:06:51
to meet up with a friend Mindy Fox on the night that she died furthermore around 10 p.m. Michelle texts her sister
00:06:59
who was watching her daughter Lexi saying quote I'll be there soon to pick up her daughter and Michelle was in fact
00:07:06
packing to leave Jeremy for good right we know that based off of what Jeremy said we know that off of one of the
00:07:15
couples after the concert actually goes back to Jeremy's house with Michelle and
00:07:20
Jeremy they witness some of this they're only there for a few minutes but they say that when they left two things
00:07:28
happened Michelle was packing to leave Jeremy that night and Jeremy told the other couple everything would be okay so
00:07:38
they decided to leave but again look at the motive why would you be packing anything up if you were so distraught
00:07:46
and thinking of killing yourself exactly that's what I'm getting at here why would you tell your sister you're
00:07:51
picking up your daughter why would you tell your friend that you still intended to hang out with her that night Mindy
00:07:56
Fox and why we know that Not only was packing based off of these Witnesses based off of what Jeremy says but also
00:08:03
the crime scene photos show suitcases packed why would she pack and then kill herself yeah it almost seems like once
00:08:11
that couple left well he knew that he was in control of the situation now and he was going to try to stop her from
00:08:20
leaving we also have Michelle's family that says they have evidence that Jeremy was abusive saying that Michelle had
00:08:27
confided in her family about this a few other details that that need to be included here uh some information and
00:08:35
we'll just throw the information out there and you can interpret it in any way that you see fit there wonderful
00:08:42
beautiful listener so some of the information is that Michelle had lunch that very day the day that she died with
00:08:48
her sister Chrissy and told her sister that she was scared of Jeremy and was going to be leaving him that night after
00:08:56
the concert Chrissy was one of the people that that counseled her and told her hey don't go to this concert at all
00:09:02
just skip it forget about it right Michelle tells her don't worry about it I purchase the tickets long before I'm
00:09:09
going to the concert her sister told the New York Times that Michelle told her that she was injured after Jeremy had
00:09:17
shown her a quote submissive move where he slammed her down now I've heard this referred to as a body slam type
00:09:28
technique this story seems a little complicated we have persons that say they believe this was abuse we have
00:09:36
Jeremy and others that say we were just goofing around and maybe it got a little
00:09:41
out of hand he was showing her a move this according to him and some others but again other people thought that
00:09:47
there was something more going on than just hey we were goofing around well it seems like everybody in her family and
00:09:55
her friends said if you viewed this relationship as a whole if he just simply said pass or fail or is it a
00:10:02
positive relationship or a negative one that most people thought it was a negative relationship there's too much
00:10:08
fighting there was too much arguing well and like I said earlier Captain sometimes these situations are abusive
00:10:15
and sometimes they're just two people physically fighting mhm and we do know that Jeremy did admit that sometimes
00:10:24
when they argued it had gotten physical in the past he told law enforcement that in his statements
00:10:32
we should also note that Jeremy is 6'1 225 lbs at the time and Michelle's 5'4 119 PBS at the time well here's where I
00:10:42
disagree with you when I when you're saying that sometimes there's abusive situation and sometimes it's a couple
00:10:49
that fights and then they get physical as a man you then have to remove yourself from that situation and
00:10:57
if if if you continue to have arguments that escalate into violent situations as a man you should remove
00:11:08
yourself from that relationship and on top of that he's a deputy if domestic violence calls come
00:11:17
in and they show up at his house and he gets arrested he can lose his job but I don't think in any stretch of the
00:11:25
imagination that this Jeremy banksman is any definition of a man we have some evidence of him being a hotthead like I
00:11:34
said yesterday and this comes from Thanksgiving 2009 when Jeremy had an argument with Michelle's brother Justin
00:11:42
because Justin did not feel that Jeremy was treating his sister very well so Justin asked Jeremy to and Jeremy let it
00:11:51
be known that he was caring at the Thanksgiving dinner table this the this guy's a piece of [ __ ] and I would
00:12:01
have been like oh you're carrying I I am I'm going to castrate you you son of a [ __ ] that's what I
00:12:09
would have said who gives a [ __ ] oh I'm carrying but and here's the thing too is
00:12:15
because somebody stuck up for her I wouldn't be surprised if there was a lot of abuse physical verbal emotional
00:12:24
mental abuse this guy seems like a turd basket I think we should take a better look at the crime scene or the death
00:12:31
scene we know that Jeremy's service pistol was found lying on the floor on Michelle's left side reminder she was
00:12:39
right-handed her family pointing out that they believe this is an issue and does not jive with the story or the
00:12:46
findings of the Sheriff's Office the retention holster that held his gun was there as well the holster is designed a
00:12:58
retention holster is designed for someone unfamiliar with the weapon to have trouble drawing it from this
00:13:07
holster to pull the weapon out of the holster we have a a few different sides to this argument one if you don't think
00:13:16
it's suicide you might make the argument that Michelle may not have known how to
00:13:21
pull the gun from The holster and therefore could not shoot herself the other argument would be she lived with
00:13:28
this man for for over a year and he may have shown her at some point how to remove the gun from The holster this is
00:13:37
what is typically referred to as a level three security when it comes to these types of holsters there's from my
00:13:46
understanding Captain there's like four different levels and what you have here in in this situation again I don't know
00:13:52
exactly what kind of holster he was using at the time but typically what you have in this
00:14:00
situation is level three retention there's four levels of retention holders the higher the number the more retention
00:14:08
the more difficult it is to get the gun out of the holster typically when we're talking about law
00:14:15
enforcement they usually carry level three retention holsters this to make it difficult if
00:14:23
they are in an altercation for someone to take their weapon out of their holster right makes sense I go back to
00:14:31
his carelessness of just having his gun and his holster out when he claims that he said to her you know don't do
00:14:40
something stupid or don't do something to harm yourself if you actually thought that she was going to harm herself and
00:14:47
you're not the giant the biggest giant piece of [ __ ] in this world you go make
00:14:53
sure that your gun is secure you make sure that your gun is locked away that's correct cor captain and here's the thing
00:15:00
the there there were two shots that were fired and we know that based off the evidence at the scene the 911 call and
00:15:08
Jeremy statements to detective Hines most people will argue in a suicide type situation you would not
00:15:16
expect there to be two shots that just the simple fact of having two shots is an indicator that something else was
00:15:25
going on that she was being attacked rather than deciding to take her life I'll counter that by saying that I don't
00:15:35
think the second shot necessarily determines anything for us outright because there are there's plenty of
00:15:43
proof that in these types of scenarios that a suicidal individual has fired a test shot prior to turning the gun on
00:15:54
themselves right now you could also argue that there's an altercation taking place there's a a physical attack going
00:16:00
down and maybe that first shot was delivered by Jeremy intended for her and it missed its Mark in this physical
00:16:09
altercation again I think that it's just too irresponsible to say that because there were two shots it couldn't be Su a
00:16:17
suicide I think that's just as irresponsible as the investigation or lack of investigation that they did
00:16:25
initially in this case to begin with so if you're faulting them for their lack of Investigation don't do the same thing
00:16:31
yourself yeah a lot of people think that they're covering for their Deputy but like we stated there's members of
00:16:37
Michelle's family that works for that County so I think some of their protection is for their lack of
00:16:47
Investigation I think they should have done their due diligence again bring in other law enforcement to double check
00:16:53
your work okay captain and here is something that is almost unheard of in fact we've reviewed vied hundreds of
00:17:00
these types of cases maybe not this exact scenario but hundreds of True Crime cases and I've never seen this in
00:17:08
any case that we've covered so far there is a follow-up interview with Jeremy and
00:17:12
rightfully so because I don't think that the first one was very well structured to begin with but in this follow-up
00:17:20
interview Jeremy admits to detective Hines that quote I've already read the report I know I probably shouldn't have
00:17:29
I just wanted to know what went down on the other side end quote okay well have we ever reviewed a case where
00:17:39
a person who may be sitting in the suspect chair someone who maybe looked at as being involved in someone's death
00:17:47
had the privilege of reading the police report or the report that's been put together by the Sheriff's Office prior
00:17:54
to being interviewed a second time by one of the detectives in charge it's completely irresponsible he should not
00:18:03
have been privy to that information and also where are these tests done why why didn't they do a ballistic test to see
00:18:11
if he fired a gun that day why not do a test on on Michelle to see if she fired a gun that day correct him reading this
00:18:20
report too gives him the ability to know what lies to prepare in advance to explain way evidence that points away
00:18:30
from suicide and the reason why this is completely irresponsible is because he has actions
00:18:38
that day that showed that he was trying to control the narrative the way he was acting on the 911 call the way he
00:18:46
started acting when they got a pulse and then making statements in the initial interview again like you said maybe it
00:18:53
was too casual I think that would be a tough situation to be in especially when somebody's being erratic but he's then
00:19:00
telling in the initial interview that he was basically trying to control the narrative yes this is when misc
00:19:08
Congeniality detective Hines should stand up end that follow-up interview March into the Sheriff's Office and say
00:19:19
look boss our investigation has been completely compromised Jeremy's read the report even when he knew he should not
00:19:29
have he just admitted that to me on tape right it would be responsible it would be the right thing for us to do boss to
00:19:38
cancel our investigation and bring in an outside agency if you didn't do it on day one this was your opportunity right
00:19:47
and detective Hines decided not to do that she continued to conduct a very casual interview follow-up interview
00:19:55
with her colleague Jeremy Banks everybody say it with me all at once dropping the ball you're dropping the
00:20:02
ball according to a scathing expose by the New York Times the St John's Sheriff's Office rushed to judgment that
00:20:10
the case was a suicide or more disturbingly decided to cover up a murder as a result they never bothered
00:20:18
to one collect or even check Jeremy's phone or Jeremy's and Michelle's computers two canvas the neighborhood
00:20:28
three require the officers on the scene that night to file reports documenting their observations as required by St
00:20:36
John's Sheriff's Office protocols four assemble a timeline for that night or maintain a crime scene log five collect
00:20:47
and test evidence at the scene including a bloody t-shirt and a glove six test the gun handle and Trigger for
00:20:55
Michelle's DNA they also did not check any of the bathroom sinks or shower traps for blood evidence they also
00:21:02
failed to interview the family Michelle's family despite repeated requests by the oconnell for an
00:21:09
opportunity to weigh in well tell me if I have this right we have a picture of Jeremy banks at the concert and that
00:21:18
shirt that he was wearing at the concert has not been found that's absolutely correct I mean 100% correct like come on
00:21:27
people to put it plain and simple the oconnell family repeatedly requested an independent investigation into the death
00:21:37
of Michelle oconnell and despite it being protocol when there was an officer involved suspicious shooting the St
00:21:46
John's Sheriff's Office desperately tried to keep the investigation inh housee in fact they even sat down with
00:21:54
the oconnell and explained why the FDLE had not been requested to help out Lieutenant Charles Bradley said to the
00:22:05
oconnell family in a recorded interview quote to be honest with you my investigators are far and above better
00:22:14
than what FDLE is ever going to give you end quote this of course is false and self-serving the two investigators on
00:22:24
the case had handled just three homicides sides between [Music] them this show is sponsored by better
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difference [Music] all right we are back a much a much needed beer break cuz this case Colonel
00:25:21
just gets me steamed gets under your skin I'm steamed I just I don't I I just don't get it I don't understand
00:25:30
why there's so many cases where it's like you you sign up to be a cop so you can protect and serve so you can do the
00:25:38
right thing live by the letter of the law and it just seems like so many of these individuals are are willing to
00:25:47
compromise their integrity well Deputy Menard does not fit into that group in my opinion in fact she was one of the
00:25:57
first on scene that night she goes on to tell 2020 that protocol we are trained that when we arrive to every
00:26:09
scene that the scene it's a homicide scene that we have arrived at until proven otherwise but she says in this
00:26:16
situation quote immediately it was almost like they were taking Jeremy's word that she shot herself at that point
00:26:24
we were told it was a suicide so that goes against their training it goes against this Sheriff's Office
00:26:32
protocol and what they train their deputies to do when they arrive on a scene where there's been a death well no
00:26:40
and so let's let's unpack that a little bit because like you said the protocol is to
00:26:46
go this is a homicide until proven otherwise so once everybody starts assuming it's a suicide and not
00:26:54
investigating as a homicide anybody that set by and watch watch that happen anybody that set by and let that happen
00:27:01
and let them just go well this was a suicide and we're not going to investigate it they're they're just as
00:27:07
guilty in my mind when you when you see the wrong thing happening and you just stand by you're as wrong as that wrong
00:27:14
thing happening like this is what's wrong with the world well I don't fault Deputy
00:27:20
Maynard at all I mean she's telling us what she witnessed and what she believes is wrong with this investig no no I'm
00:27:28
not blaming her I'm just saying that all the other deputies that were there that
00:27:31
just went along with this narrative and didn't do the work to go hey we need to stop what you're talking about we need
00:27:38
to investigate this as a homicide they're equally as wrong is what I'm saying the other weird thing here
00:27:44
Captain is the pills that were found in Michelle's purse and found in her jeans Pockets but none were in her
00:27:53
system and the facts of the matter are this those pills in the pill bottles that they found in her purse or in her
00:28:01
jeans Pockets belong to Jeremy right they were not Michelle's pills her family pointed out that if she wanted to
00:28:09
die and I agree with this 1,00% why wouldn't she have ODed on these pills instead of shooting herself right and we
00:28:17
should note that per the Sheriff's Office investigation none zero none not one single pill or bottle had Michelle's DNA
00:28:30
on them this according to tests that were later conducted that in itself is one of the most suspicious things in
00:28:38
this investigation and that was found at the death scene yeah I'd say it's number
00:28:44
two for me as far as suspicious things cuz like you said if there's no DNA found on the pills or the bottle that
00:28:51
means somebody placed these pills and these bottles in those locations to me the only person there at the scene is
00:28:59
Jeremy so why would Jeremy do this it it's to establish a narrative and it's the narrative that he's been trying to
00:29:07
establish in other points of this investigation it goes along with the the statements that he's giving to detective
00:29:15
Hines in the back of her car just an hour and a half after the body's found yeah and you know I was able to talk to
00:29:24
a retired detective about H you know showing up to a scene and and working a scene knowing that it's possibly a
00:29:34
suicide and the first thing he said is look statistically women don't kill themselves by gunshot then this
00:29:42
detective said to me do you know what one of the number one things that women do on the
00:29:47
day that they commit suicide if it's planned they get their hair done and do their makeup and all that stuff yeah
00:29:54
because they want to look presentable even in death putting a barrel of a gun and pulling the
00:30:01
trigger I'm not saying it's impossible because she's a woman unfortunately it happens every day I what this detective
00:30:08
is telling you is absolutely true the statistics bear that out and tell us that but unfortunately it does happen
00:30:15
every day so I don't want to circle around that too much when there's other to me bigger red flags glaring red flags
00:30:24
with with things at the at the scene there now within a 4-month period And this is 4 months of increasing pressure
00:30:32
by the public and by the family to bring in an independent impartial investigator
00:30:40
or investigators the sheriff in charge of St John's this is David bsha he begrudgingly requested an
00:30:50
independent review of the case in January of 2011 within 2 weeks of starting on the
00:30:56
case agent Rogers who came in from the FDLE uncovered two female neighbors who were standing outside around 11: p.m. on
00:31:05
the night of the shooting they're outside chatting and smoking the women were Stacy Boswell and
00:31:12
Heather ladley Rogers interviewed them separately under oath and they both said that quote a man and a woman were
00:31:20
screaming they could hear a man and woman screaming M Boswell said in an interview with the New York times there
00:31:28
was something wrong there was nothing playful no nothing it was somebody that was scared they were arguing we heard
00:31:37
her yell help and there was one gunshot and then she yelled help again and there
00:31:44
was a second gunshot Miss ladley told agent Rogers after that they heard silence saying that it was probably 10
00:31:53
maybe 15 minutes and then the sirens came according to m Boswell that's why they didn't call anybody they hear this
00:32:01
screaming the screams for help people were arguing they hear gunshots they don't call this in because they hear the
00:32:10
sirens coming within 10 to 15 minutes now I will say this Captain this 10 to 15 minute window you could look at it
00:32:19
two ways as suspicious or it's relatively quickly after they're hearing the shots we know that the call came in
00:32:26
at 11: 20 and Deputy Menard says that they were on the scene by 11:25 so that's all that's 5 minutes of your 10
00:32:34
minutes so that's 5 minutes of your 15 minutes just the response time to the scene so it doesn't sound to me like if
00:32:44
these Witnesses are right with what they say and what they say that they've heard
00:32:48
it doesn't seem to me like there was much of a delay in calling in 911 now of course every minute counts and it would
00:32:56
appear that there would would have been some delay the other thing that's interesting to me here is someone
00:33:02
yelling help you don't yell help and then shoot yourself yeah that doesn't make any
00:33:08
sense you don't yell help twice you do yell help when you're being attacked I don't know if you yell help in the
00:33:16
situation if he's confronting you with the gun maybe that's the first thing that instinctively flies out of your
00:33:23
mouth to me it doesn't the whole help thing doesn't make sense either way but it certainly 100% does not make sense
00:33:30
with the suicide well no it makes sense if he's beating you now agent Rogers arranged for the
00:33:37
Secret Service to give both of these women polygraph test and according to agent Rogers they passed these tests MH
00:33:46
now remember Jeremy stuck to his story that he and Michelle had not argued their breakup was somewhat peaceful I
00:33:52
guess he's outside she's inside while she's packing but here's another point of contention because you got these two
00:34:00
eyewitnesses and if you believe them then Jeremy's story is not correct because if she did yell for help for
00:34:08
whatever reason before she killed herself he would have heard that and so why wouldn't he report that to the other
00:34:17
officers the thing that I do not like here is the sheriff then goes out of his way to say look these two witnesses
00:34:26
they're not credible they said they were outside smoking uh they're potheads and they can't even
00:34:32
figure out if they were stoned that night or not so they're not credible well Jeremy's not credible either if you
00:34:38
want to go down that rabbit hole because he's telling you well I had about I don't know five six tall boys so that
00:34:45
means you had you know roughly 12 Beers that's that's a lot of alcohol here's what I say to the sheriff when he calls
00:34:52
into question The credibility of these two possible ear Witnesses you do not get to decide sir you chose that night
00:35:00
not to Canvas the neighborhood and interview neighbors you cannot then decide later when another agent comes in
00:35:09
and finds ear Witnesses you do not get to have an opinion about these Witnesses because you disregarded them from the
00:35:17
initial steps of the investigation as soon as your deputies put a [ __ ] foot on that scene you disregarded any
00:35:25
opportunity for a witness statement you do not get to decide you do not get an opportunity nor an opinion in my opinion
00:35:34
well and he's these ear Witnesses they don't have a dog in the fight so you're going to believe everything that your
00:35:40
Deputy says this Jeremy Banks this [ __ ] bag he's threatened people you know people think that he's been violent with
00:35:47
Michelle in the past he's defin definitely a douchebag and then on top of that when
00:35:56
when they get a pulse he starts putting dents into a police car and and that's the person you want to protect that's
00:36:03
the person you want to stand up for that that means you're as big of a piece of [ __ ] as he is in March of
00:36:12
2012 we now have a special prosecutor that's been brought in and this is to handle the case because now keep in mind
00:36:19
basically the the the very nuts and bolts of this thing is that the Sheriff's Office investig
00:36:27
concluded suicide FDLE is brought in it looks like they think that this is a homicide and
00:36:35
Jeremy Banks is the suspect that's the very simplest form to put it without going through a lot of information to
00:36:43
get there right in March of 2012 a a special prosecutor uh met with the oconnell family and actually announced
00:36:53
the closure of the case telling them that they found found insufficient evidence to prosecute Jer Jeremy Banks
00:37:02
the prosecutor told the family that here's why we cannot prosecute Jeremy Banks there was GSR on Michelle's hands
00:37:12
three medical examiners ruled her death a suicide and her DNA was found on the gun
00:37:18
so the prosecutor says the facts as they currently exist do not support the prosecution of Jeremy banks for any
00:37:26
homicide offense so once again this investigation is over there's so many red flags but the number one for me is
00:37:36
the ear Witnesses Michelle yelling for help that's what they heard makes no sense that you would yell
00:37:45
for help and then kill yourself the other thing that is a giant red flag is these pills and the pill
00:37:54
bottles that's obvious obviously somebody at that scene is tampering with evidence and then on top of that his
00:38:03
erratic actions his past the negativity surrounding him and Michelle's relationship the fact that we can't
00:38:15
find this shirt that he was wearing that night again tampering with evidence and then him trying to control
00:38:24
the narrative and his horrible ing job and I think his frity in slip well I'll tell you the
00:38:32
truth and then he gets all calm and then he becomes clear proving that his initial demeanor on the 911 call was a
00:38:44
fraud I mean how can you not investigate this more and like you said well eventually they do but the
00:38:53
thing is is I think maybe they miss their window and and if they would have done certain things and investigated
00:38:59
like a homicide and let the evidence take you where it needs to take you maybe that's the reason why they're
00:39:08
not able to prosecute this individual they're also not able to prosecute because they did not do a thorough
00:39:15
investigation right as soon as they set foot at that scene we have it being worked like a suicide this is per one of
00:39:23
the deputies on the scene and from my understanding the deputy that arrived second at the scene is stating this
00:39:31
much and we know that the from the sheriff's own words he admitted that the Sheriff's
00:39:40
Office failed to Canvas the neighborhood for Witnesses failed to interview family
00:39:46
members of Michelle's which you would in suicide situations or homicide situations to
00:39:53
figure out State of Mind of all the individuals involved D so on and so forth failed to isolate Jeremy banks
00:40:02
failed to interview Jeremy banks failed to photograph Jeremy banks in a structured environment after the
00:40:11
shooting occurred so you go well there's insufficient evidence to prosecute well
00:40:17
maybe that's because when you showed up to the scene that night you weren't looking for
00:40:22
evidence right to prosecute that's why you don't have it after the fact it now you talked about the ear Witnesses not
00:40:31
having a dog in the fight and that's why we like him that's why we lean on the side and give them credibility they
00:40:37
passed polygraph tests administered by the Secret Service that should add to the credibility as well here's somebody
00:40:44
that maybe has too many dogs in the fight and I really did not see this coming based on how the early stages of
00:40:53
this investigation and story go but Scott oconnell Michelle's brother who works for the Sheriff's
00:41:06
Office may have too many dogs in the fight it's his sister who is now deceased it's his Department that he
00:41:14
works for declaring it a suicide he has sided with the sheriff and with the Sheriff's
00:41:20
Office and so he is the only person the lone wolf of of the oconnell family that
00:41:29
stands with the Sheriff's Office and from my understanding there there is no speaking to Scott
00:41:39
oconnell that the remainder of the oconnell family does not speak with Scott oconnell yeah like he said he has
00:41:48
maybe too many dogs in the fight but maybe that's self-preservation maybe he knows that if
00:41:55
he doesn't stay in line with his his Department that they'll figure out a reason to get
00:42:03
rid of him I don't know why somebody would put their job above their family but um it's possible I think that he
00:42:13
must believe that the sheriff's office is correct there is a Dr Phil episode where you can see the family
00:42:22
squabbling uh back and forth in front of millions of viewers where he is stating our sister killed herself and my
00:42:30
family just refuses to believe it the the other weird thing here too and I've we've seen this once or twice but it's
00:42:37
still very uncommon this this goes down in November of 2013 this is when Jeremy Banks sued the FDLE and agent Rogers
00:42:47
claiming that they violated his civil rights by wrongly accusing him when the case had been ruled a suicide now keep
00:42:55
in mind it was was his Sheriff's Office begrudgingly as it may be that asked for
00:43:01
the FDLE to come in and do a review of the case right so when you ask for an independent agency to come in and do a
00:43:09
review of a case it doesn't necessarily mean that they care a whole lot of what the determination was prior to them
00:43:17
being brought in so I don't know that this technically violates his civil rights according to as he stated it in
00:43:25
the law suit wrongly accusing him after it had been ruled a suicide what we do know too is that
00:43:33
Rogers did detain Jeremy banks for a very brief period of time he had put into place that they would
00:43:44
search Jeremy Banks's home while he was being questioned at the station by agent
00:43:53
Rogers the interview end a lot earlier than the agent had anticipated this because Jeremy requests
00:44:03
an attorney so there's going to be no more questions at this time he should be free to go however the agent not wanting
00:44:10
Jeremy Banks to be on scene and potentially manipulate evidence detained him from going home at
00:44:20
that time now the short of it without a whole lot of back and forth this didn't didn't go down over overnight but a
00:44:27
judge did dismiss this lawsuit that his civil rights were not in fact uh violated by the FDLE or agent
00:44:38
Rogers Jeremy Banks should be pissed off too because if he is not a murderer and
00:44:44
he is just a victim of Michelle taking her own life he then becomes a victim of them not doing their due diligence and
00:44:53
not doing a thorough investigation from the beginning and if I was being questioned
00:44:59
by anybody I would be pushing for that you need to do a thorough investigation you need to make sure that you cross
00:45:07
your tees and Dot your eyes because if the family starts questioning this if the community starts questioning this we
00:45:14
have answers for all those questions cuz I want to leave no doubt that I wasn't involved in the death of Michelle one
00:45:23
thing that we've not hit on yet here Captain is something that was brought up by the state attorney's office citing
00:45:29
examples of issues with potential evidence in this case and there were several but among other things was a
00:45:36
black glove that was photographed at the scene of this air quotes investigation that was not taken into evidence and the
00:45:45
state attorney's office is on record as saying quote and because that item was not collected we were not able to
00:45:52
determine the evidentiary value of that end quot quote what would have been found what
00:45:59
could have been found on this black glove had it been collected you have to wonder could it have been a whole lot of
00:46:06
gunpowder residue a whole lot of GSR on this glove that's certainly a possibility but
00:46:14
what is not a possibility is Michelle oconnell putting on the glove shooting herself removing the glove and placing
00:46:22
it outside of the house where it is later photo gra that's not a possibility the other problem that I have with this
00:46:32
is Michelle's jaw was fractured in two locations and there's two camps one is saying well this could have been caused
00:46:42
by the gunfire and others saying that that doesn't necessarily always happen so again you have people that hear an
00:46:54
argument getting out of hand you hear a woman yelling for help they said she sounded
00:47:03
scared well is it possible that he was beating on her as that took place is it possible that he fractured
00:47:13
her jaw before he put the gun in her mouth again not a doctor I've said it a few times just in case people get
00:47:21
confused I've said it many times throughout the years I'm not a doctor here but I can rely on what I've heard
00:47:28
in the statements given by the doctors who have personally examined the deant and what we have here is a little
00:47:36
bit of push back right where if she was in the middle of a physical altercation with Jeremy Banks and then he shoots her
00:47:44
the push back is well wouldn't there be some bruising on Michelle and the medical examiner who we've not gotten to
00:47:55
this yet did a follow-up autopsy after Michelle's body was exhumed in January of
00:48:01
2016 his response to that question well shouldn't there be some bruising on Michelle if that in fact was the case
00:48:08
his response was that the amount of bruising can depend on how quickly the person is killed after those blows or
00:48:20
injuries are administered meaning that if if that was the case and she dies relatively quickly
00:48:29
after some hits then we may not see the bruising here yeah I want to give the body a
00:48:37
chance to create the BR the bruising and his answer to the jaw being fractured and it was a pretty obvious fracture
00:48:47
which was weird that it was missed the first time around but his answer to that is this we do not he does not believe
00:48:56
that it was done or occurred because of the gunshot because there was no damage to
00:49:02
soft tissue areas that would he would expect to see if it was done per The Gunshot and what's interesting to me
00:49:13
here is the amount of force that it would take to break the jaw the jaw is one of the most one of the strongest
00:49:20
bones in your body right so the amount of force that it would take to break that jaw what do they say in boxing you
00:49:28
and I love love to watch a little boxing they say chin music right give him a little chin music knock him out hit him
00:49:35
right bust him right in that jaw with an uppercut knock him out this medical examiner says that
00:49:42
there's a good chance that she took a hit maybe with the butt of a gun and that the force of that blow the breaking
00:49:47
of that jaw may have knocked her unconscious and then she was shot through the roof of her mouth go back to
00:49:54
what the Sheriff's Office off said earlier the detective said it would be very difficult for a
00:50:03
person in an altercation to allow a gun to get into their mouth you could easily
00:50:10
close your mouth you could easily turn your head from side to side you could duck you could Bob you could weave
00:50:15
there's a million things you could do to get the nose of that gun out of your mouth and they're saying it had to be
00:50:22
this is one of the determining factors for us amongst other that it had to be suicide because we would not expect to
00:50:28
see a gun in the mouth of a shooting victim well guess what if this medical examiner is right after the exhumation
00:50:37
and says she may have been unconscious when that shot occurred that changes that whole
00:50:45
perspective right then and there yeah it's just sad you know because if it's suicide then they didn't do right by
00:50:54
their own officer to do a correct and thorough investigation but it just it's but it's
00:51:01
just a it's a sad and frustrating case overall Dr William Anderson who did the second autopsy pro bono so he's not
00:51:11
being paid for his opinion he's giving his expert opinion after conducting a second
00:51:20
autopsy Dr William Anderson says in my opinion it was a homicide there was a gunshot wound to the mouth that put a
00:51:28
hole in the tongue but didn't do any other damage to the teeth to the gums to the floor of the mouth the very soft
00:51:37
tissue that basically would have been destroyed if there had been enough force from that blast to break the jaw end
00:51:43
quote Anderson goes on to say that the mandible is a very strong bone one of the strongest in the body for it to
00:51:52
break and no other damage to the mouth to be caused indicates it was not caused by The Gunshot and this fracture was
00:52:00
fresh not old furthermore he noted that Michelle's tongue was retracted and blocking her Airway as it could have
00:52:07
been if the gun was forced into her mouth but it would not have been if she put the gun in her mouth herself quote
00:52:16
the findings are most consistent of blunt force trauma causing incapacitation of Miz oconnell and
00:52:25
subsequent gunshot wound inflicted by another again his opinion it was a homicide yeah you have the fractured jaw
00:52:35
you have the pills with no DNA from M shell on them you have the ear Witnesses you have his erratic Behavior you have
00:52:43
their past relationships you can't find this shirt one of the Deputy thinks that
00:52:50
he cleaned himself up I mean there's just so much pointing towards that he's guilty of this crime
00:52:58
but even if he's not guilty then you need to do your due diligence to figure out if it's a homicide or a suicide so
00:53:06
where does the case stand today I think that we can sum up where it stands today and I'm going to refer
00:53:14
to a letter that was written by the mother by Patty oconnell this letter was written to the St Augustine Record and
00:53:24
it says my daughter Michelle oconnell was found shot dead September 2 2010 in her Deputy boyfriend's home he told his
00:53:35
co-workers she did this Deputy Jeremy bank's co-workers failed to investigate they only took his side no investigation
00:53:44
was possible for Michelle the public needs to know that no one in the St John's County Sheriff's Department or
00:53:53
State Attorney's office ever asked our family what happened why no one from the St Augustine Record has ever interviewed
00:54:03
us even after the New York Times and the PBS Frontline stories in November of 2013 why Sheriff shaer admitted to major
00:54:17
mistakes but claimed to the record in a story December 12 2013 that he quote got it right how the
00:54:27
sheriff investigated his Deputy a conflict of interest quote no man can serve two masters end
00:54:35
quote the FDLE should have been called in immediately our family told the sheriff's office that Michelle told us
00:54:43
and her friends that she was a victim of domestic violence the sheriff did not investigate the sheriff and the
00:54:51
prosecutors rushed to conclude it was a suicide side without evidence the sheriff's national accreditation must be
00:55:00
reviewed by the Council on Law Enforcement accreditation this week and be suspended revoked or placed on
00:55:09
probation Jeremy Banks was allowed to read the investigation before his formal interview and treated like a brother not
00:55:18
a suspect why two respected crime scene experts determined it was a homicide and
00:55:26
three determined it was not suicide but no charges were filed why deputies did not canvas the neighborhood why the cut
00:55:37
and bruise on Michelle's eyelid was the result of violence yet we were told that
00:55:43
a gun discharged forward not backward that Michelle used her non-dominant left hand to grasp the gun upside down with
00:55:52
no hand injury and that the shell case ings ejected on the wrong side all physical
00:56:00
impossibilities why two witnesses heard an argument a scream and a shot another scream and a second shot the sheriff
00:56:08
knowingly lied to the justice department about them and the deputy claimed there
00:56:13
were no raised voices one medical examiner changed his mind another barely looked at the
00:56:21
file Lieutenant Bradley callously said my sh busted every tooth in her head he wouldn't let me see any photos I held
00:56:31
firm this made him angry he showed me some photos but not all why after claiming it was a suicide the sheriff
00:56:40
would not look me in the eye and would not look Michelle's Daughter Alexis in the eye either why the sheriff bragged
00:56:48
about paying for Michelle's funeral why the only person currently under investigation was agent Rusty Rogers who
00:56:57
suspected sheriff's deputy Jeremy banks in Michelle's death why there must be an
00:57:04
FBI and Federal grand jury investigation of Michelle's death and possible civil rights violations coverups collusion and
00:57:13
other Crimes by law enforcement I am grateful for the public support for this our family is thinking about a Michelle
00:57:21
oconnell house a safe place for victims of the national epidemic of Officer involved domestic violence yeah that's a
00:57:29
very powerful letter by Michelle's mother and that is where that investigation that story sits today the
00:57:37
oconnell still needing help and still Seeking Justice for their daughter Michelle but then in January of
00:57:46
2019 a teenage boy came home to find his father shot dead this is a homicide that
00:57:53
many have suspected could be directly connected to the death of Michelle oconnell but we'll have to dive into
00:58:01
that next [Music] week want to thank you guys so much for joining us here in this true crime
00:58:20
garage flying garage ship if you're looking for our bonus episodes or the first 50 episodes those are available at
00:58:29
True Crime Garage in our store so check those out Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful
00:58:35
listeners this week Captain we are recommending the angel maker arsic a midwife and modern history's most
00:58:43
astonishing murder ring by Patty McCracken this just came out yesterday and this is a great read you're going to
00:58:50
want to check this one out you can find that recommendation along with many many
00:58:55
more on our recommended page on our website true Crim garage.com and until next week be good be kind and don't
00:59:03
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