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Episode 185: Parent Hitman Murder Trial

Christopher Sutton, the adopted son of John and Susan Sutton of Coral Gables, Florida, was a troubled young man, constantly in trouble with the law. To curb his behavior, his wealthy parents sent him to a reform school in Samoa, and Chris never forgave them. After returning home to Florida, Chris, 25, offered his friend Garrett Kopp $10,000 to kill his parents. Kopp broke into the Suttons’ home on August 22, 2004, and shot the couple, killing Susan and blinding John. The initial suspect was John’s law partner, with whom Susan was having an affair, but the cops soon turned to Chris. He claimed Kopp acted alone out of anger after a drug deal went bad, but the jury didn’t buy it, and Chris Sutton was sentenced to three terms of life without parole.

This episode features the cross-examination of Chris’s girlfriend, Juliette Driscoll, who under police pressure admitted she was aware of Chris’s plan to murder the Suttons, but later retracted her assertion.

 

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Episode 185: Parent Hitman Murder Trial
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Episode 184: Buried Parents Trial

Richard, Sheryl and Stacey Kananen survived a horrific upbringing of violence and abuse on the part of their father. Sheryl left home to marry and raise a family, but Stacey and Ricky continued to live at home with their parents in Orlando. When their father Larry disappeared, no-one missed him. But when their mother Marilyn disappeared 15 years later, police became suspicious, especially when, shortly after her mother went missing, Stacey, 37, moved with her partner Susan to live in a nudist resort.

Searching the siblings’ home, police unearthed the remains of their father under the garage floor. Their mother’s mummified body was found buried in the rock garden. After being questioned by police, Ricky and Stacey unsuccessfully attempted suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. When they were separated, Ricky admitted to the murders in return for a 30-year-sentence. But when Stacey agreed to testify against him, Ricky turned on her and claimed she was responsible. After her acquittal, Stacey wrote a book about the case, Fear of Our Father: a true story of abuse, murder and family ties  (Berkley Books, April 2013).

 

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Episode 184: Buried Parents Trial
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Episode 183: Mother Murder 911 Call

In June 2014, at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, a man making his dinner heard gunshots. He looked through the window and saw his neighbor across the street, 41-year-old Adrien Wallace, standing in his driveway pointing a hunting rifle at the dead body of his mother, 71-year-old Saundra Wallace. He then walked to the car where his 16-year-old nephew, Nick Juarez, was sitting on the passenger seat. Wallace squatted, pointed the gun at the car, and fired. He smoked a cigarette then called 911 and confessed to his crime. He gave no reason except that he was abused as a child and hated the human race.

Wallace was charged with two charges of aggravated murder. It took jurors 12 minutes to reject his insanity defense. He was sentenced to life without parole.

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Episode 183: Mother Murder 911 Call
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Episode 182: Tommy Carlton Murder Trial

Tommy Carlton, a registered nurse living in Osceola County, Florida, was very angry with his ex-wife, Elizabeth. The couple were involved in a bitter custody battle, and Tommy owed $85,000 in child support. In 2008, He hired a hit man to kill her, but the hit man turned out to be an undercover cop. With the help of Elizabeth, police staged a sting operation using posed photos where she appeared to be shot in the head. When the police told him his wife had been murdered, Tommy replied, “I can’t say I’m sad about it. I hated the bitch. But I had nothing to do with it.” In court, Tommy claimed he had a hearing deficit and couldn’t understand what the hit man was saying. He was found guilty of solicitation to commit first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.

This episode contains an excerpt from Tommy defending himself on the stand, followed by a recording of his conversation with the police after being informed of his wife’s murder.

 

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Episode 182: Tommy Carlton Murder Trial
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Episode 181: Marc Benayer Represents Himself (part 2)

In this continuation of episode 180, Marc Benayer interrogates Rabbi Zalman Bukiet, of the Chabad Weltman Synagogue in Boca Raton, where the shooting occurred. He accuses the Rabbi of, among other sins, being anti-Sephardic, cheating, taking money for performing Bar Mitzvahs, and turning a somersault in the synagogue. Benayer also testified on his own behalf, doing himself no favors. He was questioned by defense attorney, Christopher Haddad. The long-suffering judge was Richard I. Wennet, of West Palm Beach Circuit Court. After his conviction, Benayer died in prison.

 

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Episode 181: Marc Benayer Represents Himself (part 2)
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Episode 180: Marc Benayer Represents Himself (part 1)

This episode contains the testimony of Marc Benayer, 81, who represented himself at his 2007 murder trial in Boca Raton, Florida. After Benayer’s girlfriend Marta Pinto, 44, had broken up with him, he allegedly began stalking and harassing her, claiming she owed him $10,000. Marta, who spoke very little English, worked at an electronics company, and she turned to her bosses, Mark Levy and Jonathan Samuels, for help in getting a restraining order against her elderly suitor.

In 2005, after the Rosh Hashanah service at the Chabad Weltman Synagogue in Boca Raton, Benayer shot Jonathan Samuels, 43, twice in the back. He died nine months later. Mr. Benayer claimed the shooting was an accident, and that Samuels’ death was due to a heart attack. At his trial, the eccentric and irascible Benayer fired his attorney and decided to represent himself. Unsurprisingly, the jury found him guilty. Later, while behind bars, Benayer tried to hire a hitman to kill his former defense attorney along with Mark Levy, a prosecution witness. In reality, the hitman was an undercover Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy.

While Benayer had been diagnosed with dementia, a personality disorder and the early onset of Alzheimer’s, psychiatrists examined him before the trial and declared him competent to represent himself. Others may disagree. Benayer died in prison in August 2015, aged 89.

This episode contains Mr. Benayer’s excruciating cross-examination of his ex- girlfriend Marta’s daughter Henriette, 18, and Marta’s new boyfriend, Martin Fried.

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Episode 180: Marc Benayer Represents Himself (part 1)
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Episode 179: Ted Bundy Final Interview

When sentencing Ted Bundy to death, Florida Judge Edward Cowart told him that, had things turned out differently, he would have made a fine lawyer. Cowart’s statement is followed by Bundy’s interview with Dr. James Dobson the night before his execution by electric chair in January 1989, in which he blames his crimes on access to hard-core pornography as a teenager.

 

 

 

 

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Episode 179: Ted Bundy Final Interview
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Episode 178: Bo Pete Jeffrey Trial

December, 2018. Lisa Jeffrey, 48, of Ocala, Florida, hadn’t been seen for a few days; relatives became concerned and contacted the police. When cops searched the trailer where Lisa lived with her ex-husband, 57-year-old Bo Pete Jeffrey, they found her body, along with a pair of blood-stained boxing gloves, stuffed into garbage bags under his camper bed. Lisa, who had Crohn’s disease, alcoholism and a drug problem, had been beaten to death.

During the police interview, Bo Pete is not in good shape. He retches and vomits constantly, and is finally taken to the hospital. The next day, feeling a little better, he admits he beat Lisa after an argument but claims she passed out and died “on the commode.” He said he welcomed her death because he hated her so much, but he insisted he didn’t intend to kill her, and hid the body because he felt guilty for beating her.

In July 2021, Bo Pete Jeffrey was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

(Audio quality is poor due to recording conditions).

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Episode 178: Bo Pete Jeffrey Trial
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Episode 177: Murder of Lance Herndon

On August 8, 1996, playboy bachelor Lance Herndon, 41, was found bludgeoned to death in his bed at his home in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Police claim the killer climbed onto his naked body and straddled him, then beat him in the head and face. The murder weapon was never found.

The investigation into Herndon’s death uncovered a complicated web of relationships. He was still closely involved with his third ex-wife, Jeannine Price, the beneficiary of his insurance policy. His current girlfriend, the glamorous Kathi Collins, was unaware that Lance was also involved on/off romantic relationships with various other pretty, light-skinned black women, including his assistant Tallana Carraway as well as a nursing student named Dionne Baugh. Dionne, who was married to a Jamaican airline pilot, told police that Herndon was obsessively fastidious and liked anal sex; she suggested he might also have had a secret gay life. In addition, Herdon’s financial dealings were complicated and ethically doubtful. His company was in serious financial difficulty, and he was almost broke.

Investigators concluded that Dionne beat Lance to death in a moment of jealous rage while the couple were having sex. She was sentenced to life in prison in 2001, but her sentence was later reversed on a technicality. In 2004, at her second trial, she pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She was released in July 2011.

This episode includes testimony from Lance’s mother, Jackie Herndon, and his ex-wife, Jeannine Herndon.

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Episode 177: Murder of Lance Herndon
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Episode 176: Aileen Wuornos Trial

In January 1992, Aileen Wuornos, a sex worker, stood trial for the murder of 52-year-old Richard Mallory, who’d picked her up when she was hitch-hiking. When she was intially interviewed by police, Wuornos said she shot Mallory because he threatened to rape her. However, at trial, her testimony about the incident was much more graphic and disturbing. At this time, she’d confessed to murdering six men in addition to Mallory, all in self-defense (in fact, Mallory had a prior conviction for sexual abuse, but this fact was not allowed into evidence). To law enforcement and the state’s attorney, Wuornos gave a number of inconsistent versions of events; her attorneys discouraged her from testifying in court, but she insisted on taking the stand. Her account fell apart under close questioning, especially after her longtime girlfriend, Tyria Moore, took a deal and testified against her.

On Jan. 27, 1992, she was found guilty of first-degree murder. Four days later, she was sentenced to death. Wuornos was executed in October 2002.

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Episode 176: Aileen Wuornos Trial
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