Latest / NO FILTER / The strange case of Michelle O_Keefe [True Crime Documentary]

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The strange case of Michelle O_Keefe [True Crime Documentary] · NO FILTER

0:00
Speaker 1: Only moments after saying good night to her friend and
0:02
Speaker 1: starting up the engine of her brand new Mustang, eighteen
0:05
Speaker 1: year old Michelle O'Keefe was shot to death in her
0:08
Speaker 1: driver's seat. It was dark that February night in the
0:13
Speaker 1: parking lot where she had returned to collect her vehicle.
0:16
Speaker 1: She needed to change her clothes before driving straight to
0:19
Speaker 1: her night class at the college. She chose somewhere secluded
0:22
Speaker 1: to change, somewhere private where no one would see her.
0:26
Speaker 1: Was that Michelle's fatal mistake? Or with a killer lurking nearby,
0:33
Speaker 1: did Michelle never really have a chance? Hi everyone, I'm
0:40
Speaker 1: Kevin and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Here at JTL,
0:43
Speaker 1: we deliver serious, well balanced coverage of the cases that
0:47
Speaker 1: really make you think. If that sounds like your type
0:49
Speaker 1: of true crime, then you've come to the right place.
0:53
Speaker 1: Today's case begins in the year two thousand with the
0:56
Speaker 1: shocking murder of a popular, loving, and talented teenager. Every
1:01
Speaker 1: detail of this case has been interpreted many times over,
1:04
Speaker 1: and depending on how you look at it, the conclusions
1:07
Speaker 1: reached are wildly different. Let's take a look. Eighteen year
1:23
Speaker 1: old Michelle O'Keefe grew up in Hanford, California. Parents Michael
1:28
Speaker 1: and Patricia were very proud of their two children, Michelle
1:32
Speaker 1: and her younger brother, Jason. Michelle was an excellent student.
1:36
Speaker 1: After graduating high school where she was a talented cheerleader,
1:39
Speaker 1: she was attending community college and pursuing her dreams of
1:42
Speaker 1: becoming an actress. Based not far from Los Angeles, these
1:46
Speaker 1: dreams for the bubbly, smart and ambitious teenager appeared within reach.
1:52
Speaker 1: The family's happy future, however, would come crumbling down one
1:56
Speaker 1: night in February two thousand. On the twenty second of February,
2:02
Speaker 1: Michelle and her friend Jennifer Peterson set off for Los Angeles,
2:06
Speaker 1: where they were to be extras in a kid rock
2:08
Speaker 1: music video. They each drove their own vehicles to a
2:11
Speaker 1: parking ride a lot in Palmdale. There, Michelle left her
2:15
Speaker 1: newly purchased blue Mustang and drove with Jennifer into LA
2:19
Speaker 1: At just before nine thirty pm, the two girls returned
2:22
Speaker 1: to the parking ride to collect Michelle's car and drive
2:25
Speaker 1: on from there. Michelle had a night class that evening,
2:29
Speaker 1: and she still had every intention of attending. Jennifer watched
2:33
Speaker 1: while Michelle started her engine and turned on her headlights.
2:37
Speaker 1: Seeing her back lights come on, indicating that Michelle was
2:39
Speaker 1: about to reverse out of her spot, Jennifer proceeded out
2:42
Speaker 1: of the parking lot. She was surprised when she did
2:45
Speaker 1: not see her friend's Mustang drive out immediately behind her,
2:49
Speaker 1: but Michelle was probably just looking for something in her
2:51
Speaker 1: car before driving out. She would be leaving shortly. Jennifer
2:55
Speaker 1: drove out the west exit of the parking ride and
2:58
Speaker 1: headed home. Never saw her friend again. There was a
3:06
Speaker 1: new security guard working at the park and ride that evening,
3:09
Speaker 1: twenty five year old Raymond Jennings. He started his shift,
3:13
Speaker 1: only the second he had worked at the parking lot
3:15
Speaker 1: at eight pm that night. About an hour and a
3:18
Speaker 1: half into his shift, at nine thirty two pm, Raymond
3:22
Speaker 1: radioed his supervisor, Iris Malone in a panic he heard
3:26
Speaker 1: gunshots from the west side of the lot. Over the
3:28
Speaker 1: sound of a car alarm ringing out from the direction
3:31
Speaker 1: of the gunfire, Raymond radioed called the police. Within a
3:36
Speaker 1: few minutes, Iris had met up with Raymond, and the
3:39
Speaker 1: two of them, in advance of law enforcement arriving, proceeded
3:42
Speaker 1: in the direction that Raymond reported hearing the gunshots on
3:46
Speaker 1: the west side of the park and ride. They came
3:48
Speaker 1: across Michelle's fort Mustang. It had reversed into a median
3:53
Speaker 1: keys in the ignition, the engine still running, headlights on,
3:57
Speaker 1: and the manual transmission in neutral. Michelle O'Keefe was in
4:01
Speaker 1: the driver's seat. She appeared to have been shot multiple times.
4:08
Speaker 1: Deputy Cox was the first to arrive on the scene.
4:10
Speaker 1: He determined that Michelle had sadly already passed from her injuries.
4:14
Speaker 1: He nonetheless called out for paramedics and other emergency responders.
4:19
Speaker 1: He also spoke with Raymond. Had the security guard seen
4:22
Speaker 1: anyone exit the lot right after hearing the shots? No,
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Speaker 1: he said he did not recall seeing anyone leaving after
4:29
Speaker 1: the alarm and gunshots. Raymond then helpfully pointed out a
4:34
Speaker 1: spent shell casing on the ground before the deputy insisted
4:37
Speaker 1: that the security guard get out of the crime scene.
4:41
Speaker 1: The evidence appeared to stretch from the parking space where
4:44
Speaker 1: the Mustang had originally been positioned to where it had
4:47
Speaker 1: rolled back before coming to a stop. The driver's door
4:50
Speaker 1: was open and its window was partially rolled down. Inside
4:54
Speaker 1: the car, the glove compartment sat open. A pair of
4:56
Speaker 1: black jeans lay across the passenger side seat on the pavement.
5:01
Speaker 1: In the area where the vehicle had rolled backwards was
5:04
Speaker 1: Michelle O'Keefe's left sandal. She retained the other one on
5:08
Speaker 1: her right foot. Near to the sandal was a fired
5:11
Speaker 1: bullet and three expended shell casings. In this area, there
5:15
Speaker 1: was a gouge in the asphalt and several drops of blood.
5:18
Speaker 1: It appeared that the shooting had taken place in that
5:21
Speaker 1: spot before the car reversed back to where it came
5:24
Speaker 1: to sit on the median. Detectives also noted the backing
5:28
Speaker 1: to a yellow earring on the ground in this area,
5:31
Speaker 1: Michelle appeared to be missing one gold earring with a
5:33
Speaker 1: white stone. Los Angeles County Sheriff's teams determined that five
5:38
Speaker 1: cartridges had been fired from the same nine millimeter semi
5:41
Speaker 1: automatic firearm, but the ammunition was not consistent. Three were
5:46
Speaker 1: regular nine millimeter luger ammunition and the other two were
5:50
Speaker 1: hollow point. The significance of this was not immediately apparent,
5:55
Speaker 1: but it would later raise crucial questions about the nature
5:58
Speaker 1: of the murder. Michelle was not known to have any enemies.
6:03
Speaker 1: Her closest friends reported that she had no issues with boyfriends.
6:07
Speaker 1: In fact, they could not name a single individual that
6:10
Speaker 1: would wish her harm. The scene suggested a crime of opportunity,
6:15
Speaker 1: but to what end? Detectives briefly entertained the possibility that
6:20
Speaker 1: Michelle was the victim of a failed mugging or carjacking.
6:23
Speaker 1: Michelle's cell phone was missing. She had last placed a
6:27
Speaker 1: phone call from her friend Jennifer's car, only moments before
6:30
Speaker 1: getting into hers. The killer had almost certainly taken Michelle's
6:34
Speaker 1: cell phone. However, her purse and wallet, which contained one
6:37
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in cash, was left inside the vehicle. It
6:41
Speaker 1: was found resting between the center console and driver's seat.
6:45
Speaker 1: For this reason, the theory of a mugging gone wrong
6:48
Speaker 1: seemed less likely. Why leave the cash in the car?
6:54
Speaker 1: Detectives instead began to explore the theory that Michelle was
6:57
Speaker 1: the victim of an attempted sexual assaut ult that led
7:01
Speaker 1: to murder. This theory explained why Michelle's shirt, a tube top,
7:05
Speaker 1: was sitting partially pulled down when she was discovered.
7:12
Speaker 2: I just want to know why.
7:15
Speaker 3: Why they picked Michelle.
7:20
Speaker 1: Does want to know the motive. Los Angeles County Sheriff's
7:26
Speaker 1: Office called in the assistance and expertise of a behavioral analyst,
7:30
Speaker 1: Special Agent Mark Safferick. The special agent determined that it
7:35
Speaker 1: was unlikely that Michelle had been targeted personally, given the
7:38
Speaker 1: time and location of the murder. This aligned with the
7:42
Speaker 1: sentiments of friends and family who failed to identify hostility
7:46
Speaker 1: in any of Michelle's relationships. When Jennifer Peterson exited the
7:50
Speaker 1: parking lot in her vehicle, she believed Michelle was only
7:54
Speaker 1: seconds from following her out of the lot. This meant
7:57
Speaker 1: that the perpetrator must have already been nearby when they
8:00
Speaker 1: saw an opportunity. The state of Michelle's tube top led
8:04
Speaker 1: Agent Saferk to further establish that the crime was sexual
8:07
Speaker 1: in nature. By extension, the murderer was likely a male.
8:12
Speaker 1: From the perspective of the perpetrator, The agent determined that
8:15
Speaker 1: it would have been a low risk area for an attack.
8:18
Speaker 1: The parking lot was relatively dark, it was remote, and
8:21
Speaker 1: there were ostensibly no witnesses. Michelle also told Jennifer that
8:28
Speaker 1: she was self conscious about attending her college class that
8:31
Speaker 1: night in the clothing she was wearing for the music video,
8:34
Speaker 1: which was a bit revealing. She intended to change beforehand.
8:39
Speaker 1: When Jennifer returned to the parking lot, with police to
8:41
Speaker 1: walk them through her movements. That night, she noticed that
8:44
Speaker 1: Michelle's vehicle had been moved to a different parking spot. Likely,
8:49
Speaker 1: it was thought Michelle had chosen to relocate her car
8:52
Speaker 1: to a more secluded spot in order to change her clothes.
8:55
Speaker 1: This would have given cover to the attacker. However, Agent
8:59
Speaker 1: Saffarik wrote that a third factor completely changes that dynamic
9:03
Speaker 1: and significantly elevates the risk of the attacker being found out.
9:08
Speaker 1: The park and ride was constantly patrolled by a uniformed
9:12
Speaker 1: security guard. Raymond Jennings told investigators on three separate occasions
9:17
Speaker 1: that he did not see anyone else present in the
9:20
Speaker 1: parking lot at the time that the shots were fired.
9:23
Speaker 1: That left one person as the main or only suspect,
9:28
Speaker 1: Raymond Jennings. Raymond Jennings was a father of five. He
9:36
Speaker 1: was a member of the California National Guard, and he
9:40
Speaker 1: had dreams of joining law enforcement, so he was studying
9:43
Speaker 1: part time to become a US Marshal. When Raymond became
9:47
Speaker 1: the key witness in a homicide investigation, he was extremely
9:50
Speaker 1: keen to be involved and to be helpful, perhaps too keen.
9:56
Speaker 1: Police invited Raymond into the station for a handful of
9:59
Speaker 1: interviews over the following weeks, he agreed willingly. On one
10:04
Speaker 1: of these occasions, he was given what law enforcement call
10:07
Speaker 1: a cognitive interview. He was asked to explain his assessment
10:11
Speaker 1: of the crime to the detectives, recalling all of his
10:14
Speaker 1: observations and thoughts about the incident, not just the facts
10:18
Speaker 1: of what he saw. He was asked his opinion on
10:21
Speaker 1: the motive for the murder, how he thought that the
10:23
Speaker 1: crime had occurred, and how Michelle had received her injuries.
10:29
Speaker 3: She got shot in the chest and was trying trying
10:32
Speaker 3: to get out of that, and like when she was
10:35
Speaker 3: she put in.
10:35
Speaker 2: A car reverse and was backing up.
10:37
Speaker 3: That's when the rest of the shots fired out.
10:38
Speaker 2: That's the good shot in her chest.
10:45
Speaker 4: That to me looked like the very first shot that
10:48
Speaker 4: was fired.
10:48
Speaker 2: It was his close range, It was very close.
10:53
Speaker 1: Anxious to flex his investigative muscles, Raymond detailed back to
10:57
Speaker 1: investigators what he had deduced from the scene. He based
11:01
Speaker 1: that upon the position of the car, the casings, he saw,
11:04
Speaker 1: the state of her body, and the wounds themselves that
11:07
Speaker 1: he had observed. By the time he had concluded, investigators
11:12
Speaker 1: were convinced that Raymond Jennings had intimate knowledge of the crime,
11:16
Speaker 1: knowledge that they believed only the killer would know. This
11:23
Speaker 1: was not the only suspicious element of Raymond's interviews. His
11:26
Speaker 1: statements also seemed inconsistent and not credible based on what
11:30
Speaker 1: they already knew. Iris Malone told investigators that when she
11:35
Speaker 1: first met with Raymond after he radioed to her, he
11:38
Speaker 1: had refused to come with her to the Mustang. He
11:41
Speaker 1: eventually did join his supervisor at the crime scene. He
11:44
Speaker 1: later told investigators that when he did arrive, Michelle was
11:47
Speaker 1: still moving.
11:51
Speaker 2: Her hand was twitched to like that or.
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Speaker 3: I've seen the light bulbs that I thought she was
12:02
Speaker 3: still alive.
12:04
Speaker 1: Both Iris's statements and the opinion of the pathologist are
12:08
Speaker 1: counter to Raymond's version of events. It would have been
12:11
Speaker 1: impossible by that time for Michelle to have still been alive.
12:18
Speaker 5: I think that you saw the pulse, and I think
12:21
Speaker 5: that you saw the hand twitching, and the reason you
12:24
Speaker 5: saw that as.
12:25
Speaker 2: You were there.
12:27
Speaker 1: The central problem with the investigator's assessment of Raymond's interview,
12:31
Speaker 1: which was largely overlooked, was that his description of what
12:34
Speaker 1: had happened to Michelle was not accurate. He believed that
12:38
Speaker 1: a laceration above her left eye was a gunshot wound,
12:42
Speaker 1: and factored this into his hypothetical theory of the crime.
12:45
Speaker 1: He was also incorrect in his theory of motive. Based
12:49
Speaker 1: upon what Michelle had been wearing, her revealing outfit for
12:52
Speaker 1: the rock music video, and her dishevelled state, Raymond inaccurately
12:56
Speaker 1: deduced that she must have been a prostitute. It followed
13:01
Speaker 1: he thought that it was her line of work that
13:03
Speaker 1: had gotten her killed.
13:05
Speaker 2: She looked to be a prostitute because of the way
13:07
Speaker 2: she was dreams a prostitution view. That okay.
13:15
Speaker 1: The case that was forming against Raymond Jennings was based
13:18
Speaker 1: largely upon the assumption that he had to have committed
13:20
Speaker 1: the crime because there was no one else in the
13:23
Speaker 1: parking lot that night, except that was not technically correct.
13:28
Speaker 1: Two weeks after the murder, the LA Sheriff's deputies arrested
13:32
Speaker 1: a teenager named Victoria Richardson for assault. She claimed to
13:36
Speaker 1: have information about Michelle's murder. Victoria told police that she
13:42
Speaker 1: had been in the parking ride that night. Her vehicle
13:45
Speaker 1: had four individuals inside, three adults and one child. They
13:49
Speaker 1: were also witnesses to the murder. Victoria was parked listening
13:54
Speaker 1: to loud music in the lot at the time of
13:56
Speaker 1: the shooting. She and her friends heard a tapping noise,
14:00
Speaker 1: which they later realized were gunshots. Only moments before the noise,
14:05
Speaker 1: Victoria said that she saw a security guard walking in
14:08
Speaker 1: her rear view mirror, passed her parked vehicle and in
14:11
Speaker 1: the direction of Michelle's Mustang. After they heard the car
14:16
Speaker 1: alarm sound, she and her friends exited the lot and
14:19
Speaker 1: saw Michelle deceased in her car. Victoria recounted speaking with
14:23
Speaker 1: the security guard as they left, asking him what had happened.
14:28
Speaker 1: This guard, who was presumably Raymond Jennings, said he'd just
14:32
Speaker 1: heard the shots. The group then left the parking lot.
14:37
Speaker 1: She also stated that the security guard whom she saw
14:40
Speaker 1: and spoke with was the same guard who had been
14:43
Speaker 1: in attendance when she had arrived at the lot earlier
14:46
Speaker 1: that day, well before eight pm that night. He was
14:50
Speaker 1: a blackmail about twenty five years old. The guard that
14:54
Speaker 1: she described had worked the previous shift, well before the
14:58
Speaker 1: murder took place. She could not have spoken with that
15:01
Speaker 1: guard upon leaving, nor seen him near to the crime scene.
15:05
Speaker 1: Something in her recollection was not quite right. Regardless of
15:10
Speaker 1: the inconsistencies. Police pushed on with the new knowledge that
15:14
Speaker 1: Raymond Jennings was seen near to the Mustang at the
15:17
Speaker 1: time of the murder. At the same time that Raymond
15:22
Speaker 1: Jennings agreed to the cognitive interview, he also agreed to
15:26
Speaker 1: take a polygraph test, a test that he failed. At
15:30
Speaker 1: that stage, investigators were convinced that they had found their killer,
15:34
Speaker 1: but the evidence was not lining up. They did not
15:38
Speaker 1: have a murder weapon. They had no physical evidence at
15:41
Speaker 1: the scene that linked Raymond to the attack. He did
15:45
Speaker 1: own a gun, a three eighty caliber semi automatic handgun,
15:49
Speaker 1: which he produced for law enforcements to inspect. He owned
15:52
Speaker 1: it legally and it was not the gun used in
15:55
Speaker 1: the killing, so the investigation stalled for years. In the interim,
16:03
Speaker 1: the O'Keefe family hired a private investigator and applied as
16:07
Speaker 1: much pressure to county officials as they could. They wanted
16:11
Speaker 1: justice for Michelle. They were also convinced that to get
16:15
Speaker 1: justice meant convicting the security guard. While they continued to
16:20
Speaker 1: work the case, Raymond Jennings was deployed to Iraq. When
16:24
Speaker 1: he returned from his tour, the veteran was arrested for
16:27
Speaker 1: the murder of Michelle O'Keeffe. Raymond was unable to post
16:34
Speaker 1: his million dollar bond. He remained in custody for almost
16:37
Speaker 1: a year as the state in his defense teams prepared
16:40
Speaker 1: for trial. Raymond was a loving father to his five children.
16:45
Speaker 1: He had been married twice. Most of his family and
16:48
Speaker 1: connections were in his home state of North Carolina. He
16:51
Speaker 1: had relocated to California only to make better money. Raymond
16:56
Speaker 1: also considered himself a religious man. At the time of
16:59
Speaker 1: the murder, he had been assisting a friend to distribute
17:02
Speaker 1: Christian music series. He had no prior criminal history, but
17:07
Speaker 1: this was a far cry from the picture of the
17:09
Speaker 1: man painted by the prosecution when the case finally went
17:12
Speaker 1: to trial. They argued that because of the revealing outfit
17:17
Speaker 1: that Michelle had been wearing that night, Raymond had mistaken
17:20
Speaker 1: her for a prostitute. He approached her and she rejected
17:25
Speaker 1: his advances.
17:30
Speaker 2: What is the motive for this crime? It started with
17:34
Speaker 2: a sexual battery. That's going to be clear from the
17:37
Speaker 2: physical evidence in this case. Consider also Raymond Jenning's statements
17:43
Speaker 2: that he believed Michelle O'Keefe was a prostitute when he
17:46
Speaker 2: saw her. He talks about motive. There is no motive.
17:52
Speaker 2: Motive need not be proven. It's not an element of
17:55
Speaker 2: an offense, but absence of motive be used by you bloked,
18:03
Speaker 2: not guilty.
18:06
Speaker 1: The prosecution focused heavily on dissecting the inconsistencies or blatant
18:11
Speaker 1: lies as they characterize them, told by Raymond in his
18:14
Speaker 1: hours of police interviews.
18:18
Speaker 2: The evidence of this case will absolutely show that Raymond
18:21
Speaker 2: Lee Jennings is telling a series of lies. You'll see
18:26
Speaker 2: that they're mixed in with grains of truth that we
18:30
Speaker 2: know only the killer would know.
18:32
Speaker 1: The defense pointed to the state's forensic evidence, or rather
18:36
Speaker 1: their lack of.
18:37
Speaker 2: I should say right now, there is no direct evidence
18:42
Speaker 2: of this incident.
18:44
Speaker 1: Raymond Jennings DNA was not found anywhere in the car
18:48
Speaker 1: or on Michelle. There was one tiny speck of blood
18:52
Speaker 1: which was large enough to be visible on Michelle's left hand.
18:56
Speaker 1: Testing returned a match to Michelle mixed with the DNA
18:59
Speaker 1: of an un known mail It did not match Raymond.
19:04
Speaker 6: One donor being missel Keefe, one donor being an unknown male,
19:13
Speaker 6: not mister Jennings.
19:16
Speaker 1: DNA found under Michelle's fingernail similarly did not match Raymond Jennings.
19:22
Speaker 7: No fingerprint evidence, gunshot residue none. There'd exists no blood evidence,
19:30
Speaker 7: of which there was plenty, but none of which connects
19:36
Speaker 7: mister Jennings to this crime.
19:40
Speaker 1: A gunpowder residue test was never performed on Raymond. His
19:44
Speaker 1: person nor his car was searched for a weapon. He
19:47
Speaker 1: had been treated simply as a helpful witness, such that
19:50
Speaker 1: any evidence that may have dismissed him as a suspect
19:53
Speaker 1: was not collected. Raymond's uniform was not obtained by law
19:58
Speaker 1: enforcement until days after the u incident. At trial, the
20:02
Speaker 1: state argued that Raymond washed it after the murder and
20:05
Speaker 1: before it was obtained by them. Raymond resigned his security
20:09
Speaker 1: role at the Park and Ride only days after the murder.
20:12
Speaker 1: He had been approached while on his patrol by two
20:15
Speaker 1: intimidating men in a reddit truck who had demanded to
20:18
Speaker 1: know if he was the guard present on the night
20:20
Speaker 1: of the murder. This encounter had unsettled him, and, fearing
20:25
Speaker 1: for his own safety, he resigned. Raymond then promptly returned
20:29
Speaker 1: his uniform to his supervisor, who in turn handed it
20:32
Speaker 1: to the police, despite what the state argued. When the
20:36
Speaker 1: uniform was taken into the lab notes from the technician
20:39
Speaker 1: explicitly stated that it remained dirty. Raymond had not even
20:44
Speaker 1: bothered to wash it before handing it back to his employer.
20:48
Speaker 1: There was no blood, no gunpowder, nor any other physical
20:52
Speaker 1: evidence on the uniform linking Raymond to the shooting where
20:57
Speaker 1: it was.
20:57
Speaker 2: We don't know what he did with it, but we do.
21:00
Speaker 2: Do you know the type of evidence that was being
21:02
Speaker 2: searched for is the type of evidence that can be
21:05
Speaker 2: washed away or even brushed away.
21:10
Speaker 1: Victoria Richardson testified at trial that she had seen a
21:13
Speaker 1: security guard near to the Mustang in the parking lot.
21:16
Speaker 1: The state prosecution embellished this testimony, arguing that it placed
21:20
Speaker 1: Raymond Jennings at the scene of the murder only moments
21:23
Speaker 1: before the shots were fired.
21:26
Speaker 2: One other thing Victoria Richardson supplies in her testimony is
21:32
Speaker 2: a statement that the security guard walked by her car
21:37
Speaker 2: parked thirteen spaces from Michelle O'Keefe right before the shots
21:41
Speaker 2: were fired.
21:43
Speaker 1: The jury deliberated for a full week before admitting defeat.
21:47
Speaker 1: They were deadlocked and a mistrial was declared. Members had
21:51
Speaker 1: been in a majority favor to convict nine for guilty
21:54
Speaker 1: and three for not guilty. A second trial was pursued
21:58
Speaker 1: by the state of California in February of two thousand
22:01
Speaker 1: and nine, and again the jury deadlocked. This time, however,
22:06
Speaker 1: the votes had shifted further eleven to convict in just
22:10
Speaker 1: a single holdout. Michelle O'Keefe's murder had made national headlines
22:17
Speaker 1: for years, but nowhere was the publicity greater or as
22:21
Speaker 1: demonizing of her accused killer than close to her home
22:24
Speaker 1: in Palmdale. The first two trials had therefore been moved
22:27
Speaker 1: to downtown Los Angeles, but after two mistrials, the third
22:31
Speaker 1: attempt was held in superior Court in Lancaster, the area
22:34
Speaker 1: where the crime had occurred. This third trial proceeded more
22:38
Speaker 1: or less as the previous two had. Victoria Richardson, who
22:42
Speaker 1: had testified in person at the first trial, was deemed
22:45
Speaker 1: unable to attend to the next two trials. Her testimony
22:49
Speaker 1: was read into the record. The case relied heavily upon
22:52
Speaker 1: the testimony of agent Mark Safferik and his assessment, which
22:57
Speaker 1: ruled out anyone as the killer who knew Michelle personally
23:00
Speaker 1: and ruled out robbery as a potential motive. He also
23:04
Speaker 1: dismissed theories that someone followed Michelle from the rock video filming.
23:09
Speaker 1: He discarded any idea that it was a gang related
23:11
Speaker 1: crime because his risk assessment concluded that the murder was
23:15
Speaker 1: committed by a person acting alone. A ballistics expert testified
23:22
Speaker 1: that the ammunition used in the crime was a combination
23:25
Speaker 1: of different types made by different manufacturers. That fact, the
23:29
Speaker 1: expert told the jury, supported the prosecution's theory that Raymond
23:34
Speaker 1: Jennings's military training provided him with the skill and knowledge
23:38
Speaker 1: to combine different types of bullets to achieve an even
23:41
Speaker 1: greater degree of damage. Furthermore, the state prosecutor, in his
23:47
Speaker 1: closing arguments, leaned into the argument that Raymond had to
23:51
Speaker 1: have been the killer because he was the only one there.
23:54
Speaker 1: He told the jury that if two people go into
23:57
Speaker 1: a room and they are in there alone, no one
24:00
Speaker 1: knows what's happening between them, one of them walks out
24:03
Speaker 1: and the other is inside dead without knowing anything else,
24:07
Speaker 1: the law presumes that to be a second degree murder.
24:12
Speaker 1: This third jury convicted Raymond Jennings of second degree murder
24:16
Speaker 1: in December two thousand and nine.
24:20
Speaker 4: We the jury and the above and titled action find
24:22
Speaker 4: the defendant, Raymond Jennings, guilty of the crime of secondary murder.
24:27
Speaker 1: Michelle O'Keefe's family spoke at the sentence in hearing and
24:30
Speaker 1: pleaded with the judge for the maximum sentence. Michelle's brother
24:34
Speaker 1: Jason spoke directly to Raymond Jennings. After so many years,
24:39
Speaker 1: accept responsibility and you can earn forgiveness. He said, I.
24:46
Speaker 3: Sit here as an innocent man, and I've heard you
24:49
Speaker 3: speak on God as Christ as my Lord and savior.
24:53
Speaker 3: I will stand before God and this is one sin
24:55
Speaker 3: that I will not be judged for. I'm at peace
24:58
Speaker 3: in my life, and I laugh and I smile because
25:02
Speaker 3: I hold no remorse because I didn't kill your sister.
25:05
Speaker 3: Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and I will stand
25:08
Speaker 3: before him, and I'll stand before him with you, with you,
25:12
Speaker 3: and with you, and we'll answer to this question.
25:17
Speaker 1: He was given the maximum sentence forty years to life
25:20
Speaker 1: in prison. After nearly ten years in prison, Raymond Jennings
25:27
Speaker 1: maintained his innocence, but his appeals had been exhausted. He
25:31
Speaker 1: had reached out to the State Innocence Project for support,
25:34
Speaker 1: but progress was slow. Without significant new evidence coming to light,
25:38
Speaker 1: there was little hope that the father of five would
25:41
Speaker 1: be released. For several decades. His prospects changed, however, when
25:46
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen a civil attorney named Jeff Erlich took
25:50
Speaker 1: on Raymond's case.
25:52
Speaker 4: Ray Jennings is not a murderer. He was a witness
25:56
Speaker 4: to an awful, senseless, brutal crime, and he was convicted
26:01
Speaker 4: five years or arrested five years later, convicted several years
26:05
Speaker 4: after that on it the flimsiest of cases.
26:10
Speaker 1: Jeff's attention had been drawn to the case by his son, Clinton,
26:13
Speaker 1: who was a law school student. After reviewing all the
26:17
Speaker 1: evidence presented at the three trials and the available police file,
26:21
Speaker 1: the father and son duo were convinced that Raymond Jennings
26:25
Speaker 1: had been wrongfully convicted. By retracing the steps of the investigators,
26:30
Speaker 1: filling in the gaps, and seeking their own experts, the
26:33
Speaker 1: team managed to compile the new evidence that was needed.
26:37
Speaker 1: They outlined this in a presentation to the newly established
26:41
Speaker 1: cru the Conviction Review Unit.
26:45
Speaker 4: My office will not turn away from its duty to
26:48
Speaker 4: look at new credible evidence.
26:52
Speaker 1: This newly established department were tasked with investigating any cases
26:56
Speaker 1: where the accused may in fact be innocent. The new
27:01
Speaker 1: evidence included a report from Technical Associates Incorporated explaining that
27:05
Speaker 1: the absence of gunshot residue on the cuff of raymond
27:08
Speaker 1: Jennings jacket was proof that he had not fired a
27:12
Speaker 1: gun on the night of the murder. The team also
27:15
Speaker 1: discovered that the shooter would have had markings on their
27:18
Speaker 1: pant legs from having fired the bullet into the pavement.
27:23
Speaker 1: The absence of what was called pseudo stipling on the
27:26
Speaker 1: uniform demonstrated that Raymond had not fired a shot into
27:30
Speaker 1: the ground at his feet, as the prosecution argued that
27:33
Speaker 1: he had. Erlich also retained his own FBI experts to
27:37
Speaker 1: analyze the case file. Agent Klismit poked holes across the
27:42
Speaker 1: report written years before by Special Agent Mark Safferik. Klismi
27:47
Speaker 1: concluded that the attack was almost certainly a robbery. He
27:51
Speaker 1: agreed with the former profiler that the murder was an
27:54
Speaker 1: impulse crime born of the particular circumstances and of opportunity,
27:58
Speaker 1: but was not sexually motivated. The only indication of this
28:02
Speaker 1: was Michelle's shirt, which could easily have been adjusted down
28:06
Speaker 1: due to any number of movements during the interaction that
28:09
Speaker 1: led to her death. The robber seized their opportunity quickly,
28:13
Speaker 1: and things went wrong just as fast. Klismt saw no
28:17
Speaker 1: reason that the murderer could not have been a female.
28:20
Speaker 1: He also pointed out that in almost all crimes of impulse,
28:23
Speaker 1: the perpetrators are usually younger, often a teenager. The new
28:29
Speaker 1: analysis zeroed in on the ammunition. That there was a
28:32
Speaker 1: mixture fired from the same weapon is indicative of a
28:35
Speaker 1: shooter who loaded whatever they could acquire. A person who
28:39
Speaker 1: can legally purchase ammunition would use the same brand typically.
28:44
Speaker 1: Agent Klismic concluded this is done by people affiliated to
28:47
Speaker 1: street gangs where resources involving firearms are shared. The agent
28:53
Speaker 1: deduced that there was a far more likely suspect than
28:56
Speaker 1: Raymond Jennings, and she and her accomplices were right under
29:00
Speaker 1: the nose of investigators. According to Victoria Richardson's social media
29:08
Speaker 1: she is a Blood gang member. In the years before
29:11
Speaker 1: and after Michelle's murder, she compiled a lengthy and at
29:14
Speaker 1: times quite violent criminal record. She had multiple arrests for
29:19
Speaker 1: assault with a deadly weapon, one of which led to
29:21
Speaker 1: a conviction in two thousand fifteen. Her boyfriend at the
29:26
Speaker 1: time of the murder, who reports reference as a man
29:28
Speaker 1: named Andrew, was eighteen years old. He was also a
29:32
Speaker 1: gang member and acquired an equally extensive criminal record. Four
29:37
Speaker 1: months after the murder, he was involved in a carjacking,
29:40
Speaker 1: an attempted carjacking, and a robbery in which he stole
29:43
Speaker 1: the victim's Mustang. He used a nine millimeter handgun in
29:48
Speaker 1: the commission of these crimes, the same gun used in
29:51
Speaker 1: Michelle's murder. When Andrew was arrested in June of two thousand,
29:57
Speaker 1: he was wearing an earring that matched the description of
30:00
Speaker 1: the one missing from the crime scene. This man was
30:03
Speaker 1: never questioned in relation to the murder of Michelle O'Keefe. Indeed,
30:07
Speaker 1: the identity or even number of individuals who were present
30:11
Speaker 1: in the suv with Victoria Richardson was never verified. In
30:18
Speaker 1: March of two thousand, roughly a month after Michelle's death,
30:21
Speaker 1: the La Sheriff's Department received an anonymous tip via a
30:25
Speaker 1: local reporter about the murder. The tipster was a private
30:28
Speaker 1: investigator who had learned through a gang member informant that
30:32
Speaker 1: two other members of his organization were responsible for the murder.
30:37
Speaker 1: They were in the park and ride stealing hubcaps and
30:40
Speaker 1: anything they could locate a value when they witnessed Michelle
30:43
Speaker 1: O'Keefe get into her vehicle. They attempted to carjack her,
30:48
Speaker 1: but something went wrong. According to the tipster's informant, the
30:52
Speaker 1: two killers believed that there was a witness to the murder,
30:56
Speaker 1: a white man who was about thirty. Raymond was twenty
31:00
Speaker 1: five years old but could have passed for a few
31:03
Speaker 1: years older. He had also been approached and felt threatened
31:07
Speaker 1: by two men in the lot only days after the murder,
31:11
Speaker 1: prompting him to resign due to concerns for his own safety.
31:15
Speaker 1: The identities of these two men remain unknown. Attempts to
31:20
Speaker 1: validate the tip failed. The conviction's Review Unit may have
31:24
Speaker 1: investigated this further, but no information has been released. The
31:32
Speaker 1: totality of this new evidence, however, when paired with the
31:35
Speaker 1: information already available but reinterpreted, gave the District Attorney's office
31:40
Speaker 1: reason for pause. They had spent four years in three
31:44
Speaker 1: trials to convict Raymond Jennings, but now had lost confidence
31:49
Speaker 1: in the conviction.
31:51
Speaker 4: Everything that could possibly have gone wrong did go wrong
31:54
Speaker 4: until the District Attorney. This administration created the Conviction Review Unit.
32:00
Speaker 2: If a jury was in possession of the information that
32:03
Speaker 2: we're aware of now, they would not have convicted him.
32:09
Speaker 1: The DA's office, in conjunction with the Airlicks, petitioned a
32:12
Speaker 1: judge to have Raymond Jennings released from prison. They were
32:16
Speaker 1: not alone in questioning the conclusion and trustworthiness of the
32:20
Speaker 1: original murder investigation. Agent Mark Safferik, when presented with the
32:25
Speaker 1: new information, also recanted his testimony. He explained that he
32:30
Speaker 1: formulated his opinions about the case and his testimony based
32:34
Speaker 1: on his assumption that the investigators had interviewed all witnesses
32:38
Speaker 1: who were present at the scene when the murder occurred
32:41
Speaker 1: and had explored their criminal backgrounds.
32:47
Speaker 5: Raymond Lee Jennings is a freeman today. The LA District
32:52
Speaker 5: Attorney's office said he didn't do it. I a thing,
32:55
Speaker 5: he didn't say a word, and he did his best
32:57
Speaker 5: to avoid the media as he left the courthouse. Three trials,
33:01
Speaker 5: two and a hung jury. The third trial found guilty
33:04
Speaker 5: after a month of deliberation.
33:07
Speaker 1: On January twenty third, twenty seventeen, Los Angeles County Superior
33:11
Speaker 1: Court Judge William Ryan vacated the conviction and found Raymond
33:15
Speaker 1: Jennings factually innocent. He had served eleven years of his sentence.
33:21
Speaker 1: In March twenty seventeen, the state of California awarded him
33:25
Speaker 1: just over five hundred and thirty eight thousand dollars in compensation.
33:32
Speaker 1: The O'Keefe family was not pleased that the decision to
33:35
Speaker 1: convict Raymond Jennings made by a jury could be so
33:38
Speaker 1: easily overturned by the cru a unit that had only
33:42
Speaker 1: just been formed and seemed to have the power to
33:44
Speaker 1: override the justice system.
33:47
Speaker 5: And then it goes through the Court of Appeals and
33:48
Speaker 5: appeals Court of Appeals supported.
33:53
Speaker 6: The court's decision.
33:54
Speaker 1: Aren't the thing so based on all that you know?
33:56
Speaker 5: I mean, what more do you need?
33:59
Speaker 1: In the years after they lost Michelle, they also lost
34:02
Speaker 1: their son, Jason, to an overdose. The couple, now divorced,
34:07
Speaker 1: have suffered the loss of two children and the reversal
34:10
Speaker 1: of the one piece of solace they had knowing that
34:13
Speaker 1: their daughter's killer was behind bars. And that was the
34:21
Speaker 1: tragic case of Michelle O'Keeffe and Raymond Jennings. Thanks for watching.
34:25
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin. This is just thot lounge and I'll see
34:28
Speaker 1: in the next one.