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The questionable murder of Jonathan Crews [True Crime Documentary] · NO FILTER

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: February twenty fourteen, the sound of a single gunshot rang
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: out into the night and across the Dallas suburb of Copple, Texas.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: A confused nine to one one call eventually brought emergency
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: responders out to the River Chase apartment complex. There, paramedics
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: found twenty seven year old Jonathan Cruz in his bed,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: covers pulled up to his waist and dead from a
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: gunshot to the chest. His new girlfriend, who placed the call,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: was gasping and sobbing uncontrollably. Jonathan's death came as a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: horrible and shocking blow to everyone who knew him. It
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: would take years to piece together what really happened inside
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: his apartment that night, and questions still remain. Hi everyone,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Here at JTL,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: we deliver serious, well balanced coverage of the cases that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: really make you think that sounds like your type of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: true crime, then you've come to the right place. Today's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: case is a heartbreaking head scratch. The evidence can and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: has been weighed in support of different theories of the crime.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: That is, if you believe that a crime took place
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: at all. Let's take a look Jonathan Cruz was born
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: in California, but grew up in Irving, Texas. When Jonathan
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was young, he often visited his grandfather in Montana, where
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: he and his brother learned to shoot pistols. Jonathan had
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: always been close to his brother and sister, Christian, and
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: his younger sister Danielle, who goes by Danny, were more
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: like best friends than siblings. Growing up. It was a
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: happy and supportive household. Even in his mid twenties. Years
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: after graduating Baylor University, Jonathan continued to talk openly about
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: his life with his mother, Pam. Jonathan had studied history
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: at Baylor University in Waco. After graduation in two thousand
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and nine, he moved back to North Texas. When he returned,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Pam gifted her son with a new puppy, a Corgie
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: he named Ulysses. By early twenty fourteen, twenty seven year
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: old Jonathan Cruz had taken on a new role as
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: an operations director at an urgent care clinic. With his
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: new salary, he moved from the family home to his
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: own rented apartment for the first time, he was entirely
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: on his own. Towards the end of the previous year,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Jonathan had started a new relationship. For roughly three months,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: he had been seeing a friend of Danny's, a younger
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: woman named Brenda Lazarro. The two met through the Koppol
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Wu Yee Shaolin Martial arts school, where Brenda worked for
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a man named Henry Sue as an instructor. They had
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: not been together for very long, but it was already
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: becoming serious between them. Brenda said she was in love.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: They spoke about marriage and children, and she said and Jonathan,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: according to friends, was always looking for his future wife.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: On the second of February twenty fourteen, Super Bowl Sunday,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a frantically sobbing Brenda Lazzarro placed a call to nine
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: one one.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: It was eleven thirty PM, and Brenda was with Jonathan
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: at his new apartment he had moved in only a
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: week earlier.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I need you to calm down now.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Brenda, who spent much of her childhood in Mexico, struggled
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: with English verb tenses. Jonathan had at that time already
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: been shocked, and his girlfriend asserted that he had done
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: it to himself. Nearly ninety seconds into the call, she
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: tried giving directions.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the name was. I know what
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the name. You don't and wear man andlex No no no, no,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: no no no. But but if you're going to rive
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: and then if you're coming north, no time, nother's not.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Gonna be on their line mail or anything that you
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: can give me the text back address.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: No, there's nobody here me.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Almost three minutes in, as the dispatcher is still trying
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: to figure out which apartment complex she's in, Brenda starts
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: repeating Jonathan's name already. The dispatcher asks if he shot
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: himself on purpose. First, Brenda shouts no, but then she
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: corrects herself, Yeah, he did it on purpose.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: What did he use a gun or what happened?
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Yes he is a gun. No, yeah, you did im purpose.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: After six minutes, the dispatcher tells her she needs to
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: go outside and knock on a neighbor's door.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Need you to find some way to tell me what
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: the address is. I need you to walk outside, go
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: outside and go to a neighbor. I need you to stop.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: I need you to help me.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Eight minutes into the call, Brenda finds a neighbor to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: verify the name of her boyfriend's complex. The River Chase apartments,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: and though the dispatcher tells Brenda to stay outside, she
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: goes back into the bedroom and declares again he's dead.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: The dispatcher assumes that she walked in and found Jonathan,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: not that she witnessed the shot. The dispatch asks what
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: she saw.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: We were just having a discussion, and so we're just
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: talking with him. I just I didn't believe him.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: And when paramedics arrived at approximately eleven forty pm, they
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: found Jonathan in his bed under the covers up to
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: his waist with a gunshot wound to the left side
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of his chest. They estimated that at that time he
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: had been dead for roughly thirty minutes. The bullet was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: from his own six hour nine millimeter. The gun was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: sitting next to him, on top of his blanket to
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: his left side. His phone was found damaged between the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: mattress and the box spring of the bed. Brenda's statements
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: to the nine to one to one dispatcher aside. The
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: police investigated the incident as a possible murder. At the scene,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: they secured paper bags over Jonathan's hands and photographed the apartment.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: They ran tests for gunpowder residue. Jonathan had residue on
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the tops of a few fingers on his right hand,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: but none on his right palm and none on his
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: left hand. Jonathan was right handed. Brenda had residue on
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: both sides of both hands and on her sweatshirt. Law
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: enforcement found the magazine out of the gun and sitting
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: in Jonathan's tie drawer. No police report noted fingerprints on
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: the gun or its magazine. There was also no DNA
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: evidence to provide any further indication as to which of
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the two people in the room had been holding the gun.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Brenda Lazarro was questioned by police at the scene and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: then again at the police station for several hours. The
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: story she told police was consistent, but a strange one.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: The couple had been arguing that afternoon and on and
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: off into the evening. At the heart of their issues
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: was Jonathan's longtime closer relafelationship with a friend named Emily.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Brenda was not comfortable with the nature of their interactions,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: and Jonathan resisted pushing Emily from his life. They had
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: worked through the argument that night, Brenda said they watched
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: some TV and ordered a Chinese takeaway. She said that
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: later that night, Jonathan brought the argument back up. At
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: that point, she went to the bathroom, she said. When
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: she came out, she sat on the floor at the
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: foot of the bed and checked her phone. Brenda said,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Jonathan said a lot of nice and sweet things to
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: me before telling her to cover her ears. Much later,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Brenda would tell Jonathan's mother, Pam, that his last words were, baby,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: I love you so much. You are my world, and
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: I will prove it to you. She says that's when
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: she heard the gunshot. Brenda Lazarro was born in Texas,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: but moved to me Mexico, where her parents were from,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: when she was five years old. When she was a teenager,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: her family moved back to the US and settled in Irving,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: where her father worked installing solar panels. According to those
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: close to her, in her youth, Brenda had a rough
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: upbringing and an unhappy home life. Brenda also had a
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: history of telling people stories, ones that seemed very unlikely
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: and hard to verify. She had told people that while
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: she was in Mexico, she witnessed a murder. The details
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: varied on different tellings. One of Brenda's best friends recounted
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: that Brenda had been kidnapped with another girl and set
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: free only after the other girl was killed. She told
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: high school friends regularly that she was pregnant, but she
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: never gave birth. After graduation, Brenda went on to earn
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: a Spanish degree from the University of Texas. At Austin,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: she worked as a substitute teacher and began to teach
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: classes at the wu Ye School in the evenings. It
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: was there that Brenda became close friends with Jonathan's younger sister,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Danny Cruz. In late twenty thirteen, Jonathan asked his sister's
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: permission to ask out her good friend. Danny consented. Not
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: long after the relationship started, Jonathan and Brenda went out
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: for dinner with two of Jonathan's closest friends, Jacob and Emily.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: The two were also newly dating at the time. The
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: two couples met at a Chinese restaurant. At the dinner,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Brenda was noticeably very quiet. At first, Jacob and Emily
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: thought their friend's new girlfriend was just introverted, but later
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: they came to realize why Brenda had been so reserved
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: that evening. Apparently she was furious. It seems that Jonathan
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: had hugged Emily as a greeting when they first arrived.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: It was a common gesture for them, as it is
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: for many close friends. The two had never had a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: romantic relationship, nor had they ever contemplated one. But when
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: communication between the new couple, Brenda and Jonathan was examined
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: by investigators, they found Facebook messages and text exchanges consumed
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: with this incident and with concerns about Emily in general.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Brenda appeared to dwell on this interaction, bringing it up
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: over and over again, often as they fought over Christmas
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: time while Jonathan was on a family trip to Europe.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: His correspondence with Brenda revealed multiple all night arguments held
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: via text. It seems that the couple was not moving
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: past the hug and Brenda was not getting over her jealousy.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: These exchanges eventually led to a message that Jonathan sent
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to his sister Danny on the first of February, the
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: day before he died. He sent Danny a series of
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: texts explaining that the way he saw it, he had
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: four choices. First, fight it and try to make it better,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: which he added would probably never happen. Second, choose Brenda, Third,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: refused to give up either and see if Brenda ends it,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and the last end it with Brenda Now. He told
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Danny that the first three options all held a strong
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: likelihood of ending the relationship. He concluded that breaking up
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: on his own terms would limit or contain the damage.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Jonathan apologized to his sister he knew the breakup with
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: her friend would negatively impact their friendship, but after examining
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: his options, this was exactly what he planned to do.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Jonathan's intent to end the relationship provided a potential motive.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Jacob and Emily visited at Jonathan's new apartment late in
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the morning of the day he died. He offered his
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: friends a tour to show them around the new place.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: His guns were part of the tour. Jacob recalled that
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the gun that would later kill Jonathan was stored in
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: its own space in his dresser, and that Jonathan kept
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: it ready to go, meaning the magazine was in and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: around was chambered. But that night, law enforcement would find
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the Oily magazine sitting amongst Jonathan's otherwise Christine neckties and
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: in a different drawer. Emily and Jacob independently confirmed to
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: police what Danny had already told them. Jonathan had declared
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: his intention to break up with Brenda. When Emily became
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: aware that she was the central issue, she offered it
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: instead to step out or away from their friendship for
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the sake of his relationship. Jonathan refused. He could not
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: envision a future without his closest friends in it. This
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: seemed to be the last straw for him. He told
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Jacob and Emily that he was packing her bag and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: cleaning her things out of his place. Then hours later
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: in the day, Emily received a text from Jonathan's cell phone.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: It was received at ten fifty two PM and read
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I want to die. Brenda called nine to one one
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: in a panic forty minutes later. Officers interviewed Brenda for
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: hours on the night that Jonathan died, and then they
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: questioned her again in the days that followed. In a
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: search warrant executed the next day. A Copple police investigator
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: stated that they suspected Jonathan's death was a homicide and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: referred to the gun found at the scene as a
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: murder weapon, but Brenda Lazarro was never charged. When the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: autopsy was performed, a cast doubt across the investigation and
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: their working theory. The Dallas County Medical Examiner listed the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: manner of death as undetermined. It was concluded that the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: gunshot wound could have been self inflicted. Indeed, the only
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: witness insisted that this was the case, and there was
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: gunpowder residue on the dominant hand of the deceased. Also
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: plausible was a scenario in which Jonathan was shot as
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he slept, perhaps awaking in just enough time to reach
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: for the gun. That may explain how gunshot residue was
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: found on his hand. The medical examiner found that Jonathan
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: did not have drugs or alcohol in his system, a
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: factor that could have caused him to act out of character.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: The Kopple police determined that they did not have enough
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: evidence to prove or disprove the homicide theory, so despite
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: lingering suspicions, the murder investigation would not continue.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: He said that there's a level of crazy and I'm
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: not sure how deep it runs, and I need to
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: know before I can beautifully commit. He was not some
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: guy that was willing to give up everything he'd achieved
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: and all the people that he loved for some girl
• 16:10
  Speaker 5: he'd been dating for ten weeks.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Cruz grew up around guns. He competed in tournaments
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: and was well versed, even fanatical, his family claimed, about
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: gun safety. This made the circumstances of his death even
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: more confusing to his family. The magazine located in his
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: tie drawer may have been removed before or after the
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: fatal bullet was fired. However, because the magazine was out
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: of the gun, it's possible that whoever pulled the trigger
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: did not know there was a round in the chamber.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: The Cruz family believed that Jonathan would have recognized he
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: was holding a loaded weapon. He knew about guns, he
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: had been trained on them for years, and had even
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: shot competitively in the past. Brenda, on the other hand,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: may very well have believed that the gun was not loaded.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: With the police investigation halted, the crew's family turned to
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: a private investigator, Sheila Waisaki. Sheila was already a well
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: known and successful PI, having made a name for herself
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: in multiple high profile murders before agreeing to take on
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Jonathan's case. One of the first steps that Sheila took
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: was to source Jonathan's medical records. These records supported what
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the family already believed to be true. Jonathan had no
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: history of depression, He had not been given any prescriptions
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: for antidepressants or any other medications that could cause adverse
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: side effects. He was not suicidal, and he would not,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: they believed, under any circumstances, have knowingly pulled the trigger.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Sheila reviewed the police reports and all documentation. She interviewed
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: new witnesses and reins interviewed old ones. She even went
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: so far as to go under cover with the martial
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: arts school. After a thorough investigation, Sheila concluded, not surprisingly,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: that Jonathan could not have shot himself. His medical records
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: showed an injury to his right shoulder that had been
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: acting up only days prior. The injury restricted his movement
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and could be painful. If Jonathan stretched too far and
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: exacerbated the strain, it would have made the angle of
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: the gunshot very difficult at best, but certainly awkward and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: painful to achieve. He couldn't have done that angle without
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: breaking his wrists. The neighbor whose door Brenda eventually knocked
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: on for an address during that fretful nine to one
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: one call believed it had been at least twenty minutes
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: between the time she heard the gunshot and the knock
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: on her door. She told police that night it was
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: closer to forty five minutes. That timeline roughly corresponded to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: the observations of the paramedics when they arrived and found Jonathan.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: These responders estimated he had passed away half an hour earlier.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: There appeared to be a significant delay from the time
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of the shot to the emergency response. As the second
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: anniversary of Jonathan's death neared, Pam and John Cruise began
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: talking about filing a civil suit against Brenda for wrongful death.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: They thought that might at least give them an opportunity
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: to uncover more evidence. Civil cases carry a lesser burden
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: of proof. Their lawyers would only have to show that
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: a preponderance of the evidence indicated that Brenda was responsible.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Jurors were tasked with determining whether the chance that Brenda
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: killed to Jonathan was more likely than not. It took years,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: but in twenty twenty two they moved forward with the
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: civil trial. Shila Weisaki had developed a theory, one that
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: would be presented with supporting evidence at trial. They believed
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that Jonathan did tell Brenda lazarro now Brenda Kelly that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he wanted to break up, and that they fought. Based
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: on texts uncovered in the investigation. The investigator knew from
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Jonathan's own words that if he and Brenda were in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: a heated argument, his response would be to disengage and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: go to sleep. Sheila believed that this is exactly what
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: he did that night. Once Jonathan was asleep, Brenda sent
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: a text message from his phone to Emily and then
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: smashed the phone. They proposed that Brenda then got Jonathan's gun,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: aimed at his heart, and pulled the trigger. Daryl Robertson,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a retired Houston police detective, testified that Jonathan Cruz would
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: have had to contort his body to inflict the wound
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: on the left side of his chest. Jonathan had seen
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: a doctor two days prior about the strain to his
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: right should. Robertson said it defies common sense that Jonathan
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: would have pushed through the shoulder pain to put the
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: barrel of the gun to where he was shot. Robertson
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: also pointed to gunshot residue that was found on Brenda's palms,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: on the backs of her hands, and on her sweater.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Fewer gunshot residue particles were found on Jonathan. However, the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: residue testing may be misleading. Brenda's team argued that crime
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: scene investigators only tested the back of Jonathan's hands. They
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: didn't even test his palms or the clothing he wore,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: as they did for Brenda. Of course, she had more
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: gunpowder resdue on her, they tested her more thoroughly. Brenda's attorney,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Andrew g suggested that Brenda was left with gunshot residue
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: on her when she tried to cover the bullet wound
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: to stop the bleeding. He also asserted that the motive
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: may be bogus. There were signs, he claimed that Jonathan
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: had not broken up with Brenda that night. After all,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: first they had been together for hours and then ordered
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: takeout at eight pm. He was going to bed with
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: her still in the apartment after eleven pm, which seemed
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: to indicate that he intended her to stay the night.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Brenda's attorney questioned if these were in fact the actions
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of a couple that were breaking up. When Brenda Kelly
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: took the stand, the crew's family held their breath for
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: what version of the story she would tell. Over the years,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: they heard variations of her story from different sources. Was
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Jonathan standing when he pulled the trigger as she had
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: told Danny, Was Brenda even in the bedroom when the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: gun went off, or was she in the living room
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: as Henry Sue had related to Pam years earlier. Still,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: others that she worked with at the martial arts school
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: recalled being told by Brenda that she was in the
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: bathroom when the shot was fired. So what was the
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: real story in which she provided? When under oath, Brenda
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: was asked dozens of questions by the Cruise's attorney over
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the period of ninety minutes. She did not answer a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: single question. Brenda Kelly asserted her Fifth Amendment right against
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: self incrimination to each and every question. The six person
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: jury deliberated for about two and a half hours before
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: reaching a unanimous verdict, even though in a civil case
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: only five votes are needed. Thomas Shaw, a lawyer for
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the Cruse's family, asked jurors to award the family more
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: than one hundred and twenty nine million dollars. The jury
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: decided on two hundred and six million. Brenda has not
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: faced criminal charges for the murder of Jonathan Cruz. She
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: maintains her innocence in the manner of his death remains
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: listed as undetermined. The private investigation undertaken by Shila Waisaki
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and the Cruz family turned up evidence that was subsequently
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: handed over to the Koppel Police Department. They have not, however,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: at the date of publication of this video, reopened the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: criminal investigation. Thanks for watching. I'm Kevin. This is just
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: thought lounge and I'll see in the next one.