Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Murder of Jason Sweeney

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The Murder of Jason Sweeney · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: At just 16 years old, he had a steady paying
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: job working beside his father. He had plans for the Navy,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and a new girlfriend he couldn't wait to introduce to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: his family. But on May 30, 2003, his new girlfriend
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: led him into a wooded area along Philadelphia's Delaware River,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: where three people he trusted were waiting to ambush him,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all for roughly $ 500 in the paycheck he earned that week.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What followed was an almost unimaginable betrayal and the discovery
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that four teenagers had been willing to plan a murder
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of their very own friend simply to take his cash
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and spend it all on drugs. This is the story
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of the murder of Jason Sweeney. My name's Ben.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I'm Nicole. And you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: A true crime podcast.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Listener discretion is advised.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: I have two things right out of the gate here.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: You ready for them?
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I'm ready.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: First, it's officially official. Spooky season.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: September 1st, baby. We're in the Burmonts.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: It's here. We've waited for this and it's now here.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: It is time.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And second of all, this is a thing. So when
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: we're recording, I feel like our dogs have a job
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to do. So this morning I was like, okay, we
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: got to get to work because Ripley really needs a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: walk of some sort. She's just unhinged right now.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: She's got some pent up energy.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: But- When we're recording, they know that they need to
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: stay on their beds and they can't be little menaces
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and they have to be quiet. And so they have
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a job to do while we're recording. And Ben didn't
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: think that they do.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Are you saying their job is to get the fuck
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: out of our way?
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: No.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: When we're recording, they know they have to just like rest,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: have a little nap, you know, get through it. And
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: then when they hear stay wicked, it's like. All hell
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: breaks loose.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you framed it like Ripley was like, oh,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: time to go to work.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: She's not going to work.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: She's going to work. She's got a job to do.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Nap?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I wish that was my job, to just have a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: nap and be cute and not bother someone.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, I know.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: That sounds amazing.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, not every dog has a good life, but.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Most do, and our dogs have a damn good life,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I feel like.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Our dogs definitely do have a good life. We have
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: a good life, too. And so do the people who
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: sign up over on Patreon because they get behind the scenes.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: They get ads free. They get exclusive content like Jeremy Vorhauer,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Crystal McPherson, Suzanne, and Tina Carver. They all signed up
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: this week, and they get all that cool stuff over there.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And I think it's pretty cool, if you ask me.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty good life over there.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: It's damn cool over there.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Although I do admit, I think just sleeping on my
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: bed all day as a cute dog sounds better.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: While you're doing that, I just had a realization. Holy shit.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: So Ben's already boughten Halloween candy, which is just a
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: freaking slippery slope in my opinion.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: But I think I've eaten, like, I can't remember if
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I've had two or three today, which is a problem.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And then I was looking at the box over there
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: because it's in like the recycling basket.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: They're like 200 calories each.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Are they really each?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I've just like mindlessly consumed maybe 600 calories.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Well, you saw me yesterday. I had a stack of
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: wrappers next to me because I was like stress eating
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: them as I was researching and such. You were.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you were going to town.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: It was piling up next to me and it was
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a bad scenario. Other than that, I haven't actually been
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: that tempted for the candy. It was the stress eating
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: that got me.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Well, I guess that was my breakfast this morning.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Chocolate breakfast.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Dang.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: It's September 1st.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It's okay.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: It doesn't count.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: Oh, okay. Okay.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: So it doesn't count for the next two months. I
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: can gain 20 pounds and it doesn't count.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Halloween calories do not exist. Halloween candy calories. I mean,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: it's true. Don't exist. It's not real. There's some doctors
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and dentists and stuff out there that are just screaming
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: at us. I'm sure. Anyways, I think we should get
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: on to the story if you're ready.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this one sounds kind of terrible.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: This one is definitely terrible. The motive behind it is
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: insane to me, all for a small sum of money.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: But if you're ready.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let's hear the story.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Well, in the spring of 2003, 16-year-old Jason Keel Sweeney
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: was living with his family in Fishtown, a working class
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: neighborhood in Philadelphia, USA. Built around narrow streets with brick
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: row houses and nearby, there was the Delaware River. His parents,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Paul and Dawn Sweeney, had raised their children there, and
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Jason was particularly close with his family. Paul ran a
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: small construction company while Dawn worked as a bank teller,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: and photographs of Jason and his siblings filled the walls
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of their home. Jason was still only 16 years old,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: but his life had already started moving in a very
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: adult direction. See, in 2003, earlier in that year, he'd
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: actually left high school and gone to work full-time with
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: his father. Paul described his son as a very accomplished carpenter,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: especially for his age, and Jason was earning around $ 500
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a week working construction. Now, he wasn't simply making money
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to spend on whatever interest he had that week, as
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: typical teenagers do, though. No, he had plans for what
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: he wanted to do next. See, Jason was saving, and
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: he wanted to join the United States Navy with the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: larger ambition of eventually becoming a Navy SEAL. Jason had
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: actually also even been accepted to Valley Forge Military Academy
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: in college. Unfortunately, his family couldn't afford the tuition. Now,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: whatever Jason was about to do with his future, though,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the accounts from his father were very consistent about one thing.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: He had decided that the military was what he wanted
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: to do with his life. Now, one person who had
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: been around for much of Jason's childhood was Edward Eddie
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Batzig Jr. Jason and Eddie had been best friends since
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: elementary school, and from what I could find, it was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the fourth grade. And their friendship extended well beyond seeing
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: each other at school, too. Eddie had spent time at
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the Sweeney home, ate dinner with the family, and became
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: someone Jason's parents and siblings knew quite well. Their families
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: even included this other boy in some family trips. When
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Jason turned 16, for example... Eddie accompanied him on a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: trip to Florida to visit Dawn's parents. Now, Jason was
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: also friends with two brothers named Nicholas and Dominic Coya.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Nicholas was Jason and Eddie's age, while Dominic was a
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: little older. But despite that, the boys had spent considerable
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: time together growing up. However, as they moved into their
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: teenage years, the friendships began to change. See, Dawn and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Paul had become uncomfortable with the direction some of Jason's
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: friends were taking. According to Jason's sister, Melissa, Eddie had
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: become increasingly involved with drugs, alcohol, and other trouble that
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes brought him in contact with the courts. Nicholas and
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Dominic were also spending their time in ways that Jason's
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: parents didn't exactly like. Eventually, Don and Paul told Jason
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: they didn't want him associating with the Coya brothers. And
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: after the trip to Florida, they even told him that
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: they wanted to see him stop spending time with Eddie. Now,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Jason may have occasionally smoked marijuana, but he was certainly
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: not a regular user. But some of his friends were
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: using harder drugs, and they were using them quite frequently. Jason, meanwhile,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: was working, earning his own money, and thinking seriously about
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: what he wanted to do with his life, while people
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: he had grown up with were moving in a very
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: different direction. For a while, Jason's friendships with Eddie and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the Coya brothers largely fizzled out. After Jason left school
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: and began working full-time... That's when he started crossing paths
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: with McGinn, though. And it was through a wider circle
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: that Jason met 15-year-old Justina Morley. He'd never really talked
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: much about girls with his family before. And soon, him
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and Justina were dating. And the two had only been
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: seeing each other for roughly a week or two, but
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Jason was clearly excited about having his first real girlfriend. Now,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: he wasn't getting ready to boast or anything like that, though.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: He was, however, just genuinely proud that he had someone
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: for his family to meet, to introduce them to. And
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: on May 29th, Jason told his mother about her and
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that he had just been dating this girl for a
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: couple weeks. And he described Justina as nice and told
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: his mother that he thought that she would really like her.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's pretty special that someone that age wanted to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: introduce their girlfriend that quickly, hey?
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: To the family?
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: He was definitely excited. He was.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: From my research, he was quite head over heels with her. Now,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: and this introduction too, like that mattered a lot to
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: his mother, Dawn, because Jason was quite close with her.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: So Jason and Justina began making the plans for her
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: to come over to their house for dinner. And Jason
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: was reportedly actually so enthusiastic about it that he even
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: offered to pay for the groceries for dinner himself.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Wow, that is really sweet.
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: So they set up the dinner date for Saturday, May 31st, 2003.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Paul and Dawn were looking forward to finally meeting the girl.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Their son had suddenly become, you know, so infatuated with
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and talking so much about jason's sister melissa was curious
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: about her too jason meanwhile had one more work day
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: to get through before this all came to fruition and
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that was friday may 30th 2003 jason went to work
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: with his father like he'd been doing for months and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: that friday was also payday But while Jason was working, however,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: several of his friends were talking about him. Joshua Stabe,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: an 18-year-old friend of Dominic Coya, had already heard some
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of those conversations. According to Joshua, Dominic had been talking
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: for more than a week at this point about attacking
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and killing Jason. And the motive was disgustingly simple. Jason
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: had money, and he wanted it. Joshua also said that
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Eddie Batzig knew Jason would be carrying his paycheck when
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: he was paid on Friday. Now, Jason's new girlfriend, as
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: it turns out, wasn't who he thought she was either. See,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Justina had a specific role to play in this plan
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that was developing. She can get Jason to go somewhere,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: somewhere where the others could not easily get him to
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: go on their own. So she was going to be bait. Now,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: I was unable to find anything that discussed if she
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: was dating Jason to take advantage of him directly, or
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: if she was dating him and then the nefarious intentions
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: came afterwards. But either way, the intention is still the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: same in the end, because it wasn't even the first
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: idea that this group discussed that they went through with.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: One earlier idea the group had discussed involved getting Jason
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to the South Jersey shore, then wait for him to
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: withdraw money from an ATM or something, or the bank,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: and then rob him and kill him down there. But
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, the plan didn't happen. A second plan
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: was arranged for Thursday, May 29th. Eddie Batzig and Nicholas
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Coya reportedly tried to convince Jason to take the day
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: off work and stay home while his parents were away.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: He was supposed to tell Paul and Dawn that he
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: was sick. When the group would then come over afterwards,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: they would party, and Jason was told that he could
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: even then have sex with Justina.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: What the fuck is wrong with these people?
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty sick.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Now Jason did not phone in sick to work. He
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: didn't stay home. He went to work. You know, he's
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: becoming quite a responsible 16-year-old, so he was doing his duties.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: So that meant another plan was needed. And that brings
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: us to the trails, which is a wooded area in
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Fishtown near the Delaware River. The area was isolated enough
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: that teenagers could disappear into it without attracting much attention
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: at all, and during the afternoon, Eddie, Nicholas, Dominic, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Justina gathered together in preparation. They also spent part of
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: that time listening to music. Reportedly, the Beatles' song, Helter Skelter,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: was played repeatedly. It's a song that is about an
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: amusement park slide and the emotional ride of a downward spiral,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: though it has most famously been remembered for its dark,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: unintended association with the cult leader Charles Manson after he has,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you know, linked up with it, but I digress. Now,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Dominic estimated that they listened to this song about 42
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: times in total that day in preparation. Now, they also
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: needed to prepare their weapons. Eddie had a hatchet. Dominic
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: had a hammer. And according to Dominic's account, latex gloves
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: were also brought along and put on before Jason arrived
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: at the trails. Now, Jason, of course, knew none of this.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: After finishing up at work, he returned to his family's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: house in Fishtown. He changed out of his construction clothes
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and took a shower before going back out with his
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: week's pay in his pocket to meet his girlfriend, Justina.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: The two met and walked around the neighborhood together. They
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: stopped at a corner store where Jason bought them some
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: sodas at that point, and then Justina suggested that they
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: should head towards these trails. Jason agreed and followed her.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: The trails ran through this wooded area near the Delaware River,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: not far from the industrial property and Interstate 95. It
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: was known locally as a place where teenagers could gather
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: away from homes and adults and, you know, kind of
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: like a little mini party area, if you would. Justina
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: told him that she wanted to have sex with him there.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: And for Jason, there was little reason to question her.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, he believed Justina was his girlfriend. He'd been
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: talking about, you know, taking her home and meeting his parents.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: He was excited. for her to meet his mother and
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: other family and all that sort of stuff. And a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: sexy wooded encounter for a young 16-year-old boy probably sounded
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: quite amazing. Now eventually Justina stopped in a more secluded
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: part of the trails with Jason. And there she began
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to undress. And Jason started to do the same. But
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: just a short distance away, hidden from his view among
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the trees, was Eddie Batzig. Nicholas Coya, and Dominic Coya,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: who were waiting. Jason had barely begun to get undressed
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: when the three boys counted down three, two, one, and
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: then sprung out of hiding. The first person to move
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: against him was Eddie, the friend Jason had known since
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: elementary school. And he swung the hatchet in his hand hard,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: and that first blow struck Jason directly in the head.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: In that moment, with the first blow landing, Jason was stunned,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: but he was not immediately incapacitated. He tried to get away,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: apparently realizing that the boys approaching him were not there
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: by accident. He tried to run, but his so-called friends
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: ran after him, and they caught him. Eddie continued using
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: the hatchet while Dominic attacked Jason with a claw hammer,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: and Nicholas... use large rocks. The violence was focused overwhelming
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: around Jason's head and face, and Jason ultimately sustained more
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: than 20 crushing and chopping wounds during this assault, with
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: enough force to fracture almost every bone in his face
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and badly damage his skull. Jason's blood splattered onto the
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: clothing and shoes of the boys and the ground around them.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: And Jason was still conscious for at least part of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: this attack as he begged and pleaded them to stop.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Eddie swung the hatchet on Jason, from what he recollected,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: four or five times, and said that Jason begged for
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: his life as he did. And the other two, they
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: continued just like he did. They didn't listen. At one point,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Dominic struck Jason with the hammer with enough force that
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that the head of the weapon became lodged in Jason's
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: skull and even had to have been pulled free before
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: he could swing again. Now, throughout all this, at one point,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Jason lost consciousness. But even then, the assault didn't stop.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: But by the end of the attack, Jason's face and
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: head had been so badly damaged that he was no
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: longer visibly recognizable in the normal sense. And as he
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: lay there motionless, they stood above him, And they knew
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that Jason Sweeney was dead. And then only then did
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the four teenagers present turn their attention to what he
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: had with him. They searched his pockets, took his wallet,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and among his possessions were some loose change in gum
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: as well. Jason had money that he had earned from
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: construction that week, approximately $ 500 in cash. The money was
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: then divided among the four of them, giving them each
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: approximately $ 125. And now before leaving Jason's body behind on
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the trails, something else happened that would become one of
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: the more disturbing details of this case. The four teenagers
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: gathered together and they hugged.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Because I was like, what could even be
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: more disturbing than what they just did there?
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Dominic described this hug as being more like
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: celebratory rather than like a consoling moment. He said it
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: was though like everyone was happy with the results and
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: what they just did.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: This is just disgusting. It's so vile. I cannot believe
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: that they think this is okay.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: But they did.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Like what the actual shit is wrong with them?
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Clearly a lot is wrong with them because that's, like
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: you said, disgusting, vile, and it's so– It's so evil. Yeah.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: So evil. Oh, I'm going to murder someone for $ 125
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: fucking dollars.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Because they are young.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: But they are of an age to realize what the
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: hell they're doing though too.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, they definitely are.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Like they would know that they're ending this kid's life.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Like they're friend. I mean, they're not friends obviously. Um,
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: but holy fricking shit.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: And honestly, I feel like if they would have even
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: just asked him, Like he might have given them money.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: He might have.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Because he seems kind of like a good kid. So, oh,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: just devastating.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Now, after this group hug, the group then began trying
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: to remove evidence connecting themselves from the scene. There was
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a bloody shirt that was discarded. Jason's wallet was discarded
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: and the weapons that they used as well were disposed of.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: And some of the items were thrown into a sewer.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: they also needed to deal with themselves though the attack
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: left them very bloodied and a lot of blood was
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: still on much of their clothing so from the trails
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: they went back to the house where joshua stabe was
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: staying joshua had heard talk of the potential killing of
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: jason beforehand And now the teenagers returned to him, covered
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: in the evidence of what they had just done. Now
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Joshua saw them dirtied and bloodstained, and they told him
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: that they'd actually done it. And he couldn't believe that
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: they'd actually killed Jason. Now Joshua helped them out. He
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: put their bloody clothes through his washing machine. And the
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: four teenagers then began spending Jason's money by buying drugs,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: things like heroin, marijuana, Xanax, cocaine, alcohol, And they began
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: enjoying their evening together.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: Just having a good old party, probably spending almost all
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the money.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they drank, they got high, and they talked about
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: what they did. They reveled in it. In fact, Dominic
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: described what they did that evening as, quote, partied beyond redemption,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: end quote. That's fucked up.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that guy is, there's like no words really to
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: describe how fucked up that is.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: By the following afternoon, Saturday, May 31st, 2003- Jason Sweeney
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: had still not returned home. And at about roughly 2 p.m.,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a group of kids riding mountain bikes entered the area
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: of Fishtown known as The Trails about a mile from
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the Sweeney home. As they moved along the gravel paths
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: through the woods and industrial area near the Delaware River,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that's when they came across a badly beaten and bloody
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: body laying on the ground. And so they contacted police. Now,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: when Philadelphia officers and homicide investigators arrived, it was immediately
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: clear that the unidentified male had been violently attacked. His
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: head and face had sustained such extensive trauma that investigators
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: couldn't identify him by appearance. In fact, the damage was
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: so severe that some reports say detectives initially believed the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: victim may have been a male in his 30s or
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: 40s of age, rather than being a 16-year-old teenager. He
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: was wearing jeans and a dark-colored shirt, and around his
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: neck was a St. Jude necklace. Investigators also noticed a
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: relatively recent injury on one of his hands. It was
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: a cut that had begun to heal already before his death,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: so it happened a few days ago. Now, those details
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: offered possible ways of identifying the victim, but there was
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: no immediate missing persons report or anything that matched what
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: police had found, and ultimately the scene itself left Little
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: doubt that this was clearly a homicide. Police photographed and
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: processed the scene while the body was removed for examination.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: And there was also an immediate possible suspect at the time,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: even before they identified the victim. See, investigators encountered a
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: homeless man staying in a makeshift shelter. He reportedly had
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: blood on his face and told officers that it came
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: from a cut on himself. But given police had just found,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: you know, a body only a short distance away, he
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: was taken in for questioning. Their suspicion for him, though,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: didn't last. The man told investigators he had spent the
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: previous day at a homeless shelter, and so police checked
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: in on his story and confirmed his whereabouts, eliminating him
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: from the homicide investigation. So then the attention returned to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the unidentified victim. The medical examination soon began, and it
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: showed just how extreme the assault had been.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Dr.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: Ian Hood, a Philadelphia medical examiner, described massive blunt and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: sharp force trauma to the face and head. And as
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I mentioned, there were more than 20 crushing blows and
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: chopping wounds to the head and face, severe enough to
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: fracture the skull, and virtually every bone in the victim's
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: face had been fractured. In fact, only one facial bone
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: escaped fracture, and it was the left cheekbone. Every other
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: single bone was broken.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Gosh, that is just horrendous.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: While the homicide unit worked on an unidentified body, the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Sweeney family was dealing with a very different problem. Jason
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: didn't come home from Friday night. At first, Paul and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Dawn had tried not to panic. Jason was 16. He
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: had a new girlfriend. They thought maybe he was simply
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: testing his curfew limits with them or something. But by
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Saturday morning, that explanation was much harder to reconcile. His sister, Melissa,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: repeatedly called her brother's cell, while the family contacted friends,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: asking where he could be, if anyone saw him or anything,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: but nobody had an answer for them. Sunday passed much
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the same way, too. Melissa later remembered the family sitting
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: at home watching the clock and waiting for either Jason
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: to just walk through the front door or for his
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: phone number to finally pop up on their phone. But
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: neither happened. It was on the morning of Monday, June 2nd,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: when Dawn contacted Philadelphia police and officially reported her 16-year-old
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: son missing. An officer came to the Sweeney home and
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: began taking notes. The normal information, you know, you have
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: for a missing persons report. What did Jason look like?
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Where had he been going? What was he wearing? Melissa,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: his sister, remembered describing her brother's usual clothes. Plain dark-colored
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: t-shirt and jeans. And as she spoke, she noticed the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: officer's expression begin to change. See, there was already an
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: unidentified body that was currently at the medical examiner's office,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: wearing clothes that fit that exact description. From there, the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: officer took Paul and Dawn to the medical examiner's office.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: There was still a possibility that this dead man was
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: exactly what investigators had initially thought, an adult male in
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: his 30s or maybe 40s. There was still a chance
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: that the remains were someone else. But it wasn't. The
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: injuries made Jason's face unrecognizable. but his parents knew about
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: the fresh injury on his hand. Jason had recently cut
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: himself while working, and the wound was still healing. They
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: recognized that healing scar, and they also recognized the St.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Jude necklace around his neck.
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, did they actually see his body like that?
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: They identified his remains. Oh no, no, no.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like any parent should ever have to
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: do something like that. Holy frig.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: The necklace was given to Jason by his grandfather as
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: a gift.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: Damn.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So this unidentified victim from the trails was, in fact,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Jason Sweeney.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Their son.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So once Jason had been identified, investigators began working
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: backwards through his final hours. And the obvious place to
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: start was with the people who had been expecting to
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: see him on Friday night. That meant Justina Morley, along
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: with Edward or Eddie Batzig Jr., Nicholas Coya, and Dominic Coya.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Police approached them and questioned the teenagers separately. At first,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: their stories were remarkably similar. Jason had supposedly been expected
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: at a party, but never showed up. None of them
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: claimed to know where he had gone after leaving home,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and none offered the investigators any reason why anyone would
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: want him dead. And for the moment, police didn't have
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: enough to hold them, so they were released after the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: initial questioning. But Jason's family, however, well, they were already
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: becoming very suspicious of this group of teenagers. Now, according
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: to accounts later given by the Sweeney family, both Eddie
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and Nicholas showed up outside the Sweeney home after speaking
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: with police and being released. And rather than focusing on
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Jason or expressing much grief or mourning or, you know,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: sympathies or anything over their friend's death that they had
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: known for years... they seemed much more interested in what
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: investigators had told the family and how the investigation was progressing.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: In fact, Paul Sweeney came away from the conversation believing
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: their questions were less about concern for Jason and more
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: about concern for themselves. So the family contacted police. In fact,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: the four had another problem in total. These teenagers had
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: not kept the plan entirely to themselves. At least one
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: other person outside the group had already knew they killed Jason,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and that was Joshua Stabe. Soon police brought them all
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: back in, and this time, the questioning became much more direct.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Justina initially repeated the same basic account the boys had given.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Jason had been expected to meet them, and he simply
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: didn't arrive. But as investigators pushed her, that's when her
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: story began to change. Eventually, she admitted that yes, she
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: had been with Jason that day. And then she admitted
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: that she did take him to the trails. Justina told
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: investigators she had promised Jason sex and then led him
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: into the wooded area where Eddie and the Coya brothers
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: were waiting. From there, she initially tried to distance herself
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: from what followed next, presenting herself as someone who had
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: helped lure Jason there but had not physically attacked him.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: But the boys began to talk too. And Eddie's statement
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: was particularly damaging. See, he admitted that He had struck
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Jason first. He described hitting him with a hatchet and
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: acknowledged that Jason begged for his life while he was
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: being attacked. And when directly asked whether he intended to
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: kill Jason, Eddie replied, answered yes dominic gave investigators a
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: detailed statement too his version confirmed that the killing had
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: not been an unexpected fight or a robbery that suddenly
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: became violent the group that included justina and had discussed
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: killing Jason beforehand. It was, in fact, premeditated, and Justina
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: was involved in that premeditation. Dominic described the weapons, the attack,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the money they took, and what they did after. And
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: when a detective asked whether he had been under the
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: influence during the killing because he probably assumed that he
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: must have been in order to commit something horrific like this,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: but Dominic gave the most chilling answer to emerge from
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: this entire investigation. He simply said, quote, as sober as
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: I am now. And then he added, quote, it is sick,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: isn't it? End quote.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just a monster is basically what he just said. Yeah.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Investigators now had confessions and they knew who was responsible.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: But they also needed evidence, evidence that could support those statements.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And Eddie, well, he helped them find some. See, he
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: told police that there were some clothing and the hatchet
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and evidence that had been thrown into a sewer after
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the murder and identified the location for them to find it.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Investigators searched the area and successfully recovered the bloody hatchet.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: The hammer that Dominic used, however, was not ever recovered. Now,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: Eddie was also still wearing the same shoes that he
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: had worn during Jason's murder as when he was being
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: interviewed with police. And so they seized those shoes. The
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: hatchet and Eddie's shoes were submitted for testing, and the
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: blood DNA evidence that was recovered was a match for Jason's.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: The investigators spoke in great depth with Joshua Stabe, too,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and Joshua's accounts pushed the case beyond the teenagers, simply
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: accusing one another after the fact. He said Dominic had
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: been talking about killing Jason for more than a week.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: The plan involved using Justina as bait, and Eddie knew
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: that Jason would have his paycheck on him. Joshua had
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: revealed the motive. He said it was discussed beforehand, and
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: it was money. Money the group could use to get high.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Joshua also described what he had seen after the murder.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: The four teenagers arriving at his house covered in dirt
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and blood, talking about having killed Jason. Then their clothes
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: went into his washing machine. And when he was questioned
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: about their mood, he didn't describe the four teenagers as
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: struggling to understand what they had done, He said that
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: they seemed fine. Quote, in a way, he said, they
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: seemed happy. The motive was clearly robbery, but Jason's father
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: believed that there was more behind the violence than that.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Paul Sweeney believed jealousy played a large role in the
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: events too. Sure, surface level, maybe they wanted money to
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: get high, but you need more than that. $ 125 to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: get high, to want to kill someone, Your childhood friend.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Because that's something I'm having trouble understanding, too. Like, were
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: they very addicted to drugs, like addicts, basically?
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: It's hard to understand exactly how addicted they were. I mean,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: addiction comes in all shapes and sizes. And these are children,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: after all. So how much drugs could they have consumed?
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: But for Paul, he believed that, like, Jason was working.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: He's earning money. He's planning his future.
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Well, these– Childhood friends of his were starting to struggle
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: with drugs and addiction, and their lives were becoming increasingly
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: more and more chaotic. In fact, later investigators and experts
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: would also raise questions about resentment and envy being possible
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: factors in this too.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: Well, he was kind of thriving, I guess, right? And
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: he had his life kind of all figured out already
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: at such a young age.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So they're going to drag him down too. If
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: we're suffering, he's going to suffer, and then we're going
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: to use his money that we know he has, and
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: we're going to do drugs with him.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: Party.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Party, and we're going to have a good time. Now,
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: none of this could actually be established as fact, though,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: or any sort of certainty, especially to the degree of
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: the robbery motive. So the robbery maintains to be the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: singular motive, but there is a large possibility that there
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: are more underlying factors at play. And regardless of why,
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: investigators were building a case against them. Justina, Eddie, Nicholas, Dominic,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: they were all arrested and charged in connection with Jason
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Sweeney's murder. And the oldest of them all was still
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: only 17 years old when Jason was killed. And attention
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: began shifting towards the youngest person charged in the murder too.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And that was Justina, who was only 15. In court,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: she looked... very young for her age. In fact, I'm
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: sure the defense may have leaned into that fact. Contemporary
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: reporting describes her as small and pale, with straight brown
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: hair and a silver cross hanging from her neck. Her mother,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: April Frederick, said Justina had once been a bubbly child.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: She grew up in Fishtown as the second youngest of
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: six siblings and had very little contact with her father.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: April worked and the children were often home from school
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: before she returned home from work. But by the time
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Justina reached adolescence, though, there were already serious problems developing.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: She said she began smoking marijuana at around 10 years old.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: From there came prescription pills and harder drugs, supposedly things
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: like cocaine, heroin, and at some point even marijuana laced
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: with embalming fluid.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: Holy shit. I don't even think at 10 years old
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: I knew what that was.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, she also began hurting herself, too, at around
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: that same age. Psychiatrist Dr. William Russell, hired by the defense,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: described her self-mutilation as something tied to depression and emotional release.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: In April of 2002, when Justina was just 14, the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: problem became serious enough even for hospitalization. Court records described
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: her making threats of suicide and cutting herself, and three
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: days after one hospitalization, she was admitted to Friends Hospital
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: after taking pills and making shallow cuts to her wrists, knees, calves,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: and thigh. She had also written a poem about suicide
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: and posted it on her door. Justina then told her
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: mother that if she was not taken out of the hospital,
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: she would, in fact, kill herself. And against the advice
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: of doctors, April didn't know what to do. So she
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: removed her from the hospital. Dr. Russell would later describe
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Justina as a teenager with an unstable sense of who
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: she was and an extensive history of mental health problems.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: And her problems were showing up at school, too. While
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: attending Adair Elementary School in 8th grade, school officials were
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: investigating stolen money when they discovered two small knives in
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: Justina's purse. She was expelled and later repeated 8th grade
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic School in Fishtown.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: Dr.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Russell said, believed that her low self-esteem affected her relationships
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: as well, and he described her early sexual behavior as
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: an attempt to gain validation and acceptance. In fact, during
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: her time on the stand, Justina even testified that only
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: several days before they murdered Jason, she even had sex
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: with both Eddie and Nicholas Coya in exchange for heroin.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Holy.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Which adds a whole other disturbing layer to the relationship
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: with Jason because Jason believed Justina was his new girlfriend.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: She was also intimately, however, with these other two boys
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: who were already a part of the plan to rob
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: and kill her supposed boyfriend, Jason. And each intimate encounter
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: seemed to be there only so she could benefit from
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: them in the form of money or drugs. And that's
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: not even getting into the psychological level of it at
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: all either. Now, once she was charged, her attorney, William J. Brennan,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: tried to move her case from the adult court into
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: the juvenile system. The defense presented Dr. Russell's psychiatric evaluation
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: and argued that Justina's age, depression, drug abuse, immaturity, and
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: need for treatment all made the juvenile court more appropriate.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: She honestly sounds like she's doing pretty adult stuff to me.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Fair enough. Dr. Russell also described her as easily influenced
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and essentially willing to go along with others to gain acceptance.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: But the prosecution saw the situation very different. They saw
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: that whatever problems that she had, Justina had played a
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: central role in getting Jason to the trails, period. Without her,
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: the prosecutors argued, Jason may have never willingly walked into
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: that secluded area. And thus, without her, Jason may still
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: be alive today.
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: Well, and honestly, she kind of the game that these
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: people were playing, she played it longer, really, because she
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: was manipulating him like into thinking they were in this
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: relationship when she knew behind the scenes of this frickin
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: messed up plan.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: Because she kind of seems the most like I'm disappointed
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: and disgusted by all of them. But for some reason,
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: she's sticking out to me a lot. And I don't
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: know why exactly.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: Well, to be fair, I am highlighting her a bit more.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Well, I know, but also I think it was because
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: she really played him. too.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: I think she played everyone.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: True.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I think she played everyone. She was having sex with
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: three of them for drugs, money, and she was creating
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: this scheme, all this sort of stuff. There's a bit
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: more on that topic, which I'll touch on here in
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: a little bit. But ultimately with this and the prosecutor
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: saying that, you know, without her playing this key role,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Jason would still be alive. Like the judge agreed. So
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: her trial was going to remain in adult court.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, good.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Now Justina eventually pleaded guilty to third degree murder and
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: agreed to testify against Eddie Batzig and the Coya brothers.
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: And her cooperation would give prosecutors something they had not
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: previously had. A participant willing to sit in court with,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: And explain how the plan developed and how Jason was
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: lured into the woods. Because each defendant is going to
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: try and deflect. So we have a third party to
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: tell their story too.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Of course I should have saw this coming.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: But while Justina was in custody, another side of her
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: emerged through letters that she wrote to those other boys
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: in prison. The letters were graphic and extremely disturbing. In one,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: she described herself as manipulative. and wrote about how easily
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: people could be persuaded to do what she wanted. In another,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: she characterized herself as cold-blooded and even death-worshipping. Another letter
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: addressed her feelings about Jason's murder directly. Justina wrote that
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: although she knew she was guilty, she didn't feel any guilt.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: In fact, she wrote how the memories of the murder
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: gave her comfort in how she enjoyed them. Those letters
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: would become important because the defense teams for Eddie and
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the Coyas wanted to portray Justina as far more than
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: a passive teenage follower. They wanted to show that she
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: was manipulative and had helped drive the others towards the
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: crime too. But Justina rejected that interpretation when she did
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: eventually testify. She claimed that she had written the dark
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: letters because she believed that that's what the boys wanted
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: to hear from her. She wanted them to like her.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: She wanted acceptance, quote, I didn't believe anyone liked me.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Now her background could help explain why she was vulnerable
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: to approval and influence, but it did not change the
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: basic fact that she had admitted what she'd done.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: That she's also disturbing as hell.
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: So there is that underlying layer of, was she saying
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: these things or doing these things because that's really how
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: she felt? I'm sure she did to some degree. But
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: there's also the possibility that, yeah, maybe she was writing
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: some of these dark letters because that's what she believed
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: these boys wanted to hear. And she thought that they
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: were tight-knit, close-knit. She was having sex with two of
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: them after all. Maybe she thought that there was something
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: there and she's trying to keep that together.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: Honestly, right there probably does show a lot of her immaturity.
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly. That's exactly what the defense is talking. So how
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: much of this is she responsible for and how much
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: is she being influenced?
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: Huh.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: Now, don't get me wrong. She is guilty too. But
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: I do believe that there is influence on her as well.
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: Well, even like she should know the situation that she's
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: in right now. And that like, is she not aware?
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: I guess maybe she's not aware that these letters would
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: have gone red.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: She probably wasn't aware.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: No.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: What 15-year-old in prison is sending a letter to someone
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: thinking the cops are going to read this? They're probably thinking,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, this is a secret letter. I'm going to
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: seal it. No one's going to see it.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: No.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: No.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: No matter what communications you have, authorities are going through it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: You're in an interrogation room. The cops may not be
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in there. You're being recorded. You're sending a letter. They're
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: going to read it. You're doing a telephone call. Someone's
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: sitting there listening.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: I shouldn't be laughing, but you're like, this is a
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: secret letter.
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: But that's probably her mindset. She's 15.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: I know. I know. It's like her diary and no
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: one's able to get into your diary when literally it's
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: like the easiest lock. to get into, right?
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: You don't even need a key. You just pull on
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: it and give it a little twist.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Done.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: But anyways, I digress. The trial of Eddie Batzig Jr.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: or Edward Batzig Jr., I should say, Nicholas Coya and
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Dominic Coya began on February 28th, 2005, nearly two years
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: after Jason Sweeney was killed. All three pleaded not guilty
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: despite the statements they had previously given to investigators. And
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: Justina Morley, who had already pleaded guilty to third-degree murder,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: took the stand for the prosecution and described the planning,
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: the trip into the trails, and the attack itself. Paul
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: and Dawn Sweeney attended the proceedings, and they sat in
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: the front row as the case was all laid out
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: in detail in front of them. During the trial, jurors
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: heard from Justina, and they also heard from the defendant's
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: own statements to police as well. They heard how Jason
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: had been lured to the trails with the promise of sex,
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: how Eddie admitted striking first, and how the attack continued
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: even as Jason begged for his life. They heard evidence
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: about the hatchet recovered after Eddie directed investigators to the
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: sewer where it was discarded, as well as the shoes
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: Eddie was still wearing when he was questioned. Medical evidence
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: also showed the extraordinary amount of force used against Jason.
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: Nearly every bone in his face except one had been broken.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and the injuries to his head included repeated chomping and
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: crushing wounds. The defense didn't benefit from trying to portray
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: the killings as spontaneous. It was pointless. Instead, attorneys for
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: Eddie and the Coya brothers argued that the boys' heavy
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: drug use affected their ability to form the specific intent
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: required for first-degree murder, and suggested the evidence supported the
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: lesser crime of third-degree murder. Other parts of the defense
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: shifted the blame back onto Justina. using her disturbing jailhouse
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: letters to characterize her as manipulative and potentially the driving
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: force behind the group. But the defendant's own words created
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: a major problem for that argument. Assistant District Attorney Jude
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Conroy presented parts of Dominic's confession describing how the group
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: continued to hit Jason and took his wallet, then divided
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the money, and then went off to use it. In fact,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Dominic had also described the group as happy with what
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: they had just done. So ultimately, after roughly two weeks
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of testimony, the case went to the jury. And on
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: March 9, 2005, the verdicts came back. Edward Eddie Batzig Jr.,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Nicholas Coya, and Dominic Coya were all found guilty of
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: first-degree murder. They were all convicted of conspiracy, robbery, and
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: possession of an instrument of crime as well. For the
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: murder conviction, Pennsylvania law required life imprisonment without the possibility
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: of parole. Their formal sentencing followed in May 2005, each
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: receiving life without the possibility of parole plus an additional 22.5
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: years to 45 years for the remaining offenses. Paul Sweeney
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: was given the opportunity to address the people who were
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: responsible for killing his son, and he chose to focus
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: on Dominic. Paul told him to look at him And
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: then he referenced something that was clearly taken from a
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: time or place that was away from the courts and
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: official documents. And he said, whatever Dominic thought about having, quote,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: evil eyes, Paul's own eyes would be staring back at
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: him every night for the rest of his life. When
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: the judge asked Dominic whether he wanted to say anything,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: his response was difficult and very casual. Quote, I never
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: thought I had evil eyes, he said. Quote, other than that,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: I'm cool.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: Oh, what a bastard. I thought I didn't think he
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: would respond. He shouldn't have responded. Like, fuck you.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: In my opinion, the judge shouldn't have given him the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: option to respond.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: Like, that's not okay.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, man.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: The judge rejected the efforts to leave the possibility of
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: parole open and describe the facts and Basically everything of
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: the profound level of inhumanity in this case. And he
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: called the killings, quote, totally depraved acts. Now, as for
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Justina's punishment, it was different because of her plea agreement.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: She received 17 and a half to 35 years in
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: prison for third degree murder. But the legal story didn't
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: end there. In 2012, the United States Supreme Court ruled
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: in Miller v. Alabama that that juveniles could not automatically
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: receive mandatory life without parole sentences, without judges first considering
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: their age and individual circumstances. That ruling opened the door
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: for new sentencing proceedings in cases involving juvenile offenders, including
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: some of Jason's killers. Nicholas Coya, who had been 16
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: at the time of the murder, received a sentence rehearing
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia in February of 2015. Jason's parents and sisters
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: received returned to the court. Dawn testified about having to
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: identify her son after the attack and asked the judge
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to leave Nicholas in prison for life. And on February 9th, 2015,
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Common Pleas Judge Sandy L.V. Bird did exactly that, sentencing
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Nicholas again to life without parole, finding nothing in his
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: circumstances that justified changing the original sentencing. As for Justina Morley... well,
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: after serving approximately 17 and a half years, she was
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: released on parole in December of 2020. I know.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: I knew she was out and about right now.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: For Paul and Dawn Sweeney, however, the story was never
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: simply about what sentences the four teenagers received. They created
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: the Jason Keel Sweeney Foundation in their son's memory. Part
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: of its purpose was to fund a full scholarship to
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Valley Forge Military Academy and College, the very school Jason
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: had wanted to attend but couldn't afford. Jason had hoped
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: that his path might eventually lead him into the Navy
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: and towards his goal of becoming a Navy SEAL, but
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: he never got that chance. Jason Keel Sweeney was 16
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: years old when he walked into the trails on May
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: 30th 2003. He went there trusting the girl he believed
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: was his girlfriend and surrounded by the people that he
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: had known for years and called friends. He should have
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: come home the next day or that day or some
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: time after to introduce Justina to his family. But instead,
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: his family spent the years that followed making sure that
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Jason's name reflected the hope and determination he had for
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: his future. A future that he never got to see
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: play out. And that's the story. of Jason Sweeney.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: I freaking hate this story.
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: This story is just shit.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: It's dark. Dark for complete unnecessary purposes. Not that murder
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: is ever necessary, but it's like, it's so petty and dumb.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: It's like beyond reconciliation of any sort of motive and understanding.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: I like to play devil's advocate whenever I can, try
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: to understand, and I cannot understand- any of those four idiots.
• 51:13
  Speaker 2: Like yeah to take that young boy's life away is
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: just who like had it he seemed like he had
• 51:21
  Speaker 2: a you know a bright future yeah and like just
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: the devastation to his family and stuff oh my gosh
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: i don't know yeah there's just there's no Like not
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: like you said, you can't justify murders, but there's just
• 51:35
  Speaker 2: like no justification in this whatsoever. No reasoning, nothing like
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: it's just hard to comprehend, really.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Well, we can talk about we can talk about murders
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: and we can at least understand what what the murderer's
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: intent was. OK, he's driven by psychosis or there's depression
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: or there's a extremely unusual high balance of hormones in
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: their system. And it's just such a massive sexual drive.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Doesn't mean it's okay, but at least we can wrap
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: our minds around the reasoning. $ 125 each. I cannot wrap
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: my mind around that reasoning. That is so fucking petty.
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: It's laughable. We have one less good person in this world.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: At 16, he was a very competent carpenter. He was
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: going to go become a Navy SEAL. He was saving
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: up his own money to pay for his own education.
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: And now instead of him, we're left with these four
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: fucking idiots in this world.
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: Gosh, wow. Yeah, when you put it that way. Shit.
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: It's beyond any sort of reconciliation of, it doesn't make sense.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Nothing about it makes sense. Fuck all four of them.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, this case pissed me off too.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's a piss off. Because yeah, now we're
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: having to pay for these bitches in prison. One's even out. Like,
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: god damn.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: No, no, I hear you. That was a good way
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: of putting it in exchange. We get these four fucking idiots.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: Cool. Cool story.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Well, they ended on that note. Um, thank you guys
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: for being here. Um, let's all try and be a
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: little bit more like Jason. Let's be people who are
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: good for this world. Let's, let's do something for other people.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: Let's try and better ourselves and let's do it in
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: spite of these four idiots and for Jason, because the
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: world needs more of that.
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: I agree.
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here. And until next episode, stay wicked.
• 53:33
  Speaker 4: © transcript Emily Beynon Thank you.