Latest / The Mind of a Man / Young Love Turned to Obsession_ The Murder of Kaylie Juga [True Crime Documentary]

Transcript

Young Love Turned to Obsession_ The Murder of Kaylie Juga [True Crime Documentary] · The Mind of a Man

0:01
Speaker 1: On an otherwise uneventful Thursday afternoon in May 2019, 15-year-old
0:06
Speaker 1: Kaylee Juga returned home from school with her mother. They
0:10
Speaker 1: turned on some music, joked around, and relaxed. Minutes later,
0:16
Speaker 1: a hooded figure dressed all in black entered the house
0:19
Speaker 1: undetected through the open garage door. A doorbell camera across
0:24
Speaker 1: the street recorded the sound of gunfire. Seven shots rang
0:29
Speaker 1: out across the usually quiet and peaceful neighborhood. Moments later,
0:34
Speaker 1: the hooded figure ran from the scene. Mother and daughter
0:39
Speaker 1: still inside, fighting for their lives. Hi there, I'm Kevin,
0:49
Speaker 1: and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case is a
0:53
Speaker 1: heartbreaking story of youth, obsession, and ultimately depression.
0:57
Speaker 2: Violence.
0:58
Speaker 1: Let's take a look. At just before 2 p.m. on Thursday,
1:16
Speaker 1: May 9th, 2019, Stephanie Juga left her home in Kenosha,
1:20
Speaker 1: Wisconsin to collect her 15-year-old daughter Kaylee from school. Stephanie
1:25
Speaker 1: ran her photography business from the house, which allowed her
1:29
Speaker 1: to do the school run both ways on most days
1:31
Speaker 1: of the week. She and husband Nick had three children.
1:36
Speaker 1: The eldest, Tyler, was already out of the house. Their youngest,
1:40
Speaker 1: 11-year-old Mason, attended a local primary school. At roughly 2.20pm,
1:46
Speaker 1: Stephanie and Kaylee pulled into their drive, opened the garage door,
1:50
Speaker 1: and entered the house. Inside, they played some music. This
1:55
Speaker 1: was their time together at home, the time each day
1:58
Speaker 1: when just the girls are alone in the house. They
2:01
Speaker 1: danced and joked around. A few minutes following their return,
2:07
Speaker 1: Kaylee went to her room to get ready for a
2:09
Speaker 1: shift at her part-time job. Stephanie retreated to the master
2:13
Speaker 1: bathroom to finish drying her hair. Then, at 3 p.m.,
2:17
Speaker 1: the sound of gunshots pierced through the noise of the hairdryer,
2:21
Speaker 1: followed by screaming. At 3.02 PM, Stephanie placed a call
2:26
Speaker 1: to 911. Locked in the master suite, Stephanie was unaware
2:45
Speaker 1: of the severity of Kaylee's injuries. She feared leaving the
2:49
Speaker 1: room in case the shooter was still in the house. However,
2:52
Speaker 1: Stephanie believed that she knew exactly who the shooter was,
2:57
Speaker 1: her daughter's ex-boyfriend.
2:59
Speaker 3: Oh, my God. You said it's her ex-boyfriend?
3:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Do you know where he is?
3:05
Speaker 4: No, I don't.
3:09
Speaker 5: Please, please, please.
3:12
Speaker 2: Okay, how old are you?
3:13
Speaker 6: I'm 38, 39, 39, 39.
3:14
Speaker 2: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
3:17
Speaker 7: I need your help.
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Speaker 4: Will you help me?
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Speaker 2: Please, please, please. I'm getting you help.
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Speaker 8: You don't know where he is?
3:35
Speaker 1: Stephanie could not say for certain, though police would later
3:38
Speaker 1: learn that the shooter had fled the house before the
3:40
Speaker 1: call to 911 was placed. The attack was over. Uncertain
3:45
Speaker 1: of this fact, Stephanie nonetheless left the safety of the
3:49
Speaker 1: bathroom and ran back to Kaylee's room. There, she found
3:52
Speaker 1: her daughter on the floor.
3:54
Speaker 2: Okay, where is your daughter? She's at the bedroom? Yeah,
3:58
Speaker 2: I think she's at the bedroom. Who is that, Jamie? Okay,
4:02
Speaker 2: what is his name again? Marquis Phillips. Do you know
4:05
Speaker 2: who we are?
4:07
Speaker 8: Marquis Phillips?
4:08
Speaker 2: Do you know where he is? There's a lot of
4:13
Speaker 2: people coming. A lot. They're going to come help you, okay? Oh,
4:17
Speaker 2: my God.
4:18
Speaker 9: How old is this Marquis?
4:19
Speaker 2: 15. 15?
4:24
Speaker 1: Deputies from the Kenosha Sheriff's Department arrived alongside EMTs at
4:28
Speaker 1: the house swiftly. They found Stephanie Juga in the bedroom
4:32
Speaker 1: with Kaylee. She had sustained a gunshot wound to her
4:35
Speaker 1: left arm just above the wrist. A second shot had
4:38
Speaker 1: hit her right side. She had nonetheless been vigorously performing
4:42
Speaker 1: CPR on her daughter. Kaylee was rushed from the house
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Speaker 1: to the front yard for further emergency treatment. while Stephanie
4:49
Speaker 1: was taken to the hospital only a few blocks away.
4:54
Speaker 1: Even with the rapid response and proximity of the hospital,
4:57
Speaker 1: Kaylee's injuries proved too severe. She was pronounced dead at
5:02
Speaker 1: the scene. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner found four gunshot
5:09
Speaker 1: wounds to her chest and a fifth to the head.
5:12
Speaker 1: Medical staff later speculated that Even if a team of
5:16
Speaker 1: surgeons had been physically present in Kaylee's bedroom the moment
5:19
Speaker 1: her attacker fired, they would not have been able to
5:23
Speaker 1: save her. Stephanie Juga survived the attack after undergoing multiple
5:31
Speaker 1: surgeries to her arm, chest, and abdomen. As soon as
5:34
Speaker 1: she was able, she spoke to detectives about what had
5:37
Speaker 1: transpired in the moments before she was shot. She described
5:41
Speaker 1: hearing a blood-curdling scream. followed by a bang from her
5:45
Speaker 1: daughter's bedroom. She rushed to check on her and, standing
5:48
Speaker 1: at the threshold, was her daughter's ex-boyfriend, 15-year-old Martise Fuller.
5:55
Speaker 1: She pleaded with him, stating, You don't have to do this.
5:58
Speaker 1: He replied, Yes, I have to. He raised his arm
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Speaker 1: to his chest and fired. Stephanie escaped behind her bedroom door,
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Speaker 1: though she was pursued by the shooter, who kicked it open. Then,
6:11
Speaker 1: he fired once more. Retreating further into the master suite,
6:15
Speaker 1: she managed to lock herself into the bathroom. From there,
6:19
Speaker 1: she placed two phone calls, the first to her husband,
6:23
Speaker 1: the second to 911. In the house, investigators at first
6:33
Speaker 1: discovered six shell casings. Later, they realized that there had
6:37
Speaker 1: to have been seven shots. and the final casing was
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Speaker 1: located underneath of a console table at the bottom of
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Speaker 1: the stairs. There were droplets of blood along the stairway,
6:46
Speaker 1: as well as one projectile. At the landing at the
6:50
Speaker 1: top of the stairs, outside of the bedrooms, debris from
6:53
Speaker 1: destroyed furniture became part of the crime scene after law
6:56
Speaker 1: enforcement blew open a locked bedroom door to ensure that
7:00
Speaker 1: the shooter was not hiding inside. He was not. Martise Fuller,
7:05
Speaker 1: if he was the shooter, had fled the scene before
7:08
Speaker 1: they arrived. In Caylee's room, a cluster of casings in
7:12
Speaker 1: front of the mirror, having fallen into the carpet, suggested
7:16
Speaker 1: that this is where the shooter had fired. The downward
7:19
Speaker 1: trajectory of the shots led investigators to pull up a
7:23
Speaker 1: portion of the carpet where Caylee was found, revealing a
7:26
Speaker 1: projectile lodged in the floorboard. They believed that the final
7:30
Speaker 1: shot had been delivered at close range. with the shooter
7:34
Speaker 1: standing directly above her. On the sidewalk between the Juga
7:38
Speaker 1: house and Horizon Park, investigators spotted a single bullet, the
7:43
Speaker 1: exact kind used in the shooting. They speculated that it
7:47
Speaker 1: had been dropped accidentally, likely on the way to commit
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Speaker 1: the murder. 15-year-old Kaylee Juga was a varsity cheerleader. She
7:58
Speaker 1: played on the softball team and was an honor roll
8:01
Speaker 1: student at Bradford High School. Kaylee excelled in anything she
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Speaker 1: put her mind to. She had a zest for life
8:08
Speaker 1: and was passionate about music and dance. In their grief,
8:13
Speaker 1: friends and family members unfailingly mentioned Kaylee's contagious laughter. She
8:18
Speaker 1: was known to start a joke, descend into uncontrollable giggles,
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Speaker 1: and have everyone in tears without ever reaching the punchline.
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Speaker 1: It was impossible not to share in Kaylee's joy and laughter.
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Speaker 3: She would always make a room light up with her
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Speaker 3: smile anytime or her laugh. Her laugh is, you can
8:36
Speaker 3: always remember her laugh. I can hear it all the time.
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Speaker 3: You know, it's just, it's very memorable.
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Speaker 10: She was such a loving person. Kaylee loved cheer. She
8:45
Speaker 10: loved being with her friends. She was just a bubbly person.
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Speaker 10: She made everything a great time.
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Speaker 1: Kaylee's fellow cheerleaders honored their friend with a special routine
8:55
Speaker 1: followed by a moment of silence. The memorial was initially
8:59
Speaker 1: blocked by the local school board, who claimed that, for
9:03
Speaker 1: legal reasons, they could not proceed. It seemed that two
9:07
Speaker 1: students under their authority were involved, Kaylee and Martise, and
9:11
Speaker 1: they could not be seen favoring one side.
9:15
Speaker 3: My wife was shot, trying to get CPR to my daughter,
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Speaker 3: who was murdered.
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Speaker 1: And they can't do a moment of silence or a
9:22
Speaker 1: five-minute cheer?
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Speaker 3: Ridiculous.
9:25
Speaker 1: In the face of overwhelming disgust at the decision, they
9:29
Speaker 1: altered course and the memorial went forward.
9:32
Speaker 7: I'm glad this was able to happen and I'm glad
9:36
Speaker 7: to see that everyone came out for Kaylee and that
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Speaker 7: I love her and that I'll always miss her.
9:48
Speaker 1: In the immediate aftermath of the murder, the shooter, believed
9:51
Speaker 1: to be Martise Fuller, had fled. Despite what must have
9:55
Speaker 1: been a rapid and chaotic encounter, Stephanie Juga was well-placed
9:59
Speaker 1: to identify him. Martiz had entered the lives of the
10:02
Speaker 1: Juga family a year before. When Kaylee first brought her
10:06
Speaker 1: new boyfriend home, he was generally well-received. Stephanie recalled believing
10:11
Speaker 1: he was a good kid, an athlete with plans for
10:13
Speaker 1: college and a stable future. Martise played basketball and was
10:19
Speaker 1: the quarterback for the football team while Kaylee joined the
10:22
Speaker 1: cheer squad. They made for a picture-perfect young couple. Over
10:26
Speaker 1: the next 10 months, Martise would have dinner at the
10:29
Speaker 1: Juga household two to three times a week. He stayed
10:32
Speaker 1: into the evenings to watch movies with the family. He
10:35
Speaker 1: attended Kaylee's little brother Mason's football games and even spent
10:39
Speaker 1: major holidays, including Christmas Day, at the Juga home. But
10:44
Speaker 1: as time went on, the relationship between the young teens
10:47
Speaker 1: developed an unhealthy dynamic. It seemed that Martise wanted to
10:52
Speaker 1: be in contact with Kaylee constantly. She would keep him
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Speaker 1: on a video call while at home, even when doing homework,
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Speaker 1: watching TV, or messaging other friends. If she was out,
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Speaker 1: he would call and text incessantly, refusing to stop even
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Speaker 1: when Stephanie sat him down and explained that his behavior
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Speaker 1: was disruptive to the family. He rejected her assertion, laughed
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Speaker 1: it off, and kept calling. Meanwhile, the teenage rumor mill
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Speaker 1: was churning on social media. Accusations that Martiz was spending
11:26
Speaker 1: time with another girl found their way to Kaylee. And
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Speaker 1: it seems he responded by launching similar accusations at her.
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Speaker 1: The summer before the murder, a friend posted to Martiz,
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Speaker 1: weren't you just hanging out with another girl yesterday? Kaylee
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Speaker 1: deserves better. On X, which was still Twitter at the time,
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Speaker 1: Kaylee wrote, I didn't do anything. Can never believe me.
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Speaker 1: I swear to God. Sick and tired of this. The
11:54
Speaker 1: assumed third party wrote, me or Kaylee. And LMAO, wait, wait,
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Speaker 1: but you cheated on both of us. And funny, because
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Speaker 1: he was with me yesterday. At school, Martise's controlling behavior escalated.
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Speaker 1: An incident in the hallway in Bradford High School took
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Speaker 1: a scary turn when Martise blocked Kaylee and demanded that
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Speaker 1: she hand over her cell phone. School security had to
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Speaker 1: be called to de-escalate the situation and physically restrain Martise.
12:30
Speaker 1: The experience left Kaylee in tears. At that time, the
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Speaker 1: school instructed Martiz to keep his distance. Their class schedules
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Speaker 1: were altered and an agreement was put in place. One
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Speaker 1: more outburst and he would be expelled. No more sports teams,
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Speaker 1: no chance of a scholarship. He was to have no
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Speaker 1: contact with Kaylee Juga. In February, he violated the agreement.
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Speaker 1: He cornered Kaylee once more. This time, the incident was
13:01
Speaker 1: witnessed by teachers. It was on camera. Martise nonetheless denied it.
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Speaker 1: He was expelled and reportedly furious. By the spring, Kaylee
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Speaker 1: had broken things off. She had first minimized the incidents
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Speaker 1: at the school, not wishing to get her boyfriend into
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Speaker 1: further trouble. But after the expulsion, Kaylee had had enough.
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Speaker 1: Posting about someone assumed to be Martise, taking advantage of her.
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Speaker 1: Start having respect for yourself and don't let that happen,
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Speaker 1: she wrote. Her ex-boyfriend responded by stalking her every move.
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Speaker 1: On Twitter, she posted, keep lurking, baby. He was spotted
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Speaker 1: walking back and forth outside of the Juga house in
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Speaker 1: the afternoons. Other times, he lurked outside at night, secretly
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Speaker 1: looking towards Kaylee's bedroom window while the family slept. And
14:00
Speaker 1: his phone calls continued, so Kaylee blocked his number. Martise
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Speaker 1: began calling her from friends' phones. Sometimes he would have
14:08
Speaker 1: them speak with her briefly before handing the phone to him.
14:11
Speaker 1: Kaylee began blocking those numbers as well. When out with girlfriends,
14:16
Speaker 1: they agreed not to post selfies online, giving away their locations.
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Speaker 1: And they never shared their plans on social media, for
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Speaker 1: fear that Martise would see it and turn up uninvited.
14:31
Speaker 1: At the age of 15, Kaylee was forced to resign
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Speaker 1: from her first job at a local laundromat because she
14:36
Speaker 1: felt unsafe being alone at work. The owner of the
14:40
Speaker 1: business had made concessions for his young employee. Martise's phone
14:44
Speaker 1: number was blocked from the business phone line, and Kaylee
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Speaker 1: was allowed to keep the doors locked when working alone,
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Speaker 1: unlocking the entrance only as customers approached and knocked to
14:53
Speaker 1: be let in. Despite these measures, she was constantly on edge.
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Speaker 1: In April, she wrote to her first employer. To Brian,
15:02
Speaker 1: thank you for the opportunity to work for this company.
15:05
Speaker 1: I appreciate you hiring me for my first job. Unfortunately,
15:09
Speaker 1: due to the situation that has been going on in
15:11
Speaker 1: my personal life, for my safety, I will need to
15:14
Speaker 1: look for a job with multiple people around and where
15:16
Speaker 1: he will not know where I work. Kaylee went out
15:22
Speaker 1: and found a new job and hoped that her ex-boyfriend
15:25
Speaker 1: would never find out where. Immediately after the shooting, Kenosha
15:32
Speaker 1: police launched a manhunt for the 15-year-old suspect. They found
15:36
Speaker 1: that he had not been living at his mother's house
15:38
Speaker 1: for weeks, instead bouncing from one friend's home to another,
15:42
Speaker 1: crashing on couches where he could. When law enforcement tracked
15:46
Speaker 1: down his mother, Elise Fuller, she told them that her
15:49
Speaker 1: son could not be the shooter because he had been
15:51
Speaker 1: at her home from noon to 3 p.m. that afternoon,
15:55
Speaker 1: the time period directly overlapping with the murder. A friend
15:59
Speaker 1: of his named Alexis, however, offered another version of events.
16:04
Speaker 1: She told police that Martiz had been at her house
16:06
Speaker 1: the night before. She had given him a ride to
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Speaker 1: another friend's home at 1pm that day, just 10 blocks
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Speaker 1: away from the Juga household. Martiz then asked to be
16:16
Speaker 1: picked up at roughly the same location at 3.30. When
16:20
Speaker 1: Alexis did so, he was wearing the same clothes, but
16:23
Speaker 1: now his white trainers were extremely dirty. And he seemed
16:28
Speaker 1: visibly upset. The next morning, Kenosha police received a call
16:35
Speaker 1: from Martise's cousin, Anjanise Andrews, who lived in Racine. She
16:39
Speaker 1: told them that to her surprise, her young cousin turned
16:42
Speaker 1: up at her home at around 9pm the night before.
16:45
Speaker 1: She allowed him to stay for a few hours to
16:47
Speaker 1: see family, but when he did not leave, she turned
16:51
Speaker 1: him in.
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Speaker 7: You know what you got to do. You can't keep waiting.
16:54
Speaker 7: You can't keep standing around here. I know you want
16:56
Speaker 7: to see your family and everything, but the time is
16:58
Speaker 7: almost up. Anything can happen to you at this point.
17:01
Speaker 7: He really didn't want to speak on the situation. I
17:04
Speaker 7: was just trying to calm him down and just trying
17:06
Speaker 7: to figure out what was going on in your mind
17:09
Speaker 7: that you did something like that. Because I know my cousin,
17:12
Speaker 7: he's 15 years old.
17:13
Speaker 11: He is not healthy.
17:14
Speaker 7: That type of person. I wouldn't wish this on nobody,
17:16
Speaker 7: and I feel like how I am with both sides
17:20
Speaker 7: of the family. I wouldn't want my 16-year-old daughter getting
17:24
Speaker 7: shot and killed in her own home, and my 15-year-old
17:28
Speaker 7: cousin might get sentenced for life. So right now, it's
17:31
Speaker 7: just my head is everywhere.
17:34
Speaker 1: At first, Anjanese told police only that she knew that
17:37
Speaker 1: they were looking for her cousin, so she turned him in,
17:40
Speaker 1: but that she did not believe that he was capable.
17:43
Speaker 1: of what was alleged. As detectives walked her from the station,
17:46
Speaker 1: they appealed to her as a mother. How would she
17:49
Speaker 1: feel if it had been one of her children, if
17:52
Speaker 1: it had been her six-year-old son or four-year-old daughter that
17:56
Speaker 1: had been killed in their home? This brought Anjanese pause.
18:00
Speaker 1: She told them that she had more information to offer.
18:04
Speaker 1: So they went back into the station and sat down again.
18:08
Speaker 1: That is when she told them that her cousin had
18:11
Speaker 1: offered her a full confession the night before. Surveillance footage
18:16
Speaker 1: from the neighborhood on the afternoon of the murder captured
18:19
Speaker 1: a sequence of events that aligned perfectly with the information
18:22
Speaker 1: that Aunt Janice had already provided to police. At just
18:26
Speaker 1: before 2 p.m., Martiz was dropped off by Alexis at
18:30
Speaker 1: his friend's home in the subdivision near to the Juga household.
18:34
Speaker 1: An internal camera captured him by the front door, dressed
18:37
Speaker 1: in dark-washed jeans, a gray hoodie, white sneakers, and carrying
18:41
Speaker 1: a black backpack. He was spotted leaving the house on
18:44
Speaker 1: a bike shortly after. Between his friend's home and the
18:48
Speaker 1: Juco residence, there was a house with a doorbell camera.
18:51
Speaker 1: That camera captured a figure on a bike wearing a
18:55
Speaker 1: gray hoodie, dark pants, white shoes, and carrying a backpack
18:59
Speaker 1: traveling west in the direction of Kaylee's house. Across from
19:03
Speaker 1: their home is Horizon Park, a largely open green space
19:07
Speaker 1: with a playground, walking trails, and sports fields. It is
19:11
Speaker 1: lined with trees along the roadside. If standing concealed within
19:15
Speaker 1: the tree line, the front of the Juga home would
19:18
Speaker 1: be visible. And Shanice explained that Martiz had left his
19:22
Speaker 1: bike amongst the trees, changed his clothing, and kept an
19:26
Speaker 1: eye on the house. His intention, he said, was only
19:29
Speaker 1: to enter and shoot Kaylee once, maybe twice. He told
19:34
Speaker 1: his cousin that he watched as Stephanie and Kaylee returned
19:37
Speaker 1: home and entered through the garage. He knew their schedule.
19:41
Speaker 1: He knew that Nick would be at work. that Mason
19:43
Speaker 1: would still be in school. From another camera across the street,
19:47
Speaker 1: a figure now dressed all in black and without a backpack,
19:51
Speaker 1: though still wearing white shoes, approached the house. They stayed
19:55
Speaker 1: close to the walls of the neighboring homes and moved
19:58
Speaker 1: directly underneath a camera positioned in the corner of the
20:01
Speaker 1: Jukas garage before entering through the open door. Had their
20:05
Speaker 1: camera system been working on that day, which it was not,
20:09
Speaker 1: the attacker's chosen movements would have avoided being captured, at
20:13
Speaker 1: least by the Juga family cameras. After entering the house,
20:20
Speaker 1: there was a period of just over one minute, approaching
20:23
Speaker 1: 90 seconds, before shots were heard ringing out. At first,
20:28
Speaker 1: there was just one. 16 seconds passed before another was heard. Then,
20:33
Speaker 1: the shots continued in quick succession. Seven in total. The
20:38
Speaker 1: attacker was inside the house for a total of three
20:41
Speaker 1: minutes and 40 seconds. Then they were captured running from
20:45
Speaker 1: the garage and sprinting back down the street in the
20:48
Speaker 1: direction they came, towards Horizon Park. The same Nest doorbell
20:55
Speaker 1: camera that had captured the hooded figure riding leisurely towards
20:59
Speaker 1: the park an hour earlier, taking roughly eight seconds to
21:02
Speaker 1: pass by, now also showed them returning. The rider was
21:06
Speaker 1: moving much faster, and passed the home in only two
21:09
Speaker 1: seconds this time, traveling in the opposite direction. The returning
21:14
Speaker 1: figure again wore the gray hoodie, suggesting to investigators that
21:18
Speaker 1: he had changed back into his original clothing before leaving
21:21
Speaker 1: the area, just as Aunt Shanice had said. The trip
21:25
Speaker 1: back was recorded at 3.04 p.m., two minutes after Stephanie
21:30
Speaker 1: managed to place the call to 911. Martiz Fuller was
21:39
Speaker 1: charged with first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree homicide. He
21:44
Speaker 1: was scheduled to go to trial in February 2020. Before
21:48
Speaker 1: he did so, he managed to get into further trouble.
21:51
Speaker 1: Prosecutors alleged that Martiz, with the help of certain family members,
21:56
Speaker 1: was attempting to tamper with the jury.
21:59
Speaker 11: We're monitoring some jail phone calls from the defendant. The
22:02
Speaker 11: allegation is that the defendant got the names off of
22:06
Speaker 11: a chart of the potential jurors, that the defendant then
22:10
Speaker 11: memorized those names and made some assumptions about who was
22:14
Speaker 11: related to those individuals and then began to try to
22:16
Speaker 11: contact people to get in touch with them. The supreme
22:19
Speaker 11: seriousness of something like that is that it really deals
22:21
Speaker 11: with the whole integrity of a jury trial.
22:25
Speaker 1: At the same time, at a pretrial hearing, Martiz's mother,
22:28
Speaker 1: Elise Fuller, was arrested after an outburst in the courtroom.
22:32
Speaker 1: Following an exchange of words, she was expected to be
22:35
Speaker 1: charged with obstructing an officer. Exactly what words she used
22:39
Speaker 1: in the courtroom were not reported. The murder trial eventually
22:46
Speaker 1: commenced in May.
22:49
Speaker 2: On May 9th of 2019, the unimaginable happened to the
22:55
Speaker 2: Juga family. A person that they shared Christmas Day with,
23:02
Speaker 2: that they opened their home and their hearts to, and
23:06
Speaker 2: let them share, let him share time with their precious daughter,
23:15
Speaker 2: took her life. And he looked at Stephanie Juga in
23:21
Speaker 2: the face after all their time together and tried to
23:25
Speaker 2: take her life too. And when she tried to reason
23:29
Speaker 2: with him, he told her, yes, I do. And shot
23:34
Speaker 2: her twice.
23:36
Speaker 3: Between March and May of 2019, Martise Fuller's life was
23:42
Speaker 3: in chaos. He had been expelled from Bradford High School.
23:48
Speaker 3: unable to play football, and ultimately, due to a fight
23:54
Speaker 3: with his family, he found himself homeless. He was transient.
24:00
Speaker 3: He didn't have a cell phone that had a cellular connection.
24:04
Speaker 3: He was forced to rely on using Wi-Fi when he
24:07
Speaker 3: could have internet at various locations. He found himself begging.
24:13
Speaker 3: relying on friends for rides because he was 15. He
24:18
Speaker 3: couldn't drive. He didn't have a car. During this time period,
24:23
Speaker 3: Martiz was frequently frantic. He was overwhelmed. He was a
24:28
Speaker 3: 15-year-old child trying to survive.
24:33
Speaker 1: The prosecution told their case through a story of two timelines.
24:37
Speaker 1: The first was Kaylee's reality, her attempts to get out
24:40
Speaker 1: of a toxic relationship and keep herself safe. The second
24:45
Speaker 1: was Martiz's timeline, in which he grew progressively more angry
24:48
Speaker 1: over his loss of control, first over Kaylee and then
24:52
Speaker 1: over his own circumstances. This progression led to a series
24:56
Speaker 1: of decisions in the week before the murder. First, he
24:59
Speaker 1: spoke with multiple friends about acquiring a gun and ammunition. Ultimately,
25:04
Speaker 1: he obtained both. He was photographed posing with his newly
25:08
Speaker 1: acquired handgun seven days before he decided to use it.
25:12
Speaker 1: He showed the gun to friends. he bragged about it.
25:16
Speaker 1: Three days before, he told a friend that Kaylee had
25:19
Speaker 1: ruined his life and that he wanted to kill her.
25:23
Speaker 1: Two days before, he searched her Facebook page trying to
25:26
Speaker 1: locate her. He also took a bike from one friend
25:29
Speaker 1: and then stashed it at another's home at the location
25:33
Speaker 1: only blocks from the Juga house. He began staking out
25:36
Speaker 1: the street during the day and night, staring at her
25:41
Speaker 1: bedroom window. On May 9th, the day of the murder,
25:46
Speaker 1: Martiz reached out to his friend, Desiree, asking her to
25:50
Speaker 1: do that hit with him. She knew what he meant.
25:54
Speaker 1: He had mentioned it twice earlier in the week. He
25:57
Speaker 1: wanted Kaylee dead.
26:00
Speaker 2: Did he make any suggestions about what he wanted to
26:06
Speaker 2: do to his ex-girlfriend? Yes. What did he say? That
26:14
Speaker 2: he wanted to kill her. What did you say to that?
26:20
Speaker 2: I listened. And do you remember what his message to
26:24
Speaker 2: you was? To do the hit with him. What did
26:34
Speaker 2: you understand that to mean? The obvious. To kill her.
26:42
Speaker 2: To kill the ex-girlfriend like he had talked about the
26:44
Speaker 2: day before?
26:46
Speaker 7: Yes.
26:47
Speaker 2: It says, I'm so mad you need to do that
26:49
Speaker 2: to her.
26:50
Speaker 7: Say that again?
26:51
Speaker 2: I'm so mad you need to do that to her.
26:54
Speaker 2: And what is the day and time that that message
26:58
Speaker 2: was sent to you? Thursday at 11.52 a.m. Thank you.
27:06
Speaker 1: Desiree refused to take part. though she told no one
27:09
Speaker 1: about the conversation she held with Martiz until after Haley
27:13
Speaker 1: was dead. By the time she testified at trial, she
27:17
Speaker 1: was already serving time at a juvenile facility for multiple
27:20
Speaker 1: unrelated convictions. Investigators were able to locate the murder weapon
27:26
Speaker 1: with the help of another one of Martiz's cousins, a
27:29
Speaker 1: man named Dontrell Seymour. Dontrell led police to a drain
27:33
Speaker 1: sewer in Racine, where the 15-year-old had wrapped the gun
27:36
Speaker 1: in a diaper taken from a family member's house and
27:39
Speaker 1: dropped it in. Had they not been led to it,
27:42
Speaker 1: detectives believed they would have never found it. The same
27:46
Speaker 1: was true for his change in clothing, the black hoodie
27:48
Speaker 1: and white shoes that Martiz was thought to have worn
27:51
Speaker 1: into the Juga house. Police were never able to locate them,
27:55
Speaker 1: though after discovering how he had disposed of the gun,
27:59
Speaker 1: they assumed these items were also likely to have been
28:01
Speaker 1: dumped into a sewer somewhere between Kenosha and Racine. There
28:06
Speaker 1: were too many to search. They did recover Martiz's other
28:10
Speaker 1: clothing and the black backpack that he was seen carrying
28:14
Speaker 1: in the surveillance footage. These items were still with him
28:17
Speaker 1: when Anjanese turned him into the police the following day.
28:23
Speaker 1: In outlining Martiz's mindset and his motive, the assistant principal
28:27
Speaker 1: at Bradford High School testified to the behavior that had
28:30
Speaker 1: led to his expulsion. Jill Schwenson was the school's disciplinarian.
28:35
Speaker 1: She routinely dealt with misbehaving teens. But Martise Fuller, she said,
28:41
Speaker 1: was different. Even after years of dealing with difficult and
28:44
Speaker 1: even violent offenders as a social worker, Martise Fuller had
28:48
Speaker 1: scared her. She spoke of his anger over being separated
28:52
Speaker 1: from Kaylee at school. Then, after he violated the agreement
28:56
Speaker 1: to keep his distance and learned he would be expelled,
28:59
Speaker 1: He called every office in the school repeatedly, trying to
29:02
Speaker 1: reach the assistant principal to have the expulsion overturned. He
29:07
Speaker 1: would not accept her decision. She eventually hung up on him.
29:11
Speaker 3: He was very angry with me. He called me a liar.
29:16
Speaker 3: He told me that I didn't know what I was
29:19
Speaker 3: talking about or what I had seen. He put his
29:24
Speaker 3: finger in my face. We had to take a break
29:28
Speaker 3: for him to take a walk. Ultimately, we had to
29:31
Speaker 3: call dad to convince him to sign it.
29:34
Speaker 2: Did his father come or did he just talk to
29:36
Speaker 2: him over the phone?
29:37
Speaker 3: He spoke to him over the phone. I had told
29:40
Speaker 3: both students that I was going to split them up.
29:42
Speaker 3: They had several classes together, and Martiz did not want
29:47
Speaker 3: that to happen. And there was a day during his
29:51
Speaker 3: suspension that he was calling every office in the school
29:54
Speaker 3: building trying to get to me so he could convince
29:58
Speaker 3: me not to change their schedules. Students are usually not
30:01
Speaker 3: very happy with me when they meet with me because
30:04
Speaker 3: of my job to do discipline. However, this was.
30:08
Speaker 3: An extreme case for me. I was scared.
30:13
Speaker 2: You were scared of Martiz? Yes.
30:15
Speaker 3: I explained to him that this is what was going
30:18
Speaker 3: to happen. He kept trying to tell me that that's
30:21
Speaker 3: not what Kaylee wanted, that that's not what he wanted,
30:24
Speaker 3: that it wasn't as bad as what I thought. I
30:28
Speaker 3: ultimately had to hang up the phone on him because
30:30
Speaker 3: he would not stop talking.
30:35
Speaker 1: Martiz's defense team tried where they could to poke holes
30:39
Speaker 1: into what seemed like an airtight case of his guilt.
30:42
Speaker 1: One suggestion was that Stephanie Juga, in the chaos and
30:46
Speaker 1: trauma of the attack, had misidentified her daughter's ex-boyfriend as
30:50
Speaker 1: the killer. Because of the ongoing conflict between him and
30:53
Speaker 1: the family, it would have been natural to assume it
30:56
Speaker 1: was Martiz that she had encountered outside her daughter's room,
30:59
Speaker 1: even if it had been a complete stranger, they argued.
31:03
Speaker 1: After this identification was made, Investigators had not explored any
31:07
Speaker 1: other suspects. Stephanie Juga's testimony, however, was compelling and did
31:13
Speaker 1: not leave much room for doubt.
31:16
Speaker 6: And I went running out of my bathroom, through my bedroom,
31:21
Speaker 6: and stopped in the doorway of my bedroom.
31:26
Speaker 7: Facing me.
31:29
Speaker 6: Was Martiz with a gun.
31:33
Speaker 2: Did you say anything to him when you saw him?
31:36
Speaker 2: I did.
31:36
Speaker 6: I stopped in my doorway and I looked at him
31:39
Speaker 6: and I said, oh my God, Mark. I said, please,
31:42
Speaker 6: you don't have to do this. He looked at me
31:45
Speaker 6: and he said, yes, I do.
31:52
Speaker 1: Stephanie explained how she tried to render aid to Kaylee,
31:56
Speaker 1: but it had been too late.
31:59
Speaker 2: So then I tried to start doing CPR as fast
32:02
Speaker 2: as I could. And was that, were you able to
32:07
Speaker 2: do that having been shot in your own wrist? At
32:12
Speaker 2: that moment, it was very painful, but I didn't care.
32:16
Speaker 2: Trying to save her was more important. Did your daughter
32:19
Speaker 2: die as a result of those shots?
32:21
Speaker 6: She did.
32:22
Speaker 7: Yes.
32:26
Speaker 2: Right there on the lawn or earlier?
32:28
Speaker 3: I think she died in her room.
32:35
Speaker 1: Aunt Shanice told jurors about the confession her cousin made
32:38
Speaker 1: to her on the night of the murder. It was strange,
32:41
Speaker 1: she said, that he had arrived at her home that
32:43
Speaker 1: night at all. He was family, but they had never
32:47
Speaker 1: been very close. When he began telling her what had happened,
32:51
Speaker 1: she just listened. Then she called the police early the
32:54
Speaker 1: next morning.
33:00
Speaker 8: The detectives were telling me to put my daughter in
33:04
Speaker 8: their shoes and to see how it would feel about,
33:08
Speaker 8: you know, something happening like that to my daughter.
33:12
Speaker 11: Do you remember what additional things you told the officer
33:18
Speaker 11: at that time? So what did you say that the defendant,
33:22
Speaker 11: Martise Fuller, had told you about what happened at the
33:26
Speaker 11: Juga house that day?
33:29
Speaker 7: Well, he told me that he was watching her house
33:31
Speaker 7: for quite a while and that he knew when she
33:38
Speaker 7: would be alone at her house. And then he said
33:41
Speaker 7: that when he walked in, they were listening to music
33:45
Speaker 7: and heard Kylie was in her room and.
33:52
Speaker 7: What the door cracked or something like that and he
33:54
Speaker 7: said that he shot at her once and he freaked
33:57
Speaker 7: out and he snapped and shot at the mom twice.
34:03
Speaker 1: The defense did not call any witnesses. Martiz did not
34:11
Speaker 1: take the stand to testify. The state closed by outlining
34:16
Speaker 1: the number of absurd coincidences that would need to have
34:19
Speaker 1: taken place for his claim of innocence to be viable,
34:23
Speaker 1: that Martiz was unlucky enough to be misidentified at the scene,
34:27
Speaker 1: that his own cousin would know so many of the
34:30
Speaker 1: details of the crime before investigators had uncovered any footage
34:34
Speaker 1: or even completed an analysis of the crime scene, and
34:38
Speaker 1: that the confession she outlined to them would later be
34:40
Speaker 1: supported by so many facts.
34:44
Speaker 11: What a horrible coincidence if you're an innocent person. And then,
34:49
Speaker 11: here's a horrible coincidence.
34:52
Speaker 9: It's a cousin of yours who takes the police, who
34:57
Speaker 9: otherwise are never going to find this gun, to a
35:01
Speaker 9: sewer in Racine where they find the very gun that
35:05
Speaker 9: is the murder weapon. Okay, so you didn't kill her,
35:10
Speaker 9: but your cousin... is able to lead police to the
35:15
Speaker 9: murder weapon, which looks identical to a picture we have
35:21
Speaker 9: of you with the same gun and to what your
35:25
Speaker 9: friend says is the gun you showed him, just days
35:30
Speaker 9: before the murder.
35:33
Speaker 1: The last effort of the defense was to suggest that
35:36
Speaker 1: whoever the shooter was, they did not have the requisite
35:39
Speaker 1: time to leave the Juga home at 3 p.m., run
35:42
Speaker 1: to the park, change clothes, then be the same person
35:46
Speaker 1: captured riding the bike in the opposite direction just four
35:49
Speaker 1: minutes later. The timeline was impossible, they said. In rebuttal,
35:54
Speaker 1: the state suggested the timeline was in fact flawless. It
35:59
Speaker 1: was 0.32 miles from the park to the Juga house,
36:03
Speaker 1: which could be sprinted by a high school athlete in
36:05
Speaker 1: less than a minute. Riding a bike from the park
36:09
Speaker 1: to the house with a doorbell camera a distance of 0.17
36:12
Speaker 1: miles at the speed the rider was going would take
36:15
Speaker 1: only 30 to 40 seconds. That left a comfortable two
36:20
Speaker 1: to three minutes to change clothing, and the clothes they
36:23
Speaker 1: believed he was wearing would have come off quickly. A
36:26
Speaker 1: black warm-up suit that was designed to be pulled over
36:30
Speaker 1: other clothing. The jury returned with their verdict in a
36:36
Speaker 1: few short hours.
36:39
Speaker 12: The verdicts read as follows. We, the jury, find the
36:43
Speaker 12: defendant guilty of first-degree intentional homicide as charged in count
36:47
Speaker 12: one of the information. We, the jury, find the defendant
36:50
Speaker 12: guilty of attempted first-degree intentional homicide as charged in count
36:54
Speaker 12: two of the information, dated today and signed by the foreperson.
36:59
Speaker 1: After the verdict was read, Martiz looked to his family
37:02
Speaker 1: in the gallery. The realization that at the age of 16,
37:06
Speaker 1: he was likely to spend the rest of his life
37:08
Speaker 1: in prison must have set in slowly. It took a
37:12
Speaker 1: minute or two, but he tore off his face mask
37:15
Speaker 1: and began to sob. At his sentencing hearing, Martiz had
37:41
Speaker 1: his attorney read a prepared statement. He wrote that he
37:44
Speaker 1: was sorry for what had happened to Kaylee, but he
37:47
Speaker 1: was innocent of murder.
37:51
Speaker 3: Truthfully, I am sorry about the pain you've all suffered through,
37:55
Speaker 3: that this through this, but more importantly, the loss of
38:01
Speaker 3: my ex-girlfriend Kaylee that I loved too. So I am sorry.
38:07
Speaker 3: Despite the hatred that is against me, I still am sorry.
38:13
Speaker 3: But I have to continue to stand innocent because I am.
38:17
Speaker 3: And I know that I've barely showed emotion throughout my time,
38:21
Speaker 3: but in all honesty, it is because it's hard to
38:25
Speaker 3: have tears left. to cry knowing my mom lost a son,
38:31
Speaker 3: one of her children too.
38:33
Speaker 12: You sat emotionless until the verdict was returned. You seem
38:38
Speaker 12: to have no ethos, no regret, no sorrow, no empathy.
38:45
Speaker 12: You are for you and no one else. You are
38:49
Speaker 12: a very dangerous and a damaged human being.
38:54
Speaker 1: Martise Fuller was given a sentence of life without the
38:57
Speaker 1: possibility of parole. He is currently serving his sentence at
39:01
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Correctional Institute in Wisconsin, where his family
39:05
Speaker 1: visits often. Just over five years after her death, on
39:14
Speaker 1: what would have been her 20th birthday, Stephanie spoke about
39:18
Speaker 1: the loss and how much Kaylee is still missed.
39:23
Speaker 2: Today we celebrate Kaylee.
39:26
Speaker 3: Even though it's not the same.
39:27
Speaker 6: And this is our fifth birthday without her. I mean,
39:34
Speaker 6: how can it be five birthdays without her? And it
39:39
Speaker 6: just seems like everything happened yesterday.
39:49
Speaker 1: And that was the tragic case of Kaylee Juga. Thank
39:53
Speaker 1: you for joining me, and a special thanks this week
39:55
Speaker 1: to Tan Lewis, Cheryl McGrath, and Dr. Morse Diaries for
39:59
Speaker 1: joining our members lounge. Your extra support is really appreciated.
40:04
Speaker 1: And just a quick note to anyone who uses Spotify
40:07
Speaker 1: and would like to watch our videos through that platform,
40:10
Speaker 1: we are now uploading our videos there as well every week.
40:14
Speaker 1: I'm Kevin, this is Just Thought Lounge, and I'll see
40:17
Speaker 1: you in the next one.
40:21
Speaker 3: You see how Newton got his back?
40:23
Speaker 11: Yeah, the content that you need.
40:24
Speaker 4: This could be a new sign.
40:25
Speaker 11: We talk in the comments.
40:26
Speaker 4: They jot in a few lines.
40:28
Speaker 3: Tune in and hit like.
40:29
Speaker 2: Love that.
40:29
Speaker 4: It's too kind. Feels like the whole world is online
40:31
Speaker 4: for true crime. Watch them on the run, but it's
40:34
Speaker 4: not a race. Really hard to disappear. Proof without a trace.
40:37
Speaker 4: Sherlock Holmes with it. I put you in your place.
40:39
Speaker 4: Got my smoking pipe. Only right I crack another case like.
40:41
Speaker 5: I need that feeling that you brought. Who learned the
40:49
Speaker 5: lesson that you taught? To make a kill is what
40:54
Speaker 5: they saw. Found out the lounge just what you thought.