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Man Murdered 'Possessed' Girlfriend with Chainsaw · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So how well do you really know the people you
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: invite into your home for the holidays?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a heavy question to start with. Right.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: But I really want you to just sit with that
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: for a second. Because we all operate on this kind
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of ambient baseline of trust.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: We have to, honestly. I mean, it's the invisible infrastructure
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of society, right?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Exactly. We sit around a dinner table. We pass the turkey,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: share stories. And we just, you know, naturally assume that
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the public face our loved ones are projecting is a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: reliable proxy for their private reality.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we assume the person smiling across the table, like
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the person dating our sibling or our child is fundamentally
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: who they claim to be.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: And it's so wild because, you know, today's deep dive
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: is venturing straight into the center of what happens when
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that assumption just completely shatters.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: And that assumption is honestly, it's a cognitive necessity. If
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: we didn't extend that baseline trust, I mean, the friction
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: of daily life would paralyze us.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, for sure. You can't just interrogate everyone you meet.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Right. We don't have the mental bandwidth or, you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the legal authority to run forensic background checks or psych
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: evaluations on everyone who crosses our threshold.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: That would be exhausting.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: It would be impossible. So we rely on the social contract.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: We use this heuristic of familiarity. Assuming that prolonged exposure
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to a person, you know, means we actually understand their character.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Which is why the cognitive dissonance is so intense when
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: that heuristic fails, when you're forced to reconcile the person
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: you thought you knew with an action that is just
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: entirely alien to who they pretended to be.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And that dissonance is really the core of what
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: we're unpacking today.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Right. So for this deep dive, we are pulling from
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: law enforcement statements, family testimonies, and some really rigorous legal
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: analysis from the Law and Crime Network. And we're dissecting
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a recent case out of Phoenix, Arizona.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: And just to clarify, this isn't like a whodunit kind
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: of situation.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: No, not at all. It's a profound structural failure of
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that social contract we were just talking about. We're examining
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the murder of a 31-year-old woman named Paxton Wallace.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Allegedly at the hands of her longtime boyfriend, right?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. 47-year-old Jeffrey Rail. And our mission here is is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to look at the mechanics beneath the surface of this tragedy.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Because there's a lot going on legally and psychologically.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So much. We're looking at the architecture of the insanity defense,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the hidden, you know, cyclical machinery of domestic violence.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: And how the justice system actually handles a perpetrator's violent
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: history when they've spent years hiding it from the people
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: closest to them.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Which is just terrifying. The disparity between his public integration
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: into the family... And the private reality of the victim
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: is just it's the defining characteristic of this whole case.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. And to understand the legal and psychological complexities, we
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: really have to start with the environment that was projected
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: to the outside world.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Right. Let's talk about Paxton, because Paxton Wallace was, by
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: all available accounts, this incredibly stabilizing force in her family.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The source material describes her as deeply devoted to
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: her faith, a huge animal lover.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: She had two dogs.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Two dogs, yeah. And she was the kind of relative
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: who anchored the family with routines. Like, she hosted Sunday breakfasts.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Which is so wholesome. She provided this really grounded, consistent
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: environment for everyone.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: She did. Which makes the presence of Jeffrey Rayall seem,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: you know, on the surface, entirely benign.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Totally. He wasn't some new chaotic variable. He was a
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: long-term fixture in this family's ecosystem.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: They had integrated him into their most intimate spaces.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they spent holidays with him. Thanksgiving was actually Paxton's
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: favorite holiday, and they built years of shared memories with
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: this guy.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And from the vantage point of the family, looking at
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: the structural integrity of this relationship, there were zero visible
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: stress fractures.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Nothing. No public signals of coercive control. No visible volatility.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, he was just a trusted, embedded partner.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: But that embedded trust is exactly what makes the events
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: of November 7th so legally and psychologically dense.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Because the facade didn't just crack. It underwent a catastrophic
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: structural failure.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it completely collapsed because on that Friday morning at
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: approximately 3.40 a.m., the Phoenix Police Department gets a 911 call.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: And the caller wasn't a neighbor reporting a noise complaint
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: or like a passerby seeing something weird?
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: No. The call was initiated by Jeffrey Rail himself.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Which is wild.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: He literally informed the dispatcher that he had killed Paxton.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And the immediate justification he provides on that recording is,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is what instantly shifts this from a
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: standard homicide investigation into highly complex psychiatric territory.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Because he doesn't just say it was an accident or self-defense.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Right. He tells the dispatcher he killed her because she was, quote, possessed.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: And that single assertion dictates the entire defensive strategy we
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: are likely to see play out in court.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Just off that one word. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: By claiming he was reacting to a supernatural possession, he
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: is immediately laying the groundwork for a severe break from reality.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: He's signaling a state of psychosis.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: But, I mean, the challenge for both the prosecution and
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the defense is reconciling that verbal claim, this idea of
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: a sudden chaotic mental break, with the deeply methodical physical
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: reality of the crime scene.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Right, because what officers encountered when they arrived at the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: house was not just chaotic.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: The physical reality is staggering. When police secure the residence,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Ray Al is still there. And according to the court records,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: he's holding a hammer and a cross.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: A hammer and a cross. Yeah.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: And inside, they discover Paxton. And the trauma inflicted upon
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: her was so extensive that she was unrecognizable.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: It's horrific. But the detail that really complicates the narrative
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of a spontaneous psychotic break is what police find in
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: the kitchen.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Right. They recover a chainsaw.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: A chainsaw covered in biological matter.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Hair, blood, biological matter. It's a lot to process.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: We have to analyze those artifacts forensically because a hammer,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: a cross, and a chainsaw, this is not a crime
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: of opportunity.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Like he didn't just grab whatever was immediately within arm's
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: reach during a sudden surge of adrenaline.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The curation of those specific items requires what neurologists
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: and forensic psychologists call executive function and motor planning.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So meaning you actually have to think through the steps.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Yes. You have to conceptualize the act, locate the tools,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: retrieve them from wherever they are stored.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Presumably a garage or a shed for a chainsaw, right?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: People that usually keep those in the living room. Right.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: You have to go get them, bring them into the
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: living space and deploy them.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And that sequence of actions requires a working sequential memory.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: You can't just be flailing in a state of absolute
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: detached delirium and pull that off.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: No, it shows a sustained goal-oriented mindset, even if the
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: goal itself is rooted in a delusion.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Which brings me to a massive pushback on the logic
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of this crime. It's like looking at a picturesque house
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: from the street, only to find out the foundation is
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: entirely hollowed out.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: How do you mean?
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Well, think about it. If a person genuinely, 100%, believes
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: they are the hero in a narrative. Like, if their
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: brain is telling them they're performing a righteous act, stopping
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: a demonic possession to save someone from a literal demon.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Then... Calling 911 immediately afterward makes absolutely no sense. Doesn't
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that directly contradict the delusion?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Oh, that is the exact legal vulnerability that prosecutors will
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: hammer during a trial.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Because if you just saved the day, why call the cops?
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Exactly. The term of art here is consciousness of guilt.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: In forensic linguistics and behavioral analysis, a 911 call initiated
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: by the perpetrator is just a rich vein of data.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I bet.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Even if the caller claims a righteous motive, the very
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: deployment of the 911 system indicates an appraisal of the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: situation as an emergency requiring state intervention.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Right, not just a spiritual victory.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Yes. If he truly lacked the capacity to understand the
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: wrongfulness of his actions, he might have called a priest.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Or honestly, he might have simply gone to sleep, satisfied
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: that the demon was vanquished.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah. Calling the police is an implicit acknowledgment of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a transgression against societal rules.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: It indicates an appraisal of the wrongfulness of his conduct.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: He knew he had done something that the secular legal
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: world considers a crime.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And that bizarre juxtaposition, this religious delusional motive mixed with
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a self-reported 911 call that leads directly into the legal
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: puzzle of this case.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: How does the justice system evaluate an admission of guilt
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: wrapped in a claim of insanity? Right.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Let's look at the charges. Rael is currently booked into
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: jail facing a charge of first-degree murder. And held on
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a $ 1 million bond.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Which is a massive bond, but standard for a case
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: with these dynamics.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: But wait, how do prosecutors justify a first-degree murder charge
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: right out of the gate? Doesn't that require proving premeditation
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and deliberation?
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: It does. And the prosecution will use the very evidence
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: we just discussed to prove it. The presence of multiple weapons,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: the staging of the cross that suggests planning and forethought.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: So it wasn't a single impulsive strike? No. No.
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  Speaker 2: This calculated setup cuts deeply against a defense arguing a sudden,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: unforeseeable psychotic break.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: So how does the defense actually counter that? Because legally speaking,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: insanity isn't just a medical diagnosis, right? It's a legal construct.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: That is a crucial distinction, yes. The DSM-5, which is
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the manual used by psychiatrists, does not contain a diagnosis
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: of insanity.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So what's the actual threshold in Arizona?
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: In Arizona, the legal standard is rooted in a variation
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: of the historical M'notten rule. It goes back to an
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: 1843 British case.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: 1843, wow.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's old. Under this rule, a person can be
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: found guilty except insane if, at the time of the
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: criminal act, they had a mental disease or defect that
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: was so severe it prevented them from knowing the criminal
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: act was wrong.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: OK, so the burden isn't just proving he was experiencing
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: a delusion or that he had like a diagnosed mental
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: illness like schizophrenia.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Correct. It is an exceptionally high bar.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: You have to prove that the specific illness in the
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: exact moment completely severed his cognitive ability to evaluate moral
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: or legal wrongfulness.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly. A defendant can be experiencing profound hallucinations. They can
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: be deeply unwell. But if the prosecution can demonstrate that
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: they still retained a baseline understanding that killing another human
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: being is illegal and morally wrong.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Then the insanity defense fails.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: It fails completely. And this is why the curation of
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: the weapons and the 911 call are so devastating to
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: that defense strategy.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Because they show a functional grasp of cause and effect.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: Yes. Retrieving a chainsaw and subsequently calling the authorities are
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: actions of a mind that, while perhaps disordered, still grasps criminality.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: I'm really curious about the mechanics of how a court
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: determines that retroactively.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: It's a battle of the experts, really.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Right, because by the time this case reaches trial, we'll
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: be months or even years removed from November 7th. Absolutely.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And you can't just draw blood and test for an
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: absence of moral reasoning on a Tuesday three years ago.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: No, unfortunately, you can't.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: So how do they prove the state of someone's mind
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: after the fact? How do forensic psychologists evaluate a claim
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: like this and detect whether someone is genuinely psychotic or just,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: you know, legally faking it?
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: The clinical term for faking it is malingering. And it
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: is a rigorous, multilayered forensic process to catch it.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: OK, break that down for me.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So when defense and state psychiatrists evaluate a defendant, they
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: don't just conduct a casual interview and ask, how are
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: you feeling?
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Right. I assume it's more scientific than that.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: Much more. They utilize comprehensive mental health evaluations and specialized
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: psychometric testing designed specifically to detect malingering, which, again, is
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: exaggerating symptoms for secondary gain, like avoiding prison.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: What kind of test?
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: They might use instruments like the MMPI-2, which has built-in
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: validity scales that flag when a subject is over-reporting bizarre symptoms,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: or the SIRS, the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Wait, how does a test actually catch someone's hallucination? Like,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: if I tell a doctor I'm hearing demonic voices, how
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: do they prove I'm not?
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: It's fascinating, actually. Because genuine psychosis has highly specific documented
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: clinical presentations.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: And lay people attempting to fake it almost always get
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: the details wrong.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Wow. Like what?
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Well, for example, malingerers often claim to have continuous visual
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: hallucinations of dramatic figures, like a literal demon standing in
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: the room 24-7.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Like out of a movie.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Exactly. But in genuine schizophrenia or severe psychotic disorders, hallucinations
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: are far more frequently auditory and they're intermittent.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: They come and go.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Yes. And the voices usually speak in specific linguistic patterns.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: They often narrate the person's actions or issue brief derogatory commands.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: They don't usually have long, philosophical conversations about demons.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: That's wild. So they look for a mismatch in the symptoms.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: They do. Furthermore, genuine patients usually develop complex coping mechanisms
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: to deal with their hallucinations over time.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Because they've lived with it.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Right. A malingerer will often present this sort of caricature
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: of madness, claiming sudden, all-encompassing visual and auditory command hallucinations
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: that perfectly justify the crime, with no prior psychiatric history
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: of that specific pathology.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: So the experts are looking for a structural mismatch between
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: the defendant's narrative and decades of established psychiatric data on
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: how the brain actually degrades during a psychotic break.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They look at the days leading up to the event.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: They search for a severe diagnosable mental disease, not just
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: a bad day or a panic attack. And then they'll
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: argue it out in court.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: And the defense and prosecution will likely present totally conflicting evaluations.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Almost certainly.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: But, you know, all this focus on the perpetrator's mind.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: it inevitably pulls our attention away from the victim. It does.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: And if the physical evidence, the planning, suggests calculation rather
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: than a sudden snap, it implies a buildup. It begs
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the question, what was actually happening in the days and
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: weeks leading up to this?
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Right. What was the hidden reality?
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It implies an ongoing pathology of control that was
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: totally invisible to the family, but acutely felt by Paxton.
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: Which requires a pivot from the forensic analysis of the
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: perpetrator to the sociological and psychological reality of the victim.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the aftermath revelations.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Because the tragic details emerging from Paxton's family are just heartbreaking.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: They really are. After the murder, Paxton's sister, Alita, and
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: her Aunt Tiffany revealed that Paxton was secretly trying to
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: get out of the relationship.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: She was navigating an exit strategy.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: She was. She was reaching out for help, but she
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: was doing it covertly, suffering in silence.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: She was essentially living a dual existence. And her sister
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: provided this quote that just, it cuts right to the
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: psychological core as domestic abuse. She said, no one wants
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: to say that someone who said they love them is
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: hurting them.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: That is just so profound.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: It really captures the immense gravitational pull of shame, doesn't it?
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: We assume victims are desperate to expose their abusers, but
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the reality is they often act as human shields. They do.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: They internalize the trauma privately to protect their family from
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: the devastating realization that this trusted person is dangerous.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Right. Paxton was shielding her family from the truth.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: And that protective instinct is a recognized component of the
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: trauma bond. The victim internalizes the shame. But when Paxton
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: did attempt to bypass that shame and seek an exit,
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: she hit the systemic friction that traps so many people.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Let's dig into the aunt's heartbreaking statement about domestic
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: violence shelters. He described the process as a lottery.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: She said, there's a wait list, there's a lottery, it's
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: a hope you get in.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Which is infuriating.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Because we so often hear society ask that profoundly ignorant question,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: why didn't she just leave?
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, I hate that question.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Me too. But, I mean, I have to ask you
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: and everyone listening, if the safety nets themselves are treating
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: survival like a lottery ticket, is it any wonder people
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: stay silent?
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Not at all. It's a systemic failure.
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: The analogy I always come back to when looking at
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the systemic and psychological traps of domestic violence is a
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: lobster trap.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a good way to look at it.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Right. Because if you look at a lobster trap from
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the outside, the opening is wide, the bait is appealing,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: and it seems incredibly easy to just swim back out.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: But it's not. No.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: The entire structure is engineered with this funnel mechanism that
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: allows entry but physically binds you when you try to
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: reverse course.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: That's a powerful analogy.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: The psychological manipulation is the bait, and the systemic failure,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: like a shelter wait list, is the funnel.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: And the structural engineering of that trap is deeply rooted
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: in neurobiology, too. The cycle of abuse isn't simply a
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: pattern of bad behavior. It is a mechanism of neurochemical dependency.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Wait, really? Like an actual chemical addiction?
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Yes. It operates on the principle of intermittent reinforcement. The
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: abuser creates a high-stress, high-fear environment, triggering massive cortisol spikes
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: in the victim.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: So they're in a state of pure terror.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Right. But then, when the acute violent incident concludes, the
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: abuser pivots to the honeymoon phase. They offer apologies, intense affection,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: promises of reform.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Which is incredibly confusing.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: It's confusing. And biologically, this sudden shift from mortal terror
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: to perceived safety triggers a massive flood of dopamine and
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: oxytocin in the bookdom's brain.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Wow. So the abuser essentially positions themselves as the only
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: available antidote to the profound terror they themselves just created.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Precisely. The victim's brain becomes chemically addicted to the relief
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: that follows the violence.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: That is insidious.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: And that neurochemical bond is incredibly difficult to sever. When
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: you compound that biological trap with stark logistical realities like
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: shared financial assets, fear of retaliation, and a severely underfunded
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: social safety net where finding a secure bed is literally
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: a lottery.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: The barriers to leaving become nearly insurmountable.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the data on lethality is unequivocal. The risk
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: of homicide spikes dramatically at the exact moment the victim
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: attempts to sever the relationship.
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: As the abuser recognizes a total loss of coercive control.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, and they escalate to lethal violence to maintain it.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Which brings up a huge evidentiary hurdle for the prosecution
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: in this specific trial. Paxson is gone. She is. She
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: cannot take the stand and testify about the history of
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: coercive control or the prior threats or her attempts to leave.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: And from what we know, none of this was documented
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: in prior police reports or restraining orders during their relationship.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Right. It was all hidden.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: So how does the state legally introduce the reality of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: this abusive relationship to a jury when their primary witness
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: has been murdered? Can the family's observations even be used?
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. And it's a common issue in
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: domestic violence cases. Prosecutors dupely investigate the history. And they
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: utilize complex legal avenues to get this information in.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Despite the hearsay rules.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. While a family member cannot typically testify, Paxton
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: told me Jeffrey hit her because that is classic hearsay. Right.
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: They can testify to their present sense impressions and observe
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: changes in demeanor. They can testify to seeing unexplained bruising
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: or noticing that she became increasingly isolated or observing physical
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: fear responses when he entered a room.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: So it's about reconstructing the atmosphere of control through circumstantial evidence. Right.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: painting a picture of a pattern.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Prior acts, changes in the relationship, family observations of fear.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: These are highly relevant to establish a pattern.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Okay. So the family didn't see the acute danger while
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: she was alive, but their retrospective synthesis of those behavioral
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: anomalies becomes critical evidence now. Right.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: And there's another shocking revelation here that prosecutors will absolutely
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: want to use.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, you mean the criminal history? Yes.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: Because while the family was observant, in the dark, the
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: criminal justice system already had a paper trail of this
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: man's capacity for extreme violence.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: This is the part that moves this case from a
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: private tragedy to a full-on indictment of systemic blind spots.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: If we pull his records, the timeline is deeply deserving.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: More than a decade prior to his relationship with Paxton,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Rial had a violent felony on his record in Maricopa County, Arizona.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: In 2012, right?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, 2012. He faced multiple counts of aggravated assault, resulting
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: in one guilty conviction.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: And aggravated assault is not a minor infraction. It legally
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: requires the presence of a deadly weapon or the infliction
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: of serious significant physical injury.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: It establishes a documented baseline that this guy has the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: psychological willingness to cross the ultimate physical boundary.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: And the pattern didn't stop there. Fast forward 10 years
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: to 2022. He faces another multi-count criminal complaint in Arizona.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: And while specific details aren't in the public docket for
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: that one, we know it resulted in another guilty conviction
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: in January 2023.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Mere months before he murdered Paxton. Right.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: It solidifies that this was not an isolated youthful indiscretion.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: It was an enduring behavioral pattern.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: The disparity in how we handle this kind of data
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: is maddening to me.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: What do you mean?
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Well, think about it like a background check. If I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: apply for a corporate job or if I want to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: drive for a rideshare app, a biometric background check is
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: going to immediately flag a 2012 violent felony and a
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: 2023 conviction.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Right. You'd be disqualified instantly.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: The algorithm prevents me from participating in that system. But
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: when you're hiring a life partner, when a person integrates
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: into a family unit, gains access to a partner's home,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: their finances, their physical safety, we fly totally blind.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: We really do.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: We rely entirely on the abuser's willingness to self-report their
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: own violent history, which obviously they aren't going to do.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: How can someone with this history integrate so seamlessly into
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a family without them knowing?
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: It's because we protect commercial and institutional environments with rigorous
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: data transparency, but we leave the most intimate, vulnerable spaces
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: completely unprotected.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Unless you literally hire a private investigator for your dates.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Right, which no one does. But here's the crazy part
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: about the legal mechanics of this trial. The application of
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: this history in court is highly restrictive.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Wait, really? Because my immediate assumption is that the prosecution
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: will just print out the 2012 and 2023 convictions, hand
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: them to the jury, and say, look, he's a violent man.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: He did it again.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: They want to, but the rules of evidence heavily restrict that.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Can the jury hear about the 2012 assault? It's governed
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: by something called Rule 404B. What is that? The core
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: philosophy of the American justice system is that you must
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: be tried for the specific crime you were accused of committing,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: not for your overall character.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Okay. I guess that makes sense in theory.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Right. If the prosecution simply introduces the 2012 assault, the
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: immense risk is that the jury will experience extreme prejudice.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: They'll just convict him based on his propensity for violence,
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: ignoring whether the state actually met the burden of proof
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: for the events of November 7th.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: So the judge acts as a filter.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: And the 2012 conviction faces the significant hurdle of what
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: we call attenuation in time.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Because it's so old.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Because over a decade has passed, a judge is
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: unlikely to let the prosecution use it in their primary
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: case to prove character. The probative value is drastically outweighed
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: by the prejudicial effect.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: But wait, the defense has to walk a really tightrope
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: here then, right?
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: They absolutely do.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Because if they try to paint a picture of Rael
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: as this gentle, peace-loving man who just suddenly snapped due
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to demonic possession, they risk... detonating their own protective shield.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: You are describing the exact legal trapdoor we call opening
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: the door.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I've heard that phrase.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: The protections of Rule 404B are a shield, but the
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: defendant can easily drop it. If Roehl takes the stand
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: and claims, I'm a peaceful guy, this is out of character.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: The legal calculus instantly changes.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: He opens the door.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: He opens the door. The defense has introduced character as
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: a central pillar of their argument. and the prosecution can
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: instantly bring out the 2012 aggravated assault to impeach his credibility.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow. They get to say, you claim you're peaceful,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: but the state of Arizona locked you up for aggravated assault,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: didn't they?
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It turns his own defense strategy into a weapon
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: against him. And furthermore, even if it doesn't come up
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: in the trial itself, this history will heavily influence the
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: judge during any potential sentencing phase.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: Good, because it needs to be known. But yeah, zooming
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: out from the specific legal maneuvers of this one trial...
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: This isn't just the story of one man slipping through
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the cracks.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: No, it's emblematic of a rising systemic issue across the country.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the source material provided an analysis of crime data
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: that situates this case within a really disturbing national context.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: It contradicts current crime trends.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about the data, because the Council on Criminal
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Justice just released some fascinating numbers.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Right. The macro data shows that in the first half
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of the year, compared to the same period in 2024, Overall,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: violent offenses in major U.S. cities, including Phoenix, are actually declining. Right.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Homicides, robberies, general assaults are down.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: But embedded within that overall decline is this glaring exception.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Domestic violence incidents have risen by about 3%.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: Which is a highly specific localized pathology. It is.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: It suggests that while the public square is becoming safer,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the private sphere is becoming increasingly lethal. But I want
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: to offer a sort of silver lining hypothesis here, get
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: your take on it.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: OK, let's hear it.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Because crime data is notoriously complex. Is domestic violence actually
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: increasing or are we just finally seeing an increase in reporting?
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Ah, the reporting hypothesis.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because DV is historically so underreported and hidden. So
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a statistical spike in police data might just mean victims
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: are finally breaking their silence.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: I agree. This is a highly plausible contributing factor. Domestic
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: violence is uniquely susceptible to underreporting because, as we discussed,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: the perpetrator literally controls the victim's access to communication and
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: support networks.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Right. Coming forward means facing embarrassment, family shock, community ridicule.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: And harsh cross-examination at trial. It's a gauntlet.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: It really is. So if more people are surviving that
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: gauntlet and that 3% rise is due to more reporting,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: then that's actually the only way society can accurately appraise
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: the severity of the issue.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It gives policymakers the hard data required to begin
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: building better safety nets, like fixing that shelter lottery we
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: talked about.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: But even if it is just reporting, the unique nature
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: of DV compared to other crimes is still alarming. It is.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: Think about a random bar fight. A bar fight is
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: usually an isolated event between strangers. Right.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: You get hit, you go home, it's over. Right. But
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: domestic violence, by nature, is repetitive, cyclical, and escalating. It
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: relies on the systematic dismantling of a partner's autonomy. Therefore,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: a rising trend in this specific crime category is a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: glaring warning sign of lethality in our communities.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Which brings us inevitably back to the reality of Paxton
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: Wallace and her family's pursuit of justice. Because all of
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: this bureaucratic machinery, the data, the legal rules, it's all
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: grinding away because a family has been permanently fractured. The
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: family initiated a GoFundMe to manage the nightmare of burying
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: a 31-year-old. And their description of her is really the
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: moral anchor here.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: It is so poignant.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: They wrote that she was incredibly bright, selfless and beautiful
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: and that she had so many dreams left unfinished.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And their final observation on that page just distills the
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: essence of the betrayal perfectly. They said he promised us
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: he would keep her safe. And in the end, after
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: years of domestic violence, he took her life.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: It's just devastating. It is. And this case is going
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: to test the limits of the insanity defense, the thoroughness
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: of premeditation evidence. And the legal system's ability to contextualize
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: domestic violence.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: It really will. But beyond the courtroom, I want to
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: leave you, the listener, with a final lingering question to
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: ponder on your own.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: It's something we all need to think about.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Because we live in an era where we can digitally
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: track everything, right? Yeah. Our food deliveries, our screen time,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the exact GPS location of our phones 24-7.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: We have so much data.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yet the most dangerous blind spots remain stubbornly analog.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Human trust. the silent endurance of those we love, and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: what truly happens when the front door closes? Does our
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: modern illusion of total information actually make us more vulnerable
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: to intimate deception? It is something to keep in mind
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the next time you assume you know everything about the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: people in your life.