Latest / The Mind of a Man / The Brutal and Disturbing Murder of Ariana Wolk

Transcript

The Brutal and Disturbing Murder of Ariana Wolk · The Mind of a Man

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: In July 2020, the granddaughter of a Manson family victim
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: was discovered by a friend, deceased, in her Colorado apartment.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Ariana Woke had been brutally stabbed to death, meeting the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: same violent end as that suffered by her grandmother five
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: decades earlier. Neighbors recounted seeing Ariana earlier in the day,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: and she was not alone. What these witnesses told detectives
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: was not only revealing, but also deeply Hi there, I'm Kevin,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and welcome to Just Thought Lounge. Today's case takes us
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to Colorado in 2020. But the details, unfortunately, harken back
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to a brutal murder that took place in California five
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: decades earlier. The details surrounding this case are far less well-known,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: yet some are chillingly similar and equally strange. Let's take
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a look. On Friday, July 3rd, just before 9.30pm, a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: call was placed to Denver 911 from a resident of
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: an apartment building on North Oneida Street. The caller explained
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that a man had knocked on their door moments earlier,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: stating that they arrived at the unit upstairs to find
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: their friend, who lived there, dead.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: I went to Sonic, and then I went to my house,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: which is on, which is about Mountain State Square.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: And I was there the whole time until I just
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: came back.
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: Here, walked inside.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: The back door was open.
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: I walked inside.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I was like, hello, my gosh.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: And I walked in, and I found her on the
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: back door.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: When did you return back here? When she called, I
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: went upstairs, went inside, saw her, walked outside, and straight
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: down here and asked her to call because my phone's actually.
• 2:07
  Speaker 6: In her room.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: 40-year-old Ariana Woke was found on her bedroom floor near
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the closet. The single mother of a young son was
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: pronounced dead by paramedics upon their arrival. She had suffered
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: nearly 20 stab wounds, many to her back and neck.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: The friend who had discovered Ariana told officers on scene
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: that she had been struggling recently with alcohol addiction. They
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: were staying at the apartment temporarily to assist her sobriety.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Ariana's son was with other family on the night of
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: her death. That day, she had plans to attend a
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: barbecue with her boyfriend.
• 2:44
  Speaker 7: Earlier today, before I left, she was like, hey, you
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: want to go with us to the park?
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: And I was like, no, I need to go home.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: I haven't been able to change or do anything in
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: two days. So I said, I'm going. And she was
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: supposed to be going to City Park to barbecue with
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: her boyfriend. That's the last thing that I know.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Officers then spoke with the neighbor who called 911. That
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: individual had seen Ariana earlier in the day, and she
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: had not been alone. The neighbor described the man that
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: she saw with Ariana that night.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: So what time today did you see him? Was it
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: light outside, dark outside? Yeah, I was closing my blinds
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: about 4 to 9, and I saw him. I looked
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: out the back window, and he was there, and he
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: went around the back part. He came in through the gate.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: He went into the gate and around.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: To the end.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: What did he look like? White guy, black guy, Hispanic guy? Black?
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: White.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: White. Okay.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: The downstairs neighbor told the officer on scene that the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: unknown man knocked on her door around 8.45 p.m. He
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: wanted to speak with her about what he said was
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Ariana's strange behavior.
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: He came downstairs twice, and he asked me, can I
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: come in and talk to you about her?
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I said, no.
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: Stand outside, talk to the door.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: You know, and he says, well, I don't like the
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: way she's acting. She's acting weird and everything.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: Talking about, he said she's going to do something to
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: herself because she wasn't.
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: You know, acting strange. Right.
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: He said, okay.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: He went back upstairs, but he said he was leaving.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: But like I said, half an hour later.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: After stating that Ariana was a threat to herself, the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: man said he was leaving, except he didn't. The neighbor
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: saw him in the backyard just a half an hour later,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and he was shirtless. It was only 15 minutes after that,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Ariana's friend found her on the bedroom floor. Ariana had
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: lived on Oneida Street alone for only a short time.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Her on-again, off-again boyfriend had moved out only a few
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: months prior to her death. Described by friends as a
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: sweet person and a loving mother, she was known for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: her generous spirit, her silliness, and positive personality. Ariana was
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: born on Easy Street in Penn Valley, California, into a
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: family that had experienced tragedy years before. In August 1969,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Her mother, Susan LaBerge, had discovered her own mother, Rosemary,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: and stepfather, Lino LaBianca, brutally murdered in their Los Angeles home,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: victims of Charles Manson and his followers. The LaBianca murders
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: took place the night following the infamous killing of actress
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Sharon Tate and four of her companions. Manson was reportedly
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: unhappy with how the Tate murders had gone down, too
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: much panic, insufficient weapons. So, the next night, he took
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the four murderers from the night before, as well as
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: two more followers, in search of another house to break into,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: and more people to murder. For reasons that are debated,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: he chose the home of Lino Labianca, who was a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: wealthy grocery store executive. He and wife Rosemary, Ariana's grandmother,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: were brutally murdered. Rosemary was found in the living room,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Lino in the bedroom. Each had been stabbed dozens of times.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Ariana was born in 1979, ten years after the killings.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: At 40 years old, she was just two years older
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: than her grandmother had been when she, too, was stabbed
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: to death in her home. Shortly after officers secured the
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: scene and began interviewing witnesses, detectives arrived. They found what
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: appeared to be a trail of blood beginning in the
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: bedroom through the living room on the floor and leading
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: into the kitchen. There was a folding knife with blood
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: on it in the kitchen sink as well as residue
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: on the faucet. The obvious suspect was Ariana's sometimes boyfriend,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: a man named Patrick. Friends reported that she was meant
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: to meet with him that day. There was also a
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: history of domestic violence in their relationship. In fact, Patrick
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: was on pretrial release from an incident that took place
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: between the two of them in May of that year.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Since then, he had been living out of his car.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Patrick sat down with detectives the day following the murder.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Were you anywhere near the Oneida Street address at all yesterday?
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Closest I was was Walgreens.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: What time was that? Two, three o'clock. Like right after
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: that barbecue. Did you have any contact with Ariana yesterday
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: in person? Yeah, I did. At the Walgreens?
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Was it at the Walgreens or another business nearby?
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: Walgreens. Okay.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Can you do me a favor real quick? Can you
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: put your hands out like that for me? And then
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: can you turn your hands over? Thank you.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Patrick told the detective that he spoke with Ariana briefly
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: at a Walgreens the afternoon before she died. She seemed
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: to have been drinking, he said, and was too inebriated
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: to continue with their plans, so he left. He also
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: introduced another line of inquiry. Patrick stated that Ariana was
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: quick to make new friends. He claimed that she had
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a habit of inviting strangers back to her apartment. Often,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: these were individuals without a home of their own. According
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: to Patrick, she befriended random people on the street.
• 8:51
  Speaker 8: The thing with Ariana is if she gets intoxicated, she
• 8:54
  Speaker 8: brings home people.
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: Vagrants.
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: I mean, I used to be homeless, and so she
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: would bring home people and.
• 9:06
  Speaker 9: Complete strangers and just put trust in them.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: What do you mean by that?
• 9:12
  Speaker 7: Like.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Um, here's my debit card. Go to the store.
• 9:17
  Speaker 8: Like, um, no thought process when drinking about people taking advantage.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Or doing stuff like that. So how often is she
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: bringing people to the house?
• 9:29
  Speaker 6: Frequently.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Like daily.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: No, it was just like friendly.
• 9:34
  Speaker 8: Like I'm trying to feed them, help them out type of.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Okay. Yeah.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: When Patrick encountered Ariana at the Walgreens, he said that
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: she was with an unknown young man they had just
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: met on the street while on her way to the
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: store only minutes before.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Was she with anyone?
• 9:54
  Speaker 9: She was intoxicated and she was with a younger 20-year-old kid.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: What did he look like?
• 10:02
  Speaker 9: Like, kind of flamboyant, dark, dark hair.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: White, black, Hispanic? Oh, white. You're saying flamboyant. Tell me
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: what you mean.
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Gay.
• 10:15
  Speaker 9: Like he just had like, like, like a gay or
• 10:18
  Speaker 9: stylish haircut.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to not be derogatory. You're saying younger, like
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: how old?
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: 20, she said.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: 20?
• 10:25
  Speaker 9: She was like, oh, I met this gay 20.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Year old, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: She was like.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: Do you know what he was wearing?
• 10:32
  Speaker 9: I might've had a red shirt, but I mean, I
• 10:35
  Speaker 9: just briefly saw him.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Did she introduce him?
• 10:38
  Speaker 6: She did, but I don't remember his name.
• 10:40
  Speaker 9: She met him supposedly walking from Oneida to Walgreens.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: While detectives spoke with Patrick, they also verified his alibi.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: One condition of his pretrial release was an ankle monitor.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Pretrial services tracked Patrick's GPS from that device on the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: day of the murder and found that he was not
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: at Ariana's address at any time. He was eliminated as
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: a suspect in her murder. As strange as it seemed,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: he was not the only one to tell detectives that
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: Ariana had a habit of inviting vagrants to her home
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Returning to the neighbors in her building, they spoke with
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the son of one tenant who was frequently visiting the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: downstairs apartment. He not only confirmed that seeing Ariana with
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: new people regularly was common, but he also described seeing
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: a man that matched the description provided by Patrick.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: You know, she has many new faces. You know, all
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: the time. That lives upstairs?
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: She has new people. every time. I mean, after, uh, well,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Patrick left. Poisoning or whatever.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: You know, after he left, she had so many people,
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: all kinds of different kinds of guys every day.
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Um, did you see the neighbor at the house?
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Um, yes.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: She was coming from the liquor store, I guess.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: And she was, she had a dog walking, walking with
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: a dog. Okay.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Was she with anyone else at that time? Um, no.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Did you hear somebody else or see somebody else?
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: I seen this guy that I'd never seen before. My
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: mom said she seen him. Okay, what did he look like?
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: It was a Mexican guy with a box butt. I
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: seen him real good when, you know, she fell down
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: that stairs down there on like the back door.
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: Okay.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, her foot was right up on the top.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: I don't hear her foot.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Her foot was, you know, from the top.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: It was hanging on the top. And I said, oh,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: did you push him? Did you just push him? And
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: he said, no. And she said, no, he's gay.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Surveillance video from a camera on East Colfax Avenue in
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: North Monaco Street at 5.15 p.m. on July 3rd showed
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Ariana walking eastbound on the street in the company of
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: a man with black hair. Her friend's small dog walked
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: with them. The man was wearing all black with bright
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: red shoes. They were captured crossing the street and continuing
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: in the direction of Ariana's apartment on Oneida. On Colfax Street,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the two had entered a store that was equipped with
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: internal security cameras. Still images from these cameras showed the
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: man in black carrying a clear plastic Starbucks cup filled
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: with a pink drink. He also had a distinctive tattoo
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: on his left forearm. It was the Starbucks cup that
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: detectives narrowed in on. One similar to it had been
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: discarded on the front yard of Ariana's building and spotted
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: by officers. That cup was later recovered from the lawn
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: and sent for testing. Fingerprints pulled from the plastic returned
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: a match. Jose Sandoval Romero. He was 24 years old
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: with a matching build to the man in the surveillance.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: He had short, dark brown hair and a red tattoo
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: on his arm which appeared to match the one captured
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: on camera. On July 7th, Jose was brought into the
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: station for questioning. Unlike Patrick, who had no visible cuts
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: or scratches on his hands or arms, Jose had two separate,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: partially healed cuts to his right hand. It was a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: telltale sign, consistent with a knife slipping as he made
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: stabbing motions. These cuts were also thought to be the
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: cause of the blood droplets observed on the living room
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and kitchen floors at the murder scene. Complaining of light sensitivity,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Jose wore his sunglasses for most of the interview. He
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: began by explaining how he had encountered Ariana that afternoon
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: while she was arguing with Patrick.
• 14:53
  Speaker 6: And then all of a sudden, this lady and this
• 14:55
  Speaker 6: guy were fighting outside of a Walgreens, and the lady
• 14:59
  Speaker 6: started coming up to me.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Asking, like, are you, like, are you okay?
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, uh, do I know you? Is that
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: your boyfriend right there? Is he going to try to
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: beat me up if I talk to you? The boyfriend
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: got out the car and, you know, tried to talk
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: to her, but she said that he had like a
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: restraining order on her or something or an ankle bracelet.
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: And I was like, you don't need to cry. It's okay.
• 15:23
  Speaker 6: She just kept telling me that she wanted to put
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: some type of drug in me because she said that
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: she does these type of drugs to herself.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: And she says she puts frog poison in her body.
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: And she says that she wanted me to go with
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: her and do the same thing.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: And I told her, no, I don't know nothing about
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: that stuff. The Walgreens you're talking about is the one
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: that's next to Frosted Leaf. Is that the Walgreens you're
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: talking about? Yeah. Okay. So you say you run into
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: this lady and this guy. So they're arguing. So he
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: ends up leaving. And then you guys....
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Jose said that after Patrick left, he and Ariana purchased
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: food for a man they encountered in the alleyway. After that,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: he was compelled to help her home because she did
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: not appear capable of getting there on her own. He
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: continued to insist that he did not want to go
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: with her, that her strange references to feeding him frog
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: poison frightened him.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: And then we went, gave the bum the food, and
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: then from there she kept stumbling on the ground And
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: she had a dog and a bunch of stuff carrying her.
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: She's like, I cannot make it home by myself.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: Please, you need to come with me.
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: And I'm like, miss, I really don't want to hang
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: out with you.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: There's something wrong with you. You have so much stuff
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: and for some reason you just keep stumbling.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: On the ground.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Jose did agree to help Ariana home. Once inside, he
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: made her a cup of tea. He claimed to be
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: unaware that she was intoxicated. primarily because he did not
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: see her actually consume any alcohol. He did, however, know
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: that something was not quite right.
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: Let me make you some tea, let me make you
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: some coffee, let me do anything to make you feel better.
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: And I started making her coffee, tea, and she would
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: just keep crying, and she would just keep trying to
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: fight with me. At some point, she just started actually
• 17:21
  Speaker 6: trying to fight with me. And after that, I just
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: kind of lost it.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And The portion of the story that Jose believed was
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: self-explanatory was that he proceeded to stab Ariana multiple times
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: in the back. They had met only hours earlier. At first,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the 24-year-old claimed that he had tried to leave. He
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: went to the downstairs neighbor and told her that Ariana
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was acting strangely. He claimed this was in order to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: help her so he could leave knowing that the neighbor
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: would check in on her later.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: And then I went downstairs, told the neighbor, hey, this
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: lady's crazy.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: I gotta go. Like, there's something wrong with her.
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: In a couple hours, can you come and check up
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: on her? I was like, I'm trying to go. I'm
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: not trying to comfort this girl.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: I was like, I'm trying to go.
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: Can you please go and.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: Check up on her?
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: She's like, you see, that's the thing about her is
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: we're worried and we're.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Scared of her. And we don't know if we.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: She was like, I'll just call the cops because I'm
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: not going to be dealing with her.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: That's not, I'm too old and this and that. And
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, miss.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: But instead of leaving, he went back to the apartment.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Then he said that Ariana began messing with his head.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: I just, I don't know how she did it. She
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: just played me.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: She pretty much, I don't know why she fucking told
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: me to go with her. This lady literally picked me
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: up from the street. And she made me feel bad.
• 18:55
  Speaker 6: And every time I would leave her, she would stumble
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: on the ground.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: And make me feel bad. And every time I said, no,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: I gotta go.
• 19:01
  Speaker 6: Something's not right with you.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: And then she would stumble on the ground and cry.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: And she would just stumble on the ground and cry.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: And I just, I don't know. She just played me.
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: She played me.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: But I pretty much played myself by listening to her.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you, she drugged me. Like, she drugged me
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: and she told me.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Jose told detectives a confusing cocktail of motives for the killing.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: His overarching assertion was that Ariana convinced him to kill her.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: He claimed they came to an agreement about it, and
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that in a matter of only a few hours, he
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: came to believe it was the only way to help her.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: But he played with the idea that he was defending
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: himself by claiming that she threatened him, that her boyfriend
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: was on his way to the apartment with another man
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: and they planned to kill him. Finally, he asserted that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Ariana had abruptly turned violent, at one point coming at
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: him with the knife. He managed to fight her off,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: though the attack made him angry. So, he used the
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: knife to stab Ariana.
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: And the only way to help her was apparently her
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: crazy way.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: To help kill her?
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:16
  Speaker 7: So when she's talking to you about that, you're telling me,
• 20:20
  Speaker 7: and again, correct me if I'm not understanding you. What
• 20:24
  Speaker 7: you're saying is you thought the only way to help
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: her was to kill her.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: She was going to have her boyfriend show up. And
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: then she called her boyfriend, and I don't know what
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: they talked about. But she pretty much told me that
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: we were going to die at the end.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: She talked me into it and I listened. That's it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: Why didn't you call 911?
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: Because her boyfriend, she told me her boyfriend and her
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: gay boyfriend's friend was going to come and kill me.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: They had this plan. So instead you killed her? She
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: wanted to kill me. So when you stabbed her, is
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: it because you were trying to help her or because
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: you were mad? It was both. That's the only way
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: you can get mixed up.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Jose approached Ariana when she entered her bedroom and was
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: walking towards her closet. He claimed he stabbed her twice.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: So you said when she walks into the bedroom, she's
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: walking to her closet. Is that the first time you
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: stab her? So she's facing away from you?
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: Well, yeah.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: She's walking to the.
• 21:28
  Speaker 6: After, yeah, after she like pretty much took the knife
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: out and pretty much tried to stab me and stumbled,
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: I took it away.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: And then she walks into the bedroom towards the closet.
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: Yes.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: You follow her into the bedroom, and then that's the
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: first time you stab her?
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: Mm-hmm.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: So she's facing her closet, and you're behind her.
• 21:49
  Speaker 6: She was running for something, yes.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: After the murder, Jose fled the scene and disposed of evidence.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: He stripped off all of his clothing as he left
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the apartment and threw them in a nearby dumpster, along
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: with his shoes. He spent the next several days at
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: his mother's house, watching the door, waiting to see if
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: law enforcement would find him.
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: If you have enough thought to get rid of your
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: bloody clothes because you're like, I got blood all over
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: my clothes because I just stabbed this woman to death,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: then I think you understood what you were doing. We
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: both understood what we were doing. Hey, do me a favor.
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: Take those glasses off. I don't think you're giving us
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: the whole truth. I think you're trying to spin it
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: a little. About this, well, she convinced me, she made me.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: How old are you? 24 years old, right? Yes. Who
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: can make you do anything? Nobody. Right. So nobody made
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: you stab her?
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: Nobody made me stab her.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: You decided to stab her? While she talked me into it.
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: You guys will never believe it because how could you
• 23:02
  Speaker 6: guys believe it?
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: Because I can't get talked into killing somebody. No, people
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: can't get talked into killing people.
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: You are trying to paint this in a picture that
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: makes it most acceptable.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not.
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: What happened here is not acceptable. Is you stabbed this
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: poor drunk lady about 20 times while she was down
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: on her bedroom floor. It's one of the worst stabbings
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: I've seen in my 23 years of law enforcement. And
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: then you're smart enough to get out of there, destroy
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: the evidence, evade our efforts to locate you. and come
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: down to the Springs.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Following his confession, Jose Sandoval Romero pleaded guilty to the murder.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: In early 2023, he was sentenced to 48 years in prison.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: His earliest date of release is in July, 2055. Ariana's mother, Susan,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: was 72 years old when her daughter was murdered. She
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: told media outlets at the time that she was grieving
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: the loss of her daughter and was too upset to comment.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: A GoFundMe page was created by Ariana's sister, Rami, to
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: help raise money to bring her body back to California.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: She also set up a separate fundraiser to help create
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: a trust fund for Ariana's young son. And that was
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the tragic case of Ariana Woke. Thank you for joining me,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and a special thanks this week to Cherry T, Deja Brown,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: and Haley Turner for joining our Sherlock Holmes membership. Welcome
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: to the Members Lounge. I'm Kevin, this is Just Thought Lounge,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: and I'll see you in the next one. These crimes
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: get deep, but these stories can't hide.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Let me find my seat. Kevin, go ahead and settle in.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Gotta be selective. Doing all the research. Keeping it objective.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Always been effective.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: They say he got a knack.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: Pick it a litter.
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: You see how Newton got his back.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the content that you need. This could be a
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: new sign. We talk in the comments. They jot in
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: a few lines. Tune in to Headlight.
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: Love that.