True Crime Vault: Toxic Love

This is a message from sponsor Intuit TurboTax.

Taxes was getting frustrated by your forms.

Now, Taxes is uploading your forms with a snap and a TurboTax expert will do your taxes for you.

One who's backed by the latest tech, which cross-checks millions of data points for absolute accuracy,

all of which makes it easy for you to get the most money back guaranteed.

Get an expert now at TurboTax.com.

Only available with TurboTax live full service. See guaranteed details at TurboTax.com.
Only available with TurboTax live full service. Seek guaranteed details at TurboTax.com slash guarantees.
Welcome to the True Crime Vault, home to 2020's most chilling stories. Why would you want your husband killed? I didn't wake up one day and just say, hey, I want to kill my ex-husband.
Tonight on 2020, the explosive court case that just wrapped. He was accused of wanting to hire a hit man to kill his ex.
A prominent, successful veterinarian and a single mom recording her most private thoughts. Her handsome boyfriend doctor, a ladies' man with a past.
Without sounding pompous, I've always understood women really well and they've always liked me. Together did this pair of doctors write a prescription for murder.
Accused of hiring a hitman to kill their respective exes. I'm not some monster that wanted my ex-girlfriend killed and her ex-husband.
Cooking up a plot at the Olive Garden.

Police say the happy couple ordered something that was not on the menu.

Tonight, we're taking you inside the elaborate sting to trap them.

Why are we being arrested?

The actual body cam footage of their arrest, the gotcha moment.

I have to go to the bathroom, please.

What was it like to see your best friend go from wearing doctor's scrubs to an orange jumpsuit? His jailhouse interview. I really wouldn't hurt a fly if I didn't have to.
That's quite a qualifier. And the biggest shocker of all, those exes having to take part in staging their own fake deaths.
I just can't believe I was there.

What I'm trying to understand is,

are you Dr. Jekyll or are you Mr.
Hyde?

He thinks he's someone else.

I want Bradley Cooper to play me in the TV movie.

Toxic love.

Hello, I'm Elizabeth Vargas, and this is 2020.

Now, Matt Gutman. Hey, it's Valerie McDaniel.
It's March 15th, 2017. I'm sitting outside.
I wanted to take time and tell my story from the beginning. Try not to judge me.
It's been said that memory is the diary we carry with us. Well, 48-year-old Valerie McDaniel put her memories into an audio diary she recorded on her iPad.
Thoughts about her daughter. She's the most precious thing to me.
Her adventures as a new divorcee. 48-year-old woman.
I'm trying to start to date. Not a good thing.
And also in that diary, it sounds as if she's harboring a bone-chilling secret. I never wanted to hurt anyone.
I hate the idea that everybody thinks I'm a monster. A monster? That's not a word her friends would ever use to describe her.
Valerie was an amazing human being. She had a light within her.
I felt honored to have her as my friend. She was so successful and so beautiful and funny and intelligent.
She seemed to have it all. A veterinarian with a practice so successful, she was able to live in River Oaks, the Beverly Hills of Houston, and spend her weekends in a $700,000 beach home where she often invited her friends for parties.
We always karaoke. We can learn to love again.
It was a lot of fun. We swam.
We just enjoyed each other's company. She would always prepare these amazing dinners for us.
Now, when you guys had these dinners, there was one thing that was always missing, and that is Valerie's husband. What did she tell you about her marriage? She did not feel loved.
Her husband was never around. Valerie complained to those friends that Mac, her husband and business partner at the pet clinic, was always out doing his own thing, like hunting.
But Valerie later confided to them she thought he was really out hunting other women. She says a woman called the clinic one day, claiming to have proof of that.
She gave me lists of women that he had slept with. She knew that there had been some adultery.
I knew that because she talked to me about it. It's hard to watch someone in that much pain.
So much pain, she filed for divorce after 17 years, citing conflict of personalities and adultery. It was a bitter split, but they did agree on the shared custody of their now nine-year-old daughter.
She was just unhappy. There was a void that wasn't being filled there.
Until, that is, she meets this man, Leon Jacob, a brash doctor eight years years her junior Valerie is one of the most amazing human beings that I've ever met she was nice and kind and giving and educated and a great mother they met by happenstance when Valerie still miserable in her marriage lived next door to Leon's mother. Without sounding like a pompous ass, I can only describe it as this.
I've always understood women really well and they've always liked me. Just describe the moment you really noticed being attracted to her.
I saw her in a bathing suit. If you want me to be very open about it, that's when I first noticed that she was a knockout and that I was attracted to her.
It was a man raised with privilege. He attended the best private schools.
Winter breaks were spent skiing in Vail, summers in Maine. I'm an avid golfer and skier and I work out a lot.
After college, he went to medical school in the Caribbean. I'm a very driven type A alpha personality alpha personality male, but I have a heart of gold.
I was lonely, and he kept me company. He listened to me.
It was everything I needed. The now single mom finally finding love again.
And it looked as if they're both finally free for one another after Leon and his girlfriend split up. One night we were laying on our balcony and she looked at me and she goes, do I have you? And I said, yes.
Soon after, Leon officially moves into that luxury condo. She was very much in love with him.
She said it multiple times, I'm completely in love with him. But Valerie's friend Maggie had some misgivings about Leon.
What didn't you like about him? Very arrogant and full of himself. I've just never seen anything quite like that.
And I've got a pretty strong intuition about people and I did not feel good about it and I let her know that. But Valerie wouldn't hear it.
The dashing doctors with seemingly so much in common. We talked science together.
We both loved astronomy. We had a telescope in our apartment.
We used to look at the constellations. It sounds like 57 days of bliss, right? Isn't that the number you put on it? Yes.
But you know what they say. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Prince Charming was not so charming. Turns out the good doctor's medical background was hardly professional.
Fired from two different residency programs, one where supervisors found him a threat to patient safety. When I hear he has a medical degree, I immediately think, oh, well, where is he practicing medicine? Nowhere.
And by the time he met Valerie, the only surgery he was doing was cutting himself off from creditors by filing for bankruptcy. And in the romance department, a checkered history as well.
For example, his first wife, Annie. We would fight, fight, fight, and love, love, love, fight, fight, love, love, love.
It was one of those relationships that people were like, God, they're crazy, but they're, they're crazy, and we loved that. But after 11 years, Annie must have had enough crazy.
She filed for divorce and would later press charges for aggravated stalking and intimidation. Court documents say he made calls, sent texts, and emails threatening to inflict bodily harm.
I'm not going to f***ing hurt you. I'm going to hurt your f***ing parents right in front of you.
Do you understand me? Attempted cyber harassment is what I plead guilty to. Yes, she went a little overboard with her complaints about me.
Perhaps, but the complaints became a problematic pattern. He was about to start dating an attractive woman named Megan Varakis, and Leon had troubles with her, too.
According to the police report, you busted her lip when you put a hand on her. I never put any hand on her.
We were fighting. I probably shouldn't have put my hand even near her face.
I didn't touch her in any way. I was simply trying to calm her, but she bit my hand, and at that time she bit her own lip.
And subsequently that charge has been dropped because there was no evidence. Charges dropped, yes, but Leon won't let Megan drop off his radar.
But you kept on pursuing her, despite the fact that she told you not to. I kept on pursuing her for a little bit, yeah.
But cops do charge Leon with stalking. Ex-girlfriend says that he hides in the bushes and waits outside her workplace.
Again, you're charged with stalking and with, you know, they caught you in the bushes outside her office building. There are no bushes outside.
They caught you loitering outside her office, she says in the bushes.

She says that.

People can claim a lot of things, right? You can say, you know, Superman came down and took me to Kryptonite, you know, Krypton for the weekend. It doesn't make it true.
What is surely true, though, is that apart from the stalking charge, Leon was also courting. And the newfound romance between Leon and Valerie would soon bloom into something very dark, very disturbing.
Are you a person who's capable of murder? No. I really wouldn't hurt a fly if I didn't have to.
That's quite a qualifier. Stay with us.
This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Who's your support system and how have they changed your life? In a society that glorifies hyper-independence, it's easy to forget that we're all better when we have a support system behind us.
If you've benefited from therapy in the past, you know how useful it can be. It can help you to learn positive coping skills and how to set boundaries.
Therapy empowers you to be the best version of yourself, and it isn't just for those who've experienced major trauma. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.
BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. Access a diverse network of more than 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties, and you can easily switch therapists at any time at

no extra cost. Build your support system with BetterHelp.
Visit betterhelp.com slash 2020

today to get 10% off your first month. That's Tale arrives.
This is the beginning of the end. And the

revolution. What's happening? Rebellion.
Begins. How many bodies are you going to throw in the fire? When is enough enough? When there's no one left to fight.
Where is June Osborne? Rise up and fight for your freedom. The Hulu original series, The Handmaid's Tale.
Final season premieres April 8th, streaming on Hulu. Houston, Texas.
Affectionately nicknamed the Big Heart. The perfect backdrop for Leon Jacob, a wannabe surgeon whose LinkedIn page would have you believe he's transplanting hearts by day, all while capturing hearts by night.
You know how to talk to women. Yeah, I do.

I respect them very much. And most men don't treat them that way.
By now, he's in the loving arms of a new woman, successful single mom, Valerie McDaniel. But this couple has some obstacles before they can get to that happily ever after part.
First of all, Leon's ex-girlfriend Megan may be gone, but her stalking charge still dogs him.

I am not 100% of her after part. First of all, Leon's ex-girlfriend Megan may be gone, but her stalking charge

still dogs him. I am not 100% sure to this day why she ran away like she did.
And you can't get a medical license in Texas with a felony. Could there be a prescription to cure that problem? And according to prosecutors, the way that he's going to eliminate that problem is by eliminating her.
That's right. The man who took an oath to do no harm is allegedly trying to do in his ex-girlfriend, Megan.
Investigators say that's what leads Leon to this guy. His name is Zach, a former Army sergeant.
He swears he can complete the mission in exchange for $5,000 in cash, two Cartier watches, and a laptop as a down payment. But here's the thing.
The prosecutor said that Zach was much more of a con man than a hit man. According to investigators, Zach takes the money and runs without ever firing a single shot.
That was Zach's story. He said that he was never going to go through with the murders.
Feeling swindled, the cops say Leon tries to hunt down Zach and begins his search with a guy who has seen his share of shady characters. How does a nice fellow like you get involved in something like this?

Well, I bonded somebody out of jail and his name happened to be Leon Jacob. Meet bail bondsman Michael Kubosh.
His life is putting up cash to get people out of jail and then tracking them down if they don't pay him back. Kubosh says when he bonded Leon out of the slammer for allegedly stalking Megan, Leon asked him if he could chase down Zach.
And I said, well, why do you need Zach? He said, I've paid him a lot of money to take care of this matter. And I said, to take care of what? He said, I want her out of the picture.
And the way he talked to me, I felt like I was talking to Satan himself. Kubosh is rattled enough to call the cops, and they contact Megan and get her to a safe house.
And then they haul in the would-be hitman, Zach, and turn up the heat on him. He agrees to help investigators set a trap.
They have Zach call Leon and say, Hey, I got a guy. He's going to do the hit for us.
But that new guy is actually an undercover cop named Javier. We've been asked not to show his face.
Once I am involved in the murder plot, then we are able to control the situation. Javier says that as the call continues, everything is going according to plan until Leon poses a jaw-dropping question.
We're taking care of both problems. What problems? Both of the individuals that we're talking about.
Did he just say both issues? So HPD is learning, oh, there's a second person they're trying to take care of. Upon hearing that, I was shocked that Leon wanted two people killed.
And that second victim, none other than Valerie's ex-husband, Mac. Turns out the other obstacle in the budding, very dark romance was on Valerie's side.
And she and Leon were both in on the scheme. Leon did tell me that he also wanted to have Valerie's ex-husband removed from the picture.
At that point they decided to meet at the Olive Garden. The Olive Garden with its family-friendly ambience not really the kind of place you'd expect a murder-for-hire strategy session to go down with an otherwise normal-looking, amorous couple.
It was very obvious to me during that first meeting that Leon was serious about killing Megan and Mac. So they were sitting at this table? Yes.
At this very table, somewhere between the breadsticks and the bolognese, sits one strange quartet. The vet, Valerie, Beau, Leon Jacob, Zach, and undercover officer, Javier, posing as a contract killer.
What did they look like when they came in here? So Valerie had actually come from work, so she was literally wearing scrubs from the vet clinic along with Dr. McDaniel monogrammed on the scrub jacket.
Wow.

So again, not trying to hide her identity. No, not trying to hide her identity at all.
Cops say Leon has made his target clear. The good doctor even suggests a method, injecting Megan with potassium chloride to stop her heart.
He told me on more than one occasion that his survival is more important than hers, that he was a lot more important than her. As Leon and Zach take a cigarette break, cops say the undercover Javier and Valerie are left alone to discuss intended target number two, Valerie's ex, Mac.
And I asked her, are you sure you want to do this? And she said, I have no other choice. He's going to take my baby from me.
She was worried about him taking full custody of the girl. And he finally gets her to say that she does in fact want him to be killed.
And that's when he said, well, if you want that done, it's going to be another $10,000. And Valerie said, okay, I have to pay you out in installments of it, but I'll pay you $10,000.
Money is tight for Valerie thanks to that divorce settlement. She agreed to pay her ex over a million dollars for his share of the vet clinic.
She had just gotten divorced and taken a loan out of $1.2 million to pay Mac McDaniel as part of that divorce. So liquidity may have been an issue for them.
So she had to pay 1.25 in the divorce? She had to get a loan out. It may not have been on the menu, but the cops say two murders were ordered here.
Coming up, cops make a house call as cameras roll. The elaborate charade by police to smoke out the alleged conspirators is caught on tape.

Next.

Time for the check at this Olive Garden restaurant.

And picking up the tab for that delicious, affordable and conspiratorial lunch is Dr. Leon Jacob and his girlfriend, Dr.
Valerie McDaniel. I believe Leon and Valerie paid for the bill.
That was very nice of them. Now, remember, the cops say Leon and Val thought they'd been dining with a hitman, but Javier was really an undercover cop.
So police spring into action, immediately reaching out to Valerie's ex-husband Mac to tip him off.

And what they get Mac to do next is right out of a John Grisham novel.

They do a series of pictures of him dead.

He agrees to pose for these photos, staging his own death, complete with a bullet wound to the head.

We wanted to make it look like he'd been killed in a robbery. We took a series of them, one slumped over the steering wheel and shot in the head, and the other one laying on the ground and shot in the head.
Cops have also gotten to Leon's other target, his ex, Megan. Does she express any surprise that Leon Jacob, the man who loved her so much and then stalked her allegedly, would want this to happen to her? She is in no way surprised that this happened.
She knew that he had a temper, he would explode, and now that she was denying him access to herself, he became obsessed with her. Megan also agrees, staging her own set of pictures to make it look like she's been kidnapped.
Leon kept using the word disappear, or he would say, I want her gone, I want her to go away forever, and I took that to understand that he wanted her dead. But Javier says in the middle of depicting the harrowing scene, it's suddenly all a little too real for Megan, and she breaks down.
Megan became hysterical. She was very scared for her life, and she actually began to cry, and she began to tremble.
The doomsday photo shoots are done, and the cops are ready to take their next step in their elaborate sting operation, informing Leon and Valerie that Mac has been killed.

Still posing as that hitman, Javier says he breaks the news in person at the condo. I began to tell Valerie and Leon that Mac was gone, that it was done.
I then asked Leon if he wanted to see a picture.

And he told me that he did not want to see anything. If this was a mistake, if they weren't supposed to go kill the person or kidnap the person, the response would be, oh my goodness, what have you done? Instead, cops say Leon produces the blood money.
Leon gives me the cash and I count out $1,800. According to the cops and Leon and Valerie's minds, with Mac dead, Megan is next.
And later that same day, Javier says he informs Leon that job, too, is done.

Megan is now a memory. She's dead.
She's gone. Yeah.
I know you have concerns about

the body and everything. We'll take care of the body.
So at that point, we've closed both cases,

but we decided we wanted to go an extra step.

And so that extra step was a death notice. A death notice.
Now, that's what cops call it when they have to notify a family member or next of kin that a loved one has passed. So now, it's these police officers who have to give a performance.
Just days after that Olive Garden meeting,

Sergeant Frank Quinn and other officers show up at that apartment to break what should be shocking, tragic news for Valerie. Now, remember, it's all a ruse to get Valerie's reaction,

and it's all being recorded as potential evidence on police body cameras. I'm afraid we have some bad news.
It's been too much fun. Your ex-husband has been found.
It looks like it turns out to be a fatality. It looks like one of them probably got wrong.
Sorry to have to tell you. Have you heard from him recently? Valerie's response doesn't seem particularly appropriate, according to Sergeant Quinn.
It was not what you would expect in reality. And you want to know, are you sure it's my ex-husband? How do you know this? You definitely have a lot of questions and a lot of grief.
In the video, Valerie sits quietly, putting her head in her hands. Now you're a boyfriend.
You're not letting me know what's going on. I'm sorry.
Soon enough, Leon emerges from the bedroom. My ex-husband's been found today.
Oh, my God. It looks like there might have been a robbery gone wrong.
Holy s***. If anybody knows anything.
No, we have. I'll not be able to focus.
Now, listen carefully to what Leon says next, because cops say it's sounding like he's establishing his whereabouts. Are you okay, baby? We've been here all night.

We were here all day with their daughter

and we were watching movies.

What he wants to do is establish an alibi

that you know right away it's not him.

You know, and then feigning that surprise,

it was all rehearsed, in my opinion.

Is it strange for a man who hasn't been yet accused of anything to immediately offer an alibi unsolicited? Absolutely. I think right there, that's great evidence for us.
More than enough, police now believe, to end the masquerade. All right, so I'll tell you, we'll need you to come with us.
All seconds, I'll stay. Right now, we're going to another surprise in store for Valerie.
As she's being hauled off to jail, someone's waiting outside her front door. It's her ex-husband, Mac, back from the dead, waiting to take custody of their young daughter.
He stands at the threshold of the apartment. They allow her to go get her daughter.
She brings the daughter to the threshold and then hands the daughter off to Mac. And that was the last time that she saw her daughter.

It was.

I wonder what was going through her mind at that moment that she handed her over to the man she tried to murder,

knowing that it was all over.

Her child, her career, her freedom,

but Valerie's love for Leon endures for one final kiss.

They were both on their way to face justice

I'm sorry. Her child, her career, her freedom.
But Valerie's love for Leon endures for one final kiss.

They were both on their way to face justice, but only one of them will make it to the trial.

Stay with us.

That moment you realize you missed Roseanne, the number one premiere of the season.

There, there. Catch the encore Sunday, 7, 6 central.

I thought you were dead.

Sleeping.

How does everybody else think I'm dead?

Then Tuesday.

There's no books on how to raise kids.

Yes, there are.

There are literally thousands.

It's another funny and relevant new episode.

I'm on my way, and I mean business.

Go Zan.

Encore Sunday and new Tuesday on ABC. Hey, I'm Brad Milkey.
You may know me as the host of ABC Audio's daily news podcast, Start Here, but I'd like to add aspiring true crime expert to my resume. And here's how I'm going to make it happen.
Every week, I'm going to unpack the biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about. ABC's got some unique access here, so I'll talk to the reporters and producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years.
We'll bring you the latest developments and the larger context on the true crime stories you've been hearing about. Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best.
Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a kingmaker. He had wealth, fame, and power.
What's up? Welcome to New York! Until it all came crashing down. Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.
I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an ABC News legal contributor.

As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall, and what could be next. Listen to Bad Rap, The Case Against Diddy, a new series from ABC Audio.
Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Ordinarily, doctors wear scrubs, but not these two, at least not today.
Led into court wearing orange jumpsuits, charged with allegedly hiring a hitman to kill both of their exes. Enough for the state, Your Honor.
No, Judge, thank you. Four days after the arrest, Valerie was released on a $50,000 bond.
After a couple of days in the cooler, she says she needs to chill out and goes to see her friends. Why would you want your husband killed? She really did not talk about it at all.
I think she knew that it was an uncomfortable situation for everyone. We're all trying to be upbeat and positive and like, it's going to be can work through this you know we'll help you out for you but she seemed a little resigned maybe a little defeated.
There was a look in her eyes that I hadn't quite never seen before. A haunting look that becomes a final moment between friends.
And then in hindsight I immediately realized she came there to say goodbye. Just two days, in a move that stuns those friends and the community, Valerie leaps to her death from her seventh floor balcony.

The death of a murder-for-hire suspect who jumped from her own condo balcony today.

People fell to their knees crying. It was completely, just completely shocking.
I got a call and I didn't want to believe it. And in one final loving gesture to her friend Maggie, she pens this letter just before jumping to her death.
Can you read it? Dear Maggie, I'm so very sorry for what I have done, but I'm just not strong enough to fight all the battles ahead. I'm tired and so scared and so weak.
Be well and stay safe. All my love, Valerie.
Losing her career and her reputation, I just think she just didn't want to live like that anymore. Mostly losing her daughter was the biggest thing.
It was just as much a shock to me as it was to everybody else around her. Did you hold yourself responsible for her suicide? No.
That was a decision she made on her own.

So you never thought for a minute that maybe you'd put her in a position that she just couldn't handle and that it drove her to commit suicide? No. She had so much pressure on her, and I wasn't there to help support her.
Leon, who was never released on bond, asked the judge to allow him to attend Valerie's funeral,

but his request was denied.

Valerie McDaniel left a note detailing her final wishes

before apparently jumping to her death from that condo.

She also left behind that audio diary she recorded,

a suicide note in her own voice from beyond the grave. I didn't wake up one day and just say, hey, I want to kill my ex-husband.
Things just gradually happened. However it happened, prosecutors say there's no question Valerie wanted her ex-husband dead and actually confessed to it after her arrest on that video outside her apartment.
They keep having her tell her to speak up and she says things like, you know, so you wanted your husband killed. You know, you can't nod, you have to say yes.
Be like, yes, that's what I wanted. No matter how educated she was, no matter how brilliant or loving she was, seemingly fell under the spell of Leon Jacob.
Val's friends blame Leon. Do you think he's responsible for her death? She wouldn't be where she is now if it wasn't for him.
How does Valerie get from well-respected bet to hiring a hitman to suicide? I think that you're going to find this linchpin of that is Leon Jacob. I do want people to understand that this was not something that she wanted to happen.
It's something that happened to her. I truly believe that.
This was not something that she would have ever done. Maggie points out in this short eight-week period Leon and Valerie were together, she saw her friend only once.
She wouldn't hang out with her friends anymore, which is all classic stalker method of operation. You cut them off from their friends, you seclude them.
Leon denies keeping Valerie from her friends. You know, when you're first in a new relationship, you kind of isolate yourselves with each other.
But despite everything that's happened in her recorded suicide note, Valerie never turns on Leon. I don't know what's going to upset my people.
I don't love him. She may have loved him, but she also left him to stand trial alone.
But Leon says prosecutors got him all wrong. I am innocent of these charges.
I still maintain that throughout. I find them to be atrocious in manner because I'm not some monster that wanted my ex-girlfriend killed and her ex-husband.
I'm a healer by nature. When we come back, prosecutors tell a jury Leon's not a healer.
He's a hirer of hitmen. Leon Jacob does not stop until he gets what he wants.
What I'm trying to understand is, are you Dr. Jekyll or are you Mr.
Hyde? And for the first time, meet the would-be victims. The people behind those gruesome and fake photos.
They zip-tied my hands and my feet and put duct tape around my mouth to make me look as if I had been kidnapped. Stay with us.
On April 11th, the amateur arrives in IMAX. I want to find and kill the people who murdered my wife.
Critics rave the amateur is a tense, unpredictable ride. You're just not a killer, Charlie.
Train me. That constantly finds new and inventive ways to up the stakes.
The first one you kill, you let the other ones know you're coming. I want them all.
Academy Award winner Rami Malek. And Academy Award nominee Lawrence Fishburne.
The amateur. Rated PG-13.
Maybe inappropriate for children under 13. Only in theaters and IMAX April 11th.
Get tickets now. Hello, it's Robin Roberts here.
Hey guys, it's George Stephanopoulos here. Hey everybody, it's Michael Strahan here.
Wake up with Good Morning America. Robin, George, Michael, GMA.
America's favorite number one morning show. The morning's first breaking news.
Exclusive interviews. What everyone will be talking about that day.
Put some good in your morning and start your day with GMA. Good morning, America.
Put the good in your morning. GMA 7A on ABC.
Last week, Leon Jacob walked into a packed Houston courtroom ready to face down charges that he masterminded the planning of a double murder jaw-dropping testimony and riveting photos how they wanted their exes to be quote taken care of Jacob's attorney says it would be a quote quantum leap to believe that Jacob wanted dead the ex-girlfriend he once so loved our ABC station KTRK there every step of the way all right good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury we're jury. We're ready to proceed with that as a state ready.
One of the things you'll learn about Leon Jacobs is he has to be in control. Leon Jacobs does not stop until he gets what he wants.
Prosecutors tell jurors that what Leon wanted was a new life with a new wife, Valerie. There was two obstacles to the defendant's new life with Valerie Mcame.
It was Mac and it was Meg. Like many of us here today, Leon's made some mistakes in life.
Leon's defense starts with that classic refrain, there's no perfect man, but... It's not making guilty of solicitation of capital.
Instead, they point the finger squarely at the police, saying their undercover hitman entrapped Leon for their own purposes. They realized this could be the case that makes their career.
They were trying to force these people into making the decisions that they did not want to make. Prosecutors waste no time in calling the two people who were never supposed to testify because they weren't supposed to be alive.

All right, we're ready to continue. And with that, with the state, call your first witness.
Thank you. The state of Texas calls Megan Varakis.
First up, Leon's ex-girlfriend, Megan Varakis, who tells jurors about the abuse she suffered that ended their relationship. And ultimately, did the police file charges in that case? Yes.
Assault against a family member. She then

characterized his continuing efforts to contact her as a man who was desperate and she said

certainly she was beyond frightened. He was calling, texting, emailing.
He actually

showed up at my place of work. Did you seek further protection from the defendant?

I did everything I could to stay away from him. Prosecutors say Leon didn't just want to see Megan, he wanted to see her dead.
And that's where those staged pictures come in. Do you know why they wanted to take photos of you? Because somebody had been paid to kill me.
Valerie's ex-husband, Mac McDaniel, also tells jurors about his gruesome headshots. Did the officers ask you to do something for them? Stage my own death.
Is that you laying face down in the grass with that pig's blood all over you? Yes, ma'am. He said the entire time in the back of his mind were thoughts of his young daughter.
If they would have been successful, Natalie would have not had any parents. And that thought upset you? Unimaginable.
But the centerpiece of the prosecution's case will be the audio secretly recorded by that undercover hitman. Clearly the strongest evidence against Leon Jacob were his own words.
She's gone, all this goes away. At least you start, I don't need the $2,500 payment.
Just get it done and you'll get the payment. Okay.
The potassium injection, whatever you said it was. You think I can do it myself? Yeah, it's easy.
You got injected in the groin. In the groin? Not in the heart.
Oh, hell no. You can't have a needle mark.
But even his own damning words can't dissuade a guy like Leon Jacob from doing what we rarely see. Take the stand in his own defense.
Take your name to the latest gentlemen of the jury. Leon.
Leon Jacob. I never asked to have anybody hurt, killed, harmed, kidnapped.
But what about his words on those recordings? Jacob says he was just following the lead of the people he was talking to. I felt a lot of pressure from them to sort of commit to this idea of killing people and that was never my intent and so I think that I took a much more aggressive tone with them.
We're taking care of both problems. What problems? Her and him.
But when prosecutors get their shot at Jacob it doesn't take long to ruffle his feathers when they bring up how quickly he moved on from Megan to Valerie. That would have put you sleeping with Valerie McDaniel just seven days after you and Megan broke up, correct? If the math is correct, yes.
Okay. So when you tell the members of this jury that your heart sick over Megan, that's not really true, is it? I have no problem sitting here and saying that I slept with Valerie seven days after Megan and I broke up.
But I'm not on trial for being a womanizer. I'm on trial for solicitation of capital murder.
So you can assassinate my character all you want up here. It doesn't make me guilty of what you've charged me with.
Prosecutors say what does make him guilty of that are those recorded conversations they have. Megan, are we taking care of too this week? Yeah.
I was just having a conversation about possible scenarios. I wasn't giving him any directions.
Did you not want anybody hurt when you said, inject her with potassium chloride, stop her heart, untraceable? I said that was a something you could do I didn't say that for him to do that and when confronted with that picture of Megan tied up and terrified Leon acknowledges he saw it and thought it was real and in seeing this picture you'd agree'd agree with me. At no time did you tell Officer Duran, whoop, time out, stop, this has gone too far, I don't want any part of this.
You never said that, did you? Not those exact words, I did not. Remember your admonishments not to discuss the case, and we'll see you back at 9.30 in the morning.
With Leon Jacobs' testimony wrapped up, both sides rest their cases. And now the only words anyone is waiting to hear are from the jury.

What will they decide? And even from jail, Leon has big plans to cash in on the crime. I want Bradley Cooper to play me in the TV movie.
Stay with us. Even before the verdict is in, Leon, ever the optimist, ever the planner, seems eager in this jailhouse call to capitalize on his newfound notoriety.
Leon Jacob trial. It's a good story.
It's something you'd want to read a book about. I want Bradley Cooper to play me in the TV movie.
Oh, that's not me, no. Back in this downtown Houston courtroom, it takes the jury barely an hour to come to a decision.
I think that spoke volumes in this case. All rise for the jury.
We the jury find the defendant, Leon Philip Jacob, guilty of solicitation of capital murder as charged in the indictment. You did not see a physical outward change in emotion.

You may be seated.

On his face or in his body.

And now the jury will determine if he should go to prison and for how long.

To help them do that, prosecutors call a bombshell witness.

Annie Morrison.

Do you know an individual by the name of Leon Jacob?

Yes.

How do you know him?

He's my ex-husband.

If there was any doubt for jurors about what Leon Jacob is capable of,

his ex-wife and the mother of his two children puts all that to rest.

There was a time that we got into a fight and he pulled a knife on me.

He would push me, grab my

arms or my shoulders, kick me, push me against the wall. He threatened that if I ever left that he would kill me.
He said that nobody would ever find my body because he was a doctor and he had access to chemicals that would that would dissolve my body.

This defendant cannot be trusted to live among us. He's terrorized too many people for too long.
The only appropriate punishment in this case is life. And the prosecutors get their wish.
Sentenced to life in prison. The man of so many words suddenly at a loss for them.
Do you have anything to say to me? No, sir. And it's Megan Varakis, the woman he wanted dead, who gets the last word, addressing Leon directly.
I believe everything happens for a reason. He took away my sense of security, but you can give that no more.
You're a guy with some of the best pedigree around.

How does a guy like you end up in a place like this?

That's a really good question.

I don't necessarily have an answer for you.

You know, I've been knocked down a bunch of my life, and I always got back up.

But it seems that this time, it'll be tougher to do that.

While you sit in jail, I hope you think of me. Because it's because of me, you will be in prison for life.
Enjoy life in prison. Leon Jacobs' defense team is appealing his conviction.
He'll be eligible for parole in 30 years. In the meantime, our question for you tonight, how much of a role do you think Valerie played in the plot?

Let us know on Facebook and Twitter.

In the meantime, that's our show for tonight.

Thanks so much for watching.

For David and all of us at ABC News and 2020, have a good night and a great weekend.

You've been listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault.

You can find all new broadcast episodes of 2020 Friday nights at 9 on ABC. Hello, it's Robin Roberts here.
Hey guys, it's George Stephanopoulos here. Hey everybody, it's Michael Strahan here.
Wake up with Good Morning America. Robin, George, Michael, GMA, America's favorite number one morning show.

The morning's first breaking news, exclusive interviews,

what everyone will be talking about that day. Put some good in your morning and start your day with GMA.

Good morning, America.

Put the good in your morning.

GMA 7A on ABC.